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International Conference on Business Information Systems

BIS 2015: Business Information Systems pp 233–244Cite as

The Relative Advantage of Collaborative Virtual Environments and Two-Dimensional Websites in Multichannel Retail

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 208))

Abstract

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) have been with us for some years however their potential is unclear. This research attempts to achieve a better understanding of retail in CVEs from the consumer viewpoint by comparing this channel with the competing retail channels of ‘bricks and mortar’, or offline, and two dimensional navigation websites (2D websites), in order to identify their respective Relative Advantages (RA). Five categories of RA between retail channels were identified and explored using focus groups and interviews. These five categories explore distinct characteristics of each channel, consumer preferences over three stages of a purchase, differences between simple and complex products and lastly the role of trust. Participants showed a preference for offline and 2D in most situations however there was evidence that enjoyment, entertainment, sociable shopping, the ability to reinvent yourself, convenience and institutional trust were RA of CVEs in comparison to one of the other two channels.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, Merseyside, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

    Alex Zarifis

  2. University of Nicosia, Makedonitisa 46, 1700, Egkomi, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Angelika Kokkinaki

Authors
  1. Alex Zarifis
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  2. Angelika Kokkinaki
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Correspondence to Alex Zarifis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, Poznań University of Economics, Poznań, Poland

    Witold Abramowicz

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Zarifis, A., Kokkinaki, A. (2015). The Relative Advantage of Collaborative Virtual Environments and Two-Dimensional Websites in Multichannel Retail. In: Abramowicz, W. (eds) Business Information Systems. BIS 2015. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 208. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19027-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19027-3_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19026-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19027-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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