Behavior & Technology Lab

Healthy food labels are a widely used form of intervention that nudges consumers towards healthier choices. This study investigates the relative importance of healthy food labels on the consumers’ online choice of grocery. A conjoint study (n=111) shows thatprice, brand, and country of origin had a relatively higher impact on choice than health food labels. However, it is important to note that consumers are not completely indifferent to the presence of a healthy food label and it increases chances of a product being chosen online. The results also demonstrate gender differences, as healthy food labels had a stronger impact on female consumers. Thus, opportunities exist to improve the impact of healthy food labels on food choice. It is evident that simply presenting healthy food labels on products is equally beneficial for consumers, manufacturers, and policymakers alike.

Fagerstrøm, A., Richartz, P., Pawar, S., Larsen, N. M., Sigurdsson, V., & Eriksson, N. (2019). The relative importance of healthy food labels when shopping for groceries online. Procedia Computer Science, 164, 538-545.

This study investigates the impact of Internet of Things (IoT) services from a smartphone app in a retail grocery shopping situation. It examines four variables, namely price, expiry date, quality indicators and offers. All four variables were examined in relation to two levels; traditional information and IoT services. A scenario was arranged whereby 226 participants were to purchase, among other products, fresh salmon in a grocery store using the store’s smartphone app. Findings from a conjoint study show that the following IoT services; “updated expiry date”, “aggregated national customer experience index”, and “personalized offer based on product in the basket” evoked the approach and abated avoidance tendencies to explore the smartphone app, while simultaneously increasing the likelihood of buying based on information from the app. The IoT service “Real-time price” had a varied impact on participant approach-avoidance tendencies to interact with the app. Scenario simulation analysis shows that some IoT services can be a deal-breaker in a competitive grocery market. Consequently, analyzing the impact of IoT services through the lenses of approach-avoidance distinction and choice indication can help retail grocery managers develop more effective marketing strategies that deliver convenience to the consumers. The study is presented at Forskning.no and Kristiania.no.

Fagerstrøm, A., Eriksson N., & Sigurdsson, V. (2019).
Investigating the impact of Internet of Things services from a smartphone app on grocery. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

This study analyzes online customer reviews in order to investigate customers’ preferences regarding cosmetic products. Based on the marketing firm theory, this research explores the possibility of enhancing the bilateral contingent relationships between the customer and the marketing firm within the cosmetics domain. Hence, this study applies market‐search concepts by extracting customer reviews and employing text analytics to identify reinforcers and factors in cosmetic products, which customers are expecting, and their sentiments towards them. Our results suggest that some reinforcers are shared among all customers, but some vary among the different customer segments based on their age and skin tone.

Haddara, M, Hsieh, J, Fagerstrøm, A, Eriksson, N, Sigurðsson, V. Exploring customer online reviews for new product development: The case of identifying reinforcers in the cosmetic industry. Manage Decis Econ. 2019. 1– 24.

Internet of Things Applications in Healthcare: A Focus on Improving Patient Safety: A special issue of Journal of Healthcare Engineering

Call for papers

This special issue seeks to attract original research articles that discuss emerging IoT technologies with regard to their impact on patient safety in healthcare. This special issue especially welcomes analytical, computational, experimental, and clinical research, state-of-the-art reviews, and conceptual and theoretical developments and designs.

Using the theory of the marketing firm, two articles that discuss how marketers in an organization can respond to behaviors resulting from co‐creational customer–customer exchanges. These two papers examine marketer and customer co‐creation processes within the context of bilateral contingencies.

Fagerstrøm, A., Bendheim, L. M., Sigurdsson, V., Foxall, G. R., & Pawar, S. (2019). The marketing firm and co‐creation: The case of co‐creation by LEGO. Managerial and Decision Economics.

Fagerstrøm, A., Bendheim, L. M., Sigurdsson, V., Pawar, S., & Foxall, G. R. (2019). The marketing firm and co‐creation: An empirical study of marketer and customer’s co‐creation process. Managerial and Decision Economics.

This article responds to a call for research on the context-specific effects of human images in different online contexts. This study investigates how inherent facial expressions in a consultant’s profile image influence the likelihood to contact tendency of small business-to-business website visitors. The results from a conjoint study (n = 67) demonstrate that a consultant’s profile image with a smiling facial expression induced a higher likelihood to contact tendency. While the absence of a profile image reduced this tendency, relatively more than an image with a neutral facial expression. In light of these results, implications for small businesses as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.
The study is presented at Forskning.no.

Interacting with Computers, 2019. Advance online publication

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwz005

Companies have adopted and used social media channels for collaboration and engagement with potential customers, customer dialog management, and, creation of user communities for the customer support and co-creation. This study aims to expand understanding of social business processes for co-creation in the service industry. Findings from a case study showed that the banking and finance company in Norway manage to co-create value together with their users. Several new online products and services have been launched since the co-creation lab was launched. The banking and finance companies’ co-creation lab has a small, but stabile group of users. There are, however, findings that indicate that there could been achieved even more value in co-creation process through more and better interaction from the company’s side, as well as introducing an incentive arrangement for the users of the co-creation lab.

Fagerstrøm, A., Vatrapu, R., & Størksen, J. O. (2018, December). Co-creation of Value Using Social Media in the Service Industry: An Empirical Case Study of Service Innovation in a Banking and Finance Company. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) (pp. 560-564). IEEE.

This study aims to investigate the influence of a male and female sellers ́ profile image and its expressions on the choices made by the peer user within the context of peer-to-peer accommodation rental. We arranged a scenario in which participants evaluated their likelihood to rent an apartment on Airbnb. Results of the conjoint study (r = 0.967, p = 0.000) show that, relative to price and customer reviews, a seller ́s profile image and its facial expression has a strong impact on the likelihood to rent the apartment on Airbnb. Second, the male seller profile image and its facial expression had the strongest impact in both positive and negative directions. Finally, the absence of a seller’s profile image (head silhouette) had a relatively strong negative impact on the likelihood to rent. Sellers looking to sublet property on Airbnb should be aware that their profile image could potentially influence prospective tenants. Managers in the sharing economy sector should, therefore, keep in mind that profile images and their facial expressions should be prominent in the design of peer-to-peer websites. In light of these results, we present practical implications, as well as directions for future research.

Fagerstrøm, A., Pawar, S., Arar, M., & Sigurðsson, V. (2018). On the relative impact of male and female sellers’ profile image and its facial expressions upon peer users’ behavior on AirbnbTM. Procedia computer science, 138, 454-461.

Health, Technology, and Behavior Science: A special issue of Perspectives on Behavior Science edited by Valdimar Sigurdsson, Asle Fagerstrøm, and Gordon R. Foxall

Call for Papers

The special issue on health and technology is intended to provide timely reviews of research programs that integrate technological innovations and behavior analysis. Conceptual, review, empirical, methodological, and practical contributions are all appropriate. Papers are invited that are relevant to health behavior and that employ technology such as mobile apps, wearables, the Internet of Things, social media, online experiments, virtual reality, glucose meters, observational technology, machine learning, eye tracking, retail analytics, or other technology that can gather, store, and/or analyze individuals’ behavioral, physiological, and geolocation data. Authors should strive to advance behavior theory with datafication of important health behavior, as well as embrace critical standpoints and ethical considerations.

Submission inquiries are encouraged and should be sent to the editors at valdimars@ru.is, asle.fagerstrom@kristiania.no, or foxall@cardiff.ac.uk.

 

This research investigated public sector websites in Norway by focusing on municipalities. Norway consists of 422 municipalities each of which has its own website. To help inform the increasing investments and use of technologies within eGovernment, this study focused on young people’s perceptions of municipality websites. Today’s young people constitute a key user group in the coming years. The following research questions are investigated: (1) How frequently do young people visit municipality websites and for what reasons? (2) Do young people prefer physical meetings or online communication when interacting with municipalities? (3) How do young people perceive the quality of municipality websites, when evaluating content, design, and usability? An online survey was conducted with undergraduate students in Norway. Findings suggest that young adults do not widely use municipality websites and that they visit primarily to search for specific information or use digital services. Results also suggest that young adults prefer digital interaction over face-to-face communication, and email and chat are their most favored ways to interact with the public sector. They consider paper-based communication undesirable. Participants ranked the quality of municipality websites as moderate to good but were not overwhelmingly positive.

Sørum, H. (2018, September). Young People’s Views of Municipality Websites: Use, Attitudes, and Perception of Quality. In International Conference on Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective (pp. 86-100). Springer, Cham.