The purpose of this study was to build a model to rightly determine target customers in the IBFT market and to identify the factors that might contribute to customer loyalty. Using a field study of 7,148 Korean customers and that of 8,345 American cus ...
The purpose of this study was to build a model to rightly determine target customers in the IBFT market and to identify the factors that might contribute to customer loyalty. Using a field study of 7,148 Korean customers and that of 8,345 American customers, this study developed predictive models. Specifically, we used three popular data mining methods: two from machine learning, ANN and DT, and one from statistics, logistic regression. In order to measure the unbiased prediction accuracy of the three methods, we used a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. The accuracy measure for the model was calculated by averaging the 10 models performance numbers. In addition to the prediction model, we also conducted sensitivity analysis on the ANN model in order to gain insight into the relative contribution of the independent variables to determine adopters. The sensitivity results indicated that personal income, system reliability, self-efficacy, and occupation are more important variables for companies to determine potential adoption customers than the other variables in the US. Comparably, the sensitivity results indicated that system reliability, occupation, personal income, self-efficacy, and experience with technology are more important than the other in Korea. Furthermore, the results of multiple regression analysis show that online service quality has the most significantly positive impact on customer loyalty both in Korea and in the US. We also found that customers’ risk-take personality, online customers’ risk perception about security of the transactions, and interface of the transaction sites are positively associated with customer loyalty in both countries.
Results from this study will provide new business strategies and practitioners with additional insights into the key factors associated with the decision of firms that seek to enter into the IBFT market and to survive there. Furthermore, we imply that the variables selected in this study are the ones that contribute to the propensity for a success in the market. In addition, the results can be used by policymakers and practitioners for the purpose of estimating and assessing the risks associated with entrepreneurs and firms that may come with proposals seeking to enter the IBFT market. Future studies should consider utilizing quantitative as well as qualitative methodologies in order to identify the key factors enabling IBFT firms to succeed as well as to have competitiveness in the global market.