Background: The reputation system has been designed as an effective mechanism to reduce risks associated with online shopping for customers. However, it is vulnerable to rating fraud. Some raters may inject unfairly high or low ratings to the system so as to promote their own products or demote their competitors. Method: This study explores the rating fraud by differentiating the subjective fraud from objective fraud. Then it discusses the effectiveness of blockchain technology in objective fraud and its limitation in subjective fraud, especially the rating fraud. Lastly, it systematically analyzes the robustness of blockchain-based reputation systems in each type of rating fraud. Results: The detection of fraudulent raters is not easy since they can behave strategically to camouflage themselves. We explore the potential strengths and limitations of blockchain-based reputation systems under two attack goals: ballot-stuffing and bad-mouthing, and various attack models including constant attack, camouflage attack, whitewashing attack and sybil attack. Blockchain-based reputation systems are more robust against bad-mouthing than ballot-stuffing fraud. Conclusions: Blockchain technology provides new opportunities for redesigning the reputation system. Blockchain systems are very effective in preventing objective information fraud, such as loan application fraud, where fraudulent information is fact-based. However, their effectiveness is limited in subjective information fraud, such as rating fraud, where the ground-truth is not easily validated. Blockchain systems are effective in preventing bad mouthing and whitewashing attack, but they are limited in detecting ballot-stuffing under sybil attack, constant attacks and camouflage attack.

Personal values are important determinants of consumer behavior. While previous research has identified values (i.e., openness to change and self-enhancement) which guide consumers’ mall shopping behavior, they have been set in a Western cultural context. By adopting a value–attitude–behavior (VAB) model, this study examines what and how personal values influence consumers’ mall shopping behavior in two non-Western countries, namely China and Thailand. The results confirm the existence of the causal flow of VAB. Chinese are guided by self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, whereas Thais are guided by openness to change values. Shopping intention is found to mediate the attitude–behavior link in the Chinese sample and improves the predictive power of values towards behavior. Although a relatively weaker mediating effect is found in the Thai sample, shopping intention does not lead to stronger predictive power of values.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify underlying personal values that determine the mall shopping behaviour of Chinese consumers and to propose shopping intention as an additional mediator that enhances the value‐behaviour link.Design/methodology/approachA self‐administered web‐based survey with convenience sampling was used to collect the data. A structural equation modeling technique was used to test the proposed model.FindingsChinese mall shoppers' behaviours were found to be explained by value orientations which were both similar and different from their counterparts in the West. While Western mall shoppers are more likely to be directed by social affiliation and self‐actualising values in previous studies, Chinese mall shoppers are more likely to be influenced by self‐transcendence and self‐enhancement (similar to self‐actualising) values in the present study. Additionally, shopping intention was found to improve the predictive power of consumers' attitude toward mall attributes in terms of shopping frequency and money spent in the mall.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is related to measurement error, derived from using simplified instruments to measure personal values. In addition, both personal values and attitudes are abstract constructs, which are difficult to measure; therefore this may also contribute to a larger error variance.Practical implicationsThe results of this study are especially beneficial for mall developers and retailers for crafting effective positioning strategies and guiding their communication strategies in the China market.Originality/valueThe proposed model makes a theoretical contribution by testing a Western theory in a non‐Western context. In addition, the proposed model helps researchers better understand the value‐behaviour relationship in a more comprehensive framework.

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