Sawyer Business School Faculty Research Seminar April 23, 2009

“15 minutes of fame” - Warhol

Arnold Kamis & Jonathan Frank ISOM Department SBS Faculty Research Seminar, April 23, 2009 Self-Customization vs. Social Shopping : User Interaction Design for Gen-Y Hedonic Online Purchases

Richness of Social Shopping Web stores can feel "sterile and isolating” – Apple Corp

Online Shopping Expectations?

Online Shopping Research Questions

Online Shopping Long Tail Pareto Principle 80/20 rule Brynjolfsson (2003, 2006) Anderson (2004) Elberse (2008)

Web 2.0 Crowd Control

Long Tailed Self-Customization

Long Tailed Stores Online

Long Tailed Social Networks

Social Bookmarking -- Skimbit

“Trusted expert” -- ThisNext

ThisorThat

Co-browsing -- DimDim

Simplified Conceptual Model (TPB) (TAM) (Flow) (TAM) (Marketing)

Research Design Controlled experiment Two travel web sites: StudentCity and Expedia Cobrowsing with LiveLook Student Subjects from classes in Spring 2008 – Summer I 2008 N=182

Experimental Hedonic Tasks for Solo or Paired Online Shoppers Packaged Customized

Overall

R 2 = 52.7% R 2 = 65.2% R 2 = 28.3% R 2 = 26.8% Simplest Combination: solo & packaged Perceived Effective- ness Information Seeker Intent to Purchase Perceived Ease of Use Perceived Enjoyment (4.30, 1.64)

R 2 = 69.1% R 2 = 68.6% R 2 = 30.6% R 2 = 77.5% social & packaged Perceived Effective- ness Information Seeker Intent to Purchase Perceived Ease of Use Perceived Enjoyment (4.34, 1.68)

R 2 = 70.9% R 2 = 63.9% R 2 = 19.7% R 2 = 52.6% solo & customizable Perceived Effective- ness Information Seeker Intent to Purchase Perceived Ease of Use Perceived Enjoyment (4.84, 1.76)

Perceived Effective- ness Information Seeker Intent to Purchase Perceived Ease of Use Perceived Enjoyment % 36.7% 3.3% 57.2% social & customizable (5.02, 1.32)

Zoomerang  Excellent company for panels of online users  Still analyzing new dataset (n=606) from Field Experiment United States: $5.50 / subject Going Global o China: $18 / subject! o Russia: $20 / subject! o India: $27 / subject! o Brazil: $32 / subject!

Conclusions  The social dimension and the customizability dimension explain to a significant extent intent to purchase online travel The two dimensions influence the Gen-Y subject(s) differently. We can support and influence both dimensions with careful design of the user interface and the social process. We expect these dimensions to vary by culture.  There are additional variables we have yet to identify. Any suggestions?

What’s next?