AN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERINGAPPROACH S RISK REDUCTIONSTRATEGIES IN ONLINE team-BUYING

Industrial engineering, some prefer to call it management services, covers techniques aimed specifically at improving productivity and concerned with improving the organization, method, working environment and product or service itself. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between risk perceptions (financial, performance, social, time and privacy risks) and risk reduction strategies (brand loyalty, word of mouth, past experience, money back guarantee, store image, shopping, major brand image, free sample, website reputation, and payment security) in service industry online group buying context by an industrial engineering approach and Pearson correlation analysis to maintain Gross National Product (GNP). Group buying, also known as collective buying, offers products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase.Origins of group buying can be traced to China where (tu?ng?u) or team buying was executed to get discount prices from retailer when a large group of people were willing to buy the same item. In recent time, group buyingwebsites have emerged as a major player in online shopping business. Typically, these websites feature a deal of the day , with the deal kicking in once a set number of people agree to buy the product or service. Buyers then print off a voucher to claim their discount at the retailer. Many of the group-buying sites work by negotiating deals with local merchants and promising to deliver crowds in exchange for discounts. A self-administrated questionnaire survey was conducted in Tehran and 100 questionnaires were received, and 95 of them were valid. The results from current study suggested that when subjects perceived financial risk, the brand loyalty, word of mouth, money backguarantee, website reputation and payment system will be adopted to reduce the risk. In addition, performance risk is related to brand loyalty, word of mouth, money back guarantee, major brand image and free sample. Time risk is related to shopping and website reputation, while privacy risk has significant correlation with shopping. There is no risk-reduction strategies related to social risk. Thus, the practitioner has to try some other ways to reduce social risk.Results from current study provide useful knowledge to help the service sectors operators who are running online group business in understanding useful strategies to reduce different risks perceived by their potential customers.For example, building strong brands and store image encourage consumers to spread positive word of mouth which are useful ways to mitigate consumers concern about the performance of the product/service. Online group-buyingis one of the fasted growing business models. However, knowledge regarding consumers concern and possible ways to relief the perceived risks in online group-buying context are limited. Results from this engineering study couldcontribute to the field by illustrating the useful strategies; the e-vendors can use to reduce possible concerns which altogether could lead to maintain our GDP.

کلیدواژه ها:

Online group-buying ، risk reduction strategy ، GNP ، industrial engineering