The influence of virtual space eWoM on the competitive effectiveness of service area in physical commercial centers:A case study of central district of Shanghai
s:The rapid development of information technology has profoundly impacted people's lifestyles,leading to the emergence of virtual spaces.As consumers'methods for obtaining information about specific goods and services have evolved,the research scope of physical commercial centers has expanded from traditional physical spaces to virtual spaces.This shift has significantly altered the actual services provided by physical commercial centers and the factors influencing consumer travel behavior.Existing studies indicate that electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM),as a critical indicator of the popularity of virtual spaces,is closely linked to the built environment.However,the planning of urban commercial centers needs to focus on the characteristics and influencing factors of commercial spaces from a physical space perspective.Existing studies have not yet fully addressed the factors influencing physical commercial centers in the context of the coexistence of virtual and physical spaces.The availability of emerging internet location big data and eWOM data offers the potential to explore how virtual spaces impact physical spaces.By using the results of these two types of big data in correspondence,this study reveals the impact of virtual spaces on consumers'actual consumption and travel behavior at commercial centers,providing new opportunities for investigating the influencing factors of urban commercial centers in the coexistence of virtual and physical spaces.Therefore,this study selected 29 different physical commercial centers in the Main Urban Area of Shanghai as the research objects,with electronic word-of-mouth representing the attributes of virtual space,built environment representing the attributes of physical space,and competitive effectiveness representing the actual utility of the competition of service area of physical commercial centers.The role of eWOM and the built environment on physical commercial centers is explored utilizing internet location big data and eWOM data.It aims to identify the influencing factors of virtual space eWOM and physical space built environment in the service area of commercial centers from a competitive perspective.The competition intensity and effectiveness of commercial centers in the main urban area are first measured using internet location big data,exploring the competitive characteristics of their service areas.Secondly,using electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)data,it extracted two indicators,network composite rating and the quantity of high-quality word-of-mouth,through principal component analysis.These indicators reflect the relationship between the position of commercial centers in the virtual space represented by eWOM and their actual competitive effectiveness,measuring the impact of virtual space on physical commercial centers.Finally,regression analysis is employed to explore the influence of physical space factors such as building scale,land area,diversity of POI(points of interest),POI quantity,the number of subway lines,and the number of parking spaces;and virtual space factors such as network composite rating and the quantity of high-quality word-of-mouth on the competitive effectiveness of commercial centers.It is found that,in the current socio-economic context,the service area of physical commercial centers is influenced by both the built environment of physical spaces and the virtual spaces represented by eWOM.Among the virtual space attributes represented by eWOM,high-quality word-of-mouth focused on stores that receive widespread acclaim.When a commercial center contains several specific stores with numerous positive online reviews and recommendations,the influence on consumer decision-making is more direct and significant.Therefore,among virtual space attributes,the number of high-quality word-of-mouth can significantly enhance the competitive effectiveness of a commercial center.In contrast,the overall network composite rating does not have a direct influence.Regarding the built environment attributes of physical spaces,commercial centers with a higher diversity of commercial formats often provide a richer and more convenient selection of services and goods.The number of parking spaces also reflects the quality of service to some extent.Thus,the diversity of commercial formats and the number of parking spaces play important roles among the built environment factors.In contrast,traditional factors such as building scale and land area no longer significantly influence on physical commercial centers.Therefore,to adapt to the current coexistence of virtual and physical commercial spaces,urban planning must further explore the dual effects of virtual and physical space attributes on physical commercial centers,constructing an urban commercial space structure that accommodates the interaction between virtual spaces and physical commercial centers.Additionally,the application of spatiotemporal big data to explore the mutual influence of virtual and physical space attributes supports enhancing the scientific and effective decision-making in urban commercial space planning in the current coexistence of virtual and physical spaces.
physical commercial centersvirtual spaceelectronic word-of-mouthservice areaInternet location-based service dataShanghai
国家科技期刊平台
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万方数据
