New research on Omnichannel Integration published in MIS Quarterly

An article by Manuel Trenz, Daniel Veit and Chee-Wee Tan entitled “Disentangling the Impact of Omnichannel Integration Services on Consumer Behavior in Integrated Sales Channels” has been published in the latest issue of Management Information Systems Quarterly.

About the study: ‘Brick-and-mortar’ retailers, when expanding their businesses to online channels, can either add a separate online channel or integrate channels to enhance service offerings. Although past studies on channel choice have yielded insights into factors affecting consumers’ channel preference, there is a dearth of research that sheds light on when and why massive investments into channel integration would be preferred over online optimizations. To this end, we construct and validate a theoretical model that posits omnichannel integration services for acquisition and recovery as predictors of consumers’ online channel preference through influencing their perceptions of convenience and risk. Our experimental study reveals how distinct configurations of cross-channel service offerings affect consumers’ channel evaluations and decisions, as well as how complementarities from channel integration across transaction and post-transaction phases can prevail over pure online substitutes. Consequently, this study bridges diagnostic and prescriptive research streams on multichannel and omnichannel retail by attesting to channel integration as a viable channel differentiator. From a practical standpoint, we compare twelve distinct channel configurations with regards to consumers’ core evaluative criteria and highlight the value of omnichannel integration since efficiency improvements to the online channel can only serve as a partial substitute to channel integration.


Further information

Reference: Trenz, M., Veit, D. J., and Tan, C.-W. 2020. “Disentangling the Impact of Omnichannel Integration Services on Consumer Behavior in Integrated Sales Channels,” MIS Quarterly (44:3), pp. 1207–1258. (https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2020/14121).
Link: https://misq.org/disentangling-the-impact-of-omnichannel-integratoin-on-consumer-behavior-in-integrated-sales-channels.html 
Accepting senior editor: Prof. Paul Pavlou
About the journal: Management Information Systems Quarterly (MIS Quarterly) is the leading international journal in the research field of Information Systems. The journal is rated A+ by the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) in JOURQUAL3 (Impact factor 5.370 (2019) - MIS Quarterly).