Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare the impact of firm reputation on consumers' evaluation of e-tailers' market response outcomes (satisfaction, trust, and loyalty) in two cultures, the USA (individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, low context, and high-trust society) and South Korea (collectivism, high uncertainty, high context, and low-trust society). Design/methodology/approach – Two sets of data were collected, one in the USA and the other in Korea, using a mall intercept method. Males and females over 18 who had online purchase experience were chosen as respondents. Findings – The results with 385 usable questionnaires (182 from the USA and 203 from Korea) revealed that firm reputation contributes to customer loyalty by increasing customer satisfaction, and this effect is stronger in Korea than in the USA. However, contrary to the expectations, no cultural differences were found in reputation-trust and trust-loyalty links. That is, firm reputation leads to customer loyalty through trust in both cultures and the impacts are the same across cultures. Research limitations/implications – Further validation of the findings with other cultural settings merits attention. Practical implications – The firm reputation-satisfaction-loyalty link is stronger in Korea than in the USA. While it may be premature to conclude the link is stronger in all Asian markets, international managers should carefully consider this finding when establishing operations in Asian markets. Originality/value – This study is one of the first systematic cross-cultural examinations of how firm reputation functions in an e-tailing context increase market response outcomes.

A growing number of firms are using online communities (OCs) as integral parts of their strategies because of the value an OC provides to a firm. This study maintains the commitment to an OC to be critical in developing a sustainable OC and examines how members' commitment to an OC develops in the context of OCs hosted by firms and freely available to anyone. Built on the social exchange theory, the proposed model posits that two aspects of OC attributes (Sociability and Usability) facilitate members' participation in an OC, as well as bring social and functional benefits to participants. In return for the benefits gained from OC participation, participants reciprocate with affective and calculative commitment to the OC. Data were collected via online survey from OC participants who were 18 years old or above and resided in South Korea. An analysis of 595 cases supported the proposed model. Results indicated that the members' perceived social benefits from active OC participation led to an affective commitment to the OC, while members' perceived functional benefits led to a calculative commitment to the OC. Theoretical and managerial implications were suggested based on the findings.

Purpose: US apparel firms have been relatively slow exploring Chinese and Indian apparel markets, despite the countries' tremendous growth potentials. To help US apparel firms successfully enter these promising markets, this study aims to compare evaluative attributes that Chinese and Indian consumers utilize when purchasing denim jeans.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected in Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India.Findings: The results of the study confirmed that Chinese and Indian consumers ranked attributes differently. Chinese consumers placed the highest importance on price, followed by fitting, brand country of origin, quality, and design, whereas Indian consumers placed importance on fitting, brand country of origin, design, price, and quality, in descending order.Research limitations/implications: Caution needs to be exercised in generalizing the findings since the data for this study were collected from one city in each country. The study tested the idea that the importance of attributes would be different between Chinese and Indian consumers as their cultures and retail development stages differ. This idea was supported in conjoint analysis.Practical implications: The findings indicate that a regional approach, assuming that all Asian markets are the same, is inappropriate. Thus, US apparel firms need to pay careful attention to differences in each Asian market.Originality/value: China and India have been compared frequently in various ways: growth potential, market size, and population. Surprisingly, however, no study has attempted to compare Chinese and Indian consumers' evaluative criteria for apparel products. This is the first empirical study to show the differences between Chinese and Indian consumers in evaluating apparel products.

This study examines the synergistic interchange between online and offline operations. To this end, this study proposed a multichannel performance model integrating Herzberg's (Herzberg 1966 Herzberg, F. 1966. Work and the nature of man, Cleveland, OH: World Publishing. [Google Scholar] : Work and the Nature of Man, World Publishing, Cleveland, OH) motivation-hygiene theory and Thorndike's (Thorndike 1920 Thorndike, E. L. 1920. A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4: 25–29. [Crossref] [Google Scholar] : J. Appl. Psychol., 4, 25 – 29) halo effect, and empirically tested it. The essence of the model was that e-satisfaction is formed by a varying influence of online (basic and marketing-related attributes) and offline (firm reputation, consumer offline channel use, and consumer offline satisfaction) factors, which then increases e-loyalty. Analyses on a sample of 203 multichannel consumers revealed that, in general, the hypothetical paths were significant except in two cases. In a multichannel's online operation, marketing-related online attributes (e.g. merchandising) exerted significant influence on e-satisfaction, but basic attributes (e.g. security) did not. In a multichannel's offline operation, firm reputation and consumer offline satisfaction contributed to increasing e-satisfaction. Both firm reputation and consumer offline channel use increased consumer offline satisfaction, which in turn increased online satisfaction. However, consumer offline loyalty did not transfer to online loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications were suggested based on findings.