Published papers

Consumers purchase items (e.g., food) online due to today's rapidly changing markets and to improvements in online and mobile technology. Online supermarkets have been gaining popularity among Japanese consumers. As the population experiences a hectic lifestyle and is aging, many Japanese consumers are seeing the benefits of shopping on an online supermarket website. However, as with any e-commerce activity, reviews are critical for the success of these e-vendors. Despite the importance of reviews, little is known about what motivates repeat online supermarket consumers to review their purchasing experiences. This paper examines consumers' willingness to review and the relationship between consumers' search attributes such as price, promotion and service, e-satisfaction and trust on their online supermarket purchase experiences. The research findings support the results of earlier studies that search attributes are determinants of consumers' e-satisfaction. In addition, e-satisfaction affects e-trust. Interestingly, e-trust has a negative effect on the willingness to review.

The continuing growth and internationalization of e-commerce makes necessary the establishment of cross-cultural validity of theoretical concepts. A crucial concept in online commerce is consumer fear of online identity theft. Fear of online identity theft is said to hamper consumer willingness to transact online and thus can negatively affect e-commerce business. This emerging research cross-culturally assesses the original consumer fear of online identity theft scale and proposes an abbreviated version of the scale. Formal validation procedures with samples of online consumers from three major e-commerce markets (Germany, the U.S., and Japan) largely point to the reliability and cross-cultural validity of both the original and short scale. This research offers tentative implications for IS and e-commerce research as well as e-commerce managers.

Purpose: Frontline service employees’ (FLEs) positive personality traits enhance service experiences, for both employee and customer outcomes. Yet, limited research addresses negative personality traits. Drawing on the emotion regulation framework, the purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model in which three negative personality traits – Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism (the so-called dark triad (DT)) – represent antecedents, and FLE emotion regulation strategies (surface and deep acting) are mediators, all of which predict job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The test of this model includes occupationally diverse samples of FLEs from an individualistic (the USA) and a collectivistic (Japan) country, to assess the potential moderating role of culture. Findings: The findings suggest that Machiavellianism relates more positively to surface and deep acting in Japan, whereas psychopathy relates more negatively to surface acting than in the USA. Unexpectedly, narcissism exhibits mixed effects on surface and deep acting in both countries: It relates positively to surface acting in the USA but prompts a negative relationship in Japan. The positive narcissism–deep acting relationship is also stronger for Japanese than for US FLEs. These findings help specify the effects of negative personality traits on important employee outcomes. Originality/value: This is the first study that relates service employees’ DTs with emotional labor resulting in new avenues for further research. The findings are managerially relevant because they help specify the effects of negative personality traits on important employee outcomes.

The growing internationalization of electronic commerce demands the establishment of the cross-national validity of theoretical concepts. An important concept in e-commerce is consumers’ fear of online identity theft (FOIT), which impedes consumers’ willingness to engage in online transactions and can negatively affect e-commerce revenues. The present study validates the consumer FOIT scale developed in Germany by Hille et al. (2015) in a cross-cultural setting and proposes an abbreviated version of the scale, which is approximately 35% shorter than the original. Established validation procedures with samples of online consumers from Germany, the United States, and Japan demonstrate the reliability, validity, and cross-national applicability of the short FOIT scale. In particular, this study extends Hille et al. (2015) research by examining and revealing the impact of FOIT on consumers’ prevention-focused responses. This research offers implications for both research and e-commerce managers.

We assess determinants of household expenditures at Japanese off-premise food and beverage (F&B) retailers using data from a recent business census that provides data on 786 cities comprising 91% of Japan's population. We make three fundamental contributions to the literature. First, we determine the effect on expenditures from non-residents who regularly enter a city for education or employment; they alter the actual daytime population by up to 5/8 more – or 5/8 less – than the resident population. Second, we examine the impact of intratype and intertype competition on expenditures. Third, we use product assortment and customer service as mediators between our determinant variables and expenditures. We show that a city's daytime population raises demand at F&B retailers; intratype competition (i.e., supercenters) lowers sales at F&B retailers, and intertype competition (i.e., restaurants) benefits F&B retailers. Product assortment and customer service mediate the effects of independent variables on household expenditures. ths ths