Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Background

3. Materials and Methods

4. Results

5. Discussion and Conclusions

6. Limitations and suggestions for future research

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Appendix A. Semi-structured interview guide (Ang et al., 2000; Baytiyeh, 2018; Kennett-Hensel et al., 2012; Priporas et al., 2017)

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

References

Vitae

Abstract

This study seeks to unravel the factors that have triggered changes in individuals’ engagement with online consumption during the COVID-19 crisis and investigate the influence of digital technologies on the retail ecosystem during the lockdowns, as seen through the eyes of consumers. In doing so, a qualitative empirical research approach was adopted, and data was collected via in-depth interviews with 35 respondents during the COVID-19 lockdown in China. The study has delineated a systematic mapping of the retail ecosystem’s reactions to the COVID-19 shock. Three overarching dimensions related to consumers’ online purchasing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified: triggers of enhanced digital engagement, transformative capacity of digital technologies, and socio-economic adaptability during crises. The relevant themes underlying each aggregate dimension were further elaborated with evidence from the interviews. The study findings advance the extant literature on purchasing behavior and online retailing in times of crisis and offer important practical implications on improving crisis management capabilities of the retail ecosystem via digital technologies. As a final output, four propositions were extracted to serve for further research.

1. Introduction

In the last three decades, the technological developments of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 have largely served as the driving forces for the Marketing 3.0 era of customization, and the digitalization age of Marketing 4.0, respectively (Erragcha & Romdhane, 2014; Shan et al., 2020). Information and communication technologies (ICTs), online marketing platforms and sophisticated digital devices have advanced exponentially, supporting the growth of various economic sectors (Zhu, 2021). Specifically, in the retail sector, various digital technologies support multichannel strategies or even an omni-channel approach, which offer consumers a range of alternatives in purchasing goods and services (Jin & Shin, 2020). Mobile devices, mobile apps, augmented reality and virtual reality applications, and various types of bots have already been in service instead of or combined with traditional human-to-human interactions – in either physical, online or hybrid offline/online settings – to serve customers’ needs and retailers’ goals (Hu & Tracogna, 2020; Verhoef et al., 2015).

The digital transformation of the retail sector has emerged through the natural evolution of digital technologies’ implementation, so retail organizations and individuals would facilitate their access to world markets, offering improved serviceability, and building competitive advantages (Altintas¸ et al., 2020). This set of retail actors comprise a generic retail ecosystem, who interchange goods and services for money and data, contributing to economic value streams. These actors can be branch retailers, online retailers, multi-channel retailers, IT-solution providers, service providers, store equipment providers, producers, data suppliers, logistics firms, and consumers (Bottcher et al., 2021 ¨ ).

1- Introduction

2- Theoretical background

3- Model and hypotheses

4- Materials and methods

5- Results

6- Discussion

References

Abstract

Value co-creation for service innovations involves integrating inputs from multiple actors within service ecosystems. Traditionally, value co-creation has been considered in light of business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions. The emergence of digital information platforms allowing consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communications is changing how service ecosystems establish and create value for service innovations. In this paper, we develop a Digital Information Flow Continuum that includes B2C, external provider and consumer co-created (B2C/C2C combined) and C2C digital communications. Using Service-Dominant Logic (SDL), we assess the impact digital information flow elements have on the perceptions and usage likelihood for telemedicine (TM) services. We use structural equation modeling to analyze online survey results from 827 health consumers collected as part of a healthcare organization’s TM launch. The results demonstrate that the Digital Information Flow Continuum impacts the acceptance of the TM innovation directly, and indirectly through value perceptions of comparable service quality relative to alternatives and ease of access to care.

Introduction

Value enhancing innovations have the potential to positively or negatively impact service ecosystems (Dedehayir, Ortt, & Seppänen, 2017; Reinhardt & Gurtner, 2018). Academic researchers are particularly interested in innovations that focus on digital services (Larivière et al., 2017), and especially those that have the potential to transform service delivery via new processes, technologies, and deliverables (Chandler, Danatzis, Wernicke, Akaka, & Reynolds, 2019). Digital information and digital service delivery represent the use of online resources and platforms available to learn about and utilize innovations (i.e., Internet, social media, apps, etc.). For example, researchers have investigated digital service delivery in mobile banking (Payne, Peltier, & Barger, 2018) and digital health (Dahl, Milne, & Peltier, 2019). A common thread across this evolving research stream is that technologybased innovations impact how employees interface with customers and the extent to which consumers benefit from these digital service encounters (Larivière et al., 2017). Marketing communications are critical to the launch, acceptance, and adoption of innovations within service ecosystems (Alexander, Jaakkola, & Hollebeck, 2018). Although business-to-consumer (B2C) communications play a key role in the adoption process, marketers are going beyond B2C information flows and dyadic relationships, to digital marketing platforms that allow consumers to create and share information amongst themselves, thereby co-creating value for a service innovation (Chandler & Vargo, 2011). Service experiences have thus transitioned from pure “one-to-one” communication and engagement processes to “many-to-many” informational touchpoints (Vargo & Lusch, 2016). Framed through the lens of Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) (Vargo & Lusch, 2017), actors within service ecosystems co-create value for innovations through the sharing of unique experiences with and perceptions of the innovation. Despite this interest, research is limited on how B2C and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) information flows impact the acceptance and adoption of service innovations (Gruner, Vomber, Homburg, & Lukas, 2019). Although the literature has begun to investigate interaction mechanisms needed to support value cocreation in service ecosystems, the role of communication integration is not well understood. Virtually silent is research showing how different digital formats and platforms along an information flow continuum from B2C to C2C impact consumers’ perceptions of service innovations and adoption likelihood (Dahl et al., 2019; Kim & Baker, 2017).

Along with the rapid growth of computer networks comes the need for automating management functions to prevent errors in decision-making and reduce the cost of ordinary operations. Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emergent paradigm that aims to support next-generation networks through its flexible and powerful management mechanisms. Although SDN provides greater control over traffic flow, its security and availability remain a challenge. The major contribution of this paper is to present an SDN-based ecosystem that monitors network traffic and proactively detects anomalies which may impair proper network functioning. When an anomalous event is recognized, the proposal conducts a more active analysis to inspect irregularities at the network traffic flow level. Detecting such problems quickly is essential to take appropriate countermeasures. In this manner, the potential for centralized network monitoring based on SDN with OpenFlow is addressed in order to evaluate mitigation policies against threats. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed ecosystem succeeds in achieving higher detection rates compared to other approaches. In addition, the performance analysis shows that our approach can efficiently contribute to the network’s resilience.

Introduction

The rigid structure of traditional networks increases and complicates the task of managing them as they expand. As demand for real-time applications increases, it has become difficult to scale existing networks while ensuring availability and security without degradation of performance. To express the policies of agreed service levels (ASL) and to maintain quality of service (QoS), network operators need to configure each device separately as a heterogeneous collection of switches, routers, middleboxes, and so on, using low-level commands specific to each equipment supplier (Kreutz et al., 2013). Changes in such policies are time-consuming and usually require a large staff to focus efforts on making thousands of changes manually in network components. In this scenario, despite frequent investments in communications innovation, dissatisfaction with the capacity of traditional networks to adapt to the changes required by new technologies will become increasingly evident (Jammal et al., 2014). Software-defined networks (SDNs) have emerged as the next-generation networking paradigm aiming to improve network resource utilization, simplify network management, reduce operating costs, and promote evolution (Lin et al., 2016). To achieve these benefits, SDN separates the data plane from the control plane by removing decisions from the forwarding devices (e.g., routers and switches), enabling forwarding hardware programming through a standardized interface (commonly using the OpenFlow protocol). A controller guides the control plane using applications to define the behavior of the network-forwarding infrastructure. With the separation of planes, various network devices can share the same controller. A significant advantage is that if there is the need for policy changes or the establishment of service quality, it can be accomplished through control plane programming, which uses a more intuitive high-level language than device configuration commands. Indeed, the administrator can modify network forwarding rules, prioritize, or even block specific types of traffic. Although SDN networks provide greater control over traffic flow, owing to their dynamic nature, they have also introduced new challenges and issues to be addressed. Researchers argue that SDNs are vulnerable and easier to overwhelm (Li et al., 2016)(Kreutz et al., 2013). Concerns about resiliency and robustness arise when the logic behind forwarding behavior is centralized and located in the controller, which becomes a single point of failure (Rathee et al., 2017). Thereby, security threats may include direct controller attacks or vulnerability exploitations in the communication between the controller and the data plane. In the former, the most prominent threat is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), which generates malicious requests to overwhelm the controller, consequently hindering the SDN’s operation. In the latter, Man in the Middle is a potential attack in which the adversary may break the link between the controller and its switches. To summarize, in the absence of a secure and robust controller, attackers have opportunities to change the behavior of the underlying network by modifying the controller operations.