Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted THE IMPACT OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND RATINGS ON CONSUMER TRUST IN E-COMMERCE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW(Aston University, 2024-09) Alsheikh, Maram; Marvi, RezaThis systematic literature review investigates the role of online reviews and ratings in shaping consumer trust and purchasing decisions in e-commerce platforms. The study synthesizes existing research to identify key factors influencing consumer trust, such as review credibility, valence, visibility, and reviewer characteristics. Positive reviews with high ratings are found to increase consumer trust and purchase intentions, while negative reviews act as deterrents, though they are scrutinized more carefully as valuable for risk reduction. The research also identifies a gap in understanding how consumers attribute the causes of negative reviews and how these attributions impact trust recovery. The findings have significant theoretical and practical implications, offering businesses guidance on managing online reviews to foster long-term consumer trust and enhance e-commerce success. Future research should explore the impact of new forms of online reviews and address challenges like fake reviews and their implications for consumer trust.18 0Item Restricted Factors Driving Individuals’ Usage Intention of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistants in E-commerce: Perspectives of Users and Non-Users(University of Technology Sydney, 2024) Alnefaie, Ahlam Eid Awad; Kang, Kyeong; Sohaib, OsamaThe ongoing revolution of e-commerce has brought about significant transformations in the global retail landscape, redefining how consumers interact with online platforms. In response to this transformative trend, businesses increasingly adopt and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly AI assistants. AI assistants have gained significant traction to enhance customer engagement, improve personalised experience, and streamline various aspects of the e-commerce process. Companies across diverse industries and geographical regions have recognised the potential of AI assistants in fostering more profound connections with customers, providing real-time support, and bolstering sales through intelligent recommendations. Consequently, investment in AI research and development has surged, leading to remarkable advancements in AI assistants’ features and functionalities. Despite the growing interest of the scientific community and business stakeholders in the topic, scholarly research on the factors influencing e-commerce consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward using AI assistants is still limited and provides contradictory evidence regarding some factors. Moreover, no comparative studies in the e-commerce context empirically investigated the attitudes of non-users and users toward AI assistant use. Also, several consumers' demographics have been excluded from prior research, with no previous empirical research on AI assistant use across different cultural backgrounds. For these reasons, the study aimed to comprehend the factors influencing consumers' behavioural intention to utilise AI assistants and to recognise the significant user differences based on multiple perspectives. This study employed a unique research model based on the technology acceptance model. It extended it with external factors of AI assistants’ capabilities that still need to be tested together in AI assistant adoption for e-commerce consumers. This research conducted a mixed-method approach. In the first phase (Phase A), a quantitative method was employed to investigate the relationships between the constructs in the study model, and the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and several statistical techniques were adopted. Furthermore, to account for cross-cultural differences and identify potential variations in usage intentions towards using AI assistants between Eastern and Western cultures, a multi-group analysis (MGA) was conducted. In the second phase (Phase B), a qualitative approach was conducted by applying machine learning and natural language processing techniques to analyse reviews of the Louis Vuitton brand's e-commerce applications. The objective of this stage was to obtain supporting evidence for the results of the VI first study and to gain deeper insights into consumer attitudes and experiences. Subsequently, the results were integrated to provide multiple insights to answer the research questions and strengthen the findings. This study has confirmed some previous studies' results and provided new findings. The attitude factor was the significant predictor of the intention to use AI assistants in non-users and users, with a direct and positive effect. Perceived usefulness was found to be the statistically significant predictor of attitudes in both non-users and users of AI assistants. The additions to the original TAM model, specifically incorporating interactive communication and personalisation, were statistically significant predictors of the attitudes of non-users and users to use AI assistants with positive effects. In contrast, perceived ease of use was a nonsignificant predictor of the non-users’ attitudes and positively impacted the users’ attitudes towards using AI assistants. Furthermore, no significant differences existed in the relationships among the primary factors influencing the intention to utilise AI assistants in e-commerce when comparing Western and Eastern cultural groups. This study contributes to both theory and practice by extending the TAM model with two external factors enabling the assessment of the factors affecting the intention to use AI assistants from consumer, social, and marketing perspectives and providing new empirical data on this topic in technology adoption studies. The study also enables further research on this topic and comparing study results, thus improving understanding of the phenomenon. It also provides various e-commerce practitioners with valuable information and recommendations regarding AI assistant use, enabling them to make better decisions in developing and implementing AI assistant technologies.7 0Item Restricted THE NEED TO ENHANCE ONLINE CONSUMER PROTECTION UNDER EXISTING SAUDI ARABAIN E-COMMERCE LAWS(Curtin University, 2023-11-30) Aloufi, Abdulrahman; Pinto, Dale; Bunn, Anna; Olman, RamiOnline trading is a new form of trading that is spreading among consumers, and it leads to the emergence of new challenges to protect the consumer. This is because the nature of e- commerce transactions is borderless. Therefore, new challenges to consumer protection have appeared, such as enforcing local laws against international sellers. This necessitates policymakers to provide adequate protection with particular attention to e-commerce transactions. There is a need to offer adequate regulation that requires the inclusion of specific information online that remediates the lack of inspection or examination of the product. There is also a need to provide fair contractual provisions to enhance consumer confidence and provide a protective environment as well as a need for effective dispute resolution that allows consumers to access redress. Finally, there is a need for cooperation with international consumer protection agencies to investigate and enforce local laws against international sellers. The first objective of the thesis is to identify the shortcomings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s existing consumer protection laws in terms of e-commerce transactions, including the KSA's new draft consumer protection law. To meet that aim, an adequate consumer protection model was identified to assess the adequacy of the KSA's existing or proposed consumer protection laws. The second objective is to compare KSA national legal frameworks to that of some Gulf Co-operation Council countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, in order to find a solution to the identified gaps that KSA policymakers can adopt or adapt. Therefore, a possible solution to or best practice for the shortcomings may provide more protection to the consumer, with special attention to cross-border e-commerce transactions. In this thesis, I examine the aspects of tangible and intangible goods in cross-border e-commerce transactions. I utilize a combination of doctrinal and non-doctrinal law-reform-oriented and comparative methodologies to conduct my research.28 0Item Restricted Challenges associated with selling goods by description on commercial electronic platforms internationally and their relationship to facilitating international trade, consumer rights and traders’ duties (a comparative approach between the UK and US)(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-08-31) Moammar, Mashael; Blackwell, OwainThis academic dissertation will begin by arguing that electronic commerce (e-commerce) has contributed unquestionably to the expansion and development of international trade. In e-commerce, the sale of goods is wholly dependent on all forms of product descriptions. Clearly, if there is no description, there is no sale. This research aims to show that it is necessary to shed light on selling through descriptions, fill in their gaps, and prevent fraud and deception resulting from the Sale of Goods Act's ambiguity and weakness, given that descriptions are considered the first determinants in the success of selling on e-commerce platforms and lead consumers to make a purchase decision. This academic research examined this topic through a comparative analysis of UK and US laws pertaining to this field. This study suggests that Section 13 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 requires clarification to prevent confusion in actual commercial practice and protect consumers from merchants' bad faith or lack of expertise. Its definition is ambiguous – some tend to interpret it broadly, while others narrowly – and there have been numerous attempts to clarify it. Since it is the basis and beginning of the description of products, it is necessary to focus on it and establish standards that help merchants describe goods so that the process of description does not fall under the control of the seller and their choice of incorrect, unclear and deceptive descriptive language, whether intentionally or unintentionally, making consumers fall victims. The findings demonstrate the imperative need for clear criteria or guidelines to accurately describe products on the internet to boost e-commerce and increase consumer confidence because e-commerce is the modern, enhanced and streamlined form of international trade.22 0Item Restricted M-commerce in Saudi Arabia Perspectives of Consumers and Vendors Following Vision 2030(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-10-12) AlQahtani, Yahya Ali M; Dr. Natalia BeloffDespite the wide adoption of Mobile Commerce services in developing countries, their adoption in Saudi Arabia is still limited. In addition, Saudi Arabia is undergoing massive cultural and economic changes after launching Vision 2030. Vision 2030 is an ambitious plan that aims to make transformations of the economic pillars, cultural practices, and technological infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Momentum around Vision 2030, given that it was launched 6 years ago in 2016, motivates the need to study potential economic impacts of adopting mobile commerce in the Saudi Arabia. This thesis aims to investigate the intention to adopt mobile commerce (m-commerce) in Saudi Arabia from the perspectives of both consumers and vendors. The study seeks to develop and evaluate a framework of factors that have the potential to influence the adoption of mobile commerce specifically in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this, the study employs a mixed-method methodology that combines the use of a questionnaire to collect data from consumers and interviews to gather views from vendors. The questionnaire data collected from consumers will undergo statistical analysis to identify factors that shape the customers' intention to use m-commerce in Saudi Arabia, while the interview data collected from vendors will undergo thematic analysis to extract qualitative insights. By combining both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, the study aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence the adoption of mobile commerce in Saudi Arabia and the requirements needed to enhance its adoption. The findings reveal that mobile commerce is still immature in Saudi but, at the same time, there is a tendency toward wider usage of it. The thesis's findings are expected to provide valuable insights into the factors that affect the adoption of mobile commerce in Saudi Arabia, which can be used by vendors to enhance their mobile commerce adoption strategies. Additionally, they can also provide policymakers with useful information to formulate policies that encourage the adoption of m-commerce in Saudi Arabia. Overall, this thesis has the potential to contribute significantly to the literature on m-commerce adoption and its implications for Saudi Arabia's economy.19 0Item Restricted E-COMMERCE IN SAUDI ARABIA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE LAW AND PRACTICAL CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-06-05) Alqahtani, Sultan Abdulhadi; Gjerdingen, Donald HE-commerce between businesses and consumers has developed tremendously in recent years, which led to the need to develop legislation to keep up with technical, infrastructural and legal changes. Therefore, countries have issued the necessary legislation to help regulate e-commerce activity and provide legal protection for the contracting parties. Noting this significance, the Saudi Arabian legislature issued the E-Commerce Law in 2019 as the first e-commerce law in Saudi Arabia that regulates the contractual relationship between a service provider and a consumer in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation is one of the first to complete an in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the many significant changes occurring in law and policy in Saudi Arabia related to e-commerce over the past few years. In addition to describing the relevant history, laws and policies underlying e-commerce in Saudi Arabia, it also examines and analyzes the service provider's obligations in the pre-contract stage, regarding electronic advertisements and the disclosure of contractual information before committing to an electronic contract. In addition, this dissertation examines and analyzes obligations of the service provider and the consumer at the implementation stage of the electronic contract. It also examines, through in-depth interviews, the current challenges facing the e-commerce market development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that relate to practical and logistical issues. The research also includes an empirical survey designed to identify on-the-ground challenges that Saudi Arabian consumers face with e-commerce transactions.22 0