16 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Data Collection In the first survey, we collect data for classifying Web sites, and in the second survey, we collect data for measurement of involvement. In the third survey, we collect data for measure of involvement after some fixed duration of time. Initially, before the first survey, we follow judges-based procedure to select the Web sites for conducting the three surveys. Selection of Web Sites We classified Web sites in a 2×2 (Information properties × Entertainment properties) matrix on the basis of the level (high or low) of their information and entertainment properties. To initiate the selection of the Web sites, we use www.bestindiansites.com’s “Top 50 Web Sites” appraisal, which uses param- eters such as traffic ratings by various traffic ranking tools, cross-links with search engines/other sites, ratings on various quality parameters (e.g., load time, browser compatibility), HTML validity, content, site design, and listings in major search engines. The following steps were taken for primary selection of Web sites: Step 1: We used “Top 50 Web Sites” data by www.bestindiansites.com for six months prior to the study. We give one point if the Web site appears in the Top 50 list in a week, and zero otherwise. We then sum to get the total number of times a Web site appeared in the list during the six months. 9 Step 2: Using a cutoff value of 70%, we discarded the Web sites that appeared in the list less than 70% of time. 10 A reduced pool of 46 Web sites was obtained after this step. Step 3: The above short-listed Web sites were classified on the basis of information and entertainment properties of Web sites. The classification was done by three independent judges, who were postgraduate students and used the Web (for surfing, literature search, paper downloads, etc.) for the previous two years on average of over 30 hours per week. The judges were asked to check the general criteria that the Web sites are easy to understand by the 18 to 25-year-old student respondents, and the Web sites are of general interest (i.e., without any cultural or regional biases). In each quadrant of the 2×2 matrix, we retained only those Web sites for which there were no differences among judges. This resulted in a set of 20 Web Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 17 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. sites as shown in Table 1. To validate the classification by the judges, we then contacted a larger group of respondents as discussed below. Survey 1: Classification of Web Sites Survey 1 is used for classifying, in terms of numerical values, the Web sites on the basis of their information and entertainment properties. This survey was conducted with a sample of 31 respondents. Each respondent examined three randomly assigned sites out of the 20 Web sites 11 listed in Table 1. After discarding some incomplete forms, there were 89 responses, which were used for the classification of Web sites. The average of information and entertainment properties (on a scale of 1 to 5) of each Web site is presented in Table 2, and their relative positions are shown in Figure 2. We then compared the positions of the sites in Table 1 and Figure 2 and selected the sites, which were common to both for a particular quadrant. Therefore, we selected www.rediff.com, www.indiainfoline.com, www.allindia.com, and www.nazara.com for further analysis. We selected two additional Web sites (www.mapsofindia.com and www.indiafm.com) closer to the mean for better analysis of the differences between the sites’ evaluations. The brief overviews and screenshots of some short-listed sites are shown in Appendix 2. Table 1. Web sites classified by the judges on the basis of information and entertainment properties Entertainment Properties High Low High www.rediff.com www.123india.com www.indiainfo.com www.indiatimes.com www.indya.com www.webindia.com www.mapsofindia.com www.timesofindia.com www.naukri.com www.indiainfoline.com Information Properties Low www.khel.com www.smashits.com www.indiafm.com www.nazara.com www.paheli.com www.allindia.com www.dgreetings.com www.theholidays.com www.indiaserver.com www.ciol.com 18 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 2.60 2.80 3.00 3.20 3.40 3.60 3.80 4.00 2.80 3.00 3.20 3.40 3.60 3.80 4.00 4.20 4.40 4.60 Information Entertainment Indiainfoline Allindia Nazar Indiafm Mean Mapsofindia Rediff Scores Figure 2. Relative positions of Web sites on the basis of information and entertainment scores Table 2. Site scores on information and entertainment properties S. No . Name of Web Sites Information Average Entertainment Averag e 1 www.rediff.com 4.37 3.65 2 www.123india.com 3.92 3.65 3 www.indiainfo.com 3.88 3.33 4 www.indiatimes.com 3.90 3.90 5 www.indya.com 3.72 3.65 6 www.webindia.com 3.67 2.88 7 www.mapsofindia.com 3.92 3.28 8 www.timesofindia.com 4.18 3.60 9 www.naukri.com 3.71 2.88 10 www.indiainfoline.com 4.13 3.13 11 www.allindia.com 3.38 2.69 12 www.dgreetings.com 3.87 3.70 13 www.theholidayspot.com 3.47 3.88 14 www.khel.com 3.96 3.40 15 www.smashits.com 2.86 3.02 16 www.indiafm.com 3.62 3.65 17 www.nazara.com 3.44 3.84 18 www.paheli.com 3.37 3.73 Mean 3.75 3.43 Nazar Indiafm Allindia Mean Mapsofindia Rediff Indianinfoline Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 19 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Survey 2: Measurement of Involvement Survey 2 is used for measuring the involvement and positive affect of the respondents toward a Web site. This survey was conducted on a sample of 37 respondents. The sample included all the respondents who had participated in Survey 1 and six additional respondents. Most respondents (33 out of 37) in the sample were assigned two Web sites to examine, while a few (4 out of 37) were assigned four Web sites. Thus, this survey resulted in 82 responses. The sites were assigned randomly to respondents. This survey was conducted in the following manner. First, an in-class survey was conducted which was concerned with the individual characteristics pertaining to information (e.g., information-seeking tendency) and entertainment (e.g., sensation-seeking tendency) profiles of the respon- dents. Then the respondents were told the names of the Web sites randomly assigned to them 1 week before filling out the questionnaires related to utilitarian and hedonic evaluations of involvement and positive affect. They were in- structed to visit the assigned sites as many times as they could over that period. One week later, they were asked to fill out the questionnaires in the computer systems laboratory. Survey 3: Effect of Time on Involvement In Survey 3, we investigate the effect of time on the involvement of Web users at a one-week interval for three weeks. We appointed a panel of 14 respondents for this study. Half of the respondents were new respondents, while the rest had participated in the earlier two surveys. Based on the possible levels of an individual’s profiles (high × low, information × entertainment), which he/she filled in the first session, we analyzed four types of respondents in this study. For the entire period of this analysis, the respondents were assigned a specific Web site out of the four possible Web sites classified in the above fashion. Results and Analysis We performed statistical analyses using STATISTICA software on the col- lected data from various surveys. 20 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Reliability of the Constructs The following Cronbach alpha values were found for the various constructs: With the exception of sensation-seeking tendency scale, the other scales show reasonable values of Cronbach’s alpha. In case of sensation-seeking tendency scale, it is possible that some respondents were not able to relate well with some scale items such as “I sometimes like to do things that are a little frightening” or “I would not like to be hypnotized.” This could be attributed to the language or cultural barriers hindering the correct interpretation of terms “hypnotized” or “frightening.” Analyses and Interpretation of Results Results Related to Main Effects Overall Results For hypotheses testing, we use multiple regression technique. The results of individual specific main effects are shown in Table 3(A) and the results of moderator effects are shown in Table 3(B). All hypotheses, except Hypothesis 2(A), were supported at 95% level. Hypothesis 2(A) on the relationship between Scale Cronbach alpha Information-seeking tendency 0.62 Individual specific focused attention 0.64 Sensation-seeking tendency 0.55 Mood variability 0.68 Site information profile 0.79 Site entertainment profile 0.70 Utilitarian evaluation of involvement Need 0.88 Value 0.90 Hedonic evaluation of involvement Interest 0.83 Appeal 0.81 Positive affect 0.77 Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 21 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. hedonic evaluation of involvement and sensation-seeking tendency could not be supported, possibly due to the measurement-related problems mentioned earlier in connection with the sensation-seeking tendency variable. The overall results, shown in Table 3(A), suggest that utilitarian evaluation of involvement is significantly affected by the two factors, individual information- seeking tendency ( α 1 = 0.65, t = 4.94) and individual specific focused attention ( α 2 = 0.33, t =2.52). Hence Hypotheses 1(A) and 1(B) are supported. Similarly, the hedonic evaluation of involvement is affected by the two factors, individual specific sensation-seeking tendency and individual specific mood variability. Both factors are positive but only one factor (mood variability) is significant ( β 1 = 0.82, t = 10.31). Hence, it supports Hypothesis 2(B) but does not provide enough support for Hypothesis 2(A). Table 3(A). Overall results of main effects Table 3(B). Site-specific results of main effects Dependent Variable Utilitarian Evaluation of Involvement Hedonic Evaluation of Involvement Positive Affect Independent Variable Information- Seeking Tendency Individual Specific Focused Attention Sensation- Seeking Tendency Mood Variability Utilitarian Evaluation of Involvement Hedonic Evaluation of Involvement α 1 ( t -statistic) α 2 ( t -statistic) β 1 ( t -statistic) β 2 ( t -statistic) γ 1 ( t -statistic) γ 2 ( t -statistic) 0.65 (4.94) 0.33 (2.52) 0.14 (1.79) 0.82 (10.31) 0.42 (4.60) 0.58 (6.40) Dependent Variable Utilitarian Evaluation of Involvement Hedonic Evaluation of Involvement Positive Affect Independent Variable Information- Seeking Tendency Focused Attention Sensation- Seeking Tendency Mood Variability Utilitarian Evaluation of Involvemen t Hedonic Evaluation of Involvement Name of Web Site α 1 ( t -statistic) α 2 ( t -statistic) β 1 ( t -statistic) β 2 ( t -statistic) γ 1 ( t -statistic) γ 2 ( t -statistic) Rediff (High- High)* 0.94 (2.91) 0.04 (0.12) 0.16 (0.71) 0.79 (3.60) 0.66 (3.34) 0.33 (1.65) Mapsofindia (High-Low) 0.66 (4.25) 0.34 (2.15) 0.24 (1.58) 0.75 (4.97) 0.71 (4.33) 0.29 (1.79) Indiainfoline (High-Low) 0.87 (2.35) 0.12 (0.32) 0.03 (0.24) 0.95 (7.43) 0.63 (2.73) 0.37 (1.58) Allindia (Low-Low) 0.29 (0.67) 0.70 (1.65) -1.76 (-1.80) 2.60 (2.67) 0.77 (1.73) 0.23 (0.52) Indiafm (Low-High) 0.81 (2.26) 0.15 (0.42) 0.10 (0.80) 0.89 (7.16) 0.28 (1.34) 0.71 (3.36) Nazara (Low-High) 0.32 (0.96) 0.66 (1.96) 0.23 (1.06) 0.72 (3.28) 0.39 (1.50) 0.60 (2.27) * Represents that the Web site is high in information properties and high in entertainment properties. Note: Cells with significant effects are shaded. 22 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. The last result of Table 3A suggests that positive affect is also affected by two factors, utilitarian ( γ 1 = 0.42, t = 4.6) and hedonic ( γ 2 = 0.58, t = 6.4) evaluation of involvement. Since both the independent variables are positive and significant, the results support Hypotheses 3(A) and 3(B). Site-Specific Results In order to generate more insights regarding site-specific effects of various factors, we perform the regressions separately for each Web site. For example, in case of a site that is high in information but low in entertainment (e.g., mapsofindia.com), consistent with our hypotheses, we would expect the coeffi- cients of regression of utilitarian evaluation of involvement on information profile variables to be more significant than those of hedonic evaluation of involvement on entertainment profile variables. Moreover, the coefficient of regression of affect on utilitarian evaluation would be more significant than on hedonic evaluation of involvement for such a site. Similar results for other sites would provide greater support to our hypotheses testing results. We show these results in Table 3(B) and make the following observations: (i) rediff.com (high information and high entertainment): The individual specific information seeking tendency appears to affect utilitarian evalua- tion of involvement (a 1 = 0.79, t = 3.60), and individual specific mood variability appears to affect hedonic evaluation of involvement (b 2 = 0.95, t = 7.43). For positive affect, only utilitarian evaluation of involvement is significant (g 1 = 0.66, t = 3.34). Thus, even though this site was classified as high on both information and entertainment aspects, the respondents relied mainly on the utilitarian aspects while evaluating this site. (ii) mapsofindia.com (high information and low entertainment): Both indi- vidual specific information-seeking tendency (a 1 = 0.66, t = 4.25) and individual specific focused attention (a 2 = 0.34, t = 2.15) affect utilitarian evaluation of involvement. Again, individual specific mood variability affects hedonic evaluation of involvement (b 2 = 0.75, t = 4.97), and as expected, only utilitarian evaluation of involvement affects positive affect (g 1 = 0.71, t = 4.33). (iii) indiainfoline.com (high information and low entertainment): Individual specific information-seeking tendency seems to affect utilitarian evaluation of involvement (a 1 = 0.87, t = 2.35). Individual specific mood variability seems to affect hedonic evaluation of involvement (b 2 = 0.95, t = 7.43). As expected, only utilitarian evaluation of involvement affects positive affect (g 1 = 0.63, t = 2.73). Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 23 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. (iv) allindia.com (low information and low entertainment): Both individual specific information-seeking tendency and focused attention are not signifi- cant for utilitarian evaluation of involvement. The effect of mood variability is significant (b 2 = 2.6, t = 2.67) for hedonic evaluation of involvement. For positive affect, both utilitarian and hedonic evaluations of involvement are not significant. (v) indiafm.com (low information and high entertainment): Individual specific information-seeking tendency affects utilitarian evaluation of involvement (a 1 = 0.81, t = 2.26) even for this high entertainment site, which seems to suggest that some respondents might have been interpreting some enter- tainment-specific details (e.g., results from box office, movie review, cine awards, and interview of celebrities) as “relevant information.” Again, for hedonic evaluation of involvement, individual specific mood variability is significant (b 2 = 0.89, t =7.16), and as expected, only hedonic evaluation of involvement affects positive affect (g 2 = 0.71, t = 3.36). (vi) nazara.com (low information and high entertainment): Individual specific focused attention affects utilitarian evaluation of involvement (a 2 = 0.66, t = 1.96), which can be expected as even a high entertainment site may contain some amount of information, which requires focused attention for entertainment-prone individuals. For hedonic evaluation of involvement, only individual specific mood variability is significant (b 2 = 0.72, t = 3.28). As expected, only hedonic evaluation of involvement is significant for positive affect (g 2 = 0.6, t = 2.27). Results Related to Moderator Relationship Hypotheses 4(A) to 6(B) are related to moderator relationship. For analysis regarding Hypotheses 4 and 6A (i.e., information profile of a Web site), we pool the observations of high and low information sites (HI vs. LI) separately. The Chow test for comparing the regressions of HI and LI sites of utilitarian evaluation of involvement on information-seeking tendency and focused atten- tion results in the value of F-statistic = 6.31, which is greater than the critical F- value of 3.13 at 5% confidence level and degrees of freedom 2 and 78. Thus, Hypothesis 4 is supported. In other words, the positive impact of an individual’s information profile on utilitarian evaluation of involvement appears to be greater when the information profile of the site assigned is better. Similarly, the Chow test for comparing the regression of positive affect on utilitarian evaluation of involvement results in the value of F-statistic = 12.66, which is greater than the critical F-value of 3.98 at 5% confidence level and degrees of freedom 1 and 80. Thus, the utilitarian evaluation appears to lead to more positive affect for better information sites. 24 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. For analysis regarding Hypotheses 5 and 6B (i.e., entertainment profile of a Web site), we pool the observations of high and low entertainment sites (HE vs. LE) separately. The Chow test for comparing the regressions of HE and LE sites of hedonic evaluation of involvement on sensations-seeking tendency and mood variability, and positive affect on hedonic evaluation of involvement, result in the values of F-statistic lower than the critical F-value at 5% confidence level. Thus, Hypotheses 5 and 6B are not supported. This could be due to small sample size in the case of individual sites or lower reliabilities of entertainment profile measures. 12 Summary of Results All the hypotheses, except hypothesis 2(A) on the relationship between hedonic evaluation of involvement and sensation-seeking tendency, are supported. In general, the site-specific results are in the direction that makes intuitive sense. For example, an individual’s information profile factors, information-seeking tendency, and focused attention appear to affect significantly the utilitarian evaluations of high information sites (e.g., rediff.com, indiainfoline.com, or mapsofindia.com). Similarly, an individual’s entertainment profile factor, mood variability, is important for hedonic evaluation of high entertainment sites (e.g., allindia.com, indiafm.com, or nazara.com). Further, in general, utilitarian evalu- ation is more significant in generating positive affect in high information sites, whereas hedonic evaluation is more significant in generating positive affect in high entertainment sites. An interesting result obtained is that for some high entertainment sites (e.g., indiafm.com), the individual information profile factors, such as information- seeking tendency, are also significant for utilitarian evaluation of involvement. This could be attributed to the nature of information available at these sites. Moreover, for all of the high information sites, the individual entertainment profile factor, mood variability, was found highly significant in explaining hedonic evaluation. It is also possible that some of the short-listed Web sites were interpreted as both informative and entertaining. This could particularly be the case with the sites that provide relevant “information” about “entertaining” Indian movie industry. Results of Effect of Time on Involvement Since the concept of involvement has long-term implications, it is useful to study the effect of time on involvement (Richins & Bloch, 1991). Previous researchers Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 25 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. have also differentiated between situational involvement (primarily dealt with in this paper) and enduring involvement (a long-term measure of involvement, which has time-based implications) (Bearden & Netemeyer, 1992). It is ex- pected that the involvement of a visitor would increase in the case of a match between the site profile and the user profile, and vice versa. We present some representative results of this site-user analysis in Figure 3. When a high information and high entertainment profile respondent is “matched” with a site of high information and high entertainment profile (e.g., rediff.com), the utilitarian as well as hedonic evaluation of a person (high on information as well as entertainment profile) increases as time passes (see Figure 3(A)). In case of a match of a high information and low entertainment profile respondent with a high information but low entertainment profile site (e.g., indiainfoline.com), the utilitarian evaluation of the respondent increases, but hedonic evaluation of involvement does not show any trend with the passage of time (see Figure 3(B)). In case of a mismatch of a low information and high entertainment profile respondent with a high information but low entertainment profile site (e.g., indiainfoline.com), as expected, both utilitarian and hedonic evaluations show generally decreasing trend (see Figure 3(C)). Interestingly, in case of a match Figure 3. Time-based measurement of involvement 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 0 1 2 3 4 5 Time Evaluation Utilitarian Hedonic (A) High – high respondent, high– high site (Rediff.com) 4.70 4.80 4.90 5.00 5.10 5.20 5.30 5.40 0 1 2 3 4 5 Time Evaluation Utilitarian Hedonic (B) High – Low Respondent, High– Low Site (Indiainfoline.com) HH - REDIFF HL - INDIAINFOLINE [...]... Journal of Consumer Research, 7(December) 272–282 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc is prohibited 32 Swami and Krishna Reddy, A C., & Iyer, R (2002) Creating and maintaining effective e-commerce websites Journal of Internet Marketing, 2(1) Reibstein, D J (2001) The Internet buyer In J Wind & V Mahajan (Eds.),... result is interesting as it indicates that the sites that provide low levels of information or entertainment may not be able to involve a person who is low in seeking information or entertainment These results are encouraging, and future research should examine such timebased evaluations of involvement in greater detail Conclusions, Limitations, and Directions for Future Reseach The importance of Internet-based... not imaginative (R) This Web site is flashy This Web site has animation elements The use of colors in this Web site is not good (R) This Web site has enough graphics/pictures HEDONIC EVALUATION OF INVOLVEMENT Interest I1 Exciting/Unexciting I2 Interesting/Boring I3 Fascinating/Ordinary Appeal POSITIVE AFFECT Affect A1 A2 Appealing/Unappealing Desirable/Undesirable PA1 PA2 PA3 PA4 After visiting the... refer to the individual’s and the last two combinations refer to the site’s information and entertainment properties In the present framework, we have included only information and entertainment profiles of an individual Some other personality or demographic characteristics, such as skill, Web usage, and playfulness, should also be included in future research Further research on the Web site involvement... Screen-Shots Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc is prohibited 38 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc is prohibited Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 39 Description Rediff.com... relevance to the engineering student population Indiafm.com provides entertainment information about movie reviews, release dates, concert listings, box office results, celebrity interviews, and cine awards Nazara.com provides entertainment information related to Hollywood as well as Bollywood (India’s movie industry) movies, television, and theater In the movie section, it provides information related... important online marketplaces For several years, researchers have used eBay transactions as a mechanism for examining consumer behavior and economic relationships in Internet auctions As automobiles have emerged as the leading product category on eBay, research focused specifically on eBay Motors is an important extension to this line of research This study builds on past research by examining research. .. Group Inc Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc is prohibited Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 35 Appendix 1: Scales Used in Different Surveys Scale Variable Name CONSUMER INFORMATION PROFILE Information-Seeking IST1 Tendency IST2 Scale Items IST5 IST6 Even though there are thousands of different sources of information,... However, as the competition in this environment intensifies, Web marketers increasingly need to understand factors that engage consumers in order to fulfill their marketing objectives in terms of visit durations, repeat visits, and online purchase We propose the current framework as an important early step in developing the understanding and use of factors affecting consumer involvement toward Web sites... behavior Psychology and Marketing, 9(2), 143–156 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc is prohibited Evaluation of Web Sites on Information and Entertainment Properties 29 Bezos, J (1999, July 20) Setting the standard with Jeff Bezos Internet Summit 99, Dana Point, CA Buss, A H., & Plomin, R (1975) A temperament . 3.65 2 www. 123 india.com 3. 92 3.65 3 www.indiainfo.com 3.88 3.33 4 www.indiatimes.com 3.90 3.90 5 www.indya.com 3. 72 3.65 6 www.webindia.com 3.67 2. 88 7 www.mapsofindia.com 3. 92 3 .28 8. C., & Iyer, R. (20 02) . Creating and maintaining effective e-commerce websites. Journal of Internet Marketing, 2( 1). Reibstein, D. J. (20 01). The Internet buyer. In J. Wind & V. Mahajan. Consumer Research, 7(December) 27 2 28 2. 32 Swami and Krishna Copyright © 20 06, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is