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Editorial Measuring and Managing Interactive Environments Edward Malthouse a, & Venkatesh Shankar b a Professor and Sills Chair of Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill School, Northwestern University, USA b Professor and Coleman Chair of Marketing, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, USA The Journal of Interactive Marketing (JIM) is fully committed to publishing articles that shape thoughts and practices in direct and interactive marketing. This commitment follows from its editorial mission discussed in Shankar and Malthouse (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and Malthouse and Shankar (2009). The first two issues of Volume 23 contain articles with crisp reviews and cutting-edge research ideas on such topics as interactivity (Deighton and Kornfeld 2009), Internet-enabled marketing strategy (Varadarajan and Yadav 2009), multichannel customer management (Neslin and Shankar 2009), customer lifetime value (Blattberg, Malthouse, and Neslin 2009; Kumar et al. 2009; Gupta 2009; Fader and Hardie 2009), online flow (Hoffman and Novak 2009), mobile marketing (Shankar and Balasubramanian 2009), interactive services (Bolton and Saxena-Iyer 2009), search engines (Rangaswamy et al. 2009), online pricing (Ratchford 2009), and online communications (Winer 2009). Two core components of the interactive marketing environ- ment are: (1) creating engaging customer contact points, such as Web sites, and (2) measuring and managing their effectiveness. The articles in this third issue of Volume 23 have the common theme of measuring and improving interactive environments. The first three articles discuss how elements of interactive environments affect outcomes, such as purchase intent, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In Attribute Perceptions, Customer Satisfaction and Intention to Recommend E-Services,Finn, Wang, and Frank (2009) study how beliefs about the site, such as the ease of finding things on the site and the loading speed affect satisfaction and other outcome measures. They propose a model for how various elements of the online shopping experience affect satisfaction and test it on data from two industries, the airline and the credit card industries. Based on their results, the authors offer interesting recommendations for Web site design. Kim and Niehm (2009) examine how similar measures of interactive environments such as interactivity, online complete- ness, ease of use, and entertainment affect loyalty in The Impact of Website Quality on Information Quality, Value and Loyalty Intentions in Apparel Retailing.This article complements other recently published JIM articles including Posselt and Gerstner (2005), Fassnacht and Köse (2007) and Lin, Gregor, and Ewing (2008) that examine the antecedents of Web site satisfaction. Continuing the theme of Web site environment, Jin (2009) examines modality richness, which includes Web site features such as merchandise image rotation, animated videos, product visualization in special settings (e.g., position a piece of furniture in a room with other products), and consumer avatars. She investigates the effects of such environmental conditions and product involvement on purchase intent through an experimental study and reaches important conclusions. This article extends other JIM articles on interactive technologies and virtual environments (Hoffman and Novak 2009; Kim and Forsythe 2008; Lam, Chiang, and Parasuraman 2008; Nambisan and Baron 2007; Yun, Park, and Ha 2008). The fourth article, The Moderating Effects of Involvement on the Relationships between Satisfaction, Trust and Commit- ment in e-Banking(Sanchez-Franco 2009), also studies customer satisfaction in interactive environments, but is focused on its consequences rather than its antecedents. This article advances knowledge by exploring the intricate relationships between satisfaction, trust, commitment and involvement. It continues the rich stream of recent JIM articles that explore these topics (e.g., Johnson 2007; Sen and Lerman 2007; Urban, Amyx, and Lorenzon 2009). JIM's mission includes publishing innovative cases and data sets that will facilitate teaching and research in direct and inter- Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Interactive Marketing 23 (2009) 207 208 www.elsevier.com/locate/intmar Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Malthouse). 1094-9968/$ - see front matter © 2009 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2009.04.001

Measuring and Managing Interactive Environments

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Page 1: Measuring and Managing Interactive Environments

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

07–208www.elsevier.com/locate/intmar

Journal of Interactive Marketing 23 (2009) 2

Editorial

Measuring and Managing Interactive Environments

Edward Malthouse a,⁎&Venkatesh Shankar b

a Professor and Sills Chair of Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill School, Northwestern University, USAb Professor and Coleman Chair of Marketing, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, USA

The Journal of InteractiveMarketing (JIM) is fully committedto publishing articles that shape thoughts and practices in directand interactive marketing. This commitment follows from itseditorial mission discussed in Shankar and Malthouse (2006,2007, 2008, 2009) and Malthouse and Shankar (2009). The firsttwo issues of Volume 23 contain articles with crisp reviews andcutting-edge research ideas on such topics as interactivity(Deighton and Kornfeld 2009), Internet-enabled marketingstrategy (Varadarajan and Yadav 2009), multichannel customermanagement (Neslin and Shankar 2009), customer lifetime value(Blattberg, Malthouse, and Neslin 2009; Kumar et al. 2009;Gupta 2009; Fader and Hardie 2009), online flow (Hoffman andNovak 2009), mobile marketing (Shankar and Balasubramanian2009), interactive services (Bolton and Saxena-Iyer 2009),search engines (Rangaswamy et al. 2009), online pricing(Ratchford 2009), and online communications (Winer 2009).

Two core components of the interactive marketing environ-ment are: (1) creating engaging customer contact points, such asWeb sites, and (2) measuring and managing their effectiveness.The articles in this third issue of Volume 23 have the commontheme of measuring and improving interactive environments.

The first three articles discuss how elements of interactiveenvironments affect outcomes, such as purchase intent, customersatisfaction and loyalty. In “Attribute Perceptions, CustomerSatisfaction and Intention to Recommend E-Services,” Finn,Wang, and Frank (2009) study how beliefs about the site, such asthe ease of finding things on the site and the loading speed affectsatisfaction and other outcome measures. They propose a modelfor how various elements of the online shopping experienceaffect satisfaction and test it on data from two industries, the

⁎ Corresponding author.E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Malthouse).

1094-9968/$ - see front matter © 2009 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation,doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2009.04.001

airline and the credit card industries. Based on their results, theauthors offer interesting recommendations for Web site design.Kim and Niehm (2009) examine how similar measures ofinteractive environments such as interactivity, online complete-ness, ease of use, and entertainment affect loyalty in “The Impactof Website Quality on Information Quality, Value and LoyaltyIntentions in Apparel Retailing.” This article complements otherrecently published JIM articles – including Posselt and Gerstner(2005), Fassnacht and Köse (2007) and Lin, Gregor, and Ewing(2008) – that examine the antecedents of Web site satisfaction.

Continuing the theme of Web site environment, Jin (2009)examines modality richness, which includes Web site featuressuch as merchandise image rotation, animated videos, productvisualization in special settings (e.g., position a piece offurniture in a room with other products), and consumer avatars.She investigates the effects of such environmental conditionsand product involvement on purchase intent through anexperimental study and reaches important conclusions. Thisarticle extends other JIM articles on interactive technologiesand virtual environments (Hoffman and Novak 2009; Kimand Forsythe 2008; Lam, Chiang, and Parasuraman 2008;Nambisan and Baron 2007; Yun, Park, and Ha 2008).

The fourth article, “The Moderating Effects of Involvementon the Relationships between Satisfaction, Trust and Commit-ment in e-Banking” (Sanchez-Franco 2009), also studiescustomer satisfaction in interactive environments, but is focusedon its consequences rather than its antecedents. This articleadvances knowledge by exploring the intricate relationshipsbetween satisfaction, trust, commitment and involvement. Itcontinues the rich stream of recent JIM articles that explorethese topics (e.g., Johnson 2007; Sen and Lerman 2007; Urban,Amyx, and Lorenzon 2009).

JIM's mission includes publishing innovative cases and datasets that will facilitate teaching and research in direct and inter-

Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 2: Measuring and Managing Interactive Environments

208 Editorial

active marketing. Consistent with this mission, this issue con-tains “CASE: Mozilla vs. Godzilla—The Launch of the MozillaFirefox Browser” (Krishnamurthy 2009). The Mozilla Firefoxbrowser was developed by the firm with its users and is anexample of co-creation, which was discussed in Prahalad andRamaswamy (2004) and Sawhney et al. (2005). In “The Resultsfrom the Lifetime Value and Customer Equity Modeling Com-petition,” Malthouse (2009) summarizes the results of the 2008Customer Lifetime Value modeling competition and describes anew data set available to academics for teaching and researchpurposes. The authors of two of the winning submissions in thecompetition (Jamal and Zhang 2009; Pancras this issue)summarize their methodological approaches.

To continue the strong trajectory of publishing leading-edgeresearch in interactive marketing, JIM invites authors to submitmanuscripts (http://ees.elsevier.com/intmar/) that reflect theirlatest and best research in interactive marketing. We arecommitted to bringing the best research outputs quickly to themarket through future issues of JIM.

References

Blattberg, Robert, Edward Malthouse, and Scott Neslin (2009), “Lifetime Value:Empirical Generalizations and Some Conceptual Questions,” Journal ofInteractive Marketing, 23(2), 157–68. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2009.02.005.

Bolton, Ruth N. and Shruti Saxena-Iyer (2009), “Interactive Services: Frame-work, Synthesis and Research Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing,23(1), 91–104.

Deighton, John and Leora Kornfeld (2009), “Interactivity's UnanticipatedConsequences for Markets and Marketing,” Journal of InteractiveMarketing, 23(1), 4–10.

Fader, Peter and Bruce Hardie (2009), “Probability Models for Customer-BaseAnalysis,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1), 63–9.

Fassnacht, Martin and Ibrahim Köse (2007), “Consequences of Web-basedService Quality: Uncovering a Multi-Faceted Chain of Effects,” Journal ofInteractive Marketing, 21(3), 35–54.

Finn, Adam, Luming Wang, and Tema Frank (2009), “Attribute Perceptions,Customer Satisfaction and Intention to Recommend E-Services,” Journal ofInteractive Marketing, 23(3), 209–20.

Gupta, Sunil (2009), “Customer-Based Valuation,” Journal of InteractiveMarketing, 23(2), 169–78. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2009.02.006.

Jamal, Zainab and Alex Zhang (2009), “2008 DMEF Customer Lifetime ValueModeling (Task 2),” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(3), 276–80.

Hoffman, Donna L. and Thomas P. Novak (2009), “FlowOnline: Lessons Learnedand Future Prospects,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1), 23–34.

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Neslin, Scott A. and Venkatesh Shankar (2009), “Key Issues in MultichannelManagement: Current Knowledge and Future Directions,” Journal ofInteractive Marketing, 23(1), 70–81.

Pancras, Joseph (this issue), “A Method to Predict Aggregate Customer EquityUsing Activeness Thresholds,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(3).doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2009.04.003.

Posselt, Thorsten and Eitan Gerstner (2005), “Pre-Sale vs. Post-Sale e-Satisfaction: Impact on Repurchase Intention and Overall Satisfaction,”Journal of Interactive Marketing, 19(4), 35–47.

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Rangaswamy, Arvind, C. Lee Giles, and Silvija Seres (2009), “A StrategicPerspective on Search Engines: Thought Candies for Researchers andPractitioners,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1), 49–60.

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——— and Malthouse (2006), “Moving Interactive Marketing Foward,”Journal of Interactive Marketing, 20(1), 2–4.

——— and Malthouse (2007), “The Growth of Interactions and Dialogs inInteractive Marketing,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21(2), 2–4.

——— and Malthouse (2008), “JIM Marches On,” Journal of InteractiveMarketing, 22(1), 2–3.

——— and Malthouse (2009), “A Peek into the Future of InteractiveMarketing,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1), 1–3.

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