Title: A case study on multimedia e-tailing services: can watermarks help build customer relationships?

Authors: C.H. Wu, W.H. Ip, C.Y. Chan, Y. Zheng, Z.M. Lu

Addresses: The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. ' The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. ' The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. ' The Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzheng Graduate School, 510275 Shenzheng, China. ' The Department of Information Science and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275 Guangzhou, China

Abstract: Digital watermarking is widely discussed as a promising technique for digital good protection sold in the internet. Copyright information can be embedded directly into media files. However, few researchers have studied any possible contribution brought by watermarks in e-customer relationship building. Through a survey of 185 e-customers who had purchased multimedia products online, the hypothesised model was validated using LISREL. All hypotheses are supported. This study has contributed to both theory and practice by building a model to realise the e-customer relationship building in buying multimedia product and suggesting watermarks can help relationship building and retain e-customer to obtain multimedia products from legal channel. Two schemes have been suggested which are suitable for applying watermarking techniques in the e-market.

Keywords: digital watermarking; e-tailing; relationship intention; copyright; intellectual property; LISREL; customer relations; online retailing; multimedia products; electronic retailing; customer relationship management; CRM; e-CRM; electronic CRM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2010.032881

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.14 No.1, pp.58 - 76

Published online: 05 May 2010 *

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