METODOLOGÍA PARA EL ESTUDIO DE LOS EFECTOS DE GASES DE ESCAPE SOBRE CULTIVOS DE MICROALGAS

E-commerce in the business-to-consumer context is defined as the trade of products and services online (Olson & Olson, 2000). The U.S. Department of Commerce (2014) estimates

25 DiMaggio and Hargittai (2001) differentiate between the “digital divide” – used to connote whether an individual has or does not have access to a technology – and “digital inequality”, which refers not just to differences in access but also to differences in how individuals with formal access to a technology use it. The term “digital inequality” has dominated the research debate over the last decade as increasing ICT penetration has diminished the purely access-driven divide. 26 The terms “first-level” and “second-level” were originally used to define digital divide and digital inequality, respectively.

137 that in 2013, US citizens spent US$ 263 billion online for products and services and that online sales will reach US$ 370 billion by 2017 (Forrester Research Inc, 2013). In 2014 alone, e-commerce sales were expected to increase by an additional 14% compared to 2013 (Centre for Retail Research, 2014).

Given the growing importance of e-commerce, scholars in information science have studied various aspects of people’s e-commerce use. For instance, behavioral research in e-commerce illuminates the factors that motivate individuals to engage in online shopping (Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003; Gefen & Straub, 2000; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006). Overby and Lee (2006) find that utilitarian aspects such as convenience and the ability to save time and money are key factors driving e-commerce use. Other researchers have investigated specific e-commerce functions such as auctions and e-coupons. Jung and Lee (2010), for instance, find that the redemption rate for online coupons is significantly higher than that for offline coupons. In the context of second-order digital inequality, it is important to define what actually constitutes effective – that is, potentially beneficial from an economic point of view – e-commerce use to be able to identify meaningful differences in the way how individuals shop online. This necessitates a more holistic perspective on e-commerce use that goes beyond simply measuring use or non-use as a binary variable. Burton-Jones and Grange (2012, p. 633) propose a definition of effective use as “using a system in a way that increases achievement of the goals for using the system.” Given the premise of utility-maximizing decision making, online shoppers will aim to realize a successful product or service transaction at the minimum economic and opportunity cost. Building on this premise and in line with Alvesson and Kärreman (2007), we adopt a view of “sensitive constructions” (p. 1269) to develop a new perspective on e-commerce use by involving a flexible theoretical framework and taking a “reflexive approach to empirical material” (p.1269), that is, considering alternative framings and constructions conveyed by the empirical material.

Buyer decision-making models break down the purchasing process into a number of steps27 (Engel, Kollat, & Blackwell, 1973), of which information search and the product purchasing decision are considered to be the most important within the online context (Gefen & Straub, 2000; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006). In the information search step, consumers can choose

27 The Engel, Kollat and Blackwell model comprises five steps: problem/need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post-purchase evaluation (Engel et al., 1973). Alternative comprehensive consumer decision making models put forward by Nicosia (1966) and Howard and Sheth (1969) follow a similar approach.

138 between different e-commerce features to optimize prices (in addition to obtaining general product information), predominantly through price comparisons and e-coupons28. When considering the product purchasing step, the continuous evolution of the e-commerce landscape over the last decade needs to be taken into account. Today, consumers can choose among a diverse variety of formats and vendors from which to buy a product. For instance, the rapid proliferation of innovative formats such as auction, daily deal or flash sale sites provide consumers with an increasing range of alternatives to traditional online retailers such as Amazon.com and the opportunity to save money by finding the best deal. Table 1 provides a summary of the different e-commerce platforms and their potential consumer value. Consequently, a conceptualization of effective e-commerce use should account for the heterogeneous information search and product purchase options available that offer individuals the potential to achieve economic benefits and thus go beyond the traditional use concept of a simple transaction made online.

28 Online reviews of retailers are also an important e-commerce feature and serve as a signaling function for consumers to make inferences about price validity (Bodur et al., 2015). As such, they may influence the choice of retailer, however they do not substitute the use of price comparison or e-coupon sites as a means to optimize purchase prices.

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Table 1. E-commerce platforms and potential consumer value add

Purchasing process

step E-commerce platform References Definition value add Examples of potential consumer Information

search

Price

comparisons

Bock, Lee, & Li (2007); Bodur, Klein, & Arora (2015); Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan (1998); Passyn,

Diriker, & Settle (2013); Tan, Goh, & Teo (2010)

Website with a search engine that aggregates product listings from different retailers.

Substantial price dispersion exists online (Lindsey-Mullikin & Grewal, 2006). Price comparisons can generate value through price transparency and arbitrage (Bock et al., 2007).

E-coupons Chiou-Wei & Inman (2008); Jung & Lee (2010); Oliver & Shor (2003); Venkatesan & Farris (2012)

Website that aggregates free

promotional savings codes that can be applied to a purchase transaction on another e-commerce website.

In 2014, consumers in the US made total savings of $3.6 billion on consumer packaged goods by redeeming coupons (NCH Marketing Services, 2015).

Product

purchase General retailer Campbell, Wells, & _{Valacich (2013); Gefen} et al. (2003); Hinz, Hann, & Spann (2011); Luo, Ba, & Zhang (2012); Overby & Lee (2006); Pavlou & Fygenson (2006)

Website offering a wide range of products not limited to one brand or product type.

Value for money, convenience of locating and comparing multiple vendors, and time savings relative to offline alternatives (Overby & Lee, 2006). Low search and switching costs online facilitate cross-shopping across multiple websites and

platforms (Pathak, 2012). Specialized

retailed product with multiple brands on offer. Website specialized in one type of

Brand shop Website offering a range of products

dedicated to one brand. Auctions Chang & Chen (2015);

Dholakia & Simonson (2005); Suter & Hardesty (2005)

Website with a wide range of products not limited to one brand or product. Purchase via bidding process or direct purchase at fixed price.

Consumers extract a median surplus of at least $4 per eBay auction (Bapna, Jank, & Shmueli, 2008). Daily deals Boon (2013); Gafni,

Geri, & Aziz (2014); Hughes & Beukes (2012)

Website offering virtual vouchers for a limited time for a selection of typically local, discounted goods/services which may be employed offline.

According to Groupon’s own

statistics, it has sold more than a million deals and saved consumers $42 million (Grewal et al., 2011). Flash sales Barone & Roy (2010);

Martinez & Kim (2012); Ryu & Feick (2007)

Website offering a limited stock of discounted (often brand-name) products. Purchase directly on the website at a fixed price.

Mostly sign-up only, exclusive promotions of limited stock at sharp discounts (often 50% or more) (Grewal et al., 2011).

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In this study, we focus on two specific aspects of e-commerce use, both of which are particularly likely to create economic benefits for users in either the information search or the product purchasing phase: (1) the extent to which an individual is able to leverage the diversity of e-commerce platforms available within the product purchasing step (e.g., general retailers, daily deals, flash sales) and (2) the degree to which an individual employs supporting e-commerce features such as e-coupons and price comparisons within the information search step to further benefit from e-commerce. Figure 1 summarizes the key aspects of our proposed conceptualization of e-commerce use.

Figure 1. Dimensions of effective e-commerce use at the focus of the study

We define “e-commerce platform use diversity” as the variety of e-commerce platforms an individual uses when shopping online. This definition entails two particular aspects. First, it accounts for the general degree to which an individual makes use of different e-commerce websites and different e-commerce platforms when shopping online. Online shoppers can access a wide a range of e-commerce platforms: for example, general retailers such as Amazon.com, specialized retailers such as Zappos.com, and brand shops such as Nike.com. Research within offline retail has shown that a larger number and variety of store visits per week leads to an economic advantage (Carlson & Gieseke, 1983): those individuals shopping for groceries who make more trips to different stores achieve lower prices on average because of price dispersion between stores. Similar patterns of price dispersion can be observed in the online space (Ba, Stallaert, & Zhang, 2012), while information search and switching costs are

Product purchase Info search

Effective e-commerce use

Platform use diversity: Does an individual e-shopper leverage… Supporting e-commerce features: Does an individual e-shopper leverage… E-commerce websites Mainstream platform 1 Mainstream platform 2 Alternative platform 3 … A B … … … … … … … … … … E-commerce websites Mainstream platform 1 Mainstream platform 2 Alternative platform 3 … A B … … … … … … … … … … E-commerce platforms1 E-commerce platforms1 E-commerce websites Mainstream platform 1 Mainstream platform 2 Alternative platform 3 … A B … … … … … … … … … … E-commerce platforms1 Price comparisons E-coupons …the breadth of e-commerce websites available? …the breadth of e-commerce platforms available? …alternative e-commerce platforms available?

141 significantly lower (Carter, Wright, Thatcher, & Klein, 2014). Correspondingly, online shoppers who are able to selectively switch between different e-commerce websites and platform formats, and thereby leverage the breadth of product offerings available are more likely to achieve economic gains.

A second particular aspect entailed in the definition of platform use diversity is the users’ participation in ‘alternative’ e-commerce formats such as auctions (e.g., Ebay.com), flash sales (e.g., Gilt.com), and daily deal sites (e.g., Groupon.com). Prior research shows that alternative e-commerce formats in particular offer significant cost savings for users. For instance, Bapna et al. (2008) estimate that the consumer surplus from auctions on Ebay.com exceeded US$ 7 billion in 2003. Similarly, daily deal and flash sale websites offer heavily discounted deals for a limited time (Boon, 2013; Martinez & Kim, 2012), improving users’ odds of achieving lower prices than they could through other sales channels.

We define “supporting e-commerce features use” as an individual’s use of price comparisons and e-coupons in connection with an online transaction. Price comparison websites such as Shopping.com, Bizrate.com, and Nextag.com increase consumer power (Rezabakhsh, Bornemann, Hansen, & Schrade, 2006) by creating price transparency and by offering additional product relevant information. E-commerce research has shown that the potential savings resulting from the use of price comparison websites can be significant. For instance, Baye, Morgan, and Scholten (2004) examine four million prices for 1000 consumer electronics products and find that despite increased transparency, price dispersion ranged from an average of 3.5% up to 23%.

Moreover, consumers can achieve additional savings by leveraging websites that offer free promotional e-coupons such as Retailmenot.com or Coupons.com. E-coupons are digital codes that entail a price reduction for a given product or website (Jung & Lee, 2010). Thus, using supporting e-commerce features enables users to capture a higher economic surplus per transaction on a given platform. The use of price comparisons and e-coupons in combination can be expected to elicit an even higher consumer surplus.