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Purpose – Satisfaction and experience are essential ingredients for successful customer retention. This study aims to verify the moderating effect of experience on two types of relationships: the relationship of certain antecedents with satisfaction, and the relationship of satisfaction with intention to repurchase. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies structural equation modelling (SEM) and multi-group analysis to examine the moderating role of experience in a conceptual model estimating the intention to repurchase. Responses from 393 people were used to examine the differences between high- and low-experienced users of online shopping. Findings – The research shows that experience has moderating effects on the relationships between performance expectancy and satisfaction and satisfaction and intention to repurchase. This study empirically demonstrates that prior customer experience strengthens the relationship between performance expectancy and satisfaction, while it weakens the relationship of satisfaction with intention to repurchase. Practical implications – Practitioners should differentiate the way they treat their customers based on their level of experience. Specifically, the empirical research demonstrates that the expected performance of the online shopping experience (performance expectancy) affects satisfaction only on high-experienced customers. Instead, the effort needed to use online shopping (effort expectancy) and the user's belief in own abilities to use online shopping (self-efficacy) influence satisfaction only on low-experienced customers. The effect of trust and satisfaction is significant on online shopping behaviour on both high- and low-experienced customers. Originality/value – This paper investigates how different levels of experience affect customers' satisfaction and online shopping behaviour. It is proved that experience moderates the effect of performance expectancy on satisfaction and the effect of satisfaction on intention to repurchase. It also demonstrates that certain effects (effort expectancy and performance expectancy) are valid for only one of the two examined groups, while only one effect (trust) is valid for both (high- and low-experienced).

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A question of central importance for researchers and practitioners is how information technology (IT) can help firms survive and thrive in turbulent and constantly changing business environments. To address this issue, this study develops the idea that IT architecture flexibility helps sustain competitive performance by driving the formation of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities, and that IT governance decentralisation strengthens this relationship. IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation, therefore, develop complementary effects. We argue that IT-enabled dynamic capabilities are a core antecedent for competitive performance gains, particularly under uncertain external environmental conditions. Tests of the proposed model using survey data from 322 international firms support these ideas. Our research also shows that, under conditions of high environmental heterogeneity, the value of IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation is increased, while the impact of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities on competitive performance is amplified.

Purpose -To construct and test, through its application to a real case study, a methodology that generates contingencies for the evolution of a company or an industry's reference business model (BM) under the impact of a technology innovation. Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws on theoretical predicaments of organizational development and scenario planning as well as more recently published works (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) on BM design and change in order to build the primary steps of the methodology. A contingency approach is applied for selecting among alternatives the most suitable future BM. The usefulness and applicability of the provided methodology are proved through a real case study that concerns changing the exhibition's industry reference BM under the impact of a mobile innovation. Findings -The proposed methodology is primarily useful in cases where a strategic manager wishes to draw and assess not one totally new BM but a set of scenarios that reflect alternative configurations for its current BM evolution. Such a methodology needs to be complemented with a contingency framework for guiding the selection of the scenario that better suits the internal and external environment of the company. Research limitations/implications -It is expected that related theories, such as the theory of Industrial Organization and the theory of Network Economics, also need to be examined under the light of BM change to identify and cross-validate factors that contribute to the design and assessment of BMs. Practical implications -The ultimate utility of the proposed methodology is as a road-map for leading change in the value-creation logic of a firm, taking advantage of an advanced technology solution. By continuously changing their BM, and identifying new ways to deliver value to their customers, firms aspire to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage in high-velocity environments. Originality/value -This paper fulfils an identified research gap for a structured approach towards changing the BM of a firm, which introduces a technology innovation by keeping the principles of the old (traditional) business logic and taking into account the effects incurred from the firm's internal and external environment.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to study the mechanism through which decisions on the preferred governance mode of strategic technology alliances are made at the firm level. Design/methodology/approach -The author constructed a value-mediated governance model that is empirically tested through a survey of 57 strategic alliances in the Greek wireless services industry and estimated through a Structural Equation Modeling technique, namely Partial Least Squares. Findings -Quasi-hierarchy governance modes are preferred by firms assessing their current value as high, and lacking fear of partners' opportunistic behavior. Quasi-market alliances are preferred by firms having high expectations for the future value of the alliance, and facing high endogenous uncertainty resulting from the existence of a competitive relationship with the partner. Research limitations/implications -While the resource and cost perspectives are founded on diverse assumptions on firms' ability to write complete contracts, their implications for the firms' decision-making behaviour on the alliance governance issue seem to be complementary to those of the value perspective. Practical implications -Transitional governance forms, quasi-market alliances that evolve to quasi-hierarchy alliances, seem to be preferred in emerging technology-based environments. Originality/value -The Expected Alliance Value concept is introduced to explain how exogenous uncertainty characterizing the environment of emerging technology-based industries can influence the already investigated effects of the partner uncertainty and the firm's current value on the alliance governance preferences.