Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how potential purchasers of a personal information, communication and entertainment device such as a smartphone, perceive the aesthetics of such a product. It then examines whether appreciation of the product’s aesthetics influences their purchase intention through different dimensions of perceived value drawn from perceptions of the product’s aesthetics, or whether there is a direct relationship from aesthetics to purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Mixed methods consisting of two focus groups, a pilot and large online surveys were used for instrument confirmation and data collection. Data were analysed and hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling techniques. Findings Aesthetics’ primary effect on purchase intention is not direct, but rather indirect through perceived social and to a lesser extent, perceived emotional value while the importance of aesthetics on perceived functional value is far less. There was also support for a formative approach in the construction of an aesthetics scale with the identification of four different latent factors of aesthetics. Research limitations/implications This study is product specific but should be extendable to the product category. The possibility of other variables affecting the aesthetic appreciation of a product also needs consideration. Practical implications The study provides managers with insights on how aesthetics can be used to strengthen purchase intention in terms of both product development and promotional strategies. Aesthetics’ appeal to social and emotional perceived values, rather than functional value, provides guidance on how to use aesthetics in promotional campaigns. Originality/value Despite the richness of the literature on aesthetics, only a limited number of studies have researched the factors influencing aesthetic appreciation of a product and the effect on purchase intention. This research expands knowledge in the area thereby providing new insights on the influence of aesthetics on marketing.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is first to construct an e‐publishing model and then to implement the model in Iranian publishers.Design/methodology/approachThis article critically tries to evaluate Iranian publishing companies involved in e‐publishing based on a new model which is made in this paper. Moreover, it has tried to investigate the readiness of the society and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as a legislator toward e‐publishing. Furthermore, some suggestions to remove challenges toward e‐publishing based on the findings will be made.FindingsA new e‐publishing readiness model is made based on e‐readiness prior models. Based on the new model, the e‐publishing readiness level of Iranian publishing companies is evaluated. It was found that, to improve e‐publishing, it is necessary to have a holistic view toward the model in a way that considers all dimensions of e‐publishing. Furthermore, it was found that in some constructs like technical infrastructure, social, and economical and financial constructs, Iranian publishers did not enjoy a good status, while in other factors this was better. Consequently, based on these finding, some suggestions are made toward improving the e‐publishing readiness level of Iranian publishers.Originality/valueThis research is probably the first to support the perspective of critical issues regarding e‐readiness assessment in publishing companies based on macro models. It will give a good insight which it is expected could be helpful for managers to consider the critical issues with respect to e‐readiness assessment of their organization in an effective way.

One of the most important objectives of any modern organization is to gain competitive advantage of customers' data. In order to find hidden patterns or models from data, application of modern and steady methodologies is a necessity. Banking industry is not exceptional from this trend and they may often wish to make more profit by providing appropriate services to potential customers. Analyzing databases to manage customer behaviors seems difficult since databases are multi-dimensional, comprised of monthly account records and daily transactional records. Therefore, to analyze databases, we propose a methodology by considering human factors and building an integrated data utilization system. Moreover, self-organizing neural network map is used to identify groups of customers based on repayment behavior, recency, frequency, and monetary behavioral scoring predicators. We also perform more analysis using Apriori association rule to make marketing strategies for services used by banks.

During recent years, information technology has made several fundamental changes in different business areas. For instance, the learning methods have been completely changed. The use of digital material in education, business life and government has risen significantly in recent years. As e-learning environments are becoming increasingly popular, the need and call for digital content is also expanding from another view. The trend toward e-learning in Iranian universities is increasing and somehow intensive, but the bottleneck of e-learning is through e-content. The progression of digital learning content stays a work-intensive procedure and an expensive affair. There are two significant issues related to e-content: generating the content and acceptance of the society in great scale and university students in small scheme. Digital content is dealt with epublishing. It could be improved if e-publishing gains the mature level. E-publishing aims at generating, maintaining, keeping, and diffusing electronic data using computers and information networks. To enhance e-publishing, we need to find the indices which are important in the e-publishing era and have persuasive effect on people to use e-publishing products and also check whether students who can accept new technologies easily are ready to use e-materials instead of the traditional ones or not .In this paper, we try to extract the most important factors for assessing e-publishing trends of societies by using field's expert's views as a useful source of judgment and two statistical methods: exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Finally describing the new model, we will evaluate the tendency of students in two famous and big Iranian universities toward e-publishing products.

No abstract