Multicriteria Evaluation of the Emotional Intelligence of Small Retail E-Commerce Network Firms

Abstract EN

The electronic commerce (e-commerce) market is experiencing explosive growth.

Millions of retail network firms compete in the virtual e-commerce market.

A key aspect of online trading is emotional intelligence: these retail firms adopt emotional tactics to attract and retain customers.

This article evaluates the emotional intelligence of small retail e-commerce network firms.

By analyzing the emotional information transmitting process, we propose a framework to measure virtual emotional intelligence abilities in e-commerce.

Based on that framework, we adopt the ELECTRE III multicriteria evaluation method to evaluate the emotional intelligence of some small retail network firms on the TAOBAO e-commerce website.

The results show that a correlation exists between emotional intelligence and sales in a network environment.

Thus, improving virtual emotional intelligence abilities is important for retail network firms to increase customers’ satisfaction, gain competitive advantage, and promote their sales in the current information society.