The Impact of Shopping Agents on Small Business E-Commerce Strategy

Authors

  • Rajiv Vaidyanathan University of Minnesota Duluth
  • Praveen Aggarwal University of Minnesota Duluth

Abstract

As the amount of information available to online consumers has grown, so has the need for tools to help consumers organize that information meaningfully to help them make helter decisions. One outcome of the online information explosion is the growing popularity of computer-based intelligent shopping agents. A shopping agent is a computer-based program that facilitates decisions on behalf of the consumer. This paper provides small business owners with an introduction to intelligent shopping agents, presents examples of how these agents help consumers at various stages of the decision-making process, discusses the issues that small businesses need to address regarding agents, and offers recommendations for small businesses' agent usage.

References

Aggarwal, P. ( 1998). Deciding not to decide: Antecedents of consumer decision delegation. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.

Aggarwal, P., & Vaidyanathan, R. (2002). The Perceived effectiveness of virtual shopping agents for search vs. experience goods. School of Business and Economics Working Paper, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN.°

Alba, J., Lynch, J., Weitz, B., Janiszewski, C., Lutz, R., Sawyer, A., et al. (1997). Interactive home shopping, consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in electronic marketplaces. Journal of Marketing, 61 (July), 38-53.

Allen, M. M. (2000). The myth of intelligent agents. Online, (November/December), 45-51.

Bergen, M., Dutta S., & Walker, 0. C., Jr. ( 1 992). Agency relationships in marketing: A review of the implications and applications of agency and related theories. Journal of Marketing, 56, (Ju ly), 1- 24.

Ciancarin i, P., Tolksdorf, R., Vitali, F., Rossi, D., & Knoche A. (1998). Coordinating multiagent applications on the WWW: A reference architecture. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 24, (May), 362-375.

Choudhury, V., & Galletta, D. ( 1 998). Exploiting the Internet: Strategies and frameworks for a small business. Journal of Small Business Strategy, 9 (Fall/Winter), 23-43.

CyberAtlas Staff (2002). 828 £-Commerce headed for trillions. Retrieved March 6, 2002, from htt p://cyberatlas.intemet.com/markets/b2b/print/O,, I 0091_986661 ,00.html

Dasgupta, P., Narsimhan, N., Moser, L.E., & Melliar-Smith, P.M. (1999). MAgNET: Mobile agents for networked electron ic trading. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 11, (July/August), 509-525.

Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Min iard, P. W. (1995). Consumer Behavior, (8th Edition). Fort Worth, TX: The Dryden Press.

Fingar, P. ( 1 998). A CEO's guide to eCommerce using object-oriented intelligent agent technology. CommerceNet Research Report #98-19. Retrieved September 6, 1 998, from htt p://home I .gte.net/pfingar/eba.htm.

Gassmann, S. (200 I ). Should I partici pate in an on line comparison shopping gu ide? Catalog Age (February). Retrieved July 22, 2002, from http :I/ind ustryc lick.com/magazineartic le.asp?magazineid= I 53&releaseid=5 582&maga zineart ic le id=65 592&S itel D=2

Hansell, S. ( 1 999, November 18). I n bots we trust? New York Times, pp. D I , D25.

Haubl, G., & Trifts, V. (2000). Consumer decision making in on l ine shopping environments: The effects of interactive decision aids. Marketing Science, 19 (Winter), 4-21.

Hau ptmann, A. G. ( 1999). Integrating and using large databases of texts, images, video, and audio. IEEE Intelligent Systems, (September/October), 34-39.vol 14, No. 5.

Hollander, S.C., & Rassuli, K. M. (1999). Shopping with other people's money: The marketing management implications of surrogate-mediated consumer decision making. Journal of Marketing, 63 (April), I02- 1 1 8.

Internet Retailer. ( 1 999). Getting personal: Web retailers are using software that tells them who is shopping online and why. Retrieved December 12, 2000, from http://www.intemetretailer.com/htm l/news/072799_3.htm.

Lynch, J. G., & Ariely, D. (2000). Wine onl ine: Search cost and competition on price, qual ity, and distribution. Marketing Science, 19 (I), 83-103.

Malhotra, N. K. (1982). Information load and consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research, 8 (March), 419-430.

Maes, P. ( 1 999). Smart commerce: The future of intelligent agents in cyberspace. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 13 (3), 66-76.

Maes, P., Guttman, R. H., & Moukas, A. G. (1999). Agents that buy and sell. Communications of the ACM. 42 (March), 81-91.

Moukas, A., Zacharia, G., Guttman, R. H., & Maes, P. (2000). Agent-mediated electronic commerce: An MIT Media Laboratory perspective. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 4 (Spring), 5-22.

Owen, R. S., & Haugtvedt, C. P. (1993). Time and consumer information load. In M. Levy & D. Grewal (Eds.), Developments in Marketing Science. Coral Gables, FL: Academy of Marketing Science, 55-59.

Pastore, M. (2002). U.S. e-commerce spikes in Q4 2001. Retrieved February 20, 2002, from http://cyberatlas.intemet.com/markets/retailing/print/0,,6061 _977751 ,00.htm I

Quick, R. (1 998, August 20). How comparison-shopping sites work - and sometimes don't Wall Street Journal, p. BS.

Rosen, D. L. & Olshavsky, R. W. (1987). A protocol analysis of brand choice strategies involving recommendations. Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (December), 440- 444.

Simpson, J. E. (2000). Will XML replace HTMU XM L Q&A. Retrieved December 13, 2000, from http://xm I.com/pub/a/2000/ l2/ 13/xmlhtml.htm I.

Spring, T. (1999). When shopping bots go bad. PC World Online. Retrieved December 13, 2000, from http://www.pcworld.com/shared/printable _articles/O, 1440, 14401,00.html.

Taylor, C. (1 999, October 1 1). Bot till you drop. Time, 154 (15).

Vigoroso, M. W. (2002, February 28). Whatever happened to e-commerce robots?

£commerce Times, Retrieved March 14, 2002, from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/printer/16548/

Walsh, N. (1998, October). What is XML? XML. Features, Retrieved April 3, 2000, from http://www.xm l.com/pub/a/98/I O/guide I .him.

West, P. M., Ariely, D., Bellman, S., Bradlow, E., Johnson, E., Kahn, B., et al. (1999). Agents to the rescue? Marketing Letters, J O (3), 285-300.

Zhivago, K. (2001). To bot or not to bot? Business 2.0, (February). Retrieved March 27, 200 I, from http://www.business2.com/artices/mag/O, 1640, 14531,FF.htm l.

Downloads

Published

2002-01-23

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2002)

Section

Articles

License

The Journal of Small Business Strategy (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
 
1.Author(s) hereby grant to Publisher all right, title, and interest in and to the Work, including copyright to all means of expression by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. If Publisher does not publish the Work within two (2) years of the Effective Date, copyright shall revert back to the Author. Publisher agrees to always credit Author(s) as the author(s) of the Work.
 
2.Publisher hereby grants Author a royalty-free, limited license for the following purposes, provided the Work is always identified as having first been published by Publisher.
    •The right to make and distribute copies of all or part of the Work for use in teaching;
    •The right to use all or part of the material contained in the Work in a book by the Author(s), or in a collection of the Author(s)’s work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work internally at the Author(s)’s place of employment, and for promotion and any other non-commercial purposes;
    •The right to use figures and tables from the Work for any purpose;
    •The right to make presentations of material from the Work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work on the Author(s)’s Web site and on the Author(s)’s university’s institute repository;
Such license shall be effective when the Work is first published in the Journal of Small Business Strategy.
 
3.The Author(s) represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author(s)’s original work and that Author(s) has full power to enter into this agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property right of another; (c) contains no materials which is obscene, libelous, defamatory or violates another’s civil right, right of privacy, or is otherwise unlawful; and (d) has not been previously published, in whole or in part. Author(s) shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.

How to Cite

The Impact of Shopping Agents on Small Business E-Commerce Strategy. (2002). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 13(1), 62-79. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/494