Explore publications.

It is recognized that reading ability is essential for Thai EFL students and English reading is perceived as a difficult task among them. To understand the difficulty experienced by the students while reading English text, this study hence aimed at investigating problems of using English reading strategies perceived by Thai EFL students as well as providing suggested reading instructions for Thai lecturers to cope with the emerging problems. This study employed a mixed-method design. The participants of the study were 412 Thai EFL students who, in this study, were also considered as Gen Z students at a large-size university in Bangkok, Thailand. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire on 4-point Likert’s scale, which was adapted from Aebersold and Field (1997). Moreover, 10 students were recruited for two focus group interviews. The results revealed that Thai EFL students experience difficulties in using English reading strategies when they have to skip unknown words during the first reading (mean = 2.67, SD = 1.01) followed by varying reading speed rates according to the type of the reading passage (mean = 2.66, SD = 0.97), and guessing the meanings of unknown words by using the context clues (mean = 2.59, SD = 0.92) respectively. Based on both quantitative and qualitative results and personality traits of Thai Gen Z, suggested reading instructions including guided reading, improving student’s vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, technology-blended classroom and critical reading were purposed.

In anticipating a high completion rate for web surveys, researchers must be attentive to the design features, two of which are the forced responses (i.e., 100%-, 50%, or 0%-forced) and the questionnaire item display (i.e., paging or scrolling). Moreover, the respondents’ favorable attitude towards questionnaires is a key factor driving them to complete the questionnaires. However, no studies have examined the effects of these three variables on web survey completion rates. This research thus attempts to fill this gap. Using a quasi-experiment, we obtained 401 responses to six (i.e., 3 levels of forced responses x 2 display styles) comparable online questionnaires with identical contents. The analysis confirmed the statistically significant effects of the forced responses, the item display and the subjects’ attitudes toward questionnaires on completion rates. In addition to extending theoretical insights into the factors leading to a web survey’s completion rates, practical recommendations are suggested based on the findings.

The online retail business has grown substantially. Given distinctive product categories (e.g. search or experience goods), owners must put an effort in the design of websites so every visit may end with a purchase. Clickstream panel data allowing examination into website visiting behavior (i.e. the number of pages viewed (or pageview) or the visit duration) are increasingly accessible. However, it is unclear whether the differences of the two visiting behavior between purchase outcome or product categories are significant. The present study hopes to fill the void. An analysis of 27,528 visit sessions extracted from ComScore verifies that (1) the difference of page views between purchase outcomes and that between product categories were significant and (2) only the difference of visit duration between the product categories was significant but that between purchase outcomes was insignificant. In addition to theoretical insight into online behavior across purchasing horizons and product categories using clickstream data, online retail practitioners could apply the findings to enhance the possibility of the purchases at their online stores.

Success in electronic commerce relies greatly on customer trust. While other studies have examined various factors affecting online customer trust, few have investigated the joint effects of perceived risk and website reputation on purchase intention using online trust as a mediator. The current study attempts to fill this gap. 300 online shoppers participated via web-based questionnaires using a quota sampling technique. Based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), our measurements were found to be valid and reliable. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we confirmed significant direct effects of perceived risk and website reputation on customer purchase intentions. Furthermore, both factors had significant indirect effects on purchase intention through online trust. In addition to extending theoretical insight into online trust as a mediator for the effects of perceived risk and website reputation on purchase intention, web-based vendors may adopt the findings to adjust their online stores to raise customer trust and ultimately increase the possibility of online purchases.