Celebrating the Past and Future of Marketing and Discovery with Social Impact

Audio branding is not new. Neither are audio logos. What is new is an appreciation of sound. Not surprising sound is riding the wave of smart speakers. Houses are becoming more voice-activated every day turning lights and sound. We are telling Alexa and Google daily to not only play our favorite music and podcasts but to buy our groceries and clothes. By the end of 2021, 23.5 million people will have made a purchase using a smart speaker (eMarketer 2020). Voice shopping is also expected to jump to $40 billion in 2022 (OC&C 2018). The father of “atmospherics” Philip Kotler (1973), believes that today’s atmospherics (sound) must be designed for devices as well as spaces (Minsky and Fahey 2017). Sound has always been and continues to be a powerful atmospheric for not just marketing but movies, television, media, sports, etc. It is clearly the time for brands to really focus on audio branding because “brands without an audio presence will have no presence” (Ciccarelli 2019).Audio branding is defined as “the approach of using unique, proprietary sound and music to convey a brand's essence and values. Just as visual branding defines a brand using color and shape, audio branding defines a brand through sound and music” (American Marketing Association 2019). Sonic branding serves two primary functions: “the essence of sonic branding is twofold: the creation of brand expressions in sound and the consistent, strategic usage of these properties across touchpoints” (Jackson 2003). A sonic logo can be considered a brand’s musical nickname. “The audio logo represents the acoustic identifier of a brand and it is often combined with an (animated) visual logo. It should be distinct/unique, recognizable, flexible, memorable and fit the brand by reflecting brand attributes” (Bronner 2009). It has “a powerful sonic mnemonic function” (Renard 2017). It is “a vessel for associations” (Jackson 2003).Whether you consider them to be music to your ears or earworms, this special session celebrates the twelve most noteworthy sonic logos of all time, and the people who gave them the notes. So open your computer and meet Water Werzowa (Intel) and Brian Eno (Windows 95). Turn on your favorite television show or movie and say hello to Mike Post (Law and Order), Dr. James “Andy” Moore (THX), and John Williams (Jaws) and don’t forget to hum those NBC chimes. Keep your phone on in case you get a ring from Lance Massey (T-Mobile) and Joel Beckerman (AT&T). And if you get hungry, there’s always Coca-Cola (Joe and Umut) and McDonald’s (Bill Lamar). And you can charge it on your Mastercard (Raja Rajmannar).

The current research draws scholars’ attention to the need to further investigate framing effects in the context of online complaining. While much research has been conducted on the topic of service recoveries via social media (e.g., Weitzl et al. 2018), little is known about consumers’ reactions to corporate responses which apply either (positive/negative) attribute or goal framing. This research is one of the first to shed light on the special case of individuals (i.e., complaint observers) who witness a dissatisfied customer’s public online complaint and the framed response by the company involved in a product/service failure.We know that many consumers source product information from fellow shoppers online (i.e., electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)) before making a purchase and that the way companies react to overt online criticism (i.e., negative eWOM) is critical for the observers’ ultimate purchasing decision. Research suggests that framing these corporate responses in a certain way can strongly influence observers’ attitude towards the company (e.g., Her and Seo 2017; Tran et al. 2020). However, some of the existing conclusions have to be revised in the light of the present study: First, in contrast to the assumingly very robust valence-consistent influences for attribute framing (i.e., positive framing – such as “We give you a voucher, with which you will safe 90% of the total amount at your next visit.” – is more favored than negative framing – such as “We will give you a voucher, with which you will only 10% of the total amount at your next visit.”), this research shows that also negative framing can have similar effects. Second, we further show that for goal framing, a positive valence conveyed in the recovery message is more effective than a negatively framed information. This means that in the current research context (i.e., low involvement consumer decisions) a ‘positivity bias’, where the positively framed goal is perceived as a sincere apology, is more likely than the regularly assumed ‘negativity bias’. These insights suggest that in terms of framing effects, scholars should consider the specific boundary conditions given in the context of online complaining.

Authenticity and consumers’ quest for authenticity have been viewed as a new business imperative in contemporary marketing (Gilmore and Pine 2007). While it has been proposed that various attributes (e.g., congruency, transparency) influence stakeholders’ perceptions of CSR authenticity (Beckman et al. 2009), there has been little understanding in regard to what components contribute to consumer evaluations of CSR authenticity in different cultures.As such, drawing on the CSR and authenticity literature, the current research aims to explore some CSR evaluation differences between Korean and US consumers as a means of understanding how different cultures evaluate CSR authenticity. Using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with Korean and US consumers, the current research proposes CSR authenticity as a powerful, theoretical construct capable of understanding different consumers’ CSR evaluations across cultures—advancing knowledge of how consumers’ CSR authenticity evaluations vary across cultures.The findings showed that various attributes influenced Korean and US respondents differently in their CSR authenticity evaluations. While congruence and transparency positively influenced Korean respondents’ CSR authenticity evaluations, these attributes did not have a favorable impact on US respondents, primarily due to the lack of transparency of the US sport entity and the perceived manipulation of its CSR programs. The findings also showed that personal connection to a social cause had a positive impact on US respondents’ CSR evaluations however, this was not observed among Korean respondents. The current research between Korean and US respondents adds empirical evidence of the cultural differences regarding consumers’ CSR authenticity evaluations in different cultures. In doing so, the current research fills the knowledge gap in CSR authenticity literature and helps organizations to adequately respond to consumers’ pursuit of authenticity and also maximize their CSR endeavors to increase the well-being of consumers and their long-run benefit to society in different locations.

Destination branding is a phenomenon gaining widespread interest due to increased global competition for tourists (Matiza and Slabbert 2020). Described as an offshoot of place branding, destination branding tends to be focused mainly on achieving tourism objectives (Braun 2012). One key antecedent of the increased global competition for tourists is the opening of emerging markets. Emerging markets have been positioned as the “growth engines of the world” (Sinha and Sheth 2018, p. 217). Despite this, there is a notable dearth of research on the destination branding of emerging markets (cf. Martinez 2016).To gauge the progress of this stream of research and inform future research, it is necessary to conduct a review of refereed journal articles (Williams and Plouffe 2007). This review aims to answer the following questions, (i) what are the trends in terms of journals, themes, emerging markets studied, and methodology?, and (ii) what branding methods have been used and which ones are more effective? This paper will provide a systematic review of the research on destination branding in emerging markets, something that has not been done to date. Although Dinnie (2004) and Vuignier (2017) review the literature, their reviews neither focus on destination branding nor on emerging markets.In line with the systematic search procedures e.g., Hao and Paul (2019), we searched for articles published in peer-reviewed journals on electronic databases and by scrutinizing the reference lists of related reviews. Overall, the search yielded 31 articles published in 13 journals spanning the years 2008–2019. The findings show that the majority of the articles were published in the Place Branding & Public Diplomacy journal. Additionally, emerging markets in East Asia (e.g., China) and the Middle East and North Africa (e.g., United Arab Emirates) were the most studied, while the Eastern European and South American emerging markets were not as widely studied. Moreover, the most widely-studied theme was destination/place image. With regard to the methodology, an overwhelming majority of papers used exploratory methods such. Our analysis of offline versus online branding efforts revealed that both are important; however, a combination of both is the most effective.In sum, this study developed a novel approach to analyzing destination branding. Research implications include the need for more confirmatory methods to enhance generalizability of findings. This study’s major limitation was having to make inferences due to the limited branding information. Thus, future research should incorporate more in-depth examinations of branding. For practitioners employing online techniques such as influencer marketing, it is best to use influencers who are natives of the destination to enhance credibility.

Companies that use pricing tactics such as dynamic pricing risk being considered norm-violating particularly by customers who pay higher prices than others. Price-disadvantaged customers are likely to develop lower fairness perceptions and to engage in retaliatory behavior. As few companies disclose information about the pricing criteria, customers are often left feeling confused, which can result in higher perceptions of price complexity. Therefore, to better understand price-disadvantaged consumers’ perceptions of price fairness and price complexity, complaint and purchase intentions in the context of dynamic pricing, we examine and compare four pricing scenarios. Uniform pricing represents the non-norm-violating pricing practice, and dynamic pricing is present in the three remaining situations, with various degrees of explanations (none, a short description of dynamic pricing, and a complete explanation of the differentiation criteria). There is currently no research on how service providers’ explanations of dynamic pricing influence consumers’ perceptions and behaviors, particularly of the price-disadvantaged customers. This study will lead to a better understanding of whether companies can use dynamic pricing strategies without forming negative perceptions by customers, and if service providers’ attempts to mitigate any negative customer responses through explanations are effective.We tested four pricing tactics (uniform pricing, dynamic pricing without an explanation, a short, or a complete explanation) applied to a touristic flight. In the scenarios with dynamic pricing, the customer was always in a disadvantaged price position. We measured price fairness and complexity perceptions, as well as purchase and complaint intentions.The study results show that marketers who use dynamic pricing can increase customers’ fairness perceptions by explaining the criteria used to set the varying prices. Interestingly, both complete and short explanations can bring fairness perceptions up to the same level of fairness, as in the case of uniform pricing. Furthermore, perceptions of complexity decrease with the amount of additional information provided on dynamic pricing. However, even a complete explanation of the criteria leading to the varying prices cannot bring down perceived complexity to the level that is measured for uniform pricing. Therefore, additional explanations on pricing criteria can fully restore consumers’ fairness perceptions but at the same time do not fully eliminate complexity perceptions. The results for purchase and complaint intentions, which represent consequences of immediate fairness or complexity perceptions indicate that a complete explanation of the criteria used for dynamic pricing helps to establish intentions similar to those in the case of uniform prices.

The Internet is an indispensable platform for the provision of products and services of a company and for the communication with customers. A significant increase in the number of e-commerce interfaces in the Business-to-Business (B2B) environment has already been noticed for several years. One of the biggest challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry is the complex issue of retaining customers in B2B-relationships. Especially in an internet-based, constantly changing context, this is an uncertain and ambitious challenge. In our study, we investigate the antecedents of customer loyalty of B2B-customers using the internet. Based on the findings of Janita et al., we developed a conceptual model containing the constructs potentially influencing loyalty of B2B-customers in the internet. Conducting an online survey with the B2B-customers of WERU, a German industrial component manufacturer in the building sector, our final data set contains 187 observations. Results show a direct, highly significant effect of customer satisfaction and trust and a highly significant total effect of image via customer satisfaction on customer loyalty.

The consumption of information on multimedia platforms and the widespread use of social networks have had a direct impact on the management of print media. Value co-creation and service-centered marketing from the perspective of the Service Dominant Logic (SDL) of Marketing are pointed out as mechanisms of interaction between newspaper companies and their advertising clients, in which both work together to create new products and maximizing results. In order to understand how printed communication vehicles develop co-creative solutions for their clients, this research makes use of a multiple case study strategy. We seek to analyze, from the perspective of co-creation, business models that have been adopted by print media, pointing out ways that can be adopted in the search for a new business model.In Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2016) SDL, all actors (workers, managers, suppliers, consumers and other stakeholders) are seen as co-creators, and this experience adds value for processes. The SDL implies interactivity and unity among beneficiaries, suggesting a focus on working together to integrate resources to create mutual value. From the crossing references related to business model of the printed communication vehicles, and also SDL, it is understood that co-creation of B2B value in a printed communication vehicle occurs when the vehicle (actor A) integrates their knowledge of content production and qualified receiving public; and when the advertising company (actor B) integrates its specialized knowledge in a market segment, and also the provision of service (resources) to generate benefits for itself and for the other.A qualitative and exploratory approach was applied. We decided to adopt a multiple case studies strategy (Yin 2015), choosing three cases involving communication vehicles and partner companies from different areas. For data collection, in-depth interviews were used in semi-open format. We also analyzed physical artifacts. Data was analyzed by data triangulation technique.The three cases showed that the partnership of printed media with advertising companies, are business models that favor a co-creation environment. Four key points are highlighted: (1) printed media seek out partner companies that share the same institutions; (2) integration of resources in service ecosystem seeks to highlight the expertise of each actor; (3); involvement of all stakeholders, especially media professionals, is essential for value co-creation; (4) learning.

Electronic sports (eSports) have enjoyed a giant leap in the entertainment industry. However, eSports have faced negative images after the effort to become categorized under sport. Currently, they do not have a fixed identity due to a marginal appeal as a sport product. This study aims to explore if an athlete celebrity can transfer meaning to a sport organization (eSports) in which the brand personality is less established and examine if the debate of eSport being a sport can be eased by using traditional sport spokesperson's expertise. To do this, we will conduct an in-depth review of the literature and an experiment to identify if potential factors (i.e., implicit self-theory and celebrity meaning transfer) affect the meaning transfer. Furthermore, how these transferred meanings influence consumer behaviors (attendance intent, merchandise purchase intent, perceived athleticism, brand attitude, and brand image) will be examined.Based on the literature review and proposed hypotheses, we expected a more substantial meaning transfer from the celebrity condition than a non-celebrity condition. Also, we anticipated the moderating effect of an individual’s implicit self-theory. Participants who were manipulated to be an entity theorist will be more affected by the celebrities, compared to the incremental theorists, due to their urge to signal their positive attributes (Dweck and Leggett 1988; Elliott and Dweck 1988). This is due to the assumption that individuals have an urge to enhance self and consume positive brands to construct self-perceptions by identifying and attaching oneself to the brand. In this study, we have hypothesized that human brands with desirable personalities can also be used as a brand to attach oneself to, and entity theorists will see celebrities as a chance to signal their positive qualities, acting more favorably to celebrities (Carlson and Donovan 2013; McCracken 1989; Thomson 2006).This study will add to the meaning transfer model (McCracken 1989) by identifying which meanings transfer to organizations depending on the celebrity meanings. We anticipate that our findings will extend knowledge in the celebrity endorsement literature and the meaning transfer model. Also, this study will extend the literature in celebrity endorsement to sport settings, specifically in eSports. Further, practitioners will benefit from the findings from the moderating effects of implicit self-theories.The current study creates a new line of sponsorship and celebrity research in eSports. As eSports are in a developing phase, celebrity endorsements and sponsorship studies have not been widely discussed (Reitman et al. 2019). However, this study will be able to provide evidence of the importance of sponsorship opportunities in eSports.

Due to the target group-specific pricing policies of service providers, different prices exist for the same service across customer groups like new or reacquired customers compared to existing customers. Current customers may notice these offers but do not receive any benefits for their loyalty. Consequently, they may react with a ‘tactical churn’ to the target group-specific pricing policy of companies without having a clear intention to switch their providers. A ‘tactical churn’ comprises two aspects: (1) the cancellation of an existing contract with the objective of obtaining better contractual conditions and (2) the intention to remain with the current provider. Thus, this study examines the phenomenon of tactical churn and its determinants by conducting 19 qualitative interviews. The findings give first evidence for the phenomenon of ‘tactical churn’ as new type of customer churn behavior. The majority of the interviewees was familiar with the phenomenon and had already tactically cancelled their service contracts in different industries. The study shows that especially the price comparisons of existing customers with up to four reference groups are decisive for tactical churn. These are (a) new customers of the current provider, (b) other existing customers of the current provider, (c) customers of other providers, and (d) the price/value-change in the case of automatic renewal of the contract. If the comparison is not in favor for existing customers, this has a negative effect on the perceived price fairness and appreciation. This results in the pronouncement of a cancellation of the service contract without the clear intention to switch providers, but with the intention to get a better deal. Further, moral obligation and subjective norms of tactical churn behavior have also been identified as possible determinants of tactical churn. With regard to the question why customers remain in the relationship, the findings indicate that their decision depends on both affective and calculative commitment.

Digital voice assistants are becoming a pervasive technology with the potential to change entire business processes and models. These voice assistants are at the forefront of organizational frontlines, service encounters, and customer experience. In the wake of digitalization and artificial intelligence, companies embrace such technologies by rule-based automating business processes. One area of application for digital voice assistants is service encounters in call centers. Research on call centers identifies service expertise, interaction competence, and linguistic qualities of human agents as key determinants of consumers’ satisfaction and loyalty (e.g., Cheong et al. 2008; Dean 2004; Gerpott/Paukert 2012). This study investigates acceptance of digital voice assistants as call center agents. If consumers accept the technology in such service encounters, it questions whether digital voice assistants can either reduce workload or replace human call center agents.The empirical results present a general willingness of consumers to engage with digital voice assistants in such service encounters. Consumers expect such service encounters to be free of effort and that the technical system is readily available, flexible, and reliable. Male consumers particularly emphasize technical usability. Even though the empirical results do not statistically support the effect of linguistic qualities, this finding can be attributed to the preexisting experience with voice systems in smartphones and smart speakers. Consumers consequently assume that digital voice assistants perform in service encounters at least as good as their personal devices. In contrast, consumers do not attribute much interaction competence to digital voice assistants. Consumers seem to be predominantly interested in the solving capabilities of digital voice assistants in the service encounter.As a result, service expertise is perceived as more important than emotional value. Digital voice assistants need to primarily fulfill their perceived intended purpose if they are to assume the role of call center agents and resolve corresponding service tasks. Emotional value also positively affects consumers’ perceived usefulness. Regarding the engagement with digital voice assistants, consumers value a positive, enjoyable, and relaxed atmosphere. These aspects are in particular relevant for female consumers in the present service encounter setting.Digital voice assistants should not only provide requested information but also process and resolve consumers’ concerns. As a result, digital voice assistants should facilitate problem-solving in a professional service fashion. Based on their accessibility and usefulness, consumers anticipate digital voice assistants being informative, useful, and positive in service encounters. Consumers thus form favorable attitudes towards engaging with these digital assistants and are intending to use these assistants in the foreseeable future.

Different from traditional shopping journey, omnichannel customers can move freely between channels in an omnichannel journey. They can start their customer journey in one channel and close deal at another channel and as there is no barrier between channels, the customers enjoy complete and seamless shopping experience. This behavior is also regarded as channel switching behavior, which is closely related to the "free-riding behavior". Since 2014, researchers observed two typical switching behaviors, namely, showrooming and webrooming. Showrooming is the behavior when the customers search for information about the product offline but purchase online (Basak et al. 2017; Bell et al. 2014; Rapp et al. 2015; Verhoef et al. 2015). Whereas, webrooming is the practice of researching a product online or on a mobile device but purchasing it offline (Kramer 2014).In recent years, there has been growing research interest in customer showrooming and webrooming behavior in the omnichannel retailing context. Most of the research focused on how firms deploy strategies to retain customers during the whole shopping journey (Verhoef et al. 2015). In previous studies of the reasons behind channel switching, Verhoef, Neslin and Vroomen (2007) employed the theory of reasoned action to explain three reasons for channel switching in multichannel context which are low channel lock-in, cross-channel synergy, and channel attributes. Evidence for the attributes reasons have been mixed. Furthermore, there has been no detailed investigation of the determinants for the behavior in omnichannel context. The paper looks at these reasons from an interpretive perspective to propose a framework for omnichannel switching behaviors. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conduct with eighteen omnichannel customers of electronic goods retailers in Vietnam. The findings reinforced the three reasons for channel switching in the research shopper model by Verhoef, Neslin and Vroomen (2007). The synthesized qualitative result strengthened the previous argument on the influence of perceived channel attributes on switching behavior. Two other reasons for channel switching were observed from respondents which are social influence, customer self-confidence in the behavior.This study contributes a deeper understanding of the customer switching behavior to both academics and practitioners. It is the first study to undertake a qualitative study on the determinants of omnichannel switching behavior. However, it is beyond the scope of this study to examine the journey of customers during switching. The research is also unable to encompass the entire populations of customers as different groups of customers might have different switching preferences. This raises interest for future research in customer segmentation, channel choice and usage, and customer experience during channel switching in the omnichannel context.

Over the last few years, tech companies, like Samsung, have been developing implantable healthcare devices to diagnose diseases and treat the human body from the inside (Lee et al. 2020). Although sounding like a speculative fiction storyline, this high-tech scenario is at the heart of the Transhumanism movement. Transhumanists envision the creation of “more-than-humans” by the integration of cybernetic devices and biochemical solutions with the human body (Deretić and Sorgner 2016). Recently, scholars have begun to call for studies exploring the thus far undertheorized combination of emerging and speculative technologies and their relationships with consumer behavior and social implications (Schmitt 2019). To begin responding to these pleas, this conceptual work presents an overview of the Transhumanism movement, two of its technological domains, and psychosocial and ethical issues regarding consumers’ acceptance of such technologies.The Dryware transhuman domain encompasses machines that are attached to or implanted into the human body to enhance its biological condition. As an example, the North Sense is a miniaturized circuit board that allows for sensing Earth’s magnetic field. It works as a compass and is attached to the sternum bone. Within this transhumanist context, a number of social and ethical issues arise. For instance, would those who undergo a surgical procedure to have a North Sense installed feel stigma, harassment, and even physical aggression from others lacking such enhancements? The second technological domain to be considered here is Wetware, which comprises biochemical technologies. As an example, in the case of genetic engineering, it is theoretically possible to select the sex, colors for eyes and hair, improved athletic abilities, cognitive skills, and so on. As of 2021, such a procedure can easily cost around US$ 25,000 per attempt at fertilization. Additionally, for some, bioengineering human life leads to the objectification and the instrumentalization of their lives (Habermas 2003).The issues are numerous and much more complex than the pragmatic and technophilic view of human-technology interactions often considered in marketing and consumer research (Kaliyamurthy and Schau 2019). If consumers are already implanting cybernetic body parts, editing genes, or trying to live forever, then we, as a society, must tackle the issues outlined here. Due to the nature of Transhumanism and the space required to elaborate on it, we have briefly noted only a few possibilities of related consumption practices and issues. Acknowledging that several areas remained untouched in this conceptual study, we suggest that future work explore not only market for additional transhumanist technologies but also their philosophical implications.

Approaching pleasure and avoiding pain is a central mechanism for survival (Leknes and Tracey 2008). Approaching pleasurable experiences is associated with positive outcomes (Arnold and Reynolds 2012), while pain is generally negative (Eccleston and Crombez 1999). It is a common notion that consumers actively avoid pain (Crowe and Higgins 1997; Higgins 1997), which is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience…” (International Associations for the Study of Pain 1994, p. 210). Although pain has negative connotations, there has been recent research that suggests consumers may actually approach pain in some instances (Keinan and Kivetz 2011; Scott, Cayla, and Cova 2017).The current study examines the positive outcomes derived from pain. This study finds that undergoing certain activities, such as a wellness regime, may lead to perceptions of pain. Wellness regimes, in the form of a strict diet and exercise program, are often associated with pain (Liu, Mattila, and Bolton 2018). In fact, researchers studying fitness have found that pain is a fundamental component of exercise (O’Connor and Cook 1999). In addition to exercise, diets bring about bodily discomfort as well (Fuhrman et al. 2010). Undergoing pain results in a feeling of deservingness, which are the outcomes that are congruent with the actions taken by an individual (Cavanaugh 2014; Feather 1999, 2003). Seeing as deservingness is predicated on actions, a positive action should produce a positive outcome. Those who undergo pain in order to reach a goal are more deserving than those who do not (Toyama 2019). It was found that a sense of deservingness leads consumers to be more likely to treat themselves. If consumers partake in effortful, positive behavior, then their outcomes should be reflective of such effort and positivity (Feather 1999).The following study offers numerous implications. First, pain is analyzed in a way that examines positive outcomes rather than the typical negative consequences found in the literature. This showcases that pain is multifaceted and consumers may pursue it intentionally. By approaching this study from a wellness regime perspective, an extension is made into the health services and the exercise industry. Many gyms offer products in addition to their services (ex. smoothie bar, workout clothing) and by leveraging a deservingness appeal they may be able to enhance their sales. One of the major implications offered by this study is that practitioners may wish to find a way to instill a sense of deservingness in consumers. When consumers feel that they are deserving, it can lead to the purchase of a product to reward themselves for positive actions. Overall, this shows that pain can bring about positive outcomes as it increases one’s sense of deservingness.

Many companies celebrate their brands’ anniversary with various audiences and claims. Such celebrations are key opportunities for brands to showcase their identity, history, achievements, and future perspectives. While there is a clear interest from managers, brand anniversaries as a managerial practice lacks theoretical foundations.Anthropologists and sociologists study people’s birthday celebrations as (social) rituals. Management studies have developed research on organizational rituals, marketing researchers consider the role of rituals in the internal implementation of corporate heritage but to the best of our knowledge, no research has explored how the celebration of anniversaries of abstract objects (i.e., brands) are ritualized when projected to external audiences (i.e., consumers). In addition, the operationalization of temporality in specific ritualized events (i.e., brand anniversaries) is neglected. Building on three streams of literature (birthdays as rituals, organizational rituals, and corporate brand heritage), this research aims to extend theory on brand management by answering the following research objectives: (a) to understand the ritual associated with brand anniversaries celebrations; (b) to relate the brand anniversaries celebrations’ ritual to brand temporality.An exploratory methodological design mobilizes the qualitative analysis of 52 cases of brand anniversary celebrations (various locations, industries and age celebrated). Findings inform that such celebrations involve five key dimensions and seven symbolic meanings associated with specific temporal orientations, and with three major intended outcomes. The latter are consistent with an existing typology and functions of corporate rites. From these results, a research agenda presents three research proposals for further research on brand management.

Although website designers consider aesthetic appeal and usability in designing web pages, it is important to understand which areas of website or design elements are more appealing and informative to visitors than other design elements. Visitors will most likely be more inclined to spend more time looking at more appealing design elements than others. In turn, these appealing design elements will have greater influence on the purchase behavior of site visitors than other elements on the site. Two underlying processes might play a role in directing visitors to pay more attention to certain areas of the site as opposed to other areas: inward bias and eye gaze following.The objective of this research is to examine the effect of inward bias and eye gaze following on the web surfing behavior of individuals on e-commerce sites. Essentially, inward bias means that in framed images people prefer those images in which figures/people face inwards as opposed to outward, particularly when these figures/people are located away from the center of the framed image toward the periphery (e.g., Chen and Scholl 2014; Minton, Sperber, and Hernik 2020; Palmer and Langlois 2017; Palmer, Gardner and Wickens 2008). The space in front of the person in the image is inherently more interesting than the space behind the person in the image because it represents the area where future action will take place.Gaze following can be defined as “the act of following another person’s line of regard” (Brooks and Meltzoff 2014, p. 171). Also, called deictic gaze, it “indicates spatial attention, suggests future actions, and defines the target of facial signals” (Shepherd 2010, p. 1). It serves as the basis of joint attention. The direction in which a person is looking indicates the objects he or she may be paying attention to, his or her interests, and possible intentions with respect to that object (Bock, Dicke, and Thier 2008).In an experimental study (female participants, n = 66) using eye tracking technology (Tobii screen-based eye tracking hardware, X3-120, and Tobii studio software) this study found evidence of inward bias among users of e-commerce sites. Also, although evidence was found that supported operation of eye gaze following, it was not conclusive. These findings have implications for designers of e-commerce sites in terms of how models and other elements of the page could be oriented to make them more appealing to shoppers and potentially produce more positive results.

Social media has become a powerful tool for influencing opinions citizens have about politics, political candidates, and social issues. The social media environment today is characterized by a myriad of sources providing innumerable amounts of information, expressed as opinion or fact, about every imaginable subject in a public forum. There is some evidence that social media users do not exhibit different levels of trust in articles published by fictional versus a known news source (Sterrett et al. 2019). This counters prior research that found source cues important (Lee and Sundar 2013; The Media Project 2017) and information posted by trusted figures are far more credible than posted by non-trusted figures (Sterrett et al. 2019). The lack of clarity in results indicates research explaining people’s view about the credibility of information presented in social media outlets is nascent and a fertile subject area for further research.Prior research has examined models to explain message (Appelman and Sundar 2016) and medium credibility (Fadl Elhadidi 2019; Ognyanova and Ball-Rokeach 2015) as individual constructs as well as contributing to information credibility (Li and Suh 2015). Because of the desire to improve the understanding how the credibility of information is perceived on social media, specifically Facebook – the second most popular online platform and most popular social media source for news (Gramlich 2019) – we are employing the elaboration likelihood model (Li and Suh 2015) for application to Presidential candidates. Information Credibility is expected to be positively related to media dependency, interactivity, medium transparency, argument strength, information quality, and personal expertise. Understanding what influences information credibility on Facebook allows political marketers to understand how to best put forward information about Presidential candidates that will be accepted by voters.In addition to assessing the ELM model, we ask voters which sources of information, e.g., friends, family, celebrities, news media, community leaders, are trustworthy enough to influence for which Presidential candidate they would cast their vote. A ranking of most trusted sources about Presidential candidates on Facebook provides insight to political marketers which sources have the greatest impact on voters’ decision-making process.

Today, digital content is dominated by interactive and immersive technologies (Mckinesy 2019). Brands are rapidly adopting technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) for virtual product experiences (Pantano 2015). AR refers to the superimposing of the digital content on consumers' real-world contexts, thereby bridging the gap between physical and virtual purchase situations (Mealy 2018). Two popular AR-based applications are Ikea place (furniture) and Youcam Makeup (cosmetics). At present, AR is on a growth trajectory, as immersive technology growth (pre-COVID-19) was pegged to exceed $55 billion by the year 2021(Research and Markets 2019). Existing research on AR focuses on user experiences, customer engagement, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions (Hilken et al. 2017; Kim and Hall 2019; Park and Yoo 2020; Scholz and Smith 2016). As technology increasingly intertwines with consumers' lives and decisions, it is essential to continue expanding the research into the lived experience of AR-mediated shopping (Chylinski et al. 2020). Hence this paper focuses on the self-augmentation experiences through the virtual product try-on apps. The virtual try-on apps let consumers try out virtual replicas of actual products (cosmetics, apparel, jewelry, etc.) on their real-time images, captured via tablet or smartphone-based selfie cameras. The context of the study is AR virtual try-on apps in the cosmetics industry, owing to their popularity and adoption by consumers. Based on the concepts of extended self, consumption experiences, self-referencing theory, and mental imagery (Belk 1988; Holbrook and Hirschman 1982; Lutz and Lutz 1978; Rogers et al. 1977), this study follows an exploratory approach using netnography and in-depth interviews. The initial findings suggest that using AR try-on tools helps consumers choose the products that enable them to craft unique self-expression rather than conforming to societal stereotypes. Further, AR facilitates experimentation with new consumption patterns, irrespective of age and gender, giving opportunities for consumers to embrace their unique interests. Consumers save their self-augmented images to share among connections via social media, indicating digital expression before actual purchase and use. Thus AR provides an opportunity for brands to be a part of consumers' virtual selves before actual consumption through digital expression. The study's findings open up new avenues for brands to be a meaningful part of consumer extended selves and the role of AR in enabling consumers to express their “true selves” which may be seen as more of an aspirational self given enhancements of face shape and eye size commonly employed in these apps.

Consumers are not always honest, nor do they always follow the rules. Research on deviant behaviors exhibited by consumers covers topics ranging from showrooming to shoplifting. Shoplifting can be a tremendous burden on retailers’ bottom lines. While FLEs have traditionally served customers, the role of these employees has evolved and expanded to include monitoring and enforcement of customers’ deviant behaviors. Thus, the role of FLEs has evolved into not only serving customers, but also to policing customer compliance. While academic studies have proposed the use of FLEs to help reduce deviant behavior, and despite acknowledgement of academia’s limited insights on the relationship between employee guardianship and organizational commitment (Potdar, Garry, Guthrie, and Gnoth 2019, p 77), little is known about the impact of using FLEs in a guardianship capacity. Thus, the current work seeks to better understand the mechanisms and outcomes of expecting FLEs to act as guardians against consumers’ deviant behaviors, in our case shoplifting.The present study draws on appraisal theory of emotions and equity theory to investigate the impact of retailers’ customer deviant behavior policies on FLEs. Three experiments shed light on the phenomenon. Study 1 demonstrates that the addition of guardianship responsibilities to FLE duties incites anger and reduces perceptions of employee policy fairness. Study 2 expands on these findings and explores how guardianship policy elements, such as permitting vs. requiring FLEs to confront shoplifters, affect employee perceptions of the policy. Specifically, study 2 examines the role of empowerment in explaining feelings of anger and policy fairness perceptions and introduces social implications of customer (bystander) relationships. The results demonstrate the adverse effects of requiring FLEs to engage shoplifters are exacerbated in the presence of loyal (vs. transactional) customers. Study 3 explores additional policy elements such as prohibiting FLEs from approaching suspected shoplifters. This study demonstrates that as FLEs’ job role anxiety increases, policy fairness perceptions become less favorable. Additionally, Study 3 expands on the previous studies by extending the phenomenon to include more managerially relevant employee responses in the form of turnover intentions.Across three experiments and multiple settings, we generally establish the negative effect of guardianship behavior, in our case the shoplifting policies on FLEs attitudes and job behaviors. We also identify how and when deviant behavior policy requirements can affect outcomes such as perceptions of policy fairness and employee turnover intentions.

Political marketing has become a separate discipline of its own as a result of the union between political science and marketing. Political branding has become a distinct sub-discipline within the political marketing field (Scammel 2015). Politicians running for office increasingly use branding strategies and techniques to the point that they are labeled “brandidates”. Political professionals construct and present a politician’s persona as a brand personality, similar to when products present a brand personality, which is eventually “bought” by voters. Academics studying political marketing and political operatives running campaigns continue to investigate how politicians’ brand personalities connect with voters.This research responds to the call for examining political branding utilizing a “theoretical lens [concepts, theories, and frameworks] from other disciplines across marketing, psychology, and social sciences” (Pich and Newman 2020, p.11). The purpose of this research is to determine which independent variables, societal priorities (post-materialism) for the country (Inglehart 1977, 1981), political orientation (Nail et al. 2009), and comparative life satisfaction (Meadow et al. 1992) explain voter preference for different political brand personalities in Presidential candidates.In order to select which brand personality traits would be adopted, a review of literature addressing brand personality (Aaker 1997; Verable et al. 2005), political brand personality (Caprara et al. 2002; Guzman and Sierra 2009; Smith 2009), leadership traits important to voters (Pew Research 2015) was performed. The identified traits were employed on a bi-polar scale anchored by Biden and Trump to determine which trait was most associated with each of the Presidential candidates.The Inglehart Index, utilized for decades in national and global research projects, was adopted to determine societal values most important to voters. Nail et al. (2009) initially developed the political orientation scale, equally balanced between conservative and liberal issues, for researching political orientation and social cognition. Meadow et al. (1992) introduced the congruity life satisfaction scale (CLS) to assess a person’s level of satisfaction is based on social and aspirational comparison to evoked standards.Examining the relationship among political orientation, societal values, and life satisfaction with candidates perceived brand personality helps establish a theoretical foundation for understanding how voters select, support, and eventually vote for candidates. A greater understanding of traits, i.e., brand personality, voters seek in a President and factors contributing to these preferences, will result in deeper theoretical insight and understanding of their application in political campaigns. This research will aid politicians to be more adaptable to their target audiences.

Product-harm crises are becoming more widespread with each passing day, and these crises may cause many negative effects both on the firm/brand and stakeholders of the firm. Thus, managing a product-harm crisis is a challenging period, especially for the firms operating in different countries, since culture plays a vital role as a perceptual lens to shape and interpret information and other factors. As a matter of fact, cultural characteristics, namely uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism, could determine various aspects such as how individuals will evaluate firm strategies (proactive vs passive), whether they will attribute blame to the firm, how they will process information (functional or emotional) in their evaluations for the product and how their expectations differ according to the firms’ corporate reputation levels (high vs low). Therefore, two different studies with a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design were conducted. Study 1 was performed using the data obtained from Turkey selected as a collectivist structure with a high level of uncertainty avoidance country. It was concluded that blame attribution and negative emotions were serially mediated the effect of crisis response strategies on repurchase intention. Study 2 was conducted with the data obtained from the USA, which has an individualist structure and a low level of uncertainty avoidance; the functional evaluation was found to mediate the relevant process. Also, it was observed that corporate reputation had a moderating role on the indirect effect of firm strategies in both studies, where these effects also showed differences between studies depending on the culture. While proactive efforts of the firm with the high reputation level appreciated more in the collectivist and high level of uncertainty avoidance country, proactive efforts of the firm with the low reputation level provided better results in individualist and low level of uncertainty avoidance country. Theoretically, culture causes differentiation of individuals’ information processing, blame attribution, and perceptions of corporate reputation. Thus, practitioners are advised to understand the cultural characteristics of the market they serve for taking appropriate steps in the face of product-harm crisis, especially for creating the correct message content or offering satisfactory compensation.

Online reviews have proliferated in recent years – especially in the tourism sector. For potential customers, they present a fast and convenient way to compare and evaluate service providers (Sparks, So, and Bradley 2016). Accordingly, the consequences and effects of online reviews on future clients have sparked interest in the research community for a while (e.g., Cheung, Lee, and Rabjohn 2008; Kwok and Xie 2016; Mauri and Minazzi 2013). While a vast body of research has investigated the effects of online reviews for consumers, this paper studies the effect of different response strategies and its impact on potential customers’ evaluations such as trust and subsequently booking intention.In study 1 (n = 399), we test four different response strategies that hotels and restaurants can use to reply to negative online in an experimental setting. We assigned participants to one of four conditions (hotel response: explanation, sending a private message, explanation and sending a private message, no reply). We incorporated the hotel response directly under the review to create the illusion of a real online review. The control group only saw the online review with no reply. We find that that an extensive response strategy has the strongest influence on trust. Sending a private message only might be beneficial in dealing with the immediate service recovery (i.e., the customer who wrote the review) but it does not lead to trust inferences for third party stakeholder (i.e., online review readers). Moreover, in line with existing literature, no reply did not produce any favorable inferences.In study 2 (n = 801), we additionally manipulate the severity of the service failure described in the online review and show that this is an important boundary condition. We applied a 2 (severity: medium; severe) × 4 (Hotel response: explanation, private message, explanation and private message, no reply) between-subject design. We used the same stimulus material from study 1 for the medium case. Additionally, we altered the hotel review for the severe case. Study 2 corroborates the findings of study 1. All three reply strategies increased the trust towards the hotel. Trust in turn, positively affected booking intention. The combined approach (explanation and private message) had the strongest effect on trust in general. However, results of the moderated mediation indicate that this type of recovery strategy is particularly favorable in case of a medium service failure while its effect is buffered in case of a severe service failure. The findings of study 2 therefore suggest the effect of recovery efforts (i.e., replying to online reviews) are more fruitful and pronounced for cases that are not severe whereas the effect diminishes in case of severe service failures.

In the present, brands are seeking new ways to engage with customers (Ind et al. 2013). They listen to their brand communities and ask questions to customers to test their offerings (Füller et al. 2008; Gouillart 2014) since consumers are increasingly seeking solutions to their concerns to create a better world. Likewise, they make their purchase decisions guiding by their moral values (Hollenbeck and Zinkhan 2010). Hence, they push companies to carry out corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (Iglesias et al. 2018). On the other hand, some studies also showed that consumers demonstrate closeness to brands that care about well-being, security, equality, and respect (i.e., Shaw et al. 2005). In other words, consumers’ choices may depend on their higher-order needs for social, economic, and environmental justice (Kotler et al. 2010). Environmental sustainability is one of the ethical actions that companies should perform and many firms noticed the importance of it and give importance to their CSR activities to get a competitive position by helping to preserve natural resources, minimize waste, and reduce emissions (Krause et al. 2009).This paper focuses on the relationship between environmental sustainability perception and different consumer behaviors such as consumer loyalty, satisfaction, and purchase intention: it considers this relationship in the light of moderating effect of price. Environmental sustainability actions can positively encourage consumers’ attitudes. However, sustainability practices can increase the cost of operations, and it may lead organizations to charge a higher price for their goods and services. Therefore, the price may have a moderating effect between these different consumer attitudes and environmental sustainability actions of the companies. In this research, the Social & Exchange Theory was implemented. This theory provides to measure the cause-and-effect relationship between sustainability practices and different consumer attitudes. On the other hand, a quantitative research technique was conducted to test the relationship between these variables through an online survey. The survey methodology was conducted to test the hypotheses and it was distributed to 454 random participants regardless of their functions, ages, and genders to make a heterogonous composition from Istanbul, Turkey. The findings confirmed the positive relationship between environmental sustainability actions and consumer attitudes. Besides, it also confirmed that price has a moderating effect between these actions of the companies and consumer attitudes. This research shows that consumers care about environmental issues as long as the price is reasonable. Likewise, firms need to consider the optimal price level by conducting environmental sustainability practices to get a competitive position in the market.

After the initial course of user-driven dissemination, organizational use of social media has taken hold in recent years. Even though Facebook still maintains the largest user base, the landscape of social media platforms has become more diverse. Consequently, brands are adjusting their social media strategies and allocate their budgets accordingly. Even though a broad body of literature exists that discusses strategies of brand engagement in social media and the subsequent benefits of extending relevant activities, there is another side to the story. Several new social media platforms have emerged serving different purposes, thus creating challenges for brands to target the right customer base. This dynamic environment challenges brands to continuously adjust their social media strategies. In particular, brands can no longer rely on one or two social media platforms alone, as more niche platforms increase in significance.Based on Facebook, our study investigates 23 brands of four industries (Banking, Automotive, Retailing, Apparel) and demonstrates different types of organizational exit strategies from established social media communities. Besides outright abandoning their online communities, brands can reduce either output quality or lower the frequency of their activities, thereby upsetting their communities and potentially harming activities on other social media platforms. Overall, we identify four exit strategy archetypes based on brands’ general efforts to pursue an exit (long posting intervals, less activity, and less own content) and the speed at which the disengagement takes place. In consequence, current research tends to over-emphasize the importance of expanding the use of social media, while largely ignoring reverse activities taking place on these platforms. Practice already deals with the phenomenon, using different ways of disengagement that range from slowly decreasing activity to abandoning communities entirely.The social media landscape will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. For instance, Facebook is still expected to be an integral part of social media brand activities, but not maintaining its (prior) monopoly. Our study is only a first (explorative) step to shed light on the adverse side effects of having to manage a growing social media portfolio and operating on a budget that may not be growing as exponentially as the social media landscape. Social media research has to provide guidance on how to handle different approaches of disengagement and provide suitable methods to re-adjust the social media strategies. We hope that our initial results provide an avenue for future research on different aspects of brands’ disengagement in social media.

An omnichannel experience occurs when a customer orders from multiple platforms (omnichannel retailing) and this order is filled from any location using inventory and other fulfillment assets flexible across channels (Taylor 2019). Previous literature indicates there are five omnichannel experience dimensions; connectivity, integration, consistency, flexibility, and personalization (Shi et al. 2020). Even though there are several industries impacted by the development of the omnichannel experience in the market, studies related with this topic mainly focus on retailers whose main activity is the sale of goods (Alexander and Blazquez 2020; Shi et al. 2020; Shin and Oh 2017), not services.Hence, this is particularly important to investigate considering that the omnichannel experience in the service industry is growing; specially, the entertainment and arts industry reflects a growing trend of 15% accumulated value from 2015 to 2019, representing 1.5B USD (Euromonitor 2019). Moreover, the cinema category represents one of the key drivers of this growth, reaching 58.9 million USD (Euromonitor 2019).The results revealed that three omnichannel dimensions labeled as connectivity, consistency and flexibility, were good predictors associated with brand trust, which further impact customer shopping intention. In contrast, integration and personalization were not significantly associated. Hence, this study offers insights regarding customer experience in the service industry that build on previous omnichannel experience literature (Grewal 2009; Shi 2020); particularly on customer shopping experience and how the different dimensions influence the customer behavior towards brand trust and how they impact customers shopping intention.For retail practitioners, our findings suggest that brand trust is a significant determinant when discussing a customer's shopping intention. For the service industry, the results of this study suggest that managers must focus on three dimensions. First, connectivity, that relies on a seamless unification of brick-and-mortar and online channel features, like commodities information and continuous and connected reading content across channels. Second, consistency, across channels; evenness of intangibles, like service level, performance and responsiveness. Third, flexibility; provide flexible options from one channel to the other and continuity when migrating tasks.

The competition between national brands (NBs) and private labels (PLs) as well as the regulatory framework for competition have led to a noticeable decline in NBs’ market share in the retail sector (Olbrich et al. 2016; Quelch and Harding 1996). In recent decades, this development has been attributed to intense – sometimes ruinous – price competition, resulting in increased concentration in the retail sector and the proliferation of PLs (Hyman et al. 2010; Olbrich et al. 2016). Manufacturers therefore need to develop strategies to maintain competitive advantages (Cuneo et al. 2019; Verhoef et al. 2002). Knowledge about determinants of NBs’ market share and the impact of distribution channels supports manufacturers and retailers by developing and executing effective marketing strategies. This study consequently analyzes determinants of the NBs’ market share and unravels differences and similarities regarding different types of distribution channels based on 7.211.154 purchases from 98.326 households. The household data refers to the three distribution channels: discounters, supermarkets, and hypermarkets.An increase in regular price of PLs, the share of NB price promotions, and the share of NB variety positively affect the market share of NBs across distribution channels. The share of PL price promotions has surprisingly no significant impact on the market share of NBs. Retailers do not need to use changes in share of PL price promotions, as they can control the market share by changes in the share of NB price promotions. Regarding the types of distribution channels, an increase in the regular price of PLs exerts the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. An increase in the share of NB price promotions, on the other hand, only has a weak positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. Our findings are in particular beneficial for retailers evaluating the effect of price changes and shares of promotional prices. Due to the prohibition of retail price maintenance, manufacturers can only exert a limited influence. For the branded goods industry, the change in the share of NB variety is especially relevant, because an increase in the share of NB variety has the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets, discounters, and hypermarkets. Further, the market share of NBs in supermarkets increases as brand preference intensifies. This is particularly relevant for the branded goods industry, since both share of NBs variety and brand preference of households can be influenced by the manufacturer brand industry by, for example, product innovations and advertising campaigns.

While no firm wants a corporate misdeed scandal, firms pay a high price immediately in order to repair the damages. The current study aims to address the following research questions: (1) how consumers react to three major crisis management approaches: the prompt acknowledgement of the misdeed, the response plan to address the misdeed, and the correction plan for the misdeed; and (2) how these approaches impact on current and potential consumers. Particularly, this research examines the influences of these approaches on different types of misdeeds: either product/service performance related (PPR) or business ethics related (BER).The results from 440 participants suggest that a promptness apology is important for current consumers but not for potential consumers. More importantly, the response plan has less impact on the current consumers when a misdeed is business ethics related than product performance related while the correction plan is more important when a misdeed is product performance related compared with business ethics related misdeeds; for the potential consumer, on the contrary, the response plan has less impact when a misdeed is product performance related than business ethics related.This research provides a framework for brand managers to craft just-right, just-in-time responses and remedy strategies. It offers brand managers a systematic way to gauge what they should say and do during that hard time. As various response strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages, the findings in the current study suggests that the relative efficacy of remedy strategies depends on the type of business misdeed as well as the status of the consumers in the market. Managers should evaluate the situation to determine which remedy action(s) is the most effective for the situation and then tailor their responses according to the crisis situation.

Celebrities have a wide and captive audience, which may be used to effectively raise awareness, impact donations and influence people to volunteer for causes. Celebrities as human brands have the power to impact change in a potentially positive way. The present study is the first to investigate the role of brand attachment in the celebrity as a human brand and social cause context.An essential goal of charities is to encourage the public to participate in philanthropic activities through both financial donations and volunteer efforts. The massive success of "The Ice Bucket Challenge" in 2014 indicates the importance of celebrities as the message source, with various public figures such as entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, actresses, and singers sharing the message to get engaged and involved in the social cause. This research examined the role of celebrity message sources in philanthropic activity communication. Specifically, this study suggests a model explaining when and why consumers comply with a celebrity’s philanthropic message based on self-verification, self-enhancement, and attachment theories. This study tested a model where an individual’s actual and ideal self-congruities with a celebrity positively affect attachment to the celebrity human brand, which leads to receptivity towards the celebrity-endorsed message and willingness to donate money and time to the cause. This study used cross-sectional data to test the hypotheses. Structural equations modeling (AMOS 26) was used to analyze the responses. Questionnaire items were adopted and adapted from previously-validated scales.The findings indicated that an individual’s attachment to the celebrity human brand is positively related to their receptivity towards the endorser’s message and willingness to donate money and time. This research integrated identity and brand attachment theories to explain processes through which celebrities influence individuals’ behaviors regarding social causes. The results contribute to the existing bodies of knowledge on celebrity endorsement and cause marketing. Clearly, an individual’s attachment to a celebrity influences receptivity towards social cause messages from the human brand, which positively affects willingness to donate money and time. The results contribute to the existing bodies of knowledge on celebrity endorsement and cause marketing with empirical support for the effect of celebrity endorsement in philanthropic communication.

Consumer culture theory developed for and tested in more stable Western economies insufficiently explains the dynamics of consumption preferences in emerging markets (EMs) (Nielsen et al. 2018). EM consumers remain under emotional stress stemming from steep political and socio-economic transformations. COVID-19 crisis exacerbates already acute concerns, disrupts many established consumption practices, and amplifies the feeling of uncertainty for the future.The main research question of the present conceptual study attempts to address: which compulsory and hedonic drivers motivate a substantial increase of luxury consumption in EMs? Addressing this question, our study examines a critical role played by social group subcultures as dominant factors affecting the purchasing decision-making process of EM consumers. We also discuss the antecedents and consequences of consumption choice in social environments affected by cultural transformation. First, we analyze the effect of emotional stress induced by the social transition on consumer value orientation. Second, we review the process of social migration in EMs and the dynamics of intrapersonal psychology in light of the prevailing cultural norms in desired social groups. Third, we examine cultural transformation in EMs at the societal and group level as a factor motivating hedonic consumption. Fourth, we suggest the probabilistic model explaining the phenomenon of burgeoning luxury consumption in EMs resulting from the consumer volitional and compulsory choices. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications and directions of future research.In Ems, upward-moving ‘social migrants’ have a strong desire to join higher-status social groups but lack information about the cultural and consumption norms of those groups. We theorize that the uncertainty of choice torments them, affects their self-concept, and motivates consumers to overspend on luxuries to ascertain social acceptance. In other words, the desire to join a particular group at a higher social level serves as a compulsory factor making aspirants allocate an excessive share of their income for the public consumption of luxury in an attempt to signal their perceived congruity with a target social group. Middle-class consumers have to resolve the major discord between the perceived risk of non-acceptance by the target group – if they spend too little – and acute financial loss of over-spending – if they spend too much.The suggested conceptual framework recognizes the emotional stress of middle-class consumers caused by political and socio-economic uncertainties in EM societies and provides a different perspective on the “pattern-level dynamics of the social world” (Brewer 2016). Deriving from the analysis above, we outline a shift of cultural norms and extensive social migration as the primary antecedents of luxury consumption, while hedonic motivation becomes a secondary factor coming into play mostly upon acceptance by the desired social group.

The holistic and contingent construct of customer experience is widely researched in contemporary marketing. While we know that technology may strongly impact and change customer experience for businesses and consumers, little is known about how technology may create motivations, or conversely barriers for customers in interacting with businesses providing complex services (Kranzbühler et al. 2018). The aim of this paper is to identify the impact that technology adoption has on customer experience in complex service settings. A specific onlook at complex service settings is taken as an extreme case of customer experience, where technology may be particularly helpful or challenging in a B-to-B-to-C setting.This research is done based on an analysis of the literature on customer experience and technology adoption. In particular, the insurance industry is taken as an industry focus, because it epitomizes the uniqueness of complex service settings (e.g. Mikolon et al. 2015).The exhaustive review of the literature allows developing a conceptual model whereby technology has the potential to positively or negatively influence customer experience, due to the motivation and barriers it generates for customers. Specific technology related barriers and motivations are thus put forward as impacting customer experience. The impact of these motivations and barriers is shown to be further enhanced by industry-specific and contextual factors present in complex service settings.A conceptual model is proposed, evidencing technology-related motivations and barriers, moderated by context-specific industry factors, influence customer experience. The research contributes to the growing field of customer experience and its relationship with technology (e.g. Singh and Söderland 2019; Vakulenko et al. 2019), by stressing the particularly vivid challenges encountered in complex service settings. This conceptual model helps businesses operating in complex services directing their resources toward customer experience optimization, and opens a new agenda to research interactions between different constructs and antecedents.

Durable goods are frequently traded in the used market or secondary market after a certain period of use. Due to the possibility of disposal in the secondary market, new buyers' willingness to pay in the primary market depends on the salvage value of the used product. On the other hand, the used product can also substitute new products in the primary market, lowering the willingness to pay. Therefore, the demand changes in the primary market induced by the secondary market transaction can affect the frequency of new releases (launch) and the technology advancement of durable goods. This paper investigates the monopolistic manufacturer's new release and investment decisions when used product is traded in the secondary market. A theoretical model that can capture consumers' choice and the manufacturer's dynamic decision is built, and the equilibrium effect is analyzed. I simulated the impact of the quality difference between the new and used on the probability of new release and the size of used goods demand. The effect of the level of friction in the secondary market, measured by the additional cost of selling used goods, on the secondary market and release choices is also analyzed. I find the product with the larger quality gap between the new and used is likely to have a longer wait time before the new launch and higher used goods demand. Product with better quality is expected to increase the demand for used products because of the substitution induced by the higher price. Additionally, the simulation shows how external factors can affect the primary and secondary market equilibrium. I find empirical evidence from smartphone industry which support theoretical result. First, the product with higher specs, such as better CPU, higher resolution, is likely to have a longer wait time before the new launches. Second, the increase in the used product demand occurring with the new launches of high-end products is likely to be larger than the mid-low range product market changes. Last, the effect of external changes in the primary market is verified by the increase in used product transactions after enacting the policy, which restricts the subsidy on the new mobile phones. The study explains why the manufacturers are diversifying their product portfolio and increasing the friction in the secondary market. The manufacturer may need to consider the potential cannibalization effect, which may be differed by the quality when they make a pricing, new launching decision.

The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of the effectuation (EF) and predictive (PR) logics interplay and its consequences on international performance. EF’s proponents emphasize unplanned creative entrepreneurial thinking and embrace creativity capabilities. In contrast, PR’s proponents highlight the need for analytical, planned managerial thinking and build on marketing capabilities. Specifically, this study examines the role of tolerance for failure as an antecedent of EF-PR logics and investigate their interplay on international performance through the lens of their reflected capabilities: organizational creativity and marketing capabilities. A survey-based quantitative study was used.The findings reveal that tolerance for failure impacts international performance only indirectly through creativity and marketing capabilities. The findings of our model provide support to the view that tolerance for failure does indeed have a positive impact on organizations, as it had a positive influence on organizational creativity and marketing capabilities. The strong impact of tolerance for failure on organizational creativity was expected and is in line with the recent notion of Pisano (2019) that tolerance for failure is an important characteristic of innovative thinking. In contrast to previous EF-PR studies, PR logic in the form of marketing capabilities was found to be more beneficial to international performance then EF logic in the form of organizational creativity.However, while under international circumstances, the trophy is awarded to PR logic, the interaction effect of both capabilities on international performance was found negative. To enhance international performance, managers would do well (a) to encourage a tolerance-for-failure culture in their organizations, as it will facilitate promoting creativity and marketing capabilities, (b) to slough off the entrepreneur’s skeptical approach of market research, and (c) to embrace a combined ‘predictable effectuation’ logic but to exercise caution in placing excessive reliance on creativity. The research on the EF-PR tension in the field of international marketing is still in its infancy, comprising mostly qualitative studies focusing solely on the benefits of EF logic. This quantitative study deepens our understanding of the joint roles of EF and PR logics on international performance.

With the advent of social media, politicians have found a new avenue to connect to their supporters and reach out to many others who could be potential supporters. This is evident from growing money spent by politicians on digital advertising, with a Statista report stating that about 1.8 billion USD were spent on the 2018 midterm elections and this amount increased to 2.8 billion dollars during the 2020 presidential elections (Statista 2021). Our research takes a look at these social media posts by politicians and their persuasiveness, measured as the attitude towards the candidate. Grounded in Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), our theorizing is based on accessibility to persuasion motives, which in this case would be garnering votes by the politician.A large body of research has explored how individuals respond to political marketing efforts. However, little is known about how the content of a politician’s posts on social media can influence the voter’s decision. This is an issue of significant theoretical and practical relevance since research has recognized that Twitter has been extensively utilized by effectively communicating with existing supporters and engaging new ones (Bode and Dalrymple 2016). Political persuasion is an interesting amalgamation of political and marketplace activities and studying persuasiveness in a political context can be applied to other consumption contexts (Kim, Rao, and Lee 2009).This research makes several important contributions. Prior research has recognized that the impact of social media on civic and political participation has increased dramatically over the last twenty years (Boulianne 2020). However, no research has established a link between a politician’s posts and resultant attitude formed towards the candidate, improving our understanding in this regard. Further, this research makes a theoretical contribution to the stream of political marketing, persuasion, and social media literature. This research also has practical implications for managers as many times, organizations openly support political candidates, which could potentially gain more customers or lose customers. A politician’s posts predictive of attitude that will be formed by individuals could greatly impact the organization’s plan to support (or not) a certain candidate.

Since customer journeys take increasingly more place in the online sphere, the optimization of the digital product presentation becomes focal for scholars and practitioners alike. In terms of sensory richness, the reality offers the best potentials for an effective brand experience (Petit et al. 2019). For that reason, the reality-based product presentation should be considered as the benchmark for evaluating digital types of product presentation (Porter and Heppelmann 2017). However, multi-sensory brand experiences are difficult to evoke online (e.g., Beck and Crié 2018; Pantano et al. 2017; Yoo and Kim 2014).Against this background, we investigate Augmented Reality’s (AR) effectiveness on consumers’ decision confidence and purchase intention. For this purpose, we develop a conceptual model identifying psychological ownership and customer inspiration as mediators. We apply the conceptual model in a series of two confirmatory studies using lab experiments. The model shows strong explanatory power and provides evidence for AR’s superiority over the website-based product presentation. We also find evidence for the AR-based product presentation to be similarly effective as the reality-based product presentation. By determining the effectiveness of the AR-based product presentation compared to alternatives, we answered the call for comparative studies investigating AR’s performance differential (e.g., Dacko 2017; Yaoyuneyong et al. 2016). The work of Dacko (2017) and Yaoyuneyong et al. (2016) suggested future research to conduct comparative studies in the field of AR. We are first in investigating the effectiveness of the AR-based product presentation compared to the website-based and reality-based alternatives.By means of a longitudinal study, we are able to show that AR-effects are stable over time and not affected by a novelty effect. Our study did not provide any evidence for the presence of a shiny new object syndrome promoting a short-lived overvaluation of AR which other scholars theoretically assumed (e.g., Bulearca and Tamarjan 2010; Hilken et al. 2017; Owyang 2010). In contrast, we found support for the classification of AR’s components as not being novel for consumers anymore. Hence, we conclude that the reality-like effectiveness of the AR-based product presentation is of a durable nature.

Given the increasing popularity of sport related activities, such as esports – that is competitive video gaming –, this research builds on sport, experiential and consumer behaviour literatures to propose that consumers favour activities when they are framed as a sport. Because sports are socially valued, people would exhibit a more competitive mindset, then leading to more anticipated social value from the activity framed as sporty. Such social value would then be a driver of consumer engagement intention into the activity.To test these predictions, Study 1 presented participants (N = 197) with “Kendama” (a Japanese activity) either framed as a sport or as a hobby. As hypothesized, results yielded a serial mediation whereby framing the activity as sporty indirectly increases engagement through the mediating effects of competitive mindset and social value.We then considered narcissism as a moderator of this serial mediation. Indeed, narcissistic people tend to avoid shame in relation to others and to protect themselves with self-protection strategies. Therefore, we expected narcissistic people not to show the competitive mindset needed to engage in activities framed as sports.Study 2 (N = 281) thus exposed participants to an activity called “Diabolo”, a juggle game, framed as either a sport, or not. Study 2 replicated previous results, with a significant serial mediation emerging that linked the sporty framing, competitive mindset, social value and engagement intention. We also found a significant direct effect of the sporty framing of the activity on the willingness to engage in the activity. Interestingly, results also yielded narcissism as the moderator of this serial mediation, with narcissism moderating the relation between sporty framing and competitive mindset.With this research, we provide evidence for the sporty framing effect, and show that merely framing an activity as a sport increases consumer engagement through the mediating role of competitive mindset and anticipated social value. Further, we have provided evidence for the notion that the sporty framing effect is observed only for people who are low in narcissism. For practitioners, this research thus highlights the potentials of framing an activity as sporty, with non-narcissistic people being identified as the main target for such a positioning of the activities framed as sporty.

Where AI has become especially pivotal for users’ interactions is in the case of voice-based assistants (VAs), such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. From what is initially perceived as being a tool to play music, read out news reports and set timers, VAs have developed considerably in recent years and their functionality goes way beyond initial perceptions. For example, Amazon Alexa will be able to give out health advice to users in the United Kingdom as health-related questions will be automatically searched for using the official NHS website (MIT Technology Review, 2020). Some reports go as far to discuss how Amazon has plans to be able to run someone’s entire life from the Alexa on the basis that the systems are getting so sophisticated and the data being collected is so vast that the Alexa will be capable of predicting needs (Hao, 2019). Nevertheless, users still appear to be resistant to use VAs, with some even reluctant to engage with this technology entirely (PwC, 2018). Most of these constraints to VA adoption primarily relate to lack of trust, perceived data privacy and security concerns and lack of knowledge or understanding.Despite the benefits and opportunities of AI software, it is inherently limited by capabilities surrounding planning, reasoning, knowledge, natural language processing, ability to move and to empathise. It is this lack of emotional connection that is a fundamental component of users being less trusting towards AI voice-based assistants. This research investigates the role of emerging capabilities, privacy concerns and trust towards VAs using a mixed-methodology design. Results from the qualitative element of the study reveal that it is more about trusting the capabilities and functionalities than being scared over personal data. This theme will subsequently be examined further in a follow-up experimental study to examine the role of context towards these perceptions. The focus of the experimental design will subsequently consider the direct relationship between perceived behavioural control and intention to continue to use VAs with consideration into the indirect effects of privacy concerns and trust and the moderating role of perceived capabilities.The findings, thus far, show how VAs, as new technologies and leaders of machine learning capabilities, can enhance customer experiences, improve customer relationships and add value to firms. As privacy concerns are often dismissed, if customers benefit from the sharing of their information, yet their capabilities being under-appreciated, firms can focus attention to the high-quality functions of these devices to encourage their more frequent use.

Environmental contexts, like temperature and social density, can influence consumers’ decision making considerably. Although previous research established a bidirectional link between temperature and social proximity, it examined temperature and social density’s downstream consequences in isolation, neglecting possible interaction effects. Moreover, the research produced conflicting results (e.g., on preferences for premium products), suggesting fit effects and compensatory effects. We address this research gap in a preregistered experiment with an orthogonal design on temperature and social density, and expand research on temperature and social density’s downstream consequences by measuring preferences for products with different premium, innovativeness, safety, scarcity, or uniqueness levels. Building on previous research, we hypothesize that temperature and social density have similar effects, but find they have distinct effects. Specifically, the interaction effect for safety and premium products indicates that under cold or neutral temperature conditions high tier choices increase when social density is high, but not under warm conditions—suggesting that warmth has an attenuating effect. Furthermore, choices for high tier innovative products profit from cold and low social density primes, whereas the results for scarce and unique products are inconclusive. These findings suggest that temperature and social density have complex product-category-specific consequences and require follow-up research.

Social media usage has become commonplace with over 3 billion users worldwide (von Abrams 2019). Prior research demonstrates that consumers are willing to interact with brands online (Laroche et al. 2012). However, little is known about the characteristics of consumers who choose to engage with brands via social media. The objective of this research is to contribute to the literature by extending the understanding of consumer factors that lead to online consumer engagement. Consumer factors are considered as social media dispositions (i.e., social media information sharing and social media trust) and social media goals (i.e., social media information seeking and social media experience).Consumers are motivated to purposely seek out, connect with, and utilize social media to meet their specific needs. As such, uses and gratifications theory posits that consumers are active participants and not just passive recipients of media exposure (Dolan et al. 2016). It is proposed in this study that consumer engagement satisfies social media dispositions and goals to address utilitarian as well as hedonic and social motivations. Drawing on the work by Barger et al. (2016), van Doorn et al. (2010), and Hollebeek et al. (2014), consumer engagement in social media in this study is defined as, “a consumer’s cognitive, affective, and behavioral social media connection displayed by contributing and creating digital content.”Scales were adapted from the extant literature. Information sharing survey items were adapted from an opinion leader status scale (Risselada et al. 2016). Survey items for social media trust were adapted from scales measuring trust and social recommendations (Dahl et al. 2019; Turcotte et al. 2015). The items measuring the social media information seeking construct were adapted from a scale on information interest by Chahal and Rani (2017) and a scale on information seeking by Shao and Ross (2015). Social media experience was measured with survey items adapted from a popularity scale (Zywica and Danowski 2008). The measures for consumer engagement were adapted from Muntinga et al. (2011) and recommended by Barger et al. (2016).Survey items were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The survey was pretested with business faculty to assess clarity and face validity. The revised survey was then completed by a convenience sample of college students enrolled at a Midwestern public university. Regression analysis and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data from the completed surveys. The results showed that social media experience mediates the relationship between social media dispositions and consumer engagement. Firms can more efficiently spend on social media marketing by providing mechanisms to enhance the social and self-promotion aspects of the social media experience.

Social distancing is an important non-pharmaceutical intervention that policymakers rely heavily on to stop the spread of COVID-19. In spite of its benefits, the practice of social distancing has been associated with negative consequences, such as the loss of motivation (Williams et al. 2020) and increased levels of anxiety (Tuzovic and Kabadayi 2020). Given the mixed views on the practice, in this research, we seek to examine what factor would influence customers’ evaluations of the practice and how the evaluations affect their behavior of using service technologies (e.g., chatbot technologies), which can help organizations limit human-to-human contact during service encounters (Gursoy and Chi 2020; Shin and Kang 2020).To answer these research questions, we propose a theoretical model by drawing upon the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Fishbein and Ajzen 1975) and the feeling-as-information literature (Schwarz 2012). To examine the hypothesized model, we conducted an experimental study and recruited 200 U.S. consumers to participate in the study. The results show general support for our hypothesized relationships such that in a utilitarian (hedonic) service situation, customers’ fear of being contaminated affects their usage of chatbot services via their positive attitudes (subjective norms) toward social distancing and then their perceived usefulness of chatbots in practicing social distancing.We seek to provide meaningful theoretical contributions and practical implications through this research. First, as the theory of reasoned action has largely overlooked the influence of situational and emotional factors, we extend this theory by examining the moderating influence of service situations and by suggesting fear as a possible antecedent to subjective norms and attitudes. Second, our research contributes to the literature on chatbot services by proposing that, in addition to the perceptions toward chatbots, the perceptions toward a social interaction practice can also influence customers’ willingness to interact with chatbot service agents. Third, we broaden the growing body of social distancing literature by answering Ali et al.’s (2021) call to examine how social distancing can influence customers’ behavior during service encounters. Finally, we offer practical implications for managing frontline encounters during a pandemic.

Coordination between marketing and sales departments is a recurrent managerial problem and represents a major performance issue for companies (Homburg and Jensen 2007; Inyang and Jaramillo 2020; Pal 2019). Difficulties encountered in coordinating the two services are long-standing (Malshe et al. 2017; Pal 2019). Moreover, digital transformation has also redefined the sales perimeter and the sales profession, has generated new objectives for the teams such as mass lead generation for marketers versus customer conversion at the best conditions and expectations of qualified prospects for salespeople (Pöyry et al. 2017; Sabnis et al. 2013).In this context, the objective of this research, conducted in a French context, is to understand the development and implementation of alignment between the marketing strategy and the sales department, and to identify the solutions put into practice by managers to solve the coordination problems encountered. A content analysis conducted with three types of respondents of French firms (marketing managers, sales managers and consulting firm managers) identified various critical practices such as the absence of regular meetings involving the heads of the departments, the absence of internal procedures determining the respective objectives or the absence of collaborative projects.These results lead to the recommendation of coordination mechanisms and modalities to be mobilized and to identify those to be avoided to maximize the chances of success. The digitalization of companies impacts the relationship between marketing and sales departments and creates new constraints in their coordination, new tensions, a restructuring of their missions and new needs (in terms of data, digital tools, training or recruitment). Therefore, critical practices are identified such as the lack of regular meetings involving department managers, the absence of internal procedures determining respective objectives or the absence of collaborative projects. Managers, and in particular sales managers, must use pedagogy and communication skills to explain, reassure and legitimize strategic choices, and finally get their teams to accept these changes. Therefore, from the outset, sales managers must also be aware of the issues and be convinced of the strategic choices they make, and to do so, their involvement must be worked on.The results show the importance of formalizing communication, creating trust between services (Malshe et al. 2017) through the valorization of successes, co-construction of value. It is essential for managers to push sales and marketing teams towards common and shared customer-oriented objectives.

Inter-organizational cooperation is considered highly important for company success (e.g., Borys and Jemison 1989; Rindfleisch and Moorman 2001), which is why it has been a ubiquitous phenomenon for decades (e.g., Hagedoorn 2002; Kale and Singh 2009). While the concept of inter-organizational cooperation itself is well-established, the great potential of cooperation specifically with startups emerged within the last few years (Homfeldt, Rese, and Simon 2019; Weiblen and Chesbrough 2015). Interestingly, the overall results emerging from this kind of cooperation between established companies and startups often do not live up to the expectations of their initiators. Researchers state that many of today’s startup cooperation activities seem to be “new and shiny innovation initiative[s]” (Kohler 2016, p. 348) without a clear definition of objectives (Kruft, Gamber, and Kock 2018). Considering the lack of profound understanding of established company – startup cooperation, we strive to answer the question: How can established companies develop a generic approach to manage startup cooperation effectively and efficiently? In a first step as part of a broader research endeavor, this study examines the difficulties lying in this kind of cooperation from the startup perspective. The insights from this perspective help to identify the issues established companies need to solve in order to interact with startups in a productive way. Within this empirical study, the examination of first contact initiatives shows, that only a minority of cooperation ties forms after established companies reach out to startups. For established companies, this implies plenty of unused potential, which could be used by strengthening outreaching activities. Another distinct result of the study is the lack of goal alignment within the cooperation in many cases. Practitioners within established companies should therefore ensure a clear definition of goals within the cooperation with their startup partners. Also, the results of the study show that even though a broad variety of different cooperation forms is used, the satisfaction with those cooperation forms seems to be rather low. We therefore suggest practicioners to carefully consider, which cooperation form is fitting in respect to the cooperation goals.In order to shed some more light on the topic of efficient and effective cooperation between established companies and startups, we used this initial study as a profound base for an extensive follow-up study and gathered a large quantitative data set investigating the established company perspective, i.e., the “other side” of the cooperation. Based on the analysis of this large-scale data in a next step, the results will offer guidance for strategic decisions on startup cooperation initiatives and consequently enhance the chances of realizing the high expectations associated with startup cooperation.

The advancement of smart mobile technology has changed the way market research works. Importantly, an increasing number of consumers use direct touch (e.g., touchscreens) instead of indirect touch (e.g., mouse/keyboard combo) interfaces. However, the touch interface type’s role in market research methods’ performance has been largely neglected.Choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC) is one of the most widely applied market research methods to elicit consumer preferences (Schlereth and Skiera 2017). Recent research, however, finds deficiencies in CBC. Therefore, its results may have only limited managerial relevance (Schlereth and Skiera 2017). Consequently, research on machine learning has introduced an upgraded version, namely adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis (ACBC) (Johnson and Orme 2007; Wackershauser et al. 2017).During an ACBC analysis, respondents undergo three mandatory stages: a Build-Your-Own (BYO) stage, a Screening stage, and a Choice Tournament stage. All three stages are interrelated and allow for learning efficiently about consumers’ preferences (Orme 2014, p. 132). The BYO stage is of pivotal importance as its results set the stage for the remainder of the ACBC study. Within the BYO stage, consumers configure their ideal product by selecting specific product features at varying feature prices.In this research, we argue that the type of touch interface a consumer uses in ACBC influences the BYO stage’s outcomes. This is because research in other contexts, such as car configurators, suggests that consumers accept higher-priced options when configuring products using a direct vs. an indirect touch interface (Hildebrand and Levav 2017). We first meta-analyze 12 ACBC data sets provided by market research agencies and academics to address this concern. In line with our concerns, the majority of ACBC studies indicated that the configured BYO products of the direct (vs. indirect) touch interface users had a higher price.We subsequently conducted two studies (one online ACBC and one lab experiment) to analyze the interface type’s effects. We highlight its consequences for the ACBC’s results in terms of the estimated utility functions, relative price importance, willingness to pay, and predicted market demand. The lab study additionally provides an explanation of the interface type’s impact. Especially consumers with a high autotelic need for touch (Peck and Childers 2003) experience higher study enjoyment when using a direct (vs. indirect) touch interface during an ACBC. We extract highly relevant managerial implications. Researchers should control for respondents’ interface type in order to adjust the interface type used in ACBC studies with the one future customers will use when purchasing the focal product and services.

Gaming behaviors may cause salespeople to bend or break agreements with customers, reducing customer trust (Román and Ruiz 2005) and increasing supply chain costs to business customers. The salesperson’s firm is also directly harmed by gaming behaviors. The opportunity to engage in gaming behaviors increases as the complexity of the commission structures increases (Larkin 2014; Owan, Tsuru, and Uehara 2015; Oyer 1998, Tzioumis and Gee 2013). Tiered commission structures, also known as nonlinear compensation plans, may be particularly prone to gaming behaviors because salespeople can earn greater commission rates as they reach certain levels of sales performance during a commission period (Freeman et al. 2019; Larkin 2014; Owan et al. 2015).Commission structures are often complex. In tiered commission structures, the percentage of variable pay changes at different levels of sales performance. Salesperson behaviors may change just prior to commission deadlines, depending on goal achievement. According to the deterrence doctrine, people weight temptation versus consequences before engaging in unethical behaviors. When the difference between tiers is large, it creates a larger temptation. Furthermore, salespeople should frame sales revenue differently depending on whether it leads to a new commission tier. Salespeople are likely to justify and downplay the consequences of gaming behavior that avoids rewards framed as a “loss” compared to gaming behavior intended to achieve a “gain.” Using a sample of professional salespeople participating in an experiment, this research shows that salespeople are more likely to engage in gaming behavior to avoid a loss, particularly when rewards stakes are high and their visibility within the organization is low. These findings demonstrate that commission plan structure has an impact on salesperson behaviors above and beyond the extant paradigm of variable versus fixed compensation.

There are numerous reasons firms engage in CSR activities; however, many firms will at some point, or another experience a publicly known fraud or wrongdoing, which may complicate how individuals perceive firms that have been using CSR. This research questions how individuals will view firms that engage in different types of CSR with various expected benefits when fraud has come to light. When CSR motivations are seen by consumers as profit driven, attitudes are more negative towards the firm, but when motivations appear socially motivated, firm attitudes are more favorable (Becker-Olsen et al. 2006). Additionally, CSR motivations influence consumer perceptions of a firm –firms with low salient benefits from CSR appeared more sincere and had higher evaluations than firms with higher salient CSR benefits. (Yoon, Gürhan-Canli, and Schwarz 2006).The results suggest that the expected CSR payoffs moderate the moderation of the indirect effect of CSR fraud perceptions on the purchase intention through ethical CSR beliefs by the type of CSR activities. When firms use CSR that is positioned to aid stakeholders outside of the firm coupled with low expected financial benefits, individuals will judge firms more harshly with fraud than if the firm had high expected financial benefits and CSR positioned to benefit those inside or close to the firm. These findings imply that when there is congruence between CSR ethical values and a firm’s CSR motivations, consumers may feel deceived, resulting in a backlash effect. Therefore, firms should be truthful about the real intent of CSR behavior, and subsequently, consumers will not judge those firms as harshly, even if CSR motivations are purely financially driven.

In response to the negative impact of consumption on ecological sustainability, green marketing (GM) messages have become increasingly common. In GM ad messages, brands encourage purchases of products that respect the environment and the limited capacity of resources aiming to drive the share of sustainable products in consumers’ baskets (White et al. 2019). However, reducing consumption overall is more effective at reducing environmental pollution and saving natural resources (Benton 2015). Through claims like “Buy Less, Demand More” (Patagonia 2021) brands have begun to practice green demarketing (GDM). GDM is an extension of demarketing that discourages demand for products for the sake of the environment. GDM thus contradicts brand activities that aim to increase sales (Bruce et al. 2012). Compared to GM, GDM is a more radical approach in the sense that companies no longer promote their green products, but rather promote a general reduction of consumption. Due to the unconventional character of GDM ad messages, it is important to investigate consumer’s responses and the underlying mechanisms of GDM ad processing. Also, engaging in GDM is likely to become increasingly interesting for brands that target environmentally conscious consumers. The present study adds to existing research (e.g., Armstrong et al. 2015, Reich et al. 2016) by examining the impact of GDM messages on attitudes toward the ad. Moreover, we shed light on the processing of GMD messages. We propose two opposing mechanisms that affect consumer’s attitudes towards a GDM ad message. Since social and environmental business practices have the potential to entail positive consumer responses (e.g., Reich et al. 2016; Luo and Bhattacharya 2006; Olsen et al. 2014), we suggest that due to their focus on sustainability, attitudes toward GDM ad messages are more positive compared to traditional marketing (TM) ad messages, but not different from GM ad messages. While GDM ad messages might profit from their sustainability focus, attitudes toward GDM ad messages are likely to be compromised by low processing fluency and increased skepticism. As GDM ad messages are considered to be unconventional, they are likely to be processed less fluently than TM and GM ad messages, evoking higher levels of consumer skepticism and thus results in lower levels of attitudes towards the ad. Results showed that attitudes toward sustainable ad messages were significantly higher than attitudes toward the non-sustainable ad message. Additionally, results revealed a positive and significant direct effect of GDM ad message on attitudes toward the ad and a negative significant indirect effect mediated serially by processing fluency and skepticism on attitudes toward the ad.

The physical attractiveness of influencers is considered as one of their major success factors. However, in previous literature, attractiveness was considered as a unidimensional requirement, without regarding (potential) contingencies. This has left some research gaps and open questions: According to the attractiveness dimension of the famous Cialdini (2011) principle on Likeability, high attractiveness of a communicator is a universal advantage. However, if the receiver her/himself is of low attractiveness, this statement clashes with another dimension of the Likeability principle: Similarity. As receivers tend to like communicators being similar to them, and attractiveness-related similarity is a relevant subdimension of similarity (Bekk et al. 2017), a conflict is looming. To make matters more complicated, the advantageousness of attractiveness may also depend on the gender of the endorser and receiver: According to the theory on the anti-attractiveness bias, individuals may disadvantage highly attractive individuals of the same gender (Agthe et al. 2010). Finally, gender might also play a role, detached from attractiveness. According to the similarity dimension of the Cialdini (2011) principle on likeability, similarity can also occur on the level of gender. Most fashion endorsers stay in compliance with this principle as they merely endorse fashion for receivers of their gender. However, it also happens that an influencer endorses fashion for consumers of the opposite gender: Is such an endorsement completely absurd? Or is it, after all, worth to know what a member of the opposite gender thinks looks good on you?In this study, the effects of influencers’ and receivers’ attractiveness and gender on influencer likeability, credibility and brand purchase intention are investigated. To this aim, an experiment including 374 observations was carried out and analyzed by means of structural equation modeling in SmartPls. Two models, on female (F) and male (M) receivers were designed and statistically compared by means of multigroup analysis. The results reveal that in most of the cases, a highly attractive influencer is more advantageous than one of low attractiveness, even if the receiver is of low attractiveness. In this case the “high attractiveness dimension” of the Liking Principle seems to beat the (attractiveness based) similarity dimension. More surprisingly, for male fashion, a female influencer appears to be more advantageous. Counter-intuitively, an anti-attractiveness bias was not found to occur among females, but among males.Practitioners can gain important insights from this. (1) Selecting physically attractive influencers is more advantageous, no matter how attractive the targeted consumers are. (2) It is certainly possible to endorse fashion for male by a female, however the opposite is not advisable. (3) Males may have negative feelings towards highly attractive male endorsers.

A considerable body of research stresses the importance for salespersons to gain access to internal resources and obtain internal cooperation from co-workers to be effective in today’s complex selling environments. Research in this area has therefore started to explore the precursors and consequences of salesperson’s internal relationships and social networks. However, to date no study investigates the skills that help salespersons to foster obtainment of internal support from co-workers. In light of this, this study examines the role of salesperson political skill for salesperson internal support from co-workers and identifies co-worker relationship satisfaction as an important intermediate link in this relationship. Dyadic survey data from 43 salespeople and 92 of their co-workers employed at a provider and distributor for telecommunication solutions is used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results provide evidence for the positive impact of political skill on co-worker relationship satisfaction, which subsequently enhances internal support for salespersons. This study contributes to sales theory and practice by underlining the role of political skill for salespersons to be effective at obtaining internal support.

For decades, marketing research in ethical consumption has been facing the gap between attitude and behavior of the ethical consumer. This topic has been explored mainly through a rational and cognitive approach. We intend to develop a new approach with the socio-intuitionist psychological model on three different markets: food, cosmetics and clothes. These three markets are interesting from a sociological and marketing view. Based on an online panel composed of 1080 consumers, structural equation modeling is used to analyze intuitive judgments and ethical concerns. Our results indicate that inferential intuition significantly predicts the ethical reasoning, which in turn significantly influence the purchase and the attention paid to the ecological and social commitments of the chosen products of ethical consumption behavior. The effects are however different according the three markets we analyzed, suggesting that marketing managers should focus on non-rational influences such as inferential and emotional intuition to effectively promote ethical consumption.

Social media influencers are an integral element of firms’ social media marketing strategies. Despite growing academic interest, only a few articles address managing influencer marketing from a firm’s perspective. In addition, there is scant knowledge of how influencers interpret organizations’ guidelines and produce the content associated with their commercial collaborations with brands. This omission is critical as influencers are in control of the message conveyed to the social media audiences and require managing in order to avoid image incongruity between the firms’s own and influencers’ communications. Drawing on a multi-method study including semi-structured interviews with destination marketing organizations and influencers, ethnographic observation and semiotic analysis of social media content, the findings contribute to two-step flow communication theory by showing how the “second step”, the influencer, decodes and transmits the commercial messages to his/her followers in the context of destination marketing. Destination marketing serves as an appropriate context for studying influencer marketing dynamics due to its complexity. In addition to more tangible elements, there are various intangible and immaterial characteristics of tourism offerings. Social reality – the destinations, milieus, places and businesses to be visited – and the campaign objectives are all entangled in the content narrative and interpreted by the influencer and her knowledge of her audience into what they could mean and become in the social media environments’ semiotic and symbolic landscapes. Influencer’s perception is embedded into the materiality of the social media environment. We argue that the interpretation and contextualization of the message occurs via two mediating layers: influencer’s creative process and the chosen technological platform’s materiality. While more tangible elements can be communicated easily to the target audience, more intangible elements require influencers’ interpretation. Influencers’ own interpretation and understanding of the intangible objectives and influencers’ perception of the social media audience’s understanding of the certain intangible element are determinative in the interpretation and contextualization of marketing messages of the campaign’s commercial stakeholders.

The main goal of this study is to explore how human and digital interactions online can enhance customer-organisation relationships through driving a change in customers’ cognitive and affective evaluations and behaviours. Process of digitalisation has changed consumers’ behaviours considerably through integration of digital technology in nearly every aspect of consumers’ life (Zeithaml et al. 2006). Hence, organisations have recognised the importance of delivering high-quality and efficient interactions as a distinguishing factor to achieve competitive advantage and build relationships with consumers (Lemon and Verhoef 2016). Accordingly, throughout the literature, there have been a number of conceptual papers debating the role of digital technologies and human employees (Bowen 2016; Larivière et al. 2017; Robinson et al. 2019; De Keyser et al. 2019). For instance, Shankar (2018) argues that service employees will work in tandem with digital technologies, whereas Huang and Rust (2020) debate that once technology develops empathy, service jobs will disappear.Throughout literature, it can be seen that the research in a field of technology, social presence, service employees, and consumer behaviour is fragmented. There is no unified framework that would explain how digital and human interactions affect a change in cognitive and affective evaluations and behaviours. Following technology adoption framework and theory of social presence, there is little evidence on whenever social presence conveyed through human and digital characteristics' influence a change in consumers’ cognitive and affective evaluations and behaviours (Short et al. 1976; Hassanein and Head 2007; McLean et al. 2020). Thus, building upon TAM and behavioural theories, this research aims to make a novel contribution and develop a framework that would explain how interactions with human and digital during service encounters affect behavioural responses towards a firm.Hereafter, this research addresses the theoretical knowledge gap by investigating how interactions with digital technology, particularly virtual agent (artificial intelligence), and service employee impact consumer behaviour. Hence, it is suggested to conduct an experiment under two motivational conditions and manipulate level of empathy and responsiveness of customer service agents. This will help to determine how human and digital characteristics can enhance social presence which in turn will affect customers’ cognitive, affective and behavioural responses towards a firm. By closing this gap, it will add to existing knowledge on technology adoption and social presence theory and will help to understand how organisations can achieve competitive advantage and build relationships with consumers through balancing digital and human interactions within service encounters (Bolton et al. 2018; Verhoef et al. 2019).

The rapid development of social media and influencer marketing has tremendously changed the way in which consumers collect information, make purchase decisions, and communicate with brands (Lou and Yuan 2019; Neal 2017; Scott 2015). Marketing practitioners, especially those from luxury brands, are explosively increasing their budget on influencer marketing more than ever for its payoff in sales performance (Lou and Yuan 2019). During the worldwide quarantine and social distancing due to the breakout of COVID-19 pandemic, influencer marketing has become one of the most prevailing marketing approaches.Researchers have revealed a variety of impacts of influencer marketing on both consumer behaviors and branding performance (Blackwell et al. 2017; Hollebeek et al. 2016; Schivinski et al. 2016; Vanmeter and Grisaffe 2015). However, there is a lack of evidence to answer whether consumers develop emotional attachment and to what extent towards the influencer and the brand involved in the brand-influencer collaboration. This research, founded on social attachment theory (Mawson 2005), adopts a mixed methodology approach to investigate the relationship between consumer satisfaction derived from influencer promoted purchases, influencer attachment, and luxury band attachment.In the context of influencer marketing, our research reveals positive relationships between consumer satisfaction, influencer attachment and luxury brand attachment respectively; furthermore, the positive impact of consumer satisfaction on influencer attachment is stronger than on luxury brand attachment. This research also identifies a positive moderating role of brand sponsorship on the relationship between consumer satisfaction and luxury brand attachment. Although the COVID-19 crisis has caused severe social and business isolation, it brings some exceptional opportunities for brands to bond with their target consumers through social media and influencer marketing. Our results show that consumers more autonomously engage in behaviors that enhance the development of attachment due to the social isolation under quarantine. This finding qualifies social attachment theory (Mawson 2005) to explain the occurrence of affiliation in the context of influencer marketing and identifies influencers as attachment figures to their online communities.

Empowered by traditional and social media, human brands enjoy a prominent position in contemporary societies and benefit from the establishment of strong consumer-brand relationships. However, as current times are marked with uncertainty and fakeness, authenticity has become a critical element for the development of these relationships, especially for human brands. We propose and test a model that depicts the relationship between human brand authenticity, understood as “being true to one-self”, and brand love. A stratified random sample of 748 non-student respondents was obtained from a web-based survey distributed through social media. OLS regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model. Results show that human brand authenticity has a positive and significant effect on brand love. Moreover, differences by human brand contexts are analyzed, offering some insights into how celebrity authenticity is processed across human brand types. Our study revealed that the effect of authenticity is stronger for politicians, CEOs, bloggers, religious leaders and television hosts, for whom showing consistency in behaviors and being true to themselves is critical for the attainment of brand love. In addition, a negative moderation by consumer’s age was identified, signaling to the decreasing importance of authenticity as a driver of brand love as consumers mature. No moderations were found by consumer’s gender. We conclude with important managerial implications suggesting that investments in fostering human brand authenticity will pay off through the establishment of long-lasting, loving and loyal relationships, which are crucial for building brand equity, especially in the contexts where human brand authenticity yielded higher effects on brand love. Instead of aiming for perfection, human brands and their managers must carefully design brand positioning strategies anchored in authenticity. Maintaining similar behaviors over time allows for the stability, continuity and consistency necessary for attaining perceptions of authenticity. In conclusion, human brands may trade in their authenticity for being liked, but to be loved, they must be authentic.

This theoretical article aims to analyze the psychosocial elements as meanings, attitudes, subjective behaviors and intentions that emotionally connect the digital influencers to their followers. Four psychosocial elements have been identified in the literature that allow this connection to be established, characterized as: Expertise, Number of Followers, Life stream and Storytelling. The combinations of these elements also generated factors that influence the motivation of the followers for keeping up with the routines of activities communicated in the virtual environment by their digital influencers. The factors identified from these combinations were: social status, popularity, strategic reconstruction of the digital self and the reputation of digital influencers. The managerial implications of this study are related to the identification of the characteristics of the digital influencers that contribute to increase their capacity of persuasion and thus lead the virtual users to become their followers and future consumers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many businesses but has especially impacted small businesses (Dua et al. 2020, Eggers 2020). In the early months of the pandemic, many small business owners did not have the financial ability to sustain their services due to lacking funds during the shut-down (Bartik et al. 2020). This has significant long-term effects on the global economy as small-to-medium size businesses comprise 90% of all global businesses and 55% of GDP (Salesforce 2019). The demise of small businesses could have incomprehensible long term impacts on the global economy. As a result, it is not surprising that many scholars are calling for more research to understand how businesses can continue their services during the global pandemic (e.g., Batat 2020; Heinonen and Strandvik 2020; Sajtos et al. 2020).Although past research has investigated crisis management from a marketing perspective, little research has explored how small businesses are able to continue services in a crisis of this extent. Past research recognizes that business model innovation can offer new profitable opportunities and/or provide a shield against dynamic environmental changes (McDonald et al. 2019; Teece 2018), but less work has explored how small businesses can attain business innovation models in the challenge of a significant crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, we explore the following research question: What can enable small businesses’ business model innovation during a crisis? To investigate this research question, we take an inductive, qualitative approach. Using qualitative interviews with 10 industry-diverse small business owners and 5 small business resource providers, the data reveals there are multiple paths to pursuing their interests in sustaining business. Specifically, we identify that through a cocreative process, small businesses rely on technology and intermediary organizations to foster new forms of pursuing business, specifically engaging in business model innovation (BMI). This research answers calls for research inquiring how businesses, and specifically small businesses, are able to help others cope with the crisis and support the economy (Pantano et al. 2020).

Amid skyrocketing costs and student debt, much has been written about the increasing skepticism of whether a traditional four-year degree is “worth it.” The general consensus among outlets such as Forbes, The WSJ, and CNBC (each citing recent polls) is that families’ attitudes toward higher education is changing, due to sharply rising costs. This change does not favor traditional college degree programs. In the midst of this transformation, branded digital marketing certificates have presented themselves as a more economical alternative. Perhaps the most worrisome of which are the recently announced “Google Career Certificates,” which are six-month programs geared to prepare workers for the digital economy. Google leadership states these new certificates are meant to be the equivalent of a four-year degree given that “college degrees are out of reach for many Americans, and you shouldn’t need a college diploma to have economic security.” The purpose of this panel session is to discuss what the traditional marketing degree program response should be to the changing perceptions of value and increased competition.The potential consequences of Google entering higher education have been further exacerbated by impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruption that many thought leaders have been talking about for years was accelerated in the span of a few months. The result was a wave of student questions and criticism of the value of online education directed against even the most renowned institutions. While pandemic-related impacts to teaching modality may not be long-term, it will likely take much longer for student sentiment to recover. Evidenced by over seventy lawsuits currently pending against colleges and universities, this confluence of factors should not be ignored. Rather, we need to view this as an opportunity for existential reflection on the most basic of marketing principles as they apply to higher education as a marketable service. As such, in this panel session, the following questions will be addressed by a diverse group of stakeholders: Will industry and prospective students/families accept these certificates as a substitute to a traditional degree? How should traditional marketing degree programs adapt or change program offerings to be more competitive/appealing? What is academia’s value proposition? How do we communicate this effectively with prospective students and their families? How do we train students on technologies many professors have never themselves used? Are there opportunities for public/private collaboration that provide technical skills, produce job-ready graduates, and lower costs? What could these look like? Student, industry, and academic representatives will discuss these questions and engage the audience in a lively conversation about the future of marketing education and the changing role of marketing academics.

In recent years, social media has emerged as a popular communication channel for senior management, especially for chief executive officers (CEOs). Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms because of its ease in reaching out to customers, employees, media, and the general public (Weber Shandwick 2017). Some of the current and former CEOs on Twitter include Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Tim Cook (Apple), John Legere (T-Mobile), Aaron Levie (Box), and Michael Dell (Dell).This study analyzes how CEOs communicate with their customers via Twitter. The aim is to help develop guidelines that leverage Twitter in leadership communications with customers. Based on a large-scale content analysis, we propose a model that categorizes differences in CEO Twitter use according to four dimensions: content professionalism, language professionalism, interactional effort, and information cues. We also develop coding schemes and measurement scales to map the relative position of each CEO account onto the four dimensions.Our study makes five specific contributions. First, it draws theoretical and managerial attention to the important role of corporate leaders on social media, which is lacking in prior research. Second, it presents the first comprehensive content analysis of the tweeting CEO phenomenon. Third, the study offers a useful tool for research on CEOs’ practice on Twitter. The four-dimensional model provides researchers with a useful instrument to examine and categorize Twitter practices. Fourth, we developed a coding matrix and measurement scales for all four dimensions. This matrix should be useful in guiding practitioners on measuring, comparing, and monitoring Twitter usage of corporate executives. Fifth, our study presents four maps that capture the over 300 CEO Twitter accounts’ position relative to one another on each dimension. Our scores and maps of tweeting CEOs provide scholars and managers with useful knowledge on CEOs’ practice on Twitter.

Extant literature has predominantly viewed value co-creation as a voluntary process of value creation between the customer and the service provider (e.g., Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer 2012; Sugathan, Ranjan, and Mulky 2017). However, the customer may not always enter into the value co-creation process voluntarily. As chatbots are increasingly replacing traditional customer service options (Belanche et al. 2020), customers may find themselves in situations where they are forced to use automated technologies (Reinders, Frambach, and Kleijnen 2015). Indeed, several service providers have started to offer chatbots as the only customer solution, especially as the first point of contact for customer service queries (Forrester 2017). Such cases, where the customer does not have a choice as to whether to interact with a chatbot or a human representative, represent instances of mandatory customer participation (Dong and Sivakumar 2017; Tsai, Wu, and Huang 2017).Limiting consumers’ perceived freedom of choice in co-creating, may result in severe negative attitudes towards the evaluation of the technology and the service provider (Reinders, Dabholkar, and Frambach 2008). Such attitudes may be further exacerbated when a situation requiring the forced use of a technology leads to service failure. We argue that in cases of service failure, forced co-creation (no choice but to interact with chatbot) will have a distinct impact on customer responsibility attributions of controllability, stability and locus of causality, when compared to voluntary co-creation (choice between chatbot and human representative). We also investigate the role of customer expectations and propose that expectations mediate the relationship between each co-creation setting and the resulting responsibility attributions.Experimental research is being proposed to test the research framework in a customer service setting, taking into consideration two types of service failure: outcome and process failure. Participants will be randomly assigned to two different co-creation settings: forced co-creation and co-creation by choice, and will be required to interact with an actual chatbot, which has been programmed using the IBM Watson platform. Participant responses will be recorded through an online questionnaire.The findings of this experimental research are expected to contribute to a more insightful understanding of the consequences of forcing consumers to use novel technologies. This is an important research area which has been largely overlooked in service literature to date, as the literature has typically examined the introduction of new technologies within a voluntary context. Insights into these behaviours are also important to achieve a more substantive understanding of the implications of AI technologies, and to find ways to reduce negative reactions to such technologies.

E-tailers’ marketing strategies and new technology developments on the internet frequently increase the likelihood of impulsive e-buying in consumers. Although, in some cases, these strategies may prove profitable and satisfactory for both the consumer and e-tailer, in other cases, the e-impulsivity of the consumer creates undesired business consequences, such as consumer regret and product returns for refund. Therefore, there are some circumstances under which impulse e-buying should be prevented for the mutual benefit of the consumer and e-tailer.Impulse buying has been explained as a failure in the management of consumer self-control, together with the influence of contextual variables that lead to unplanned or impulsive buying. Therefore, a person with a tendency to impulsivity and faced with certain external and internal stimuli in the internet environment, is more likely to buy impulsively than one without this personality trait.This research aims to investigate whether, in the face of undesired impulse e-buying, it is possible to manage the consumer impulsivity through gamified strategies reducing the probability of future returns and thus, to avoid the feeling of shame, guilt, and post-purchase remorse at the customer level and the economic cost at the company level.An experiment was set, in an online shopping context, designed ad-hoc. A purchase scenario was simulated. One hundred-sixteen (116) Americans ages 18-35 years old participated in the study for a financial incentive and were contacted through MTurk.Our results show that gamification approaches may help consumers reevaluate their decisions and retract them, thus reducing the volume of product returns resulting from impulse e-behavior.As managerial implications, in industries where impulse e-buying provokes high volumes of product returns, it will be appropriate for e-tailers to help consumers make timely and better decisions, in turn reducing the cost of reverse logistics and promoting consumer satisfaction with their brands.

As service functions based on automated technologies become more prevalent there is an increased likelihood that the way in which value is co-created and co-destructed is changing (Karteemo and Helkkukla 2018; Paschen et al. 2019; Van Esch et al. 2019). Vargo et al. (2017) assert that there is an imperative need to study fast, technology induced changes in service eco-systems. These technology induced changes along with their impact on customers’ experience of value co-creation and value co-destruction are the central phenomenon of this research. Specifically, the research presented in this study explores how (and if) customers’ experience value co-creation when interacting with brands’ automated technology in service-based value networks. The two proposed research questions are as follows: (1) How do customers perceive the impact of automated technology (chatbots) on value co-creation and value co-destruction? (2) What are the characteristics of chatbots that influence customers experience of value co-creation or value co-destruction? In doing so, this paper reveals a more accurate understanding of how novel automated technologies shape the dynamics of value co-creation and value co-destruction.A qualitative approach using exploratory interviews for data collection was chosen for this paper. Research on value co-creation and technology has predominantly adopted a quantitative survey-based approach to data collection (Balaji and Roy 2017; Zhang 2016; Khotamaki and Rajala 2016; See-To and Ho 2014). This paper offers an alternative approach seeking rich data about an under researched area. In addition, the findings of this paper provide the platform for a future quantitative study. The overall aim of the interviews was to achieve an in-depth understanding on customers’ interactional experiences with brands or service providers’ automated technology, while highlighting the characteristics of these automated technologies which co-create or co-destruct value for the customer during the service encounterA total of six themes were revealed from the exploratory interviews. These included, instantaneous support (i.e., social presence), informational benefits (i.e., information quality), personalisation, perceived control, consistency and understanding (i.e., comprehension of the service -related issue) and irreplaceability of humans (i.e., empathy). The findings of the current study indicate that customers may experience both value co-creation and value co-destruction when interacting with firms’ chatbots for service delivery depending on the characteristics of the chatbots. The current study is the first to explore both value co-creating and value co-destructing potentials of automated technology in value-based service networks. In addition, these emergent themes offer a differing perspective from the existing literature, thus, providing the scope to examine the identified themes in a wider quantitative study. Moreover, the study offers practitioners an understanding of the characteristics they need to pay attention to when implementing chatbots for service delivery. Doing so will increase the possibility of value co-creation for the customer during the service encounter, as well as enhance the customer experience which in turn could yield better customer brand engagement.

Mobile is emerging as the dominant platform on which consumers spend most of their time. Unlike the PC, many consumers form an emotional attachment relationship with their mobile (Vincent 2006). Consequently, these attached consumers demonstrate unique behaviors with and without their mobile (e.g., Kolsaker et al. 2009; Konok et al. 2016; Melumad and Pham 2020). Research to date has focused mainly on the consequence of separating from mobile while paying little attention to other aspects of mobile attachment. This study aims to uncover the impact of mobile attachment on their perception and the underneath mechanism. The context of our research is based on climate change communication. Through three laboratory experiments based on a combination of Attachment Theory and Construal Level Theory, we highlight the importance of psychological distance, attachment styles, and gender for the perceived credibility of an ad.Our results suggested that attached to mobile consumers tend to have a more psychological distant perspective on their mobile than when they are on PC. This is achieved by a heightened level of anxiety when attached to mobile consumers are away from their device, which leads to a more proximal psychological distance perception. This change in perception directly impacts the perceived credibility of the ad. This effect is moderated by their personal attachment style and by their gender. However, the actual differences between conditions are marginal, albeit statistically significant. The reported level of anxiety also seems high across our sample, which could be attributed to the ongoing pandemic at the time of data collection. Our findings have important implications for effective communication planning in climate-related subjects and various others within the emerging context of mobile. A dedicated approach should be made for heavy mobile users. And climate change ad should be described abstractly to match the consumers’ viewpoint on mobile. Further studies are recommended to address our limitations and validate the results externally.

A large body of research has explored how online customized ads can drive the perception of intrusiveness and result in customer behavioral intentions when the intention is to purchase a new product. However, little is known about how the perception of intrusiveness differs when the intention is to sell used products and the resultant behavioral intentions, like clickthrough and intent to sell. This is an issue of significant importance as more and more retailers from various product segments are offering customers options for selling their used products along with the options of buying their new products. For example, companies like ThredUp that provided an avenue for selling good quality clothes have partnered with Walmart, Gap, Reebok, and many other brands for providing resale experience to customers (Rosenbaum and Caminiti 2020). Further, it is not only in the apparel segment where reselling used products is prevalent; this trend has shown an upward trajectory in many other segments such as electronics and furniture as well, besides being a well-established business model for cars already. Recently, IKEA launched its first refurbished store in Sweden, taking advantage of this trend. Also, as more and more companies face the pressure of presenting themselves as a “sustainable” brand, and adding the current crisis faced by all due to the pandemic, this issue will only gain momentum.Our daily lives are replete with examples of times when we are faced with the option of letting go of something that has been sitting idle or not being used for a long time. With the opportunities provided by secondary markets, defined as markets for selling used goods, (Shulman and Coughlan 2007), it is imperative to ask how are the customized ads encouraging consumers to sell are received. What about that crib lying in the garage now that the kid is all grown up? Or that expensive Calvin Klein dress that is hanging in your closet with the hope of someday fitting you like it once did? Apps like Letgo and platforms like eBay provided great opportunities to people wanting to get rid of such stuff, that someone else might be interested in buying. Given the widespread use of the internet by all age groups, how receptive are customers when they are faced with a customized ad for a product they have been deliberating to sell online? Our research takes the first step towards attempting to answer such questions by linking the perception of intrusiveness associated with such customized ads, with a concrete established measure like Clickthrough.

On many e-commerce platforms such as Airbnb, StubHub and TURO, where each seller sells a fixed inventory over a finite horizon, the pricing problems are intrinsically dynamic. However, many sellers on these platforms do not update prices frequently. In markets where sellers have fixed inventories and limited selling time, optimal prices respond to both the remaining inventory and time (Gallego and van Ryzin 1994). Empirical studies (Williams 2018; Cho et al. 2018) examining pricing problems in these environments also support Gallego and van Ryzin’s (1994) theoretical prediction. However, on many e-commerce platforms where small sellers are facing a fixed inventory and limited selling time problem, we commonly observe price rigidity, which seems to contradict Gallego and Ryzin’s theory.Automated pricing, which uses machine learning algorithms to automatically price products, is becoming a standard feature on some of these platforms. One key feature of automated pricing is that it reduces the seller’s burden; the seller does not need to carry out a price-optimization problem every day. This paper develops a dynamic pricing model to study the revenue and welfare implication of automated pricing, which allows sellers to update their prices without manual interference. The model focuses on three factors through which automated pricing influences sellers: price adjustment cost, buyer’s varying willingness to pay and inventory structure. In the model, we also take into account competition among sellers.Utilizing a unique data set of detailed Airbnb rental history and price trajectory in New York City, we find that the price rigidity observed in the data can be rationalized by a price adjustment cost ranging from 0:9% to 2:2% of the listed price. Moreover, automated pricing can increase the platform’s revenue by 4.8% and the hosts’ (sellers’) by 3.9%. The renters (buyers) could be either better off or worse off depending on the length of their stays.

Metaphors and metaphorical thinking have enriched business management in general, but have hardly impacted marketing management even though marketing as science, theory, and practice could benefit from metaphors more than other disciplines in management. This paper explores the rich potential of metaphors, root metaphors, and metaphorical thinking and reasoning as an overarching methodology for developing marketing theory.In this context, we first review the three major theories of metaphor origins – the comparison theory, the semantic interaction-tension theory, and the cognitive theory – for developing metaphoric thinking and reasoning in marketing. The comparison theory focuses on metaphors being a matter of words, as a deviant from normal literal usage, and is based on the similarities between two things. However, it has been argued that this theory ignores the crucial role of differences. This gave rise to the semantic interaction-tension theory, which introduced the notion of tension to describe the literal incompatibility relationship between the subject and that which embellishes it.While the semantic interaction-tension theory was an improvement over the comparison theory, it did not solve the issue of transition from literal incongruence to metaphorical congruence between two semantic fields. Thus, the cognitive theory argued that metaphor usage is not only emotive, but a cognitively potential vehicle of knowledge possessing special meaning other than the literal meaning and reading of text. In sum, a metaphor should not only encourage a premature analytical closure (and thus knowledge dissemination) by emphasizing similarity, but also work on tension that dissimilarities create for knowledge generation.Next, in our search for a suitable root metaphor for use in marketing, we formulate several research propositions to illustrate the sub-metaphor producer-consumer relationship under the root metaphor of the Free Enterprise Capital System.Finally, along each of the three theories of metaphor origins we extract layers of metaphorical utterances that we label as zero-order data sentences, first-order theory sentences, and second-order value sentences that indicate higher layers of conceptual and theoretical richness in marketing science. We discuss managerial implications, limitations, and new directions for research.

The application of service robots is rapidly spreading across several store types, with robots performing more complex tasks and interacting with customers, welcoming and assisting them (Meyer et al. 2020; van Doorn et al. 2017). Although retailers are striving to identify the right balance between robot and human sales associates, there is still a need for further research assessing how the introduction of service robots can influence the customer experience and affect customer responses (Lu et al. 2020; Larivière et al. 2017).In this study, we examine the degree of customer immersion in human-human (HHI) vs. human-robot (HRI) in-store interactions across the stages of the selling process and we assess how immersion affects store visit duration. ​Specifically, we focus on four different stages of the selling process (welcome, store introduction, brand storytelling, and surprise) and apply a neuroscientific approach to measure immersion, which is defined as an experience of deep involvement with an aspect of the environment (Zak and Barraza 2018), in this case the sales associate.Based on a field experiment conducted in a retail store selling premium leather goods (n = 50 participants), we use a neuroscientific approach to collect customers’ biometrics through wearable sensors during the interactions that participants had with a service robot (Condition 1) or a human sales associate (Condition 2). Interactions were timed to obtain visit duration data and were analyzed using the Immersion Neuroscience™ platform, ANOVA and regression analysis through Hayes’ PROCESS model 1 with 5000 bootstrapping.Results show how the presence of a service robot has positive effects on customers during the service encounter. Customers enjoy interacting with service robots and this leads to higher levels of attention and engagement (Shamdasani et al. 2008; Iwamura et al. 2011)​. The interaction with a service robot increases the level of immersion in the welcome and surprise stages of the service encounter. By offering a small gift, the robot engaged in a social-relational task that was unexpected by customers and resulted in a higher degree of engagement. This study also confirms that immersion positively affects visit duration. This provides support from a neuroscientific perspective to past research proposing that the more consumers are engaged in a shopping experience, the more likely they are to spend more time in-store, with this effect being significantly stronger when customers interact with a human sales associate than a service robot. Service robots increase the efficiency of the shopping experience but reduce the level of immersion in the store introduction and the brand storytelling moments, leading customers to spend less time in the store. Thus, the role of human sales associates is critical for developing customer engagement and extending store visit duration.

Obesity and chronic diseases are the leading causes of mortality in Mexico. According to Barquera and Rivera (2020), the latest national survey indicated 36.1% of Mexican adults are considered obese, whereas only 23.5% has a healthy weight. The situation is attributable to a shift of the Mexican diet over the past 40 years, shifting from mainly fresh and organic foods to ultra-processed products high in sugar, salt and fat. The recent pandemic exacerbated the public health problem.Considered by many as having weak regulations in place, the Mexican government implemented a series of strategies and regulations in order to promote a healthier lifestyle. To date, no studies have been conducted to analyze public attitudes towards the regulations, legislation or any other recent effort. In order to fill this gap, the purpose of the study is to provide a research agenda of the Mexican society’s attitudes towards recent government efforts to reduce obesity rates and promotion of healthier lifestyles, such as the imposed soda tax and new labeling system.The drivers of obesity are varied, including economic, political, social, education, cultural, infrastructural and legal drivers. A model is proposed considering these drivers and their effect on demand and supply of junk food. Understanding the complex interactions between the drivers with supply and demand requires sound research that relies on an understanding of (i) Mexican idiosyncrasy, (ii) the role of supply and demand, as well as the exploration of the interactions from (iii) varied perspectives applying multiple consumer research approaches. Accordingly, a research agenda is presented.With collaboration across all parties involved, it would be possible to provide a holistic view of the problem. An understanding of Mexican idiosyncrasy can assist marketing managers and policy makers to tailor the appropriate messages to the consumer. Researchers may provide the first step towards building the harmonic effort needed by providing an understanding of the elements that prevent consumers to embrace practices for the society’s greater good.

Research on voluntary disclosure highlights the role of informative financial reporting for capital markets. Information asymmetry impedes the efficient allocation of resources in capital markets while credible disclosure between managers and investors plays an important role in mitigating these problems. Existing research provides limited insight into firms’ disclosure of information about their market-based assets such as brands, although brand is an important part of firms’ value proposition.This study aims to fill this research gap by investigating brand-related information (BRI) disclosure in US firms’ annual reports with three research steps. First, we develop the conceptualization of BRI, based on which, we build a BRI coding dictionary. We then conduct text mining on 10-K reports and construct a BRI disclosure index to capture the BRI disclosure level in firms’ 10-K reports. In the third step, we intend to explore the key factors driving BRI disclosure as well as its financial market consequences. We propose to empirically investigate how different levels of BRI disclosure are explained by firm characteristics and actual brand performance. We will also examine how BRI disclosure influences firm value, as well as the role that BRI disclosure plays in explaining the relationship between brand performance and firm value.This study fills the research gap in the field of information disclosure concerning BRI by conceptualizing a BRI framework and providing evidence on whether firms disclose BRI in financial reporting. This study will also contribute to marketing-finance literature by empirically investigating the informational value of BRI disclosure to firm value. The findings will provide managers and financial market participants (e.g., analysts, investors) who need to communicate and evaluate the performance implications of branding strategies and related activities with enlightenment on the value relevance of BRI disclosures.

The coronavirus outbreak (i.e., COVID-19) has swept across a growing number of countries worldwide, including the United States. In response, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has aggressively responded to the world health crisis to protect individuals from the virus. Official guidelines not only included recommendations such as social distancing and use of personal protective equipment, but also included several mandated business closures, which severely impacted small businesses. This study sought to understand factors that may attract consumers to small businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 to assist with business continuity. Specifically, this study explored whether consumer support for small business (shopping frequency and number of services used) during a pandemic can be explained by consumers’ emotional and cognitive experiences and whether there are any differences in consumer support for small business during a pandemic, depending on their demographic characteristics such as gender, generation, education and/or employment status. Using a national survey sample (n = 313), this study found that consumers’ support for small business during a pandemic can be explained by emotional and cognitive (resilience and optimism) experiences and demographic characteristics. Specifically, active resilience and negative and positive emotions influences small business shopping frequency and active resilience influences the number of services used at small businesses. Differences were found by generation, education and employment status on shopping frequency and services used. Differences were also found by annual income on shopping frequency. No differences were found by gender on shopping frequency or services used. Theoretically, this study contributes to research on disaster response by incorporating findings from the unprecedented global pandemic. Based on findings, small businesses may seek to trigger active resilience and emotions (negative and positive) in their advertising avenues to attract consumers. Small businesses may consider pivoting to attract particular consumer segments that are more likely to patronize frequently and use services offered by small business.

Financial reporting and disclosure are important means for management to communicate firm performance and governance to external stakeholders. Existing research provides limited insight into firms’ disclosure of information about their market-based assets such as brands, although brand is an important part of firms’ value proposition. Our research intends to address this research gap through (1) a theory-based conceptualization of brand-related information (BRI) and (2) an empirical analysis of BRI disclosure in corporate reports, more specifically, in US firms’ annual reports on Form 10-K.We incorporate automated text analysis to identify and measure BRI disclosure in 10-K reports. Automated text analysis allows us to process massive amounts of text efficiently and reliably. Extant studies using automated text analysis are primarily rely on word-level analysis, yet most concepts entail multiword terms or phrases to convey meaning. We address this limitation of existing methods by applying phrase-level analysis to BRI disclosure. First, we draw on the literature on customer-based brand equity and intellectual capital disclosure to develop the conceptualization of BRI. Building on this conceptualization, we explore the capacity of natural language processing to build a phrase-level BRI coding dictionary. Second, we use automated text analysis to construct a BRI disclosure index that captures the BRI disclosure level in firms’ 10-K reports. Unlike prior studies that focus on word-level analysis for construct measurement, our method utilizes proximity search to match phrases in the BRI coding dictionary with texts and incorporate a proximity-weighing mechanism to conduct a phrase-level analysis of BRI disclosures.The contribution of this study is twofold. First, this study fills the research gap in the field of information disclosure concerning BRI by conceptualizing a BRI framework and providing evidence on whether and how firms disclose BRI in financial reporting. Second, our method broadens the possibility of utilizing automated text analysis in constructing research-specific coding dictionaries as well as conducting phrase-level text analysis. While current research has made some efforts to provide a structured process for phrase-level text analysis, there is limited guidance regarding the operationalization of phrase match with proximity search.

Marketing scholars have increased their focus on examining the role of political connections (e.g., a donation to political parties) in enhancing performance. However, most studies have overlooked a unique approach in which business-to-government (B2G) firms proactively forge their relationship with the government—government-to-contractor revolving door appointments (revolving door appointments hereafter). Revolving door appointments refer to a firm’s hiring of former public employees from government agencies as corporate executives and directors. Though revolving door appointment is a prevalent approach to build relational ties with government customers, the implication of revolving door appointments in managing customer relationship remains highly underdeveloped.Prior studies predominantly examine a firm’s financial performance (e.g., abnormal stock returns) as outcome variables, neglecting the role of relational value that revolving door appointments bring in a buyer-seller relationship. We thus evaluate its effect on customer relationship performance, which refers to the firm’s success in building (customer acquisition performance) and enhancing customer relationships (cross-selling performance). Therefore, we propose our research question: what is the effect of revolving door appointments on customer relationship performance? Analyzing multisource secondary panel data of 102 publicly-traded U.S. firms in the B2G market over 14 years (2004–2017), we demonstrate that revolving door appointment has a positive effect on customer relationship performance. It implies that a firm can leverage revolving door executive’s and director’s ties with customers (i.e., government agencies) and gain first-hand information about potential customers and identify the new needs of customers. We also identified two crucial contingent factors critical to the leverage of knowledge from revolving door appointments: market knowledge (a firm’s experiences and knowledge in serving government customers) and product scope (the narrowness of the firm’s product knowledge). Market knowledge strengthens the effects of revolving door appointments on customer relationship performance because market knowledge enables the firm to better leverage the connections with and knowledge of customers from revolving door appointments. Product scope weakens the positive effects of revolving door appointments because revolving door executives and directors have limited opportunities to apply their connections and knowledge when providing offerings. These results offer unique contributions to marketing theories and policymakers.

This study examines consumer response to firm’s irresponsible behavior that is damaging to the environment and infringes upon sustainable development goals. We measure consumer reactions to information provided in six scenarios from respondents in the US, Mexico, and Thailand. The spectrum of emotional reactions that is measured ranges from expressing anger to becoming active in demanding sustainable practices wanting to make the company pay for the irresponsible behavior. We examine the various circumstances that damage the consumer-supplier relationship and the factors that impact this relationship, such as physical proximity to the consumer and the severity of the violation. According to construal theory, a person perceives distance of objects or events in both psychological and physical terms (Trope and Liberman 2010). Drawing from this theory, individuals engage their emotions toward the physical proximity of the violation differently (Strizhakova and Coulter 2019). When individuals perceive the negative effect of such incident from close distance (i.e. local area), they tend to perceive negative consequences more concretely than compared to the distant occurrence. In addition, according to the attribution process framework proposed by Hartmann and Moeller (2014), the severity of incident plays a role in the blame and responsibility of incidents for more severe incidents compared to incidents of low severity (Tennen and Affleck 1990). When people perceive the effects of incidents as severe, they are likely to react to those incidents emotionally with anger. The experimental research design includes six conditions forming a 2 X 2 (Distance of effect: Close vs Distant) X 2 (Severity: High vs Low) possible combinations that test fluctuation in consumer response.

Marketing literature on customer-firm interactions acknowledges the role of touchpoints on customer-firm relationships, as successful encounters through touchpoints lead to stronger relationships. However, there is little empirical evidence on the long-term impact of touchpoints on important measures of customer perceptions. In this context, the purpose of this study is to compare the short- and long-term impacts of different provider-controlled touchpoints on customer perceptions. Specifically, this study assesses the impact of touchpoints related to sales force, product, consulting, communication, tangibles and standardized contacts.To test the proposed model, data from a multinational insurance company are used to obtain a random panel dataset of 2175 customers over 5 years. A six-equation seemingly unrelated regression model is developed to assess the effectiveness of provider-controlled touchpoints. The results reveal that some touchpoints have important consequences both in the short and long term. Touchpoints related to sales force and product are vital in maintaining long-term positive customer perceptions. Other touchpoints have significant short-term effects, but no long-term consequences on customer perceptions. The results also indicate that an overuse of some touchpoints may potentially damage the customer-firm relationship in the long term.The findings of this pioneering research provide empirical evidence of how the impact of some touchpoints on customer perceptions changes over time. The importance of identifying short- and long-term implications of touchpoints on customer perceptions is confirmed. As a result, the implications of this study are relevant for academia and best practices alike. By differentiating between these types of effects on customer perceptions, this research adds breadth and depth to the limited academic knowledge about long-term effectiveness of touchpoints. As regards managerial implications, this study is relevant in terms of resource allocation, as it specifically analyzes changes occurring over time and identifies the interactions that will have the most important long-term effect on the customer-firm relationship.

This study adopts the Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM), and the Social Exchange Theory (SET) to investigate consumers’ trust, commitment, and satisfaction behaviours on companies’ value co-creation, and aims to find out how the privacy concerns of consumers affect consumer behaviour on the way of creating value for the organisation.Prior studies show the negative relationship between trust and privacy concerns (Cases et al. 2010), and privacy concerns and value co-creation (Tajvidi et al. 2018; Wang and Hajli 2014) consumer commitment and satisfaction (Inman and Nikolova 2017; Wang et al. 2019). Hence, we propose that high level of trust in usage of online social sites have a significant negative effect on privacy concerns (H1), high level of privacy concerns have a significant negative effect on creation of value for the organization (H2), and high level of privacy concerns in usage of online social sites have a significant negative effect on consumers’ commitment (H3), and satisfaction (H4). Trust can also lead consumers’ value co-creation behaviors. According to Dabhholkar and Sheng (2012), the consumers’ trust level is related to their participation in online communities. If consumers’ trust increases, they will be more eager to provide to the community by sharing knowledge, participating in debates, and creating relationships with others which drives value co-creation by producing data and interaction (Pappas 2016; Toufaily et al. 2013). Hence, we propose that high level of commitment in usage of online social sites, leads to create value for the organization (H5), high level of satisfaction in usage of online social sites, leads to create value for the organization (H6), and high level of trust in usage of online social sites, leads to create value for the organization (H7).An online survey is distributed to collect the data in two countries (UK and Turkey). The preliminary data is analysed, and the analyses show that the relationship between trust and privacy concerns, and privacy concerns and value co-creation, commitment, and satisfaction are not significant (H1, H2, H3, H4 are rejected). Satisfaction and value co-creation relationship is found to be significant for Turkey, but not significant for the UK (H6), and commitment and value co-creation and trust and value co-creation relationships are both significant (H5 and H7). The multigroup analysis with the overall model does not show any statistically significant differences between the two countries.As the global competition between organisations are increasing in these days, a better understanding of how big data becomes valuable organisational asset is necessary for developing and obtaining a long-term success for cross-cultural perspective, and this study contributes to literature by investigating the privacy concerns of consumers from value co-creation perspective.

Ridesharing platforms like Uber and Lyft have recently come under public scrutiny regarding the “independent contractor” vs “employee” status of their drivers in the State of California and the Biden-Harris administration. Proponents of employee status argue that it establishes a safety net for the drivers like the protection from federal minimum-wage and overtime laws. Opponents argue that it removes working flexibility in participation valued by many drivers and adds labor costs to the sharing economy.To address whether or under what circumstances, the platform, the drivers and consumers are better off under the “employee” or under the “independent contractor” status, we derive the optimal compensation design and pricing strategy under each of these two statuses. We show how the profitability and welfare comparisons for the platform, drivers and consumers across the two statuses depend on key market characteristics, such as difference in demand between rush hour and non-rush hour periods, number of total drivers and the degree of heterogeneity in the outside options of drivers.Our paper provides support for the concerns in the public arena by highlighting potential regions of conflict where the platform’s preferred choice of the contractor status can leave drivers worse off. At the same time, we show that there are also scenarios where the drivers and the platform are aligned in their preference for the contractor status, and any regulatory intervention forcing a switch to an employee status may leave drivers worse off. It happens when the degree of heterogeneity in the outside options of drivers is relatively high and surge demand in rush hour period is relatively low. In addition, we highlight areas where such intervention can improve drivers’ welfare but hurt consumers in the process, as well as areas where the intervention can benefit both drivers and consumers. Our results have significant managerial implications to ridesharing platforms and other gig economy like food-delivery companies and grocery-delivery companies.

The internet has allowed the development on online communities, or “e-tribes” that are dedicated to narrow interest groups. This research used a qualitative netnographic examination of people’s participation in four online Facebook groups dedicated to bicycle touring. These groups appear to be online “leisure communities”. The results demonstrate that these groups provide a considerable amount of information and support to these niche communities. In this case a small but devoted following of bikers made use of these Facebook groups as their online community. Participants requested and shared information and opinions on equipment, planning, routes, and experiences on the road. Posters varied in their use of the online community, from frequently active to one-time users. Almost all requesters seem to benefit from basic information on equipment and routes. The groups are generally supportive where more experienced bikers mentor and encourage potential bikers. We did not investigate how long people remained a member of the groups, or what percentage moved from novices to more experienced riders, or what could lead to a lasting commitment to a group. Finally, although this analysis used several groups, our results may not generalize to other e-tribes or social networks in general.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted lives globally and caused physical, economic and social havoc across the world. The impact to businesses in some instances has been catastrophic, while other businesses are figuring out how to navigate interactions with customers and modifying business models as the crisis ebbs and flows. Part of the unique challenge associated with the pandemic is navigating messaging to consumers. Now that the pandemic has continued for over a year, advertisers have had to consider the new normal in all of their advertising messaging. This notion of message development and effectiveness during a natural disaster stands at the core of this study.This study examines the impact of different types of advertising cues on consumer attitude formation and contributes to the literature by understanding how relation of cues to the current pandemic can be used to create effective advertising. We manipulate relationship of the cues to Covid at three levels in the advertisements to examine differences in consumer responsiveness to the ads.Data was collected from 228 participants. The findings indicated that an ad with high levels of Covid related cues (focus on active social responsiveness) was favorably evaluated by consumers. However, the ad with the lowest level of Covid related cues (focus on product efficiency) was just as effective. This may be due to the high relevance of the product being utilitarian in preventing Covid. It is noteworthy that the ad with moderate level of Covid related cues had the least favorable evaluation of consumers. The findings also suggest that it is important for companies to pay attention to self-referencing as a moderator in their advertising during a natural disaster.

Luxury online sales continue to grow despite the pandemic setback. Luxury brands have increasingly relied on chatbots, an AI-powered computer program to serve as a 24/7 virtual agent for online communications with customers. Even though chatbots have many benefits such as enhancing productivity and giving customers instant feedback, communication with chatbots can be viewed as impersonal and robotic. This drawback is a concern as customers expect a more personalized experience from luxury brands. Previous research has examined ways to humanize chatbots. But little is known about whether a luxury brand chatbot should use emoticons to resemble human interactions in luxury brand communication. This research seeks to address this question. Across three studies using different luxury products and services, we found consistent evidence that using emoticons in a luxury brand’s chatbot communications can lower the luxury brand’s status perception. In addition, the research has uncovered the underlying process by showing such negative effect was due to the lowered perceived appropriateness. We also found such effect only existed for the traditional luxury brands but not for masstige brands. Masstige brands are priced well below the traditional luxury brands. They are not associated with scarcity and rarity as they give ordinary people access to luxury. This research contributes to the luxury brand communication literature. It aligns with previous research and suggests what works for other industries may not work for the luxury industry. This research also contributes to the understanding of emoticon usage in the human-chatbot interaction while emoticon’s senders are chatbots. More importantly, our research contains managerial implications. Luxury brand managers need to be cautious with using emoticons in the chatbot communications. It may be good for traditional luxury brands to stay away from using emoticons in chatbot communication.

The fitspiration trend, which is supposed to help achieve fitness goals, has been found to influence individuals’ perception of the ideal body shape and size (Ho et al. 2016), and to increase body dissatisfaction rates (Tiggemann and Zaccardo 2015). This pre-test looked into models that will be used for our main study, which will evaluate the role of other factors that may affect the relationship between fitspiration exposure and body dissatisfaction, such as emotions, exercise self-efficacy, and self-improvement motivation. This study will also compare differences in body dissatisfaction rates between exposure to fitspiration vs the thin-ideal in Instagram posts.Specifically, fitspiration has also been found to influence maladaptive behaviors including obsessive-compulsive exercising, engagement in excessive and rigid fad diets (Ratwatte and Mattacola 2019), and an increase in body dissatisfaction (Ho et al. 2018), all known precursors of eating disorders. However, Heinberg and colleagues (2016) argue that some degree of body dissatisfaction may motivate engagement in healthy behaviors such as exercising and healthy dieting. Similarly, Moffitt and others (2018) found self-compassion reduces body dissatisfaction and influences self-improvement motivation. In thinking about the role of emotions, appraisal theory (see Roseman 1991) argues emotions are responses to how an individual perceives and interprets any situation corresponding to the relevance it has on their personal goals. However, Pounders and colleagues (2018) found emotions play a significant role in message acceptance, along with self-efficacy.With this in mind, we propose that by manipulating emotions (hope, guilt, and pride) in the fitspiration messages on Instagram captions, the effects of exposure body dissatisfaction may differ. We also argue these differences may depend on whether the exposure is to the thin-ideal or to the fitness ideal. As such, in this pre-test we exposed 94 students to different fitness levels models for a manipulation check, and after performing a between subject analyses, selected the models that will be used to test our hypotheses in the main study.

During the COVID-19 crisis it is crucial that companies understand that the brand messages they are delivering to their consumers may be perceived differently based on mental distance, hence being mindful of the decisions they make. The goal of this research is to understand how psychological distances can influence the perceptions of consumers toward organization’s decisions in ambivalent situations. We examine such responses from the view of consumers and rely on Construal Level Theory (CLT) to inform and predict possible outcomes. Their actions, which can often send mixed messages, indicate ambivalence depending on whether they convey morality or competence efforts more. It is important, through the lenses of CLT, to examine how psychological distance formed from messaging can influence how consumers perceive an organization’s level of competence or morality. We investigate the perspectives and evaluations of consumers regarding ambivalence acts of an organization based on spatial distance (near vs. far). A between subject’s behavioral experiment design was used and we randomly assigned participants to one of the two different spatial conditions, near or far. Participants read about the ambivalent situation we created regarding the university’s decision during COVID-19 and were randomly assigned to either competence ambivalent or morality ambivalent. We demonstrate that this can result in varying customer perceptions toward the organization. Our findings show that customers at a distance (far spatial distance) will value the moral decisions made by the organization more than its level of competency. Whereas there was no significant difference when customers are local (near spatial distance). Our results suggest that in order to be perceived more positively and increase customer satisfaction levels, organizations should take morality based actions over competence based actions.

Marketplace competition is typically associated with firms with corporate ownership and governance structures. However, alternate ownership and governance structures such as cooperatives (and credit unions and mutual insurance companies), offer internal social cohesion, while also allowing firms to compete externally. Typically, co-ops are either producer-, consumer-, worker-, or purchaser-owned, or consist of a combination of these member-owned types. By diffusing ownership, these member-owned businesses (MOB) become more democratized in governance than investor-owned business (IOB), as each member-owner has a single voting share. Democratizing ownership and governance requires increased co-operation among members, as it equally pools individual interests together in the shared interests and objectives of the firm.In the face of economic uncertainty, democratized ownership and governance leads to a long-term approach to sustainability, which increases the economic stability of cooperatives. While the cooperative structure is commonly found in countries outside the U.S., American co-ops such as Ace Hardware and Ocean Spray are multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Despite the growing popularity of co-ops as a business model in the U.S., there is scant marketing literature that assesses how co-op governance converges with consumer interests. How can co-ops leverage the comparative advantage of MOBs’ democratized ownership and governance and turn it into a competitive advantage within the actually existing capitalist marketplace context of corporate social responsibility and IOBs?The goal of the author’s research is to explore the co-op context relative to marketplace competition for consumers. Using qualitative data, the author explores the role of cooperatives, how MOB practices are shaped by the democratic ownership structures, how these firms “reach” consumers, and how consumers respond to the cooperative environment. The author develops a thematic analysis of how entitativity is developed in MOBs, by which marketers, particularly in the MOB context, can glean insights to create value for consumers. Observational and interview data highlight how marketing strategy can ensure the internal ownership and governance model of MOBs are leveraged as a sustainable advantage, while presenting externally as similar to investor-owned competitors.

The results of the participation in the French elections indicate that citizens with an immigrant background (immigrants and their descendants) participate less in elections (INSEE 2017). To provide elements of understanding of this phenomenon, we examine what meaning voters with an immigrant background give to the exercise of vote and how do they perceive the political marketing implemented for minorities or diversity.We focused in particular on French nationals of North African (Maghrebi) ethnicity insofar as they represent the largest minority in France (Tribalat 2011). Their vote has therefore a significant impact on certain elections.In an exploratory approach, we opted for a qualitative methodology. We carried out in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 French people of North African origin between 27 and 46 years old. They had diversified professional categories and obtained French nationality in all possible ways: by descent (i.e. parents were already French citizens), by naturalization, by marriage, and by juris solis (INSEE 2012).These in-depth interviews were then analyzed using the content analysis method based mainly on a thematic semantic analysis and on a lexical and syntactic analysis.After analyzing these preliminary results, we observe multiple meanings assigned to the concept of diversity. The only common demand of this market seems to be accepted as French without further qualification.This assumes that diversity should not be deployed as a segmentation criterion impacting decision-making paths in terms of types and sources of information, projects or ideas, but rather in terms of discourse that emphasizes blindness to origin among French nationals.In addition, the people interviewed expressed their feelings of being badly categorized in the politicians’ speeches. Therefore, marketers, considered as “cultural agents” (Penaloza and Gilly 1999) should ensure the voters are not incorrectly represented or excluded from the public sphere (Servais 2017). They must be able to know the antecedents and consequences of the categorization processes (Durand and Paolella 2013), to study the status and dynamics of categories (Delmestri and Greenwood 2016) and finally to focus on the origin of these categories and their creation process (Blanchet 2018; Durand and Khaire 2017).On a theoretical level, this exploratory research contributes to the concept of diversity by bringing new registers of meaning. Moreover, this study prompts us to question the identity categorization processes deployed in the political marketing theories. On a practical level, this research questions the relevance of segmenting voters as ethnic targets and offer an attempt at finer segmentation based on the mode of acquisition of French nationality which could provide a better understanding of differences in behavior.

Over the last 50 years, advertising in men’s lifestyle magazines continue to act as a medium to portray the evolving concept of masculinity as a reflection of commercial culture (Tan et al. 2013). According to Zayer et al. (2020), marketers and advertisers mirror these developments in their campaigns portraying multiple perspectives on masculinity to reflect gender (Tan et al. 2013; Zayer et al. 2020). This influx in mass media depicting different types of masculinity has led male audiences to re-evaluate and compare their own masculinity to those within media (Tan et al. 2013; Zayer et al. 2020). Therefore, the role of the male actor in an advertisement is of critical importance to image creation, interpretation, and critical analysis.The current study applies a comparative content analysis. This methodology focuses on how masculine appeals and objectification appear in the content of popular magazine ads. Findings contribute to the existing literature by detailing differences in masculinities and masculine appeals identifying which stable and fluid masculine attributes across magazine genre. According to these data, the ‘ideal’ masculinity across the sample that is communicated to male readers who construct their own variation of masculine identity and aesthetic through a process of encoding the advertisement content, retaining information, and later retrieving the information and replicating the public messages into their private lives. Findings presents descriptive evidence of masculine representation in the sampled public space. Future studies should investigate the psychological effects of advertisements on the behavior of men when exposed to advertisements over an extended period. Moreover, to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the psychological and social utility consumers derive from consuming advertisements, a cognitive processing model should be developed in relation to the masculinity appeals and target audience identity.

Consumers shopping behaviors have transformed and changed with evolving digital elements across channels such as websites and mobile applications. Prior studies have started to substantiate the specific nature of in-store shopping, online shopping and, to a lesser extent, mobile app shopping. Thus, in-store shopping and its distinctive characteristic, namely the ability of consumers to experience an offer on a multisensory level (Childers et al. 2001) contrasts with the limited sensory exploration (e.g., touch and scent) in online and app shopping. Contrary, online shopping is viewed as differing in terms of production information available to consumers, allowing them to compare offers on multi-attributes (e.g., Park and Kim 2003; Scarpi 2011). A few studies have assessed shopping on mobile apps (e.g., Wang et al. 2015) and have identified habitual shopping as the primary reason to utilize apps. Much of the current understanding of the different retail environments draws from research assessing each context individually or comparing consumer behaviors across two contexts (Liu et al. 2019; Newman et al. 2018; Rohm and Swaminathan 2004) rather than multiple environments. The current research contributions hinge on the comparison of shopping behaviors and experiences across store, online, and app environments from a holistic perspective. Previous research primarily assesses each retail environment individually, yet the current research provides a comparison of consumer behavior and shopping experience across three main shopping environments: store, online, and mobile applications.Study 1 (N = 232) focused on providing initial evidence for the proposed differences in shopping behaviors across store, online, and app environments. Study 2 (N = 594) examined how shopping environments shape overall consumer experiences by assessing commonly studied outcome variables in this area: utilitarian and hedonic value, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, repatronage intention, and flow (Babin et al. 1994; Jones et al. 2006; Maxham and Netemeyer 2002; Wang et al. 2007).Current findings reveal diverging shopping behaviors driven by shopping environments. For example, online and app shopping is mainly done weekly by most consumers, who spend the most amount of money when shopping online. In addition, shopping experiences elicit varying consumer responses such as higher levels of hedonic value in store versus online and app contexts.Overall, managers need to consider these differences when creating comprehensive shopping experiences as part of a comprehensive customer journey. In creating a seamless omni-channel customer journey, companies need to carefully consider and adjust strategic approaches to offer positive experiences throughout various touchpoints. Clearly, distinctive consumer behavioral trends emerged across shopping environments.

With limited travel in a post COVID-19 world, consumers seek cultural experiences closer to home. Services like ethnic dining provide consumers the opportunity to immerse in a culturally authentic experience not a part of their daily lives (Southworth 2018; Yu et al. 2020). However, to date, research has not determined how authentic is authentic enough or if customer need some adaptation of the service encounter to their own culture for full satisfaction. On the one hand, prior research suggest that cross-cultural service encounter adaptation is associated with positive customer outcomes such as rapport, satisfaction, and WOM (Azab and Clark 2017). On the other hand, cultural authenticity is suggested to be a driver of successful service encounters (Wang and Mattila 2015), increasing customers’ satisfaction and loyalty (Park et al. 2019). Thus, adaptation and authenticity present conflicting forces in optimizing the cross-cultural service experience and satisfying customers’ demand to immerse in a foreign culture. Further complicating the situation, there is a lack of generalization across different customer groups.In this study, the authors explore the following research questions; (1) Could higher service adaptation lead to lower satisfaction if it is perceived to take away from cultural authenticity? Does too much authenticity lead to discomfort, reducing positive customer outcomes? Is there an optimum level of authenticity-adaptation? (2) Do the same assumptions hold across different generations? Is seeking authentic or more adapted cultural service experiences a generational phenomenon? (3) What role do cultural competences play - can customer cultural competences bridge the perceived authenticity – customer experience gap?The authors explore these research questions using scenario-based experiments set in the context of an Indian restaurant. Results show that too much authenticity may hinder the optimum service experience (Study 1). While younger customers prefer moderate adaptation/ authenticity (rather than low adaptation), older generation seems more adventurous and perceives a better experience (satisfaction, WoM, repatronage) when there is low to no adaptation (full authenticity) (Study 1 and 2). We find that positive outcomes are significantly higher for older generations when adaptation is low (Study 2). The effect of cultural competences is yet to be determined (Study 3).This study contributes to the literature by revealing that high levels of perceived authenticity do not always ensure positive outcomes, and that outcomes associated with perceived authenticity vary across generations. Managerially, the study helps organizations tailor the optimal level of authenticity by adjusting the level of adaptation of the offering to suit particular clientele.

Virtual reality (VR) experiences can be utilized as differentiating promotional tools to increase immersion and illicit emotions for the purpose of impacting the development of wine tourism and wine sales. Wine tourism is a continuously growing industry that plays an important role in the development of rural areas. However, wine regions, such as the Riverland wine region in South Australia, face difficulties in differentiating themselves and motivating tourists to visit. For the purpose of this study, a Riverland wine region VR experience was created to showcase what the region has to offer with the goal of promoting national and international tourism (particularly from China and the USA). This study explores the role of a VR experience on behavioral outcomes such as desire to visit the region as well as desire to purchase products produced in the region (such as wine). Moreover, it explores elements of a VR experience that play a role in influencing perceptions of immersion as well as behavioral outcomes. Focus groups were conducted in both USA (4 focus groups) and China (4 focus groups) in order to explore factors that play a role in the creation of a VR experience that can positively influence behavioral outcomes in a tourism context. A second quantitative stage was also conducted in Australia. Data was analyzed using Leximancer (qualitative data) and SPSS (quantitative data). Sensory engagement, perceived quality of the VR experience, presence of an authority figure (such as a tour guide), perceptions of authenticity of the experience and perceived control within the experience were all found to play an important role in influencing perceptions of immersion in the VR experience as well as desire to visit and purchase products produced in the region. The outcomes of the study indicate that virtual reality is a successful new approach in influencing tourism.

This research presents three studies that explore psychophysiological mechanisms regarding implementing a multisensory imagery strategy on consumer’s perception. Based on our first study’s self-report data, the effectiveness of this strategy will depend on the consumer’s masculine-feminine self-concept. Specifically, the multisensory imagery marketing messages tend to provide consumers with a higher degree of femininity a greater level of involvement and engagement than consumers with higher masculinity. This is because this advertisement facilitates the linkage between the consumer’s self-concept and their emotional memories. The second study will triangulate the results from the self-report data with brain activation using electroencephalography (EEG) signals, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe areas. The third study will triangulate the results from self-report data (Study 1) and brand activation (Study 2) with the neurological data via the examination of Postsynaptic Density Protein 95 (PSD-95) and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) expressed particularly in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus areas of the laboratory animal (Monodelphis domestica: gray short-tailed opossum). These proteins are also a conserved structure that presents in the human brain.This study contributes to the sensory imagery stream of research and contributes to the expanding literature on consumer neuroscience. Based on our knowledge, this study is the first marketing research that triangulates and utilizes multiple methods—the use of self-report data, brain activations (i.e., EEG signals), and the neurological indicators (i.e., PSD-95 and BDNF protein) in the laboratory animal to obtain a better understanding of the effect of multisensory imagery marketing strategy on consumer’s perception. Additionally, this study also offers new insights to marketing practitioners and public policymakers. When creating an advertisement, marketers should pay attention to the different degrees of consumer’s masculine-feminine self-concept. Public policymakers can utilize multisensory imagery cues when introducing a new public policy campaign since multisensory imagery messages offer consumers a greater ability to recall information.

This study contributes to the stream of literature focused on the business education in the digital age. In particular, this research maps out the critical first stages of consumer journey (service pre-experience and pre-purchase stages) of mature-age online MBA prospective students in Australia and identifying relevant factors that may influence the conversion rates. This research embraced a deep consumer insight approach, enabling to understand why customers do or do not engage with businesses (Price et al. 2015) with student journey mapping steps followed in line with Rains (2017). In–depth interviews were conducted with 30 online MBA prospective students (35–65 years old) that have approached one of the largest online MBA providers in Australia. A traditional thematic analysis conducted by researchers and the text minding analysis (Leximancer) were used to further identify themes.Two distinctive types of personas emerged. Although each persona seemed to progress along the decision-making timeline in a similar way, they varied substantially in how they engage with each touch point in their journey. In particular, one persona type spent a considerable amount of time following social media posts pertinent to the online provider and approached MBA recruitment team via email, seeking information on the website regarding the subjects’ content; while another predominately explored price and payment options preferring to call and speak with the recruitment team directly. For both personas the major motivation for their online MBA study consideration emerged as a career advancement/career grow with the second theme being learning and personal development. Both personas attributed value to online MBA for flexibility and mobility, subjects’ contemporary content, support of facilitators, reasonable price for value, and easy access to learning materials. Major reference points were work consultants, colleagues, friends and family members. ‘Positive word of mouth’ via MBA forum reviews and personal sources were important determinants prompting in–depth search. Touch points with the recruitment team generated the following themes: personal and professional characteristics of the advisor expected to be prompt, friendly, non-intrusive, offering follow up communication in a timely manner and having in–depth understanding of MBA offering. The emerged ‘pain-points’ revolved around a very generic and intrusive ‘sale pitch’ by the recruitment individuals without understanding the ‘why’ behind each student’s motives to engage into online MBA. Overall, this study revealed the importance of consumer journey mapping for mature-age online MBA prospective students in Australia, capturing service pre-experiences and pre-purchase stages that, when executed right, enable a transition of prospects into the next decision- making stage.

Improving the customer experience and building barriers to lock customers are two key strategies employed by firms to enhance customer retention. Although pursuing the same goal, these strategies work differently: the former promotes the affective aspects of the relationship while the latter relies more on a calculative, cost–benefit approach to the exchange. Integrating experiential learning theory, we provide an integrative conceptual understanding of the separate and joint effects of customer experience and lock-in on customer retention. Using a dataset containing perceptual, competitive, and transactional information for a sample of 13,761 customers covering all firms in the telecom market for two different services, we empirically test the proposed framework via multinomial logit modeling. The results offer novel insights into the presence of trade-offs between these two key strategies. We show that with one lock- in, the role of customer experience becomes weaker. However, with multiple lock-in methods where negative interaction is captured, customer experience does matter. Our contribution consists of identifying whether customer experience and lock-in complement or substitute each other and when such effects occur, thereby helping firms optimally allocate marketing resources to retain customers.

The beginning and the end of the sales cycle, canvassing (i.e., approaching new customers) and closing (i.e., the process of trying to sign and finalize a deal), represent key moments of potential rejection. While these moments can induce significant stress and are prone to avoidance and procrastination (Bagozzi and Verbeke 2020; DeCarlo and Lam 2016; Ingram et al. 2017), they are crucial for a salesperson’s success (DeCarlo and Lam 2016; Sabnis et al. 2013). Some salespeople react with procrastination while others dive headfirst into these challenges (e.g., Bolander et al. 2020; DeCarlo and Lam 2016).This study explores whether these different reactions relate to genetic predispositions. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory (DST) (e.g., Belsky and Pluess 2009; Homberg and Jagiellowicz 2021) and stress research (e.g., Nelson and Cooper 2007), our study proposes that carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) together with the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism interactively affects a salesperson’s propensity to canvass and close. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 597 salespeople, the empirical results show that carrying SERT S has a positive relationship with canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. In contrast, this relationship is negative if neuroticism is high.The findings of the study contribute to sales research, DST, and organizational stress research, and provide actionable implications for business practice. First, we contribute to the sparse literature explaining the genetic roots of variation in salesperson behavior (e.g., Verbeke et al. 2017) by showing how genetic variations interact with psychological traits to influence sales behavior. Second, we introduce a DST perspective to marketing and sales research, showing that the same genetic variation can have diametrical effects on performance-related behavior. Third, we add to DST and organizational stress research by providing a new angle on the occurrence of eustress and distress at the workplace.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of technology to acquire and apply knowledge and skills to a variety of settings. Intelligence is often likened to emotion, logic, reason, critique, creativity and ability to learn and/or problem-solve. Although these forms of intelligence are usually only perceived to be capable by humans, technology has advanced it applications and usage in being able to replicate these forms of intelligence for different purposes. For example, Amazon Alexa is perceived as being able to problem-solve through creative, logical and, occasionally, emotional, means. As such, AI agents can adopt different types of conversational styles when interact with users resulting in conversations characterised by a more social-oriented or task-oriented approach (Chattaraman et al. 2018). Although these capabilities are far beyond what technology has previously been capable of, AI is inherently limited surrounding its ability to plan, reason, move and empathise, thus leading to an apparent lack of user trust in their capabilities (PwC 2018). Accordingly, users are often reluctant to engage with AI due to negative perceptions surrounding the ability to perform tasks.Alongside these perceived limitations of AI, users are often concerned over what happens once they have chosen to use it. Users are aware that Alexa is “always listening” and is capable of collecting vast amounts of consumer data, thus resulting in heightened privacy perceptions (PwC 2018). In this sense, vulnerability appears to be prevalent at both the pre-adoption and post-adoption of AI. Previous studies have observed that technology has the capabilities of increasing consumer vulnerability, which in turn hinders usage and adoption (Bucchia et al. 2020; Elms and Tinson 2012; Ratchford and Barnhart 2012). Yet, consumers vulnerability in interactions with AI conversational agents remains underexplored. Most importantly, the factors that can prevent individuals perception of vulnerability and then facilitate continuous usage are unknown.By focusing on voice-activated assistants (VAs), this study wants to fill this gap and it aims to investigate how interaction with VAs can foster consumers trust and usage based on the AI conversational style. Specifically, we expect that VAs social-oriented conversations will increase consumers trust and usage. In addition, we suggest that this process will be mediated by the consumers perception of vulnerability such that when the VAs conversational style is social-oriented, consumer will feel less vulnerable and thus more willing to trust and use the AI agent. Finally, we propose that individuals’ locus of control will moderate such effect.The study employs a mixed-method approach. Preliminary findings from the qualitative analysis offer a broad picture of how perceptions of vulnerability and trust are elicited in interactions with VAs. Further, the importance of the social nature of conversation and perceptions of vulnerability is clearly shown in this study.

Service robots are gradually replacing humans service providers in numerous industries and their development is profoundly impacting the way in which service is delivered (Bornet et al. 2021; Wirtz et al. 2018). Accordingly, service robots encounters represent a primary research area in service. To date, researcher and practitioners have applied service robot across various contexts such as medical (Yoon and Lee 2019), hospitality (Tung and Au 2018) and tourism (Murphy et al. 2019), and have focused on the general application and acceptance of the technology (Huang and Rust 2017; van Doorn et al. 2016; Wirtz et al. 2018) and on services that may be executed by or improved by such technologies (Paluch and Blut 2013; Jörling, Bohm, and Paluch 2019). In addition, few studies have analysed service robot interactions in the service and consumer behaviour fields (Longoni et al. 2019), mainly focusing on the consumers’ reactions to specific service robot characteristics such as the level of human-likeness (Castelo et al. 2019; Kim et al. 2019; Mende et al. 2019).These approaches usually try to determine general principles of the service robot delivery, yet not much attention has been given to the particular boundary condition of the service delivery context under which human-robots encounters might be more beneficial than traditional human-to-human encounters. A typical consumption setting where the presence of other individuals can damage the general consumers’ experience is embarrassing service encounters. Consumer embarrassment is a widespread social emotion induced when a transgression is witnessed or perceived to be witnessed by others ( Krishna et al. 2019). For embarrassment to be elicited, individuals have to be concerned for what others are perceiving or thinking about them (Dahl et al. 2001), thus embarrassment is dependent on the presence of others.In this study, we suggest that interactions with a service robots in the context of a potentially embarrassing service encounter may reduce consumer embarrassment. We posit that this occurs because of the global attribution of mind to the robots such that consumers do not ascribe intentionality, cognition, and emotion to a service robot, thus ability to socially evaluate one’s purchase or behaviour (Gray et al. 2007). Moreover, we propose to investigate the impact of service robot human-likeness on consumer embarrassment (Mende et al. 2019).The study employs a mixed-method approach. Preliminary findings from the qualitative analysis identifies perceptions of mind and human-likeness appearance as potential factors influencing feelings of embarrassment. Further, findings from a first experimental study show that, in embarrassment service encounters, interaction with service robots decrease feelings of individuals’ consumer embarrassment. Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to shed more light on service touchpoints in a business-to-business environment, a relevant topic in the marketing literature. Since the vast majority of the work in this area has focused on B2C service touchpoints, this study represents a starting point for research in B2B settings. To date, little is known about the topic and the current state of the literature lacks a clear representation of the B2B service touchpoints and their role in determining essential customer perceptions and outcomes over time. Specifically, this paper proposes a chain of effects path, taking into consideration provider touchpoints, customer perceptions and customer outcomes.A panel dataset is used to test the proposed framework. Data is obtained from B2B insurance services and contains a sample of more than 2,000 companies from 2013 to 2017. The results of the study confirm there are specific touchpoints that positively influence customer’s perception with the provider and the service, which in turn have a positive effect on profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength. Study results demonstrate the importance of the sales force in B2B relationships, along with the relevance of firm expertise, service excellence and service reliability as drivers of profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength.This paper provides empirical evidence on the role of touchpoints and customer perceptions on determining customer outcomes over time. Given its longitudinal approach, this investigation provides strong empirical evidence of the influence of touchpoints and customer perceptions on the outcomes of the interactions from one period of time to another. This is a vital issue for marketers, as firms gain a better understanding of company-customer interactions and the extent to which different factors impact decisive customer outcomes in a B2B context. As a result, these findings help broaden the narrow understanding the literature has about the topic and provide valuable implications for practitioners for a better allocation of resource when designing service touchpoints.

The Covid-19 related restrictions have severe effects on individuals' ability to perform physical activities. As a result of the isolation measures, people stayed at home and could not sustain an active lifestyle. However, maintaining physical activity is even more critical during the pandemic considering its positive impact on mental well-being and its impact on general health (Dwyer et al. 2020; Matias et al. 2020; Teferi 2020). Given the importance of adherence to physical activity during the pandemic, understanding factors that influence exercise behavior is valuable.The objective of the study is to test a model of leisure-time exercise behavior that integrates participatory and regulatory motives in the context of Covid-19 pandemic conditions. It is suggested that physical participation motives, which relate to physical goals individuals try to achieve with exercise, influence regulatory motives, which relate to exercise behavior's underlying reasons (Ingledew and Markland 2008). The effects of isolation, positive and negative affect, amount of stress, and ability to handle stress on exercise participation motives and exercise behavior are also examined.An online survey is employed to gather data from 283 university students. The data is analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study results demonstrate that physical and psychological exercise participation motives are significantly associated with exercise behavior. Concerning the behavioral regulation constructs, it is revealed that intrinsic and introjected regulation predict exercise behavior. Additionally, while isolation and negative affect have a negative impact, coping with stress positively impacts exercise behavior. Moreover, it is shown that the indirect effects of participatory motives on exercise behavior are mediated by amotivation and intrinsic regulation. Finally, significant mediating effects of exercise participation motives are shown linking positive and negative affect, ability to cope with stress, and exercise behavior.The findings of the study provide practical implications for exercise promotion and intervention programs. For instance, since isolation and negative affect reduce exercise behavior, designing in-home physical activity routines, providing counseling for people, and teaching them stress reduction techniques such as meditation and breathing are recommended. Furthermore, it is suggested that emphasizing the fun aspect of exercise and avoidance of guilt may improve the persuasiveness of exercise promotion campaigns.

Fueled by technological advances and the rise of the collaborative economy, service encounters today are increasingly characterized by a high degree of customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions. C2C interactions are crucial to customers’ overall perception of service quality as they may positively or negatively influence their satisfaction. However, C2C interactions are oftentimes outside the direct control of the service provider. In such service settings customer misbehaviors targeted at other customers (C2C misbehavior) is particularly problematic, not only because it is contagious, but also because it can potentially damage the service provider, frontline employees, and other bystanding customers.Prior definitions and typologies primarily focus on general customer misbehavior and do not take sufficient account of the particularities of C2C misbehavior such as customers’ perceived severity of the experienced incivility of other customers and their expectations towards the service provider to intervene or prevent such behavior. In contrast to previous customer misbehavior typologies, this study aims at providing a typology specifically geared towards customer misbehavior that is directed at other customers or their property. It represents the first attempt in service literature to define C2C misbehavior from a norm-based perspective while emphasizing the importance of how norm deviances are interpreted by those customers who – directly or indirectly – have become the target of other customers’ misbehavior. We further demarcate C2C misbehavior from related concepts and systematically delineate different types of C2C misbehavior in relation to their perceived severity. Drawing on over 25 in-depth interviews, we use the repertory grid technique and employ comparative questioning to derive constructs that underpin customers’ complex perceptions of C2C misbehavior severity across various service settings. Based on these constructs, we aim to provide a comprehensive typology of C2C misbehavior according to its perceived severity that is applicable across service contexts. Thus, we provide the necessary theoretical scaffolding for further empirical research and theory development in this domain. We further explore what constitutes customers’ individual thresholds that mark the line between perceived tolerable vs. intolerable C2C misbehavior or when customers expect the service provider to intervene.Managerially, our typology will allow service providers to better categorize C2C misbehavior according to its severity. This differentiation is critical as it will support service providers in designing more targeted prevention and intervention measures, thus helping to reduce the occurrence and the spread of C2C misbehavior in service settings.

According to Gartner's forecast in January 2020, global IT spending will reach $3.9 trillion in 2020, an increase of 3.4% over 2019. It is estimated that global IT spending will exceed $4 trillion in 2021. This trend signals the tendency of building digital ecosystem globally. An emerging trend among multinational firms is to digitalize global operation and build digital ecosystem. E-commerce platform, as a digital platform for coordination among sellers, online payment providers, logistics providers and customer relations personnel, emerges as an efficient channel to build a digital ecosystem (Senyo et al. 2019). The use of e-commerce platform in the development of an ecosystem can enhance the diversity and innovation of complements in the platform (Gawer and Cusumano 2014; Song et al. 2018).With the progress of technology, digitization improves the overall effectiveness of resource integration, thus promoting the construction of enterprise ecosystem (Sklyar et al. 2019). The digital platform has become an effective interface to facilitate multilateral transactions and exchanges between users and providers of complementary products and services. The internationalization of a digital platform depends largely on whether the platform can attract ecosystem participants in the local market and align their goals with those of the platform (Ojala et al. 2018).By investigating digital-platform firms listed in U.S. stock market, we challenge the doctrine thinking in international marketing that firms have a better chance to make good financial performance when expanding to more foreign markets over time. Annual-report data were collected by visiting the corporate websites of Chinese tourism firms listed in U.S. stock market. Firm performance (return on equity) data were drawn from the annual reports. A text-analytics approach was used in data processing and analysis. We collected annual report data which were processed with Python to compile a database with approximately 30,000 sentences. The findings indicate that digital-platform firms gain better performance in early stage internationalization. Managers when building digital ecosystem should be aware the potential challenges in their later stage internationalization

Engaged customers positively influence a firm’s performance and co-create value with a firm through contributing operant resources. How a firm can effectively prolong customer engagement (CE) for generating operant resources remains challenging. To identify essential drivers for enhancing customers’ continuous engagement in digital environment, this study shifts the research focus on understanding motivational mechanism of customer disengagement (CDE). This study leverages self-determination theory to examine the linkage between ineffective customer resource integration and CDE in self-directed informal learning, a highly customer-controlled context.The definitions of engagement can be divided into psychological and behavioral manifestations towards focal offerings (e.g., a brand, a firm). Although the fact that CE is driven by customer’s motivation has been taken for granted, there remain major debates about the antecedents of CE. Customer resource integration of operant and/or operand resources is treated as the required CE antecedent which is necessary during customer knowledge sharing and customer learning. However, Hibbert and her colleagues (2012) broadened the understanding of a customer’s proactive role as a self-directed learner that customer learning facilitates resource integration process. To solve the puzzle about CE essential antecedent of continuous engagement, this research tried to answer two research questions: How do customers’ initial motivations affect disengaged behavior consequences, given that the CE state is a continuous spectrum ranging from nonengaged to highly engaged? How do we reframe the understanding of customers’ motivational states to foster resource integration toward focal offerings?With in-depth interview data collected from ten self-directed informal learners and based on the degree of incompletion in internalizing the value of digital-mediated activity, three motivational forms of disengagement were identified: amotivation, extrinsic regulatory failure, and intrinsic conflict. The research reveals the underlined mechanism of how initial motivation to perform the embedded task determines the intention of learners’ operant resource integration toward adapting digital-mediated learning. The disengagement from a focal offering results from insufficient supports of learners’ autonomy and competence linking with the task originated in focal offering and with the activity to which the focal offering contributes. This analysis foregrounds to contribute theoretical implications of customer engagement process as well as practical guidance for supporting customer resource integration of continuous engagement.

In 2020, online purchases have increasingly become a coping mechanism for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores the antecedents of impulsive behavior and investigates the kind of products that are bought in response to the pandemic. First, the study aims at understanding the role retail websites, as online marketing stimuli, play on impulsive buying. Likewise, the relationships that product involvement, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and hedonic values have on consumers’ impulsive behavior are investigated. Finally, the types of product bought are identified. An online survey was conducted using a convenience sample of college students. Overall, the study presents a nested model identifying the direct effect of hedonic values on the urge to purchase a product. Participants indicated personal care, followed by sports equipment, were significantly more likely to be purchased because of the pandemic than any category. Yet, those who believe they engaged in the online purchase because of the pandemic cues were more likely to purchase all kinds of product categories, including products for group and products for individual consumption.

This research presents a first exploration in the field of management sciences, on mindset and goal orientation theories with a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. We partnered with a company in the telecom sector in France to interview 12 salespeople and 7 store managers. The analysis of results show among others: (1) the mindset is present in the speeches of salespeople and store managers, (2) the mindset is specific to an attribute (selling ability or personality), (3) goal orientation is promoted by the social support and managers’ mindset, (4) according to salespeople and store managers, customers can also adopt a goal orientation, especially during a visit to the store, and these goals can alter the exchange with the salesperson, especially in terms of the help requested and according to the predominant goal orientation of the salesperson. The theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.

We suggest a machine-based research literature reading method specific to the academic discipline of marketing, adopting artificial intelligence (AI) developments from the field of materials science.Keeping up with research publications is untenable due to exponential growth. Researchers have become much better at the generation of information than at its deployment. AI can help to simplify the use of such knowledge. In materials science, Tshitoyan et al. (2019) have made steps in trying to achieve ‘a generalized approach to the mining of scientific literature’ using text mining and natural language processing. Using AI, research can be extracted from documents, classified, tokenised in individual words, and encoded as information-dense word embeddings, which are vector representations of words, without human supervision (Tshitoyan et al. 2019). Building on these developments we suggest a methodology specific to marketing science.The first step is to compile consolidated bodies of offline marketing research on topics such as branding, retail or advertising following Tshitoyan et al. (2019) method of knowledge extraction and relationships for the handling of large bodies of scientific literature. For this we shall use CrossRef Application Programming Interface (API) for the retrieval of large lists of article Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). This is used by a number of publisher APIs, such as Elsevier https://dev.elsevier.com and Springer Nature https://dev.springernature.com to download full-text journal articles. Secondly, the embeddings will be trained with the scientific abstracts from each of the topics. For this we shall use article abstracts from 1975 to 2021 from more than a thousand journals and also articles likely to contain marketing-related research directly retrieved from the aforementioned databases (i.e. Elsevier and Science Direct) combined with web scraping. The performance of the algorithm is deemed to improve when irrelevant abstracts are removed. The remaining abstracts will then be classified as relevant and tokenised using ChemDataExtractor (Swain and Cole 2016). Correct pre-processing, especially the choice of phrases to be included as individual tokens should improve the results. In the third and final step, we shall repeat the first two steps integrating offline topics with the equivalent online topics, e.g. online branding.As AI is also capable of predictive writing using bidirectional encoders BERT and ELMo used to produce contextual word embeddings (Devlin et al. 2018), our work in progress will consider developing automated hypotheses formulation in marketing science (Spangler et al. 2014). Simplification of knowledge could also facilitate its transfer to practice.

Retail employee technology such as mobile POS , advanced analytics software, inventory management systems, and other in-store equipment is converging to strengthen retailer-customer relationships. Despite the increasing adoption of new retail employee technology in-store, there is little empirical evidence identifying job demands imposed by retail employee-specific technologies and how they affect frontline employees’ well-being. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand the effect of new retail employee technology on retail frontline employees’ well-being. Using the job demand-resource model (Demerouti et al. 2001), this study focuses on the impact of retail technology-specific job demands (cognitive load, fear of public failure, information distrust) and job resources (employee training) on employees’ burnout and work engagement.This study uses multi-level modeling to test hypotheses. An online survey was conducted using previously validated measures, and a total of 487 US retail employees (42.1% female, 25-29 years old 33.9%, Caucasian 65.8%) with experience of using retail employee technology as part of their job were collected through Amazon MTurk.A structural equation modeling with partial least square analysis in SmartPLS3.0 was used to test the proposed model. Results show that job demands (cognitive load, fear of public failure, information distrust) led to increased burnout while job resources (employee training) led to enhanced work engagement. Further, job resources buffered the impact of cognitive load on burnout. However, unexpectedly, job demands were not negatively associated with work engagement. Specifically, cognitive overload positively predicted work engagement. The positive effect of cognitive overload may be because certain stressors can positively foster personal growth and achieve mastery as a result of the effort involved in learning (Cavanaugh et al. 2000). The moderating effect of employee training to buffer the impact of cognitive overload on burnout may support this notion because employee training can assist in achieving personal growth. The study findings extend the prior job demand-resource model and provide comprehensive insights for retail managers.

This research assesses brand performance on the social network by adopting the stimulus-organism-response framework to understand service branding in the insurance industry. We used an applied research method, collected data through an online survey, and used structural equation modeling under partial least squares to analyze the data. The results showed that brand community engagement influences cognitive and affective attitudes. Also, community relationship investment positively affected brand community engagement and affective attitude but did not predict cognitive attitude. Also, cognitive and affective attitudes affected brand loyalty and brand recommendation. The results confirm the significance of all mediating relationships except the relationship between community relationship investment relationship and brand performance through cognitive attitude. This research may help firms in the insurance industry enhance their brand performance by involving customers by controlling appropriate stimuli.

With the rise of feminist and social movements, new sorts of advertisements have emerged, signaling a change toward a more gender-neutral portrayal. Femvertising is a new type of advertising that aims to show women in an equal and diverse way. It strives to empower women while avoiding depictions of traditional gender stereotypes and sexuality. The aim of this study is to analyze all the research on female stereotypes in advertising conducted between January 2000 and March 2021 during the various stages of feminism: pre-feminism, feminism, and post-feminism. The systematic literature review method is used in this study, and it discusses the key research methods, the context (country, sector), and the main research topics related to female stereotypes in advertising. In addition to identifying future research directions, the current study seeks to determine the place and role of femvertising in relation to the different feminist periods.The findings reveal that the vast majority of the studies rely on data from a single nation, with research in the United States and the United Kingdom dominating the field. About half of the studies in the current article gathered data from only one sector, with the apparel industry receiving the most attention. The other most prominent sectors in the research were beauty, personal care, and advertising. Except for the studies related to femvertising, qualitative studies predominated in all periods of feminism. The reviewed articles identify the major research trends related to consumer attitudes, the evolution of female portrayal in advertising, the objectification of women, and the social movement of women empowerment. The number of articles on the latter topic has been rapidly increasing in recent years, owing to the femvertising trend.

The present study investigates the factors affecting the intention to adopt and recommend technology to others: based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. This applied research is descriptive-analytical in terms of data collection. According to the analytical model presented in this research, the environmental characteristics of websites are more important in the early stages of the online shopping process. The information on a website is critical to examine a product with customers’ criteria or needs. An attractive website creates a more positive feeling in the audience, keeps users on the website for a more extended period, and attracts new customers. Also, as part of both the emotional and logical aspects of using technology, individual factors influence the intention to adopt and recommend Internet banking by customers. In the realm of e-commerce, how environmental and individual characteristics affect user intent is still challenging. After data collecting and hypotheses tested, it was concluded that also in this research, these factors affect the acceptance and recommendation of internet banking to others.

Methods research has been a core part of the marketing discipline for over 50 years. Methods researchers provide tools both for academic researchers to explore marketing phenomenon and for marketing practitioners to better analyze commercial data. There are several reasons for the continuing relevance of methods research in marketing. First, in both the commercial world and in academia, there is an increasing focus on methodology for dealing with the increasingly large and complex data generated by modern business. These data include, but are not limited to, data from internet search, smartphone app/location tracking, customer systems, social media, online reviews, biometric systems, and data-enabled appliances. Work on such data, often comes under the banner of big data analytics and academic researchers require knowledge of new methods to work with these data. Second, methodological courses for business doctoral students increasingly incorporate advanced data analytics methods, with students being trained in widely used programming languages for analytics, such as R and Python. These reasons give a great deal of potential for methods researchers in marketing to “meet in the middle” with applied marketing strategy researchers.This session is designed to introduce marketing strategy researchers to recent marketing methods and analytics work and to facilitate collaboration between methods researchers and strategy researchers in marketing. This will be done by introducing three different methods. For each method, there will be a non-technical discussion of the method and its assumptions. A short hands-on application of the method will be given, along with references to more detailed resources (e.g., documentation, publications, and tutorials), and a discussion of how best the technique can be employed by strategy researchers.The three chosen methods cover important areas of marketing modeling and data analytic research, with commonalities in the analysis of consumer brand behavior and brand positioning. The first method allows researchers to build and validate a range of brand equity indices from web-search data. The second method provides an innovative method of brand mapping and positioning analysis, where researchers can analyze the trajectories of brands and how brand competition changes over time. The third method utilizes online reviews and automatic language feature selection to perform a dynamic segmentation of reviewers, which helps characterize different opinions in different segments.

The aim of this study is to explore strategic alternatives of exporting firms when considering international market expansion. These alternatives are – for the first time – being considered as a set of four mutually exclusive options which guide decisions about the number of foreign markets and the timing of entry in these markets. A sample of exporting companies is investigated and a complex multivariate model is proposed and tested. The results reveal that managers perceive these strategic alternatives in one unified conceptual domain and thus they concurrently analyze and evaluate them, while confirming the strong relationship of the degree of company’s export involvement to company’s export success. To a satisfying extent, the adopted strategies are explained by idiosyncrasies of the product, the adopted approach to international markets and the acts of international players and competitors, whereas factors of the market environment and the internal characteristics of the exporting firm act as moderators to the aforementioned relationship.

This paper explores how the application of standard marketing processes and tools could create clearer strategic direction for stakeholder management. While this approach has been encouraged by many ever since Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy proposed “broadening marketing” to “publics” other than customers (Kotler and Levy 1969), it has never been explored systematically. This lack of response comes despite repeated requests by leading marketing academics for more conceptual studies that provide guidance as to how to coordinate marketing plans across business functions (Kumar 2015). It also comes despite the relative prominence among academics and practitioners of the stakeholder concept, which counts the customer as just one of many potential stakeholder categories. Despite stakeholder theory’s success, it also suffers from some fundamental weaknesses that leave it a challenged concept (Miles 2017) and in need of additional insights that it seems the marketing discipline could provide.The article begins with a critical review of the stakeholder theory and stakeholder marketing literature as it applies to the direction-setting stage of the strategic planning process. The direction-setting phase involves stakeholder identification, values analysis, and salience determination. The literature within stakeholder theory in each of these areas is extensive, but, as this and other reviews have noted, there remains considerable debate over the definitions and prescriptions in each step.Subsequently, the article describes how common, “generic” marketing planning steps (Kotler 1972; Kotler and Keller 2012) that involve targeting customers and positioning offerings affect the prioritization of and promises to one particular stakeholder, the customer. It then shows how these customer-oriented decisions indirectly determine who the non-customer stakeholders are, which of their values are met, and their relative salience. Furthermore, it explains how the processes and analytic tools commonly used in marketing for customer management can and are used directly by other business functions to manage the stakeholders for which they are primarily responsible (e.g., human resources for employee acquisition and retention). Lastly, it argues that the marketing planning process provides a natural mechanism for cross-stakeholder management.The article concludes that tighter integration of stakeholder theory with common marketing planning concepts, processes, and tools would strengthen both stakeholder theory and the marketing discipline. For stakeholder theory and management, the marketing planning process offers a means to better define and prioritize promises, offerings, and communications across all stakeholders. For the marketing discipline, embracing the stakeholder paradigm more fully provides a framework to move beyond its customer-obsessed myopia (Smith et al. 2010) to a more holistic, stakeholder marketing approach.

Food is one of the cornerstones of well-being. But food and food-related decisions are sometimes experienced as difficult or stressful (Mennell et al. 1992) due to a lack of appropriate food knowledge (Colatruglio and Slater 2014). In this context, mobile apps are flourishing in order to help people make healthier food choices (Flaherty et al. 2019). While the literature on mobile food applications is rich in the health field for their potential to change dietary behaviors (Covolo et al. 2017; Gilliland et al. 2015; Mateo et al. 2015; McKay et al. 2018; Mendiola et al. 2015; Michie et al. 2017; Palacios et al. 2018), there is limited research on how consumers engage with them (Bezançon et al. 2019; Doub et al. 2015; Flaherty et al. 2018, 2019; Gilliland et al. 2015; Samoggia and Riedel 2020).In this paper, we ask: how can we better understand the consumer engagement process for nutritional apps? Using data from 15 semi-structured interviews with users of the French nutritional app Yuka, we conducted thematic analysis, applying a lens of affordance theory (Gibson 1977).Proposed by Gibson (1977), the concept of affordances designates the potentialities of action perceived by the individual, resulting from an interaction between the latter and their environment. Affordances are an analytical tool to explore the complex relationship between the individual and technology (Hutchby 2001). Our data and analysis helped us to arrive at a model of engagement based on affordances, in which we examine the impact that emotions experienced during the affordance actualization stage has on user engagement at various points of app usage.Through our research, we highlight the dynamic nature of engagement. As users attempt to actualize affordances offered by nutrition apps, emotional mechanisms influence (re)adjustments in usage, which in turn influence modes of engagement.

The sharing economy, also known as the collaborative consumption or the technology-facilitated peer-to-peer business model (such as Uber and Airbnb services), is on the rise (Hamari et al. 2016). As more and more consumers participate in sharing economy, service failures are inevitable. Despite the prevalence of service failures in the context of sharing economy, scant academic research exists on what companies should do to recover the failures. Some interesting yet under-explored research questions include: First, in the context of sharing economy, how do different types of service failures affect consumers’ perceptions and behaviors toward the brand? Second, what companies can do as a method of recourse when a service failure occurs?This research is designed to examine the ramification posed by sharing economy businesses when one of their independent contractors commits a service failure and uses different methods of recovery. By manipulating both the type of service failure and the method of recovery using scenarios, we hoped to unveil the factors most important to customer loyalty and trust in the context of a sharing economy. Specifically, a 2 × 2 experimental design scenario-based survey was conducted to determine what methods of recovery generated the best response for each type of service failure. A total of 210 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk for the study. The participants were randomly assigned a scenario in which either an outcome-based or process-based service failure occurs and then presented with either a recovery performed by the independent service provider or a recovery performed by the company. We then asked the participants how satisfied they were and how this recovery made them view the brand in terms of trustworthiness, forgiveness, ethicality, and justice.The results showed that if there is an outcome-based failure customers prefer a recovery performed by the service provider, but if there is a process-based failure customers prefer a recovery performed by the company. Our findings contribute to the service failure and recovery literature by showing that independent service provider’s failures can affect customers’ perception and action toward the company/brand and that different recovery methods are preferred depending on the type of failure. Implications of this study show that different types of failures that occur in the context of the sharing economy require different forms of recovery to maintain a positive brand image in the minds of consumers.

Customer misbehavior is part of the daily business of service firms. Generally understood as acts that disrupt service encounters and violate generally accepted codes of conduct, customer misbehavior occurs regularly and with varying degrees of severity across service sectors. Traditionally, research on customer misbehavior has focused on misbehavior that is either targeted at the service provider, the frontline service staff, or the service provider’s property. However, service encounters today are increasingly characterized by customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in which customers regularly become targets of other customers’ misbehavior. Despite its increasing prevalence, research on C2C misbehavior remains very limited today. This spareness is even more concerning given that previous research provides initial evidence of the contagiousness of customer misbehavior in access-based settings. Yet it remains unclear whether this contagiousness likewise translates to other contexts and forms of misbehavior, and what service providers can do to effectively curb its spread and attenuate potential negative firm evaluations. Three online experiments in the context of Airbnb, gym and transportation services reveal that provider-directed blame attributions mediate the contagiousness of C2C misbehavior. That is, C2C misbehavior spreads because customers blame the service provider for the wrongdoings of other customers; regardless of whether this misbehavior is targeted towards another customer’s personal belongings or at other customers directly. Moreover, our results indicate that preventative and interventive service provider measures can effectively reduce blame attributions which, in turn, attenuate negative customer attitudes towards the firm while simultaneously curbing subsequent C2C misbehavior. By explicating the central role blame attributions play in the spread of C2C misbehavior, this study extends previous research on customer misbehavior and misbehavior contagiousness. Managerially, this research provides firms with explicit guidance on how to tackle the spread of C2C misbehavior and reduce negative firm evaluations with targeted measures. Overall, our findings provide first experimental evidence that tackling the spread of C2C misbehavior is both possible and advisable with targeted provider measures.

According to the United Nations, as the world population approaches 10 billion people by the year 2050, triple the amount of natural resources that are available today would be required to sustain existing lifestyles ( https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/ ). Despite the importance of power in the context of consumption behavior, its impact has not been explored in the context of socially responsible consumption. Furthermore, the literature on the effect of power on self-serving vs. pro-social behaviors have been mixed (Righetti et al. 2015). As such, the objective of the present research is to explore the multifaceted role that power may play in the context of sustainable consumption behavior. Additionally, this study aims to examine the role of moral identity; a critical construct known to interact with power in shaping self-serving vs. pro-social behavior. Moral identity is defined as the degree to which an individual’s morality is a central component of his/her self-concept (DeCelles et al. 2012).Respondents were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an experiment. They were first asked to complete a power manipulation (Galinsky et al. 2003), followed by a power manipulation check. Half of the respondents were randomly assigned to a high power condition, while half of the respondents were exposed to a low power condition. Next, they were exposed to a scenario that describing a hypothetical scenario in which they were planning to buy a water bottle and were told that they came across an environmentally friendly bottle. This was followed by a 4 item measure of purchase intention (Edinger-Schons et al. 2018), a measure of sustainable consumption attitude (Webb et al. 2008) and finally a measure of moral identity (Aquino and Reed 2002). 109 responses were received. 3 respondents were excluded resulting in 106 usable responses.The results support that moral identity has a positive impact on purchase intention and that power had a marginally significant and negative impact on purchase intention. The results also support a three-way interaction between power, moral identity and attitude toward sustainable consumption. The effect of attitude toward sustainable consumption on purchase intention, for low moral identity consumers is the same regardless of the level of power. However, the results, show that for high moral identity consumers, the positive effect of attitude on purchase intention exists only when power is high.

Consumers nowadays are transforming from passive information recipients to active information producers. User-generated content (UGC) has become a significant factor affecting their purchase decision-making. Considering that little attention has been given to an individual’s tendency that shapes the assessment of UGC, this study focuses on self-disclosure in UGC settings. The overarching purpose of this research is to assess the consequences of voluntary self-disclosure in social media functioning as a consumer’s personality trait by examining UGC perception – drawn from source credibility and attractiveness – and UGC behavior – drawn from consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs). This study examines the extent to which self-disclosure favorably impacts perceived UGC trustworthiness and familiarity, and how this, in turn, affects subsequent brand attitude and purchase intention. This study further looks into how UGC behavior affects purchase intention. Using 301 valid responses, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) are employed to comprehensively evaluate and develop a hypothesized research model. The hypothesized research model fit turns out to be good in general. The results indicate that consumers with a high level of self-disclosure not only generate trust and familiarity toward UGC but are also active in engaging in UGC behavior. The findings suggest that the more consumers create, consume, or contribute to UGC, the more they want to purchase the products and/or brands shown in UGC. Perceived UGC trustworthiness and familiarity, in turn, lead to positive brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Coincidently, this study confirms that self-disclosure begets positive UGC behavior using UGC perception as a mediator. This research provides several practical insights into the mechanisms underlying UGC perception and UGC behavior, and it ultimately helps facilitate consumers’ self-disclosure to improve brand attitude and purchase intention. This study provides a further understanding of the important role of consumers’ voluntary self-disclosure in UGC marketing campaigns. The results analysis suggests that it is advisable for marketing firms to understand their target consumers’ self-disclosure tendency when using UGC in their marketing strategies.

Employers and insurance companies are increasingly offering patients various options for having surgical procedures performed and have been turning to “centers of excellence” that are renown for specific procedures resulting in better quality treatment than found at local hospitals. Medical tourism is also an option that has become more popular among employers and patients. Breadth and depth of healthcare marketing research is growing as the importance of marketing to healthcare organizations continues to increase (Crié and Chebat 2013) and research efforts in the area of healthcare marketing have been very informative investigating the fields of medical tourism, health marketing communication, strategic management and marketing in healthcare, pharmaceutical marketing, service quality, dietary habits, and the growing field of digital healthcare (Butt et al. 2019). However, research into the healthcare field requires industry-specific insight and knowledge (Stremersch and Van Dyck 2009). Thus, a greater understanding is needed regarding how perspective patients generally perceive the risks associated with each of these options with respect to the type of surgery being performed. This research seeks to make theoretical contributions about the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service in the healthcare context via Zeithaml et al. (1993) conceptual framework. We employed a mixed methods design collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, which seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of patient evaluation and expectations of service in the medical tourism industry. Within-subjects 2 × 3 experimental design format was employed altering the type of surgery performed and the location of the surgery along with financial responsibilities/incentives. The findings can better communicate the benefits of healthcare tourism while minimizing perceived risks. Service providers can work to re-define country of origin effects related to their specific healthcare service by showcasing awards, credentials, and advertising where their doctors received their degrees. To mitigate fearful emotions, service providers can also increase communications between the healthcare service providers and the patients to put them at ease through calming “bed-side manner”.

The rise of AI healthcare applications is changing the way consumers receive treatment, diagnosis, and health advice. Despite the rapid growth of AI in healthcare contexts, prior literature suggests that consumers experience reservations about AI in healthcare due to the concerns that automation reduces providers’ ability to take into consideration the uniqueness of consumers’ health-related characteristics in comparison to human providers (Longoni et al. 2019) and privacy concerns (Brooks 2019). However, might there be times when consumers might prefer an AI provider over a human healthcare provider?Consumers who suffer stigmatized health issues often experience self-conscious emotions such as fear, shame, and embarrassment. Negative emotions can create barriers for communication between patients and doctors and negative health outcomes. Thus, by developing solutions which reduce consumers’ negative emotions related to stigmatized health issues, consumer well-being may be enhanced. In the current research, we suggest consumers with stigmatized (versus non-stigmatized) health issues will prefer AI to human health care providers.In Study 1, two hundred and forty-two undergraduates were randomly assigned to a 2 (disease type: contagious or non-contagious) × 2 (healthcare provider type: human or AI) between-subjects design. In the heart disease scenario, participants were significantly more likely to schedule a screening appointment if the healthcare provider was a human physician. However, in the seasonal flu scenario, which was perceived as a more stigmatized disease, participants were significantly more likely to schedule a screening appointment if the healthcare provider was a computer.In Study 2, one hundred and fifty four undergraduates were randomly assigned to either a human or AI healthcare provider conditions. All participants were asked to imagine that they had a close friend who was overweight/obese and experienced health issues as a result. Participants were then shown a brochure of a workout program with either a virtual workout program or an in-person one. Results showed that participants expected their obese friend would feel more shame and negative judgement if he/she enrolled in the in-person program compared to the virtual workout program.In summary, findings from two studies provided support for our hypotheses that consumers dealing with stigmatized health conditions prefer artificial intelligence healthcare providers to human ones. These findings have important implications for early diagnosis and potential recovery of these health conditions, as well as to prevent spreading of contagious diseases.

With the recent proliferation of “smart” technologies, consumers increasingly interact with these technologies the same way they would interact with their fellow humans (e.g., having a conversation with Siri or Alexa) (Novak and Hoffman 2019). Indeed, some consumers are turning to technology to fulfill desires for friendship and/or romance (Olson 2020). While technology can be successfully designed to positively influence consumer well-being (Dekker et al. 2020; Peters et al. 2018), scant research exists examining this phenomenon beyond a conceptual level. Recently, however, scholars show that the detrimental impact of technology on consumer well-being (i.e., consisting of overall life satisfaction and positive and negative affective states; Burroughs and Rindfleisch 2002) may be less harmful than previously thought (Orben and Pryzbylski 2018; Pryzbylski and Weinstein 2016). In contrast, other research shows that the detrimental effect of technology may exist under certain conditions, such as long-term isolation (e.g., Lastovicka and Sirianni 2011). Therefore, technology can have beneficial and/or detrimental impacts on consumer well-being (Hefner and Vorderer 2017; Mick and Fournier 1998; Pryzbylski et al. 2012). Understanding the relationship between technology and consumer well-being is further marred by data collection issues such as research participants being unable to accurately estimate their own technology usage (Scharkow 2016). As such, the purpose of this research was to develop a deeper understanding of how technology and the interaction with technology can impact consumer well-being. Specifically, we develop theory regarding how consumer’s interact with technology via two qualitative studies following a grounded theory approach (Corbin and Strauss 1990). Because our data are cross-sectional, future research would benefit from a longitudinal perspective to assess when technology might improve (digital) well-being (e.g., potentially initially) and where technology might worsen (digital) well-being overtime due to increased isolation (e.g., if used for a long period) (Lastovicka and Sirianni 2011).

This research examines the impact of purchase types on consumer’s purchasing decision while the product exhibits polarizing reviews. The authors propose when facing a higher level of polarized review, consumers are less likely to make an experiential purchase (vs. material purchase). This effect is driven by the higher perceived risk that is associated with experiential purchase. Our study will contribute to the word-of-mouth research and extend the research in the field of purchase type. Moreover, our work will provide practical implications for marketing managers to help them improve their product quality and manage the mixed feedback from consumers.In the past, consumers were more likely to be exposed to traditional word of mouth, where information came from friends or family members (Arndt 1967; Brown and Reingen 1987). However, the development of information technology has given consumers more resources to get external information before they make purchase decisions. Online platforms, such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Amazon’s consumer review section have offered valuable feedback from other consumers to give potential buyers more references. Because of the proliferation of information sources, consumers are more likely to encounter a mix review about a product than ever. Previous research has suggested that consumers mixed opinions are common across all kinds of products (Hu et al. 2009). On one hand, the availability of product reviews has facilitated the consumer’s decision-making process, providing them more references from others’ experiences. On the other hand, the existence of polarized opinions may also bring an even more difficult decision for them to make.Admittedly, word of mouth is a critical element to impact consumer’s purchase decision. A growing body of research regarding word of mouth has examined the effect of word-of-mouth volume, valence and central tendency on consumer’s behavior (Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Mudambi and Schuff 2010), however, little work has looked into the influence of product review dispersion on consumer’s purchase behaviors, more specifically, the effect of polarized opinions on consumer’s purchase intention. For marketing practitioners, it is also important for them to understand how they could deal with their product review polarization situations and how to better communicate with consumers when polarizing reviews happen.

Firms aim to constantly develop new products and selectively reveal information about those activities to influence different parties, i.e., consumers, investors, and competitors. An important medium for this purpose is new product demonstration, which is defined as the disclosure of a new product at any stage of development and commercialization to the public. While new product demonstrations mainly aim to familiarize consumers with the new product characteristics and make sales efforts more efficient, they may also increase consumers’ interest in a brand, and hence, brand purchase.In this paper, we investigate (by means of secondary data modeling) how the demonstration of new products may impact consumers’ online search behavior for the brand, and subsequently firms’ market performance. We believe that consumers’ search behavior reveals consumers’ mindset about brands and is an important predictor of future brand purchases. We also explore how the relationship between new product demonstrations and the online brand search could vary with the product’s development stage at the time of the demonstration.Using automobile industry as our empirical context, we collected new car demonstrations in 10 different world-renowned international trade shows from 2005 to 2018. Our unbalanced, pooled, time-series dataset comprises 3447 observations of 22 brands from 10 major automakers and 108 trade shows. We also collected online search data for brands from the Google Trends database. The amount of “Googling” for a brand, demonstrated by the Google search volume index in near real-time, can serve as a proxy for the number of consumers seeking information about the brand. Our findings reveal that while new product demonstrations, on average, improve market performance through a boost in consumers’ online brand search, this relationship is stronger for new products at early and advanced stages of development, compared to the new products at the middle stage of development.Our research has important implications for academicians as well as managers. From an academic perspective, responds to research calls for studies on investigating consumers’ behavioral responses to a firm’s new product efforts in novel ways (e.g. Google Trends Data). From a managerial perspective, being aware of the consumers’ online search helps managers to align their new product decisions with other marketing strategies such as advertising and promotions.

The advances of the Internet and social media allow consumers to access more channels and sources of information to inform their purchase decisions. This has also given rise to micro-influencers, who generate content and gradually form a community following and interacting with their social accounts. Micro-influencers differ with traditional celebrities in that the latter become renown through sporting, art or the like (De Veirman et al. 2017). Micro-influencers are perceived as more reflective of their followers (Jin et al. 2019), and are argued to wield powerful influence over consumer choice, despite their much less popularity and followings than traditional celebrities (Boerman 2020). This study examines the relationships among social communication variables relating to micro-influencers on social platforms: online opinion leadership (OOL) and parasocial interaction (PSI) as personal and interpersonal source characteristics, respectively (Sweeney et al. 2008); message quality as a message characteristic (Le et al. 2020); online interaction propensity (OIP) as a receiver characteristic (Labrecque 2014); and consumer engagement behaviours (CEBs) as responses with respect to product review elements including the content, the micro-influencer, and the product/ brand embedded in the post (Casaló et al. 2020). An online survey was conducted with a convenience sample of Vietnamese consumers who have previously purchased or planned to buy a mobile phone within 6 months and have viewed online reviews about mobile phones as part of their information search. A valid data of 371 responses was analysed using smartPLS 3.3.3. Findings reveal that OOL and PSI have significant impact on message quality (p < 0.05), which in turn affects significantly CEBs (p < 0.05): Intention to interact with the post; intention to follow advice of the micro-influencer; and intention to recommend the micro-influencer to others. While the result only finds OIP elevates the impact of message quality on consumers’ intention to interact with the post at p < 0.10; findings show significant direct impact of OIP on CEBs, though not hypothesised. This research contributes to communication literature concerning consumers’ processing of persuasive cues and information exposed to them through the online environment. The research highlights the importance of essential factors requiring attention in micro-influencer marketing: OOL, PSI, message quality and OIP. The study also contributes to consumer engagement literature with evidence concerning the focal object as micro-influencers’ online product reviews. Practically, insights from this research suggest marketers need to detect micro-influencers, target them with appropriate communication strategies so as to influence their generated and disseminated content. Marketers can take the findings of effects on intention with the post and intention to recommend the micro-influencers in approaching micro-influencers for a win-win collaboration. The study also demonstrates OIP as an important individual trait in segmenting consumers for effective consumer engagement.

An international interfirm partnership is a formalized arrangement between two or more firms from different countries focusing on various value chain activities including but not limited to product development, manufacturing, and technology (Pedada et al. 2019). In terms of its organizational structure, it can either take the form of a distinct corporate entity or an interorganizational entity (Varadarajan and Cunningham 1995). International interfirm partnerships have become ubiquitous as they help firms reach economies of scale, hedge risks, learn new skills and technologies, and facilitate effective resource sharing (e.g., Beamish and Berdrow 2003; Beamish and Inkpen 1995; Julian and O’Cass 2004).Despite their popularity and benefits, international interfirm partnerships are inherently risky, and most of them dissolve shortly after their inception (Cui 2013; Tower et al. 2019). Previous studies have investigated a variety of factors that affect the dissolution of these partnerships in various environmental and organizational contexts such as equity structure (Dhanaraj and Beamish 2004), resource dependence (Xia 2011), cultural differences (Talay and Akdeniz 2009), and lack of cooperation (Luo and Park 2004) between partners. While extant literature provides valuable insights, our knowledge of the drivers of the dissolution of interfirm partnerships by emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) is rather limited. Yet, one of the most significant developments in international business has been understanding the role of emerging markets in international business as well as the rise of EMNEs and their contributions to globalization (Buckley and Tian 2017; Griffith et al. 2008). This study is based on the premise that EMNEs in general, and their international partnerships in particular, deserve scholarly attention because EMNEs are different from multinational enterprises from developed countries (DMNEs) with respect to the amount and type of resources they afford in an international partnership (Pedada et al. 2019).With a focus on international joint ventures (IJVs) as a type of interfirm partnerships, this study develops a typology based on home- and host-countries as either a developed or emerging market, and hence, examines how the country-of-origin of the IJV partners’ home countries and the IJV host country affect the likelihood of dissolution. In addition, we compare how the effects of these drivers vary compared to IJVs founded with DMNEs. Using a large dataset of IJVs spanning almost 20 years and more than 100 countries, our analyses reveal that along with some partner-firm and host-country related factors, IJV partners’ home countries and the IJV host country affect IJV dissolution likelihood.

There has been a renewed discussion of the role of leadership in current times in several media outlets that span from political and corporate leadership to leadership in the context of activism, consumerism, and public life. Partly, this demonstrates the urge of a huge mass of population wanting to be led by a leader, even if such leadership may land up in an epic failure or may encompass undertakings comprising of huge risks or at times outright against the law. Take, for example, the role of “the professor” in the recent worldwide popular series by Netflix which broke several records regarding its viewership in the entertainment industry (Pearce 2019). The character of the professor and his charismatic leadership in guiding his accomplices through complicated and detailed oriented heists, which despite being unlawful, have drawn tremendous fan following from the audience, thereby displaying an ardent desire of humans to be led and coached by another towards a purposeful goal. Such an idea of leadership has, however, not been studied in the context of Virtual Service Assistants (VSAs) or Artificially Intelligent (AI) chatbots such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Google home to name a few. Presently, the VSAs have been looked primarily at providing services to answer consumer questions or helping them with product selections, ordering, and purchases. However, the notion that such AIs and VSAs can grow beyond their traditional role of being assistants is not distant, though unexplored at this point. With the development of the prototype of Alexa prize chatbots (Amazon 2019) that engage consumers in near organic conversations, (without even using the wake word “Alexa” repeatedly) such as jokes, riddle, opinion on a subject, news and movie reviews insinuates the possibility of VSAs to play a more significant role such as that of a friend, a guide, and an impactful leader. The current study explores the role of artificially intelligent leaders, in the context of VSA enabled smart speakers such as Amazon Alexa in instilling a trusting relationship with its consumers and its influence on the consumers’ perception of the quality of their product recommendation. Although the idea of brand anthropomorphism (displaying human-like traits and qualities) in the context of AI has been recently introduced in the field of Marketing, existing scholarship has not looked at the specific leadership influences, such as leading, guiding, that these AIs have on its consumers.

Within marketing, a new sub-discipline of digital marketing has emerged, and, in this field, there has been a call to recognize “a new marketing DNA” for marketing education (Harrigan and Hulbert 2011). This new approach requires that marketing educators create a curriculum that integrates theory and practice with the technology and digital tools used in the industry. This research discusses a digital marketing-oriented, semester-length project in which students create personal branding websites; the assignment is referred to as Website Builders. Utilizing Website Builders allows professors to teach digital marketing technical skills such as search engine optimization (SEO), content creation, and the website development process while incorporating marketing strategy and theory. Website Builders incorporates key SEO strategy components and takes students through the website development process (Zahay and Roberts 2017).We propose that the Website Builders Method is an optimal means for teaching SEO strategy and website design and assessing student learning outcomes. The assignment is aligned with Krathwohl’s (2002) Taxonomy Table, which is based upon Bloom’s (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create) and incorporates the Knowledge and Cognitive Process dimensions (Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Metacognitive. The assignment maps out activities for the semester on the Taxonomy Table.Throughout the semester, the marketing educator will deliver lectures on the website development process, including essential marketing concepts related to websites and digital marketing. To use this assignment effectively, the marketing educator must create a website of his/her own. Students create and publish a website by mid-semester and then promote their websites using social media and email campaigns to solicit feedback. Website traffic is analyzed using Google Analytics. Students refine based on feedback and traffic analysis. Peer review is conducted, which allows the students to evaluate other students’ websites and their implementation of the concepts taught. After completing all these steps, students submit their website for a final grade.This learning process facilitates higher learning by having students develop knowledge of the terminology and abstract concepts. By creating a website, students utilize their critical thinking skills and demonstrate that they can apply, analyze, and evaluate information. After completing the website assignment, the students write a reflection paper that brings each student to Bloom’s final stage of Create based on Metacognitive Knowledge. An analysis of papers (n = 37) revealed that all but 3 students identified key learning objectives in their reflection.

Currently, the world is experiencing considerable unpredictability due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and retailers have been struggling to adjust to the new consumption environment, which embodies online/virtual platforms. During this global upheaval, many activities that used to occur primarily in the physical environment (e.g., shopping; attending movies, musicals, and concerts; taking classes; participating in meetings; working) have already shifted to the virtual environment throughout the world.The current study investigates (a) the use intention of a virtual platform (virtual reality fitness) as a form of disease prevention behavior, and (b) consumers’ applied technology ad experience on a virtual platform during the pandemic among young people who are described as being tech-savvy (Lee et al. 2020; Smith 2017) during the pandemic.In the study, data came from 46 undergraduate students at a U.S. university who were majoring in business. For the U.S. sample, among the elements of experience economy, only esthetics, entertainment, and escapism were measured based on the context of the current study (VR fitness). Among these elements, esthetic influences escapism; escapism positively influences VR fitness advertising satisfaction during the pandemic. Stress during the pandemic influences escapism experience. Perceived virtual platform benefit also influences VR fitness advertising satisfaction during the pandemic. In addition, VR fitness advertising satisfaction influences the use intention of virtual platforms during the pandemic and after the pandemic.The findings reveal that managers should improve users’ online experiences by implementing applied technology marketing strategies to impress consumers in the consumption environment, in line with the escapism motive. Therefore, in the main study, the effectiveness of applied technology marketing on the online/virtual format with a chosen VR stimulus will be conducted and compared across cultures (individualism vs. collectivism), in line with the escapism motive during the pandemic.

One of the defining characteristics of higher education is creating relationships with the stakeholders who define the ecosystem. The associations have become increasingly important for higher education marketing and developing strategies of co-creation. Being a highly knowledge-intensive industry driven by human capital, higher education universities need to improve their relationship with the stakeholders including the learners, faculty, administrators and industry professionals. Though different dimensions of relationship quality have received great academic attention across disciplines, there is still a need to explore the role of various intrinsic and extrinsic cues influencing relationship quality from the lens of value co-creation in higher education marketing. Accordingly, this study focuses on discussing the antecedents (intrinsic and outside) of relationship quality between the universities and the stakeholders in the digital era. It proposes an integrated higher education marketing framework using the Cue-Utilization approach with perceived situational appropriateness as the frame of reference. A multi-stakeholder perspective is explored using semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants from India, UK, Nigeria, and Dubai. The study’s findings suggest that the discussed intrinsic and extrinsic cues are the surrogate indicators of high relationship quality with the stakeholders. A high level of relationship quality enhances stakeholder engagement in higher education marketing and leads to value co-creation with the universities. Also, digital interactions can influence the quality of the relationship between the universities and the stakeholders. This adds yet another layer of complexity in redesigning the startegies for higher education. Therefore, nurturing the relationships and increasing digital scalability can constitute to be the most relevant factors for the growth of higher education marketing. The implications of the findings are discussed to understand the scope for an inclusive framework and policies needed for higher education marketing both in the context of the ongoing pandemic and the post-pandemic era.

The reputation of companies is an important and well-researched topic in the marketing discipline. Positive reputation is known for having a positive influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can lead to competitive advantage as well as an increase in a firm’s performance (Otto et al. 2020). This study looks at the drivers of reputation in the German banking sector as well as its influence on sustainable satisfaction from a customer perspective. The German banking sector is three-fold by tradition, in that it divides by commercial banks, savings banks, and cooperative banks. More recently, additional types of banks have evolved, such as online banks or sustainable banks. This study focuses on developing an overarching model, and builds on the reputation model by Schwaiger (2004). Accordingly, reputation is modeled as a two-dimensional construct, consisting of competence and likeability. The model is extended by sustainable satisfaction, which is a combination of the satisfaction and loyalty scales combined into a single target construct (cf. Höck et al. 2010).An online survey was conducted and sent out to a sample of the German population consisting of bank customers above the age of 18 having at least one bank account. A variance-based statistical analysis method, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), that allows to analyze the strength of the influence of the predictive constructs on the target construct in a path model, is applied. For evaluation, the SmartPLS 3 software (Ringle et al. 2015) is used. The findings show that, for the German banking sector, perceived attractiveness is the most important driver of both dimensions of corporate reputation, namely competence and likeability. Perceived quality is the second most important driver of likeability, whereas perceived performance is the second influential driver of competence. Furthermore, the affective dimension, likeability, is more important in explaining sustainable satisfaction, than competence.The main theoretical contribution of this study is the adaptation of an established corporate reputation model to the German banking context and its extension with the concept of sustainable satisfaction. The results further have practical implications for the marketing departments of banks and their strategic positioning in the market. Future research might build on this extended model and use data from multiple countries in order to create a potential index for various types of banks and/or various customer segments. Moreover, the model should be controlled for demographic variables, such as age, gender, and income, as well as be tested with potential mediators, such as trust in banks, in future studies.

Virtual reality (VR) has been outlined as one of the most important technological developments to influence the tourism industry due to its ability to engage consumers and to market tourism destinations. The use of VR has spread across the entire tourism industry with the presence of VR in hotel previews, destination branding, tourism experiences including museums, theme parks, and cultural heritage sites (see: Bogicevic et al. 2019; Griffin et al. 2017; Wei et al. 2019). The application of VR in each of these sectors is based on the premise that the technology can transform experiences and positively influence behaviour (Zeng et al. 2020).Despite the growing interest in VR by both tourism consumers and tourism marketers, both largely rely on the presentation of destinations through a computer-mediated website displaying basic non-dynamic images of the destination or venue (Israel et al. 2019). While basic non-dynamic images can present vivid non-verbal information to tourism consumers, VR has the capability to provide numerous verbal and non-verbal sensory information including visual, haptic, gustatory, auditory or olfactory cues (Miller and Stoica 2004). The depth of immersion and presence experienced within VR distinguish it from any other technology (Wei et al. 2019). Thus, VR provides a fundamentally different experience to consuming destination information in comparison to basic non-verbal images due to the sensory and media rich content (Wei et al. 2019). The purpose of this research is to understand the role of VR in influencing tourism consumers’ attitudes towards a tourist destination.Through a lab-based experiment with 204 tourism consumers this research found that following a VR preview experience of a tourist destination consumers will have more positive attitudes towards the tourist destination than prior to the VR experience. Interestingly, in comparison, a website preview has no significant effect on influencing tourism consumers’ previously held attitudes towards the destination. More so, the results indicate that tourism consumers have more positive attitudes towards a tourist destination in a VR preview in comparison to a less immersive website preview. Thus, the inherent interactive, immersive, and sensory rich attributes of VR have a positive effect on tourism consumers’ attitudes towards a destination.Hence, for managers, the use of pop-up VR stations in shopping malls or other entertainment venues would be an advantageous marketing strategy, while also providing VR previews to download from relevant stores such as the Oculus store for consumers to use on their own devices within the comfort of their own home.

Conversational agents allow products and services to be sold through real-time one-on-one conversations. However, consumers tend to engage with humans and resist conversational agents. Further, conversation abandonment without leaving personal information (e.g., email) leaves marketers without the ability to re-engage with potential customers.Drawing on the Social Information Processing theory and Affect-as-Information model, this study investigates how emotion cues: a higher positive tone from the conversational agent and emojis influence (1) the agent’s responsiveness perception, and (2) consumers’ intention to disclose personally-identifying information (email) to the agent retailer. The research uses a computerized text analysis of the chat scenarios and a 2 (low vs higher emotional tone) × 2 (emoji use vs. no emoji use) between-subjects experimental design.This research focuses on the effect of emotional tone and emoji use on the conversational agent’s perceived responsiveness and consumers’ intention to disclose their personal information to the agent in a text-based conversational commerce context. When the conversational agent’s emotional tone was higher, it was perceived as being more responsive. However, the effect of emoji use on the perception of agents’ responsiveness was not significant. Finally, the present research found that the effect of higher emotional tone, emoji use, and the interaction term was significant for consumers’ intention to disclose their email to the agent retailer.This study provides several managerial implications; although emoji use did not result in higher perceived responsiveness, emojis and higher emotional tone can be used to promote email disclosure to the agent retailers and thus enable marketers to collect valuable consumer data. Further, an emotional tone can benefit a conversational website, particularly one in need of incorporating customers’ personal information to provide personalized products. The findings contribute to the growing research stream on integrating emotion cues into conversational agents and their impact on consumers’ perceptions and personal information disclosure.

Consumers often face situations where they have to choose between emotional gratification and functionality. For example, they have to decide between buying a sports car or a minivan; they have to choose a healthy snack or a tempting dessert. One of the factors that influence consumer choice in this context, is the anticipation of emotions that will be experienced as a result of this choice. Researchers have established the impact of shopping motive (i.e., utilitarian vs. hedonic) on choice and the aversive state of guilt (e.g., Choi et al. 2014; Okada 2005). Okada (2005) found that given a choice between a hedonic and a utilitarian item, consumers have a higher preference for the utilitarian item and that hedonic purchases lead to feelings of guilt unless the shopper can formulate a justification (e.g., I have gone to the gym today, so it is okay if I choose a high-calorie dessert). However, this stream of research commonly ignores the significance of shoppers’ personal values and belief system. In this study, we argue that feelings of guilt are not a consequence of hedonic shopping, but rather a byproduct of the value violation occurring in association with the hedonic shopping motive and purchase behavior. We explore and demonstrate that when a purchase decision does not involve a value violation, consumer purchase intention is similar regardless of shopping motive (i.e., hedonic or utilitarian). However, when a value violation is involved, it leads to anticipation of aversive states such as shame and guilt which in turn reduce purchase intention. In addition, we suggest that online customer reviews provide an ideal context for justification of a value-violating purchase. Our results indicate that as a result of the negative emotional states evoked by the value-violating purchase, customers’ online information search behavior change.

Gifts are commonly used to represent and reinforce personal relationships that are important and often sacred (Belk et al. 1989). To support the sacredness of a gift, it should represent some considerable monetary sacrifice (Branco-Illodo and Heath 2020), but also should be removed from profane considerations of money by, for example, the removal of price tags (Belk et al. 1989). Given these aspects of a gift, it is interesting that some deal-prone consumers justify their urges to purchase bargain items that they don’t need by noting the usefulness of these items as potential gifts (Thomsen and Zaichkowsky 2015).In this research, we tested how purchasing an item at a discount affects the item’s suitability as a gift. Participants were asked to assume that they were looking for a gift for a friend’s birthday celebration. They were told that they found the perfect gift item online, and the online retailer gave them two alternatives. The first alternative was to buy the item for the regular price of $29.99; the second alternative was to buy the same item in good condition but with a damaged box (i.e., tainted packaging) for a discounted price. The three discount conditions had the sale price set at $21.99 (25% discount), $14.99 (50% discount) and $7.99 (75% discount). We then measured the participants’ willingness to buy the tainted gift item.We collected data from 92 participants in three age groups: younger (ages 24 and below), middle (ages 25–44), and older (ages 45 and above). Consumers in the younger age group were generally favorable toward purchasing the package-damaged and discounted item as a gift and were not affected by the size of the discount. Consumers in the older age group were less favorable toward buying the package-damaged and discounted item (although not significantly so) and were also not affected by the size of the discount.What is noteworthy is that our middle age group, the millennial participants, showed a statistically significant effect of discount size on their likelihood of purchasing the package-damaged discounted item. When the package-damaged item was discounted by only 25% or 50%, these respondents showed a level of interest comparable to that of the other age groups. However, when the item was discounted by 75%, the 25–44 year-old respondents reported being less likely to make the purchase. This result offers some preliminary evidence in support of the possibility that a discount can reduce the attractiveness of an item as an imaginable gift.

Today’s higher education students are part of a generational cohort now commonly referred to as Generation Z (Gen Z), and it is not known the extent to which Gen Z’s will demonstrate similar preferences and decision-making behavior as those of previous generations. The purpose of this research study is to examine undergraduate marketing student preferences for various instructional methods. Gen Zs are perceived as pragmatic in nature, motivated to maximize the utility of their spending, burdened with student debt, and are the first generation to regard the physical and digital world as borderless. Our primary question is “how do Gen Z college students prefer to learn?”Faculty today have available to them an almost overwhelming number of options when it comes to instructional methods and how to design their courses. Advances in technology and events such as the Covid-19 pandemic has made distance learning not only viable and necessary, but for some learners even superior to traditional face-to-face delivery. Innovations in pedagogy have produced a variety of alternatives to traditional lecture-based teaching formats such as flipped classrooms, problem-based learning, the case method, and team based-learning. Indeed, the calls within marketing academia (e.g., Crittenden et al. 2019; Rohm et al. 2019) for faculty to innovate and embrace the digital world in order to properly prepare marketing students for the demands of the marketplace are compelling. Instructors also have numerous decisions to make on how to structure their courses, such as rigor, workload, and supplemental materials.College marketing student preference to six different instructional methods was determined using a choice-based conjoint analysis. Each instructional method was a significant determinant of students’ choice of a given class, but the six methods varied significantly in terms of their importance weights. Results of conjoint analysis indicate that the three most preferred drivers of student choice for a marketing class are (1) it employs a flipped classroom, (2) its class sessions are interactive and hands-on, rather than lecture-based and (3) it has a moderate, rather than a heavy workload.

Patients’ adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) varies substantially. Governments need to deal with the patients’ disparities to reach the expected high performance for healthcare systems, grasp efficiency, and improve the quality of diagnoses and care delivery. This study investigates patients’ perceived benefits and concerns of EHR in order to develop a typology of patients, identify characteristics of different clusters, and propose practical measures for public policy makers.Cluster analyses identified four patient clusters: the worried, qualified by the highest means of privacy concerns and perceived risk, are the most concerned by health data disclosure. Conversely, the ready adopters, showing an absolute lack of privacy concerns and risks, are the most motivated by EHR benefits. Yet, compared to the worried, concerned adopters express far less privacy concerns about their health data and perceive more favourably EHR benefits. Finally, the balanced adopters, relatively close to the ready adopters for EHR motives, are still concerned about their health data, suggesting a segment easier to convince of EHR adoption. ANOVA analyses on intentions to create EHR and willingness to disclose health data across clusters confirm that ready adopters, followed by balanced adopters, are more likely to create an EHR and disclose health data. The concerned adopters and lastly the worried exhibit the lowest intentions for EHR creation and data disclosure.Results provide meaningful insights of patients’ profiles and expectations regarding EHR adoption. Findings underscore the need to (1) implement particular targeting policies for each cluster and (2) design concrete solutions for improving EHR performance.

Current use of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing is to assist and empower consumers or a human workforce. While AI is not yet replacing humans (Chen et al. 2019; Davenport et al. 2020), it is transforming many industries (Huang and Rust 2018; Rust 2020; Wirth 2018). Whether consumers recognize it or not, AI is already embedded into many aspects of today’s customer journey. In this process, tradeoffs between data privacy, AI driven technology, and resulting benefits have blurred and at times, been accepted by consumers via social complacency. There is evidence that this tradeoff can create a feeling of cognitive dissonance within some users of AI.The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that when a person has two inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or actions, dissonance (mental distress) will occur (Festinger 1957). Dissonance is uncomfortable, and thus people will seek to resolve that discomfort through various strategies, such as creating an explanation that allows the inconsistency to exist or rejecting new information that is in conflict with existing beliefs (Festinger 1964). Research by Levin et al. (2010) supports that cognitive dissonance is increased in human-robot interactions as compared to human-human interactions for similar purposes.Much of the existing research has examined perceptions and behaviors of those aware of an AI-based interaction, not those who may be interacting with AI unknowingly. The purpose of this research is to explore the differences in attitudes and behaviors of consumers when they are and are not aware of the existence of AI and how cognitive dissonance may play a role in their AI interactions. This study will employ a mixed-methods approach consisting of a consumer survey and interviews to better understand this phenomena.

We demonstrate a mechanism for product evaluation under ordered presentation based on feelings (Schwarz 2012) through the affect-eliciting nature of a strong brand (Yeung and Wyer 2005). Our model differs from prior models of product evaluation under ordered presentation by relying on affect rather than on cognitive mechanisms. Four experiments using existing brands, including a mall intercept, demonstrate higher willingness to pay (WTP) under brand-first presentation compared to attribute-first presentation. Following this, we intend to investigate whether two different kinds of processing are triggered by high and low positive affect engendered by the two forms of presentation.Research on attribute order (Schrift et al. 2017), order of product and price (Karmarkar et al. 2015), and composite brand alliances (Park et al. 1996) shows that information presented first typically forms an anchor for product evaluation (Hogarth and Einhorn 1992), setting the context for subsequent processing (Karmarkar et al. 2015; Yeung and Wyer 2004). Our work builds on this research to determine the impact on evaluation if the first piece of information, such as a brand, were to generate strong positive affect.When product information elicits affect, as information about a strong brand does (Keller 2003; McClure et al. 2004; Yeung and Wyer 2005), this affect leads to heuristic processing and more favourable product evaluation due to the higher level of positive affect. When attribute information is presented first, we expect systematic processing and less favourable evaluation due to relatively low level of initial positive affect. Such a difference in evaluation is not expected for weak brands as they do not elicit sufficient positive affect. We also expect to observe the effect of ordered presentation on WTP under promotion focus due to greater reliance on affect compared to prevention focus. Finally, we posit that brand-first (attribute-first) presentation leads to heuristic (systematic) processing due to higher positive affect. The current research uses experimental methods, both lab studies and a mall intercept, to validate the hypotheses, in order to arrive at causes inferences.This research contributes to extant research on ordered presentation and on branding. Findings of our research hold managerial implications in the domain of product communication, advertising, and packaging. Further research could examine the impact of affect and determine boundary conditions for the observed effect, which could include consumer goals or mindsets, or contextual factors. Our findings also hold implications for quick heuristic processing arising from time pressure or low category familiarity.

While extant branding literature has focused on external communication, internal branding has received much less research attention. Internal brand management can be characterized as a subset of internal marketing and it requires a mid-term to long-term effort to change structures and processes (Piehler et al. 2015). Drawing upon contingency theory, stakeholder theory and other conceptual foundations, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of internal branding in internationally operating firms.A conceptual model is developed, and the study employs a quantitative, survey-based approach. The hypotheses are tested through structural equation modelling, i.e. Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modelling using SmartPLS 3 (Ringle et al. 2015) based on data collected from managers of firms with international business activities in Central and Eastern Europe. Data analysis includes the assessment of common method bias, the evaluation of the reflective measurement model (Hair et al. 2014), i.e. internal consistency, indicator reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity using HTMT ratio (Henseler et al. 2015), and the evaluation of the structural model based on the bootstrapping procedure using 5000 subsamples (Hair et al. 2014).The results of the structural model show the positive outcomes of both standardized employee behavior and leadership. Various antecedents contribute to enhancing performance in internationally operating firms. Thus, a standardized strategy of internal branding measures is feasible for internationally operating firms. Moreover, the importance of leadership has to be highlighted in terms of managerial implications. The limitations are discussed from a conceptual and empirical point of view. Future research could investigate alternative variables and conceptual models including moderating variables, as well as different empirical settings. The results contribute to the branding literature where international studies are scant.

Conventional stakeholder theory suggests that corporations and their agents should avoid engaging in potentially controversial social and political debates, which may alienate existing and potential customers. However, as Bhagwat et al. (2020) note, this wisdom has been challenged as customer and other firm stakeholders have increased pressure on firms to embrace activism promoting societal well-being on myriad topics (e.g. immigration, environmentalism, LGBTQ rights, gender equity, economic inequities, and antiracism) and increase their role in benefiting society globally.2020 was a historic year marked by tragedy surrounding a global pandemic and notably, in the United States, an increased presence of public protests in response to ongoing national social injustice and racism faced by African Americans. In particular, the publically documented deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd at the hands of police made national and international headlines and became a clarion call for increased sociopolitical activism in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement and support against systemic racism of African Americans. A rise in and visibility of sociopolitical activism increased pressure on firms to evaluate corporate mores and embrace corporate sociopolitical activism involving taking public demonstrations against racism, in the form of official statements, internal corporate actions to ameliorate internal systemic bias, and/or explicit support for external partisan causes intended to influence public policy and social structures.Drawing on literature from Sociopolitical Activism (CSA), Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), and the Theory of Universal Human Values, we examine the linguistic features of public corporate responses to the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements. Our research investigates the compositional features of corporate sociopolitical activism, paying particular attention to functional language related to allyship, activism, authenticity, affect, causal language, harm acknowledgement, and psychological stress. Additionally, we report findings suggesting that corporate responses vis-à-vis these language variables differ based on the statement issuer’s sex. We note these contextual differences and close with managerial recommendations.

Despite the opportunities and benefits associated with establishing a web presence, there is a significant subset of entrepreneurial ventures that are offline. Given the proliferation of internet use across the United States, exploring the factors contributing to this counterintuitive decision unearths new insights on entrepreneurial behavior. Through a survey of 260 small business owners and managers in the United States and additional interviews with 18 leaders at small entrepreneurial firms, we examine how marginalization, an external challenge that creates barriers to success, can influence an entrepreneur’s perceptions about digital marketing, and ultimately contribute to performance issues within the firm. We find that marginalization heightens the level of risk entrepreneurs assign to internet use. This risk perception limits the extent to which an entrepreneur responds to online customer feedback, which has implications for the venture’s relationship and reputation management efforts with buyers, ultimately impacting the firm’s performance.

This project probes the impact of COVID-19 and social injustice message framing on employee stress. Diversity in the workforce is a competitive advantage. Many organizations develop statements to signal their diversity appreciation (Jayne and Dipboye 2004). These messages receive favor from some stakeholders, but ridicule from others (Avery and McKay 2010). The appropriate message framing (self vs. other) can have consequences on employee behavior (Hung and Wyer 2011) and judgment (Chang and Hung 2018). It increases message elaboration and persuasion (Burnkrant and Unnava 1995).Ongoing messages and images about social injustice have had significant, negative effects on the physical and mental health of Black employees (Smith et al. 2011; Williams 2018). For Black people, the ability to regulate emotions during crisis is imperative. Non-Black people who experience stress from these sources may be less adept at emotion regulation in these instances. It is important to expose the effect of these messages as they may add stress communities experience during a crisis.A non-student sample of 174 subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions in which they read and considered a COVID-19 message and a social injustice message. The message content was manipulated through the use of other-focus language (“We”), self-focus language (“You”) or the absence of personal pronouns (Cober et al. 2001). Pre- and post-stress measures were completed for each message. The average stress level before the experiment was neutral (x = 4.11) with no significant group differences. Exposure to a COVID-19 message did not significantly change the stress level (t(169) = 1.46, p = .15, x = 4.35). However, exposure to the social injustice message following the COVID-19 message produced significant changes (t(171) = 2.94, p < .001, x = 3.22). The stress level of non-White subjects (x = 2.82) was reduced while the stress level of White subjects (x = 4.99) increased. Self-focus message framing (x = 4.47) received significantly higher evaluations than other-focus message framing (x = 3.69) and the control condition (x = 3.31) (F(2,167) = 5.08, p < .001).COVID-19 messages had no impact on stress levels. When the COVID-19 message was followed by a social injustice message, stress levels were lowered significantly for non-White subjects while they increased for White subjects. Self-focus message framing was most effective in communicating these messages versus other-focus messaging or non-specific messages.Culture influences how people perceive and respond to the world (Smith et al. 2009) whether at work or at home. An organization attempting to engage its cultural competence by supporting one demographic group may confront feelings of marginalization by another group. This is an important avenue of inquiry due to the gravity of events that preceded and followed COVID-19. It offers insight into how different groups evaluate corporate responses to social issues. Employees and consumers are watching.

Race is at the forefront of marketers and consumers’ minds as the need for social justice and a focus on anti-racism enter daily conversations. Race strongly influences consumer behavior (Pitts et al. 1989; Sexton 1972), and consumers are increasingly engaging in various forms of protest which attempt to shape markets and organizations within them (Bradford 2020; Kates and Belk 2001; Klein et al. 2004; Kozinets et al. 2012; Kozinets and Handelman 2004; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013; Sen et al. 2001). Though research has established strong links between race and consumer behavior, there remains an opportunity to examine how race influences consumer behaviors that seek to contest the marketplace. This study seeks to examine how perceptions of racially stereotyped advertisements may affect consumer willingness to participate in forms of activism.Primarily, race is viewed as a demographic variable upon which to assess differences among consumers (Akers 1968; Barban and Cundiff 1964). Recent research challenges prior notions of race in the marketplace and orients race as more than a demographic variable to consider the many ways in which race is culturally constructed (Grier et al. 2019). Such an expanded view creates additional opportunities to examine how race influences consumer responses in marketplaces.Alternatively, literature provides examples of how consumers may respond to market messages through boycotts and protests in attempts to alter markets or society (Kates and Belk 2001; Klein et al. 2004; Kozinets et al. 2012; Sen et al. 2001). Generally, these responses to markets are viewed as consumer movements which are meant to mobilize consumers against business in efforts to transform both business behaviors and consumer culture (Kozinets and Handelman 2004). These movements have the potential to change interactions between consumers and businesses where consumers intend to alter marketplace demand until desired changes are obtained (Weber et al. 2008).This study utilizes a framework to examine the extent to which an individual’s perception of racially stereotyped advertisements may lead to forms of activism. In a 2 (message characteristics: stereotypical vs. non-stereotypical) × 2 (model characteristics: Black vs. White) between-subjects designed study, the findings reveal that individuals who view racially stereotyped advertisements are likely to participate in monetary activism (e.g., raising money to support a cause) and protest activism (e.g., attend a protest).

Given the level of diversity in the United States, companies are implementing multicultural marketing to be competitive in the marketplace. Multicultural marketing, the practice of integrated marketing strategies and tactics for products and services that are race- and ethnic-neutral and agnostic to sexual orientation, has become a conventional marketing strategy. However, both for-and non-profit organizations are challenged when it comes to execution. The mainstreaming of multicultural marketing has presented marketers with challenges in executing an optimal strategy to target diverse consumers, giving rise to what is known as the Total Market Approach to Multicultural Marketing. Unfortunately, marketers rely on the objective attributes of culture in multicultural consumer segmentation. Thus, multicultural consumers are more predisposed to being unfairly represented in advertising due to stereotyping. As a result, there has been an ongoing marketing practitioner debate on multicultural marketing strategy (e.g., what exactly is the Total Market Approach to multicultural marketing, the necessity of hiring a multicultural advertising agency, and the important role of diversity within the marketing organization).This manuscript answers the following marketing-relevant research question: What are the important measurable organizational factors necessary for successful U.S. multicultural marketing? The marketing literature is scant relative to multicultural marketing strategies and tactics. What has not been discussed in previous marketing literature is how an organization's visible human resource diversity—and its commitment to diversity—can be leveraged as a tacit resource when marketing to multicultural consumers. This paper proposes that an organization’s Diversity Avouchment can be a sustainable, tacit, competitive advantage to a company as it relates to multicultural marketing. Leveraging the theory of the Resourced-Based View of the Firm and practitioner multicultural marketing research, a sample of marketing practitioners was queried on their multicultural marketing practices. An empirical model identifying the meaningful and measurable constructs within an organization that can predict multicultural marketing success was developed. Findings demonstrate that through greater Diversity Avouchment and the implementation of a Total Market strategy, organizations have higher financial and strategic performance, more effective advertising, and creative latitude to develop culturally relevant marketing communications. The empirical model of multicultural marketing in this paper, sampled from marketing practitioners across various U.S. companies, will make a unique contribution to the area of marketplace diversity, contributing to what is already known about the theory of the Resourced-Based View (RBV) of the Firm.This paper can make management teams within various organizations aware that multicultural marketing is a legitimate and profitable strategy to be competitive in the marketplace. Trade organizations such as the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) will have a prescription for successful multicultural marketing. As a result, stereotypes can be mitigated, resulting in better, more effective, and more inclusive marketing communications.

With an estimated 1.1 billion unbanked adults in the world, mobile financial services, including mobile money services are being used to increase access to low-cost financial services (Demirguc-Kunt et al. 2018). Although mobile financial services are growing at a dynamic and rapid pace, the share of adults (44%) in developing countries reported to using digital payments with mobile phones or the internet is still low (Demirguc-Kunt et al. 2018). There still remains a large percent of the population in BoP (base of the pyramid) markets with limited access to sustainable formal financial services like credit, savings, payment systems, insurance and pension (Ouma et al. 2017).The growth and potential of mobile financial services in BOP markets is well documented in practitioner reports (e.g. GSMA- Mobile for Development report, World Bank- Global Findex reports, Deloitte- Leveraging digital to unlock the base of the pyramid market in Africa report). Mobile phones and the internet have given rise to a new generation of financial services, sparking a digital revolution. Although BOP market literature has mention that the mobile financial services process is becoming increasingly dynamic with benefits to many stakeholders, there has been little light thrown on mobile financial inclusion processes and outcomes. Hence, the main aim of this study is to conduct a systematic literature review and synthesize the literature on strategies to upscale utilitarian and hedonic benefits to all consumers at the micro, meso and macro levels – all stakeholders - to get a comprehensive understanding of mobile financial inclusion.We employed a systematic literature review approach for this study as our data collection method. Systematic literature review (SLR) is a distinct and organized method to analyze and assess literature (Briner and Walshe 2014).We have proposed a conceptual model to delineate mobile financial services usage in BOP markets. The model shows the factors that take place prior to mobile financial services usage among BOP consumers, as well as the usage experience and outcomes associated with MFS at the BOP. As such, this model serves as a visual representation of the previously discussed antecedents, usage experience, outcomes, and strategy. Additionally, we specify that the mobile financial services environment includes micro level household strategies, meso level firm strategies, and macro level national strategies. These micro, meso and macro level relationships require continuous re-adaptations amongst stakeholders for increasing dynamism in MFS.Mobile financial services present an opportunity for financial inclusion and poverty alleviation. Consequently, understanding the antecedents, process and outcomes associated with their use and provision is key. Our conceptualization of the mobile financial services process and environment suggest that precursors impact mobile financial services usage which in turn impacts outcomes additionally elements of the micro, meso, and macro environment impact each of these elements.

Ride hailing service market is by far the fastest growing industry. Increased consumer demand resulted in a significant shift from traditional taxis to ride hailing services (Pyzyk 2019). According to a 2017 report of Goldman Sachs, this industry is expected to reach a market size of $285 billion by 2030 (Huston 2017). Uber is the largest ride hailing company in the market, followed by Lyft and few other relatively small companies such as Via, Gett and Juno (Lam and Liu 2017). There are limited regulations on these ride hailing services which are black-box algorithmic decision makers. Consequently, there are growing concerns about algorithmic fairness in ride hailing.To investigate fairness in ride hailing services, we analyzed data provided by the City of Chicago on 73,247,231 ride hailing Uber, Lyft, and Via trips combined between November 2018 and June 2019 for 5,459,609 drivers. City of Chicago has been first to publish city level data on ride hailing trips in 2019. Our findings indicate that there are some concerns in terms of fairness in their practices. As our findings suggest, low-income neighborhoods pay higher prices for their trips than high income neighborhoods. Additionally, consumers from minority and low-income neighborhoods have less ride hailing service usage as opposed to consumers from white dominant, high-income neighborhoods. Our findings also show that popular pick-up and drop-off neighborhoods have higher ride hailing prices which explains the demand-based surge pricing practices of these ride hailing companies. Finally, we found that young and active consumers that use ride hailing services in their communities pay higher prices in comparison to other populations of different ages.This paper contributes to an increased understanding of fairness in ride hailing services by analyzing the detailed large-scale ride hailing dataset obtained from Chicago Data portal. The results provide a preliminary understanding about the demographic patterns of consumers’ ride hailing usage. This is one of the first city level datasets on ride hailing services that is publicly available and provides insights about the practices of these services. This research contributes to the literature of ride hailing services as well as practices of these services in terms of fairness. Managerially, by better understanding the factors that create unfair practices in the ride hailing market, marketers, researchers and policy makers can offer solutions or work together to set regulations aiming to prevent disparate impact in the ride hailing industry. Finally, our findings suggest that further exploration of ride hailing services with sophisticated machine learning techniques can provide insights as to how fair ride hailing services are, how they affect consumers and to what extent these services contribute to the growth of communities.

Augmented reality (AR), which overlays a virtual world onto the real world (Javornik 2016), provides tremendous opportunities for brands to engage consumers through psychological, cognitive, and sensory processes as they interact with the technology. Due to the rapid development of AR, however, there is a dearth of research to understand how individual psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects associated with AR brand experiences influence commonly studied outcome behaviors. With company investments in AR technology set to increase to $195 billion by 2025 and consumer downloads of mobile AR applications expected to reach 5.5 billion by 2022 (Statista 2020), the need to deepen the understanding of this burgeoning technology’s impact on consumption experiences is of importance to both firms and scholars. We seek to address this gap by examining the psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects of AR experiences that foster positive brand outcomes through the elicitation of episodic memories.A concept that was initially introduced by Tulving (1972) over 40 years ago, episodic memory is a memory system that facilitates the remembrance of personally experienced events associated with particular times or places that are triggered by a retrieval cue. Episodic retrieval involves an interaction between a ‘retrieval cue’ (self-generated or by the environment) and a memory trace leading to some or all aspects of the episode in the trace (Rugg and Wilding 2000). It does so by inducing Chronethesia, a conscious awareness of being present while remembering the past (Tulving 1985). Further, and of interest to marketers, priming of episodic memory not only induces memories of the past, but also triggers the ability to re-experience one’s own previous experiences through mental time travel. During this particular experience, one not only remembers the past but feels like being in and re-living a specific past moment. This feeling of re-living the experience is a state that includes characteristics such as seeing, hearing, and feeling what occurred in the past event (Tulving 2002).In this between-subjects study with over 800 participants, we compare AR to a range of digital brand stimuli from one seasonal campaign. The campaign stimuli included an AR experience, a branded website 360-experience, a video advertisement, and a static image. The results suggest that sensory and atmospheric aspects of AR not only have the capability of triggering episodic memories, but when compared to other conditions, they enhance episodic memory’s effect on behavioral intentions through the elicitation of mental time travel. Therefore, findings from this study add to the extant literature on AR’s ability to foster positive brand outcomes through the elicitation of episodic memory and mental time travel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the global economy at an unprecedented scale since its start in early 2020. Furthermore, it is estimated that a third of the workforce in the U.S. changed to work from home (Brynjolfsson et al. 2020). As consumers are spending more time at home, data shows that panic buying changed demand for items such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The increase for certain categories in consumer spending during the pandemic has been accompanied by a spike in the utilization of e-commerce channels. COVID-19 accelerated consumers move to purchasing goods online versus traditional physical stores by five years (Perez 2020). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, consumers increased their e-commerce spending to $211.5 billion during the second quarter, an increase of 31.8% quarter over quarter (Palmer 2020). The sudden nature of the changes related to COVID-19 purchase behavior makes it harder for marketers to respond effectively.As research on the topic of COVID-19 is starting to appear in the literature, there is not enough work in the area of consumer purchase behavior. In this paper, we utilize three real-time datasets to understand customer dynamics from March 2020 to December 2020 during the pandemic. Combining these data sources allows us to enhance our understanding of the general purchasing behavior at city level during the pandemic. We identify product categories that were the primary drivers of a sharp increase (decrease) in spending and the extent to which this increase (decrease) was maintained over time. We also shed light on stressors such as the number of COVID-19 cases and death by city and their impact on time spent at home and retail stores. By doing so, we contribute to the literature on panic buying which is still not well understood in the literature (Barnes et al. 2020).

In what ways do individuals exercise their morphological freedom to become cyborgs? Does becoming more machine-like enrich or diminish their identities as humans? In pursuing answers to these research questions, I relied on an existential-phenomenological framework (Sartre 1976) and a three-year qualitative study of near-field communication (NFC) microchip consumers that resulted in a new conceptualization: The Interactive Self. Differently from the extended self (Belk 1988) that is composed of everything humans can call theirs (James 1890), the interactive self is nurtured by cyborgs’ experiential and embodied sense of ownership and a sense of agency for their actions (Gallagher 2013).Drawing on Transhumanism (Sorgner 2020), cyborg anthropology (Hables-Gray et al. 2020), and theories of the self (Gallagher 2013), the concept has three conceptual dimensions: Firstly, the Identity-Enabler Object is an object (e.g., an NFC microchip) that has the power to change the human ontological status to that of fledgling cyborgs. Secondly, the iMine Boundarylessness comprises the physical, symbolic, and digital boundaries that are crossed or blurred, allowing for the simultaneous process of extension & incorporation into the self. Finally, the third conceptual dimension is the Data Meshwork, which is a bundle of data that flows through the cyborgs’ internal (e.g., an NFC microchip) and external digital organs (e.g., a smartphone).This study contributes, firstly, to the understanding of work on identity projects in the transhumanist era. Since Belk’s (1988) seminal contribution, consumer researchers directly or indirectly draw on the notion that “knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, we regard our possessions as parts of ourselves” (Belk 1988, 139). However, from the Interactive Self perspective, this premise does not fully encompass the cyborg ontology since there is no point in having an implanted microchip and not doing anything with it (i.e., interacting to exchange data). Still further, from the identity project perspective, I also introduce the simultaneous processes of extension & incorporation into the self, as recently suggested (e.g., Connell and Schau 2013). The third theoretical implication of this research relates to technology consumption studies, which thus far are essentially about what consumers can or cannot do with technology. However, when technology changes our ontological framing of ourselves as human beings, we must change our view of technology as well (Belk 2020; Schmitt 2020). Cyborgs do not use technology; they are technology. In this sense, my findings challenge prior consumer and marketing theories and research in which technology is portrayed as a purely instrumental means to an end.

Process analysis is indispensable to contemporary marketing research. It is the theorization and testing of moderation and/or mediation hypotheses to obtain theoretically and managerially relevant insights into marketing processes. This dissertation presents three essays that apply, compare and extend such process analysis methodologies.Essay 1 applies mediation in an investigation of the referral reinforcement effect: referred customers are more inclined to make referrals than non-referred customers are. Study 1 is an analysis of a field-experiment among ridesharing customers. Study 2a re-analyzes a published combination of archival and survey data of a bank’s referral reward program. Study 2b is a new survey among moviegoers. Study 3 is a controlled lab-experiment. All find support for the referral reinforcement effect. Study 4 investigates customer lay beliefs and finds that other-directed rather than self-directed or product-directed motives drive the referral reinforcement effect. Overall, these studies find support for the referral reinforcement effect and provide insights in its processes. The referral reinforcement has useful implications for managers who aim to grow a customer base.Essay 2 compares six existing moderation methods in the face of measurement error. A quantitative literature review shows that taking a product of unweighted means is predominantly used for moderation analysis, in 94% of investigated articles. The remaining methods, multi-group, factor scores, corrected means, product indicators and the latent product method are barely used. A comparison of the assumptions of the methods and follow-up Monte Carlo simulations conclude that the accessible factor scores method performs much better than the dominant means method, and equally good or better than the remaining more sophisticated methods. We recommend the use of the factor scores method for moderation analysis and advise using samples that are 60% larger than that are currently common.Essay 3 focuses on discriminant validity as a precondition for meaningful process analysis. It extends bivariate discriminant validation criteria by taking a multivariate perspective. The proposed implementation is applicable to both raw and summary statistics data, accounts for measurement error in the variables and uses statistical tests of discriminant validity rather than heuristics. Case studies and an online web-based application apply the proposed methods in important multivariate theory-testing domains, multiple mediation and multidimensional measurement. Usage of the proposed methods contributes to construct validation and meaningful substantive theory tests.In sum, we hope that this dissertation demonstrates the strengths of process analysis methodologies, fosters valid applications, and inspires future research.

This three-essay dissertation explores the intersection of organizational frontline marketing and a high-tech world, utilizing mixed-method approaches. The traditional retail and service environment is swiftly and drastically changing, and this fundamental shift in the retail and service landscape provides marketers with both great challenges and opportunities for great success. Some have attributed this retail apocalypse to the inability of traditional retailers to evolve quickly enough to handle the drastically-changing retail landscape. This fundamental change in retailing has been associated with increasing in-store technology and digital touchpoints which have changed how retailers and service organizations communicate with their customers along their purchase journey. One way retailers can stay competitive in this swiftly-changing environment is the development of their frontline management practices. Using field, manager-provided, experimental, attitudinal, and behavioral data, Essay I explores (1) What effect does providing free food have on FLEs’ customer responsiveness and sales; (2) Through what mechanisms does free food affect key outcome variables; and (3) Are there boundary conditions to the free food effect? Adopting a longitudinal field experimental approach with behavioral data, Essay II examines (1) How frontline technology can influence five dimensions of the consumer experience and retail sales; (2) Through what mechanism does frontline technology affect key outcome variables; (3) How the frontline consumer experience develops longitudinally over time through three developmental variables; and (4) How the consumer experience changes when multiple products are experienced at one touchpoint. Utilizing field, archival, experimental, attitudinal, and behavioral data, Essay III investigates (1) Whether online social media use affects offline blood donations; (2) Through which mechanisms does social media affect blood donations; (3) Whether there are boundary conditions for these effects; and (4) how blood donations can be increased in the field. Across all three essays, implications and discussion are provided for academics, marketing managers, retailers, and service providers.

Big Data is defined as high-volume, high-velocity, high-variety (and more recently, high-veracity) information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of capturing, storing, distributing, managing and analyzing that information (Gartner IT Glossary, n.d.; TechAmerica Foundation’s Federal Big Data Commission 2012). Big Data Analytics (BDA) refers therefore to the “application of statistical processing, and analytics techniques to big data for advancing business” (Grover et al. 2018, p. 360). In marketing, despite much interest to the concept of Big Data and analytics, there is a lack of empirical evidence of the benefits associated with BDA. More surprisingly, little attention has been paid to the empirical investigation of the impact of BDA for market purposes on financial performance, despite the critical importance of such a relationship to reach strategic objectives.Using the resource-based theory (RBT) framework (Barney 1991; Lee and Grewal 2014), this study fills that void in the literature by adopting an inter-disciplinary perspective to assess the impacts of BDA for marketing purposes on firm financial performance. More specifically, the research involves a large-scale study of organizations that are part of the S&P 500 (Standard & Poors 500) in the USA, and of the S&P/TSX 60 (Standard & Poors/Toronto Stock Exchange 60), in Canada, to identify to what extent the implementation of BDA, in the marketing function, forms a competitive advantage that materializes through financial performance.Overall, the findings suggest that BDA has a significant and extensive impact on corporate performance. Second, while descriptive analytics contribute positively to profit-related performance indicators (i.e., share price), prescriptive analysis load more significantly on revenue and profit-related performance indicators. Furthermore, the contribution of BDA to the revenue performance of the manufacturing industry is greater than in other industries.This study contributes uniquely to past research and professional practice by providing an exploratory research on the impact of particular big data analytics (i.e., descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive) on the financial performance of 560 large capitalization companies (i.e., S&P500 and S&P/TSX60 stock indices).

Online gaming addiction is a globally pervasive challenge and a major health problem that is affecting the societal fabric (Basol and Kaya 2018). The prevalent rate of internet addiction varies from 12.6% to 67.5% globally (Kuss et al. 2021). Hence, Interventions to tackle the problem of online gaming addiction is of utmost importance (Kuss et al. 2021). Therefore, the proposed study seeks to address the problem of online gaming addiction among adolescents (age 12–19 years) by adopting a novel resilience-based approach.This research study grapples with two important research objectives. Firstly, the research will examine the role of parental resilience in avoiding/reducing online gaming addiction and identify the types of resilience tactics that can control and/or reduce gaming addiction among adolescents. Secondly, using secondary data sources, we wish to examine the pervasiveness of online gaming addiction among the adolescents to demonstrate the acuteness of the problem and the challenge it poses for the present and the future of the society.The study will be divided into three phases (Secondary data-based review, qualitative exploration, and quantitative examination) followed by dissemination activities. So far, we have covered up phase 1 and Phase 2 of the study. Phase 1 – Secondary data-based review: The aim of this phase was to examine the current literature around online gaming addiction globally and identify the nature and pervasiveness of the problem. The review involved a study of 50 most cited papers in online gaming addiction domain within the last decade. Phase 2 – Qualitative exploration: The second phase of the study involved in-depth dyadic interviews with parents (n = 10) of adolescents in India. The interviews focused on the online gaming habits of children, parental interaction with their kids (parenting styles) and varying resilient behaviour observed among parents.We believe that our qualitative study makes an important contribution both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, it addresses a vast gap in the literature of online gaming addiction by showcasing parenting styles play an important role in controlling/reducing online gaming addiction among adolescents. Practically, the study has substantial implications for policy makers as well. Based on the findings of the study, policy makers can design interventions and training programmes that address the challenge of online gaming addiction through the aspects of resilience and parenting styles.

Given the context of the rising use and importance of social media for brand management, this research examines how brand attachment influences the effect of consumer-brand online interaction strategies on consumer attitude. In particular, using Goffman’s ‘face-work’ (1955) and social comparison theory (Schmitt 1988) as theoretical lenses, we investigate how brand flatteries towards consumers in social media impact the perception of brand humanization and the feeling of jealousy.According to face-work theory, individual interactions involve avoiding face-threatening acts and producing face-flattering acts in order to maintain one’s own face as well as the other participants’ (Brown and Levinson 1987; Kerbrat-Orecchioni 1997). Thus, appreciation and politeness should positively impact brand interaction perception in social media. However, the positive impact of brand flattery does not take into account the existing brand-consumer relationship and the consumer profile. Still, managers address various types of consumers on social media, for example those who have already experienced a relation with the brand and those who have not (i.e., consumers with high or low brand attachment). According to our conceptual development, we assume that brand comments flattering individuals (appreciation by the brand) have a higher positive effect on brand anthropomorphism when consumers have a low attachment to the brand than when they have a high attachment to it. Moreover, we assume that when a brand flatters others this generates jealousy for observing consumers.Based on two between-subject experiments, our results reveal the negative moderating effect of brand attachment, showing that the impact of brand appreciation on brand anthropomorphism is higher for consumers with low brand attachment versus those with high attachment. We also demonstrate that brand appreciation generates higher jealousy when addressed to others, compared to the self.On the one hand, this research contributes to the face-work, brand-consumer interaction and brand anthropomorphism literature. Indeed, our results depict brand attachment as a moderating variable of the effect of flattering expressions on anthropomorphism perceptions. Moreover, we demonstrate that brand appreciation has a detrimental effect on lurking consumers when the brand addresses other consumers. On the other hand, this research has managerial implications in the fields of branding and community management by proposing that managers could segment their online conversation platforms depending on the kind of brand relationships experienced by consumers. We also suggest that appreciation should be used with parsimony in order to avoid negative reactions from consumers who are not the targets of the brand’s appreciation.

This study entails a state-of-the-art quantitative modeling approach to latent class analysis (i.e., marketing segmentation and targeting analysis) of American, French, and French-Canadian consumers’ perception of American and French products based on their demographics and individual level cultural values. It identifies ‘hidden’ segments of consumers in the American/French/French-Canadian cultures and subcultures using their perception on US and France’s level of competitiveness, similarities between the French, American, and French-Canadian cultures, and understanding of these consumers towards France and US. We unveil these segments for three major French and American product categories. For the former, we study car, wine, and perfume, where car represents durable, wine represents shopping, and perfume covers luxury products; and for the latter we include large electronics (durables), apparel (shopping), and designer sunglasses (luxury).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating such a segmentation research question for French and American products by marrying analytics/modeling with individual level cultural values and the international business field. Results of this analysis have implications for marketing French and American products in the US, France, and French-Canadian markets and have applications for managers in improving the effectiveness of their segmentation/targeting processes, helping them get better responses as they target different segments, hence, reaching higher sales levels.This analysis contributes to academics and practitioners in at least three major levels: (1) it extends the marketing and international business literature by empirically unveiling hidden segments of American/French/French-Canadian consumers based on their demographics towards American and French products, (2) it offers managerial implications to those managers selling American and French products in the US/French/French-Canadian markets helping them better choose their target markets, and (3) by lowering targeting/advertising costs, it sets the ground for higher profits. The paper also further develops and updates the globalization and cultural change theory in additional markets and provides insights into the evolution of globalization and cosmopolitanism in consumer behavior.

82% of French people buy local food products and 59% of them at least once a week (Hérault-Fournier et al. 2020). While supermarkets remain the main place to buy local products, markets, convenience stores and specialty stores are very popular. More shoppers of local products are turning to digital channels, which were previously neglected. With the introduction of periods of containment (in France as in most countries), local food shopping journeys were disrupted with a strong adoption of pickup stores and home delivery (Chabault 2020).Existing theoretical frameworks have difficulties in understanding the complexity of food shopping journeys, focusing on a particular angle of approach, motivations or shopping orientations (Michaud-Trévinal and Héralt-Fournier 2018). Cervellon et al. (2015) called for the use of Theory of Practice (TP) developed by (Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 1996) in order to extend the understanding of the multichannel shopping journey.We answer this call by using TP to propose a new framework for the shopper journey and we make an additional contribution to the literature by combining TP with situation theory. Following Schatzki et al (2001) and Warde (2005), the analysis of food shopping journeys focuses on the practical activity and its representations. We examine the ways in which local food shopping practice, shaped by bodies, minds, things, knowledges, discourses, and structures (Reckwitz 2002). Our resulting framework focuses not on consumers but on activities, competences, literacy and tools, that are embedded in a particular situation.Our research questions are: (1) To develop a new framework for local food shopping; (2) To propose a practice-based typology of local food shopping journeys.The methodology implemented meets the requirements of theory of practice by focusing data collection on acting and saying: a convenience sampling of 21 French shoppers was employed. The use of the narrative technique allows shopping stories to be collected.Full results and discussion will be presented at the conference.

Brand literacy is the capacity of the consumers to understand the strategic pathway implemented by the organizations to promote their products and services in the marketplace. Acculturing consumers in order to position the brand as top of the mind is part of the process of generating brand literacy. Through the effective implementation of this process, consumers gain the ability not only to understand the brand etymologically but also their value proposition and relate it with consumer satisfaction propositions. The co-designing and co-evolution strategies also include co-branding, which is based on the degree of consumer literacy developed by the brands. The study proposes a new concept ‘consumer perceived brand literacy’ and presents a measurement scale development process. The scale presented here will help in understanding the perceived brand literacy by the consumers across the two selected brands and validate various dimensions explained in this study. The principal purpose is to explain the brand literacy perceived by consumers via five proposed dimensions.The data collection process involved application of the research instrument among 100 respondents, using a homogeneous and convenience sampling method. The process of developing the scale was based on two stages, taking into account two different brands for this study. The study revealed that among the various dimensions considered for the construct, brand personality and brand image perceived by the consumers were among the most prominent. This means that the brands would need to co-design marketing strategies with the consumers in order to inculcate the brand literacy among consumers since the initial stage of the firm. Hence, the marketing strategies would also need to be directed towards developing a strong brand personality and brand image among the consumers to assure the consumer perception is similar to the brand communication.

For most nonprofit organizations (NPOs) the procurement of donations is the core function of nonprofit marketing efforts (Bennett 2019). As NPOs are facing increasing competition (i.e. McKeever 2018) and a decline in number of donors in several OECD countries (i.e. Giving USA 2019), NPOs have begun to engage in online fundraising to approach especially younger donors (Aldridge and Fowles 2013).Research has shown that social information about others’ donation behavior can positively affect donation rates in public solicitation settings. To date, similar experiments in online environments are lacking but are particularly worth studying as theories suggest a malfunction of descriptive normative information (DNI) in anonymous donation calls (Van Teunenbroek et al. 2019). Based on the assumptions that (1) anonymity weakens social pressure and that (2) anonymity gives relatively more explanatory power to altruistic considerations, it is hypothesized that the positive effect of DNI should be at least weakened in anonymous settings.This hypothesis was tested in an online experiment (n = 392) covered as a price-draw to incentivize survey participation. At first, subjects were informed that they can win 100 Euro when finishing the survey and have the choice to donate a freely selectable share to an NPO. On the next page, subjects then decided whether they want to donate and were randomly assigned to the treatment or control condition. In the treatment condition the DNI that “87% of participants donate a portion” was shown. No information was given in the control condition. The comparison of donor proportions between control (68%) and treatment group (60%) reveals a marginally significant decline of 12 percent when DNI was shown, X 2 (2,N = 392) = 12.746, p = .09. The finding’s robustness on individual level was tested using multiple logistic regression with sociodemographic variables, trust in charities, and charitable giving behavior of friends and family as covariates. Under control for these covariates, 12.3 percent of the variance in donation decision can be explained ( R Nagelkerke 2 $$ {R}_{Nagelkerke}^2 $$ = .123, x 2 = 36.701, p < .001). The effect of DNI stays marginally significant and negative (Exp(B) = .667, B = −.405, p = .07).Results indicate not only a weakened but even reversed effect of DNI on the overall decision to donate on both group (donation rate) and individual level (donation likelihood). This preliminary finding raises exciting tasks and questions that should be addressed in subsequent experiments. E.g., alterations in the communicated donor rate and different anonymity levels should be included in more sophisticated setups to (1) gain process evidence and (2) test alternative explanations and interactions.

There were 300 million selfies posted on Instagram in 2018 (Smith 2019), and many people are taking selfies with brands (Sung et al. 2018). Although brand selfies of average consumers are generally perceived as credible, some consumers generate fake brand selfie pictures. Furthermore, viewers evaluate credibility of a brand selfie based on its composition, as well as its components such as brand, person and context. Even though marketers need to choose reasonably credible brand selfies to use for their promotions, little is known about how viewers assess the credibility of a brand selfie. Hence, this research aims to develop a scale to empirically measure brand selfie credibility from the viewer’s perspective, and to identify the antecedents and outcomes of brand selfie credibility. The scale development followed established scale development methods (e.g., Churchill 1979; Gerbing and Anderson 1988). Based on exploratory qualitative and quantitative studies, this research project developed a 9-item scale to measure brand selfie credibility. Three dimensions identified through an exploratory qualitative study and confirmed by two expert panels are: brand selfie image trustworthiness, brand selfie congruence, and brand selfie meaning. This research also finds that brand selfie credibility is influenced by brand-related (consistency of the brand and clarity of the brand), person-related (altruistic motivation), and image-related (positive affect) antecedents. Additionally, brand selfie credibility impacts on purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth. This study provides a tool for marketers to understand consumers’ perception of brand selfies and consumers’ reactions. Marketers can identify how the brand selfie and its credibility can be leveraged for marketing purposes, and to choose credible brand selfie pictures for their marketing communication strategies. This is the first study to develop and validate the measures for brand selfie credibility on social media which contributes to user-generated content, influencer-generated content, photographic credibility and branding literature.

We study how foreign brands’ cultural accommodation delivered through multisensory website design influences local consumers’ perceptions and purchase decisions. We place particular emphasis on the Chinese fashion industry, where many non-Chinese brands suffer because they confront with a dilemma, between adapting to the local culture and retaining their western originality. Drawing upon theories of cultural accommodation and homophily bias, our experimental results indicate that foreign brands’ use of cultural accommodating multisensory cues (both visual and auditory) in website design positively influence consumers’ purchase intention, while the congruence of culturally accommodating multisensory cues also enhances of consumers’ purchase intention to some extent. We also demonstrate the psychological mechanism in transmitting multisensory cues of cultural accommodation into purchase intention and identify the mediating roles of consumer-brand identification and brand image in this mechanism.Our study takes a novel perspective to contribute to the emerging research stream of online multisensory marketing and contextualizes the application of multisensory cues in the increasingly digitized and international marketplace. Specifically, we identified the significant impact of the application of online multisensory cues on signaling brands’ cultural accommodation effort and facilitating consumer purchase. Besides, we added new empirical evidence to effects of multisensory integration and congruence on audiences’ perceptions and identified the cultural accommodation through sensory cues attracting consumers’ attention on the congruence between different senses. Finally, we advanced the understanding of homophily bias effects and demonstrate the mechanism of translating multisensory cues that carry messages of cultural accommodation into consumers’ purchase intention. This highlights the significance of shared identity between consumers and a brand (i.e. consumer-brand identification) in developing consumers’ evaluation and behavioral intention towards the brand. From a managerial perspective, we shed a new light on foreign brands’ cultural accommodation strategies in local markets and suggest multisensory website design as a cost-effective avenue for delivering the brands’ cultural accommodation effort.

At present, customer engagement in brand communities and value co-creation have increasingly grown into two focal areas in marketing research (Merrilees 2016). This study aims to examines, in online brand communities, the direct and indirect relationship between customer engagement and value co-creation and value co-destruction. The purpose of this study is twofold: firstly, to examine the direct effects from customer engagement in online brand communities to value co-creation and co-destruction; and second, to explore the indirect mediating effects from brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty as well as the moderating effect from brand satisfaction in the online brand communities.The quantitative method will be used to test the proposed model. An online questionnaire survey will be applied for gather data in online brand communities. Structure equation modelling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) will be performed to examine both the measurement model and the structural model. Expected results are that the positive relationship between customer engagement in online brand communities and brand resonance, attitudinal brand loyalty, value co-creation and co-destruction (Hollebeek et al. 2019; Pansari and Kumar 2017; Ranjan and Read 2014). Brand resonance has a positive relationship with value co-creation and a negative relationship with value co-destruction. Attitudinal brand loyalty has positive relationship with value co-creation and a negative relationship with value co-destruction. In the proposed model, both brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty take the mediating roles, and brand satisfaction plays a moderating role.This study provides a theoretical significance for further investigation of customer engagement in online brand communities, adds to the literature on brand satisfaction, brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty, and will likely drive further research into value co-creation and co-destruction in the context of online brand communities. In particular, brand satisfaction, as a moderating variable, is introduced into the discussion of customer brand engagement in online community. It expands the theoretical research on customer brand engagement marketing and clarifies the important role of value co-creation and co-destruction (Quach and Thaichon 2017). The expected results would suggest brand marketers should focus more on customers’ affective, cognitive, behaviour reflections, subtly using customer experience resource that leads to brand resonance and increases attitudinal brand loyalty, thereby inspiring value co-creation and avoiding value co-destruction (Thaichon et al. 2019).

Marketers have started to recognize the potential of social media influencers (SMIs) and engage in SMI marketing, which is a strategy that uses the influence of SMIs as opinion leaders to drive consumers’ brand awareness, brand image and brand-related behavior. In addition to SMI selection criteria such as number of followers, costs per post, engagement rate or audience characteristics, practitioners are also confronted with the decision problem of choosing the type of SMI based on their origin of fame, which refers to the way SMIs became known to their audience. Two types of SMIs can be distinguished based on their origin of fame. The first type is celebrities who became famous outside of social media (e.g., by being singers, actors or athletes). Because these SMIs have a non-social media origin of fame, they are referred to as “non-original SMIs”. The second type is celebrities who became famous in social media (e.g., by presenting their lifestyle). Because these SMIs have a social media origin of fame (e.g., “instafamous”), they are referred to as “original SMIs”.To explain the effects of SMIs’ origin of fame on social media users’ purchase behavior, this study draws on the concept of identification. In this context, identification is defined as the adoption of attitudes and behaviors of media personae through the process of social influence. With similarity and wishful identification, two distinct types of identification have been discussed in the literature. While the object of similarity identification are media personae that are similar to actual self of the media user, the object of wishful identification are media personae that are similar to the ideal self of the media user. In which type of identification media users engage depends on their level of self-esteem. While the favorite media persona of media users with low self-esteem is closer to their ideal self (i.e., wishful identification), the favorite media persona of media users with high self-esteem is closer to their actual self (i.e., similarity identification).This study investigates if social media users’ self-esteem moderates the effect of SMIs’ origin of fame on social media users’ purchase behavior. It thus aims to examine the effectiveness of the type of SMI based on social media users’ self-esteem. The results of an online experiment with 129 social media users in Russia reveal that non-original SMIs affect social media users’ purchase intentions stronger than original SMIs if social media users have low self-esteem. In contrast, original SMIs affect social media users’ purchase intentions stronger than non-original SMIs if social media users have high self-esteem.

Changing socio-economic environment in India has altered food consumption. Despite a promising market for packaged foods, understanding of consumers’ behaviour for ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-cook (RTC) food products is limited. Greater understanding of food consumption practices and socio-cultural dispositions in specific geographies will inform markets about food product design and development. The current study adopts a Practice theory lens to explore changes in routine food consumption in a select group of Indian middle-class households. 32 semi-structured interviews along with projective technique exercises were conducted with food provisioners. Observations were made during the home visit, and in shop along situations. Food and pantries were photographed.The study finds that within the elements; meaning, materials and competence constituting a practice, the meaning usually governs the way the practice is engaged in. lifestyle changes have constrained the routinised performance of food provisioning. Food practitioners therefore use products that enable them to maintain their practices. Participants were found to accept and reject RTEs based on the meaning they attached to a specific context of food provisioning. While ready-to-cook type of food products are accepted in time and skill constrained situations, the same is not true for ready-to-eat packaged meals. Despite their ability to ease and expedite food provisioning, the RTE food products were rejected by both employed as well as at-home food provisioners. Apart from questioning the quality of ingredients provisioners’ rejection for these also stemmed from relinquished care and control over food provisioning processes. Having incorporated part of herself into the end-product that embodies her emotions, the food provisioner derives pleasure and satisfaction from preparing the meal.The performance of food provisioning is in accordance with the different goals and meanings attached to the contexts of food. Such a Practice theory perspective explains why participants in the current study were found using ready-to-eat food products like herb extracts and powders for use in performance of morning food related rituals but not for provisioning household meals. Thus, when the goal of a food provisioner is to engage in a food related health routine, the availability of ready food product (material) from the market, enables competence for engaging in the practice, whereas with regards food provisioning for the family, the goal involves, along with providing food, the provisioner’s greater involvement in the production and serving of that meal, hence ready-to-eat food products are rejected in the performance of those practices. Lifestyle based constraints on meeting embodied meanings of food provisioning and food consumption are being managed by consumers with market offerings like RTC and RTE food products. However, by opting for and against RTE food products in different contexts of food provisioning, the food provisioners illustrate the importance of meaning in practice.

With continuous changes in tourists’ needs, destination marketers keep attempting to facilitate creative and satisfactory strategies in destinations which support their goals (e.g., create long-term successful pop-culture tourism). This suggests that a better understanding of the holistic perspective and the factors relevant for determining the complex relationship with regard to pop-culture tourism is needed. However, studies on the effects on psychological concepts from fans’ perspective in pop culture phenomena are limited (Lee et al. 2008). Their importance has not been comprehensively investigated in the context of travel and tourism. In this study, the authors further extend self-expansion theory in the pop-culture tourism setting.The self-expansion model mainly introduced a concept in which human motive for the desire to expand the self through the acquisition of resources, perspectives, and identities that help one’s ability to achieve goals in conscious and unconscious processes (Aron and Aron 1986). The self-expansion model has two key dimensions: (1) self-expansion motivation, and (2) inclusion of close others in the self (Aron et al. 2005). Along with a concept, it is suggested that the self-expansion theory be applied into broader areas in which there are significant person-object relationships, such as environmental psychology, political psychology, and social psychology (Reimann and Aron 2009). By adopting self-expansion theory, this study argues that fans who are attached to the pop-star and involved in his and her activities are not just recipients of the pop-star’s creative resources (e.g., music, films, and TV); they also actively invest their own resources in the pop-star so as to maintain their close relationship with the pop-star. As for pop-culture tourism, tourists driven by pop-culture mostly consist of zealous fans who seek some sort of experience associated with a particular pop-culture or media themes. Particularly, pop-star fans are a unique group of individuals as many are highly involved with and have an emotional attachment to their pop-star (Fiske 1992)Accordingly, the authors in this study successfully applied self-expansion theory as a theoretical foundation to bridge the relationship between fans and destinations - pop-stars’ homelands. Thus, findings of this study provide a more in-depth understanding of international fans and tourists’ emotional and behavioral responses.

Worldwide In-app Purchase (IAP) revenues reached almost US$37 billion in 2017 and are expected to double in 2020. Yet, only 5% of total app users make any IAPs and 70% of those in-app purchases come from big spenders or ‘Whales’ who account for only the top 10% of the paying users. What causes mobile game players to be unwilling to spend money on in-app purchases (IAP)? We attempt to answer this question with a multi-stage mixed-method study combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, we developed and validated a new construct of perceived aggressive monetisation which combined psychological reactance with fairness theory to describe users’ inherent aversion to excessive effort to monetise through the in-app purchase business model. Second, we tested the research model using a survey of 527 US and 526 Australian mobile gamers. Third, we conducted a scenario-based experiment with 264 US mobile gamers to test the replicability of the survey findings in a more specific context, as well as test additional hypotheses on the effects of marketing tactics to user’s willingness to spend money on IAPs. The findings supported our conceptualisation of the IAP spending decision as a separate decision mechanism between conversion (i.e., to spend money or not) and the size of spending (i.e., how much money to spend). User self-control and perceived aggressive monetisation act as hurdles preventing the initial spending. However, once the user makes the initial spending, the actual size of IAP spending is an impulsive mechanism explained by users' time-spent playing and exposure to marketing tactics. A follow up field experiment of 264 US mobile gamers showed how the marketing tactics of app publisher can influence IAP spending for loot boxes -an infamous type of IAP- by manipulating the size of the offers, mode of currency, and informed probability for the loot box.

Numerous studies and practical examples point to the high relevance of sustainability as a communication message in sponsoring. The core of such a sustainability sponsorship concept is the involvement of sustainable partners to promote common but also individualized goals. For example, a company can improve its image through social or eco-sponsoring, while at the same time providing publicity to its sponsoring activities. In this article a model for the selection of suitable sponsoring partners is developed taking into account multiple fit dimensions. For each fit dimension specific questions are formulated in order to obtain information about the degree of fit. The model can be used to select suitable sponsoring partners and also to derive communication strategies and measures to position sponsoring partners sustainably.

Nutrition labels are displayed on an individual product-by-product basis and are designed to simplify the decision making process by making such labels easier to understand. Despite being intuitively simple, the evidence for the effectiveness of such labels in reducing obesity and other food related health conditions is mixed. Digital technologies that present information in simpler, more accessible ways are increasingly demanded by consumers, yet we know little about how they impact decision making. One way to assist consumer processing of the available nutritional information is to present it in a more aggregated format (e.g., by basket) to overcome numeracy biases. To see how such aggregated nutritional information impacted food choices we designed an online shopping experiment which presented consumers with aggregated calorie information and compared the choices made to those with individual product nutritional information (and a control group with no nutritional information). We also looked at the impact of time pressure (no time pressure versus time pressure) and shop type (3-day fill-in shop versus 5-day full shop). The experiment was run on two groups of people, including a general sample of the UK population and a subset of this population who had an existing health condition. The results show the calorie counter leads to a reduction in the amount of calories chosen by about 9%. This is comparable to some estimates of the effectiveness of the UK’s 20% sugar tax (5%). Results were moderated by whether or not the respondent had an existing health condition, shopping duration and time pressure (which nullified the effect of any nutritional information). The findings illustrate that such technologies hold a great deal of promise in affecting food choice but further research is needed in the field to observe what happens in more realistic settings. There is also a need to study what is being consumed rather than what is being bought.

While business-to-business (B2B) firms proactively pursue global opportunities, doing business in emerging markets (EMs) obligates B2B managers to strategize specifically around the conditions prevalent in such settings (Mohan et al. 2018; Simões et al. 2015).B2B marketing research has made significant inroads into examining emerging market (EM) phenomenon, which as the theoretical and empirical evidence shows, operates differently than developed markets. This is especially true of interfirm relationship dynamics, where social contracts, local culture, unique institutions, and special forms of relationships (e.g., Guanxi in China) that are unique to EMs require distinct relationship management protocols. However, our understanding of how interfirm relationships in EM settings influence one firm’s (i.e., supplier) decision to be innovative and another firm’s (i.e., customer) decision to adopt innovations is lacking. This is a significant concern as innovation decision making among suppliers and customers is important for both multinationals and domestic firms doing business in EMs because of its influence on firms’ innovation, relational, and performance prospects (Wu et al. 2016).The purpose of this research, therefore, is to addresses how interfirm relationship dynamics among suppliers and customers in EMs influences key innovation-related decisions. Specifically, relying on commitment-trust theory (Morgan and Hunt 1994), the current research examines the relationship between supplier innovativeness and a customer’s innovation adoption behaviors among Chinese B2B firms. This social exchange perspective suggests that implied social contracts between B2B partners in EMs can establish a powerful mechanism that establishes norms and expectations in a relationship (Lee et al. 2015; Morgan and Hunt 1994). This regulating force or social capital includes relational resources like trust and commitment (Ireland et al. 2002), which can influence a customer’s ad hoc innovation adoption decisions (Asare et al. 2016).Specifically, data collected from a large sample of top-level Chinese B2B executives shows that when interfirm communications are weak, supplier innovativeness can serve as a basis on which customers build trust in a supplier. This is due to the voluntary, innovative investments that a supplier commits that can benefit a customer. This, in turn, forges a reciprocal obligation or commitment on the part of customers which manifests in favorable adoption decisions. Overall, the findings present a unique picture of how the relationship management in EMs has a bearing on firms’ innovation-related decisions.

Corporations, as moral agents, are responsible to choose ethical ends beyond legal compliances. Corporate moral responsibilities (CMR) focus on stakeholder relationships and explain corporations’ core obligations towards stakeholders (Hormio 2017). However, often, such CMR are pledged by corporations as mere window-dressings and are followed with contradictory actions (Ha-Brookshire 2017). Corporations, being inconsistent between their moral responsibility assertions and actions, create perceptions of corporate hypocrisy (PCH: Goswami et al. 2018) amongst stakeholders. Accordingly, PCH undermines their attitudes and beliefs, and in turn threatens corporations’ reputation, social standing, economic performance, and stakeholder relationships. Given the importance and critical consequences of PCH (Goswami and Bhaduri 2021), this research analyzes how PCH might be variably evoked in different types of stakeholders, i.e., corporations’ consumers, and employees, based on their shared moral values when experiencing an inconsistency between CMR pledges and actual doings. A 2 (stakeholder types: retail consumers/retail employees) × 2 (corporation name variance: ABD/XYZ) × 4 (text variance: version 1/version 2/version 3/version 4) between-subjects experiment was designed and 321 stakeholders participated in this study. The results indicate that retail employees (more than consumers) perceive higher shared value with the corporation’s moral responsibility pledges. However, when corporations fail to follow up to their pledges, these retail employees are more negatively influenced than consumers, leading to higher PCH. The study findings make theoretical contributions to expand PCH literature and draw the industry’s attention to the importance of internal marketing initiatives to communicate with moral responsibility initiatives employees and meet their needs to reduce PCH. With the growing trend of value-based consumers and employees seeking employers with high moral values, the findings not only establish the need for value-based marketing but also indicate the negative implications of a lack thereof.

Since their expectations are consistent with the evolution of the market, it is essential to explore Gen Z’s expectations for the future of online shopping because Gen Z is more capable than any previous generation to redefine production and consumption (Steiner et al. 2016). To bridge the gap between sustainable fashion and customer purchase intentions, the purpose of this study is carried out to analyze the current trends and offer techniques to increase sustainable fashion awareness among gen z and millennial consumers.Online surveys were conducted with a sample size of 29 questions targeting participants between the ages of 18–25 from a large Midwestern University. Additionally, three focus groups of approximately 23 students was also conducted. Questions pertaining to sustainable traits of apparel that include product quality, environmental effects, product pricing, purchase intentions and green awareness of apparel were of focus.Surveys found that this age group was willing to pay up to 25% more for a sustainable apparel item and that uniqueness of the item was of utmost importance as well as being able to shop second hand. Most of this age group learn about a brands sustainability through a simple google search (n = 267, 59.6%) followed by a brands marketing/advertising (n = 132, 29.5%) and only 5 indicating they learn from celebrity endorsements (1.1%) leading to the conclusion that brands need to be marketing from their own influence not an endorser when sustainability and responsibility is in question. Uniqueness of product was of utmost importance as well as being able to shop second. Moving from wearing items once, this generation is trying to find creative ways to wear clothes as much as possible and consider quality and uniqueness when shopping for apparel over price. Recycling and upcycling are also areas of interest that not just industry marketers and retailers need to consider but also educators in how they approach a new era of design and merchandising to these new consumers. Companies should invest in campaigns and social events to advertise their sustainable practices. There also should be a push for understanding among this age group that is highly concerned with sustainability what their purchase gets them, i.e. price per wear rather than just highlighting the price itself among the garments. This study leads to the understanding that Gen Z and even millennials are operating under a deeper understanding of the role apparel plays in environmental and social responsibility.

Mobile advertising has become an important digital marketing tool for marketers to reach targeted consumers worldwide. Much research has been done on identifying factors influencing consumers’ adoption and usage of mobile advertising based on established theoretical frameworks such as Theory of Reasoned Action and Technology Acceptance Model. However, prior researches largely failed to give specific considerations of the unique characteristics of mobile communication such as being highly personal, interactive, and location sensitive. To address this issue, this study focuses on two most relevant but under-examined factors affecting mobile advertising effectiveness including incentives and privacy concerns in a cross-cultural setting of the U.S. and South Korea. South Korea and the U.S. are selected because both countries are leading players in the mobile advertising market and they represent two largely different cultures, which warrant meaningful cross-cultural comparisons. Our results show that incentive was a positive and significant influencing factor in both South Korea and the U.S and the effect is stronger in the South Korean sample than that of in the U.S. sample. Similarly, privacy concerns was a significant negative factor of consumers’ intention to use mobile advertising in both countries. However, as an unexpected result, the impact of privacy concerns on consumers’ attitude towards mobile advertising is stronger in South Korea than in the U.S. Moreover, in both markets, we found that beliefs about mobile advertising significantly influence consumers’ attitude towards mobile advertising (ATMA), which in turn influences intention to use mobile advertising and purchase intention. Specifically, perceived informational usefulness, perceived entertainment usefulness and perceived ease of use emerged as significant benefits influencing consumers’ attitude toward mobile advertising. Perceived entertainment usefulness emerged as the strongest influencing factor on ATMA in both countries. Therefore, increasing the entertainment value for users is key to increase the effectiveness of mobile advertising. Perceived social usefulness is a significant predictor among Korean consumers but not among Americans. This can be attributed to the individualistic culture orientation in the U.S. South Korea is a typical collective culture in which social relations are important and emphasized in people’s everyday life.

This paper encompasses two research areas, odor (the translation of a chemical stimulus into the smell sensation) (Wolfe et al. 2015), and emotion (a set of physiological changes, and evaluative, subject-related experiences as evoked by external events and the significance of such events) (Frijda 1986). In marketing, the terms odor, scent, and smell have been used interchangeably to represent both positive and negative scents.The most immediate response we have to a scent is not analytical but hedonic (Herz 2010). Marketers often use scents that have distinctive chemical properties so consumers could recognize and differentiate each scent by its distinctive smell (e.g. lemon, vanilla). Distinctive smell thus is a critical factor in the experience of pleasure—a liking response to the hedonic impact of a stimulus (Berridge and Kringelbach 2008). Odor hedonic perception (an affective evaluation that centres on liking) is, therefore, central to sensory pleasure and subsequent behavior (Herz 2010).Prior research demonstrates a link between odor and emotion (Lin et al. 2018). This is attributed to the close connection between olfaction and the limbic system of the brain, which governs the processing of emotions (Cahill et al. 1995; Eichenbaum 1996). Hence, scents often trigger powerful emotional responses (Herz 2010). Moreover, as emotion and olfaction are functionally analogous, they effectively convey the same binary responses (e.g. like/dislike, approach/avoid) (Bosmans 2006; Herz 2010).Although humans can extract emotional information from scents, just as they can from facial expressions and music (Herz 2009), the critical question remains, however, which scent affects which type of emotion. The literature on consumer olfaction does not satisfactorily answer this important question. Assessing the differential role of odor-elicited emotional information can contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior across a broad range of areas. The aim of this paper is to develop a scent-emotion wheel for 19 scents that have been used in prior consumer research and are familiar to most consumers. The wheel could serve as a practical guide and as a road map for both researchers and practitioners in identifying which scent affects which specific emotion. With the aid of the scent-emotion wheel, marketers could effectively evaluate and determine appropriate scents in the marketplace.

This study demonstrates that customers change their motivation to engage in on-line settings depending on the interaction between the company and other customers. When customers can observe how others are treated, they compare their own treatment with that of others (Adams 1965). In on-line settings, where customers can observe how the company rewards other customers, customers compare own treatment with that of others, and consequently change their motivation to engage.Previous studies clarify the effect of rewards on customer motivation by studying customer referral programs or conducting classroom experiments (Kumar et al. 2010; Verlegh et al. 2013). However, they do not consider the effect of rewards on other customers who just observe the rewarding activity. This research provides theoretical and managerial implications on how companies can manage customer motivation when companies’ behavior to the individual customer is visible to all customers.In order to understand how a company’s attitude toward an individual influences other members’ motivation, this study introduces organization citizenship behavior’s theoretical framework. It researches how companies treat employees who in engage in citizenship behavior is visible to other employees in the firm. This situation is similar to the interaction between the company and customers in on-line. Therefore, knowledge about motivating employees in the organization can apply to customer engagement management in on-line.Organization citizenship behavior research points out the importance of expectancy and fairness. The member who sees that other members are rewarded by the firm is motivated to engage with the firm, because of the expectancy. In addition, the member who observes a firm’s consistent attitude to all members who engage is more motivated to engage with the firm, because of the fairness.The analysis presented in this paper is based on a unique data set of company and customer interactions drawn from YouTube, consisting of 1.2 million comments. This study defines a user comment as a customer engagement and a video maker (i.e. YouTuber) replay as a reward. In order to determine whether the customer changes motivation by viewing the company attitude toward other customers, this study analyzes whether the reply ratio, which is the firm’s pattern of rewarding other customers at time t (reply ratio t), affects the likelihood of user comment in the next time period (comment t + 1).This research suggests that firms can maximize engagement from customers through providing rewards to all customers in a way that is perceived as fair. In an on-line context, when a firm cannot reward all customers, not providing any rewards may be the best strategy.

Using ‘economic pressure’, the first of Garret’s (1987) three benchmarks for measuring the success of a boycott, this study analyzes the financial effect of ethical boycotts, a form of anti-consumption behavior that has gained popularity during the past two decades. The results show that, on average, these boycotts have not been able to inflict a statistically significant financial damage on their targets. The average cumulative abnormal returns were −0.90% with a z-value of −1.071 which is not statistically significant. Specifically, only four out of the twenty targets experienced negative financial effect, and three of the four returns were only marginally significant. It is, however, possible that these boycotts may have succeeded it portraying the targeted organizations in a negative light.

In the high tech field, we are witnessing the proliferation of variable-geometry innovations with shape-shifting structures and architectures, combining different categories of products into a single one called New Hybrid Products (NHP). The design of these products informs the user about their affordance. This ability of design to suggest the potential uses of new hybrid products can be considered by companies to emphasize the distinctiveness and to facilitate the understanding, categorization, evaluation and adoption of new hybrid products.Our article poses some fundamental questions to designers about the place of affordance in the design of communicating new hybrid products and how to anticipate this affordance precisely in the case of variable-geometry innovations design (e.g. monolithic (made of a single block), protean (able to change shape) or modular (formed of various removable parts) designs).A qualitative study, which involved Hi-Tech design experts, explores the importance of variable-geometry innovations affordance and its implications on their willingness to conceive them. Our findings confirm the divergence in the literature on communicating new hybrid products affordance. The result of the study with the Hi-Tech design experts reveals the non-existence of a consensus on this issue. This divergence is visible as much for existing monolithic communicating NHPs such as smartphones and tablets as for the polymorphic communicating NHP studied in our research, namely, the « Flip phone ».Depending on whether the communicating new hybrid product has a monolithic or polymorphic form, it may or may not be perceived as affordant. Therefore, designers of communicating new hybrid products are reluctant to design these variable-geometry hybrid products. They prefer simple monolithic products to hybrid shape-shifting products, considered as difficult to understand, not at all intuitive and not very affordant.In addition to this multitude of issues raised, the theoretical and managerial implications of the study are finally addressed.

This paper reviews the legal, jurisdictional, public policy and the marketing issues implicated in food tampering cases in the United States. It offers some insights to inform marketing strategy development. Furthermore, because food tampering endangers the health of the nation as a whole, the paper argues that the government must play a major role in designing anti-tampering devices instead of leaving such developments to the private sector.

Adapting service behavior is one crucial ability for frontline service employees. Since frontline employees inevitably experience role stress due to demands or ambiguous expectations, studies have revealed influence of role stressor (i.e., role conflict, role ambiguity) on adaptive behavior (e.g., Hartline and Ferrell 1996; Miao and Evans 2013; Rapp et al. 2005). These studies in general viewed both role conflict and role ambiguity as role stressors that negatively affect employees’ adaptive behavior. However, a review of the literature indicates inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between employees’ role stress and job performance; in particular, role conflicts at times also contribute to job outcomes (e.g., Babin and Boles 1996; Knight et al. 2007).To clarify the relationship between role stressors and adaptive service behavior (ASB), this study redefine role conflict and role ambiguity in terms of the sources causing the stress. First, we argue that frontline employees as organizational boundary spanners typically experience conflict for satisfying demands from their supervisors and customers. Therefore, we characterize role conflicts into either supervisor-related or customer-related. We hypothesize a negative relationship between both types of role conflicts on adaptive behaviors. Second, we postulate that task-related role ambiguity, as external cues provided by the organization, could mitigate the negative effects of role conflict on ASB. Lens situational strengthen theory, we infer task-related role ambiguity constitutes a weak situation. Under this working situation, employees have more freedom to interpret their job and decide how to respond to the requirements from work. In addition, we also examine the relationship between employees’ ASB and their service performance.The study surveyed 229 customer service representatives working in a call center. Analyses indicate that supervisor-related and customer-related role conflict negatively relate to employees’ ASB that positively relates to service performance. As predicted, the negative effect of customer-related role conflict on ASB is weakened when employees perceive high task-related role ambiguity. However, the effects of supervisor-related role conflict on ASB remain the same, regardless of the level of task-related job ambiguity. Further plots on the moderation effects suggest that role conflicts with the customer could increase the degree of ASB when employees receive high ambiguity regarding task-related instruction, which has significant implications for managing frontline service employees.

The current study positions guest experience as the focal variable in understanding guest satisfaction. Two sets of hotel studies are reviewed. In the first set, the term experience is used interchangeably with overall satisfaction. For example, Manhas and Tukamushaba (2015) defines the experience quality as the overall level of customer satisfaction with service. In the second set, Ren, Qiu, Wang, and Lin (2016) demonstrates a link between experience and customer satisfaction in the budget hotel context. The Ren et al. (2016) is perhaps the most relevant to the current paper and uses three dimensions of experience: tangible-sensory experience (e.g. cleanliness, quietness); staff interactional experience; and aesthetic experience (visual appeal). However, service quality is not included in their model. Hence, the missing gap in the literature is a comprehensive study that specifies service quality and experience as separate constructs, demonstrates that they are separate discriminate constructs, and examines the differential effect of each on guest satisfaction.Data was gathered via survey targeting hotels guests who had stayed at 3-star to 5-star hotels in Indonesia, in the past 12 months (n = 324). Ro (2012) three-steps regression was applied to analyse mediating role of experience in service quality-satisfaction relationship.The results show that both service quality and experience influence customer satisfaction. A major finding of the study is that experience mediates the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The mediation is partial, with a smaller direct role still played by the service quality attribute of ambience. Nonetheless, service quality per se is not as strategically important for its own sake; rather only if it is leveraged to provide a better hotel guest experience. The new vital emphasis must now be on the overall guest experience, not simply on the more operational variables of service quality. Service quality must still be managed by necessity, but managers must give at least equal attention to the overall guest experience. If the hotel management’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) do not include experience aspects, then they are missing attention to half of their strategic assets. The first contribution of this paper is to evaluate the differential role of service quality and experience in directly influencing guest satisfaction. Secondly, this study reveals that experience mediates the relationship between service quality and guest satisfaction. It can also provide hotel managers with more understandings about hotel guest’s experience to improve guest’s satisfaction level.

The purpose of this study is to show how firms in traditional craftsmanship-oriented industries can apply experiential marketing to compete in a changing environment in which service-dominant logic is ascendant. The products of traditional industries in Kyoto are made by craftsmanship honed by history. Kyoto’s traditional industries therefore tend to be craftsmanship thisted, with the craftsmen at their center maintaining a strong sense of mission and responsibility to preserve tradition. Traditional marketing views consumers as rational decision-makers who care most about the functional features and benefits of what they buy. In contrast to this approach is experiential marketing, as proposed by Schmitt (Journal of Marketing Management 15:53–67, 1999). Experiential marketers view consumers as rational and emotional human beings who are concerned with achieving pleasurable experiences. Experiential marketing focuses on getting customers to sense, feel, think, act, and relate, and it has enabled customers to increasingly participate together with companies in creating value. This research examines the shift of traditional industries of Kyoto from a “craftsmanship” orientation toward a “shared value creation” by analyzing the case of Shoyeido, a long-established incense business, from the viewpoint of value co-creation and context value, concepts which underlie experiential marketing. We also discuss the commercialization at tourist sites of traditional exquisite Japanese incense presentation.

This paper describes the merits and demerits of the production committee system widely used in the Japanese film industry, examines various financing alternatives, and considers content development challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with producers, distributors, and experts on fund-raising methods in order to conceptualize these structural problems. The data collected were analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach and extracted 14 findings regarding all stages of the Japanese film industry. As a Case study, the author produced the film”Kasagi Rock!”, is presented the hardships, experienced in the process from the structure of the Japanese film industry.The production committee system has a number of limitations, including barriers to utilize intellectual property and difficulties fostering a business mindset in producers. In Japan, where production committees are organized, domestic producers only concentrate on creative work rather than fundraising. The alternative model shown in “Kasagi Rock!” also has its own limitations, including a “lack of motivation” and “burned out” staff stemming from a lack of human resources and insufficient funding. In the case of many small and medium-sized film productions in Japan, the financing, securing of distribution and sales are important challenges. This experience, however, expanded the producer’s awareness of the fundraising and promotion aspects of filmmaking, leading to a greater sense of responsibility to see the project through to its completion. By thinking about various ways to raise funds, producers were able to nurture human resources and develop business acumen.Will the Japanese film industry continue to survive in today’s competitive global market? Our findings indicate the importance of changes to the existing business model to meet the challenges of globalization. While publicity is effective, putting too much emphasis on marketing can limit a story and eliminate opportunities for natural growth. In order to revitalize the Japanese film industry, it is imperative to adopt new strategies for financing, staffing, and casting.

The emerging phenomenon of robot-mediated parenthood is dramatically shifting family life from parent-child dyadic relationship into parent-robot-child triadic interactions. The effort to make sense of parental role identity is thus processed in a new relational context of human-robot interactions. This research leverages sensemaking and sensegiving perspectives of this novel context into identity theory to examine the mechanism of parental role identity reconstruction.Identity theory explains that persons recognize one another and themselves by self-categorization with naming one’s identity as an occupant of a role in a structured society. The naming is critical to activate a set of meanings and expectations associated with self-role for guiding one’s own behaviors. A robot, in this sense serving as a new social actor, sustains a relationship with parents to assist childcare and home education. The first research question is: What are the emerged meanings of parental role identity to be recategorized and renamed by parents?As for dealing with meaning construction and reconstruction, sensemaking is central to inform and constrain a person’s identity and action. From the viewpoint of parents, sensemaking and sensegiving about human-robot interactions relies on the share of parental responsibilities and incorporates entrenched needs (e.g., lack of time, educational knowledge demands). Therefore, the second research question is: What underling mechanisms that shape the meanings of parental role are emerged with parents’ sensemaking and sensegiving toward parent-robot-child triadic interactions?Based on in-depth interviews with seven families who live with educational robots, the research outlines three between roles’ identities of parent-robot: gateopener-robotic alloparent, learner-robotic teacher, and enabler-future agent. The underlined mechanism of the reconstruction of parental role identity emerged during a linear evolving process which corresponds to attempts at revision, reinforcement, and revitalization. The analysis foregrounds how parents make sense of an intelligent actor and reconstruct their role identity. Marketers can capture the new implications to develop proper facilitators of family-based offerings in an age of human-robot interactions. In addition to explicit value of adopting intelligent technology at home, implicit value of adaptation to challenges between parent and children as well as from dynamically environmental conditions for children is more important for effort in enhancing value.

The global food system nowadays, whether it is agricultural or livestock activities, as well as mainstream markets, has been considered unsustainable. If the conventional agricultural trend continues, the emissions of food production sector are supposed to surpass the global warming limit of 2 °C by 2050. “Sustainable food consumption” can be a key mitigation strategy to cope with the climate change crisis. Due to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in production, organic and locally produced products have a positive impact on the environment. A large number of empirical studies argued environmental issues as the main motivation for consumers to purchase organic and local foods. Production and consumption of locally available OFs will ensure more sustainable, more delicious, and healthier foods for local residences without sacrificing the economic benefits of local communities. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of environmentalism are the most commonly used environmental psychology theories with good prediction power. However, both theoretical models have their own drawbacks. This study combines the VBN model and the TPB model to make up the drawbacks of each model to examine the validity of this combined model applied to consumption intention of local organic foods by structural equation modeling analysis. Self-reported questionnaires were collected in Taiwan to examine the environmental psychology theories. The results revealed that the combined model can explain about 47% of the variation in people’s consumption intention of local organic foods. In addition, the results indicated that people’s attitude and perceived behavioral control determine the consumption intention of local organic foods. This result can be further explained through a causal chain: from an individual’s stable value orientations and environment general beliefs to the beliefs that their actions may affect the environment and beliefs that the individual has responsibility to reduce this threat. People’s biospheric value and altruism value are also important.

An exchange offer is a consumer sales promotion program in which the seller offers to a prospective buyer an incentive in exchange for an old, used product while purchasing a new one (Menon and Vijayaraghavan 2014). Although a sales promotion incentive, an exchange offer qualifies as one type of collaborative consumption, moving products from the ‘haves’ to the ‘have nots’ (Benoit et al. 2017). Researchers have pegged the concept of collaborative consumption to be the next big move in social marketing, leading to sustainable practices within organizations and in communities (Scaraboto 2015). This research is in answer to this growing community of consumers, who support and consume products that lead to a circular economy and collaborative consumption. In a first attempt of its kind, personal values and traits such as self-transcendence and social mindfulness are also studied as two key variables that interact with the type of offer.This research frames exchange offers as either economic or social transactions. An exchange offer that offers monetary benefits as incentives (exchange for 20% discount) is framed as an economic offer, while exchange offer that provides additional social benefits as incentive (exchange for the ‘have nots’) is framed as a social offer. These exchange offers framed as either economic or social offers are studied against the light of personal values of self-transcendence and social mindfulness. The consumers’ willingness to accept the exchange offer is studied through two cascading laboratory experiments.The results reveal that there is significant effect of offer type on willingness to accept the exchange offer. Social offers are preferred over pure economic offers. The value of self-transcendence also has a main effect on willingness to accept the exchange offer. Furthermore, the interaction effect between self-transcendence and offer type is also significant. Subjects with high social mindfulness scores also have a high score on self-transcendence, indicated in a high correlation score of rs = 0.86.This research adds new knowledge to the field of collaborative consumption through the framing of exchange offers. Consumers’ value of self-transcendence coupled with social mindfulness has provided a strong explanation for the choice of social exchange offers. This study will be pivotal in paving the way for sustainable consumption, providing policy makers and marketers with a solution for their sustainable goals.

Time scarcity is a widespread phenomenon with multi-dimensional consequences which has implications for marketing and consumer behavior (Godinho et al. 2016; Nilsson et al. 2017). Consumers’ choices are influenced by available resources, and time is increasingly seen as a valuable resource. Hence, time pressure and time management impact how, where and when consumers buy, as well as how much time they spend in shopping venues. Despite several studies looking at the impact of time related variables in consumer behaviour (e.g., Godinho et al. 2016; Lloyd et al. 2014; Mitomi 2018), there is a dearth of studies focusing on how time dimensions impact on the desire to stay in shopping venues.Hence, we look at the impact of time pressure in utilitarian versus the hedonic shopping motivations to understand how consumers’ feelings of time scarcity affect time spent in stores (Lloyd et al. 2014). We propose a conceptual framework of how time pressure affects shopping motivations and how these impact the desire to stay. In addition, we test whether time management moderates these relationships.Results of a survey show support for the impact of time pressure in hedonic shopping motivations but not in utilitarian motivations. Hedonic motivations impact significantly on desire to stay. Finally, time pressure has a negative significant impact in desire to stay.The negative impact of time pressure in desire to stay is in line with what would be expected. However, this impact becomes positive when considering the mediating role of hedonic shopping motivations. Finally, the moderating effect of time management in the proposed relationships was not supported.From the managerial point of view, the results of this paper encourage shopping venues management to increase the recreational component of their tenant mix. This may lead shoppers to stay for a longer time regardless of the time pressure. Desire to stay at the shopping is expected to lead to other outcomes like patronage intentions (Martin and Turley 2004).

In the past decade, numerous international brands as Lay’s (Frito-Lay), Dop (L’oréal), Danette (Danone) have all embraced consumer empowerment strategies relying on consumers for new product development in consumer goods sector in France. Consumer empowerment, through managerial strategies, is defined as « a strategy that firms use to give customers a sense of control over a company’s product selection process, allowing them to collectively select final products the company will later sell to the broader market » (Fuchs et al. 2010, p. 65). These authors have distinguished two types of strategies: empowerment-to-create which enable customers to submit ideas for new products and empowerment-to-select which rely on consumers votes to choose products that will ultimately be marketed. On the one hand, with the advent of Internet technologies, brands are increasingly deploying empowerment campaigns through dedicated platforms or facebook pages taking advantage of communicational and innovation opportunities enabled by these practices implementation. On the other hand, marketing scholars studying consumer empowerment theme (Dahl et al. 2015; Fuchs et al. 2010) have addressed several positive effects for companies launching empowerment strategies on various performance indicators (brand attitude, word-of-mouth, purchase intention). However, it appears when reviewing the actual literature that while both empowerment strategies effects on various companies’ brand equity metrics have been documented, comparison between empowerment to create and empowerment to select effectiveness didn’t get attention while it has a significant importance for managers when deploying marketing actions in a context of pressure on return on investment. Our research is building on avenues of research gaps introduced by Fuchs et Schreier (2011; p.29). More specifically, this research aims at empirically examine (1) benefits retrieved by participants to empowerment campaigns (2) comparison between empowerment to create and to select effects as perceived by both participating and non-participating consumers (3) behavioral attitudes arising from participation to these campaigns and changes induced in terms of the perception of brands launching such initiatives. To answer to these questions, we’ve adopted a qualitative approach aiming at answering to research objectives and combining three series of in-depth interviews (see Annex 1 for profile description of respondents). This research combines a total of 24 interviews conducted with participating consumers (N = 9) that were involved in empowerment campaigns, projective interviews (N = 7) and interviews with non-participant consumers (N = 8). Results show that both participating and non-participating consumers prefer empowerment to create strategies as they are more opened and they enable consumers’ freedom of speech letting consumers themselves more than empowerment to select. Consumers discourse analysis also shows that they prefer empowerment to select comparing to create when they feel they don’t have the sufficient skills or expertise.

Customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions can be pivotal to business performance because they can influence customer satisfaction and other outcomes. While previous studies have largely studied non-group contexts in which C2C interactions are incidental to the service experience, this study examines a group context in which face-to-face and online C2C interactions are deliberate and core to the service being provided: graduate business education. This study compares C2C interactions between face-to-face and online graduate business education where students (whether enrolled in a face-to-face or online program) are expected to interact, engage in discussion, debate, and work with other students within the student cohort.We seek insights on how C2C interactions may affect customers’ perceptions of a group service, and how differences in their experiences of C2C interactions may make them attribute service success or failure to different parties involved in this group service (e.g. the school, the program, students in the same cohort, or themselves). Forty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with recent alumni of graduate business programmes (MBA, MSc) using the critical incident technique. The data was collected prior to the pandemic and the shift to online teaching.Preliminary findings indicate that, in positive incidents, other students were most frequently attributed, followed by self attribution, then the professor/university. Also, self attribution was higher in online programmes than in face-to-face programmes. For both online and face-to-face programmes, the value of teamwork and value of diversity were the most frequent themes in the positive incidents. Face-to-face programmes provide opportunities for more emotional relationships vs. online programmes (e.g. bonding and friendships vs. forming professional networks). In negative incidents, other students were almost exclusively attributed, with very low self attribution.These results suggest that the interactions with other graduate business students are important and valuable, not only for their learning of teamwork but for professional networks and friendships beyond the completion of their programmes.

Retailers increasingly use cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies to try to increase sales. It is therefore of great importance to retailers to determine the effectiveness of such strategies, as well as, consumers’ perceptions and responses to such CRM activities. This study examines a CRM strategy where the sale of a product is bundled with a donation to charity. We first conducted a field experiment (Study 1), using auctions, augmented with a laboratory study (Study 2), to determine the impact of donation promise (the amount the retailer will donate in a CRM transaction) on consumer willingness to pay (WTP) and retailer revenue.The controlled field experiment (Study 1) ran auctions with different percentages of the selling price donated to charity. Results indicate that higher donation promises lead to increased selling prices, although at a diminishing rate. Low levels of donation promises incur significant overpayments, suggesting that retailers can profit from their associations with charities.A laboratory study (Study 2) extended these findings to low and high value products, and explores the influence of motivation for giving (warm glow vs. persuasion) on the relationship between donation promise and WTP. This study shows that both warm glow and persuasion positively influence the relationship between donation promise and WTP, where warm glow mediates and persuasion moderates this relationship. At small donation promises, we find support for warm glow motives over efficacy effects or the legitimizing of paltry donations, whereas for larger donation promises we find that consumers trade off between warm glow and the sacrifice from giving. Interestingly, consumers receive a warm glow from the mere act of giving, regardless of the amount of money. However, consumers are more persuaded by higher levels of donation promise.This study provides guidance when designing cause-related marketing strategies. The findings are valuable in outlining the optimal donation amount that should be connected to a product sale – as more is not necessarily better. The study also contributes to the recent research examining how consumer motivation and perceptions impact the performance of cause-related marketing initiatives. Overall results have important implications for the appeal of CRM offerings in fixed-price retail settings and suggest that charity auctions can be a cost-effective part of a retailer’s corporate social responsibility strategy.

Emphasizing product attributes that signal quality through commonly accepted standards have been at the core of marketing messages in a variety of different industries. Establishing quality signals for an offering previously considered illicit has become the challenge for marketers upon the legalization of adult cannabis consumption in a growing number of US states, and several other countries such as Canada and Mexico. The existence of a cannabis consumption culture during its prohibition and medicinal use periods provide the opportunity for marketers to use freely available customer input, while these quality signals are established in the marketplace. As this co-creation process unfolds, we seek to explore how the customers contribute to the co-creation of quality signals through online discourse in our future research. In other words, we aim to understand how quality signals can be (and are being) established in the cannabis market, by exploring consumer-generated content (Berthon et al. 2008) on web platforms.We explore how a 3×2 typology of quality signals is distributed in product descriptions in this newly emerging market. Search (verifiable before purchase), experience (verifiable after use) and trust (hardly verifiable, if ever) signals of both intrinsic (stemming from endogenous traits of the offering) and extrinsic (stemming from the augmentations to the offering) qualities were identified in our preliminary study of company created content. Our initial findings reveal that current product descriptions utilize experience signals, especially extrinsic ones heavily. Whereas extrinsic search signals such as awards and recognitions are not yet established in the market place, trust signals are vague in their promise. We speculate that copywriters are trying to convey experience related quality to provide an idea of what to expect and cannot yet depend on extrinsic search signals as the market is still in the process of institutionalization. In the next stages of this study consumer created content will be analyzed, coded, and compared to company created content to determine how well the marketing copy created fit the consumers’ reviews of the same products.

In the clutter of today’s saturated marketing landscape, connecting with consumers on an intimate level through immersive and interactive brand experiences can be managed by companies within a constructed and controlled brand environment such as a brand museum. A brand museum combines brand education in a museum atmosphere with the excitement of extraordinary and entertaining visitor experiences and allows marketers to connect with consumers on an emotional, social, and cultural level. Practitioners have embraced the brand museum format as a new and innovative form of interactive retail and brand management, evidenced in the growing number of brand museums globally. However, the brand museum as a contemporary topic in marketing theory remains underexplored resulting in theory lagging industry practice. Although brand museums are recognised as complex environments, housing both cognitively and emotionally stimulating experiences, guidance for practitioners on devising and delivering effective brand museum experiences has been rare. To address this gap in research, this study investigates the key dimensions of the brand museum experience that are most impactful in the structuration of visitor’s brand experiences, as identified from an industry and practitioners’ perspective. A case study methodology generates empirical evidence from the experience providers of an internationally renowned tourist attraction and brand museum, the Jameson Distillery Bow Street brand museum or ‘brand home’. Industry experts share their professional insights and views on what they perceive as the most influential dimensions of the curated Jameson brand museum experience for engaging customers. This practitioner perspective identifies brand heritage, the human connection and storytelling as core dimensions of the curated museum experience which visitors engage with to co-create their own unique brand experiences. We explore the managerial implications of these marketing assets for the firm. Faced with high costs, growing competition, and increasing levels of sophistication and technology being employed within brand museums a practitioner perspective from a globally successful brand home makes a valuable contribution to this evolving research area and highlight opportunities for further research.

As more women make up the professional management workforce in marketing and engineering, they are becoming a larger percentage of many new product development teams. With the generally acknowledged inequality in compensation between males and females, a question then arises as to the best way to reward teams for their efforts. This study surveyed 150 marketing and new product managers to examine the effect of various rewards on team creativity (originality and usefulness), number of ideas, and new product performance with different levels of female participation. Results of the SEM analysis suggest that greater female participation increases the number of ideas, which increases originality, usefulness, and new product performance. Teams with greater female participation perform better with greater focus on financial rewards.

Brand love has ignited renewed attention of researchers and practitioners, with recent development of the first pragmatically useful brand love scales (Bagozzi et al. 2017). As such, further testing of this concept could strengthen its theoretical and practical relevance, given that ‘love’ is culturally grounded (Albert et al. 2008). Besides, consumers are argued to engage in relationships with brands that serve their self-goals (Ashworth et al. 2009), which are: to express own self (value expressive); to maintain self-esteem (social adjustive); and to bolster self-esteem (affiliation) (Katz 1960; Shavitt 1990). Prior research mostly tested the impact on brand identification and sense of brand community, which are respectively similar conceptually to value expressive and affiliation, on brand relationship constructs that may, but not always, comprise a love dimension. Scant research has been done to examine the roles of all self-related goals that also include social adjustive in construing brand love construct of emotional nature. This research aims to examine the relative impact of self-related goals on brand love, and subsequently behavioural intentions that consist of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Data collected from a mall-intercept survey with 216 fashion clothing consumers and 198 smartphone consumers were analysed to test hypotheses using SmartPLS 3.3.3. Fashion clothing and smartphone products are selected as the purchases of these products are usually non-routine decision-making situations. The result reveals that brand identification and social adjustive moderately influence brand love (all p < 0.05), which in turn affects brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (all p < 0.05). Mediational analyses show brand love mediates fully the effect of brand identification but only partially the effect of social adjustive on brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. The finding also shows that sense of brand community, while not significantly influencing brand love (p > 0.05), drives consumers’ brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (all p < 0.05). This study contributes to the brand relationship literature with respect to the formation of brand love and behavioural intentions. Brand love appears to be the main mechanism serving the consumer’s own-self goal captured by brand identification; evidence concerning the roles of social goal-related constructs on brand love is mixed. While the consumer’s perceived brand’s ability to deliver social adjustive utility may make them love the brands, their sense of belonging to a community does not guarantee their brand love of the brands. Practically, the findings provide marketers with insights about the meaningful distinction of lower-order self-related goals. For consumers who look to brands for expressing their own self or maintaining their self-esteem, marketers may focus on transformational communication tactics that drive brand love and consequently behavioural intentions. Meanwhile, for those who aim to bolster their self-esteem, marketers may invest in the creation and maintenance of a brand community.

Younger generations present significant disadvantages compared with their older counterparts due to job instability, cost of living and economic stagnation amongst others, creating significant wealth inequalities across generations (IMF 2018). In light of catastrophic environmental change, economic inequality is contributing to feelings of powerlessness among consumers (Wilkinson and Pickett 2010) as it hinders their ability to reallocate capital towards sustainable businesses to drive social progress. Emerging digital micro-investment platforms provide consumers with limited capital the ability to invest in sustainable firms. This research investigates empowerment in the context of sustainable investments through micro-investment platforms. We focus on the underlying mechanisms of sustainable investing through micro-investment platforms and the role of consumers’ perceived empowerment on willingness to invest (WTI).We provide results of two different studies. The first is a qualitative study aimed at exploring consumers’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with micro-investments and the extent to which micro-investments empower consumers from a financial and sustainability perspective. We conducted 35 in-depth Zoom interviews of customers from a large micro-investment platform. Interviews lasted between 30 and 45 minutes and most participants were 25–31 years old. Findings indicate the importance of perceived empowerment for engaging in sustainable consumption through micro-investment platforms and the effects of voice, tangibility, control and accessibility on perceived empowerment. We also found that engaging in sustainable investments can result in “warm glow” feelings.In addition, a choice-based conjoint experiment was conducted to examine consumer preferences for sustainable portfolios and trade-offs between percentage of sustainable assets, screening of companies, rate of return and risk. Data was obtained from a sample of over 200 customers of a micro-investment platform. Results show customers prefer environmental sustainability over social sustainability when making investment decisions. Furthermore, there is a large difference in customers’ trade-off preferences between the proportion of investment in social causes and the rate of return. We also compared results for different customer segments and find that investors with greater levels of alignment to sustainability-related outcomes (i.e., those with high levels of biospheric and altruistic values) and customers with high levels of reported feelings of warm glow demonstrate a greater preference for portfolios with a higher percentage of sustainable investments.Results provide a better understanding of the importance of sustainable investments on willingness to invest in the context of micro-investing platforms. Marketing managers can use results for product development within the investment and banking industry that maximises feelings of empowerment of young investors, and to leverage these emerging platforms to appeal to young consumers.

Recently, with the widespread of mobile devices, mobile marketing, which can be conducted anytime and anywhere, has received increased attention and is strengthened by academics and practitioners. This ever-increasing popularity, besides the actual and potential marketing advantages, has led to optimistic forecasts regarding the adoption of location-based advertising (LBA) (Lin 2016). For example, in the US alone, it is projected that location-based mobile ad spending would grow from 17.1 billion USD in 2017 to 38.7 billion USD in 2022 (Statista 2019). Taking into account the vast potential market for LBA as a novel advertising medium, and also the currently limited literature about it, the aim of this research is to examine how consumers react toward the culture-laden design of mobile applications focusing on the role of application atmospherics in the context of location-based advertising (LBA) and ridesharing apps. Drawing from previous research on culture-laden website design, our experimental study with consumers from Canada confirms that LBA displayed on locally (vs. internationally) designed ridesharing apps elicits less perceived ad intrusiveness and higher intention to purchase. Regarding mobile app atmospherics, we find that consumers perceive a local (vs. international) app design as more informative, more entertaining, and more effective. Furthermore, higher levels of app atmospherics lead consumers to perceive LBA as less intrusive as well as enhance consumers’ purchase intentions, thereby emphasizing the important role of app atmospherics to predict and mobile consumer behavior. Our empirical results confirm that two atmospherics (entertainment and effectiveness, but not informativeness) mediate the effects of culture-laden app design on consumer reactions. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings as well as managerial implications for mobile application design and LBA effectiveness. Future research could look into the role of destination congruency (spatial distance). Also, for cases where people use both desktops and touch screen devices (booking on Airbnb), the role of touch vs. regular devices is also worthy of research.

To incentivize volunteers, charities award prizes to fundraisers in order to stimulate fundraising efforts. However, it is unclear how effective such incentives are because volunteers may be driven by non-pecuniary incentives. That is, monetary incentives may crowd out intrinsic motivators (charitability), resulting in a negative effect.The purpose of this study is to determine how intrinsic motivators and monetary incentives (extrinsic motivators) are mediated by effort to affect fundraising outcomes. This integration sheds light on crowding out between the two types of incentives as well the drivers of fundraising outcomes, specifically effort, donations and intent to volunteer in the future.A field experiment is conducted over a 2-month period, involving an online fundraising campaign with over 300 volunteers assigned to different incentive conditions. A low and a high commission-based incentive, a low and a high tournament incentive and a control group without an incentive. A special website was designed for the fundraiser, where fundraiser created a web page for fundraising purposes, sending e-mail solicitations and receive donations. As a result we were able to observe effort over time, different from previous research in which effort is a latent variable.We find that commission-based incentives increase current effort and funds raised, while tournament incentives do not. Commission-based incentives had a positive effect on encouraging fundraisers to solicit for donations (effort quality), but were not effective in causing more creative output (effort quality). While commission-based incentives had a positive effect on fundraised they also resulted in a reduced intentions to volunteer in the future. Hence, they may have a detrimental effect in the long-run. In addition, commission-based incentives are predominately successful in motivating less charitable fundraisers. Intrinsic (charitable) motives on the other hand both have an effect on donations and intent to volunteer.An implication of these results is that fundraising managers need to act cautiously when using monetary incentives for recruiting purposes. Commission-based incentives, should be predominately used in the short-run, in particular to attract low charitability fundraisers to participate in fundraising.We find that effort mediates the impact of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on amount of funds raised. Furthermore, effort has an important positive effect on intent to volunteer. As a result, charities may want to design fundraising events that require fundraisers to induce more effort.

Deemed to be an obsolete recorded music format over 30 years ago, vinyl records enjoy since 2011 a major comeback with an average year-on-year sales growth of 40% (Jones 2018). And with nearly 48% of today’s vinyl consumers being under the age of 35, the return of vinyl records might change the way we listen to recorded music again. But its unexpected resurgence also contradicts the dominant discourse among marketing scholars and the media, who have for over 20 years championed the digitalisation of music as a disruptive technology that is revolutionising and ‘democratising’ the music industry (Giesler 2008) and the way consumers nowadays and in the future would access and listen to recorded music with the promise of convenience, freedom of choice and unrestricted mobility (Elberse 2010). Hence, every newly-emerging digital format from CDs (Daniel 2019) over MP3s and digital downloads (Denegri-Knott 2015) to streaming (Wlömert and Papies 2016) has been hailed as the future of how consumers access and enjoy listening to recorded music whenever, wherever and however they want – only for it soon to be replaced by the next emerging digital format. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that marketing scholars have studied vinyl consumers only as the ‘other’ in digital society (Goulding and Derbaix 2019).This ethnographic study, however, explores how vinyl consumers perceive, experience and negotiate their personal preferences for vinyl records within today’s digital age. The data were collected at record stores and the World Record Store Day over a period of 6 months and analysed hermeneutically.Contrary to previous studies, the findings reveal that today’s vinyl consumers, regardless of whether they are not-born digital or born digital, are very savvy when it comes to digital technology and music formats. It is because they have bought into the promised possibilities and hype surrounding the digitalisation of music and embraced the emerging digital music formats, providers and technology whole-heartedly for many years that they now feel being betrayed by those same digital music providers, who instead of democratising the music marketplace have become a powerful oligarchy that controls and dictates at will not just the available content but also the means of accessing it. The resurgence and popularity of analogue technologies like vinyl with today’s consumers can therefore be understood as a post-digital consumer-driven backlash to the digital technology providers’ perceived abuse of their dominant market position and their apparent contempt for the consumer’s personal interests – as an unintended result of the digital companies’ own actions. By contrast, analogue technologies like vinyl offer an alternative that has already proven itself in the past to be reliable, trustworthy and often a genuinely social medium that can be enjoyed alone or together with others.

Superior Product Quality is generally considered a competitive advantage. Yet literature on quality improvement and new product development have recognized the existence of impediments in the successful practice and implementation of Quality Improvement. In an uncertain and highly competitive business environment, it is not uncommon for organizations to pass on Quality Improvement tasks to supply chain partners. This is often the case in the manufacturing supply chain with powerful OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). We seek to determine whether such “Quality Improvement Pressure” is conducive to good Supplier-OEM Relationships and how this compares with price pressure exerted similarly by OEMs. Overall supplier-OEM relationship is specified as the final dependent variable. Recognizing the role of a set of relationship constructs in influencing overall supplier-manufacturer interactions, communication and information sharing is posited as a crucial variable in enabling good supplier-(OEM) relationship. Commitment by the OEM reflected in the help and assistance provided to the supplier in meeting price targets and willingness to work together are essential for the success of the relationship. Successful profit partnership, a logical outcome of inter-organizational trust is considered a reflection of a high degree of sophistication in cooperation. The specified model has two exogenous variables – one representing price pressure and the other representing pressure to improve quality. After following a multi-stage scale development procedure, data were collected from suppliers in the automotive light vehicles industry and the electronics industry and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results of this research advance the understanding of B2B relationship management by demonstrating that OEM pressure to improve quality can coexist with good supplier-OEM relationship. The influence of pressure to improve quality on supplier-OEM relationship takes place through a set of moderating variables which are within the control of management. Unlike price pressure which may be treated by some suppliers as adversarial, pressure to improve quality is likely to be viewed by suppliers more favorably. Analysis shows differences in the impacts of the two initial variables on the outcome variable. Quality Improvement pressure has substantially more positive links with the intermediate relational variables as well as the dependent variable than has price pressure.

In the past, credit purchases were available only to some consumers at few locations, but nowadays, many consumers use credit purchases through various credit purchase methods. Credit cards have a significant impact on consumer credit (Basnet and Donou-Adonsou 2016) but also why consumers use their credit cards. This study suggests a direction for future value-driven consumer research related to consumers’ credit card usage influencing sustainable mindfulness and social impact.In this study, a dual processing model is used to explain consumer behavior with credit card usage (Cline and Kellaris 2007). Further research has linked the dual process with conservatism or liberalism attitudes (e.g., Yilmaz and Saribay 2016). Because of these attitudes, conservatism is significantly related to the cognitive system, while liberalism is associated with the emotional system. In our study, we examine the impact on consumer credit card usage by dividing individual personality into conservatism and liberalism.The dual processing model may be useful in understanding consumer attitudes and behaviors, but researchers differ in the content and composition of the model (Stone 2011). It is also not to be overlooked that external factors may control the impact of personality on financial behavior (Perry and Morris 2005). That is, consumers can increase their mindfulness by performing internal value search. Finally, existing research has emphasized the importance of religion for these intrinsic values (Park and Zehra 2018) and behaviors (Minton et al. 2015). Religious consumers will pay more attention to intrinsic value.Based on our results, we found that there are three significant main effects. First, our ANOVA model indicates a near to statistical significance effect of personality. Our results also show significant effect of risk tolerance and religion. Second, we conclude that there is a nearly acceptable level of significance of personality risk tolerance interaction, indicating that conservative consumers with high-risk tolerance tend to use their credit cards more than conservative consumers with low-risk tolerance. Third, the last hypothesis in our study is the most important. According to our results, there was statistically significant three-way interaction between personality, risk tolerance, and religion.

This research aims to examine the impact of new product preannouncement (NPP) on brand innovativeness. This study contributes to the NPP and innovation literature by explaining how NPPs affect brand innovativeness. Specifically, the present research deepens our understanding of the relationship between degree of innovation and brand innovativeness by clarifying the role of perceived risk. Moreover, the present study fills an important knowledge gap in the brand innovativeness literature by providing boundary conditions for this new relationship and examines the moderating role of brand credibility. We predict that (a) degree of innovation of the proposed new product positively affects brand innovativeness (H1) and (b) brand credibility moderates the positive impact of degree of innovation on brand innovativeness (H2) and (c) functional risk and financial risk mediate the positive impact of degree of innovation on brand innovativeness (H3 and H4). This study applies signalling theory to understand these relationships. Several variables that were expected to influence brand innovativeness (e.g., brand familiarity, brand attitude and perceived quality) are included as covariates in the analysis.Two experiments were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Both studies employed a 2 (degree of innovation: incremental vs. radical) × 2 (brand credibility: low vs. high) between-subjects design, with brand innovativeness as the dependent variable. The fictitious press releases featured different manipulations, which were determined through several pre-tests. All key variables were measured on a seven-point Likert scales adopted/adapted from the literature. Participants [study 1 (N = 276) and study 2 (N = 246)] were recruited through an online consumer panel. Participants (51% women) were in the 18–70 years age group.We tested for the moderating role of brand credibility and the mediating roles of functional and financial risk in the degree of innovation – brand innovativeness relationship using PROCESS Model 5 (Hayes 2018) with brand familiarity, brand attitude and perceived quality as covariates. The independent variables used in this model, degree of innovation (0 = incremental product; 1 = radical product) and brand credibility (0 = low credible; 1 = high credible) are dummy coded while the mediators (functional risk and financial risk) are mean-centered.Findings suggest that degree of innovation of the proposed new product is positively related to brand innovativeness. Additionally, brand credibility moderates the relationship between degree of innovation and brand innovativeness, and the relationship holds good only for low credible brands. Finally, results do not support the mediating role of functional risk or financial risk.

Brand crises can cause significant financial and reputational damage to a company. The most effective means for a company to mitigate potential damage to its brand during a crisis is with its crisis response. Yet research into the most effective response (corrective action vs reduction of offensiveness vs denial) to a values-based brand crisis is unclear. The present research seeks to clarify the issue of crisis response and expands understanding of this type of crisis by investigating whether brand attitude dilution occurs as a result of values-based brand crises and if the brand attitude dilution effects vary by crisis severity and locus of control.The hypotheses were tested in three experiments using consumer samples. The results of the first (N = 283, Australian consumers) showed brand attitude dilution upon exposure to a value-based brand crisis. However, the brand attitude dilution did not vary by the either crisis response strategy or the severity of the crisis. The results of the second study (N = 229) revealed brand attitude dilution upon exposure to a value-based brand crisis. Importantly, corrective action was found to be more effective than the other two response strategies in reducing brand attitude dilution. The brand attitude dilution did not vary by the locus of control. The results of the third study (N = 218) further confirmed brand attitude dilution post exposure to a real value-based brand crisis, but the effect did not vary by the type of crisis response.The present research contributes to the brand crisis literature. It also provides guidance to managers of companies going through values-based brand crises, and allows for the creation of evidence-based crisis management strategies.

In today’s global marketplace, young consumers’ self-expression is manifested through the consumption of branded goods and services (Fam et al. 2008; Liao and Wang 2009). The goal of this article is to explore the impact of the self-concepts among global young consumers to develop a conceptual framework that assists brand managers to leverage these psychological factors in developing brand loyalty. Based on Abe et al. (1996), the study draws on self-consciousness as a key aspect of self-concept and uses gender-consciousness (Gould 1996) to represent the gender aspect of self-concept. Given that brand and self connections might play be a portentous variable in consumers’ self-expression and related brand decisions (Escalas and Bettman 2005), the study accommodates brand connections to support the congruity effects between self/gender consciousness and brand perceptions, and further examine how brand connections lead to brand knowledge and then further enhance brand attitudes and brand loyalty.This study specifically investigates the role of consumer self- and gender consciousness on product knowledge, attitude and purchase intention in a cross-cultural setting. Efforts were made to explore whether consumer brand consciousness played a mediating role between consumer self- and gender consciousness and product knowledge. Using structural equation model to test the hypothesized relationship, the results study demonstrates that consumer gender and self-consciousness impact consumer brand consciousness and the latter is important driver of consumer product knowledge, which in turn, influence consumer brand attitude and purchase intention. The study also demonstrates that culture impacts the role of consumer brand consciousness as it mediates between self- and gender consciousness and product knowledge. While past literature has highlighted the impact of both gender and self-consciousness on brand consciousness, our study suggests that the results change based on cultural contexts. For US consumers, both self- and gender consciousness impact brand consciousness and product knowledge; however, for Chinese consumers, only gender consciousness and not self-consciousness impact brand consciousness, which impacts product knowledge. Thus, there is complete mediation for Chinese consumers for gender consciousness. This may be contrary to past research that suggests the importance of self-consciousness on brand consciousness for these consumers. However, when one considers the impact of both self- and gender consciousness, it appears that the latter plays a greater role in impacting brand consciousness.

The present research examines individuals’ responses toward a misbehavior committed by their compatriot tourists in the international travel context. Specifically, it tests the impact of group identification, the mediating role of emotions and moderating effect of misbehavior severity on individuals’ evaluations of the misbehaving tourist and the destination involved. The present research employs social identity theory as the overarching theoretical framework to understand the dynamics among tourists and between tourists and destination residents. The hypotheses were tested in a one-factor (misbehavior severity: low vs. high) between-subjects experiment with a control group, with identification with the ingroup (i.e., USA) measured as an independent variable and emotions measured as mediators. 448 Americans with international travel experience were recruited via MTurk. The data were analyzed using PROCESS Models.Findings revealed a positive effect of ingroup identification on attitudes toward the ingroup perpetrators and a negative effect on intention to punish, providing evidence of ingroup bias. Guilt and shame have been found as two key emotions mediating the relationship between ingroup identification and individuals’ responses toward the ingroup perpetrators and the destination involved. Interestingly, the impact of ingroup identification on attitude toward the ingroup perpetrators became negative when shame was activated, suggesting the black sheep effect. Findings also showed a positive effect of ingroup identification both directly and indirectly through guilt. The direct effect was found only when misbehavior severity was low.The present research contributes to the knowledge of ingroup deviance in the tourism context. It expands the tourism impact literature by examining the psychological mechanism underlying individuals’ responses to a misbehavior committed by compatriot tourists, and identifying boundary conditions for their reactions. Practically, this research highlights that the occurrence of tourist misbehavior can be a good opportunity to facilitate desirable tourist behaviors. It informs policy development and destination marketing strategies on mitigating the negative impact of tourist misbehavior, and helps tourist-originating countries educate outbound tourists.

Within the Service-Dominant-Logic – SDL framework (Vargo and Lusch 2004, 2008, 2016), and the Self-Determination Theory – SDT (Ryan and Deci 2000) premise, this study aims to investigate how user generated content (UGC) influences their brand involvement. The intrinsic motivations – need for competence, need for autonomy and need for relatedness underpinned by SDT influence UGC production. Moreover, SDL propounds that firms’ reputation and brand involvement is enhanced through customer’s active role utilizing their resources (Harmeling et al. 2017), like, their social network and brand knowledge. Overall, the effect of customers’ UGC creation is explored on their brand involvement which in turn will enhance loyalty and purchase intentions for the focal brand. This study is an extension of the research published in IEEE conference (Gupta and Gupta 2019) by including an upgraded model with an outcome of ‘brand involvement’ and creativity as control variable, thus, taking the study to the next level.This research utilizes a quantitative approach with web-based survey based on a 7-point Likert scale, of 265 Australian customers of various brands, and who have produced UGC for their focal brands on social networking websites (SNSs) in the past. The data is analyzed employing partial least square – structural equation modeling – Smart PLS-SEM. Results demonstrate that ‘brand involvement’ is positively affected by customers’ ‘brand UGC participation’. In turn, UGC participation is positively dependent on customers’ intrinsic need for relatedness, their ‘social network’ of online contact and ‘brand knowledge’, where ‘creativity’ acts as a control variable.This research also adds to the vast literature of consumer engagement, online digital-brand management and co creation of value by customers. Moreover, online service providers can enhance brand involvement by developing strategies to fulfil different customers’ needs in the service eco-system to increase customers’ participation in brand UGC on social media and brand involvement, hence, co-creating value for their brands and services. This study builds on the combination of SDT and SDL combining the customers-owned resources and makes a significant contribution in the fields of customer needs and experiences in service ecosystem in general.

Past research shows that strong brands can affect consumers’ taste perceptions of food products. For example, Allison and Uhl (1964) found that consumers’ identification of a familiar beer brand significantly increased taste perceptions compared with the unbranded beer. Similarly, young consumers preferred the taste of foods and drinks that were associated with a well-known business compared to a blinded evaluation condition (Robinson et al. 2007). A number of service sector organisations with credence attributes are increasingly integrating taste into their physical environments. Examples of food and beverage add-ons to businesses’ main service offering include banks, healthcare clinics, car repair shops, investment companies, and management consulting firms. The integration of these taste atmospherics within personalised service settings are aimed at elevating positive associations with the service environment and enhancing customer experiences. Despite this widespread integration of food and beverage in many service settings, there is a lack of empirical understanding as to the benefits and impact of taste on both customer behaviours and emotions within service settings (Segovis et al. 2007). This research seeks to explore whether food and beverage integrations play a role within environments that are high in credence attributes. Credence services are a focus in this research as these environments have witnessed an increased adoption of food within the service interaction. Further, the reliance on tangible and intangible subtle cues, such as complimentary food and beverages, within credence services is higher when it is difficult for consumers to evaluate or obtain objective information.This research consists of a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design to evaluate the impacts of taste on customers in the credence service setting of financial services, focused on home lending. Using hypothetical scenario testing we evaluate the impacts of taste perceptions on customer behaviours and emotions in credence service settings. Findings indicate that taste influences customers’ emotions, information retention, and perceived level of interpersonal relationships. Additionally, taste does not influence stress, which contradicts existing sensory research and frameworks. Hence, further research is required to highlight certain exceptions in our existing sensory marketing frameworks. Findings from this research address a literature gap in store atmospherics and provide strategic implications for services management on the importance of environmental cues influencing customers’ emotions and behaviours. This research is timely and relevant as the role of personalising attributes and service experiences is a current research priority in cultivating the customer asset and characterising the customer journey. Overall, this research explores the impact of taste atmospherics on customers’ evaluations of services high in credence attributes.

Consumer desire for luxury is driving consumption of luxury branded products in developed and developing markets. Chinese consumers’ spending patterns have resulted in China becoming the most significant growth market for luxury in the world. However, Chinese consumers also make use of mimic branded items in their repertoire of luxury or pseudo-luxury goods. To explore the motivating forces of these consumers’ aspirations toward pseudo-luxury brands, this research was conducted in Beijing, China and among Chinese consumers. It incorporated in-depth interviews, projective methods, and non-participant observation. The data were analyzed using an iterative approach. The interpretation of data proceeded through a series of part-to-whole iterations that helped us to define concepts and draw out their theoretical implications. The findings reveal how envy as a tacit motive and the desire for identity reflects a change in the dynamics of Chinese consumer culture. As informants in this research, the Chinese consumer sees the elite’s lifestyles as vastly better than their own and seek the social prestige that luxury product purchase signifies. According to the findings, most Chinese customers have had unpleasant feelings, and it has been a continual emotion that they have been unable to escape or eliminate: a continuity process. They were unable to come out or employ any form of envy avoidance method. Envy is experienced in three stages: before using pseudo luxury things, while using or considering using pseudo luxury things, and after using pseudo luxury products, according to our research. The informants were unconcerned about how China’s elites have risen to such heights of wealth and luxury spending so swiftly. They also showed little hesitation about using pseudo luxury brands to obtain their desired identity of themselves as members of the affluent, contemporary, sophisticated elite. This contrasts with our theoretical understanding of Chinese values and motivations being a reflection of self-construal of interdependence and directed towards social harmony. More broadly, pseudo luxury consumption provides a vehicle for renegotiation of Chinese cultural values in a period of increasing abundance.

The prosperity of the international tourism industry implies the need to take a closer look at tourists’ cross-cultural adaptability as which is highly correlated with their overseas travel experiences. Earley and Ang (2003) proposed a concept, cultural intelligence (CQ), to measure one’s cross-cultural adaptability. CQ refers to one’s capabilities to effectively adjust to different cultures (Earley and Ang 2003). Individuals with higher cultural intelligence might alter their ways of thinking and behaving as they understand there are differences between distinct cultures, possess greater cross-cultural knowledge, have a stronger intrinsic motivation to make adjustment, and are able to conduct favourable behaviours based on the host cultural requirement (Ang et al. 2007; Van der Horst and Albertyn 2018). Therefore, this study aims to understand the effect of tourists’ cultural intelligence on their post-travel evaluations and behavioural intentions. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to explore the relationships between tourist cultural intelligence and satisfaction; and second, to identify the relationships between tourist satisfaction, revisit intention, and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication.This study uses an online survey to collect respondents’ information. The sampling units in this research are those Chinese tourists who have overseas travel experiences, given their large population and undeniable influences on the development of the global tourism industry (UNWTO 2019). Statistics package for the social sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) are employed as data analysis methods.The data analysis results suggest that with higher CQ, Chinese tourists are more likely to be satisfied with, revisit, and say positive things about their overseas destinations. Tourist satisfaction leads to positive eWOM but has no significant impact on revisit intention. Tourist satisfaction also mediates the relationship between CQ and eWOM.This research contributes to the existing literature on cultural intelligence by extending its research context to tourism research. To add, this study is the first to identify that tourist cultural intelligence is an important antecedent of tourist post-travel evaluations and behaviours, which are the two most important tourism research topics. This study suggests outbound tourists to acquire more knowledge about the host cultures of their destinations for gaining a more satisfying travel experience. Moreover, Local travel agents and government are suggested to strengthen visitors’ cultural attachment and enhance cultural influence power, which is an essential index for measuring national soft power (Ning 2018).

Our food practices have been identified as one of the cornerstones of the urgently required transition to more sustainable food consumption (Springman et al. 2016). The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the influence of food supply channels on household food practices. This study sought to explore the household food practices of the members of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which is an example of an Alternative Food Network (AFN) in Ireland.A practice theory lens was adopted in the current study and a mixed-method approach of ethnographic-style in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and photo food-diaries was used. The case CSA has been operating since 2008 and grew from an ‘ecovillage’ established in the small rural town in Ireland. Thematic analysis distinguished the food practices of acquiring, storing, cooking, eating, disposing which were analysed in relation to meanings, materials and skills associated with them (Shove et al. 2012).The findings of this study suggest that the food practices of CSA members are significantly influenced by the varying availability of seasonal produce throughout different seasons of the year. Interviewees evidently adjust some of their food practices to ensure that they have a balanced and nutritious diet throughout the year and minimise and prevent food waste. Examples include cooking practices such as making pesto’s and soups along with preservation practices such as pickling vegetables, drying herbs, and freezing fruits in order to extend their lifespan and make them last longer.Across the 10 CSA interviews it was evident that the CSA, as a food supply channel, has a positive impact on the sustainability of its members’ food practices. This can be explained by some of the social and cultural characteristics of eco-village and the CSA: empowerment; community; cooking skills; social connections; physical proximity. Seasonally adjusted food practices appear to necessary for CSA members as they have chosen the CSA as a core food supply channel. This is evidently not the case for the majority of consumers in Ireland. The CSA members can therefore provide inspiration to mainstream consumers on a practical level in relation to how they learn to adjust their day to day food practices in a social way and on a higher level in how they adopt sustainability meanings into their lifestyles such as the culture of community spirit and togetherness and social norms that they build around sustainable food practices.On a policy and industry level, examples of mainstream interventions that may foster more sustainable consumption practices include promoting and encouraging: Greater awareness and understanding of local and seasonal foods. Mechanisms to foster social learning and connections. Cultivating households’ culinary competencies in repurposing leftovers. Use of household equipment such as food processers, freezers, and reusable containers.

Private labels have received much less attention in developing and emerging nations. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of four types of perceived risk (functional, financial, time and social), familiarity with private labels and perceived quality differences between private labels and national brands on the propensity of supermarket shoppers to purchase Private Labels. The paper is informed by a survey of shoppers in Tesco, the world’s third largest grocery retailer, carried out in China and the UK with an overall sample size of 1062 respondents.In line with the mere exposure effect, familiarity with private labels reduces all four types of perceived risk. This familiarity reduces perceived quality differences between private labels and national brands only in the UK, whilst it has an opposite effect in China. Perceived financial risk lowers the propensity to purchase private labels in the UK. In contrast, only social risk predicts this propensity in China.The study indicates that risk associated with private labels is significant in the purchase propensity of PL (Erdem et al. 2004; Mitchell 1998; Richardson et al. 1996). The study also confirms hypotheses regarding country differences. Namely, perceived social risk has a greater impact on the propensity to purchase private labels in China compared to the UK. The level of familiarity has a stronger positive impact on the propensity to purchase private labels in China (emerging market with significant growth potential) compared to more saturated market of UK.In the mature UK grocery market high levels of consumer familiarity with PL may increase the perceived quality differences between PL and national brands. As the effect in China is in complete contrast, retail managers and international marketers may aim to stimulate awareness of and familiarity with PL in an effort to improve quality perceptions vis-à-vis branded competitors. Retailers in China should develop their brand image rather than focusing on a low-price strategy. Since price and quality are not the only two factors which influence the propensity to buy private labels, retailers should consider reinforcing their brand image and corporate identity which may increase familiarity and prevent them from being considered lesser alternatives. Koschate-Fischer, Cramer and Hoyer (2014) found that when retailers have a large, priced-oriented customer group, private labels can be used as a crucial strategy in order to enhance store loyalty.The results of the study are confined to one geographic region in each observed nation.

Fact or fiction: The controversy behind the importance of data quality and external validity of research findings in academic marketing journals is justifiable.In recent years, there has been a growing concern regarding the roles that data quality and external validity of research findings play in the publishing process of academic based marketing journals. This special session uses a broader research/publication integrity framework in an effort to address the concerns with data quality and external validity issues. A panel of expert researchers breaks down research/publication integrity into different categorical types (or sources) of integrity among the player groups (researcher, respondent/ subjects, authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers) involved in researching and publishing academic marketing journal articles. The session uses a novel approach of discussing whether specific player groups’ activities can be interpreted as being “fact” or “fiction” with the audience. The ensuing discussions should provide clearer insight and understanding of the impact that maintaining integrity throughout the researching and publishing processes has on enhancing data quality and external validity of reported results, findings, implications, and added value to body of marketing knowledge.The session encourages audience questions as a means of driving the discussion centered on important modern-day data validity issues.Some examples of “fact” or “fiction” activities are: The defined target population of a contextual research project has little influence in assessing the generalizability of the research results. Convenience sampling is the preferred approach to secure research participants. College marketing/business students provide some of the best data quality results. Reporting screening criteria for qualifying experimental design subjects is not relevant in academic research projects. Relationships between populations, sampling plans, research subjects, and data quality have little influence on results and findings. The role of “statistically significant” results in generalizability. Researcher integrity, respondent/subject integrity, reviewer integrity, and editorial integrity play roles in determining the external validity of academic research.