A Conjoint Approach to Understanding Online Buyers’ Decisions towards Online Marketplaces

Decision tool of medical endoscope maintenance service in Chinese hospitals: a conjoint analysis

BACKGROUND

Medical devices are instruments, apparatus, appliances, software, implants, reagents, materials or other articles that are intended for use in the treatment or diagnosis of disease or injury in humans. Concerning medical endoscope devices, which enable doctors to observe and manipulate the area under examination through a puncture hole in the body cavity or organ, hospitals predominantly consider the quality and cost of maintenance services when making their selection. The effective and efficient provision of maintenance services plays a crucial role in ensuring cost-effective and high-quality management of medical devices. In this study, we have developed an innovative decision tool that analyzed key factors impacting the choice of medical devices' maintenance service. This tool assists hospitals in evaluating and selecting appropriate maintenance services for medical device, specifically endoscopy devices. Moreover, it also serves as a valuable resource for manufacturers and suppliers to enhance their after-sales service offerings.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in 50 Chinese hospitals, including primary and tertiary hospitals. Moreover, 56 medical staff and 65 medical engineers were recruited from 50 Chinese hospitals to participate the survey. A comprehensive set of factors were defined and investigated. Conjoint analysis and orthogonal design were used for survey design and statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Factors importance and utility values of decision-making factors were analyzed at the aggregate, occupation, and medical institution levels. (1) At the aggregate level, the most critical factor is "maintenance response" and the least important one is "maintenance efficiency". (2) At the occupation level, medical staff paid more attention to "maintenance response" while medical engineers paid more attention to "maintenance quality". (3) At the medical institution level, Primary hospitals paid more attention to "maintenance price", while tertiary hospitals paid more attention to "maintenance quality".

CONCLUSIONS

In general, this study provides a more scientific decision-making tool to both hospitals in choosing maintenance service for medical device such as endoscopy, and it also helps manufacturers and suppliers improve the after-sales service.

Competitiveness of E Commerce Firms through ESG Logistics

Rapid growth in the e-commerce market, caused by COVID-19, has led to fierce competition. The intense competition in e-commerce market triggers firms to strengthen their competitiveness by providing logistics services. Furthermore, as sustainability becomes important in consumers’ choices of products or services, e-commerce companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities are becoming important. Therefore, our purpose of study is to examine the attributes of e-commerce’s competitiveness in the perspective of ESG in the logistics service and to suggest differentiation strategies. We analyzed the importance of each ESG attribute in the logistics through a conjoint analysis. As a result, we found that e-commerce consumers value ESG activities in the order of distribution in the social (9.866%), partnership in the governance (9.637%), operation of distribution center in the social (8.570%), packaging in the environmental (8.320%), operation of distribution center in the environmental (8.262%), purchasing in the social (8.200%), and distribution in the environmental (7.153%). Accordingly, we suggested ESG strategies such as win-win cooperation, opening information on the working environment in delivery and distribution centers, development of a shared logistics platform, preventing COVID-19, and raising consumers’ awareness of eco-friendly delivery.

The Spatial Characteristics of Sustainable Development for Agricultural Products E-Commerce at County-Level: Based on the Empirical Analysis of China

This paper used the sectional data of Chinese counties to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of sustainable development of e-commerce for agricultural products in China at the county-level. The standard deviation ellipses and Moran’s index were used to research this subject. Then, by constructing spatial measurement models, the spatial spillover effects and influencing factors of the development of county-level agricultural products e-commerce were analyzed from economic development, economic structure, economic vitality, and agricultural development. The results show that: (1) the top 100 counties of agricultural products e-commerce mainly concentrate in southeastern China, spreading along the northeast and southwest; (2) the county-level agricultural products e-commerce shows significant negative spatial spillover effects; (3) the level of economic development and public services have a positive impact on the development of county-level agricultural products e-commerce, while the level of industrial development shows a negative correlation; (4) the level of agricultural development and industrial development have a significant negative external effect on the development of agricultural products e-commerce. This study is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of agricultural products e-commerce, the process of rural urbanization and the optimization of county industrial patterns.