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Let’s Get Engaged! Crossing the Threshold of Marketing’s Engagement Era

Proceedings of the 2014 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference

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Über dieses Buch

Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.

This volume includes the full proceedings from the 2014 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana, entitled Let’s Get Engaged! Crossing the Threshold of Marketing’s Engagement Era. The volume includes manuscripts relevant to marketing strategy, consumer behaviour, quantitative modelling, among others.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Instilling a Desire to Learn: The Importance of a Well Designed Course

A Chinese proverb says, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” My goal as an educator is to inspire students to enter by instilling a desire to learn and think critically. To achieve this, I strive to (1) have well designed courses, (2) use a variety of tools and techniques, (3) include practical applications of theory, and (4) lead the students by example.A well designed course provides the foundation from which students structure their learning. The course must have clear objectives, a well thought out timeline for achieving those objectives, and creative ways in which the content is engendered in students. I begin my courses with the big picture overview, and then dive into the details using a variety of methodologies. I end the course by reiterating the big picture. My goal is that the students leave the course not only inspired and curious about the area and its overall relationship to business, but also with numerous, practical tools they can apply.Because students have different learning styles, I vary the tools and techniques in my classes. This also creates engagement in the class. Although I include traditional teaching methods (e.g., lectures, presentations, class discussions, readings, cases, exercises, videos, guest speakers), I constantly innovate trying new methods. Some which have been very successful are: current events discussions at the opening of class each week which relate to the overall class topic (e.g., market research), debates (e.g., the ethics of marketing experiments), a workshop approach in learning software (e.g., Qualtrics, SPSS), “pair and share” feedback among the students as they develop and implement their course project, having the students prep and lead the class (e.g., structured around a case or a reading), and building prototypes (e.g., designing structures as they apply experimentation concepts).I feel it is critical for students to leave the course having applied the theories they have learned to practical applications. This engrains the experience in students by bringing the learning to life. Each course I teach has a semester long project in which the student has to apply the course concepts. Although I let the students determine the project, it must have a managerial focus which is practical and applicable. I also have the students present their work to the class so they have the opportunity not only to do the work, but to evaluate, critique and provide feedback on other student’s work. Doing this encourages students to think critically, ask questions, and drill down not only on their own projects but also on those of their classmates. I apply a similar model with cases and current event discussions. Encouraging and applying this critical thinking throughout the course is a cornerstone of their learning. It increases student responsibility for learning and pushes students to deeper levels of analysis. I also frequently cold call on students as it forces them to always be prepared and engaged in class discussions.Finally, to inspire excellence in my students, I lead by example. I am always prepared, organized and enthusiastic. I also create a personal connection with each student by asking them to share their background and some fun facts about themselves with me in an email. I respond to each of these emails cementing that personal connection which subsequently helps in engaging and motivating them. I am always available to my students. I arrive at class early and stay late so that students can chat with me. I also respond quickly to their emails, and will meet with them whenever they request. Finally, I do an extensive evaluation of the student’s end of the semester course feedback. I make notes of what worked and what didn’t. I then come up with a plan for how I can change and improve for the future.This dedication and structured approach has resulted in courses which students will comment have changed their way of thinking. It is a joy for me to be able to engage with students in this manner.

Anne L. Roggeveen
Digital Natives and the University Classroom and Beyond: Prompting Analysis, Personal Expression, and Ongoing Discourse

Students and faculty today have an abundance of interesting and important information at their disposal within seconds of a search request. Information about natural events, war, tragedy, technology developments, controversies, ethical, diversity, and environmental considerations, general descriptive statistics, and even extensive company or policy history information can serve to enrich understanding of role and usefulness of theories, strategies, and policies of companies, agencies, and governments. Our challenge as educators is to prompt students to think critically about details as well as holistically about the “big picture” and emerging pictures. With various social media tools, we now have environments that can facilitate more student to student education (and the monitoring of this process as well).In this session, I will describe some of the techniques that I have employed over the years in attempts to capture and maintain the attention of students in my courses. I will also describe how I try to utilize the wealth of expertise in the classroom to enhance the course experience for students and for myself. I teach courses on Consumer Behavior, Digital Marketing, Advertising, and Green Marketing Management. I usually require an extensive individual research paper, in addition to traditional exams, cases, and marketing or advertising plans. I also require students to participate in online discussions. Students make suggestions for resources for papers and critique the papers/presentations of other students. Students also suggest online resources that are relevant to the textbook and lecture discussions. In-class discussions are typically exchanges between me and the students but more importantly, evolve to be exchanges between students that often carry over the online discussion board.

Curtis P. Haugtvedt
Curricular Innovations at the Intersection of Subsistence and Sustainability

“The challenge of education is to prepare students for their future – not our past” – AnonymousWe have pioneered the area of subsistence marketplaces, creating unique synergies between research, teaching, and social initiatives (www.business.illinois.edu/subsistence). Distinct from relatively macro-level business approaches to poverty, (e.g., BoP), we adopt a micro-level approach to gain bottom-up understanding of life circumstances of subsistence consumer, entrepreneur and marketplace behaviors. The term, subsistence marketplaces, reflects understanding these contexts in their own right, not just as markets to sell to, but as individuals, communities, consumers, entrepreneurs, and marketplaces to learn from.This program first led to a yearlong, innovative inter-disciplinary graduate-level course on sustainable product and market development for subsistence marketplaces with international immersion, offered since 2006–07. Students in business, engineering, industrial design and other areas spend the Fall semester understanding subsistence marketplaces through virtual immersion (poverty simulation, analysis of interviews of subsistence individuals, analysis of life circumstances in subsistence, development of conceptual models of poverty, needs, products, market interactions, and local environments) in this context and through emersion of business, design, and engineering principles. Interdisciplinary student groups work on organizational projects, generating and evaluating possible ideas for solutions to problems, and prepare for field research. The class travels for immersion in the context and to conduct market research during part of the winter break. Students observe households, marketplaces, and communities in urban and rural subsistence contexts and interview various stakeholders. A prototype and a comprehensive business plan are developed in the spring semester. This course sequence was ranked one of the top entrepreneurship courses by Inc. magazine in 2011, serving as a unique platform for bottom-up innovations for companies and social enterprises in 33 projects to date over 8 years. Insights from projects are being implemented by some sponsor enterprises and a student group has won a prestigious design award. Students earn a certificate in sustainability based on their accomplishments.Based on this experience, we designed a module on developing sustainable businesses for subsistence contexts in a Business 101 course in 2007, then scaled for all incoming first semester undergraduate students (approximately 600). Since 2008, we also designed and offer Sustainable Marketing/Business Enterprises for first year MBAs focusing on environmental sustainability and business, with an online version for undergraduate students. We also designed and teach an executive MBA course on Global Business Horizons, focused on subsistence and sustainability since 2011, and a first semester course for undergraduate engineering students entitled Engineering for Global Development since 2012. Our curricular innovations have led to early exposure and later integrative experiences on subsistence and sustainability for undergraduate and graduate students and executives, which challenge them to confront radically different contexts and envision a better world. In 8 years, the Illinois business curriculum has been transformed, reaching almost 800 students annually. An eBook entitled Subsistence Marketplaces serves as an ideal text for this content area and created a web portal for educators around the world to disseminate materials and encourage curricular innovations in this area (day in the life videos, movie, multi-media immersion exercises, qualitative interviews, project reports). An online version of the course is reaching students around the world through Coursera, with the first iteration having close to 9,000 students.In terms of educational philosophy, our curricular innovations challenge students to confront global problems and envision a better world, adopting a conception of business that focuses on finding win-wins between different dimensions of sustainability while acknowledging trade-offs, and emphasizing a pragmatic focus on doing sustainability. Our courses emphasize bottom-up innovation that inverts traditional top-down business planning and implementation to consider understanding and design of solutions that begin with the perspective of the end-user, the subsistence consumer or entrepreneur, the communities and the larger context. We emphasize bottom-up teaching approaches and numerous different ways of learning, such as through enabling students to connect the dots for themselves across the world through international immersion, the epitome of experiential learning experiences. Finally, our teaching is highly synergized with research and social initiatives, highlighting the close linkage between creation and dissemination of knowledge as well as public engagement.Our work has had profound impact on businesses and social enterprises, business education, and subsistence populations, and has been multiplied by our work in social enterprise. We founded the Marketplace Literacy Project (http://www.marketplaceliteracy.org), designing and offering a unique marketplace literacy program in India, currently being scaled to reach large audiences using video-based approaches, with pilot efforts in other countries. Supplementing previous work on market access and financial resources, marketplace literacy enables subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs to adapt to changing marketplaces and engage in sustainable practices. Through this program, the discipline of Marketing reaching people who likely will never have access to a university. Grounded in fundamental Marketing notions of customer orientation, our work has led to pioneering innovations to address the global challenges of our generation that impact educators, students, and subsistence communities around the world.

Madhu Viswanathan
Mental Imagery and Its Determinants as Factors of Consumers Emotional and Behavioral Responses: Situation Analysis in Online Shopping

The study of mental imagery among consumers has an increasingly important place in marketing research and particularly in the context of distance selling where trying the product is initially ‘imaginary’. This quasi-sensory or quasi-perceptive experience that the individual is aware of, develops in the absence of conditions for real and authentic stimulation. For several years marketing research has tried to understand the various influences mental imagery may exert on consumer behaviour. Since responses to imagery can be cognitive, emotional and conative, the field of research is vast.The literature regarding the concept of imagery underlines the interest of studying the effects of imagery and its antecedents on the consumer’s emotional and behavioural responses. The links that exist between these concepts are indeed rarely studied. Therefore this study aims to answer the following research question: What role does mental imagery triggered by a product presentation on an e-retail site play in the production of consumer emotional and behavioural responses?The results of this study highlight the positive influence of self-mental imagery and its antecedents on mixed anticipated emotions and purchase intention and impulse purchase of e-consumers. For example, the more the e-consumer imagines using or buying the product displayed, the stronger impulse purchase and purchase intention will be. Moreover, the choice of stimuli used in the presentation of a product can significantly influence mental imagery and behavioural consumer responses. To reach the dual objective of improving self-mental imagery and purchase behavior, this research tends to choose a photo with staging of the product and include imagery instructions in the text.The aim of this study is to provide new data concerning mental imagery in a e-commerce setting after an empirical study while contributing conceptually and methodologically to the literature in marketing.

Aurély Lao
Online International Outshopping Experience: Proposition of a Research Model

With the development of the Internet, consumers can now shop for products sold thousands of miles from home without making a move. This feature of the Internet has a role in redefining the commercial universe, by reducing distance electronically. However, if buying on the Internet has been widely studied in the marketing literature (e.g., Gefen et al. 2003), and if offline cross-border purchasing has received increased attention in recent years (Baruca and Zolfagharian 2012), the cross-border Internet experience remains largely ignored. Yet this is a critical issue of both theoretical and practical implications: better understanding of international Internet shopping helps to increase our knowledge of the customer experience when buying online, and offers important lessons for local retailers, who are losing sales that used to be assured, in how to attract foreign customers or retain their local clientele.To identify the factors influencing the Internet cross-border purchasing experience, this research, presents a review of the marketing literature on international purchasing was made covering the period starting with the article by Herrmann and Beik (1968) until 2013. Thirteen articles on across border purchasing were identified, and provide an important base for the construction of a theoretical model of cross-border shopping on the Internet.A conceptual model identifying six drivers and a moderator of cross-border shopping on the Internet is proposed. Among the six factors influencing the intention to make a cross-border purchase on the Internet, three are direct: the perceived quality of the foreign retailer’s offering, familiarity with the foreign retailer, and susceptibility of the consumer to social influence. Two factors directly affect purchasing intentions together with an indirect effect via an influence on the perceived quality of the offering: language skills and the consumer’s ethnocentrism. One factor, associated costs, has only a direct effect on the perceived quality of the offering. Finally, confidence in the foreign retailer plays a moderating role between the perceived quality of the offering and purchasing intentions. It may be noted that the three factors having a direct impact on purchasing intentions, as well as the moderator, relate to specific issues while shopping on the Internet, while the other three factors relate to the international nature of the cross-border Internet purchase. This suggests that the international dimension interferes with purchasing on the Internet when buying from a foreign retailer. The experience of cross-border shopping on the Internet could be considered to be an electronic experience, added to which the international dimension influences the consumer experience and purchasing intentions, chiefly by influencing the perception of the foreign retailer’s offering. The proposed conceptual model calls for understanding the set of determinants of cross-border Internet purchasing intentions. Even though this phenomenon is growing rapidly, marketing research in this area is scarce. It is necessary to understand the experience of cross-border purchasing on the Internet to better comprehend not only this growing trend, but also to enable significant managerial contributions.

Benjamin Boeuf, Sylvain Sénécal
How Can an Assortment Be Reduced Without Changing the Perception of Variety? A Study of the Isolated Effects of Assortment Breadth and Depth

One of the major concerns of retailers is to reduce and rationalize their product assortments in the face of a twofold constraint: on the one hand the saturation of retail space and on the other the growing number of hard discount and convenience stores. Hence the need to reduce costs and consequently the assortments offered in all existing formats of mass food retailing. In this context, many studies focus on all decisions concerning the selection of the assortment, but there are many more ways of making improvements, particularly with regard to consumer perceptions and preferences (Mantrala et al. 2009). This research is conceived along these lines. We seek to improve knowledge of the consumer’s perception when faced with a product assortment. Up until now, work on consumer perception has highlighted the importance of the variety perceived by the consumer (Kahn and Wansink 2004) and explored how to reduce an assortment without affecting the perception of variety (Sloot et al. 2006). We see two main limitations to these studies. The first concerns the lack of detail on the nature of the attributes that are manipulated, which probably partly explains the discrepancies among the results observed. The second limitation relates to the experimental conditions. Whereas work on space allocation uses real data for real stores, work on consumer perception is often remote from the real purchasing situation. The objective of our study is thus twofold. We aim to review the contributions of the literature by mobilizing the concrete characteristics of an assortment, namely breadth and depth. We believe that a more systematic definition of attributes, according to whether they contribute to the breadth or depth of the assortment, would allow a better understanding of the perception of variety by consumers and thus a better understanding of their behavior. It is a matter of examining the role of attributes within the complex entity represented by a product assortment rather than the nature of the attributes themselves. While the contribution and importance of attributes can vary from one category to another, we propose using breadth and depth, which characterize any assortment irrespective of the product category concerned. In response to our research objectives, we have first reviewed the literature and formalize our research hypotheses. In collaboration with Carrefour and In Vivo and to isolate the effects of breadth and depth, we manipulated supermarket rice “standard-assortment” to reach four combinations of breadth and depth. We questioned 1,009 consumers in test stores and we highlight the mediating role of the perception of variety using the bootstrap procedure recommended by Zhao et al. (2010). We argue that is unnecessary, for ensuring a large perceived variety, to provide both a high degree of breadth and of depth and thus that retailers might reduce their assortments without affecting consumers’ perception of variety.

Yolande Piris
An Interactive Session with Top Reviewers

This session will address the complexities of getting your work accepted by major marketing journals, with special attention on ways that reviewers read, think about, and assess manuscripts. Three of the profession’s top reviewers will give short presentations on their approaches – while distinct in detail, there are critical overlaps. Their diversities and their commonalities need to be understood by faculty who want to publish in A-level (or even B-level) journals, for reviewers are the “first line of defense” against poor scholarship appearing in print. (As humans, we prefer to review well-written, insightful manuscripts that we can help polish to a publishable form. Hopefully this session will get all of us closer to our preferences.)

Charles Ingene, Bulent Mengüç, Linda Price
Global Growth in International Sport: A Niche Portfolio Strategy

As described by Porter (1980), a niche marketing strategy concentrates on serving a particular market niche – defined by geographic boundaries, type of customer, segment of the product line, or a combination of these three elements. Yet focus on a single niche can entail risks of instability and collapse, which can be countered by the market flexibility offered by a niche portfolio that includes multiple targeted niches (Hamlin et al. 2012). Where firms define targeted niches geographically, building a diversified niche portfolio involves difficult decisions concerning international market expansion. Our study addresses this challenge empirically by utilizing the context of Formula One (F1) motor racing to advance the study of a niche-based growth strategy. Specifically, we develop and test a model that examines the importance of native resources to the success of an international expansion strategy featuring a portfolio of geographically-defined niches.Our study builds on the theoretical foundation of Milne et al. (1996), who applied niche marketing strategy to the sport industry. Similar to any organization, sport teams, leagues, and events need to secure certain resources for continued survival (Smart and Wolfe 2000). To develop our hypotheses in the sport context, we rely on the resource categorization of Milne et al. (1996) as participants, spectators, sponsors and media attention.H1. Participant-based resources including the number of (a) events, (b) teams, and (c) championships are positively related to niche demand for F1.H2. Spectator-based resources including (a) population size and (b) gross national income [GNI] are positively related to niche demand for F1.H3. Sponsorship-based resources including (a) current corporate support and (b) corporate support potential are positively related to niche demand for F1.H4. Media-based resources are positively related to niche demand for F1.In order to approximate the demand for the sport of F1 (dependent variable) across numerous countries, we utilize hierarchical regression with a data set that features the advertising rates for standard commercial time during the broadcast of every F1 grand prix from 2007 to 2010 in 19 different countries across five continents. H1 is fully supported as all three participant-based resource variables yield significant coefficients and the change in R2 from a base model with controls for year is also significant (p < .01). In support of H2, the incremental change in R2 is again significant (p < .05), but only the Population variable coefficient is significant (GNI nonsignificant). Likewise, the incremental variance in ad rates explained by the sponsor-resource variables (H3) is significant (p < .01), but only one of the variable coefficients is positive and significant (SponsorSpend). Finally, media-based resources (H4) do not explain a significant amount of additional variance in ad rates. In conclusion, we have applied a niche-based resource categorization specific to sports to the international context of F1 racing to explain variance in demand across countries as relevant to geographic expansion decisions.

Joe Cobbs, Jonathan Jensen, Mark Groza
Practices of Business Sustainability: Models and Cases

The objective of this study is to describe: (i) corporate reasons (i.e. the rationality of organizational efforts to plan, implement and evaluate sustainable business models) and organizational challenges (i.e. difficulties associated with the planning, implementation and evaluation of sustainable business models in the marketplace and society); and (ii) the evolution of economic effects, social boundaries and environmental actions in sustainable business practices (i.e. the effectiveness of applications over time). This study is based on insights gained from eight Norwegian companies in different industries. Purposeful sampling was employed to ensure that the companies had sustainable business models beyond the level of mere compliance, of sustainable business practices in the marketplace and society. A deductive approach to data collection ensured that the companies had sufficient understanding to relate their sustainable business practices to interviewers. The interviews were subsequently transcribed and analyzed systematically by the research team. The empirical findings indicate evolutionary changes as companies move on a continuum from superficial to embedded sustainable business models and the application of sustainable business practices. The planning, implementation and evaluation of sustainable business models evolves over time within companies and their supply chains, as well as in the marketplace and society. A limitation of this study is that it is exclusively undertaken in Norwegian companies, although the companies are from different industries with different characteristics. Future research is clearly necessary and will be conducted in other countries in similar industries, so as to explore the empirical findings from this study in other contexts. In addition, the interfaces between environmental actions, economic effects and social boundaries need to be investigated further. The study contributes to a growing body of knowledge on corporate reasons for and organizational challenges of sustainable business models, as well as environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable business practices. This study only sheds initial light on these aspects, and more work is required to confirm and extend the present findings. Specifically, further research is required into underlying corporate reasons and organizational challenges – as well as economic effects, social boundaries and environmental actions. Additionally, only Norwegian companies have been considered and this limits the generality of the study. However, such shortcomings regarding qualitative studies also provide opportunities for further research. The Norwegian companies were carefully selected for having achieved domestic and international acknowledgement in terms of their sustainable business models and the application of sustainable business practices. The authors believe that the empirical findings provide useful and relevant insights applicable to both research and practice in this important and evolving element of contemporary business.

Göran Svensson, Juan Carlos Sosa-Varela, Nils Hogevold, Carmen Padin, Carlos Ferro, Beverly Wagner, Daniel Petzer, H. B. Klopper
Videos for Marketing and Patient Education on Chinese Hospitals’ Web Sites

This study aims to find out how Chinese hospitals have used online videos as marketing and patient education tools. The findings from this study can help Chinese hospital administrators better understand how to best take advantage of the up-to-date online video delivery technology to conduct contemporary marketing and efficiently help their patients. Based on a systematic probability sample of 2,385 Chinese hospitals, the authors conducted a content analysis of Chinese hospital Web sites in early 2013. The study found that 42 % of Chinese hospitals had a Web site, only 21.8 % of these Web sites contained video(s), and 44.3 % of the these video Web sites carried only one video. The videos were mainly used to provide patient education (27.7 %) and to promote a hospital (23.1 %). Overall, private hospitals used more videos than state-owned hospitals especially for advertising and promotion, but ranking did not exert much influence. The study concludes that Chinese hospitals need to learn how to turn videos into an integral part of their marketing strategy so as to create both conceptually and technologically user-centric Web sites to serve themselves and, more importantly, to serve their patients.

Edgar Huang, Tianjiao Liu, Jing Wang
Interactive E-Health Tools for Patients on Chinese Hospitals’ Web Sites

This study has investigated how Chinese hospitals have embraced e-health as reflected in the adoption of interactive e-health tools on their Web sites. The literature review shows that this is the first serious study regarding the implementation of e-health in China. A content analysis was conducted based on a systematic probability sample drawn from a list of 19,084 Chinese hospitals. This study found 14 interactive e-health tools on Chinese hospital Web sites, but the average number of such tools used on these sites was only 3; specialized hospitals and plastic surgery hospitals outperformed general hospitals, and the San jia hospitals (top-ranked in the top-tier) and private hospitals were equal in implementing interactive e-health tools though, overall, private hospitals outperformed public hospitals. It is concluded that comprehensively implementing the 12 most important interactive e-health tools on Chinese hospital Web sites today will help the hospitals provide quality healthcare regardless of the hospital’s institution type, ownership nature, and ranking and develop a systematic online marketing and communication strategy, and help patients more easily find the information about a hospital, access and understand their medical records, and have a user-friendly patient education about their symptoms and medical procedures.

Edgar Huang, Jing Wang, Tianjiao Liu
When Does the Value of Compensation Matter in Service Recovery?

Service recovery (SR) plays an important role in (re-)establishing customer satisfaction after service failures, represents an opportunity for service providers to develop strong relationships with customers, and refers to corrective actions of service providers such as offering (in)tangible compensation in order to generate positive customer responses (Zemke and Bell 1990). Tangible compensation consists of offering economic benefits to customers (Del Río-Lanza et al. 2009). Intangible compensation consists of simple and inexpensive social actions that aim to recover service failures (Miller et al. 2000). The purpose of the study presented here is to examine the appropriateness of the four most common types of tangible compensation (gift, discount, credit for future consumption, refund) in combination with four types of intangible compensation (apology, showing empathy, explanation, manager intervention) in an economically developing country (Madagascar) compared to a developed one (Switzerland). Studying consumer reactions to different SR attempts in these countries is interesting because, in both countries, the service sector generates over 50 % of the gross domestic product. The target variable analyzed is customer satisfaction with the service recovery (SSR). We further differentiate for failure severity and responsibility for the failure, and also include several control variables (cultural differences, service involvement, and attitude toward complaining) because these variables can affect customer satisfaction and loyalty (De Matos et al. 2009; Webster and Sundaram 1998). The findings presented here enable managers to develop country-specific SR strategies that are appropriate to address service failures in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Silke Bambauer-Sachse, Landisoa E. Rabeson
Re-engineering the Brand Portfolio Following Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A): A Conceptual Framework

Because the business environment is constantly changing, corporations have to regularly reformulate their marketing strategies to remain relevant, as illustrated by regular additions and deletions to product portfolios. Environmental change may open up opportunities to expand the product portfolio into new market segments, or it may cause some previously successful brands in the portfolio to lose their attractiveness (Hill et al. 2005).

Mahabubur Rahman, Mary Lambkin
Investigating Global and Traditional Hispanic Culture in Hispanic TV Advertisements

The main goal of this study was to respond to the call for researchers inside the advertising discipline to explore Hispanic advertising research and globalization. To address this theoretical gap in the advertising literature, we draw knowledge from semiology to evaluate the plots and stories used in promoting local traditional Hispanic culture and global culture in advertisements from Spanish language network television in the United States.Students in a marketing communication class in a regional University located in the Mid-Western United States voluntarily collected a sample of Hispanic advertisements from YouTube. Of the 89 advertisements collected, the 70 included in the final sample were required to meet the following criteria. The ads: (1) must be ads shown on Univision or Telemundo; (2) must promote a consumer product; (3) must have more than 50 views at the time of the download; (4) be less than 3 min long (since ads longer than 3 min tend to be short documentaries and infomercials); and (5) must include narrative plots that contain conceptual richness. This form of selective sampling is normal in studies using semiotic analysis (Mick and Oswald 2006). The evaluation and interpretation of the Hispanic advertisements were conducted by the author and two business graduate students who are native Spanish speakers. The coders, including the author of the paper, are bilingual (Spanish and English).The initial analysis of the Hispanic advertisements resulted in identification of five main plots. However, a closer evaluation of these initial plots and more iteration revealed three main plots and four sub plots: (1) Americanized upper middle class main plot with two sub plots (Nurturing woman and empowered woman; (2) Heritage main plot with two sub plots (Soccer cult and family ritual sub plots); and (3) Celebrity main plot.Overall, the results suggest the ideas of global culture are portrayed by highlighting the celebrity power of non-Mexican Hispanic artists who have global appeal. We also found that the sampled ads showed advertisers taking socio-political stands. The promotions of American Dream ethos and woman empowerment were the most dominant global culture socio-political stands revealed in the ads evaluated. In terms of theory implications, unlike previous studies which suggest that adverting reflects commonly-held values of its target audience, our finding suggest that advertising reflect commonly-held socio-political stands of its target audience rather than reflections of commonly held values of its target audience.

Adesegun Oyedele
Is Our Understanding of Other-Emerging Markets Blurred by Bric-focused Market Characteristics? Sheth Revisited

Global business practitioners and international marketing researchers tend to popularize and overgeneralize the prevalent market characteristics in BRIC emerging markets to “other-emerging markets.” BRIC emerging markets include Brazil, Russia, India and China. According to Sheth (2011), other-emerging markets include countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Central Asia and Africa. The popularization and overgeneralization of market characteristics prevalent in BRIC emerging markets may be attributed to three factors: (1) the relevance of BRIC markets to Western multinational companies who use these markets to set-up low cost manufacturing operations; (2) the increased importance of the BRIC countries in the global economy and (3) the extensive integration of BRIC topics in the global business curriculum of top business schools in Western countries. However, by overgeneralizing the prevalent market characteristics in BRIC emerging markets researchers and practitioners may draw incorrect conclusions about marketing decisions in other-emerging markets.This study seeks to illuminate our understanding about market characteristics prevalent in other-emerging markets by revisiting and augmenting Sheth’s (2011) BRIC-focused emerging market characteristics. The five BRIC-focused emerging market characteristics proposed by Sheth include sociopolitical governance, market heterogeneity, inadequate infrastructure, chronic shortage of resources and unbranded competition. Using evidence from the literature, the novel characteristics explicated in this study include: power of embezzlers, power of local gangs, foreign influence, underutilization of resources and overdependence on secondhand foreign brands.Overall, a general managerial implication in this study is that global marketing managers should avoid overgeneralizing the characteristics of BRIC emerging markets to other-emerging markets. While there are market characteristics that are common among markets, global marketing managers should be aware that each market or country is unique and the most useful means for understanding markets is to conduct extensive secondary and primary market research.

Adesegun Oyedele
An Examination of Cultural Influences in Green Environmental Behaviour in India and the United States

Environmental issues is on the forefront in many discussions from both business and consumer perspectives. However, not everyone is pursuing pro-environmental sustainable behaviors. This research contributes to the literature by investigating some cultural antecedents of environmental concerns and pro-environmental behavior in two different, somewhat dichotomous cultures. Our proposed model suggests that cultural differences measured at the individual level influence consumer’s environmental concerns and subsequently their pro-environmental sustainable behaviors. We empirically examined our model within a rich cross-cultural context using samples from India and the United States. When examined at the macro-cultural level, Individualism and collectivism are considered at the opposite ends of one continuum. However, at the individual level, existing research suggest that individualism and collectivism represent separate dimensions. That is, both exist within the same culture and the same individual can exhibit both values at the same time across different situations. Consistent with such conceptualization, our findings show that at the individual level and for this type of perceptions and behaviors both individualism and collectivism are strongly related to green consciousness. Results show a negative strong influence for individualism on environmental consciousness while we find strong positive influence for collectivism on environmental consciousness across the two countries. With regard to harmony and mastery, our results show that while harmony was a strong and significant predictor of environmental consciousness in the United States and India, mastery did not significantly influence environmental consciousness in both countries. Such findings suggest that overall cultural influences and motivates people in different ways in different cultures depending on the type or the context of behavior. Results suggest that while the United States in general is a society that is driven more by mastery orientation, our results suggest that at the individual level, individuals might be driven by different orientations depending on the context of decision and consumption. Finally, our results show that environmental consciousness was positively related to both green consumerism behavior and active ecological behavior. From a theoretical perspective, we investigated the role that cultural factors influence consumer environmental concerns and behaviors. More importantly, while previous research focused on such differences at the country level we investigated such issues at the individual consumer level. Our findings are interesting and suggest the importance of examining such cultural factors at the individual level rather than just at the country level as well as signal the importance of examining the different role that such cultural factors play across different consumption contexts. Even for consumers in developing countries, like the United States, that are categorized as individualistic and mastery oriented societies are capable of being influenced by collectivism and harmony orientation at the individual level and within some contexts (e.g., environmental issues).

Bashar S. Gammoh, Anthony C. Koh, Sam C. Okoroafo, Mark Gleim
Developing a Brand Talkativeness Scale

The increasing opportunities provided by social media platforms for consumers to express their thoughts, opinions and beliefs about brands (Kozinets 2010; Walker Naylor et al. 2012; Zyl 2008) highlight the need for understanding why consumers engage in conversations about brands, or casually ‘talk’ about brands. Previous research on consumers’ use of brand names in everyday conversations focuses predominantly on either the acquisition of brand information prior to own purchase decisions or the dissemination of brand information to benefit other consumers’ decision-making (i.e. word-of-mouth/e-word-of-mouth) (e.g. Henning-Thurau et al. 2004).

Nina Michaelidou, George Christodoulides, Uygar Kilic
Oops! I Did It Again: Are Some Firms Less Likely to Encounter a Product-Harm Crisis?

Product-harm crises are ubiquitous in today’s marketplace. Prior research has explored the negative consequences associated with these crises (e.g., Ahluwalia et al. 2000; Dawar and Pillutla 2000; van Heerde et al. 2007), and highlighted effective crisis management strategies (e.g., Chen et al. 2009; Siomkos and Kurzbard 1994; Cleeren et al. 2013). Very limited attention, however, has been devoted to exploring the antecedents of such crises. Addressing this limitation, the authors explore corporate governance and top management team (TMT) characteristics related to firms’ likelihood of experiencing a product-harm crisis. Analyses of 116 S&P 500 firms across the years 2006–2011 reveal that family firms, firms with high levels of managerial ownership, and firms in which the marketing function has a high degree of influence in the TMT, are less likely to encounter a product-harm crisis. The lower propensity of such firms to encounter a product-harm crisis is partially mediated by their higher strategic emphasis on product quality. These results have important implications for practitioners and for scholars working in the areas of innovation, family business, corporate governance, and the role of marketing in organizations.

Saim Kashmiri, Jacob Brower
The Impact of Comparative Affective States on Online Brand Perceptions: The Moderating Role of Cultural Dimensions

While a significant body of research has hitherto highlighted the importance of isolated affective dimensions for Internet usage and shopping (e.g., Elliot and Fowell 2000; Lim et al. 2008), there is little systematic research to date that examines affective states as a whole in the online environment. This study builds on the recent work by Christodoulides et al. (2013), which identifies comparative (online/offline) affective states as an appropriate base for segmenting online users. In particular, this research investigates the role of affective states and culture on online brand perceptions. A model is developed and tested using multilevel data from five countries.

Nikoletta-Theofania Siamagka, George Christodoulides, Nina Michaelidou
The Impact of Other-Focused Loyalty Program on Hedonic Consumption and Emotional Branding: Implications for Cross-Cultural Study

This research attempts to examine the impact of loyalty program on hedonic consumption and emotional branding among U.S. Hispanics. I attempt to compare how consumer behavior can vary across cultures. Especially, this paper illustrates how other-focused loyalty program can affect customer behaviors with regard to emotional branding and hedonic consumption in the context of two different cultures. Furthermore, this study compares Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumer behaviors in the U.S.

Wootae Chun
Main Psychological Sequence of Responses Linked to the Consumer’s Use of an e-Vendor’s Recommender

Studies on e-commerce recommendation systems with a focus on marketing and, specifically, on consumers and their decision-making, are harder to find. Nevertheless, this approach is important to gaining an understanding of the adoption and use of e-commerce. We focus on the chain of psychological outcomes linked to an e-vendor’s RS that emerge once such a system is adopted and used to support an online shopping process and possible purchase. As a basis for our approach, we use the theoretical proposal by Martínez-López et al. (2010) for this purpose. In particular, we consider a sequence of four psychological variables with reference to which it is posited that consumers’ perceived performance of an online store’s recommendation system (RS) and their satisfaction with it have an influence on their willingness to purchase with the support of such a system’s suggestions. Other direct antecedent variables are considered too, taken from classic and novel consumer behaviour theories applied to online shopping environments. However, this interesting sequence of psychological responses has yet to be empirically tested.Our model is based on the integrative, theoretical model proposed by Martínez-López et al. (2010). It works with a set of four constructs as psychological responses related to the use of an e-vendor’s RS: the consumer’s perception of the RS’s performance; satisfaction with the RS; willingness to buy a searched item based on the RS’s recommendation; and finally, willingness to make a cross/add-on purchase based on the system’s suggestions. Furthermore, three antecedents are included for such responses.In order to test the structural model, based on the same reasons presented above, we applied a RWLS method. Model fit indices were generally quite satisfactory. The estimation of the model’s structural coefficients showed all our hypotheses to be significant, with the exception of H10. The results showed that there is no direct relationship (although there is an indirect relationship through the predisposition of the consumer to purchase) between the user’s satisfaction with the RS-WS and his/her predisposition to make a crossed purchase or a more expensive purchase. In other words, individuals who are satisfied with the RS are generally more inclined to purchase what the system recommends in relation to their primary search object, but they will not be more inclined to purchase products/services outside their primary shopping goal, related to add-on selling suggestions. To be specific, consumers will only be more inclined to purchase add-on products to their primary shopping goal (i.e. cross/up selling) when they intend to follow the recommendations of the RS in relation to their initial search. This is when they are willing to accept and follow other suggestions made by the recommender about other products that complement their initial shopping goal or are more expensive.

Francisco J. Martínez-López, Irene Esteban-Millat, Ana M. Argila, Francisco Rejón-Guardia
Rival Team Influence on Team Identification and Cause-Related Sports Marketing

Cause-related marketing (CRM) has become increasingly popular with professional sport leagues and large charitable organizations (Genzale 2006). A prominent example is the National Football League’s (NFL) Pink Campaign, branded “A Crucial Catch,” with the American Cancer Society (ACS). While a large body of research suggests that CRM can positively affect purchase intentions and behavioral responses (e.g., Bhattacharya and Sen 2003), consumers’ response to CRM in a sports context may be confounded by team allegiances and rivalries (Platow et al. 1999). The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of rivalry in CRM on hometown team identification and consumer behavior in support of the cause.According to social identity theory, sport team identification fosters supportive behaviors consistent with one’s group and distinctive from salient others (Ashforth and Mael 1989). Of particular emphasis in the identification process are positive group associations to enhance self-esteem (Trail et al. 2003). In addition, while the body of CRM research leans toward facilitating supportive behaviors (e.g., McGlone and Martin 2006), research on the reaction to rivals in sports suggests a contrary response (Dalakas and Melancon 2012). Rival teams are strongly linked to team identification in that the salience of an out-group typically intensifies identification with the in-group (Mullen et al. 1992); yet in league-wide CRM campaigns, sport consumers might be exposed to images of both hometown and rival teams associated with a charitable cause, thereby posing a challenge to team identification. Accordingly, the meta-contrast principle suggests that individuals prefer to emphasize distinct positive attributes of their team and negative associations of rivals (Hogg and Terry 2000).An experimental design was employed to test several hypotheses related to the effects of rival team imagery within league-wide CRM campaigns. Results suggest that exposure to rival team imagery suppresses hometown team identification, which then reduces behaviors supportive of the CRM initiative. Data also indicate a mediation effect between exposure to rival imagery, hometown team identification, and CRM supportive behaviors. These results suggest that league-wide CRM initiatives can suppress levels of team identification for a hometown team when a rival team is featured, thereby reducing engagement in behaviors supportive of the CRM partnership. These rivalry effects remain significant even when we controlled for relevant covariates including domain involvement and perceived importance of the cause message.While the marketing communication tactics employed to tout these initiatives vary from league to league, each campaign aims to instigate supportive behaviors amongst sport fans. However, our study demonstrates that not all CRM imagery elicits similar reactions and propensity for supportive behaviors. As a result, sports leagues, teams, and philanthropic partners should be cognizant of salient rivalries in their promotional campaign design and activation.

Bridget Satinover Nichols, Joe Cobbs, David Raska
A Meta-Analysis on Export Promotion Programs: New Outcomes

Since the economic crisis of 2008 the situation in Europe has worsen, leading small export companies to close down due to the depression, while governments cut their budgets. As a result, export promotion programs (EPPs) might have been abandoned. The austerity era has began and export companies wonder if there is another important issue at the moment for economies than working out how to stimulate greater exporting to available growth markets. The focus on the drivers of awareness and the use of EPPs may solve the problem of ignorance of such programs among small exporters. This paper will shed light on the impact of resources and capabilities on the drivers of EPPs which in turn, influence the competitive advantage, export knowledge and commitment that impact on the firm’s export performance through its export strategy. The proposed conceptual model is drawn on the need that the awareness of EPPs as well as the use of EPPs should play a more active strategic role in shaping the firm’s export performance. A meta-analysis is used to indicate which relationship to include in future research.

Dafnis N. Coudounaris
International Marketing Capabilities: The Roles of Organizational Un-inertia and Strategic Flexibility

International marketing scholars have debated the merits of standardization versus adaptation for many years. We address this debate by identifying opposing forces, namely an inertia force to use proven strategies and products in new international markets (standardization) versus an open minded, flexibility-based force driving exporters to adopt strategies and products to new international territories (adaptation). Theoretically, Day (2011) identified several barriers to adapting marketing capabilities and termed them organizational rigidities: organizational inertia (successful experience that locks the organization into a dominant approach) and lagging reaction (how quickly is an organization willing and able to react to verifiable shifts in the market). Accordingly, since international marketing capabilities are more explorative than domestic ones, these rigidities might have stronger impacts. Hence, in the core of this research is the belief that organizational un-inertia (used here to denote low levels of organizational inertia) and strategic flexibility enhance the development of superior international marketing capabilities. Our model also includes cultural distance as a moderator of the relationship between un-inertia/flexibility and international marketing capabilities.

Yoel Asseraf, Aviv Shoham
Luxury Branding in Emerging Markets

In March 2012, Gap entered the South African market, but with a different pricing strategy to the one followed in the USA. While the brand is known as an affordable clothing brand in the USA, its goods were priced substantially higher in South Africa than in the USA. The same Gap T-shirt sold for $16 in the USA was being sold at $40 in South Africa. The positioning of the Gap brand as a luxury brand in the South African market suggests that what constitutes a luxury brand is not the same across global markets. This paper explores whether this mode of market entry is a sustainable business model or if the mode of entry is only viable for short-term success. In pursuing this line of thinking, the concept of the opportunistic luxury brand is presented. An opportunistic luxury brand is defined as a brand that is not normally known as a luxury brand in other markets (i.e. other countries) and is adopting a luxury brand positioning in a particular market. This paper develops and offers a research agenda for luxury brands in emerging markets.

Beate Stiehler, Linda W. Lee
On the Service Quality and Satisfaction Relationship: The Moderating Role of Consumer Entitlement

While the study of service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction has a rich history within the services marketing literature, there have been recent calls for research that provides a deeper understanding of this relationship, given its fundamental role in ensuring outcomes such as customer retention and profitability (Anderson 2007). This research study seeks to add to the literature by exploring the role of an under-researched construct known as consumer entitlement on the service quality-satisfaction relationship. Using a sample of season ticket holders of a professional sports franchise, this study hypothesized and found that consumer entitlement moderates the service quality-satisfaction relationship such that higher levels of consumer entitlement mitigate the positive impacts of service quality on satisfaction.This study’s sample consists of season ticket holders, who generally receive special treatment in exchange for their loyalty and the revenue from their patronage. Their status would suggest a potentially high degree of consumer entitlement in this customer group. Given the heavily expectation-influenced nature of service quality and satisfaction assessments, it seems quite likely that consumer entitlement would play a moderating role in the service quality-satisfaction relationship. Since entitled consumers expect a higher level of service, it is likely that their satisfaction level will be less positively affected by high levels of perceived service quality than less entitled consumers.As hypothesized, this moderated relationship was found to be significant. Vital to the finding is the implication that, for highly entitled consumers, the importance of service quality to their ultimate satisfaction appears to be somewhat diminished. Given the recent increase in a general sense of entitlement (Trzesniewski et al. 2008), we must question the vital role of service quality in the creation and maintenance of customer satisfaction.Surprisingly, at low levels of service quality, entitled consumers realized higher levels of satisfaction than their less entitled peers. This may be due to a higher level of self-confidence in entitled consumer’s decision-making ability. An alternate, though related, possibility could be that there is an escalation of commitment at play, since the sample surveyed consists of season ticket holders. When making an investment of this magnitude, an artificially high self-opinion could lead customers with high entitlement to report being more satisfied than service quality would have otherwise warranted. Taken as a whole, these findings add credence to the assertion that the presence of high levels of service quality may no longer be enough to directly impact customer satisfaction. However, low levels of service quality may still be sufficient to result in dissatisfaction. If our results are an indication of the future, marketers would be wise to proactively determine strategies for maintaining relationships with, and keeping the attention and interest of, entitled consumers.

James J. Zboja, Mary Dana Laird, Adrien Bouchet
Students’ Flow Experiences in Virtual Learning Environments: A Consumer Behaviour Perspective

There is a lack of specific research with a clear consumer orientation regarding the flow state in an online learning environment. Despite the efforts made in recent years to analyze these experiences according to various aspects of a student’s conduct in a virtual learning environment (e.g. Shernoff et al. 2003; Pearce 2005; Choi et al. 2007; Shin 2006; Pace 2007; Liu et al. 2009; Joo et al. 2012), the specific perspective of the consumption behaviour of a student as a consumer of online learning products has not been taken into consideration. Moreover, few studies have been conducted into flow in such environments and most of the findings are inconclusive. This is surprising given that the study of the online flow experience of students (as a consumers) could reveal certain advantages and benefits for students and education centres alike (Pearce et al. 2005; Choi et al. 2007; Ryoo et al. 2008).Our model extends the previous literature in the understanding of online experiences and specifically the states of flow that emerge in the consumption of higher education learning products. We model the flow phenomenon by identifying the factors that determine its appearance in an online learning environment and the main consequences, and to characterize the consumption process within this context. The theoretical structure presented includes the variables, identified from the literature review, that are likely to be related to flow in these environments. And it includes new relationships that are included between the variables related to flow. Concretely, as a direct antecedents of flow we consider: distortion in the perception of time, focused attention or concentration to the environment from which stimuli originate, perception of control over the medium and interactivity as a particular attribute of the virtual environment. The indirect antecedents we take into account are: attitude of the lecturer to students, learning content available, challenges presented in the online environment, skills of the user and personalization of the environment (a new variable which has not been hitherto considered in any other research into online flow). As consequences of flow we consider: positive affects perceived and student learning. The set of relations put forward in the proposed model are empirically tested.

Irene Esteban-Millat, Francisco J. Martínez-López, Juan Carlos Gázquez-Abad, Francisco Rejón-Guardia, Antoni Messeger-Artola, Inma Rodríguez-Ardura
Can “Real” Men Consume Ethically? How Ethical Consumption Leads to Unintended Observer Inferences

Observers infer a consumer’s identity through a range of consumption categories (Belk et al. 1982). Although consumers are aware of the judgments of others, and alter their behaviors to create specific identities when socially accountable to others (e.g., White and Peloza 2009), observers do not limit their inferences to the specific identity consumers intend to project. They make additional inferences that may be unintended on the part of the consumer. In the current research, we explore how observers make ancillary inferences by examining the potential for ethical consumption choice to generate gender inferences beyond social responsibility as well as consumer responses to gender inferences.

Jingzhi Shang, John Peloza
Mobile Phone Satisfaction: An Examination of Antecedents and Consequences

As individuals are increasingly upgrading to smartphones to use both software applications and the Internet, it is important to study factors that impact their satisfaction with these devices. Various smartphone options are currently available to consumers, making these devices a commodity just like many other consumer products. As smartphones become commoditized, mobile phone applications (MPAs) play an integral role for their diffusion and successful competition in today’s highly competitive market (Yoo et al. 2010). With the ubiquity of MPAs, questions such as how apps may affect consumers’ experiences and satisfaction with mobile phones (MPs) and consequently, influence consumers’ purchase decisions regarding MPs and mobile phone service providers (MPSPs) become increasingly important. Consumers’ overall experience with their mobile phone (as a result of MP, MPSP, and MPA) can create enjoyment that leads to MP satisfaction. This is consistent with the uses and gratification theory (Lin 1996) arguing that if product/service consumption experience is positive and pleasant, it would lead to increased customer satisfaction. We extend existing research on MP satisfaction and purchase behavior by developing a framework to investigate relationships between MP, MPSP, and MPA experiences, MP satisfaction, and WOM behaviors.Data were collected using an online survey of 444 smart phone owners. Results indicated that experience with the service provider had a positive effect on the experience with MP and satisfaction with MP. Experience with MPAs showed a positive effect on experience with MP, satisfaction with MP, and willingness to make WOM referrals about them. Experience with MP also had a positive effect on satisfaction with phone. However, it did not have a significant effect on willingness to make WOM referrals about the MP. Satisfaction with MP influenced willingness to make WOM referrals about mobile applications and MPs. Moreover, willingness to make WOM referrals about applications had a positive influence on reception of WOM referrals about applications. Willingness to make WOM referrals about MPs showed a positive effect on reception of WOM referrals about MPAs and MPs. The results of the mediation analysis supported the mediating role of MP satisfaction in the relationship between MP experience and intention to make WOM referrals about MPAs. Also, MP satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between MPSP experience and making MP/MPA referrals.The present study integrates the impact of consumers’ experience with MP, MPSP, and MPA on MP satisfaction and the results provide theoretical and practical implications for understanding consumer experiences and the ever-growing usage of smartphones and mobile applications. The proposed model extends previous research on phone satisfaction by examining the effect of factors other than MPs, such as experience with MPSPs and MPAs installed on the phone.

Atefeh Yazdanparast, Gina A. Tran
Cultural Differences in Consumer Response to Nostalgic Advertising: An Extended Abstract

In the current inquiry we add to the emerging research on how consumers respond to nostalgic advertising, by examining the cultural differences in the evocation of nostalgia. We contend that nostalgic reverie can engage the consumer but there are cultural differences in what types of nostalgia (personal and cultural) are evoked among consumers. Findings from three studies in France reveal that, ad-evoked nostalgia has two dimensions, past imagery and cultural nostalgia. Further, past imagery results in an emotional reaction, however, cultural nostalgia, that such ads evoke, do not result in emotional reactions. These findings are unique and very different from past research. For instance, in the US, Merchant et al. (2013) recently found that nostalgic reactions evoked by ads have a strong autobiographical memory element and are emotional experiences. Whereas, in France even though there is an autobiographical element to nostalgia, there is also a broader cultural evocation.

Altaf Merchant, John B. Ford, Christian Dianoux, Jean-Luc Hermann
The Influence of Sales Force Technology Use on Performance: The Study of Mediating and Moderating Effects

Rapid advancements in information technology (IT) are transforming the way relationships between companies and their customers are managed (Ahearne et al. 2012; Marshall et al. 2012). The increasing investment in IT in marketing and sales organizations has been a major area of investigation in terms of productivity, efficiency, and its ability to foster long-term customer relationships (Hunter and Perreault 2007; Papastathopoulou et al. 2007). Today’s salesperson is pressured to do more in less time, and technological advancements have become an integral part of the personal selling process (Rapp et al. 2008). Many organizations spend considerable human and financial resources in equipping their sales forces with IT (Ahearne et al. 2008).Nevertheless, technology adoption failures are still being reported at the organizational level (e.g., Finnegan and Currie 2010). At the individual salesperson level, “the relationship between IT use and salesperson performance remains primarily unsubstantiated” (Ahearne et al. 2008, p. 671). In particular, prior research has yielded contradictory results that range from positive (e.g., Hunter and Perrault 2007; Jelinek et al. 2006; Senecal et al. 2007; Rodriguez and Honeycutt 2011) to non-significant (e.g., Avlonitis and Panagopoulus 2005; Sundaram et al. 2007). Avlonitis and Panagopoulos (2005) reasoned that a possible explanation for the absence of association between technology use and salesperson performance may be attributed to the complex process through which information technology improves performance.The purpose of this study is therefore to empirically examine whether and how sales technology use helps salespeople perform better through the modification of their customer-related skills, role ambiguity and customer-oriented selling behaviors. These variables have been found to be key direct antecedents of sales performance (Churchill et al. 1985; Franke and Park 2006; Román and Iacobucci 2010), yet their potential mediating role in the technology use-performance link remains unexplored. We also analyze the extent to which a salesperson’s technology self-efficacy moderates the technology use-performance link. In this study, consistent with Hunter and Perrault (2007, p. 17), sales technology (ST) refers to ITs that can facilitate or enable the performance of sales tasks. Data is collected from a diverse sample of 265 salespeople across different industries. Hypotheses are tested with structural equation modeling. Our results indicate that a salesperson’s qualification skills, role ambiguity and customer-oriented selling fully mediate the effect of technology use on performance. Interestingly, salespeople high in technology self-efficacy seem to get the most out of their technology use and consequently improve their sales performance, whereas technology use does not significantly increase performance for salespeople with low technology self-efficacy. Our study adds value to both managers and scholars through a stronger understanding of the link between ST and performance and its underlying mediating and moderating processes. Without an understanding of the ST-performance relationship, sales managers may increase ST costs but decrease potential returns.

Rocío Rodríguez, Sergio Román
Make Them Pay! Understanding Consumer Participation in Crowdfunding

Defined as “an open call over the Internet for financial resources in the form of a monetary donation, sometimes in exchange for a future product, service, or reward” (Gerber et al. 2012, p. 1), crowdfunding has become a larger source of income for organizations of any size. Its impact on the economy of creative and charitable sectors in particular is greatly increasing. However, the lack of academic research on this phenomenon stands in sharp contrast to practice. Providing a deep analysis of why and how crowdfunders participate is needed to better grasp a novel facet of the overarching trend of consumer empowerment and coproduction, and gain an understanding of the monetary role of consumers in NPD. Ordanini et al. (2011) replaced crowdfunding within the historical evolution of the role of consumers in the production/consumption dichotomy and posited it in the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004). The current paper is based on the same premises.A qualitative approach that offers rich empirical evidence was an ideal method for exploring this issue. A grounded theoretical technique was used to collect and analyze data. An inductive research approach was used. Data were text derived from in-depth interviews with 26 crowdfunders. Data analysis led to identifying determinants of crowdfunding and to profiling three types of crowdfunders: the philanthropists, the kin and the fans. This categorization depended on their behavior including the amount of backed projects, backed project categories and amount of money pledged, as well as their attitude toward crowdfunding, participating in NPD and the offer of rewards, and finally their personal relationships and previous interest in the product category or brand.The philanthropists are driven essentially by intrinsic motivations and perceive their empowerment as an opportunity to help entrepreneurs in need. Their behavior share great similitudes with charitable profile where intrinsic motivations play the greater part. Group identification and involvement into one or a few projects and project categories were found to be the common determinants of involving in a crowdfunding behavior for both the kin and the fans. The two groups differ in terms of distance of relationship with the entrepreneur, and thus with the role of rewards in their motivations to help and to pledge a certain amount of money. The kin personally know the entrepreneurs whereas the fans do not.This study contributes to a better understanding of the role of consumers in NPD through their empowerment in offering for the first time a qualitative approach of the determinants for consumers’ decision to financially support entrepreneurs’ efforts to produce and launch a new product. It study lends support for taking into account backers’ identity in order to adapt entrepreneurs’ strategy in their projects’ presentation. Each profile displays distinguishable behavior and attitude towards the projects they choose to back and towards project categories and crowdfunding. These results emphasize the need for entrepreneurs to clearly define their targeting strategy in terms of types of perks and means to contact and attract new backers through both online and offline networks.

Benjamin Boeuf, François Durivage
A Scale for Measuring Consumers’ Ethical Perceptions of Social Media Research

Social media have become increasingly seductive as means to collect consumer data without necessarily making consumers fully aware of such data collection practices (Pettit 2011; Poynter 2011). This can raise ethical concerns. Online qualitative methodologies that rely on observations through social media have become increasingly popular among marketing academics (Braunsberger and Buckler 2011; Cova and Pace 2006; Kozinets 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010). But so have various online quantitative data collection methods that use tracking technologies such as cookies (Palmer 2005), and other forms of marketing dataveillance (Ashworth and Free 2006). Despite current academic and practitioner-led debates regarding the morality of online research, to date scant research has been published on consumers’ ethical perceptions regarding how they are currently researched on social media, which is a knowledge gap this research seeks to address. To this end, our research attempts to develop a quantitative instrument that captures consumers’ ethical perceptions of social media research. The following sections present the background, methodology, analysis performed and results.

Nina Michaelidou, Caroline Moraes, Milena Micevski
Governance Strategy for the Social Relationships Between Alumni and Their Alma Mater

Although prior studies in relationship marketing have greatly enhanced our understanding of alumni-university relationships, there has been considerably little empirical investigation of three managerial problems. The first problem is that while the economic benefits (e.g., profits or costs) of conventional business relationships receive much research attention, the noneconomic benefits or social benefits are not specifically studied (e.g., pride, enjoyment, networking, and friendship). The second problem is that we largely do not know the specific mechanism about how the social benefits created by a university can be converted into the resources that the university wants to obtain. For example, a university may want to know how the alumni homecoming event, the most popular alumni program offered by many universities, will result in alumni participation or monetary support. The last problem is that alumni can easily exit the relationship with their former university whenever the costs required to remain in the relationship with the university are greater than the benefits.The purpose of this study aims to tackle these three managerial problems. Drawing on the literature from relationship marketing, this research proposes and empirically tests two governance strategies including identity salience and emotional attachment strategy in the alumni-university relationship where the traditional relationship governance strategies (relationship specific investment, dependence, incentives) may not be equally effective in this context. The first part of our conceptual framework illustrates the three social benefits created by university in the efforts for successful alumni relationships, involving the business network, the friendship network, and the enjoyment of participation. The second part shows the value capturing process by relating the social benefits to the identity salience and the emotional attachment strategy. The last part assesses their effects on the relationship outcome variables involving relationship-specific voluntary behavior and symbolic consumption behavior. We empirically tested our conceptual model using alumni from a large university. Online survey was utilized to collect the data.The results from structural equation model provide managerial implications as well as theoretical contributions as follows; First, to properly govern social exchange relationship, university needs to ensure the extent to which alumni realize the social benefits that the university creates. Second, the identity salience strategy is more effective for the symbolic consumption (e.g., university logo products) while the emotional attachment strategy greatly influences the relationship-specific voluntary behavior (e.g., working as an alumni board member). Finally, while a considerable body of prior relationship marketing literature has only focused on the exchange relationships where relational partners expect to exchange direct and economic rewards, this research investigates the boundary situation in which relational partners focus on indirect and noneconomic rewards or social benefits.

Junhong Min, Madhav N. Segal, M. Deniz Dalman
Beyond Information: How Consumers Use Online Reviews to Manage Social Impressions

Imagine you are asked to choose a new restaurant to try with other people. You want to choose the right restaurant in order to impress your companions, and you read online reviews to help you make the right decision. Unfortunately online reviews from regular diners vs. food critics are not in agreement, one loving the restaurant while the other disliking the place. To whom will you choose to believe in order to avoid selecting a bad restaurant and ending up embarrassing yourself in front of others? Moreover, does your tie strength with your companion dictate the different impression tactics you employ and the ways you process the reviews? To answer these questions, we examine how consumers respond to mixed reviews under different social tie influences. Traditional research on negativity bias would suggest that negative review will trump positive review (Feldman and Lynch 1988; Herr et al. 1991; Lee et al. 2009), regardless of the source. But we believe the situation is more complex when the reviewed product or service will be consumed with others. We look beyond the informational role of consumer reviews and introduce them as a tool for managing social impressions. The main proposition is that consumers can utilize product reviews to create the desired impression to different social partners. Past research on impression management shows that consumers employ different tactics to impress their counterparts in order to achieve the goal of either being liked or respected (Ratner and Kahn 2002; Fisk et al. 2007; Bergsieker et al. 2010). How an individual creates a positive impression may vary based on the people he or she is trying to impress. As strong vs. weak tie strengths evoke different impression management strategies, consumers selectively favor certain information in mixed reviews to achieve their social goals. Through an experiment, we find that when dining with strong tie connections (e.g., close friends), consumers have less favorable attitudes when they see negative reviews from other diners than negative reviews from food critics. In contrast, when dining with weak tie connections (e.g., acquaintances), consumers’ attitude was affected equally by negative professional reviews and negative consumer reviews. These results suggest that the social context of a consumption activity is relevant to how consumers may integrate online review into their decision-making. The results from this study offer useful insight into the management of consumer sentiment and consumer-to-consumer engagement in today’s social media environment. Traditionally companies have paid close attention to what professional sources such as renowned critics, Consumer Reports, and other professional review websites say about their products. Our research suggests that the management of consumer sentiment and the importance of positive consumer-to-consumer engagement may vary depending on the social context of the consumption. For products and services typically consumed with close friends and family (e.g., Christmas holiday-themed products and services), attention should be focused on the power of consumer-to-consumer engagement and word-of-mouth. In such circumstances, even if professional reviews are less than favorable, it is not likely to have a significant impact on consumers’ decisions.

Chatdanai Pongpatipat, Yuping Liu-Thompkins
An Empirical Investigation of Specific Uncertainties in the Distribution of Products from Renewable Resources

The growing demand for products from renewable resources makes their efficient usage and distribution steadily important. In comparison to other raw materials, renewable resources exhibit a number of distinctive features, which also affect the design of the distribution system. The objective of this study is to analyze the specific uncertainties in the distribution of products from renewable resources. It shall be examined empirically to what extent the companies in the German forestry and wood cluster are affected by uncertainties with regard to the availability, quality, prices and origin of the used renewable resources and what problems can be caused by these uncertainties especially in the distribution of the products.To answer the research questions, several industries within the German forestry and wood cluster were examined. This enables an analysis along the entire value chain and a comparison between various industries. In order to obtain well-reasoned answers that are as detailed as possible and to do justice to the explorative character of this study, a qualitative research design was chosen. For the factors quality, availability, price and origin, it was asked if fluctuations and/or uncertainties do exist with regard to the distributed products, how significant they are for the companies, what problems can result due to this and what the expectations are for the future. In order to analyze the relevance of the represented uncertainties for the respective industry independently of the situation of the individual companies, the survey was conducted at the level of the industrial associations. For this purpose, a structured, qualitative questionnaire was sent to the managing directors of the respective associations.Analysis was carried out in the form of a content-structuring qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2010). Special Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software supports both the actual evaluation as well as the subsequent documentation and therefore increases the verifiability and thereby the quality of the results. In this study, the most commonly used QDA Software in Germany MAXQDA was used.The results of the study show that the specific uncertainties with regard to products from renewable resources do in fact exist in the analyzed industries and are considered to be significant by the associations. In this, though, also industry-specific differences due to the different products and markets need to be considered. Further, the causes for these uncertainties were analyzed in greater detail. The cause mentioned most frequently for availability and price fluctuations was competition in material and energetic usage of renewable resources. It could also be shown that these uncertainties have a direct impact on the distribution of the products. Thus, availability uncertainty can e.g. lead to cost-intensive storage and supply problems, quality uncertainty to rejected deliveries and loss of orders, price uncertainty to greater difficulties in sales calculation and origin uncertainty to trade restrictions. Furthermore, it became clear that the importance of the represented uncertainties for the companies and the distribution of the products will continue to increase according to the associations. These findings carry important implications for marketers, practioners and public policy makers.

Sebastian Ludorf, Waldemar Toporowski
Choosing a Mode of Political Marketing Strategy: Voter or Brand Identity Orientation

No entity has as much impact on as many lives as a government. Through social programs, taxes, military use, and many others, every life is affected every day by public sector entities. This power, influence, and relevance to public life is acquired through the means of marketing, with candidates, parties, and interest groups spending billions of dollars each cycle in hopes of “winning” the democratic process, allowing them ultimately to exert their policies upon the public, changing the political and policy landscape of their country, city, state, or nation. Despite the enormous importance, utilization, and impact of marketing on politics, very little thought within marketing research literature has been given to understanding how political marketing strategy is developed, functions, or the antecedents for its success. This paper aims to be a starting point in changing this. It proposes a testable conceptual framework of political marketing strategy modes, using extant research and examples from political campaigns to develop a parsimonious model for what types of campaign modes exist, and how campaign strategies are chosen. Further, this paper lays out an agenda for future research, aiming to help marketing researchers move forward in researching and understanding political campaign strategy.

T. J. Weber
Look Once, Look Twice: Measuring the Effects of Advertising Polysemy on Branding

Advertising polysemy is defined as a subjective decoding of an advertisement shaped by the individual’s sociocultural milieu (McCracken 1986; Ringberg and Reihlen 2008). Puntoni et al. (2010) defined advertising polysemy as the existence of at least two distinct interpretations for the same advertising message across audiences, or across time and situations. There are two broader types of polysemy–synchronic polysemy and diachronic polysemy, as discussed in the research by Puntoni et al. (2010). The synchronic aspect of advertising polysemy can be explained through an example of the ad that means one thing to one group of consumers and something different to another group (Grier and Brumbaugh 1999; Puntoni et al. 2010). For example, a thumbs-up sign, which signifies affirmation in most Western nations, has offensive meaning in some countries, such as Russia and Poland if the palm of the hand is visible but is acceptable if the back of the hand is shown (Belch and Belch 2009). As against synchronic polysemy, a diachronic dimension of advertising polysemy can also characterize multiplicity of meanings during an advertising reception, especially when exposed to the advertisement on multiple times – first impression of the ad and then subsequent impression about the same ad on repeated viewings (Kirmani 1997; Puntoni et al. 2010).

Anshu Saxena Arora, Jun Wu, Amit Arora
How Delisting All National Brands in a Given Assortment Impacts on Consumers’ Store Switching Intentions

Brand delisting is a specific type of assortment reduction. It refers to the removal of all items of a single brand, leading to the unavailability of the brand within the store (Sloot and Verhoef 2008, p. 281). Recent retailing-related professional publications indicate that national brand (NB) delistings are not uncommon in food retailing (e.g., the American retailer Wal-Mart, the Dutch food retail chain Edah, the UK retailer ASDA, the German retailers Edeka and Metro, and the Spanish retailer Mercadona). Conflicts of retailers with manufacturers seemed to be behind such delisting decisions. Indeed, delisting – or threatening to delist – a manufacturer’s brand is a tool that retailers often use to improve their negotiation position with brand manufacturers. Notwithstanding, despite the great managerial relevance of this topic, researchers have paid almost no attention to brand delisting so far. There is only limited research (papers by Boatwright and Nunes 2001; Sloot and Verhoef 2008; Wiebach and Hildebrandt 2012) on the effects of an entire brand delisting. However, none of these papers analyzes the consequences of delisting all national brands in a given assortment, so that a retailer offers an assortment based only on private labels (PL). Can a retailer ‘push out’ all manufacturer brands from its shelves, offering only its own brand, with no consequences? This is the main research question of our paper.In summary, our results reveal that retailers should be particularly careful about delisting NBs (specially high-equity NBs), given that there is an inverse relationship between assortment size and the intentions to switch to another store to purchase the category as well as the whole shopping-basket. Therefore, we recommend retailers to offer assortments containing both their own brand and a higher number of NBs (nine vs. three). Offering ‘only-PL’ assortments has negative consequences in terms of consumers having a greater probability to switch to another store to purchase. Nevertheless, for retailers offering ‘mixed’ assortments, a higher proportion of high-equity NBs may help to reduce the intentions to switch to another store.This research has been funded by Foundation Ramón Areces (Spain).

Juan Carlos Gázquez-Abad, Francisco J. Martínez-López, Irene Esteban-Millat, Juan Antonio Mondéjar-Jiménez, Francisco Rejón-Guardia
The Effect of Market Orientation on Performance of Private Hospitals: The Pivotal Role of the Marketing Function

The objectives of this study are threefolded: (1) To measure the level of market orientation of private hospitals, (2) to examine the effects of the availability of a formal marketing department on market orientation and hospital performance, and finally (3) to examine the link between market orientation and performance of hospitals at the component level. Managers from 400 private hospitals in Turkey were surveyed with a usable response rate of 25 %. A positive connection was found between the level of the hospital’s market orientation and the presence of a marketing department in the hospital. The study results revealed that market orientation is positively related to general performance. According to the results of the component-level analysis, the three dimensions of market orientation had significant positive impacts on general performance. This study also showed that a statistically significant difference exists between the general performance assessments of the hospitals having a formal marketing department and of those not having a marketing department. Managerial implications of the results were discussed and study limitations and future research suggestions were also provided.

Dilaver Tengilimoglu, E. Asuman Atilla, Türkan Dursun-Kilic
Weekly Wine Consumption and Consumer Response to Price Information

Little is known of how, with increasing rates of consumption, we become conditioned by extrinsic cues. In consumer research, for example, at what rate of product consumption do our associative processes begin to twin price with quality so as ultimately to deploy the price cue as a surrogate for genuine quality? Further, does this association deepen with increasing rates of consumption?This study reports the results of a synthesised analysis of three randomized tasting room experiments conducted in South Africa using local brands: orange juice, coffee and (merlot) wine. In each experiment, subjects assessed seven products first blind (round one) and then sighted (round two). In the orange juice experiment, 105 respondents tasted 1-l juices ranging in price between R7.50 and R69.00. In the coffee experiment, 100 respondents tasted products with prices per 200 g ranging between R22.00 and R97.00. In the wine experiment, 73 respondents tasted wines with prices points ranging between R25.00 and R160.00. Collating the seven paired ratings of each of the 278 subjects, a dataset of 1946 corresponding blind and sighted product assessments was assembled to gauge the conditioning effects of price across a range of consumption-rate segmentations.On the basis of the above, across three different product classes, this study aims firstly to assess the strength of the price cue in sighted tastings when controlling for intrinsic merit and individual bias. Given a set of price points, the literature would anticipate a positive correlation between price and sighted merit. Secondly, this study aims to examine the prevalence of price-effect errors as they might manifest across a range of consumption-rate strata. A priori it is predicted that increases in consumption per week will see an increasing magnitude of System 1 errors signalled by bias towards disclosures of price information.The results of this study outline the extent to which price cues impact upon the sighted appreciation of a product, in this instance, either orange juice, coffee or wine. Through a cross-section of prices ranging between R7.50 and R160, this study finds, ceteris paribus, that a R25 increment in product price will increase its sighted appreciation by one-third of a star.Additionally, results indicate how such System 1 judgement errors accrue and increase progressively with consumption. Across the three models of weekly consumption the increase in affectation is 21 %, a finding which is novel and seemingly significant. Certainly, from this paper we can observe from the ongoing amplification of the price cue, how “knowing without knowing” becomes merely a function of a memory conditioned by ever increasing rates of consumption to recognize and appropriate cues as they appear to be helpful to situations potentially requiring interpretation.

David Priilaid, Heleen Mills, Karen Robson, Leyland Pitt
I Want to ‘Share’ This Sexy Ad But My Boss Is Watching: Investigation into Behavior Associated with the Online Multiple Audience Problem

Social Network Sites (SNSs) have become deeply ingrained in the lives of their users. Since December 2012, Facebook comprises over one billion active members, approximately one in seven people on earth, with the demographic of users widening both geographically and across ages (Banks 2012). SNSs have changed the way marketers engage with consumers, allowing for multidimensional forms of communication (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Crucial to this paper is the dimension whereby marketers create value through engaging “customer-to-customer processes” (i.e., the sharing of commercial related content) (Pagani et al. 2011). Communication, both personal and brand related, contributes to the online self-presentation of users. This paper addresses the online multiple audience problem (OMAP) and its association with anxiety and impression management. OMAP is broadly defined as the simultaneous self-presentation of consumers in SNS to multiple audiences (family versus employers), with a single persona. Multiple audiences on Facebook complicate the goal of meeting audience expectations, as it is likely the audiences will hold heterogeneous expectations (e.g., close friends may expect sharing of alcohol related content but employers and parents may not) (Binder et al. 2009). Based on the assertion of long standing social theory of impression management (Leary 1996) when people feel their self-representation will, or has, become discrepant from the expectation of an audience, anxiety will arise and the individual will endeavor to manage their actions to reconcile the situation, and reduce cognitive dissonance. Such impression management can involve choosing not to share, or removing, brand or personal content that they deem to cause a discrepancy. Multiple audiences complicate this situation, increasing the chance of anxiety and impression management, as more expectations exist from which to become discrepant.

Ben Marder, David Houghton, Adam Joinson, Avi Shankar
Curve45: An Inflection-Point-Bound Function

An S-curve, Curve45, is defined that exhibits several distinguishing properties. It comprises the arcs of two circles making it particularly “regular.” Both the original X values and the resulting Y values are restricted to a common range. The lower value of the range is zero, the upper value is a positive value that is specifiable. The inflection point of Curve45 is bound to the 45° diagonal. Its three parameters are:A specified maximum value for X (this being also the maximum value for Y).The inflection point which always lies on the 45° diagonal.A specified multiplier that determines the degree of curvature the two arcs.The left-hand concave up arc intersects the origin (X = 0, Y = 0) and the 45° diagonal at the specified inflection point. The right-hand concave down arc intersects that inflection point and (X = specified maximum value, Y = specified maximum value).Curve45 may be particularly applicable in situations where, say, a mean (or median or first quartile, etc.) X value is to serve as a benchmark with X values above the mean yielding disproportionately (compared to linear) large Y values and X values below the mean yielding disproportionately small Y values. That mean X value, of course, defines the inflection point. Curve45 is especially useful where that mean value is determined dynamically for the specific data set, this being done automatically (i.e., computerized) rather than explicit specification by the user.One example is where annually (or by location or by application type, etc.) disbursements up to some maximum, e.g., $10,000, are to be made. Applications are scored (the scores eventually being transformed to 0–1, i.e., the X values) with the mean score defining the Curve45 inflection point. The overall merit of the applications from one year to the next may change. Using Curve45 ensures that the disbursement to an application with the mean score for the year’s applications will receive a proportion of the maximum amount exactly commensurate with the prevailing overall merit. Applications scored above the mean receive disproportionately greater proportions and those below the mean receive disproportionately lesser proportions. (The Y values are the proportions for the respective applications.) Curve45 may also be suitable for computer-based business simulation games where its regularity might be more assimilable to students than less regularly shaped functions. S-curves, of course, are also used to model actual market response data. Whether a specific S-curve “fits” is an empirical issue.Curve45 is not an equation; it is an algorithm. A recently developed measure of qualitative dispersion (Intuit, Dickinson 2011, 2012) is similarly an algorithm. These developments are within a tradition recently reinvented by Wolfram (2002) in which computation replaces derivation.

John R. Dickinson
Marketing Competencies Based M&A Framework

In globalization setting the M&As becomes increasingly an important means to achieve market expansion, access to the global resources (e.g. technologies, products, distribution channels) and strengthen firm’s global market position (Schweizer 2005). Unfortunately, the understanding of such an important strategy is insufficient because of the lack of marketing based view, which at least involves three aspects of M&A: (1) the marketing related evaluation of the target (e.g. marketing due diligence); (2) the post- acquisition business plan (e.g. marketing strategies); and (3) the assessment of post- acquisition performance (e.g. marketing competencies and marketing positions).So, it is an obvious need that marketing literature should participate in and make its unique contribution to the study of M&A on the one hand. On the other hand, marketing literature, more specifically international marketing, will also benefit from studying international M&A. It is especially true in the cases that a complete post-acquisition integration is needed. The integration directly triggers and accelerates the evolution of organizational learning process, and thus provides a unique lens through which study how firm specific competencies, such as the capability of implementing localization, have evolved and been strengthened throughout an international M&A.This paper contributes to both M&A and marketing literature in three aspects. Firstly, to the best of our knowledge, except Homburg and Bucerius’s (2005) and Lee, Lee and Wu’s, it is the only M&A study mainly based on marketing perspective. As marketing strategy driven M&As account for a half of the total deals, a marketing based view will be helpful in understanding the keys to a successful M&A, e.g. MDD, post-acquisition business plan, and long-term performance assessment.Secondly, this paper combines competencies/capabilities literature with M&A literature and provides a new conceptual framework of understanding the relationships of M&A, competencies and performance. On the one hand, this conceptual model supplements the extant literature by adopting a more realistic approach of assessing the mid- and long- term post-acquisition outcome, bridging the gap between insiders’ and outsiders’ evaluation on M&A. On the other hand and most importantly, the conceptual framework provides additional perspective to explain why and how international M&As benefit the firm involved although the risk is high.Finally, this paper sheds light on how to improve the decision of international M&As which focus on marketing competencies expansion. The conceptual framework herein links the strategic means, M&As, with marketing competencies, motive of M&As, and with long term performance evaluation, which combines the traditional financial indicators with marketing metrics. Therefore, makes the evaluation of post-acquisition performance of an M&A compatible to its motives, increasing the accuracy. Meanwhile the marketing metrics give a specific clue of conduction MDD that is the key to the success of an acquisition.

Wei Hua
Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention in a Monopolistically Competitive Industry

The concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) that is, the present value of the stream of profits accruing to a firm over the whole period of its relationship with a customer, has gained wide acceptance as a concept in marketing science and business practice. Closely related to CLV are the concepts of Customer Acquisition (attracting new customers to a firm’s service) and Customer Retention (preventing existing customers from leaving for competitive suppliers of the service). A general feature of the literature on CLV has been the independence of a firm’s CLV strategies from aspects the market environment, such as the size of the market, number of firms in the industry, and rivals’ actions. In this paper we develop a dynamic model of a firm in a monopolistically competitive industry to examine how aspects of the market environment affect Customer-Acquisition and Customer- Retention optimal decisions.We consider a market with a fixed set of customers and a fixed set of monopolistically competitive firms. Each customer chooses a single supplier of a product. There is a customer churn. A customer upon leaving a firm becomes a potential customer for all firms in the industry. Firms engage in costly retention effort to decrease their customer attrition and in costly acquisition in a contest for new customers from the set of potential customers. We find a number of theoretical results which can be tested with data at the firm’s and the industry’s level. With respect to industry dynamics we find that as firms grow over time, increasing their customer base, (a) the per-prospect acquisition expenditures and per-capita retention expenditures remain constant, (b) the firm level acquisition expenditure decreases, (c) the firm level of retention expenditure increases, and (d) the share of acquisition expenditures in the total marketing expenditures decreases. In the symmetric steady state equilibrium of the industry we find that higher customer profitability leads to higher per-capita acquisition and retention efforts and a larger size of firm, whereas a higher discount rate has opposite effects. Tougher competition decreases firm’s total acquisition and retention expenditures but it does not affect per-capita levels. We show that maximizing the value of the firm in the steady state equilibrium of the industry is tantamount to maximizing the individual CLV.

Gerasimos Lianos, Sloev Igor
Evaluation of the Cognitive Effectiveness on Social Media Advertising Formats

Social networking sites (SNS) are used to promote brands, products or services through targeted marketing campaigns, but the precise effectiveness of these campaigns has yet to be established (Van Noort et al. 2012). The research question we address in this study is whether commercial communication via SNS is cognitively effective. A review of the literature clearly shows that if a commercial message receives no prior attention, the likelihood that it will be processed by and influence the consumer is negligible (Chan et al. 2004).For the purposes of this study we consider that an individual has given attention to a message when the advertising information transmitted has an impact on his or her memory, in the form of brand recall and recognition. A classical post-test survey design was used to examine the responses of a panel of Facebook users to advertising formats displayed within the site. The type of advertising format was used as a control factor to determine the impact on the cognitive effectiveness of the message transmitted. The study has a twofold objective: (1) to examine which of the formats most commonly used in social media advertising condition attention types; and (2) to analyse the effect of advertising pressure on consumer attention and brand recall.Social media advertising is an effective communication tool for attracting user attention, leading to higher attention levels than those recorded for advertising in other online contexts. Differences are observed in user attention to distinct advertising stimuli, with video found to be the most effective format for attracting user attention in SNS. However, higher advertising pressure leads to lower attention levels and poorer recall rates. Active exposure to social media advertising leads to higher recall rates of the messages transmitted. The constraints of this study include the use of single product/brand, and the experimental conditions of the data collection stage. Among our future areas of research we propose to evaluate attention in behavioural terms, using a range of tools including eye-tracking to provide empirical evidence of attention rates for social media advertising.

Francisco Rejón-Guardia, Francisco J. Martínez-López, Irene Esteban-Millat, Juan Carlos Gázquez-Abad
What Are Product Bundles and How to Bundle Products

Bundling is widely practiced in today’s marketplace, with companies using joint pricing for the sale of two or more products and/or services in a single package (Guiltina 1987; Kaicker et al. 1995; Stremersch and Tellis 2002). Yadav and Monroe (1993), drawing from transaction utility theory, examined consumer perceptions of savings when evaluating a bundle offer, and found that consumers gained transaction utility from discounts associated with the component products in a bundle, plus any other discounts associated with the bundle. Simonin and Ruth (1995) adopted a quasi-experimental procedure to investigate the effects of bundling on consumer evaluations and reservation price judgments. They found that the form of the bundle and consumer attitudes toward the brand to be important determinants in the evaluation of the bundle itself. Mulhern and Leone (1991) and Harlam et al. (1995) examined the complementary effects of the items offered in bundles, and found that bundles composed of complementary items will receive higher purchase intentions from consumers than the bundles of unrelated ones.

Kuei-Feng Chang, Hao-Wei Yang
Applying ISM to Construct a Value-Based Decision Model

Marketing positioning is the process of building and maintaining a distinctive image, relative to other competitors, in the minds of the consumers (Javalgi et al. 1995), and firms can use this as a communication tool to research target customers and increase market share (Rise and Trout 1986). In the 1950s, psychologists developed “perceptual maps” for positioning objects in two-dimensional “virtual” spaces, based on perceived similarities and differences among the objects. However, a problem exists when customers view the firm’s position differently than the manner in which the company sees itself. One possible reason is that the virtual space utilizes only two dimensions, which are generally developed by using discriminate analysis, and only refer to object characteristics that are specified in advance, while in reality consumers consider multiple attributes at the same time in their decision making process (Zanjani et al. 2009). Perceptual maps can thus only provide limited information for a firm, and the results cannot be developed into a useful marketing strategy to satisfy the multiple needs of consumers (Yang 2010).

Kuei-Feng Chang, Hao-Wei Yang
It Is Counterfeits that Consumers Love!? Exploring the Phenomenon in the Digital Environment

The Internet has revolutionized the way consumers shop, also for buying counterfeits (MarkMonitor 2013). Accessing these products with a simple mouse click has dramatically aggravated already rampant offline purchases of fakes (Guarnieri and Przyswa 2013; Radón 2012). Purchasing fakes online has attracted only scant research attention, thus, we aim to shed light on the purchase behavior of counterfeits online (e.g., awareness and knowledge; drivers and obstacles of purchasing fakes online); this allows us to evaluate potential communalities and differences between offline and online purchase and to develop avenues for future research. To get rich insights, we interviewed 15 Italian and 15 Austrian consumers (similar in access to counterfeits, different in terms of sophistication of the fashion industry) with past experiences in buying fakes either offline and/or online (a detailed sample description can be provided upon request). The interviews covered five main areas: online shopping in general; perceptions of counterfeiting on the internet; attitudes, motivations and previous experiences with counterfeits (offline/online); risks associated with online purchases and pertinent coping strategies.Buying fakes online differs from buying counterfeits offline, as deception is much easier. Sellers and buyers usually have low familiarity with each other, reside in different locations and have one-time interactions; there is a high information asymmetry between seller and buyer, since consumers have very little knowledge and must rely on text-based descriptions, pictures and videos provided by the seller to evaluate the product. Moreover, counterfeiters tend to manipulate information either through masking (i.e., not providing important content, such as the real quality/origin of the product) or mimicking tactics (presenting false information as if it were true) (Mavlanova and Benbunan-Fich 2010).When asked, almost all respondents in the sample indicated experience with buying counterfeit products online, with some of them having unknowingly bought fakes. Not surprisingly, and comparable to the offline context, the attractive price/performance ratio primarily triggers behavior. Overall, it turned out that the Internet as a purchase context offers unique advantages (ease, time saving, product variety, anonymity), but is also less controllable (e.g. evaluation of seller, product quality). Therefore, respondents develop several coping strategies such as price benchmarks, word-of-mouth information on the seller, payment modes available, or a non-professional web design.Taken collectively, consumers seem to be lured into and more easily deceived by fakes online by well-informed counterfeiters using different masking and mimicking approaches. These two aspects – consumer confusion about the true origin and the multi-faceted risks entailed requiring sophisticated mitigation strategies – are two key aspects which distinguish offline and online counterfeit purchases. In terms of managerial implications, this calls upon original brand manufacturers to take up the challenge and not leave the Internet to the counterfeiters only.

Barbara Stoettinger, Ludovica Cesareo
Investigating Overall Restaurant Image: Generalizing the Triggering Mechanism to Multiple Casual Sit Down Restaurants

With the competitive and complex nature of today’s general retailing environment, researchers and practitioners see the links between retail image, loyalty metrics, and financial performance metrics (e.g., profitability) as critical to better understand how customers form a retail image (Kumar and Shah 2004; Pan and Zinkhan 2006). Despite the growing research attention paid to the links between retail image and critical constructs (e.g., customer satisfaction, repeat patronage behaviors and word of mouth behaviors), little agreement exists on the nature of these linkages (e.g., Chebat et al. 2006; Dawar and Parker 1994; Hartman and Spiro 2005, etc.). The links between retail image and other critical constructs have been conceptualized as symmetric and positive in nature by some researchers (Dawar and Parker 1994; Hartman and Spiro 2005), while others suggest the relationship is asymmetric and non-linear (Anderson and Mittal 2000; Gomez et al. 2004). Given the different perspectives on the relationships between retail image and other critical constructs, an important question emerges- what is the actual role of retail image in creating retail/customer loyalty?

Jennifer A. Espinosa, David J. Ortinau
App Engagement: The Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Downloading Apps

The use of smartphone and apps increased in the last few years. For example, in 2012 there were 5.3 billion mobile subscriber, comprising 77 % of the world’s population (Darsow and Listwan 2012). ABI Research reveals that app, a software application designed to run on smartphone, tablet, and mobile devices, downloads will reach 44 billion apps on mobile phones and mobile communication devices by 2016 (Cheng 2011). Currently Apple and Android app dominate the number of downloaded Apps. For example, Apple acquires the highest number of apps sold in the last few years with more than 700,000 apps and counting, but Google play, for Android system, is growing fast and it will catch up by the end of 2013 (Taylor et al. 2011). Also, Apple made half of all app revenue. However, Google comprise 70 % of all app downloads which demonstrate that market share and volume do not translate to income (Bradley 2013). There are many reasons for the huge download behavior, such as apps are accessible, easy to use, and inexpensive.This study addresses the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for mobile users to download app. This study proposes that extrinsic motives and intrinsic motives influence consumers to download a precise app. Moreover, these motives lead to apps downloading engagement. Thus, our research questions are following: What motives mobile users to download an app in their smartphone? How intrinsic and extrinsic motives influence that behavior? Despite the importance of understanding consumer downloading behaviors, there has been little prior research on consumer downloading behavior and engagement. Accordingly, the aim of this research is contribute to understanding of consumers’ behavior to app downloading, by undertaking an exploratory study to the importance of lifestyle and engagement on app downloading behavior.

Abdullah Alhidari
Toward an Understanding of Ethnic Consumers’ Conservation Behavior: The Case of Hispanics

The U.S. population growth has been driven mainly by immigration and the American-born offspring of immigrants (Ortman and Guarneri 2009). The Hispanic population is the ethnic group that is and will continue to contribute to most of this growth and will account for 29 % of the U.S. population by 2050 (Pew Research 2008). Thus, the role of Hispanics in shaping civic life in the U.S. will become more significant in the future than it is today. The growing public concern about the environment has raised questions whether or not immigrants consider the environment in their daily practices. Perspectives range from the post-materialist approach that views immigrants’ concern for the environment as secondary to achieving material goals such as physical and economic security (e.g., Inglehart 1995) to the approach that holds that immigrants have higher levels of environmental concern because the poor environmental conditions in their countries of origin have sensitized them to be more aware of environmental problems (Martinez-Alier and Hershberg 1992). The literature provides mixed findings about environmentalism among Hispanics compared to native-born individuals (e.g., Johnson et al. 2004; Lynch 1993; Noe and Snow 1990; Pfeffer and Stycos 2002). While these studies provide important insights into Hispanics’ environmental attitudes and concerns, little is known about whether these perceptions are translated into pro-environmental behaviors. This study attempts to bridge this gap by proposing a model that explores how core values (i.e., collectivism and long term orientation), environmental cognition (i.e. environmentalism and environmental concern), and feelings about the state of the environment (i.e., environmental affect) are related and influence conservation behavior (i.e., recycling, water conservation, electricity conversation, and energy conservation) among young Hispanic consumers.

Sigal Segev
The Role of Competition in the Service Encounter: The Loyal Consumer Perspective

A loyal customer is regarded as a type of competitive asset (Dekimpe et al. 1997) and paves the way to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for an organisation (Gummesson 2008). However, the changes in competitive situations and actions taken by competitors make the challenge of retaining existing customers difficult to take (Grönroos 2009). Past studies suggest that the performance of frontline employees is critical to retain customers (Grönroos 1984; Bove and Johnson 2009) and customer perceptions of value created in ongoing relationship makes certain impact on business performance (Slater and Narver 1994; Ravald and Grönroos 1996). This highlights the necessary of examining the issue on customer loyalty from a value perspective and by taking market competition into consideration. Therefore, this study aims at providing an insight into the role of competition in the relationship between the employee’s efforts at delivering customer value and the achievement of customer loyalty. Since the success of interaction between employees and customers can depend on the subjective experience of customers’ perceived value in marketing activities (Ravald and Grönroos 1996), an understanding of the proposed relationships from the loyal customer perspective is salient.

Shu-Ching Chen
Chutzpah and Its Linkage to Marketing Innovation, and Performance

In a business and economic world now characterized by reduced (and therefore more carefully allocated) consumer spending power, competition is cut-throat and dynamic. In this context, commercial organizations require competitive advantages to survive and grow. One key to competitiveness and success is innovation. Most studies of innovation, however, focus on the process and/or outcomes of innovation. Little is still known about what makes innovation successful in developing competitive advantages. In addition, while past research in innovation concentrated on technological breakthroughs and new product development, successful innovation increasingly characterizes the whole management and organizational process, and strategy. We propose the term Chutzpah as means of implementing marketing innovativeness. We aim at identifying the elements of Chutzpah by conducting an exploratory study based on a preliminary qualitative research, and a second quantitative research, in the advertising context. Our results substantiate the relevancy of Chutzpah to marketing innovation and also its impact on marketing performance.

Kalanit Efrat, Anne L. Souchon
Making Choices for a Sequence of Healthy and Unhealthy Options

When making food choices, consumers sometimes decide between simultaneously presented options, such as when choosing from items in a self-serve display case at a convenience store or coffee shop (i.e., Starbucks). However, in many instances, consumers choose from sequentially presented items, such as when navigating up and down the aisles of a supermarket or when progressing through the food line at a cafeteria/buffet. As these examples suggest, it is not only common for consumers to choose between sequentially presented food options, it is also practically relevant (Biswas et al. 2014; Biswas et al. 2010; O’Brien and Ellsworth 2012).

Dipayan Biswas, Courtney Szocs, J. Jeffrey Inman
The Effectiveness of Comparative Advertising: Examining Consumers’ Perspectives in Different Cultures

Comparative advertising can effectively encourage consumers to engage in relative judgments that generate either an association or differentiation effect (Chang 2007). US rationalize that explicit comparative ads provide consumers more information and lead to more effective decision-making in the consumption process (Barry 1993). However, Europe and Asia witness less comparative ads for regulation and cultural reasons (Choi and Miracle 2004). This study examines the factors affect purchase intention and compares the differences between US and Taiwanese consumers in comparative advertising conditions.

Alexander Muk, Christina Chung, En-Chi Chang
How to Effectively Manage the Dark Side and Bright Side of Customer Participation in Salesperson Job-Related Outcomes

Over the past decade, customer participation in the value co-creation process has received a great amount of research attention. Occupying a boundary-spanner position, salespeople play a critical role in developing and maintaining relational exchanges with customers in the value co-creation process. This study relies on the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory to propose a conceptual model articulating the effects of two dimensions of customer participation, those being information provision and coproduction, on the salesperson’s job stress (i.e., role ambiguity and role conflict) and job engagement (i.e., sales planning, adaptive selling and selling effort). More importantly, this study articulates that the linkages between customer participation and salesperson job-related outcomes are contingent on informal and formal controls of an organization. That is, organizations may enhance the beneficial effects of customer participation and mitigate the detrimental effects of customer participation on salesperson job-related outcomes by developing appropriate sales control systems and organizational climates. The knowledge gained through this study provides specific managerial implications in relation to effectively managing the influences of customer participation in sales encounters.

Yen-Chun Chen, Po-Chien Li, Todd J. Arnold
Can’t Live Without Smartphones: Device Attachment as a Dual Route Process Promoting Consumer Loyalty

Smartphone sales has grown massively and the sales are expected to one billion in 2013 (Deloitte 2013) that are simply due to the fact that smartphone users are anticipated to exceed 192 million by the year 2016 (eMarketer 2012). Many consumers admit to being overly attached to their smart phones and about 37 % of adults and 60 % of teenagers show addictions to their smart phones (Swallow 2011). Given that attachment is crucial in determining consumer satisfaction and loyalty (e.g. Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001, Park et al. 2010); it would seem advisable to make an effort to investigate the role of emotional attachment of smart phones.However, within the field of smart phones, there has been a tremendous wave of interest in smartphone adoption and acceptance (e.g. Falaki et al. 2010; Park and SuJin 2006; Smith 2011; Setterstrom et al. 2012), attitudes (Haghirian and Inoue 2007; Wais and Clemons 2008), or utilitarian functions (e.g. Bauer et al. 2007; Kim et al. 2007). Comparatively little research has focused on the effect of device attachment in the context of smartphone. The purpose of this study is to address the emotional attachment of smart phones and further to examine what factors driving attachments and leading consumer loyalty. Based on Wehmeyer (2008), smartphones provide diverse uses could yield different types of device attachments, such as affective (symbolism) and cognitive (necessity) attachment. In considering the antecedents, the first factor is primarily concerned with self enhancement. Since smartphone provides some symbolic values, consumers can use smartphone boost consumer’s self-concept and image (Finnilä 2011; Magrath and McCormick 2013). Consequently, smartphone consumption serves as a means to self enhancement (Finnilä 2011; Magrath and McCormick 2013). Another driving factor proposed here is problem solving support; consumers are likely to yield device attachment if the device can successfully handle any functional uses with the superior service cost and connection stability (Park 2006). Thus, the objective of this paper is to investigate how self enhancement and problem solving support drive different types of device attachments and how device attachments affect consumer loyalty in the context of smartphone.The formal questionnaire survey was mainly collected from Internet and restricted to those who have smartphone. Structural model estimation shows that all hypotheses are supported. This study proposes dual process of device attachments drives consumer loyalty. Self enhancement motivates consumers to exhibit symbolic device attachment and consequently affect consumer loyalty to their smart phones. Whereas, smart phones provide more problem solving support can facilitate necessity device attachments and thus enables consumers to engage in loyal behaviors. Our research has suggested, albeit tentatively, two potentially important process of user device attachment on the smart phone loyalty. While research on smart phones is till at a beginning stage, findings have broad implications for theory, research, and practice.

Crystal T. Lee, Timmy H. Tseng, Sara H. Hsieh
Entertainment Orientation and Salesperson Relationship Performance

Many sales organizations invest in “relationship-building activities” by allocating a portion of their budget to socially engage current customers and future prospects. In their boundary-spanning role, salespeople are responsible for developing and managing relationships with customer buying centers and internal cross-functional support teams. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance of entertainment in the sales process. Utilizing social exchange theory and relationship marketing as theoretical foundations, we introduce and develop the conceptual entertainment orientation model. We examine the current role of entertainment in developing and managing sales relationships with internal and external customers. The results confirm that relationship-building activities in the form of entertainment are perceived to play an important role in both external sales with customers and internal relationships with co-workers. The results also reveal that entertainment and internal bonding are viewed as positive influences on firm performance. The findings provide an improved understanding of the current role and importance of entertainment by sales professionals.

Michael Rodriguez, Charles B. Ragland, Earl D. Honeycutt Jr., Caitlin Jones
Towards the Re-conceptualisation and Measurement of Services Brand Identity

Branding is a key success driver for services organizations (Berry 2000). Strong brands are created and sustained in part through their identity (Aaker 1996). Upshaw (1995, p. 12) defines brand identity (BI) as the “configuration of words, images, ideas, and associations that form a consumer’s aggregate perceptions of a brand” arguing that brand identity is the consumer’s perception of what has been created. By contrast, Aaker (1996) defines BI as “a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain.” The majority of research since Aaker’s (1996) work has tended to view BI as a managerial construct (de Chernatony 1999; Gylline and Lindberg-Repo 2006; Alsem and Kostelijk 2008), failing to account for the most important stakeholder: the consumer.

Vandana Pareek, Tina Harrison
Examining the Role of Employee-Brand Value Congruence in Internal Brand Management

Given the influential role brands play in shaping customers’ perceptions of service quality, many service companies leverage the power of brands to develop a competitive advantage (Berry 2000). However, to achieve brand success, service organizations need to ensure that the actual brand experience, as reflected through employees’ attitudes and behaviors, are consistent with the brand promise that are set through external branding practices. Recent research has highlighted the importance of brand value congruence in engendering employee brand building behaviors (Chang et al. 2012; Morhart et al. 2009). The rationale underpinning the value congruence effect lies in the role of values in guiding individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. For example, people are more attracted to others with similar values and have greater intentions to form and maintain relationships with similar people to reinforce their self-esteem (Smith 1998; Zhang and Bloemer 2008). Thus, we argue that, when employees perceive their value systems are consistent with the brand values, they are more likely to deliver brand performance. However, the theoretical foundation and comprehensive measurement with respect to employee perceived brand value congruence, as well as the outcomes of this construct is lacking. This study aims to fill this literature gap and offer both theoretical and managerial insights regarding internal branding initiatives that can foster employee – brand value congruence. Of particular significance in this examination is afforded through a new approach to measuring brand value congruence.Previous studies examining value fit commonly adopt reflective measures (e.g., O’Reilly and Chatman 1986) or profile matching approaches (e.g., Cable and Edwards 2004) which are similar to formative measures. In order to develop a holistic view of employee perceived brand value congruence, we followed Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer (2001) and constructed a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model that combines both reflective and formative measures. With responses from 232 service employees, our MIMC model with four reflective items and 18 formative items achieves a good fit (χ2 = 47.6, df = 36, CFI = .997, RMSEA = .037), suggesting high measurement validity. We also identify the contribution and significance of each formative indicator. Furthermore, through a two-step structural equation model, we demonstrate the significant impact of employee perceive brand value congruence on employee brand-aligned attitudes and behaviors (.78 for brand allegiance, .90 for brand consistent behaviors, and .91 for brand endorsement). The substantial predicting power of our model strongly supports the crucial role of employee perceived brand value congruence in engendering employee brand performances. Thus, it is advised that service organizations should seek to hire employees who possess similar values to those of the specific brand. They should also focus on developing and enhancing such value congruence through internal branding initiatives. Futures studies are encouraged to adopt this new measurement approach as it affords an objective and robust assessment of employees fit with the brand.

Lina Xiong, Ceridwyn King
‘Yo Krispy Kreme, I Don’t ‘Like’ Your Donuts’: An Empirical Investigation into Complaint Management in the Context of Social Media

Social media is now an integral part of consumer’s lives and has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of marketers who are now trying to decipher the most effective ways to create value through these channels (Pagani and Hofacker 2011). At present marketers engage with consumers in three ways: (1) targeted advertising; (2) encouraging C2C sharing of brand related content; and (3) direct interactions through ‘fan pages’. The present research focuses on Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) focusing on consumers’ complaints on brand fan pages. This is of key concern to firms as any complaints will be publicly visible and are likely to affect the attitudes of other consumers who read them and even more if these are shared as through WOM (see Swan and Oliver 1989). Large companies, such as Nestle have experienced disasters that resulted from unsuccessful handling of customers’ complaints on social media (Lonescu-Somers and Enders 2012). When faced within a publicly visible complaint social media, marketers must make a choice of how to respond. Through in-between groups experiment (n = 200) it is the aim of this paper to test which is the best response to a complaint (leave visible, delete, reply, or encourage further consumer discussion). The following will provide a review of relevant literature.

Golbahar Shakerin, Ben Marder, C. J. Chris Archer-Brown
Where/How Does Marketing Fit? What Is Marketing’s Place in the Firm and Within the Family of Business Disciplines?

In the early 1980s, the Academy of Management Review commissioned a set of articles to assess the contributions of various business disciplines to strategic management. These assessments included evaluations of contributions from industrial organization (Porter 1981), administrative behavior (Jemison 1981), and marketing (Biggadike 1981). Biggadike’s conclusions, judged marketing to be theoretically thin, giving him little hope for change in the future.

Terry Clark, O. C. Ferrell, Michael Hartline, Jagdish Sheth, David Stewart
Salesperson-Manager Role-Relationship and Its Impact on Salesperson Performance: A Relational Identity Approach

This research focuses on the salesperson-manager relational identification and the proposed framework permits a more clear understanding of what the relationship with the manager means to individual salespeople. A hypothesized model is developed on the foundation provided by recent research on relational identity (Sluss and Ashforth 2007), along with relational identification, predicated on the role-relationship between two individuals in a workplace. Hypotheses are tested using a sample of 107 salespeople and their respective sales managers within a business-to-business context. A hierarchical regression method was used to analyze the data. Findings demonstrate that strong relational identification with managers can enhance the potential of salespeople and stimulate their motivation to work hard. The negative interactive effect of psychological identification on the relationship between salesperson-manager relational identification and salesperson effort also offers a new learning opportunity for managers.

Raj Agnihotri, Adam Rapp, Jessica Ogilvie, James ‘Mick’ Andzulis
Celebrating the Pleasure Seekers: A Centenarian Faces the YouTube Generation

The first movie trailer was produced in 1913 for the musical ‘The Pleasure Seekers’ and was shown at the end of the main films. One hundred years later, the movie trailer itself has become part of the art form and is a highly anticipated part of the experience. Trailers have their own reviews, specially-composed music and are nominated for awards (Doperalski 2012). However, in recent years, trailer makers have had to adapt to one of the Internet’s most disruptive influences: the ‘social’ revolution, where the Top 10 Trailers viewed on YouTube in 2012 exceeded 200 m and with much viewer-generated discussion (e.g. Skyfall 21 m views 16 k comments).

Chris Archer-Brown, Julia Kampani, Ben Marder, Anjali Bal
The Effect of Brand Communication Style on Brand Engagement in Online Brand-Based Communities

Social media, and specifically brand-based online communities, have revolutionized consumer-brand interactions. For the first time ever, the brand itself can converse with consumers. Hence a key question emerges: how should brands communicate with their fans in these communities? The existing literature provides insufficient guidance for brands about how to communicate in this new situation. We know especially little about what communication style brands should chose to approach consumers on these online platforms. Existing studies focus nearly exclusively on language in the context of advertising, an inherently one-way communication channel. However, marketers now seek best practices in communication for contexts in which one-way communication research is largely inapplicable.This article fills in this gap in the literature by studying how brands should communicate with their fans in their brand-based online communities. In Study 1, we conduct in-depth interviews with nine members of brand-based online communities to identify the key aspects of brand communication styles consumers seek. According to our findings, consumers appear to appreciate informal and conversational styles of brand communication. In Study 2, we investigate whether and how brands’ informal and conversational styles influence brand engagement. Additionally, we examine the mediating role of anthropomorphism and the moderating effect of perceived authenticity. Study 2 involves a 2 (informal style: low vs. high) × 2 (conversational style: low vs. high) between-subjects design. Analysis of Study 2 will be completed by April 2014. In a pre-test involving 75 undergraduate students (36 % female), we tested our manipulation and explored the relationship between brand communication style and brand anthropomorphism. Results from the pre-test indicated that informal and conversational styles positively influence perceived anthropomorphism of the brand.This article contributes to consumer research by exploring an underrepresented aspect of brand communication; how brand communication styles may shape consumer-brand relationships. This work also contributes to research on communication and psycholinguistics by providing insight into the psychological processes underlying the effects. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate that anthropomorphism mediates the relationship between brand communication style and brand engagement. Finally, we contribute to the existing literature on language effects in marketing communications by examining the moderating impact of perceived authenticity. From a managerial perspective, we offer useful insights into how brands could best converse with consumers in brand-based online communities. For many brands, the adoption and use of brand-based online communities is trial and error. The present research informs marketers by shedding light on communication style that will drive consumer engagement in these communities.

Anaïs Gretry, Csilla Horváth, Allard van Riel
When 3 Price Components Are Fairer Than 2 or 4: Consumers’ Reactions to Price Increases in Tariff Schemes

Companies in diverse business fields struggle with the impact of regulatory interferences with serious consequences on cost and pricing structures. For instance, branch specific minimum wages, tax increases (e.g., alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, and gasoline), or defining new production rules (e.g., statutes regarding the proportion of conventional and renewable energy production) constitute only a small sample of political options to intervene in economic systems. As a result, price increases are often inevitable and concerned companies’ pricing structure is no longer determined by their pricing strategy solely. However, although companies become externally restrained regarding costs and prices, they are typically still free to decide on the type of communication and presentation of price increases.The purpose of this paper is to improve the knowledge of the impact of different types of establishing price increases in tariff pricing schemes on perceptions of price fairness and switching intentions. Findings of three experiments reveal that a separated price increase (i.e. adding a price component into the existing tariff structure that bears the total price increase) results in less unfavorable consequences than an embedded price increase (i.e. spreading the price increase across existing price components). However, these effects revert with an increasing number of additional price components.This research’s findings supply important implications for a more efficient handling of externally imposed price increases in tariff pricing. First, firms can minimize unfavorable consumers’ reactions to increased prices by using a separate price component that incorporates the total price increase. Second, this type of price increase is particularly advisable if the level of a price increase is relatively high. Third, as this positive impact is attached to the numbers of additional price components, firms should realize price increases over a minimum of separate price components.

Gerrit Cziehso, Sören Köcher
Knowledge Creation and Firm Performance: The Role of Process Integration in Collaborative Relationships

In the increasingly competitive global marketplace, firms seek to maximize competitive advantage by collaborating with other firms in business-to-business (B2B) networks rather than competing as independent entities (Dyer and Singh 1998). Sharing unique knowledge is a central component of collaborative relationships (Vargo and Lusch 2004), resulting in the creation of new knowledge resources (Kahn et al. 2006). The successful exchange of knowledge resources between collaborating entities requires the integration of relevant processes (Teece et al. 2007), which can occur internally between functional units of the firm (Closs and Savitskie 2003) and externally between network partners (Richey et al. 2010).While knowledge sharing has been discussed in the literature as a component of the integration process (Brown et al. 2000; Ellinger 2000; Kahn et al. 2006), there is a paucity of research that examines the specific roles of internal and external integration mechanisms in the creation of new knowledge resources from shared knowledge. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop an understanding of how the integration of internal and external processes in collaborative firm relationships results in new knowledge resources that influence financial performance.Structural equation modeling of a survey of 509 business managers indicates that flexibility in collaborative relationships is positively related to the firm’s ability to achieve financial performance through the creation of new knowledge resources. Results also indicate that a firm’s ability to successfully integrate operational processes mediates the normative aspects of the collaborative relationship and the firm’s ability to arrive at innovative solutions. This integrative capability is positively associated with relationship flexibility, adding to relational governance literature views that suggest successful collaborations are governed by shared relational norms, including bilateral information sharing and relationship flexibility (Brown et al. 2000). Managerially, firms should therefore seek to increase relationship flexibility through the use of normative governance forms in order to facilitate their integration capabilities.This research also provides evidence that the positive relationship between integration capability and financial performance is mediated by the creation of new knowledge resources. The integration of internal operations and financial performance is shown to be fully mediated by the creation of new knowledge, while the ability to integrate externally has a positive direct effect on financial performance as well as an indirect effect through knowledge creation. Thus, to realize improvements to ROI, ROA and average profits per customer, firms should seek to coordinate those internal processes and operations that will provide the greatest impact on their ability to effectively collaborate and combine resources with external partners that will result in innovative process solutions.

Kenneth W. Graham, Frank G. Adams
The Role of Social-Interactive Engagement and Social Identity in the Development of Brand Love Through Facebook Fan Page

Social technologies allow brands to build digital platforms that stimulate consumer engagement by enabling customers to connect with one another, to freely discuss a brand, to conduct product and price comparisons, to personalise product features and ultimately to make purchases (Pagani and Mirabello 2012). Moreover, online network-based communities (Dholakia et al. 2004) – such as social networks and micro-blogs – not only enable users to express their identity and satisfy social needs through the sharing of brand-related experiences (Christodoulides 2009, p. 143) but also allow them to satisfy self-definitional needs by developing their social identity (Tajfel 1978). Within such interactive, personalised and participatory communication environments, increasing attention is being given by marketing scholars and practitioners to different types of online experiential engagement (Calder and Malthouse 2004; Calder et al. 2009) and to self-definitional issues (Sicilia et al. 2013). However, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical research efforts to develop an integrative perspective between experiential engagement and social identity theory (Brodie et al. 2013). In addition, empirical research on online network-based communities, specifically Facebook brand fan pages, and its role in the consumer-brand affective relationship building process is in its early stages (Gummerus et al. 2012). In particular, an emerging issue in this field is related to the consequences of these virtual networks in terms of brand love. Brand love is the more recent construct in the branding literature and is defined as “the degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for a particular trade name” (Carroll and Ahuvia 2006, p. 81).To address all of the above concerns, the aim of this study is to propose a social identity approach to consumer-brand affective relationships in online network-based communities by integrating social identity theory, experiential engagement and brand love literature. Specifically, this study develops a conceptual model in which social-interactive engagement influences social identity directly and brand love indirectly through the mediating effect of social identity. The model was empirically validated by conducting a survey on the Facebook fan pages of 21 leading international brands. A total of 387 responses were collected from consumers living primarily in Europe and the US. Structural equation modelling was performed to assess the significance of the hypothesised linkages.The results obtained confirm the positive effects of social-interactive engagement and social identity on consumer-brand affective relationships in terms of brand love and the full mediating effect of social identity on social-interactive engagement and brand love.In response to the need for an integration of the social identity theoretical perspective with studies of consumer engagement (Brodie et al. 2013), this study is the first attempt to combine both consumer experiential social interactive engagement with social identity to partially explain brand affection in specific online social environments. Implications for consumers and marketers are finally addressed.

Maria Vernuccio, Margherita Pagani, Camilla Barbarossa, Alberto Pastore
Psychological Ownership: A Concept of Value to the Marketing Field

Iiro Jussila, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, iiro.jussila@lut.fi

Colleen P. Kirk, Marko Sarstedt
Retail Intimidation

The importance of studying higher-order emotions, such as love and rage, has long been recognized in the marketing literature (Batra et al. 2012; McColl-Kennedy et al. 2009). This paper looks to add to this growing body of literature by examining a previously unexamined emotion, retail intimidation. Intimidation occurs when individuals are made to feel afraid, nervous, timid, or inferior by someone or something else. As such, it stands to reason that retailers may produce feelings of intimidation in some shoppers, perhaps as a result of the store’s atmosphere, prices, merchandise, or other factors. Through a critical incident technique study with a content analysis, the authors find four main antecedent categories to intimidation: employee issues, self-conscious customers, store atmospherics, and retail strategy. The researchers address each of the categories and the resulting subcategories while providing theoretical and managerial implications.

V. Myles Landers, Mary P. Harrison, Stephanie T. Gillison
Building Brand Equity Through Combined Communicational Effects

Sponsorship research has examined how this important communications tool helps brands build and increase their equity. Complementary effects of sponsorship and articulation (that consists in explaining the link between the sponsee and the sponsor) have recently generated some attention. However, research on other combined communicational effects with sponsorship remains scant. This paper focuses on a very simple yet unstudied technique of leveraging a sponsorship: the mention of competition. This is the first attempt to measure the combined effects of sponsorship and the mention of competition on attitude.The sponsee and its competitor are strongly linked in the associative memory network formed by consumers. Thus, it is expected that sponsorship facilitates the comparison and categorization between the sponsee and its competitor if both are mentioned in the context of the brand alliance. The mention of a competitor who failed in securing sponsorship increases the relational processing of information and eases the transfer of equity from the competitor to the sponsee. A high-equity sponsor should provide an indirect link from the competitor equity to the sponsee equity: if an event is sponsored by a high-equity brand such as Nike, the mention of another competitive event that failed to secure this sponsorship should reinforce the prestige of the sponsee. Therefore, sponsee equity should appear as higher than its competitor’s. This effect should be higher if the mentioned competitor has a high-level equity than if it has a low-level equity.In the case of a high-equity sponsor, as the most direct and strong link should be between the sponsee and the sponsor, it is expected that the mention of a competitor is still beneficial when the mentioned competitor equity is low. In the case of an incongruent low-equity sponsor, we expect the event to be negatively impacted by the inconsistency within the two pairings (sponsee/sponsor and sponsor/competitor) as the mention of a high-equity competitor would increase the variance. This variance would make the categorization impossible as the brands are dissimilar at two levels (in terms of congruence sponsee/sponsor and in terms of equity level sponsor/competitor). This would introduce an equity variance comparable to a quality variance within a brand portfolio.A 2 (sponsee/sponsor congruence: congruent/incongruent) × 2 (sponsor equity level: high-equity/low-equity) × 2 (competitor equity level: high-equity/low-equity) experimental design was used, with two control groups (no mention of competitor with high-equity congruent sponsor/ no mention of competitor with high-equity incongruent sponsor). The analysis (ANOVA) revealed a significant three-way interaction between the sponsee/sponsor congruence, the sponsor equity and the competitor equity on the sponsee equity. For instance, in the case of a congruent sponsorship, the sponsee equity is higher when a high-equity competitor is mentioned than when no competitor is mentioned. The mention of a high-equity competitor has a slightly positive effect on the sponsee equity in the case of an incongruent sponsorship. Our results show that in combining sponsorship with the mention of a competitor, a company can easily reinforce the impact of a brand alliance, in a very cost-friendly way. This research considered for the first time how sponsorship may positively link two competitive brands in increasing equity transfer.

Benjamin Boeuf
Consumer Over-Engagement: A Foundational Investigation of Sport Consumption Addiction

Both science and society have affirmed that people can be addicted to gambling, video gaming, the Internet, texting, and even sex. It appears that exciting, fun, often risky, autotelic behaviors can turn into addictions. Thus, a curious question arises in the field of sport consumer behavior – Can certain people (i.e., avid fans) become “over-engaged” and addicted to sport consumption? The purpose of this research is to further advance the study of compulsive consumption by proposing and exploring the somewhat unusual notion of sport consumption addiction (SCA).

K. Damon Aiken, Colleen Bee, Nefertiti Walker
Developments in Research on Pricing on the Internet

With the Internet shopping channel growing in popularity, research on online consumer behavior has become more important than ever. Distinct characteristics associated with shopping online, such as the ease of price search and facilitated price comparisons, have triggered an intense price competition and have given rise to new pricing tactics or adaptations in existing pricing practices. This special session focuses on examining consumer response to selected Internet pricing practices, specifically, online daily deal promotions and pay-what-you-what participative pricing mechanism. Further, it provides a broad overview of challenges of online pricing practices and explores some Internet-enabled capabilities that may enhance online retailers’ competitiveness without solely relying on price decreases.The first paper by Kukar-Kinney and Xia (2014) proposes a comprehensive model of consumer response to online daily deal promotions. Led by companies such as Groupon and Living Social, daily deal promotions have become a popular retail format, offering temporary highly discounted offers. A unique feature of such promotions is their social influence, as they provide information about how many others already purchased the offer. Building on cue utilization and social exchange theories, the paper outlines how the social cue about the number of deals purchased by others influences consumers’ deal evaluations and purchase intentions across a variety of conditions. Specifically, product, deal, and consumer individual characteristics are investigated as moderators of the impact of this social cue.The second paper by Weisstein, Kukar-Kinney and Monroe (2014) explores consumer responses to a new form of participative pricing strategy, specifically, pay-what-you-want pricing, which allows consumers to set the price paid at any level, including zero. The goal is to evaluate viability of such practice on the Internet, taking into account the lack of sensory experience. Decision to allow consumers to set their own price may be especially critical for unknown brands, whereby the consumer cannot infer the product quality based on the brand reputation. The paper identifies several key elements that positively influence consumers’ online purchase intentions and increase their pay-what-you-want price paid when shoopping online, especially in instances when the consumers are unfamiliar with the brand. These elements include an ability to virtually experience the product, an existence of suggested reference price for the product, and a presence of the reason for the pay-what-you-want policy.After examining two specific online pricing strategies in the first two papers, the third paper by Cheng and Monroe (2014) places them in a broader context by taking a closer look at the challenges retailers face when operating in the online environment. Current online pricing strategies typically focus on the assumption of deal-seaking consumers who strive to minimize the price paid. As a result, much attention is given to promoting the deal aspects of online purchases, thereby increasing the perceived transaction value of the purchase. The paper questions the wisdom of such focus on ever lowering the price and explores some ways in which the perceived acquisition value can be enhanced. Several opportunities to achieve this outcomes are discussed.

Monika Kukar-Kinney, Lan Xia
Sponsors Courting Tennis Fans: Visual Processing and Need for Cognition in Evaluating Event Sponsorship

Given that sporting events are heavily tied to sponsorship, it is crucial to understand how sponsorship works from visual processing and cognition perspectives. In itself, sponsorship is not necessarily a visual tool; it is the on-site leveraging of sponsorship that is often visual for event attendees and what the authors investigate at a professional tennis event. Leveraging title sponsorships with the sponsor’s logo and product displays at the event are industry practice at professional sporting events. Visual reinforcement is important in visual processing because an event attendee actively or passively sees who the sponsor is without necessarily thinking about the event sponsorship. Need for cognition is a personality variable in psychology that reflects the extent and the effort in which consumers engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. Attendees may interpret a sponsorship according to its “shallow meaning” without relative effort, unless they have reason to elaborate further and consider other inputs to judgment. The authors take a multi-method approach to examine the posited relationships of their model. First, for a consumer perspective, the hypotheses are tested with consumer survey data of 185 attendees drawn from a weeklong women’s professional tennis event. A luxury automobile brand served as the event’s title sponsor and used visual placement throughout the context of the event, including at the heart of action (e.g., logo in the net, product display at the event). Empirical support for the hypothesized model demonstrates that individual differences in visual processing and need for cognition play significant roles in how an attendee perceives the title sponsor’s products. Overall findings also show how attendees who rate the event as a high quality event have a more positive attitude toward the title sponsor’s featured products. That relationship is moderated by visual processing style; that is, visual processors show an especially strong link from event quality to enhanced attitude. Further, attendees who are high in need for cognition are more likely evaluate a non-endemic title sponsor as fitting with the event, plausibly because they tend to elaborate, or think about how the two fit more so than attendees who are lower in need for cognition. After testing the model with consumer data drawn at the tennis event, the authors then conducted a qualitative study to better understand how the findings resonate with practitioners, and to gain additional managerial insights. Thus, the authors interviewed a dozen managers, who worked with venues or sponsors to leverage the visual communication and create an engaging consumer experience for attendees, collectively representing marketing expertise in tennis, baseball, hockey, running and basketball. The managers discussed the findings in terms of how they do or will implement them in their respective professional sport. The results provide managers with new insights for understanding the role of individual differences in visual processing and need for cognition play in effective sponsorship and sports marketing. The findings reveal how the manner in which event attendees visualize and think relates to their assessment of a sporting event and sponsor. Individuals who tend to be more visual and think things through fully will positively influence their level of appreciation for the sporting event’s sponsors. Thus, given that many people are visual processors, event venues and sponsors alike should incorporate strategically placed visual elements such as logos at the epicenter of action in sporting events, such as near goals, backboards, bases, nets and other places where spectators tend to look in order to improve the likelihood that they visually process the event sponsor.

Angeline G. Close, Russell Lacey, T. Bettina Cornwell
Retailer Brand Equity: Conceptualization and Measurement

In the last two decades, research on brand equity and brand value has flourished. If products and services have often been the focus of brand equity research, a few studies attempt to examine brand equity related to retailers. Yet, Consumer-Based Retailer Brand Equity (CB-RBE) should not be built with a transposition of usual brand equity definitions. Indeed, retailer specific attributes and the rich in-store experiences offered to consumers involve a conceptualization adapted to this particular brand. The paper refines the concept of retailer brand equity and validates a new measure that offers specific insights to academics and practitioners.Brand equity is defined as the “added value” with which a brand endows a product (Farquhar 1989) or “the enhancement in the perceived utility and desirability a brand name confers on a product” (Lassar et al. 1995). Considering that the store should be viewed as the product in the retail area (Dicke 1992), we define CB-RBE as the value the retailer brings through its stores and the combination of products, services and experiences that is delivered in these outlets.Since Ailawadi and Keller’s (2004) call for a specific measure of the retailer brand equity, several research have outlined the relevance of both store attributes (e.g., Hartman and Spiro 2005; Pappu and Quester 2006; Burt and Davies 2010) and the value of consumers’ experiences (Babin et al. 1994; Mathwick et al. 2001; Verhoef et al. 2009). Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers to explore their shopping goals and experiences. The analysis confirms the influence of the attributes related to the products and services but also the influence of in-store interactions. More specifically, eight dimensions, or variables of the retailer’s marketing mix, emerge and serve the retailer in order to create value and build its equity.We argue that the concept of CB-RBE is a second-order construct that involves a formative measure with the aforementioned eight first-order dimensions that are reflectively measured. The statistical results confirm the relevance of a second-order model (Reflective-Formative or Type II according to Jarvis et al. 2003) with eight dimensions related to the products and services, to the store and to consumers’ experiences. Since the PLS approach allows to compute the latent variable scores, managerial tool such as the Impact-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) can serve managers to better understand the equity of their brand, to work on each specific dimension in order to increase the added-value and finally to build a strong and unique brand with a high equity (Keller 1993). The analysis reveals that the in-store appeal (0.2305) and the quality (0.2185) and value of the products (0.2063) offer the greatest potential for marketing activities of retailers. In others words, it means that consumers are very demanding on these dimensions. Retailers have to offer a high performance on these dimensions in order to reap the benefits of a virtuous circle by building a strong brand equity, which, in turn, increases the loyalty and the commitment toward the retailer.This paper takes into account the limitations and research perspectives of several former research done on this topic. More precisely, the mix of experiential and functional dimensions may provide a model devoted to the retailer and a better measure of its equity (Ailawadi and Keller 2004; Hartman and Spiro 2005; Pappu and Quester 2006; Burt and Davies 2010).

Julien Troiville, Gérard Cliquet
Cool, Social Media, and Marketing Communications Strategy: An Anarchy-Network Logic of Value Creation

Scholars and practitioners have been frustrated in the attempt to identify a viable strategy to capitalize on the potential marketing applications presented by social networking media. The very nature of social networking media may render long accepted assumptions about how desirable customer attention is captured and leveraged obsolete. Relying on recent developments in Critical Service Logic literature, along with theories stemming from research in fashion marketing, secondary data is examined to illuminate how this powerful new medium may operate, and how it may change the manner in which marketing communications strategy is conducted.

Mark Pelletier, Frank G. Adams
Information Search in an Era of Connected Consumers

Today, interactive consumers create, communicate, and deliver substantial amounts of information that influence other consumers (consumer-to-consumer or C2C interactions) (Bagozzi and Dholakia 2002; Barwise and Farley 2005; Brown et.al. 2007; Chiou and Cheng 2003; Henning-Thurau et al. 2004; Shankar and Hollinger 2007; Smith et al. 2005). So understanding how consumers search for product information and why they choose certain types of media to conduct their search, is critical in today’s online world. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of marketers attempting to understand the various facets of C2C interactions (Libai et al. 2010). However, there are still several unanswered questions in this prominent stream of research, which deserve further attention. The purpose of this study is to address one such fundamental research question through a 3 (mediums) × 2 (a good and a service) between subjects web survey experiment – what factors related to the source, medium, and message influence the intention to use a particular medium (Text Blog Vs. Photo Blog Vs. Video Blog) to seek product information. The authors expect that along with usefulness and ease of use of the medium, source, medium, as well as message credibility will have varying impacts on the attitude toward using a medium for product information search. The authors attempt to develop and test such a model which will not only contribute substantially to the marketing literature but also open avenues for future research. This research is one of the few initial research endeavors in the field of C2C interactions that is rooted in theory. This model is also of practical import because knowing more about how different factors influencing the intention to use one or more particular mediums for product information search provides a guideline to managers (especially in marketing communications) on where and how to encourage C2C interactions. Given the drastic growth of C2C communications, and avenues that promote the proliferation of information amongst consumers, this research adds significant value to marketing knowledge.

Purvi Shah, Eleanor Loiacono
Will Cigarette Plain Pack Work? An Exploratory Study in the UK

Smoking has been a major public issue across the globe and considered as one of leading causes of death that kills approximately six million people a year (WHO 2012). Governments and health organizations have been constantly trying to reduce number of smokers through controlling the promotion and advertising of tobacco product (WHO 2008). In the UK, the control has begun since 1996 with the prohibition on television and radio, followed by the ban on direct marketing and sponsorship in 2005, the prohibition of the sale of tobacco product on vending machine in 2011, and the ban on the point of sale display of tobacco in large stores in 2012, which ban will take effect for small stores from 2015 (ASH 2012). As most forms of promotion and advertising are prohibited, cigarette packaging has become the remaining important promotion tool in reaching potential and current smokers (Gallopel-Morgan et al. 2012; Freeman et al. 2011). On 1 December 2012 Australia has become the first country in the world in implementing cigarette plain packaging (BBC 2012). Obviously opposing criticisms have emerged arguing that plain packaging might generate risk, such as business difficulty for retailers (Alliance of Australian Retailers 2011) and uncertainty that plain packaging would meet its aims (British American Tobacco 2012).

Lukman Aroean, Insan Syafaat
A Segmentation of Digital Consumers and Its Impact on Purchase Decision-Making Behavior

Understanding how digital consumers may be segmented is a crucial and also challenging consumer behavior issue which defines the success of e-marketing strategies. This research is an attempt towards developing a segmentation of digital consumers. It establishes the combined effect of decision-making style and knowledge of product on the purchase decision. Based on the 2*2 design (maximizer/satisficers and low/high level of knowledge), four segments of consumers are introduced. Experiments are designed to capture the purchase process and verbal protocols, using video recording techniques. Purchase processes for 55 participants are modeled and measured by the number of cycles, number of alternatives, number of attributes and time. Results illustrate the influence of segment membership on the decision-making behavior of consumers. In addition, qualitative analysis of verbal protocols indicates variations in the decision making strategy of four segments and motives resulting in such diversity. This knowledge can be used to better devise targeting strategies and facilitate purchase processes for each segment of consumers. Marketers can enhance the experience of each segment by customizing their interactions during the decision making process.

Sahar Karimi, K. Nadia Papamichail, Christopher P. Holland
Humor Styles of Hispanic and Caucasian Women: Findings on a Dating Website

The objective of this study is to compare Hispanic and Caucasian Generation Y women’s humor styles in dating, using theories regarding cultural norms, gender role, and education. Content analysis is performed on the basis of 400 online dating profiles. The results show that young Hispanic and Caucasian women share the same frequency and similar patterns in the use of humor in online dating. In spite of the non-significant results on cultural differences, education significantly influences humor styles of young women, as those with less education stress the use of negative humor and those with more education are associated with a greater amount of positive humor. The findings offer insights into humor in social media.

Valerie Wang
Dynamic Pricing and Brand Image

The potential benefits of dynamic pricing – charging different prices to different consumers for essentially the same offering – have been widely documented (e.g. Garbarino and Lee 2003; Iyer et al. 2002; Sahay 2007; Truffelli 2006; Weisstein et al. 2013), some of which include enhanced segmentation, improved inventory and supply chain management, capacity optimization, improved demand management, increased sales volume, and increased profitability. Furthermore firms are able to implement dynamic pricing practices much more easily than ever before due to the advent of online technologies that allow for enhanced data collection, instant and low cost changes to price menus and increased buyer identification (Gelbrich 2011; Grewal et al. 2004; Valentino-Devries et al. 2012).Although dynamic pricing holds great potential for firms, many companies have been reluctant to fully implement the practice. One reason for such hesitation may be incidents of consumer backlash towards firms attempting to utilize dynamic pricing. For example, in a highly publicized incident Amazon experimented with dynamic pricing and experienced substantial consumer criticism and negative publicity as many customers were outraged upon the discovery that they paid different prices for the exact same product (Klosowski 2013). In another instance, Coca-Cola was considering the utilization of dynamic pricing by way of vending machines that would raise prices when outside temperatures increased (Reinartz 2002). When this idea became public however, it received an extremely negative reaction, eventually leading to the abandonment of any such programs (Odlyzko 2003).In the academic literature, many scholars have suggested that while dynamic pricing holds great potential to improve firm efficiency and economic performance it does carry with it significant risks prompting caution in the use of the practice (e.g. Garbarino and Lee 2003; Iyer et al. 2002; Kung et al. 2002; Sahay 2007). Investigations of consumers’ reactions to dynamic pricing have also shown that if dynamic pricing is conducted improperly it can negatively impact perceptions of fairness, trust and intention to purchase (Garbarino and Maxwell 2010; Gelbrich 2011; Grewal et al. 2004; Hawes and Bearden 2006). While these consequences along with reactions to the Coca-Cola and Amazon instances are extremely important, they take a more short-term perspective regarding the effects of dynamic pricing. However, the long-term implications of dynamic pricing are much less clear.One area of investigation that will illuminate these long-term implications is the study of how dynamic pricing impacts brand image. Therefore, this paper explores whether dynamic pricing practices adversely impact a firm’s brand image in order to contribute to a more long-term perspective of its effects. A thorough review of the extant literature on dynamic pricing is presented which includes discussions on the potential benefits and risks of dynamic pricing for both firms and consumers alike. In addition, a number of intervening variables that could serve to increase consumer acceptance of dynamic pricing in certain situations are also discussed. Finally, a conceptual model depicting the relationship between dynamic pricing and brand image is developed and presented along with propositions to be tested in a future empirical study.

John Gironda
When Sport Fans Disengage: A Structured Abstract

Loyal and engaged sport consumers provide the revenue opportunity from media rights, sponsorships and ticket sales that drive profitability for sport teams, corporate sponsors and sport media. Recent declines in spectators across a number of sports present new challenges to marketers in tough economic environments. Marketing scholarship to date has predominantly focused on the drivers of fan loyalty and allegiance (Darcy et al. 2012; Funk and Neale 2006) and the motivational aspects of fan behavior (Funk et al. 2002), at the expense of understanding the deterioration of the relationship between the sport consumer and sport team. This research examines the sport fan dissolution process involved when previously loyal sport consumers disengage from their chosen team. The paper reviews consumer-brand relationship dissolution process models and associated triggers to propose and test a model of sport fan detachment.

Leanne Martin, Michael M. Goldman
Antecedents and Anti-Counterfeiting Tactics That Influence Consumer Complicity

A web-based survey of 2,004 consumers near-equally sampled from Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC), and the U.S. explored the consumers’ sense of an hedonic shopping experience and attitudes toward counterfeits (ethical concern and perceived quality) regarding two counterfeit products (movies and pharmaceuticals), four anti-counterfeiting actions, and respondents’ complicity in each BRIC marketplace. Consumer complicity – a consumer’s willingness to obtain, share, or use counterfeit products – was predicted by the consumers’ hedonic shopping experience and preconceived attitudes toward counterfeits (lack of ethical concern and perceived high product quality) across all country markets. A complicity index encompassing multiple measures of willingness to engage in counterfeit trade was used to identify significant country effects for four types of anti-counterfeiting actions.

Peggy E. Chaudhry, Ludovica Cesareo, Stephen A. Stumpf
Shifting Sands: Observing Academic Workloads Over Time

Individually, academics have seen significant changes to their traditional workload, for example, heavier teaching loads, larger class sizes, greater administrative responsibilities, increased competition for research grants and the loss of academic autonomy through increased day-to-day management and accountability (Houston et al. 2006). As a result, academics feel they have three full time jobs at once and daily must manage the multiple and changing roles associated with today’s academic workload (Santoro and Snead 2012). Such changes, over the last two decades, have highlighted the need to investigate workload issues (for example, McInnes 2000; Santoro and Snead 2012).

Angela R. Dobele, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
Religious Values as a Predictor of Sustainable Consumption Behaviors: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Many studies have assessed the relationship among basic demographics and psychographics and sustainable purchase behaviors (e.g., McDonald et al. 2006; Tanner and Wölfing Kast 2003), but research has not adequately investigated the potential influence of core religious values on sustainable purchase and non-purchase related behaviors. Therefore, the purposes of this paper are (1) to examine the influence of religion and degree of religious belief on sustainable behaviors and (2) to investigate religion's varying influence on sustainable behaviors requiring various levels of effort, and (3) to show these effects regardless of culture through a sample from two of the most advanced countries in two continents - US consumers in North America and South Korea consumers in Asia.

Lynn R. Kahle, Elizabeth A. Minton, Chung-Hyun Kim
I Hope, I Desire, but Can I Achieve My Goal: A Self-Regulation Model of Weight Control

Goal-directed decision processes are thought to begin with goal setting, followed by goal striving, which then potentially leads to goal attainment (e.g., Bagozzi 2010). Previous research has primarily examined goal-striving processes and the implications of goal setting (cf. Bagozzi et al. 2003; Taylor et al. 2006), except for several exceptions (e.g., Taylor et al. 2006; Xie et al. 2013). Therefore, research is needed to determine what actually comprises people’s goals, how goals are created, and the effect these goals have on decision making and outcomes (Taylor et al. 2006).This research seeks to reveal people’s goals, to explicate their inter-related structures (e.g., superordinate goals and their linkages) and to examine how these goals and goal structures affect people’s self-regulation and decision making within the context of weight control. In particular, it emphasizes the roles played by desire and hope, as well as the very goals themselves. For example, this research advances our understanding of the role of goal types and hope by articulating the different ways that individuals’ different goal types (e.g., social-adjustive vs. value-expressive goals) and hope levels (e.g., high vs. low hope) can dynamically affect their decision-making processes in both the goal-setting and the goal-striving stages. This advanced understanding is consistent with the assertions that (1) goals (such as “personal health”) stem from broadly based values, possess a hierarchical nature, and are affected and moderated by individuals, health issues, and interaction characteristics (Taylor et al. 2006); (2) goals’ hierarchical structures can be mapped into various cognitive schemata (Strauss 1992); and (3) a hierarchical cognitive schema that takes into account goals’ structure, goals’ functional inter-dependencies, and situational behavioral variability provides an explanatory basis for behavioral intentions, attitudes, and social norms (Xie et al. 2013). Effective coping strategies, health care policy strategies and intervention programs can subsequently be developed, promoted, and implemented to potentially change individuals’ “undesirable” goals into “desirable” ones and to increase individuals’ level of hope. In addition to considering other possible explanations derived from a genetics perspective, this research – consistent with the view that daily goals and decisions spring from and are highly influenced by the socialization that occurs in the cultural environment (Segar et al. 2007) – also sheds light on the health differences among major U.S. ethnic groups (e.g., Caucasian, African American, and Latino) as well as between genders.

Jiayun (Gavin) Wu, Huimin Xu, Joseph W. Chang
Toward a Media-Neutral Conceptualization of Ambient Communication

Ambient Communication (AC) is a widespread brand practice. However, it lacks a clear understanding that may better orient its use. We aim at providing a comprehensive picture of AC to cast light on its distinctive conceptual dimensions. We designed a focused ethnography approach based on depth interviews with a purposive sample of agency professionals, analysed following a discursive perspective.Although explicitly recognized as a central element in branding, AC is depicted through an ambivalent representation, uncovering a fragile perception of its value at the implicit level. This reveals a limited unfolding of its potential due to a lack in its conceptualization that proves unable to provide guidelines on how to approach and appraise it. This shows a scarce maturity of agency professionals who are in need for self-legitimating in their clients’ eyes as partners. That proves detrimental to AC expression.Based on our evidence we frame AC as a relational hub which triggers multiple patterns of interaction dynamics according to a fuzzy network-based logic. That points at AC as a media-neutral communication form which in itself and in the way it is experienced by consumers, encapsulates and activates different interaction modes.

Silvia Biraghi, Rossella Gambetti, Guendalina Graffigna
The Mediating Roles of Brand Engagement and Brand Psychological Ownership in Brand Co-creation

This study examines the psychological mechanism of brand co-creation effect from the perspective of interpersonal relations. We propose a theoretic model that depicts the influence of feedback valence of other people’s comments on consumers’ proposal of new product marketing plan in a brand co-creation project. We argue that brand psychological ownership and brand engagement mediate the relationships between feedback valence and behavioral intentions for the new products and the parent brand. Also, the moderating roles of co-creation task involvement and participating unit are examined. A between-subject experimental design was conducted. The results confirm our mediating hypotheses and indicate that the brand co-creation activities can be explained from the perspective of interpersonal relations. Also, the results indicate that the effect of feedback valence on brand engagement is salient when consumers have high task involvement and when they participate individually, not in a group.

Aihwa Chang, Timmy H. Tseng, Pei-Ju Tung
Behavioral Targeting in Health Care Marketing: Uncovering the Sunny Side of Tracking Consumers Online

Whereas tracking and targeting consumers while shopping online has been in extensive focus of marketing practice and research for the last decade it lives a shadowy existence in the context of health care marketing. This is quite surprising as online targeting can help to overcome the anonymity of the internet. The technique of behavioral targeting offers the possibility to learn (more) about the online-shopper, comparable to an offline-pharmacist, who gains more and more information about his customer with every visit. Thus targeting enables online pharmacies to help with words and deeds as consumers become recognizable. In consequence, false medication, adverse effects, and inadequate self-treatment – just to name a few – can be prevented. Whereas, most consumers see targeting as interference with an individual’s exercise of the right to privacy, we propose that according to the theory of reciprocity (Gouldner 1984; Becker 1986) consumers will welcome health related targeting of themselves not only to reduce risk but also to optimize treatment effects. With a series of experiments we shed light on this nascent research gap and contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon in the context of health care marketing.

Isabelle Kes, Daniel Heinrich, David M. Woisetschläger
Experiencing the Place and Drinking Its Wine: How Does Attitude Toward Place Transfer to Its Products?

A considerable number of studies have focused on how to build and sustain strong and meaningful relationships with tourists, especially when the latter have an ever increasing number of choices and exhibit variety-seeking behavior. However, these studies have not focused on how attitudes toward a region or place can transfer to products. The aim of this study is shed the light on the transfer of attitudes and its impact on tourist’s wiliness to support regional products.Data was collected using a questionnaire survey across 14 regions. The total number of respondents was 3,323, and the completed and usable surveys were 1,109 in total. To test hypotheses, each respondent answered questions pertaining to one specific region (the region they had visited as a tourist, which represents the tourist’s direct experience). The questions included attitude toward a region’s attributes (Quality and Pleasing), the perceived value for money of its regional products, and tourists’ wiliness to support the regional products. A total of five hypotheses were tested with Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).Results from this study provide support for the idea that attitude toward a region’s attributes (Quality and Pleasing) has a positive impact on the perceived value for money of its regional products. This confirms the transfer of attitude from a regions or place to products and shows that tourists’ associations with a region translate into associations about products from that region. The association between regions (place) and its products is thus supported. In addition, attitudes toward a region’s attributes strengthen a customer’s willingness to support the region’s products. Lastly, men and women vary in their responses across the model.

Sirirat Rattanapituk, Andreas B. Eisingerich, Omar Merlo, Albert Stöckl
Adapting Communication Messages to Reward and Punishment Sensitivity of Targeted Audiences in Fighting Obesity

Communicating about a strong threat to health together with recommending changes in habits easy to implement is often presented in the literature as an effective strategy to convince individuals to switch to healthier behaviors (Witte and Allen 2000). However, the effectiveness of this strategy depends on the goal pursued (e.g. change in behavior, detection of sicknesses; Rothman and Salovey 1997) and consumers’ attitude towards risks.

Olivia Petit, Dwight Merunka, Olivier Oullier
The Relative Contribution of Love and Trust Toward Customer Loyalty

Maintaining a long term relationship with customers is a challenge for organizations (Gummesson 2008; Oliver 1999). A key objective for organizations seeking to build customer loyalty may be to create superior customer experience. Scholars have called for varied views on customer experience (e.g., Verhoef et al. 2009). Amongst the relevant studies of interpersonal relationships in the disciplines of marketing and psychology, it is noteworthy that scholars have specifically called for a study of love. The contribution of love remains to be explored in the business context. Compared with love, the concept of trust is well recognized for its significance to a long term business. In most studies of interpersonal relationships across the disciplines of marketing and psychology, trust appears to be the critical factor in engaging customers in a relationship (e.g., Johnson and Grayson 2000; Rempel et al. 1985). The likely interaction between love and trust foreshadowed in prior studies (e.g., Fehr 1993) suggests the need of studying both factors of love and trust simultaneously. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, the relative contribution of love and trust to loyalty has never been examined in the context of commercial relationships. Therefore, this study aims to examine these two constructs, love and trust, in providing an insigh er loyalty in the business context.

Shu-Ching Chen
Post-purchase Drama: Do the Retailers Lose from Girls Gone Wild in Fast Fashion Environments?

Young, female consumers are driven to purchase apparel products from fast fashion retailers (e.g., Zara, H&M, Forever 21) because the products are limited in number (i.e., scarce) (Mittone and Savadori 2009), only available for a limited time (i.e., perishable) (Cachon and Swinney 2011), and inexpensive (Byun and Sternquist 2011). These appealing characteristics encourage positive attitudes and subsequent purchase behavior (Homer and Kahle 1988; Kahle 1980), which is likely to be impulsive (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst 2009; Verplanken and Sato 2011). However, feelings of regret following impulse buying behavior may lead to product returns (D’Innocenzio 2011). Based on this reasoning, the following hypotheses were developed: H1: Perceived perishability is positively related to attitude toward fast fashion retailers; H2: Perceived scarcity is positively related to attitude toward fast fashion retailers; H3: Perceived low price is positively related to attitude toward fast fashion retailers; H4: Attitude toward fast fashion retailers is positively related to impulse buying behavior in fast fashion retail environments; H5: Impulse buying behavior in fast fashion retail environments is positively related to negative post-purchase emotional response; and H6: Negative post-purchase emotional response is positively related to product returning behavior in fast fashion retail environments.To test the hypotheses, a convenience sample of 303 female undergraduate students completed a questionnaire containing multi-item scales based on previous literature (e.g., Rook and Fisher 1995). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The final model showed moderate, but acceptable, fit (χ2(697) = 2,586.45, p = .00; CFI = .85; TLI = .84; RMSEA = .08). The paths to attitude toward fast fashion retailers from perceived perishability (γ = .14, t = 2.13, p ≤ .03), perceived scarcity (γ = .16, t = 2.21, p ≤ .03), and low price (γ = .05, t = 5.62, p ≤ .00) were all positive and significant. Thus, H1, H2, and H3 were supported. The path between attitude and impulse buying was positive and significant (γ = .08, t = 8.50, p ≤ .00), thus supporting H4. H5 was supported because the path between impulse buying at fast fashion retailers and negative post-purchase emotional response was positive and significant (γ = .04, t = 4.16, p ≤ .00). The last hypothesis proposed a positive relationship between negative post-purchase emotional response and product returning behavior. The path was positive and significant (γ = .12, t = 7.30, p ≤ .00). Thus, H6 was supported.The results of the current study suggest that perceptions of scarcity, perishability, and low cost do have an indirect impact on young, female consumers’ impulse buying behavior via their attitudes toward fast fashion retailers. However, because impulse buying is associated with frequent product returns (Kang and Johnson 2009), fast fashion retailers may need to restrict returns or increase prices slightly to compensate for lost profits. The moderate fit of the model suggests that other constructs have an impact on consumers’ behavior in fast fashion retail environments. These additional antecedents and consequences of fast fashion consumption behavior may offer insights to practitioners and contribute to the process of theory building.

Sasikarn Chatvijit Cook, Jennifer Yurchisin
Customer Expectation of Out-of-Stocks in an Omni-Channel Context: A Call for Supply Chain Management Research

The increased use of e-commerce has caused the distinctions between the physical and digital retail environments to continually diminish, giving rise to omni-channel strategies and retail experiences for consumers (Brynjolfsson et al. 2013; Rigby 2011). Shoppers are increasingly accessing retail websites from smartphones while in retail stores and buying product online when faced with the physical unavailability of desired products on-shelf. This current shift provides interesting new research opportunities for supply chain management (SCM) scholars, as such switching behavior has significant implications for demand forecasting, inventory visibility, and product distribution in the retail supply chain. Hence, a better understanding of how customers are impacted by retail out-of-stocks in an omni-channel setting is necessary, particularly since inventory availability is a key retail supply chain management performance measure.A thorough review of the extant literature that addresses customer responses to out-of -stocks shows that only little advancement in knowledge has been made in exploring retail channel settings beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar format, such as online. More importantly, no research to-date has considered customer responses to stockouts in a multi- or even omni-channel context. Thus, the focus of this paper is to start dialogue on such responses and suggest a conceptual framework and research agenda for future exploratory consideration. Using expectation-disconfirmation theory (Oliver 1980) as a theoretical lens, we argue that together with the shift in the retail environment, customer behavior in response to supply chain failures, such as stockouts, will change. Our primary contention is that the omni-channel experience will directly influence customer expectations of inventory availability and access, causing interesting differences in the type and magnitude of behavioral responses. Our conceptual model illustrates that in an omni-channel retail environment customer expectations of product availability and potential negative responses to supply chain failures, such as stockouts, should be seen as integrated processes across different channels rather than individual instances related to only one channel.We identified three key retail supply chain management research areas that are likely to be impacted by this change: demand forecasting, inventory management and replenishment, and out-of-stocks root causes. In terms of demand forecasting, we suggest that future research is needed to enhance the understanding of “true” primary channel demand vs. demand due to a stockout in the primary channel, as well as research on aggregate forecasting across all channels. Supply chain management scholars should also rethink inventory allocation and replenishment processes since customers have the opportunity to purchase the same SKU through different channels. Scholars might also reconsider the definition of a “stockout” in an omni-channel retail environment because of the ability to instantaneously switch channels. Furthermore, root causes of stockouts in an omni-channel environment may differ from root causes in a traditional retail setting and requires further research.

Simone Peinkofer, Terry Esper
A Cross-National Study on Culture and Perceived Service Quality: A Multi-Dimensional, Hierarchical Framework

The main objectives of the study were to examine the role of culture in consumers’ perceptions of service quality in both a developing and a developed country context and to ascertain the implications, if any, for service quality model building in context.An exploratory, cross-national, qualitative approach was adopted, utilizing semi-structured interviews. This approach allowed the authors to explore the phenomenon of service quality from the consumers’ viewpoint without a priori assumptions in both developing and developed country contexts.Analyses of the data led to the emergence of a holistic, multi-dimensional hierarchical framework called Conceptualization of Service Quality in Cultural Context (CSQCC). The models in both contexts were structurally similar and demonstrate that there are universal aspects that consumers in both countries utilize in their evaluations of service quality, although importance weightings may differ.Nevertheless, we found that culture has an over-arching influence on all elements deemed necessary by consumers in their service quality perceptions. More specifically, unique ‘cultural triggers’ were found to exert a strong influence on service quality. In addition, aspects of human resources and operational variables emerged as key elements within the CSQCC framework.A key limitation of the current study is that the CSQCC is a conceptual model and thus requires operationalization and testing. Furthermore, the interactions between marketing, human resources, and operational interfaces potentially make measurement tasks somewhat more complex and challenging.Culture and human behavior are deeply intertwined, and the marketplace tends to exhibit consumer behaviors that are not ‘culture free’. Therefore, multinationals and global firms need to be environmentally sensitive, identify the ‘cultural triggers’ in potential markets, and assess their likely impact on service quality delivery. The CSQCC in its current state but especially when operationalized would be a useful tool in this regard.

Sean Chung, Jikyeong Kang
Do We Exactly Know Entertainment? Demystifying the Lines of Entertainment Marketing

Much of the work in the past has been done pertaining to entertainment marketing – where researchers have included it under the category of product placement or branded entertainment or sponsorship. But this article makes an effort to clearly draw lines of distinction between entertainment marketing with traditional marketing. The paper puts forward the concept where entertainment marketing has been be viewed from two perspectives – one as a category of product and the other as an enjoyable activity. Based on an understanding of its nature, a conceptual framework of entertainment marketing is also presented in the paper. The framework has been designed based on three important drivers of entertainment marketing – the consumer, the industry and the factors responsible for pursuit of entertainment marketing.

Varisha Rehman
Make Brand Love, Not War: The Power of Combining Explicit and Implicit Brand Attitude Measurement to Detect Brand Affection

Motivated by the success of major brands like Coca-Cola or Apple, marketing researchers continuously try to better measure consumers’ brand perception and behavior. The comprehensive analysis of a brand’s intangible value drivers is therefore one of the main subjects in brand research and brand management. Important question especially arise from the customer-brand relation: Why do consumers love specific brands, why do they hate some and how does love turn into hate? In order to better understand the underlying brand mechanics, a growing number of marketing researchers not only explores the explicit (conscious) elements of brand affection, but also their implicit (unconscious) facets. Still, research studying consumers’ underlying implicit, in terms of automatic evaluations of a brand is scarce. Against this background, our paper presents two studies that combine implicit and explicit measures of brand attitude with regard to two major brands (Coca-Cola and Adidas) and two different consumer brand touch points. Our results show that implicit and explicit brand attitudes significantly differ regarding the analyzed brands and the analyzed brand touch points. Furthermore, our results indicate that the implicit side of brand attitude can show a totally different picture of the brand depending on the analyzed brand touch point, enabling marketing managers to better detect and counter unplanned or unwanted brand attitude changes.

Sascha Langner, Steffen Schmidt, Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Janina Haase, Sebastian Fritz
Friend or Foe? A Small Business Success Story of Collaborating with Competitors Using Social Media

The purpose of this paper is to share the social media success story of Lexington Beerworks, a craft beer taproom located in Lexington, KY. As the paper will delineate, Lexington Beerworks’ success stems from some conventional social media usage similar to Blakeman and Brown’s (Bull Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 37(1):47–50, 2010) recommendation; however, a great deal of Lexington Beerworks’ social media success is a result of unconventional use of social media, particularly its collaboration with its main competitors.

Hulda G. Black, Leslie H. Vincent
Brands Can Make Consumers Happy! Developement of a Scale to Measure Brand Happiness

Throughout history, happiness has been proposed as the “highest good” that a person can seek in life; more and more, the attainment of this “holy grail” is sought and promised by the consumption of products and brands. By targeting this telos, marketers and researchers have recognized that specific emotional brand characteristics (such as the capacity to make people happy) have become the silver bullet for successful brand management (e.g., Bettingen and Luedicke 2009; Holbrook 1982). Consumers no longer want to buy brands only for what they are: they also select them for the emotional experiences that they deliver. It is therefore essential to identify the respective brand emotions that are influenceable and of high behavioral relevance. Because happiness is an emotion with these characteristics (e.g., Soscia 2007), it is worthwhile to devote attention to the topic of brand happiness. This research paper aims to provide a first insight into the definition, measurement and behavioral relevance of the brand happiness construct. To this end, different emotions are collected and collated within an overall construct of brand happiness.According to the definition of happiness as a short-term emotional state (e.g., Delle Fave et al. 2011), brand happiness is defined as a moment-based consumer’s experience of pleasant emotions released at different brand touch points. Drawing on Brakus et al. (2009) and Thomson et al. (2005), the scale development process of this research paper is made up of four separate studies. Study 1 is qualitative in nature, consisting of 68 personal interviews with consumers and experts, as well as an extensive literature review. Study 2 serves to reduce the items generated in Study 1. Here, 187 consumers were asked to evaluate how well the identified items describe a brand that makes them happy (items with low means and low factor loadings were excluded from further analyses). Study 3 (n = 206) further reduces unimportant items based on low factor loadings. The factor analysis on the remaining 12 items reveals a four-factor solution: joy (emotions that reflect consumers’ exuberance towards brands), vigor (a high degree of activation and vitality), pride (feelings of self-enhancement in relation to the brand), and serenity (emotional harmony and balance regarding the brand). In a next step, a new sample (n = 435) was used to further assess the developed brand happiness scale. Different models were tested (a one-factor model, a second-order model, and a four-factor model) to uncover the relationship of the four factors to the greater brand happiness construct. The four-factor model exhibits the best fit. To test the nomological validity of the brand happiness scale, the effects of brand happiness on brand behavior were proven. Applying the appraisal theories (e.g., Lazarus 1991), the proposed hypotheses state that the experience of brand happiness results in a desire to re-experience it (through purchase and word-of-mouth). The results support the hypotheses that brand happiness positively influences purchase intention and word-of-mouth behavior, and thus provide evidence of the importance of brand happiness for brand success. Therefore, practitioners are prompted to create brands and brand experiences that make consumers happy.

Stefanie Schnebelen, Manfred Bruhn
A Review of Brand Love: Conceptual Considerations and Their Relevance for Business

The concept of brand love and romantic customer-brand relationships has experienced a phase of increased interest among marketers and researchers. This paper aims to give a holistic overview about the current state of the academic discussion of brand love and emphasizes the conflicts in assessing the construct by itself as well as antecedents and consequences. Considering the relevance of these conceptual issues for business practice, we discuss passionbrands and lovemarks.

Sarah Schlobohm, Katrin Zulauf, Ralf Wagner
Power of Brands in Recalling Nostalgic Memories Among Young Adults: An Exploratory Study

Conventional branding theory suggest that the purpose of brand identity is to give the brand a structure for what it should stand for in customers’ minds (Kapferer 2004; Keller 2001) and the brand image is referred to as the meaning a brand has for consumers (Aaker 1996), which is primarily understood as an outcome of brand identity. From a broader perspective, Keller (2003) introduced the concept of brand knowledge, referring to a consumer’s cognitive brand representation, which includes information about a brand that the consumer has acquired over time, including awareness, attributes, benefits, images, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and experiences. From a consumer memory perspective, these brand-related feelings and experiences are stored in consumer ‘nostalgic memories’ that play a major role in shaping their future brand relationships (Braun-Latour et al. 2006; Nedungadi 1990; Biehal and Chakravarti 1986). Therefore it is important to understand how and why these nostalgic brand memories exist in consumer mind addressing calls of research in evoking nostalgic memories in consumer behaviour and branding (Grisaffe and Nguyen 2011; LaTour et al. 2010; Havlena and Holak 1991). The aim of the study is to investigate the power of classic brands in retrieving nostalgic memories. Specifically the study examines; (a) Do these brands evoke nostalgic childhood memories? (b) Why these brands are associated with nostalgic experiences? and (c) Can these nostalgic memories be connected in advertising strategies?

Nilanthi Ratnayake, Peter Andrews
Brand Love of Employees: What Is It? How Is It Affected? Does It Drive Employee Brand Behavior?

Many studies in marketing science address the emotional relationship between brands and consumers (e.g. Fournier 1998; Fournier and Yao 1997; Nobre 2011; Patwardhan and Balasubramanian 2011; Robinson and Kates 2005; Veloutsou 2007). In recent times, attention has focused particularly on constructs such as brand love or emotional brand attachment (e.g. Albert et al. 2007; Batra et al. 2012; Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen 2010; Carroll and Ahuvia 2006; Fetscherin and Conway Dato-on 2012; Heinrich et al. 2012; Thomson et al. 2005; Malär et al. 2011; Rossiter 2012). These constructs have a positive influence on behavioral constructs such as brand loyalty and word-of-mouth.

Matthias Holzer, Verena Batt, Manfred Bruhn
Creating Passionate Love Through Rational Value: A Moderated Mediation Analysis Considering Identification and Relationship Duration

This study contributes to insights of the effectiveness of identification on passionate love. But more differentiated in comparison to previous research we show direct effects of the two dimensions of identification, self-reflection and self-enhancement as important influence factors of passionate love. According to Steinberg’s (Psychol Rev 93(2):119–135, 1986) Triangular Theory of Love, love is not only triggered by emotional aspects that are beyond reason. So utilitarian attributes that are more down-to-earth and realistic namely quality value, price value, and uniqueness can be relevant drivers of love. But more important, is their influence constant during the course of a relationship? We detected that the emphasis of these central influence factors differ with rising duration of the relationship. With increasing duration of a relationship the role of self-reflection for the feeling of passion towards the brand becomes more significant. The effect of self-enhancement surprisingly decreases with increasing relationship duration. Regarding the rational antecedents of passionate brand love, we see different effects considering the mediation and moderation analyses.

Frank Huber, Frederik Meyer, David Schmid
The Effect of Private Labels’ Image on Retailer’s Brand Image

Although the importance of private labels – defined as brands which are “owned and controlled by an organization whose primary economic commitment is distribution” (Schutte 1969, p. 9) – has grown over the last decades, private labels’ and retailer’s brand image, as well as potential image transfer effects, have seldom been addressed in previous research (Kremer and Viot 2012; Vahie and Paswan 2006). This, despite the fact that the image of private labels and that of the retailer brand are critical variables with respect to differentiation and loyalty because they influence consumers’ attitudes and, consequently, shopping and patronage behavior (Collins-Dodd and Lindley 2003; Lee 2004; Mazurski and Jacoby 1986). Additionally, analyses have rarely accounted for the fact that most retailers nowadays manage a broad private label portfolio – from no-frills to premium brands. This especially holds true for the research on potential feedback (or reciprocal spillover) effects from private labels’ to retailer’s brand image which have been studied solely at an aggregate level in the past (Kremer and Viot 2012). Therefore, we investigated if the image of differently positioned FMCG private labels exerts an impact on retailer’s brand image. Furthermore, we analyzed if retailer’s brand image affects retailer loyalty.To test our hypotheses, which were derived from categorization and associative network theory (Anderson 1983; Rosch et al. 1976), as well as from the results of previous research (Kremer and Viot 2012; Osman 1993), two pre-tests with 60 respondents in each, and a main study with 255 participants were conducted. As far as the stimuli are concerned, we focused on the image of a leading Austrian food retailer who currently owns more than 60 private labels, and we examined potential feedback effects from a discount private label’s, a premium store brand’s, and a value-added private label’s image.With respect to retailer’s brand and private labels’ image, exploratory factor analyses revealed a three-factor solution. In line with Kremer and Viot (2012), these factors were labeled “price”, “supply”, and “values”. As hypothesized, analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that the image of value-added private labels reinforces retailer’s brand image which, in turn, positively affects retailer loyalty. The image of discount and premium private labels, on the other hand, did not exert an impact on retailer’s brand image. Thus, the findings indicate that image transfer effects of private labels’ on retailer’s brand image vary according to the positioning of the store brands. Though, when the analyses were conducted with respect to the different image dimensions, the price dimension, the supply dimension, and the values dimension of the discount private label’s image and of the premium private label’s image affected the corresponding image dimensions of the retailer brand. Therefore, retailers should not only promote those store brands which have a congruent image with the retailer brand but should also highlight those image dimensions of the private labels that could reinforce the intended image of the retailer.

Marion Brandstaetter, Thomas Foscht, Florian Dorner
Consumers Helping Consumers; The Role of Psychological Need Fulfillment in an Online Reviewer Community

Today, customers producing product reviews for consumption by other consumers have become a ubiquitous feature associated with online commerce and are an influential example of consumer co-creation (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004; Kozinets et al. 2010; Senecal and Nantel 2004; Weiss et al. 2008). Despite important research focusing on how customer reviews influence shopping outcomes, little research has examined how the act of reviewing benefits the well-being of consumer reviewers. We examine this under-researched area by focusing on how a change in a ranking system influences participant well-being in a product reviewing community. Content analysis of reviewers’ posts, following a critical incident involving a change in the reviewer ranking system, suggests fulfillment of psychological needs, dimensions of psychological well-being, may be critical aspects that underlie active reviewer participation. Rank utilized as a feedback mechanism to signal competency development elicited positive sentiments by reviewers, whereas ranking elements perceived as lacking in integrity or reducing one’s autonomy, elicited negative sentiments. Emergent findings lend empirical support for a conceptual market helping behavior model (Bendapudi et al. 1996) and for the integration of adaptation theory of well-being (Diener et al. 2006) with self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2002). While the impetus to write reviews may reflect a mix between altruistic and egoistic motives, platforms that enable the fulfillment of individual’s psychological needs at various levels may foster participation through the well-being experienced. Retailer reviewing platform design elements that foster social relatedness through direct interaction with other consumers and provide feedback in writing competency may support and sustain reviewer participation.

Jill Mosteller, Charla Mathwick
Identifying Compulsive Buyers: An Examination of Existing Scales from the Perspective of Medical Practitioners

In a consumption-driven society wherein material possessions are considered a reflection of the self (Belk 1988), it is not uncommon for consumers to become obsessed with buying things. At the extreme end of this obsession, compulsive buying behavior (CBB) has received increased attention over the past 25 years. CBB is defined as a form of excessive buying behavior that leads to negative consequences, such as personal distress, marital or family disruption, financial debt, and even legal problems (Black et al. 1998; Christenson et al. 1994; Goldsmith and McElroy 2000).

Lorraine M. Martínez-Novoa, Nancy Hodges
Through the Looking-Glass: Reflections on the Role of Consumption in the Journey to Motherhood

Approximately four million women become mothers every year in the United States alone (CDC 2013). Motherhood is often seen as a life changing experience, and one that carries with it a great deal of significance for a woman’s identity and self-concept (Michaels and Goldberg 1988). Indeed, according to Michaels et al. (1982), the transition to parenthood is likely the most universally-occurring adult developmental transition, and one that has psychological, sociocultural, and biological implications. Women in particular experience profound psychological and biological changes, including noticeable appearance-related changes such as an increased body size and/or different body shape. As a result, a new mother is faced with having to forge a new, postpartum identity, and consumption often plays an important role in this process (Prothero 2002; Thomsen and Sorensen 2006). This study examines how new mothers use consumption to establish identity and the importance of consumption in conveying this identity to others.

Victoria Brown, Nancy Nelson Hodges
Online Product Ratings: Dynamic Trends and Diagnosticity Assessment Explanation

We investigate the dynamic trends of online product ratings and explanations by examining a sample of 2,595 online product ratings of 14 randomly drawn apparel products from landsend.com. Contrary to the predominant declining sequential and/or temporal trends reported in previous studies, we find a predominant increasing sequential trend. We extend the diagnosticity assessment explanation offered by Godes and Silva (2012) by considering how changes of reviewer similarity and review information may affect the diagnostic value of prior reviews in customer decision making, thus explain both the increasing trend in our sample and the declining trend in previous studies. We find support to the idea that diagnostic value of prior reviews is high, leading customers to make good purchase decisions and give higher reviews over time, when reviewer dissimilarity and information noise do not increase; When reviewer dissimilarity and information noise increase overtime, prior reviews may mislead and confuse customers, leading bad purchase decisions and thus a declining review trend.

Fang Wang, Kalyani Menon, Chatura Ranaweera, Xiao-Ping (Steven) Zhang
Toward an Understanding of Consumer Feedback in the Online Environment: Does Managerial Participation Help?

The monitoring and management of consumer generated WOM present major challenges for firms (Stewart and Kamins 2002). More specifically, the prevalence of electronic Word-of-Mouth (WOM) and the potential implications of consumer generated information for the attitude and behavior of other consumers substantiate the need for firms to identify and manage the effects of information exchange in online review forums. Traditionally, to minimize the proliferation of negative information among consumers, and to the advantage of their brands, firms have responded to consumer discontent with direct communications as well as through consumer informed product related improvements (Stewart and Kamins 2002; Chen et al. 2003; Sproull and Arriaga 2007). The marketing literature indicates that such responses have led to improvements in brand perception, and increased sales (Albrecht and Zemke 1985; Bitner et al. 1990; Chen et al. 2003; Haugtvedt et al. 2005; Roehm and Brady 2007). In online forums consumers are not directly expressing their discontent to the organization, but such expression is generally between consumers and conducted in public, in the sense that the organization as well as other consumers can observe and react to it. This level of opinion exchange and its rapid spread in the online environment present new challenges to the organization and these issues have not been fully addressed by current theoretical and empirical work.

Stacey Sharpe, Dongling Huang, T. Ravichandran
Developing a Returns Competency: The Influence of Collaboration and Information Technology

In recent years, product returns have been of increasing interest to academics and managers as firms seek to maximize profits through implementing efficient supply chain management practices. Approximately 8.8 % of all retail products are returned, costing US firms billions of dollars per year. In response to the significant impact returns can have on the bottom line, firms have begun to leverage their supply chain relationships to facilitate improved management of returns and obtain an advantage over competitors. Developing a competency in product returns can be an important part of a firm’s supply chain strategy and transform returns in to a profit center by extending the productivity of materials, resources and labor. Firms like Xerox, Canon, Estée Lauder, Caterpillar, Nike, and others have all found ways to utilize returns to positively impact performance.The research undertaken here investigates constructs that continue to deserve attention as they are central to the supply chain management discipline. Through collaboration firms can improve their ability to handle returns, but our research introduces information technology as providing a moderating influence over the impact of collaboration in the advancement of a returns competency. One way firms maximize the advantages they receive from collaboration is through enhanced information sharing via the use of information technology. Specifically, we posit that information technology enhances the impact of collaboration through the information sharing that takes place between firms as they develop a competency in information technology operations. Our work develops a theoretical framework and three research hypotheses. An empirical study involving 267 firms is discussed where the hypotheses are tested. Results indicate support for the positive implications of a returns competency on the logistics performance of the firm.

Tyler R. Morgan, R. Glenn Richey
Co-branding Strategies of High-Tech Products and Luxury Brands: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

The aim of this study is to analyze the different components of consumers’ attitude towards co-branded products. We focus on the cognitive and the affective components. It is getting popular to find co-branded products that include brands belonging to very distant product categories; besides, product fit and brand fit also might assume a different relevance. We focus on the specific category of high-tech, luxury co-branded products (HLCPs) to explore consumers’ purchasing intention toward this alliance. Finally, we compare the behavior of consumers from two different countries – Spain and Taiwan – in order to assess the role played by cultural features on the purchasing process of co-branded products. Therefore, it is likely to hypothesize that the buying behavior of Spanish consumers differs from that of Taiwanese consumers, in the purchase of HLCPs.The method of empirical analysis is a survey and took an innovative direction and analyzed consumers’ behavior with respect to genuine products existing in the marketplace (specifically, “Samsung Giorgio Armani” and “LG Prada” cell phones). Two different versions of questionnaire were prepared and distributed to respondents randomly. Participants were 311 and 528 undergraduate students in Taiwan and Spain respectively. Employing seven-point Liker scale to each measurement.Reliabilities were then assessed and confirmed. Path analysis and a multi-group analysis among factors in two countries were performed. Different parameter estimates failed to be statistically significant in different samples, thus we eventually considered two constrained versions of the general theoretical model, except for some direct paths fixed to zero.The results show that Spanish and Taiwanese consumers do share some common opinions about HLCPs, even though several differences remain. It appears that Spanish consumers mainly consider product fit, while Taiwanese consumers mainly base their decisions on brand fit. The magnitude of the effect of brand fit on the cognitive response is larger for Taiwan than for Spain. Overall, these results partly contradict previous evidence on the role that brands and fashion exert on consumers coming from individualistic cultures. Provided that Spanish consumers mainly base their purchasing decisions on the affective response, and, on the contrary, Taiwanese consumers focus on the cognitive response.

Nora Lado, Fabrizio Cesaroni, Alberto Maydeu-Olivares, Han-Chiang Ho
From Outsourcing to Insourcing Brand Management: How Networking Helps SMEs to Become More Brand-Oriented?

This conceptual paper develops a model that describes how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use their networks to become more brand-oriented. Most often, researchers assume brand orientation as something that simply originates from inside the firm. This study, while acknowledging the internal perspective on strategy formation, argues that firms can develop a brand orientation also through and within networks. The present study builds on and extends the view that SMEs develop their brands with the help of their network partners by explaining how networks can also be used for changing company philosophy. That is, instead of focusing on how the brand is developed and branding-related problems solved by relying on network partners, this study emphasizes the question of how firms construct their strategic orientation and develop a positive attitude towards brands through and within networks.Specifically, the proposed model describes how firms progress from outsourcing brand management to their network partners to insourcing brand management from them, and how this process contributes to SME brand orientation. The study adopts a marketing agency as an example of a network partner having a positive effect on a firm’s brand orientation. The model consists of five stages, namely (1) Early stage, (2) Developing stage, (3) Implementation stage, (4) Reorientation stage, and (5) Confirmation stage. At the early stage, the firm and the agency come into contact and start building a relationship as the firm seeks help and expertise from outside the company. However, it may not necessarily know what it exactly wants when it initially contacts the agency, making it dependent on the recommendations the agency makes. The interaction between the two nevertheless represents a starting point for the development of a brand orientation as it compels the firm to think about its brand and business. At the following stages, the relationship continues to evolve. Importantly, as the firm continuously thinks about its brand, it better understands how to integrate it with its other business activities. Consequently, the first signs of brand orientation start to show as the firm takes a more active role in relation to branding.Stages one through three represent the outsourcing phase in the development of SME brand orientation. That is, the firm may lack adequate skills for branding and hence is dependent on what the agency does; also, it may not be totally convinced of the relevance of branding. Consequently, the firm may find it practical to outsource branding to an outside partner rather than control it itself. However, as the benefits of branding start to concretize after the implementation stage, the firm progresses towards insourcing brand management. This refers to the reorientation stage. As brand performance increases, the company becomes more confident that its investments in branding are justifiable. Furthermore, the firm may also find that it does not necessarily need to rely on external partners as the interaction with the agency at the earlier stages has allowed it to develop an understanding of its brand and what is needed to manage it effectively. However, the firm may still continue cooperating with the agency, but the cooperation changes its form as the firm now takes more control over its brand building.Future research endeavors to further improve the model may address, for instance, (1) the effect of others in the network, (2) continuation of the relationship, and (3) timescale and outsourcing/insourcing overlap. Empirical validation of the model is also called for.

Saku Hirvonen
Service Quality Perception and Casino Player Loyalty

This research explored the relationship between service quality andcustomer loyalty in casinos. A newly developed scale named CASERV is used to measure casino service quality. Customer loyalty is operationalized into behavioural intentions and actual patronage. The results indicate that CASERV explains significant variance in casino player loyalty. In particular, casino environment and service delivery made substantial contribution to both dimensions of loyalty. When analysing the relationship separately for international and domestic customers, the findings show that casino service quality has little influence on customer actual patronage in the case of domestic customers. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

Catherine Prentice
Information Sharing Always Helps Team Decisions? The Hidden Profile Condition

Firms generally take the pool of information shared by team members as an advantage of teamwork in the decision-making process. Yet information sharing has not been as impactful under certain circumstances. Adopting the “hidden profile” paradigm, we examine the relationships between information sharing and team decisional outcomes. Specifically, we argue that information sharing benefits team decisional outcomes only when information is equally distributed among all decision makers in a team. When information is unequally distributed, it is not information sharing, but information use, that facilitates team decision making. Furthermore, our results show that the hidden profile problem aggravates in functionally diverse teams. Through this study, we suggest that information use is the ultimate gateway that leads decision makers to optimal decision outcomes.

Yazhen Xiao, Haisu Zhang, Timothy Basadur
Relationship Marketing in High Technology Based SMEs: A Customer Perspective

There has been much research already conducted with regard to Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) technology companies and their management techniques; however there is still a lack of studies focusing more specifically on relationship marketing in high-technology based SMEs. This study looks to expand the research carried out by Parry et al. (2011), which looked to develop an understanding of marketing and customer relationships in software SMEs. This paper will look most specifically at the clients of a high-technology based SME from South Wales as the importance of customer relationships in this context.

Juli James, Jonathan Deacon, Louisa Huxtable-Thomas
“Don’t Drink and Drive”: Can Sensory and Experiential Factors Influence Effectiveness of Alcohol Warning Messages?

Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 48 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion… In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. (CDC.gov report)

Courtney Szocs, Dipayan Biswas, Adilson Borges
How to Catch the Generation Y: Identifying Eco-Innovators Among Young Customers

In a world of limited natural resources, the need for ecological considerations in product development and consumption is obvious. The environmental impact of innovations are therefore of interest to research and practice. By developing new economical products, companies are able to gain competitive advantage and improve the corporate image. Further new market segments can be captured and ecological innovations have a positive impact on long term employment. Despite their economic and environmental relevance, the flop rate of innovations in general reaches alarming levels. The success of eco-innovations ultimately depends on the individual adoption decision of the customer. Hence, the question arises, why do eco-innovators adopt ecological innovations? To answer this question the two areas of consumer characteristics have to be taken into account: environmental consciousness and consumer innovativeness. Additionally, the present study focuses on the promising market segment of the younger consumers (generation Y) out of three reasons. Firstly, young consumers have a high spending power (Moses 2000) and they are willing and able to consume (Abela 2006). Secondly, young consumers are more open to innovative technologies (Steenkamp et al. 1999). And thirdly, younger consumers tend to be more aware of existing and upcoming environmental problems (Franzen and Meyer 2010). At a first glance the first and second reason seem to contradict the third one. The ability and willingness to gather material possessions (i.e., consumerism) has been seen as one of the antecedents of environmental problems. But if we do understand what triggers the adoption decision for an ecological innovation; the increasing green purchasing power of young consumers will be for the benefit of the environment and the society in general. To sum up, young consumers are future innovators, workers and consumers. Therefore, young consumers are a promising target group of eco-innovations. The present research sheds light on this target group by identifying factors that influence eco-innovativeness of the younger generation. We propose and empirically test an integrative model to explain innovativeness in the domain of ecological innovations. To test the theoretical model empirically a cross-sectional study is conducted. A paper and pencil survey was administered to 446 young consumers, which are between 18 and 29 years old. Structural equation modeling led to the result that joyful consumption is an important antecedent of domain-specific eco-innovativeness. Additionally, a biospheric value orientation leads to higher eco-innovativeness, whereas altruistic values reduce eco-innovativeness. The results show that practitioners and product designers have to take into account not only the benefit for nature but also the hedonic component of a new product.

Katja Soyez, Sebastian Gurtner
Design Effects on Findings in Simulations Comparing Formative and Reflective Measurement Specifications

In a highly-cited paper on formative measurement, Jarvis et al. (2003; henceforth JMP) use simulation results to argue that “misspecification of even one formatively measured construct within a typical structural equation model can have very serious consequences for the theoretical conclusions drawn from that model” (JMP, p. 212). Aguirre-Urreta and Marakas (2012; henceforth AUM) extend JMP’s simulations to focus on differences in the standardized structural coefficients between the formative and reflective specifications. They conclude “that a lack of attention to the metric of latent variables is responsible for the posited bias [from reflective analyses of formative measures], and when considering the relationships in their standardized form neither the direction nor the magnitude of relationships are biased to the degree previously discussed” (AUM, p. 124). They further note that “the consequences [of alternative measurement specifications] might not be as bleak and dire as previously thought” (AUM, p. 137). Jarvis et al. (2012, p. 144) respond “that the consequences of measurement model misspecification are exactly as dire as previously thought. Those consequences simply never had anything to do with the standardized parameter estimates.”The present study clarifies several issues in the debate between JMP and AUM. One especially important point is that differences in unstandardized estimates from formative and reflective specifications depend on the arbitrary metrics of the latent constructs. Standardizing the constructs to have unit variance facilitates comparison of the structural coefficients across measurement models, but other scalings could be used to make the differences as large or as small as desired. Therefore, “bias” in terms of the observed unstandardized coefficients is uninterpretable rather than “dire.” The study also shows that because reflective analyses use measure unreliability to disattenuate structural relationships between constructs, reflective specifications can magnify the correlation between other constructs in the model. The amount of magnification varies with the degree of measurement error (or inversely with the degree of reliability).Finally, the study explains why AUM observe a greater discrepancy between formative and reflective specifications when the construct involved is endogenous, which “increases as the intercorrelation among the formative items increases, a finding not reported in previous research” (AUM, p. 130). This result is an artefact of the simulation design, which forces uncorrelated indicators in the formative specification to be correlated in the reflective specification. An alternative and more justifiable specification of the formative model in the simulation design would not have produced this result when contrasted with the reflective specification (AUM; Cadogan and Lee 2012; Rigdon 2012).

George R. Franke, Woojung Chang, Nick Lee
The Impact of Market Orientation on Boundary-Spanning Employees

Sales positions typically have a higher level of employee turnover; it is not uncommon for companies to experience turnover rates of up to 50 % for new sales people over their first couple years (Futrell and Parasuraman 1984). This results in added costs to the firm in terms of lost productivity and training costs. In order to improve the financial performance of the sales force, sales managers (as well as human resource managers) are in search of ways to reduce employee turnover. Market orientation has typically been studied as an indicator of a firm’s commitment external customer relationships (Narver and Slater 1990; Kohli and Jaworski 1990) and has been repeatedly shown to have positive consequences as measured by metrics focused on external constituencies. However, market orientation has not been studied in terms of its impact on internal organizational relationships with the exception of Lings and Greenley (2009). This research proposes that market orientation should positively impact the internal marketing of an organization which will have a positive impact on boundary spanning employees. Drawing on job-demands resources theory (Demerouti et al. 2001) and theory of conservation of resources (Hobfoll 1988), this study develops a model which posits that increased market orientation has positive internal consequences in terms of reduced role stressors (both conflict and ambiguity), increased job satisfaction, and reduced turnover intentions for sales people who serve as the customer facing contact point. Also, this study proposes and investigates grit, defined as dedication in enduring long-term goals (Duckworth et al. 2007), as a moderator of the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Matthew A. Askew, David E. Fleming
Social Media and Customer Engagement: Dyadic Word-of-Mouth

According to Hansen et al. (2011), social media technologies have changed the nature of interactions between customers and companies, engendering radically new ways of interacting and, essentially, revolutionizing marketing. This revolution centers on the fact that current and potential customers are using social media to engage both companies and other consumers about products and services (Garretson 2008). In today’s world of electronic word-of-mouth, marketers must capture attention and also create continuing dyadic interactions via ongoing customer engagement. According to Mike DiLorenzo, director of social media marketing and strategy for the NHL, “Social networks aren’t about web sites. They’re about experiences” (Wyshynski 2009). The current research explores engagement in social networking sites through the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The findings from the descriptive research indicated that, simply put, engagement is defined as meaningful two-way communication. However, the desire to build relationships as the main motivation in engagement was not shown in the statistical analysis. The results showed that content is a more significant driver of engagement than is the desire to build a relationship. These findings are noteworthy for marketing professionals in that “content is king” when it comes to incentivizing users to engage.

William B. Hallock, Anne Roggeveen, Victoria L. Crittenden
An Empirical Investigation of Remote Mobile Payment Adoption

Despite being predicted to be one of the future’s most successful mobile services, mobile payments (MPs) have achieved limited acceptance in developed countries to date. Due to this limited success, examination of consumer adoption behavior is a key issue in order to provide important managerial information for the development and marketing of MP systems according to consumers’ needs. The imminent release of a central database for remote MP (RMP) in April 2014 by the UK Payments Council emphasizes the timeliness of this area. Currently MP research has largely ignored the variations between different MP solutions, has failed to compare factors affecting different user types, and no empirical research relating to MP adoption has been conducted in the context of the UK to date.This study applies the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) extended with perceived risk. The devised research model postulates that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived risk influence UK RMP users’ and non-users’ intentions to use, or continue using, the technology. In keeping with existing quantitative MP adoption research, a survey methodology employing a questionnaire as the data collection method was utilized. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted by utilizing AMOS Version 20.0 to examine the measurement model which was then followed by examination of the structural relationships. In order to compare the factors affecting users and non-users of RMP, multi-group moderation was undertaken.The model fit indices and standardized factor loadings determined a good measurement model (CMIN/DF 1.829; GFI 0.904; CFI 0.981, RMSEA 0.046; PCLOSE 0.812; standardized factor loadings ≥0.76). Whilst the findings of the structural model analysis revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived risk all significantly influenced non-users behavioral intention, only the effects of performance expectancy and perceived risk were significant for existing users of RMP. These findings support target market segmentation for RMP. Marketers should focus on emphasizing the utility and security of RMPs in communications with both current and potential users. Moreover, marketers should attempt to identify ‘opinion leaders’ in order to encourage positive word-of-mouth promotion, and emphasize the ease of using RMP, in communications with non-users of RMP.

Emma Slade, Yogesh Dwivedi, Michael Williams, Niall Piercy
Do Learning-Oriented Organizations Develop More Competitive Products? A Project-Level Exploration

New product development has been viewed by some scholars as a process of organizational learning comprehending the acquisition, dissemination, and utilization of information (Day 1994; Moorman 1995; Moorman and Miner 1997). New product development is based on discovery and creation processes, or generative learning (Moorman and Miner 1997) which is an outcome of a learning orientation (Baker and Sinkula 1999). In spite of its importance, the concept of a learning orientation has not been explored sufficiently in the new product development (NPD) context. This study aims to fill this void in the literature by theoretically exploring the link between organizational learning orientation and new product competitive advantage and the mediating effects of memory level and memory dispersion on this link at the NPD project level. The suggested research model was based on six hypotheses. According to the proposed model, learning-oriented organizations create strong organizational memories that lead to higher levels of new product competitive advantage.

Türkan Dursun-Kilic, Ceyhan Kilic
Trust, Conflicts, and Orientation Interact in Measuring Export Performance

Dynamic environments, especially that of the global arena, force firms to operate in condensed timeframes. Such constrains call at times for specific moves and strategies. One such case is when firms, usually small and resource-constrained such as Born Globals, approach foreign markets through the use of local intermediaries (e.g. distributors). Using such entry modes enables firms to create a rapid foothold in a large number of markets, but it may also lead to conflict between the partners and eventually damage the firm’s international performance. The purpose of this study is to examine firms’ interaction orientation and type of entry mode as antecedents of trust, and their impact on conflict arising from differences of opinion. The findings support the framework presented, indicating that conflicts result from lower levels of trust between the parties and also from the absence of expressed intentions regarding collaboration and sharing.

Kalanit Efrat
Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Social Media: A Conceptual Model

Women account for just under 50 % of the world’s population (UN 2010) at approximately 3.55 billion women. Though women represent almost half of the world, they do not comprise half of the world’s workforce. Worldwide, the percentage of women in the labor force varies widely, from a low of 12 % in Qatar to a high of 53 % in Mozambique (UN 2011). Women also ‘bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty,’ as they are more likely to be poor, suffer from hunger, deprived of healthcare, and denied basic rights in the workplace (UN Women 2013; OCED 2008). Not only are women more vulnerable, they are also less likely to have access to property and land (OECD 2008). Worldwide trends indicate that, in almost all cases, women are paid less than men, with the 2008 wage gap average holding at approximately 17 % (UN Women 2013). For example, the United Nations reports that, across 68 studied countries (with the exception of Qatar, the Isle of Man, and Paraguay), women in the manufacturing sector earn less than average when compared to men (UN 2011). Additionally, women are relatively overrepresented in lower-paying and more intensive jobs, such as domestic service, agricultural production and manufacturing of clothing and household goods, and are more likely to work part-time in comparison with men (OECD 2008). Further, wage gaps are most disparate for management positions (OECD 2008). Finally, women spend more hours working per day and carry the bulk of the workload in family life worldwide (UN 2010). Nonetheless, there are indications that greater access to economic opportunities, such as increasing workforce participation, can have a positive impact on poverty reduction in low-income economies. One way to improve access to economic opportunities for women is to increase their entrepreneurial activities. With an estimated 224 million women globally starting or running their own businesses (Kelley et al. 2012), there is tremendous opportunity to improve worldwide economic conditions through a better understanding of the tools that empower these women entrepreneurs. One of these tools is social media. This paper develops a conceptual model of the role social media can play in increasing empowerment of female entrepreneurs.

Haya Ajjan, Stefanie Beninger, Rania Mostafa, Victoria L. Crittenden
Drivers of Inter-organizational Trust in Buyer-Seller Relationships: A fsQCA Analysis

Inter-organizational trust is a key characteristic of buyer-seller relationships (Handfield and Bechtel 2002; Kwon and Suh 2004). This paper investigates the drivers of buyer and seller inter-organizational trust. Previous studies have attempted to investigate the drivers of inter-organizational trust. However, these studies are dominantly based on monadic data collection. Furthermore, most of these studies base their research designs on either traditional case analysis, or use correlation-based statistical techniques to test the suggested antecedents. The former approach relies on very small sample sizes, which does not provide the basis for generating generalizeable conclusions. The latter approach neglects and overlooks identifying equifinal configurations and distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions driving buyer-seller relationship outcomes. This study addresses these shortcomings. This is done by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). FsQCA is fundamentally set-theoretic and uses Boolean algebra to compare qualitatively evaluated attributes of social phenomena (Ragin 2000; Fiss 2007). We include relationship-specific investments (RSI), the role of inter-personal trust, the perception of the business partner’s opportunistic behavior, as well as outcomes of the relationship as conditions driving inter-organizational trust. We use a dyadic research design, which allows for an examination of configurations of important conditions of buyer’s as well as seller’s inter-organizational trust with data collected from the pertinent party.Main findings of the study are that (seller’s) RSI and inter-personal trust are not sufficient by themselves to induce the buyer’s inter-organizational trust; the causal configuration seen most often is outcome (buyer’s relationship performance) driven when there is also no opportunism. In cases where RSI drives inter-organizational trust, this must be complemented by the absence of opportunism or by inter-personal trust. Furthermore, the presence of opportunism alone does not drive the absence of inter-organizational trust, it needs to be complemented by a lack of inter-personal trust. Alternatively, combinations of other conditions can result in the same absence of inter-organizational trust, however, no mono-causal driver can be found. Regarding the seller’s inter-organizational trust the impact of inter-personal trust is more profound. However, that must also be combined with either absence of opportunistic behavior or relationship performance. The most often observed combination is based on the presence of inter-personal trust and absence of opportunistic behavior (both as core conditions) complemented by relationship performance (as the secondary condition). The buyer’s RSI acts as a peripheral condition. In terms of non-existence of seller’s inter-organizational trust, absence of inter-personal trust is the key. However, that also combined with buyer’s opportunistic behavior or absence of relationship performance (as secondary conditions) is effective. This enlightens our understanding of buyer-seller relationships and contradicts a body of the literature which rests heavily on regression-based statistics and demands that every antecedent meets statistical significance criteria.

Bahar Ashnai, Stephan C. Henneberg, Peter Naudé
Consumers’ Role in Value Co-creation Through Participation and Knowledge: A Healthcare Perspective

Previous studies have only focused on consumer participation as part of the consumers’ role in engaging in service delivery. Yet, what is unknown is whether the level of resources or knowledge and skills across services, customers and situations influence the co-creation of the consumer. From a service-dominant logic perspective, the purpose of this research is to expand the literature on consumers’ role in service delivery by exploring value co-creation in low versus high knowledge context in healthcare experiences. As a co-creator of value (Vargo and Lusch 2008), the author proposes that the higher the level of participation and level of operant resources a consumer contributes, the higher degree of value co-creation. Thus, a theoretical framework is put forth for value co-creation in low versus high knowledge situations with the level of participation and operant resources of a consumer.

Joanne M. Tran
Consumer-Brand Engagement: Toward a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework

Consumer-brand engagement (CBE) is a recent concept in the marketing literature expanding the domain of relationship marketing. CBE has been seen by both academics and practitioners as a fundamental driver of the consumer decision-making process. Our study was aimed at drafting a first ecological foundation of the CBE construct. Our research aims were: (1) to identify the constitutive dimensions of CBE and how they relate with one another (i.e. social interactions; emotional and cognitive clues; brand-related behaviors) from a twofold consumers’ and practitioners’ perspective; (2) to detect the evolutionary phases of the CBE process. Our findings reveal that, to become “engaging” a brand should be carrier of a meaningful psychological bond thanks to the synergistic interlacement of four experiential dimensions: hedonic, existential, eudaimonic and interpersonal. These four experiential dimensions are crucial to allow for the building of a “covenant” between consumers and their brands that triggers a CBE bond. The nature and the emotional essence of this covenant seems to evolve with the time passing by and the increase in the touch-points between consumers and brands. More specifically, the CBE experience seems to develop in three subsequent phases, marked by the progressive synergistic intensification of the four experiential dimensions.

Guendalina Graffigna, Rossella C. Gambetti
Less Risk, More Fun? The Role of Ownership Risk Perception for Access-Based Service Value Perception and Usage

Services that give customers access to goods, such as car sharing, bike sharing, or rental platforms for fashion items or tools, have been receiving an increasing attention as an alternative to ownership (e.g., Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012; Botsman and Rogers 2010; Gansky 2010; Moeller and Wittkowski 2010). As Lovelock and Gummesson (2004, p. 34) note, such “marketing transactions that do not involve a transfer of ownership are distinctively different from those that do.” This is mainly due to customers neither acquiring full property rights to the accessed product nor the risks and responsibilities attached to ownership (Moeller and Wittkowski 2010; Wirtz and Ehret 2009), but rather engaging in “a temporary and circumstantial consumption context” (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012, p. 882). However, the connection between the “burdens of ownership (Berry and Maricle 1973) – i.e., risks and responsibilities that come with owning a good – and the evaluation as well as the usage of access-based services has not been sufficiently investigated. Based on risk perception theory (Mitchell 1999), we hypothesize the effects of different risk dimensions (financial, performance, social) on the utilitarian and hedonic value of an access-based service as well as its actual usage. Using a unique dataset that links survey and actual usage data of car sharing users, we test seven corresponding hypotheses. The results reveal that the value and the usage of an access-based service are influenced by consumers’ risk perception of ownership. While the utilitarian value of an access-based service is positively influenced by financial and performance risk, the hedonic value is driven by performance and social risk; access-based service usage is positively influenced by financial and social risk as well as the service’s utilitarian value. On a theoretical level our study contributes to the growing research on access-based consumption by advancing the understanding of consumers’ decision processes and usage patterns. Moreover, several managerial implications can be derived from our research results. For instance, companies should highlight the social risk of ownership and highlight the temporary and experiential nature of their access-based services.

Tobias Schaefers, Stephanie J. Lawson
Extended Stakeholder Orientation: Influence on Innovation and Firm Performance

Stakeholder theory and market orientation both provide valuable insights to researchers and managers alike on fundamentals related to sustainable competitive advantage (Grinstein 2008a; Grinstein and Goldman 2011; Kirca et al. 2005; Laplume et al. 2008). Market orientation, where orientation is defined collectively as the culture, policies, organization and management practices within a firm (Ferrell et al. 2010), views customers and competitors as core stakeholders (Narver and Slater 1990), while stakeholder theory suggests a broader focus to include two more groups as core stakeholders: employees and shareholders. Scholars suggest that a broader stakeholder focus can enhance our understanding of the drivers necessary for sustainable firm performance (Maignan et al. 2011; Matsuno et al. 2000). Extended stakeholder orientation (XSO) is conceptualized here as an integrative approach that responds to calls to investigate market orientation and stakeholder theory (Ferrell et al. 2010; Narver and Slater 1990). The second order XSO construct is composed of orientations to core or ‘essential’ stakeholders – customers, competitors, employees and shareholders (Greenley et al. 2005; Yau et al. 2007). XSO includes embedded proactive considerations for each stakeholder in accord with suggestions by Narver et al. (2004). Additionally, amid market and technological turbulence virtually dictating the need for innovation (Christensen et al. 1998), this study also develops an innovation orientation scale to investigate the relationship of stakeholder orientation to innovation orientation. We conducted two pilot studies (n = 400) for an exploratory factor analysis which yielded scales for responsive and proactive customer, competitor, employee and shareholder orientations. A separate sample (n = 360) was obtained from across the USA in diversified industries with public and private companies ranging from small to large corporations to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis. Results were encouraging based on CB-SEM analysis. Model fit parameters were within guidelines and results significant at the p < .001 level (Hair et al. 2010). We found XSO is positively correlated to firm performance with 60 % variance explained. XSO is also positively correlated to innovation orientation which acts as a partial mediator to firm performance. In summary this empirical study shows extended stakeholder orientation is key to firm performance and innovation. The implication for management practice is that proactive considerations and a balanced approach to core stakeholders should be integral to the firm. For researchers the study provides a baseline to further investigate salience of stakeholders and interactive effects among them. Moreover, alternative analytical methods such as PLS-SEM may provide additional insights since CB-SEM overall model fit requirements may tend to result in elimination of otherwise important content (Binz et al. 2014).

Vijay K. Patel, Joseph F. Hair, Torsten Pieper
Understanding B2B Relationships Between an Open-Source Firm and Application Developers: Sharing Profits from Applications and In-Application Advertisements

Recently, an open-source strategy has received considerable attention among for-profit organizations. In open-source projects, such as Google’s Android project, an open-source firm (e.g., Google) takes a portion of profits that its partners (e.g., application developers) earn from selling application and in-application advertisements. However, such a use of profit-sharing scheme and the role of in-application advertisements as a source of profits have not been well-studied in the literature on open-source strategy. Thus, we propose a mathematical model to understand how the profit-sharing percentage that an open-source firm takes from application developers affects profits of the open-source firm from applications and in-application advertisements. Our proposed model shows that (1) the size of the user network (e.g., the number of Android users) plays a more important role in generating profits from advertisements than those from applications and (2) the open-source firm may experience a decline in its profit by increasing its own profit share percentage too much.

Nobuyuki Fukawa, Yanzhi Zhang
Not All Image the Same: Institutional Antecedents and Brand Implication of Country Image

The effect of distance on a consumer’s perception of a foreign country is yet to be concluded. Although country image, or country of origin, has been a hot topic in the fields of international business and marketing for several decades, scant attention has been paid to its institutional antecedents. By introducing institutional distance as an antecedent of country image, this paper differentiate the three dimensions of country image and find that technological country image is negatively related to institutional distance, that economical country image is not related to institutional distance, and that political distance is positively related to institutional distance. The same patterns of results are seen in three dimensions relationships with brand recognition. Beyond these interesting findings, we further discuss the conditional effect of global identity and product involvement on the relationship between institutional distance and country image. Both global identity and product involvement are found to negatively moderate the magnitude of institutional distance’s effect on country image. Further discussion and research direction are provided.

Jieqiong (Jeccy) Ma, Jie Yang, Alex Giovanoni
Relationship Commitment and Trust in Inter-organizational Networks

Inter-organizational networks are important business-to-business marketing relationships composed of two or more organizations that uniquely combine inter-firm resources and core capabilities to enhance performance and ultimately create a mutual competitive advantage (Barney 1991; Mintzberg et al. 2008; Powell 1990; Ring and Van de Ven 1994). In response to competitive pressures, inter-organizational networks are replacing vertically integrated, multi-divisional organizations as a strategy to compete through collaboration (Achrol 1997; Bleeke and Ernst 1993; Weber and Khademian 2008). Such networks knit together specialized organizations in on-going, collaborative exchange relationships to competitively position organizations within the market. The literature indicates that relationship commitment and trust are essential to participation in inter-organizational networks; however, this perspective has not been addressed from the standpoint of a testable research framework.The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing (Morgan and Hunt 1994) provides a framework for exploring the interdependency and reciprocity inherent in exchange relationships and can be extended to inter-organizational networks. Fundamentally, inter-organizational networks seek to capture strengths from exchange members and synergistically enhance efficiency and effectiveness (Brass et al. 2004). Together, relationship commitment and trust lead to cooperation (Morgan and Hunt 1994) that in turn allows organizations to efficiently and effectively respond to and compete in the global marketplace (Newell and Swan 2000; Zaheer et al. 2010; Zaheer and Harris 2005). Commitment-trust theory and the relationship marketing literature provide a useful conceptual framework for exploring the antecedents to participation in inter-organizational relationships and the mediating effect of relationship commitment and trust on participation.This paper contributes to the literature by extending the commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing (Morgan and Hunt 1994) to inter-organizational networks. Specifically, this paper provides a research framework that identifies antecedents and consequences of relationship commitment and trust related to participation in inter-organizational networks. Propositions are developed and future research directions are provided. The model serves as a framework for testing these relationships in the near future using a high-involvement service setting.

Kimberly S. Davey, Thomas L. Powers
Consumer Product Evaluation Updating: The Impact of Online and Interpersonal Social Influence on Evaluation Certainty

With the ever growing reliance on the Internet as a critical source of consumer information, there have been calls to continue to explore the impact of digital information on consumer choice and decision-making. The research fulfills the call in part by investigating the roles of online social influence (OSI) and interpersonal social influence (ISI) on consumer product-related attitudes and evaluations. The authors propose that, when consumers seek information regarding products, they form an initial product-related attitude (i.e. evaluation) of the object, and subsequently update or validate this evaluation as more information is received from sources of social influence. More specifically, it is suggested that the certainty with which they hold this product evaluation changes based on the match between existing product attitudes and incoming information. We review the existing literature on attitude certainty and online and interpersonal influence to present three hypotheses regarding the proposed process of product evaluation updating. This research provides many potential contributions to the retail marketing and consumer behavior literature. First, this work begins to integrate consumer influence from an online setting with interpersonal influence to determine the impact of such influence on product-related attitudes. By suggesting that these forms of influence interact to impact the certainty of product-related attitudes, the current research adds depth to existing literature regarding the antecedents and consequences of attitude certainty. We further explore the power of social influence in its various mediums and how this influence affects the intention and behavior of consumers in an online retail setting. The current research has implications for the manner in which online retailers present their product information and connect consumers through user reviews of products by suggesting that higher quality and more personalized information from these various sources will impact the certainty with which product evaluations are held.

R. Bret Leary, Richard J. Vann, Mya Pronschinske Groza
Pronouns and Pro Sports: The Linguistics Behind Social Media Marketing

Effective sports marketing must convey information to fans. The marketer has only some control over events, and the manager must work with each day’s developments, but subtle cues in the marketing message may result in different interpretations and have strong ties to psychological processes. Social media share characteristics such as instantaneous communication, interactivity, and democracy of content (often without editors), which allows some flexibility for the marketer but also the potential for different cues to be passed on to fans. The paper reviews the effects of pronouns within the context of the messages and shows the differences in pronoun and article usage, and potential effects on behavior, among various sports organizations.

Christopher Lee, Lynn Kahle
The Role of Gender in Co-branding Strategies of Hi-Tech Brands and Luxury

The aim of this study is to analyze the different components of consumers’ attitude (cognitive and affective components) towards co-branded products. We compare the consumer behavior from gender differences. Several marketing studies have discussed how gender differentiates and influences consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Our attention to HLCPs is mainly due to the fact that they represent an interesting case of brands that are characterized by both functional attributes in which cognitive aspects are predominant, and symbolic attributes where affective aspects are key. Provided that men and women seem to assign different importance to both aspects, HLCPs represent a perfect setting to explore the differences in consumer behavior between men and women.The empirical analysis has been conducted by means of a survey with genuine products, “Samsung Giorgio Armani” and “LG Prada” cell phones. Participants for this study were undergraduate students from one major university in Spain (493 respondents in total, Male: 193; Female: 300). We adopt ANOVA (analyses of variance) to test our hypotheses. Based on the ABC model of attitudes, the three components of consumer attitude – affect, cognitive and behavioral intention – are individually affected by four factors, Attitude toward luxury goods, Product fit, Band fit, and Acceptance of high-tech products. In order to obtain results that can give more detailed and interesting results, we performed twelve 2 (gender: male, female) × 2 (factors: high, low) ANOVA tests. We sorted the four factors into high and low, with respect to the median of the sum of the items. The empirical results show two significant interaction effects of gender differences with (1) product fit and (2) acceptance of high-tech products. Male consumers’ recommendation to buy is higher when their acceptance of high-tech products and the perceived level of product fit are higher.Concerning the results which present significant interaction effect, gender only plays an interacting role in the relationships between (1) product fit and recommendation to buy, and (2) acceptance of high-tech products and recommendation to buy. In the case of product fit, high product fit is more critical in order to attract male consumers than female consumers to recommend others to buy HLCPs.

Nora Lado, Fabrizio Cesaroni, Han-Chiang Ho, Ludovica Cesareo
Consumer Involvement in Nutrition: The Effect of Regulatory Focus

Little research has examined the determinants of consumer involvement in nutrition. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the effect of regulatory focus on consumer involvement in nutrition. The fundamental motivational differences that the regulatory focus theory discusses (Higgins 1997) can explain consumer behavior in the domain of health and nutrition. It is proposed that promotion focus is positively related to consumers’ involvement in nutrition and prevention focus is not related to consumers’ involvement in nutrition. In addition, it is proposed that gender moderates the effect of promotional focus on involvement in nutrition such that the effect is stronger among males, compared to females. The hypotheses were tested in a national level study conducted in Taiwan. Data were collected from 1,125 adults aged 20–64. Nutrition involvement was measured using the five item scale proposed by Chandon and Wansink (2007). Promotion and prevention focus were measured using the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) (Higgins et al. 2001). Hypotheses were tested by regressing promotion, prevention and the product of promotion and gender on nutrition involvement. The model supports the hypotheses (Adj. R squared = .03; Promotion − beta = .17; p = .00; Prevention − beta = −.03; p = .33; Gender × Promotion − beta = −.08; p = .01; Gender was coded as females = 2, males = 1). The study, thus, found that promotion focus leads to nutritional involvement and that prevention focus is not related to nutritional involvement. Gender moderates the effect of promotion focus on nutritional involvement. The results of this study points to the potential applicability of the regulatory focus theory to the study of a range of issues that impacts marketing and public policy.

Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai, Yong-Siang Liang, Des Thwaites
What Drives Anti-brand Community Behaviours: An Examination of Online Hate of Technology Brands

As the phenomenon of anti-branding is fast expanding, consumers are increasingly engaging in active brand rejection behaviours, one of which is the participation in anti-brand communities. Little is known about these groups of consumer activists, who seem highly popular, especially in online contexts. Focusing on communities targeting multinationals in the technology industry, this study explores the drivers of anti-brand community participation. Data collected from 307 anti-brand community members reveal that the key drivers of community participation are brand material value, oppositional attitudinal loyalty, negative brand relationship and collective memory, through the mediating effect of community engagement and identification, and social approval. These findings provide illuminating insight for the targeted brands, their competitors, and the community managers.

Laurence Dessart, Anna Morgan-Thomas, Cleopatra Veloutsou
Compulsive Buying Behavior: Relationship with Impulse Buying and a Proposed Model of Antecedents

The paper highlights key research findings regarding compulsive buying behavior and aims at describing the relationship between compulsive buying and an alternative buying phenomenon, i.e. impulse buying. These nonstandard buying behaviors are frequently found alongside each other in consumer research literature. Two common views of the relationship between compulsive buying and impulse buying are discussed and combined to form a hybrid conceptualization. Impulse buying is conceived to be associated with positive affective states, while compulsive buying is primarily driven by negative affect and characterized by an increasing loss of consumer self-control. A proposed model of compulsive buying antecedents is offered based on escape theory and some key findings in research. Higher levels of consumer depression, greater materialistic values, lower self-esteem, greater abilities to fantasize and tendencies to impulse buy, and higher levels of anxiety and obsessive-compulsiveness are all suggested to have direct, positive correlations with compulsive buying behavior.

Aadel A. Darrat
Moderating Effects of Psychic Distance on the Gaps Model of Service Quality

This research proposal seeks to compare marketing aspects of private primary and secondary education institutions in both the United States and China. The present proposal is a follow up to unpublished research conducted in China in 2009. The previous work involved a 145-question survey completed by 18 member schools of the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS). Part of the survey was a Service Quality Gaps Model Audit (Zeithaml et al. 2008), which measures five different problems in service delivery.

Michael Frechette, Wootae Chun, Tim Aubuchon
Towards a New Hierarchy of Personal Values: Activating Values in Biculturals Through Language

The modern world is a cultural mosaic, and many people continue to move across borders, contributing more and more to this ongoing process. This reality increases levels of diversity and cultural innovation around the world and also develops biculturalism, which is the internalization of two different cultures. So how can the use of different languages influence the way biculturals judge themselves? This study aims to study personal values in an innovative way, proposing that values are not very stable as proposed in the main theory about this construct. The results of a field experiment show that Brazilian-Argentine biculturals can ‘slide’ between self-enhancing and self-transcendence value’s dimensions according to the language they are dealing with.

Felipe Pantoja, Walter Meucci Nique, Adilson Borges, Patricia da Camara Rossi
Reestablishing Intrapersonal Balance Through Restoration: An Integrated Framework to Escape Dissonance

The shift towards a higher level of societies’ environmental concern has been mirrored in the increasing number of research studies conducted within an environmental context. Yet, the research is at times not well developed theoretically, leading to the need for an expansion of marketing thought to incorporate environmental responsibility within established theories used in the discipline. The current conceptual research study is a direct response to this request by proposing an integrative framework that incorporates six commonly applied theoretical constructs within the marketing literature: balance theory, social comparison theory, cognitive dissonance, escape theory, restoration theory, and negative self-conscious emotions. Balance theory is adapted to an overarching umbrella that interconnects various concepts into one comprehensive framework, which is put forward within the context of environmentalism and ecological behavior. This study extends the scope of social comparison theory by arguing that social competition is not the only behavioral outcome of social comparison as behavior can also be tailored towards reestablishing an intrapersonal balance. In addition, restorative behavior is adjusted to incorporate ecological and environmentally conscious behavior, a concept not introduced into the literature up to this point. Finally, balance theory was conceptualized with a more significant focus on the internal balance within humans instead of focusing on the balance among triadic relationships. Overall, the proposed framework’s main contribution is its flexibility as it warrants to be extended to different contexts beyond environmental consciousness and ecological behavior. Thus, it is a relatively general theoretical construct. Indeed, individuals experience social comparison in nearly every aspect of their life. Marketing research addresses social comparison in contexts ranging from reactions to models in advertising to encounters with service providers. Lastly, the integrative framework and the accompanying propositions are expected to result in an identification of additional significant factors that will allow the casual explanation of ecological behavior.

Nina Krey
Brand Orientation and Service Quality in Online and Offl ine Environment: An Empirical Examination

This study aims to examine the relationship between perceived brand orientation and service quality in online and offline education context. Four hundred and seventy-six questionnaires were completed by undergraduate students of a particular university in Australia. Structural equation modeling was employed in this study to examine the associations between perceived brand orientation (PBO) and service quality (SERVQUAL). This study provides empirical evidence that perceived brand orientation has a positive and significant relationship with service quality in both online and offline course delivery. The ‘interaction’ dimension of PBO is significantly related to all elements of SERVQUAL in both sample groups, whereas the ‘affect’ dimension is only significantly related to the ‘tangibles’ dimension in the online sample groups, and not significantly related to any SERVQUAL elements in the offline sample groups.

Riza Casidy
Saturated Nation in Social Networking Sites; An Examination of the Negative Effect of Facebook’s Brand Communities on Brand-Consumer Relationship

Social media today is highly sought after by marketers as it is being hailed as the turning point in how brands will be marketed (Owyang et al. 2009; Qualman 2010; Li and Bernoff 2011). Nonetheless, a careful evaluation needs to be done on the issues and risks this social platform presents as people are becoming overwhelmed with the fast paced society and its faster information production and distribution (Shenk 2003). Saturation, referred to as a communication overload (Shaw 1976), is one aspect of social networking sites’ risks that can negatively affect the brand-consumer relationship. Saturation is driven by information quantity (Streufert and Driver 1967; Jacoby 1977; Kerr and Hiltz 1982; Hiltz and Turrof 1985; Johnson 1998; Shenk 2003), the number of the channels or communities people engage in (Power and Wren 2011) and subsequently the limit to the number of online social relationships consumers can maintain with other members or brands at any given time (Buys and Larsen 1979; Dunbar 1993).

Zahy Ramadan, Ibrahim Abosag
Decomposing Risk Perceptions in Inter-organizational Settings

Despite the rapid growth and potential for technology-based services from a technology and productivity perspective, the biggest challenges that managers often face are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self‐service technology show that the perceived risk is an important factor influencing the usage of service technology. Whereas research has explored different risk types that emerge in consumer settings such as functional and psychological risk, research on risk perception in B2B setting still lacks a detailed examination of the different facets risk can take on in technology-based service adoption. Some studies indicate that there might be different views and perceptions of the risk involved in technology-based services between customers and providers. Our study addresses this gap and aims to develop a holistic understanding of the types of risk customers perceive when using a technology-based service. We investigate what types of risk are emergent in technology-based service encounters and whether customers and providers perceive these risks differently. We conducted 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two industries in four countries. Our study emphasizes the importance of functional and financial risks as expected in a B2B context, but also sheds light on the fact that business customers have personal and psychological fears that hinder them from using technology-based services. Most importantly, we show that gaps in the perception and evaluation of risk exist between customers and providers: customers doubt the functionality of technology-based services; they emphasize privacy risk as a main hindrance and worry about their own role in a service, whereas only few providers are aware of the customers’ fears.

Stefanie Paluch, Nancy Wuenderlich
Improving the Effectiveness of Nutritional Labeling: The Role of Color

Overweight and obesity rates are increasing worldwide. Public authorities tackle this problem by developing interventions that help people to adopt healthier eating habits. One of these interventions is providing information in the form of nutritional labels. This study claims that the use of colors on nutritional label’s background might help consumers to choose healthier options. Results suggest that using red background increases willingness to pay (W2P) and purchase intention of a non-healthy product. Contrarily, using blue background has a reversed effect (i.e. reduces W2P and purchase intentions). Findings suggest that a blue background on nutritional labels may stimulate healthier behavior.

Felipe Pantoja, Patricia da Camara Rossi, Adilson Borges
This Cannot Be a Private Label: Effects of Private Labels on Consumer Sensory Evaluation

Despite the growing number of premium private labels, many consumers still perceive these products as cheaper substitutes for national brands. This paper proposes a boundary condition for this phenomenon by examining the moderating role of brand disclosure in the relationship between brand label (national brand vs. private label) and sensory evaluation for different product categories. Results show that brand disclosure can reverse consumer sensory evaluation, demonstrating a negative perceptual bias against private labels. When consumers are informed of brand label, national brands taste better than private labels; however, results reverse in blind tests. This paper explores possible strategies for retailers to deal with the gap between private labels and national brands.

Patricia da Camara Rossi, Adilson Borges, Felipe Pantoja
Understanding Conditions of Sales Force Frustration

This article attempts to advance the personal selling and sales management literature by analyzing the negative consequences that may emanate from salespeople’s daily work experiences. The overall purpose of this article is to detect holistic workplace conditions, which result in frustration experiences in the sales force. Frustration is associated with an emotional reaction caused by an event or situation that interferes with an individual’s ability to accomplish his or her day-to-day duties effectively (Keenan and Newton 1984; Spector 1999). Drawing on role theory and social identity theory, and based on previous empirical research on sales management, we focus on two major sets of factors when seeking to explain conditions resulting in frustration in the sales force. Specifically, the objective of this article is to examine how salespeople’s perceptions of role stress (Singh et al. 1994), that is, role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload, and social conflict (Spector 1987), that is, intragroup conflict, intergroup conflict, and supervisor conflict, influence the development of frustration in the workplace.This study proposes that the extent to which salespeople experience frustration at work differs based on the degree to which their work conditions are characterized by role stress and social conflicts. This notion implies that role stressors and social conflicts combine to constellations of work environments, which result in sales force frustration. In addition, this notion implies that the presence of single frustrators may not necessarily lead to frustration. However, the existence of multiple combined factors in a work environment may unleash the effects of single frustrators and by so doing increase the experience of frustration. The question that arises is: What do such constellations of work environments look like? To answer this question, we employed a fuzzy set approach and analyzed the higher-order interactions between role stressors and social conflicts to understand frustration in the sales force.Data were collected in a web-based survey with salespeople from multiple firms. In sum, 118 respondents participated in the survey. Data analysis started with the estimation of the measurement model. After that, we performed a fsQCA using the fs/QCA software program (Ragin et al. 2007). The results from this study reveal four configurations of factors leading to sales force frustration that differ to the extent to which dimensions of role stress and social conflict exist. Coverage values for these configurations reveal an overall value of the combined configurations of 59 %, which indicates that a substantial proportion of the outcome is ‘explained’ by the four configurations. In addition, the results reveal that supervisor conflict appears to be one of the most critical factors resulting in sales force frustration as it is a core factor in three of the four configurations. In sum, this study shows that frustration is likely to occur in situations where both perceptions of role stress and social conflict combine to workplace situations which overwhelm salespeople.

Alexander Leischnig, Bjoern Ivens, Stephan C. Henneberg, Bahar Ashnai
White Lies and Pardons: The Role of Consumer Forgiveness in Relationships with Service Providers

This paper investigates what happens in a consumer/service provider relationship when the provider intentionally deceives the customer. More concretely, the current research explores how consumers react to different levels of deception on the part of the service provider. Furthermore, how does the consumers relationship with the brand impact how they respond to the deception? After experiencing a significant deception, is the committed consumer more likely to forgive the provider with whom they have a strong relationship, or will a stronger relationship result in a more pronounced perception of betrayal and thus cause a greater negative response between the customer and the firm? Results indicate that those who were devoted to the relationship did indeed not display negative psychological effects or generate negative firm attitudes after a firm significantly misbehaved. On the other hand, those less devoted reported a decrease in attitude toward the brand and suffered increased negative mood following the bad behavior. This pattern fits with the idea that individuals often treat their preferred brands as relationship partners.

Kevin Lehnert, Christian Hinsch
Student Perceptions on Classroom to Corporation Transitional Marketing Activities

The competition for students to land a full-time position in marketing is challenging. As such, the collegiate marketing curriculum should include activities that prepare students for the professional workplace and that build resume credentials beyond a college degree. Applying course concepts in a professional setting also assists students in connecting theory and practice. Initiatives that adequately equip students with professional skills and experiences that make them attractive job applicants are critical in marketing where the demands for competency and execution are high (Schlee and Harich 2010).

Brian A. Vander Schee
The Relationship Between Materialism and Environmental Consciousness: A Multilevel Analysis

Based on the assumption that materialistic values may be an important cause for overconsumption and thus contribute to the depletion of natural resources, this research investigates the relationship between materialism and environmental consciousness using a publically-available, large-scale sample of 63,077 consumers in 49 countries. Results of a multilevel analysis suggest that there is a significant amount of heterogeneity in the relationship between materialistic values and consumers’ willingness to give part of their income for the environment. Specifically, we find a statistically significant influence of materialistic values on willingness to give money for the environment in countries with a high GDP per capita, individualistic countries, and countries with a low level of power distance (e.g., β = .256 for Switzerland, β = .243 for New Zealand, β = .214 for Australia, β = .208 for Sweden, and β = .204 for Germany). On the other hand, this relationship is non-significant for countries with a lower GDP per capita, less individualistic countries, and countries with a high level of power distance (e.g. China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mexico, and Thailand). The implications of these findings are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.

Reto Felix, Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez, Arne Baruca
Network Development: An Exploration of a Collector Community

Increasingly consumers participate in virtual communities to share and exchange their knowledge and experiences. Through interaction in this virtual setting, relationships are established as members develop an understanding of communal norms, values and practices. Virtual communities thus contribute to consumption culture, justifying a better understanding of participation and interactions, and its impact on consumers. The reciprocal relations along with member conflicts are inherent aspects of virtual community culture that arise from shifts in power. How individuals participate and interact with other virtual community members has been substantially studied across e-marketing, consumer behavior and communication research. Drawing from concepts and theories outside of these research disciplines, this study extends existing thinking by exploring the development of networks in light of reciprocal relations, member tension and conflict, influenced by the characteristics of the virtual community and its focal consumption activity.The Industrial Marketing Purchasing (IMP) Group, this study considers the influence of the characteristics of the environment (i.e. the virtual community), exchange processes (i.e. the cooperative and competitive behaviors of members), and network positions (i.e. member roles and hierarchies) on how networks of members are formed and structured is also explored. The depth of understanding on network development from the IMP Group is particularly insightful for this study into virtual communities consisting of complex webs of interactions.Netnographic and ethnographic research techniques conducted by one of the authors over a 15-month period informs the findings of the study. WatchZone, the pseudonym for an internationally renowned virtual luxury-timepiece collector community was chosen as the research site. The focal consumption activity; the collecting of luxury time pieces meant that interactions between members had depth, as WatchZone is an information source to gain intricate details. Through the use of offline and online interviews, participant observation and lurking, active participation (both online and offline) and copious field notes lead to a data set that provided rich insights into WatchZone.The development of networks within WatchZone is clearly influenced by the following factors: the characteristics of WatchZone; cooperative and competitive behaviours; members’ involvement and participation in the community; and the exchange that occurs through communal activities are emergent themes. On the surface, the interaction in the form of participation in communal practices and activities often leads to a member’s affiliation to the community. Whilst on a deeper level, the characteristics of the WatchZone community, the involvement and participation of members, the types of exchange and interaction processes concerning trust, cooperation and competition demonstrate that the formation and development of virtual networks is multifaceted.

Navdeep Athwal, David Arnott, Sue Bridgewater
A Little Bit Goes a Long Way: How Hotels Increase Loyalty from Social Media Communication

Customer loyalty has become a major source of competitive advantage for many businesses. The goal of our study was to determine the impact of social media communication on hotel program loyalty. We contend that social media communication style and information quality will impact consumer social media behavior which will in turn lead to increased loyalty to hotel reward programs. Utilizing an online random sample of 575 participants, our study determines that communication style and information quality are important to engaging members in social media behaviors. By having members engage in social media behavior, they will increase the benefits (knowledge/education) from C2C communication as well as experience other benefits such as enjoyment.The goal of our study is to determine the impact of social media communication on hotel program loyalty. We contend that social media communication style and information quality will impact consumer social media behavior which will in turn lead to increased loyalty to hotel retention programs.Loyalty programs provide both psychological and economic value to program members. Earning rewards gives consumers a sense of appreciation and recognition. This psychological experience increases the transaction utility of a purchase and the likelihood of continuing the relationship (Lemon et al. 2002). Furthermore, it increases the overall value perception of staying in the relationship by feeling important (Bitner 1995). An additional psychological benefit of loyalty programs includes the opportunity to indulge in guilt-free luxuries (Liu 2007). Economic value is provided by the rewards that are offered to members for repeat purchase behavior. These rewards positively reinforce repeat purchase behavior and condition the customers to continue doing business with the company.Businesses which actively take part in increasing social media communication with consumers will see increases in behaviors and such increases should ultimately impact loyalty. This study has shown that communication style and information quality are important to engaging members in social media behaviors. By having members engage in social media behavior they will increase the benefits (knowledge/education) from C2C communication as well as experience other benefits such as enjoyment.

Orie Berezan, Anjala S. Krishen, Carola Raab
Control Creates Comfort: The Importance of Proactive Response to Privacy Concerns

Recent marketing essays emphasize the need for the marketing discipline to encompass more than merely solving immediate problems with a narrow focus on consumers and mandate a broadening of the field to include value creation for all citizen-consumers. We provide a mixed methods approach and contribute to the privacy theory literature by examining important attitudinal components, within a broader citizen-consumer ‘marketing as society’ context. Study 1 qualitatively analyzes a total of 332 citizen comments collected during a 2 month period from a forum. Study 2 provides a quantitative structural equation model, utilizing a 291 non-student US-based sample. Our findings show that an individual’s ability to have control over private information is an imperative consideration from which to devise an adequate marketing message; in turn, the societally-relevant policy will be well received by the citizen-consumer.Given the importance of consumer privacy concerns, there is a need to address public policy oriented questions relating to privacy and how to design privacy policies (Balasubramanian et al. 2002). Specifically, governmental organizations must understand how to design privacy policies which achieve an appropriate balance so that the saliency of information privacy concerns is achieved. We examine this question with a mixed methods approach; first, a qualitative study identifies the important policy themes and then a quantitative structural equation model tests the relationships between them (e.g. Adjei et al. 2010). Our paper first introduces privacy theory and the surrounding literature as a framework for our inquiry. Next, we discuss the substantive domain of the public policy in question, Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), identifying it as an important transportation policy for which a state Department of Transportation needs to mitigate consumer-citizen privacy concerns. Following this, we delve into our hypotheses and introduce a qualitative study [Study 1] which examines 332 comments surrounding a transportation initiative to derive key concepts and their relative importance for consumers. We then examine a quantitative structural equation model with a 291 non-student quota convenience sample [Study 2] to test our hypotheses.An individual’s ability to have control over private information is an imperative consideration from which to devise an adequate marketing message; in turn, the societally-relevant policy will be well received by the citizen-consumer. Our two studies provide implications for government policy makers, such as an understanding of the impact of personality traits. Such individual differences include need for control among others, and are directly related to information privacy.

Anjala S. Krishen, Robyn L. Raschke, Pushkin Kachroo
Proposition of a Retailer Brand Equity Metric

Marketing managers must have some strategic tools to better understand and manage their brands on a competitive market (Aaker 1991). The concept of brand equity is one of them since the value added by the brand (Farquhar 1989) is a key issue in marketing (Ailawadi et al. 2003; Ailawadi and Keller 2004). This research develops and tests a new conceptualization of Consumer-Based Retailer Brand Equity (CB-RBE).This new conceptualization and the associated metric can serve retailers in the way they manage and build their brands since previous brand equity measures are too complex and not adapted to the retailers specificities (Ailawadi and Keller 2004; Hartman and Spiro 2005; Burt and Davies 2010). This metric is (1) grounded in theory, (2) based on consumers’ evaluations because they are the beneficiaries of retailers’ offer, (3) statistically reliable and valid (without discriminant validity issues nor overlap problems), (4) established with the appropriate approach (i.e., PLS-SEM to obtain the LVS) and finally (5) easy to track and manage for practitioners.This analysis enables researchers to compute the impact-performance matrix and to identify specific dimensions to work on, to prioritize strategic activities for potential improvements and to enhance the value they can offer to consumers (Hair et al. 2011; Sarstedt et al. 2012). Indeed, the enhancement in rescaling the impact scores on a scale from 0 to 10 enables to compare dimensions from different models even if these models do not have the same number of dimensions.

Julien Troiville, Gérard Cliquet
Uh-Oh, Tiger Is in Trouble: Empirical Analysis of Consumers’ Moral Reasoning Strategies and Their Implications for Endorsed Brands

Celebrity athlete endorsers are often engaged in immoral transgressions that cannot be controlled by marketers. While previous research on celebrity endorsement has emphasized how utilizing athletes could enhance persuasiveness of marketing communications, empirical research on consumer responses to athletes’ transgression and their associated brands remains sparse in the literature. In the present study, we focus on moral reasoning strategy (e.g., moral decoupling referring to exclusion of immorality in evaluation process: Bhattacharjee et al. 2012; moral rationalization referring to justification of immorality in evaluation process: Bandura et al. 1996) as a main processing mechanism. In two experimental studies, we identified the existence of a distinct moral reasoning process (i.e., moral coupling) which allows consumers to integrate judgments of morality and performance of a transgressed athlete. Study 1 examined the effect of moral reasoning priming on consumers’ judgments of a transgressed athlete’s morality and performance. Study 2 utilized path analyses to examine causal relations between different types of moral reasoning choices, attitude toward the athlete (AAth), attitude toward the endorsed brand (ABrd), and purchase intent (PI).In Study 1, we primed participants (n = 97) into one of four moral reasoning conditions (moral coupling: MC; moral decoupling: MD; moral rationalization: MR; and control condition). Participants were then asked to read an article about an athlete’s transgression and to report their evaluations of the athlete’s immorality and performance. A set of ANOVAs revealed that the MC group exhibited different facets of athlete evaluations than the MD or the MR. In particular, the MC condition reported significantly lower levels of performance and morality evaluations than the MR condition. In addition, the MC condition showed significantly lower levels of performance evaluations than the MD condition.Since the selection of moral reasoning strategy was primed rather than chosen by participants, Study 2 (n = 218) examined the impact of consumers’ moral reasoning choice on athlete and endorsed brand evaluations. We had participants read articles about an athlete’s transgression then select their own moral reasoning strategy. Participants then read another article about endorsement deal and reported their AAth, ABrd, and PI. To test each model employing different moral reasoning choices, three structural models were examined. The results showed that the MC reasoning had a negative and significant impact on AAth and ABrd. In addition, in the MD and MR models, only the MR reasoning had a positive and significant direct impact on AAth. Interestingly, only MD reasoning had a marginal positive impact on ABrd. Lastly, indirect effect of MC on PI was negative and significant, while the indirect effects of MD and MR on PI were both e positive and significant. Our empirical results demonstrate that consumers’ moral reasoning strategy plays an important role in understanding the impact of athlete’s transgression on endorsed brands.

Joon Sung Lee, Dae Hee Kwak
Price Match Guarantees: A Conceptual Examination

Given the theoretical importance and empirical evidence of price matching guarantees (PMGs), marketing researchers have paid close attention to the area. A price matching guarantee (PMG) is an efficient promotion strategy that many retailers use to signal to consumers that they have competitively lower prices. While some interesting academic research has been done on the general topic, an advantage of this proposed study is that it is one of the first to explore a comparison of online price matching guarantees (OPMGs) – those which match Internet competitor on-line prices – with the PMGs of traditional retail stores. At a time when traditional retailers are struggling to compete with on-line retailers, such as Amazon, this topic is of significant strategic importance. In this paper, the author conceptually examines PMGs and investigates through past research how PMGs affect both consumers and retailers. The author then concludes with a proposed empirical study that examines OPMGs and their effect on the marketplace.

Mohamad A. Darrat
An Investigation on the Role of Disruptive Technology Adoption on New Product Market Performance and Launch Timeliness

In order to increase productivity and efficiency during new product development (NPD), innovation managers are often faced with the question of adopting new technologies (Barczak et al. 2007). This could range from adopting newer physical systems used for product development (e.g. rapid prototyping systems, CRM software, etc.) to the adoption of quality methodologies (e.g. Six Sigma or Lean) in order to optimize productivity across different phases of product development. The benefits of integrating new technology into the NPD process appear obvious as previous literature has found that the adoption of new technologies can drastically impact innovation processes and services (Lyytinen and Rose 2003). However, as employees tend to meet procedural changes with reluctance, technology adoption can be risky (Morgan and Inks 2001; Lyytinen and Rose 2003). Further complicating this dilemma is the disruptiveness of the technology. By definition, disruptive technologies differ drastically from a preceding generation’s technologies, leading to a steeper learning curve, more short-term sacrifices, and increased reluctance from employees and end users (Morgan and Inks 2001; Sherif et al. 2006).As we investigate, while the adoption of disruptive technologies may improve new product market performance, the adoption process could also slow down a new product’s launch time (Christensen 1997; Lyytinen and Rose 2003). In order to alleviate the negative impact of technology adoption on product launch timeliness, we also consider four moderators: the size of the firm, the information technology (IT) capabilities of the firm, the goal congruency of the NPD team, and the existence of a new technology champion. A survey of 198 new product development practitioners, as conducted by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), reveals that the adoption of disruptive technologies, organizational innovativeness, and a firm’s market orientation all lead to more market success for a new product. However, while organizational innovativeness and market orientation are likely to lead to quicker launch times, the introduction of disruptive technologies are likely to lead to slower launch times and missed deadlines. Fortunately, the slower launch times were found to be moderated by the existence of a technology champion and strong IT capabilities. Team cohesion and firm size did not exhibit moderating relationships. In sum, while firms may benefit from introducing cutting-edge, disruptive technologies into their NPD processes, they must have the proper capabilities in place to ensure that these new technologies do not slow down their new product launch times.

Michael Obal, Sajna Ibrahim
Towards Understanding Buyer Insecurity and the Moderating Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Relationship Quality

The focus of this conceptual paper is the phenomenon of buyer insecurity. An antecedent/consequence model is presented that considers specific threats and risks that contribute to a buyer’s feelings of insecurity, as well as a complex variable that is believed to moderate the relationship between buyer insecurity and relationship quality. While the reasons for these feelings of insecurity may not always be apparent to the buyer, a set of threats and risks can produce emotions of doubt, worry and low self-esteem. Buyer insecurity is defined as the state of experiencing negative feelings (reflected as doubt, worry and low self-esteem) within the buyer-seller relationship that are a direct result of the antecedent organizational forces of job insecurity and role ambiguity.A review of the literature to date does not appear to provide a direct examination of how these antecedents affect buyer insecurity. However, borrowing from management and organizational research, it is possible to construct a model of buyer insecurity that encapsulates key threats that are likely to yield these negative feelings and potentially influence the quality of the buyer-seller relationship. The model presented posits two key moderating factors, the level of social support and the salesperson’s emotional intelligence. Therefore, reflecting upon key organizational antecedents, the two moderating factors, and consequences of buyer insecurity, we develop a conceptual model and offer a set of six propositions.The paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the emotional state of a buyer during a buyer-seller exchange. By considering the buyer’s feelings of insecurity (as reflected by doubt, low self-esteem, and worry) within a marketing exchange, researchers may be better able to understand when and how an individual seller may actually be constructively adapting to a buyer during the exchange, and when a seller may be reinforcing a buyer’s insecurity within the exchange. A seller who is able to judge these emotions and use this information to facilitate the exchange should be able to improve the quality of the relationship.

Nawar Chaker, David Schumann
Managing Disruptive Change in Channel Relationships

While extant research on relationship development suggests relationships evolve through incremental change over long periods of time, a single event between exchange partners can ignite dramatic (positive or negative) transformational change. Evidence of transformational relationship events (TREs) is presented to support this premise. Related research streams are identified and integrated (1) to uniquely define TREs against other critical relationship events and (2) to create a model of disruptive relationship change. We identify three underlying transformational mechanisms (customer gratitude/betrayal, customer reciprocity, and relational sensemaking) that facilitate relationship change (customer-company identification, loyalty behavior, relationship velocity) and impact financial performance. We test the conceptual model on on-going, channel relationships and identify several implications for relationship marketing theory and practice. While the majority of relationship marketing initiatives are grounded in lifecycle theories of development, integrating the TRE perspective provides a much richer understanding of relationship change that can inform relationship marketing strategy.

Colleen M. Harmeling, Robert W. Palmatier
The Effects of Personality Traits on Social Media Involvement and Electronic Word of Mouth

Within the last decade, social media has become an integral part of many companies’ promotion strategies. Marketing research, however, has largely under-examined the antecedents of consumer social media involvement (SMI) as well as its effects on consumer behaviors such as word of mouth (WOM) activity. Utilizing Mowen’s (2000) 3 M theory of personality, we posit that the compound traits of opinion leadership and opinion seeking have effects on the situational trait of social media involvement (SMI), which effects the surface trait of WOM. Furthermore, in line with the 3 M theory, we posit that the elemental personality traits of neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, need for material resources, need for arousal, and agreeableness have directs effects on the compound traits of opinion leadership and opinion seeking. A conceptual model is proposed, and is empirically tested. The results show support for the model, and implications are discussed.

Arilova Randrianasolo, Brad Carlson
Testing the Concepts of Market Mavenism and Opinion Leadership in China

Market mavenism and opinion leadership are two important consumer influential concepts in the marketing communication literature. This study presents two research questions: (1) are the concepts of market mavenism and opinion leadership valid in the Chinese context? and (2) what are the demographic, psychological, and behavioral differences in predicting market mavenism and opinion leadership? This study extends the consumer influential literature and provides a richer picture of market mavenism and opinion leadership. The results based on the survey sample drawn from 316 Chinese respondents are illuminating: market mavenism and opinion leadership were indeed distinctive yet related concepts. Price-value consciousness, altruism, monochronicity, and income all significantly and positively influenced market mavenism while only price-value consciousness and monochronicity significantly and positively predicted opinion leadership. Altruism and income showed statistically significant difference in explaining market mavenism and opinion leadership.

Jie Zhang, Wei-Na Lee
Z[oo]ming in…How Brand Love and Sense of Community: Contribute to the Success of Zumba®

Fourteen million people in 185 countries do it weekly. These enviable numbers have been achieved by Zumba® Fitness in just over a decade. Established in 2001, this company boasts “the world’s leading branded fitness program” (Zumba® Fitness 2013). How does a company create such a widespread, yet loyal following? The research presented here seeks to investigate how business success is achieved by observing some of the particular elements in Zumba’s business model: brand love, sense of community, attitude toward fees.

Reanna Berry, Luis Torres, Phillip Hartley
The Meaning Transfer Process in Celebrity Endorsements: A Quantitative Exploration

Celebrity endorsement is an established marketing practice and the share of celebrity ads out of total ads aired is around 25–30 % (Choi et al. 2005) in the west and as high as 50 % in the east (Saxena 2008). Celebrity endorsement has been researched since the last three decades but still there are confounding results. The fact remains that endorsement is costly affair for the marketer and there are risks of brand image dilution and financial loss among others. Thus, comprehensive model to explain celebrity endorsements would benefit academicians and practitioners alike. The present study thus builds and empirically validates a conceptual model of celebrity endorsements based on the relatively less researched ‘Meaning Transfer Model’ (MTM) of McCracken (1989).

Subhadip Roy, Varsha Jain
An Eclectic Framework for Sustainability Reports: Implications for Socially Responsible Investors

This paper joins in the debate about the relative merits of the varied sustainability reporting criteria in socially responsible investing. Socially responsible investors rely heavily on sustainability reports to evaluate a corporation. However, the limited disclosure, incommensurability, and constrained country of origin of sustainability reports make the evaluation difficult in practice. By introducing an eclectic framework, this paper aims to compare the existing reporting standards in terms of coverage rates. We believe convergence and holistic reporting are main trends of new sustainability reports and conclude that investors should combine different reporting indexes in making an investment decision.

Jie Yang, Nitish Singh, Jieqiong (Jeccy) Ma
The Impact of Face and Self-construal on SST and Interpersonal Service Orientations

The increased attention received by the widespread deployment of self-service technologies (SSTs) is well documented in the literature (Meuter et al. 2000; Collier and Kimes 2013). SSTs include technologies such as automated hotel checkouts, restaurant kiosks, ATMs, and pay-at-the-pump services. A key facet of SSTs is their ability to enhance customer co-production of services. Specifically, customers are able to direct and control their service outcomes using technological devices like kiosks/tablets, etc. Service settings often provide customers the choice of an SST and human interaction, which we term as interpersonal interaction hereafter. While the customer’s decision to choose one over the other is likely to be influenced by operational factors (potential wait times, etc.), it is also influenced by individual personality traits/characteristics (desire for control, social interaction preferences, etc.)

Fiona Caramba-Coker, Srikanth Beldona, Hemant V. Kher, Suresh Sundaram, Francis Kwansa
Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Strategies: A Fresh Perspective

An increasing number of firms are voluntarily reporting their CSR initiatives and disclosing their social, environmental and economic impact (KPMG 2008). CSR reporting can help the firm shape its reputation in the market place (Sen et al. 2006). It can also provide an opportunity for companies to engage stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue (GRI 2012; Nikolaeva and Bicho 2011). Ultimately, CSR reporting provides marketers with a tool to engage with multiple stakeholder groups, build lasting relationships and create value for the firm (Bhattacharya and Korschun 2008; Ferrell et al. 2010; Hult et al. 2011).

J. M. Simmons
Consumer Online Brand Engagement and Brand Equity Creation: An Empirical Research on the Italian Luxury Fashion Brands

The arguments proposed in this article move in line with theoretical perspectives that consider the brand as a “social shared cognitive resource”, and not an “intellectual proprietary one”, and the consumer as active actor in to brand equity creation process. The specific aims of this paper are the following ones: (1) to analyze the “spontaneous” initiatives of digital brand engagement involving Italian luxury fashion brands; (2) to conduct an observational netnography in order to explore the experience of the brand on the Web, based on the spontaneous conversations of consumers. These latter are traced in the digital tools, proprietary (digital brand communities, institutional Facebook page, Website) and non-proprietary ones (blogs, forums, business communities, video blogs, etc.); (3) to pick the managerial implications out useful for brand equity management in the luxury fashion industry.

Luigi Cantone, Paola Peretti, Pierpaolo Testa
How Social Media Marketing Efforts Influence Brand Equity Creation and Its Consequences: The Case of Luxury Brands

Recent evidence suggests a dramatic increase in social media marketing activities across industries. By analyzing pioneering brands in the luxury sector, this study explores the impacts of social media marketing efforts on brand equity and its consequences. Based on a survey of 397 French and Chinese luxury brand customers who follow the brands in social media, we developed a structural equation model to support our research hypotheses. Our study contributes to the growing social media branding literature by confirming that social media marketing efforts can be identified and measured as a holistic concept incorporating five aspects: entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the links between social media marketing efforts, brand equity, and its consequences including preference, loyalty, and price premium. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and managerial practices and strategies of luxury brands aiming to grow brand equity in social media environments.

Aikaterini Manthiou, Joonas Rokka, Bruno Godey, Liang (Rebecca) Tang
The Relationships of Cognition, Playfulness, Enjoyment and Identity Expression in Computer Gaming

Contributing to playfulness, enjoyment, cognitive and identity domains, the paper examines the role of need for cognition and playfulness towards the enjoyment and identity expressiveness. From a survey with 221 respondents, the result unveils that need for cognition (NFC) enhances the likelihood in experiencing playfulness in computer game. Experiencing playfulness then leads to encountering enjoyment, and subsequently enjoyment positively influences the likelihood of expressing both social identity and self-identity, especially for male. Hence, playfulness mediates NFC influencing enjoyment, and the path of playfulness and enjoyment mediates playfulness influencing expressing social identity and self-identity. The findings imply that the extent to which an individual gamer enjoy playing computer games will determine how likely they share their identity to their gaming peers.

Lukman Aroean
Service Failures as Value Co-destruction Moments

Although Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic is an emerging school of thought in marketing literature, recovery strategies after service failures continue to be conceptualized under the good-dominant logic paradigm. This paper proposes a different conceptualization for service failures and recoveries strategies in the S-D Logic framework. Thus, we re-conceptualize service failures as co-destruction moments due to the fact that when a service failure occurs some forms of consumption value (functional, social, emotional, epistemic, and conditional) are co-destroyed (co-destruction-moment) in similar way that they co-created during the value co-creation. Moreover, we introduce a Mechanism of Value Restoration (MVR) in order to identify and restore the loss value as a more effective service recovery strategy by applying Prahalad and Ramaswamy’s DART (dialogue, access, risk assessment and transparency) model.

George Skourtis, Jean-Marc Décaudin, Assiouras Ioannis
Beyond the Sponsor Recall and Recognition: The Role of Sponsorship-Linked Communications on Creating Brand Attitude and Purchase Intention

Considerable research on sponsorship effectiveness has treated sponsor recall and recognition as main indicators of successful sponsorship. However, relatively little research has been conducted to examine if high brand recognition at a cognitive level translates into more desirable brand-related outcomes such as brand preference and purchase behavior. Instead of treating cognitive, affective, and behavioral sponsorship outcomes simultaneously, we examine the hierarchical relationship between these outcomes involving fans of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) fans. In particular, we focus on the mediating effects of sponsorship-linked communication efforts (i.e., driver-sponsor articulation, sponsorship-themed advertising and promotion) between cognitive and affective sponsor evaluations.Utilizing a structural equation model (SEM), we hypothesize that driver-sponsor articulation and sponsorship-themed advertising and promotion mediate the influence of sponsor awareness on sponsor attitude. Results from the NASCAR fans (N = 249) showed that perceived sponsor awareness alone does not have a direct effect on brand attitudes but the effect is fully mediated by sponsorship-linked marketing communications (i.e., driver-sponsor articulation, sponsorship-themed advertising and promotion).Our results provide empirical evidence on building brand preference through sponsorship, amplifying the effect of sponsor brand awareness. Both indirect (articulation) and direct (event-themed promotions and advertising) sponsorship-linked communications were shown to significantly increase affective sponsor brand evaluations. A full mediation model suggests that sponsor awareness alone does not directly affect brand attitude but through other leveraging efforts. This finding has implications for sponsors with relatively high recall and recognition that they should still invest additional resources to translate high awareness level to affective sponsor evaluation, which increases purchase intent.

Laurence DeGaris, Dae Hee Kwak, Stephen R. McDaniel
Engaging Inexperienced Salespeople to Work Hard to Be Lucky: Towards the Attribution of Sales Performance to Luck

Inexperienced sales professionals face high probability of failure, especially in the exploration stage of their career (Cron and Slocum 1986; Dixon et al. 2005). As a result, their learning and performance orientation along with their supervisors’ support is key to their motivation and success (Dixon et al. 2003; Kholi et al. 1998; Sujan et al. 1994). This research investigates an unexplored area of the attribution theory which should help young salespeople, sales managers, and sales educators understand better the relationship between believing in luck and becoming successful.The theory of attribution plays a major role in helping understand how sales professionals react to failure and bounce back (e.g., Dixon et al. 2001). The theory also is of particular importance in education to analyze how learners interpret performance and redirect effort (Weiner 1979). The attribution theory is concerned with individuals’ search for causes of their failures and successes; a natural tendency to redirect effort on appropriate behavior en route to improved performance (Heider 1958; Kelley 1967). Three central causal dimensions have been discerned, namely stability, locus, and controllability (Weiner 1979). Stability refers to the extent to which the cause of failure or success is perceived as being stable (native ability or task difficulty), or unstable (effort or luck). Locus deals with one’s perception of the location of the cause, namely internal (native ability or effort), or external (task difficulty or luck). Finally, controllability relates to individuals’ perception of their ability to affect their achievement by controlling the cause (effort), or not (native ability, task difficulty, and luck). Consequently, the attribution theory considers luck as an unstable, external, and uncontrollable cause of individuals’ achievement (Kelley 1967; Weiner 1979). Research on the instrumental impact of luck on sales outcomes is scarce, yet it is an essential topic since the very nature of the market environment, competitors, and customers, leave salespeople in the face of numberless instable, external, and uncontrollable sources of uncertainty and failure (Le Bon 2014). We propose a model to capture the potential influence of accidental luck and provoked luck on young salespeople’s performance. We suggest that salespeople’s effort as reflected in their activities influence sales opportunities. In turn, sales opportunities open fortuitous and auspicious situations leading respectively to accidental luck and provoked luck. Accidental luck and provoked luck are then hypothesized to provide positive outcomes such as sales performance. We control for regular sales process which also influences sales performance.Findings show that accidental luck and provoked luck impact sales performance, along with regular sales process. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to separate luck into two dimensions – accidental and provoked – and examine its effect on sales performance. Although considered as an unstable, external, and uncontrollable cause in the attribution theory, luck should be viewed as a manageable determinant of personal achievement. Such findings call for a deeper understanding of how luck could be integrated into sales performance theories and reinforce salespeople’s self-determination, motivation, and success.

Joël Le Bon
Protecting the Franchise Brand in the Age of Social Media

While social media provides numerous inexpensive and easy ways to reach and interact with target customers, these new communication channels present significant challenges to marketing practitioners by empowering consumers to spread messages of which firms have no control over the content. This research examines the importance of corporate social media response strategy in the face of brand negative publicity from a franchise business. Franchise retailers are in the unique position in that franchisor and franchisee have a joint responsibility to maintain the corporate brand image (Rubin 1978). A single negative incident that occurred in one franchise branch may harm the overall brand image and result in customers’ adverse behaviors toward other branches bearing the same franchise brand. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate how the message structure as well as other executional elements of a social media response strategy influence customers’ perception of the franchise brand in the condition of consumer-initiated negative brand publicity. The initial experimental study result demonstrates that issuing a statement about franchise ownership separation is effective in safeguarding the franchise brand. In addition, we examine the roles of two moderators: stance and timing. This research contributes to a better understanding of franchise brand reactions to negative brand publicity and reputation management in a social media context.

Hyunju Shin, Alyssa Yoon, Sohyang Yoon
Emotional Ads: Which Efficiency Toward Older Persons?

The aging population is an important phenomenon that characterizes our century. For years, seniors will represent the most important segment of the population, because of their demographic and economic potential (Lewis 2012). It is therefore necessary to identify the most effective factor that influences the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of older consumers. It is clear that academic and managerial literature present little or no response regarding the preferred type of advertising to reach seniors: practitioners seem to recommend the use of informational messages in nature but with elements related to modes of presentation of more than 60 years and their families that may convey emotions (Tréguer 2002; Wydouw 1995). While researchers highlight the ambiguity of results contrasting the effectiveness of informational messages vs emotional messages,, it has been established that people of different ages respond differently to both emotional advertisements (Mroczek and Kolarz 1998) and for informational advertisements (Moore-Shay and Lutz 2000). In addition, several researchers in social psychology and gerontology have established different theories to better understand and explain the motivations and behaviors of the elderly as the “socio- emotional selectivity” (Carstensen and Charles 1998; Carstensen et al. 1999). This theory postulates that the more we approach the end of life, the more we reorganized the hierarchy of our goals to prioritize emotionally directed goals rather than those related to knowledge (Fung et al. 2005). Because chronological age is inversely correlated with the perceived time left to live, the theory of socio-emotional selectivity posits that emotional goals become more important with age. To better clarify the mechanisms of advertising persuasion and attitude formation process for seniors, we decided to select advertisements varying in their content (emotional vs. informational) for unknown brand. We created our own printed advertisements for an intergenerational product, namely the trip. 600 individuals participated in the study, 300 elderly (between 60 and 75 years old) recruited in Paris and 300 young adults (20–35 years old). Each individual was exposed to two ads and answer to some questions regarding their chronological age, their emotional reactions, beliefs and attitudes towards advertising and the advertised brand. The results of this research led to the conclusion that chronological age influences cognitive (memorization, beliefs) and affective (emotional reactions, attitudes) responses. At first, it was shown that older respond differently than younger individuals with regard to informational advertising. Indeed, cognitive responses, such as remembering the brand name, beliefs toward the ad and toward the brand, are less favorable among 60–75 year olds than in 20–35 years. Moreover, the positive influence of chronological age on affective responses of seniors to advertising is another interesting result of our research. In addition, our research show that, when being exposed to emotional ads, people more than 60 years memorize better emotional information, develop more favorable emotional reactions, attitudes toward the ad and toward the product than younger individuals. These results may help brands and advertisers better communicate with seniors mainly by creating emotional ads.

Imen Safraou-Ouadrani, Chiraz Aouina-Mejri
Inductive and Deductive Models of Customer-Based Brand and Organizational Identification

Though not explicitly specified, a large body of research across marketing, psychology, and social psychology suggests there are two frameworks by which to understand customer identification with organizations and brands. The first is considered a deductive model of identification (DMI) in which a strong and appealing identity is created and communicated to a targeted group of customers. The second is an inductive model of identification (IMI) in which customers are allowed to imbue the organization or brand identity with meaning. Though these two models are not mutually exclusive, each draws on different theories. As a result, their prescriptions for practice can contradict each other. To clarify these differences, the current research details the separate research streams of the IMI and DMI and their key differences. Then, a study is detailed that tests and provides support for a key aspect of the IMI. The results of the experiment suggests greater self-brand congruity can be engendered with a brand that is less clearly defined (i.e. has low brand image clarity). Overall, the current research evidences that marketing practitioners may need to consider another strategy of engendering identification. Inherent in this strategy is that a brand’s identity can be intentionally vague and that self-categorization is not a state, but a series of events in which customers are prompted to consider the brand in relation to their self.

Jeremy S. Wolter
Indianapolis: Leveraging the Sports Strategy
Special Session for the Brand Leveraging via Events and Sponsorship Track

Indianapolis has successfully leveraged the sports and events business for community and economic development. Most widely known for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Amateur Sports Capital strategy, the city is home to a number of leading and innovative sports businesses. Between 1979 and 2011, 400 major sporting events generated a $2 billion economic impact (Q&A: Indianapolis Sports Strategy 2013). Despite this substantive economic impact, Indianapolis is not recognized as a leader in the sports industry. Further, the original position around amateur sports has started to decay and the competition around the hosting of mega-events is more intense than ever as other cities see the merits of sports event strategies.

Jay Gladden
Firm Capabilities and Growth: The Moderating Effect of Market Conditions

Past research on organizational capabilities has mainly focused on the impact of individual capabilities (e.g., marketing, R&D, or operations) in isolation within a short time-span (see Krasnikov and Jayachandran 2008 for review). However, in practice capabilities coexist within an organization and are intertwined. They are also developed over a long time and are embedded within the firm (Grewal and Slotegraaf 2007). In addition, the performance impact of capabilities may vary under different conditions (Moorman and Slotegraaf 1999). Building on the contingency theory, this study examines the impact of multiple firm capabilities and their interactions on firm growth under different market conditions using a panel data from 612 U.S public firms across 16 years in over 60 industries. More specifically, this study empirically examines (1) how different organizational capabilities (marketing, R&D, operations) interact and impact firm sales growth and profit growth simultaneously over a long period of time; (2) how external boundary conditions (market munificence and complexity) influence the interactive effects (complementarity vs. substitution) of these capabilities. The results suggest that R&D (operations) capabilities positively (negatively) reinforce the effects of marketing capabilities on firm growth and that such effects vary across different market conditions. Researchers and managers can gain insights from this study regarding how to manage and deploy multiple resources and capabilities simultaneously under different market conditions to drive firm growth.

Hui Feng, Neil A. Morgan, Lopo L. Rego
Online Brand Communities: There Is More Than Oneway to Drive Consumers’ Online Brand Identity and Interactivity

In 2012, brand communication strategies shifted as expenditures on Internet advertising in the US exceeded those spent on print for the first time. These trends point to the importance of brands using online brand communities (OBC) to build consumer-brand connections. However, despite the insights derived from prior OBC literature, there is minimal research investigating consumer-brand connections in an OBC. Though this stream of literature is helpful in explaining general motives for brand community engagement, it neglects to include research related to the power of branding. Consequently, when the context is shifted from general motives of engagement to brand-related predictors that influence consumer engagement, there is marginal research.

James B. Kelley, Dana L. Alden
Fashion Impulse Purchasing: The Role of Brand Love, Fashion Involvement and Hedonic Consumption Tendency

This study proposes and investigates a structural model explaining the paths that leads to the urge for impulse purchasing of fashion products. This study empirically tests a theoretical model of fashion products impulse buying by examining the associations between fashion involvement, brand love, hedonic consumption tendency, positive affect, fashion impulse tendency, shopping enjoyment, in-store browsing and urge to impulse-buy a fashion product. The urge to impulse-buy a fashion product can be mainly explained by fashion involvement which directly and indirectly influences several related variables such as shopping enjoyment and in-store browsing, and fashion impulse tendency. On the other hand, brand love and hedonic consumption tendency are positively influenced by the positive affect that consumers feel when visiting stores, which stimulates them to impulse-buy a fashion product. Despite the voluminous literature on impulse purchasing, relatively little is known about impulse purchasing in the fashion industry. This study fills that gap by proposing a model explaining the urge for impulse purchases of fashion products during the shopping experience by focusing for the very first time on the role of brand love impulse purchasing.

Georgia Liapati, Assiouras Ioannis, Jean-Marc Décaudin
Online Consumption Community Membership: The Role of Sense of Community and Social Identity

Technological and societal changes have culminated in substantial shifts in the ways in which people interact in the business world and socially. These shifts are embodied in the emergence of online consumption communities – internet-based social groups inexorably linked to consumption behaviors. As social media grow in number and popularity, so does the individual’s opportunity to join these communities. Guided by prior research, this work uses a grounded theory approach to develop an understanding of the decision to join such groups. The result is the proposal of a general model of online consumption community membership motives, participation, and benefits. In addition, the text focuses on the interplay between community membership and the individual’s sense of community and social identity.

Phillip Hartley
Engaging Customer Preference Through Trade Credit: An Investigation of the Impact of Payment Terms on Brand Equity

Since organizations rarely collect immediate payment from business-to-business sales, trade credit structures financial and sales relationships between suppliers and customers (Asselbergh 1999). In this context, managing days’ sales outstanding (DSO), or the average number of days a company takes to collect revenue from business customers after a sale, represents a critical financial and marketing issue. If DSO indicates how quickly a company turns sales into cash (Bragg 2005), its extension also favors business opportunities and product quality demonstration when more generous payment terms are granted to customers (Emery and Nayar 1998; Smith 1987). Thus, trade credit can be viewed as a lubricant that facilitates sales through the attraction of customers’ business (Cheng and Pike 2003; Emery and Nayar 1998), or the signal of brand quality through additional time for the customer to test the product (Long et al. 1993). This research examines the extent to which credit terms offered by salespeople influence customers’ average payment delay and their perception of the supplier’s brand equity (i.e., brand attitude, brand trust, brand preference).We propose and test a model where customer importance, bargaining power, along with relationship length and quality with the salesperson influence customers’ average payment delay. In turn, payment terms is hypothesized to reflect customers’ evaluation of the supplier in terms of brand equity as reflected in brand attitude, brand trust, and brand preference. We also control for the influence of customers’ financial difficulties and invoice correctness on average payment delay.Findings show that customer importance positively relates to payment delay along with the customer’s bargaining power. Relationship length with the supplier negatively impacts payment delay while relationship quality does not influence delayed payment. Payment delay negatively reflects customers brand attitude, brand trust, and brand preference. Concerning the control variables, invoice correctness does not have a significant influence on payment delay whereas financial difficulties do.To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to empirically test the impact of payment terms granted by the sales force on customers’ perception of suppliers’ brand equity. Findings contradict the accounting literature which suggests that payment delay should be seen as an implicit warranty period to enhance positive brand evaluation (Long et al. 1993). In fact, payment delay relates to customers’ perception of low brand equity. Moreover, by revealing a negative relationship between payment delay and customers’ brand attitude, brand trust, and brand preference, this research shows that trade credit may not attract customers’ business and signal brand quality in the long run. Hence, companies’ sales organizations may jeopardize their own incoming cash flows and financial stability with improper usage of trade credit.

Joël Le Bon, Dwight Merunka
The Perspective of Small Retailers on Sustainability: An Exploratory Study for Scale Development

The retail industry has grown globally with retail revenues above $11.5 trillion (2010) and expected growth to $20 trillion by 2020 (Court and Narasimhan 2010). Discerning companies recognize that to be truly green they must holistically address the 3E’s (i.e., ecology, environment, and economy). It is more than selling green products; the retailer must also make green decisions for the betterment of society. Best known for their greenness are the big-box US retailers. Nevertheless, the small US retailers account for 40 % of all retail sales and provide jobs for around eight million people; therefore, managements’ collective environmental sustainability decisions have a significant impact on the 3E’s. Almost 95 % of retailers have one store outlet in the US and thus small retailers make up most of the retailing industry (Independent Retailer 2011). The multiple retail footprints (1,067,984 in 2010) on US soil of which 1,041,996 (97.6 %) represents the footprints of small retailers (SBA.gov 2011), thus their collective impact on the built environment warrants research as to their sustainability attitudes and behaviors.

Doreen Sams, Janna Parker
From Customer Engagement to the Customer Journey: Understanding the Drivers of Engagement in B2C and B2B Environments

Engaging prospects, customers, clients, and past customers have become an area of increased interest for companies that engage in both consumer and business-focused sales and marketing. While customer engagement has become increasingly popularized by the technology sector and digital marketing efforts, engagement is necessary for traditional consumer-focused businesses and business-to-business endeavors. There are two related, but potentially different approaches to customer relationship development; the user engagement model and the customer journey model. This special session will address user engagement model research as well as customer journey research.

David Altounian, Rob Wiley, Victoria Woo, Scott Roberts
Worse than Bad: Inferences About Product Quality from Memory

Could brands associated with mostly negative information–those with poor reputations–be perceived as superior to unrecognized brands? A reasonable consumer should value reputation; however, it is also sensible to put a heavy weight on brand recognition. To investigate this question, the authors study consumers’ inferences about brand quality in five domains. Results suggest that brands associated with predominantly negative information are indeed perceived as of higher quality than unrecognized brands. In addition, when consumer inferences are predicted based on different memory cues, the frequency of encountering a brand dominates what people profess to know about it. The authors explore the ecological rationality of this strategy by studying the relationship between expert-judged quality and consumer knowledge.

Yvetta Simonyan, Daniel G. Goldstein
The Big Data Hierarchy: A Multi-stage Perspective on Implementing Big Data

Firms increasingly have access to a variety of data from sources such as customers, transactions, social media, and other stakeholders. Marketers use the term Big Data to describe this avalanche of information which they view as critical to providing a better understanding of customers and markets. This research uses a qualitative approach, through interviews with marketing managers, to evaluate the scope of Big Data, develop a hierarchy of how firms use data to make marketing decisions, describe the external and internal factors that influence where a firm falls within the hierarchy, and identify four specific transition factors that allow firms to develop Big Data capabilities. We find that the key factors that determine the level of Big Data decision making are the firm environment, competition, organizational structure, interdepartmental dynamics, and executive commitment. To transition to a higher level of data driven decision making, firms must consider their current and future capabilities in terms of data, analytics, people, and organization.

Stefan Sleep, Richard Gooner, John Hulland
Advancing Stakeholder Marketing Through Resource-Based Theory

The creation and exchange of value offerings for different stakeholders has become a central component of marketing. Despite the increasing adoption of the stakeholder view among marketing academics, stakeholder marketing is still in its infancy. By applying resource-based theory (RBT) to stakeholder marketing, the paper provides a theoretical foundation to encourage further research in this stream. Because any stakeholder group or relationship can serve as a strategic resource for the firm, RBT is particularly relevant to stakeholder marketing. A critical review leads to a set of research questions aligned with five major themes for future research integrating RBT and stakeholder marketing.

Alexander J. Kull, Jeannette A. Mena
The Influence of Spatial Position of Price Sequences on Choice and Value Perceptions

In this research, we extend findings from the numerical cognition literature to explore and test how retail spatial arrangement of prices can influence value perceptions and choice. Specifically, we demonstrate that presenting options in an ordered price sequence increases consumers’ preference for higher priced items depending on the spatial direction of the display. The results of two studies provide evidence that in horizontal displays, consumers are more likely to select the higher-priced items when prices follow a descending (vs. ascending) sequence. In contrast, when the products are arranged in a vertical format, consumers are more likely to select the higher-priced items when the products are presented in ascending order (vs. descending). The findings of this paper have important implications for retail product displays and menu designs.

Marisabel Romero, Dipayan Biswas
Money Matters: How Red Versus Black Prices Impact Savings Perception Under Financial Scarcity

Recent research shows that the impact of red (vs. black) prices on store savings perception is moderated by gender. This paper investigates the interaction between colored prices (red vs. black) and financial scarcity (high vs. low) on perception of savings. With about 50 % of consumers having less than 3 months worth of funds to cover their monthly expenses, further investigation on the moderating effect of financial scarcity is important since bias in price evaluations could cause adverse financial consequences for those already experiencing financial hardship. This research reports findings from two experiments that assessed the relationship between colored prices and financial scarcity. These studies revealed that high financial scarcity individuals perceived greater savings with red prices relative to black prices, whereas low financial scarcity individuals did not (studies 1 and 2). High financial scarcity participants appeared to use the associations they had with red prices as a heuristic such that associations related to sales/discounts resulted in higher perception of savings.

Carlin Nguyen
Bottom of the Pyramid, Marketing and Global Markets: Multidisciplinary Discourses and Emerging Literature

In marketing and social sciences, the literature on the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) is rich, multidisciplinary, and uniquely diverse regarding its contents and contributions. Since the publication of Prahalad’s (1998, 2002, 2006) seminal works on this topic, a wide array of writings and investigations have appeared in this area that represent multidisciplinary discourses and new contents. This paper revisits and reviews the topic of the BOP and its multidisciplinary investigations (2002–2014) that relate to marketing. The paper’s major contribution is to lay the foundation for other review-based studies that may be seeking multidisciplinary discourses and analysis. Future academic research can benefit by looking at those issues that provide opportunities for future research and practice.The work specifically assesses the BOP topic and its changing research domains and multidisciplinary agendas. As of 2014, the BOP literature continues to grow and remains multifaceted. For this purpose, this paper will review and analyze over 60 empirical and non-empirical contributions and surveys from the areas of agency theory, institutions, entrepreneurship and business issues, ethics, social issues, and marketing. Additional areas include MNC-related issues, poverty, and technology. In short, BOP-related investigations and analysis are important in marketing because of their relevance and applications and provide major opportunities to businesses that sell consumer and industrial products. The paper’s major contribution is to lay the foundation for other review-based studies that may be interested in interdisciplinary discussions. Future academic research can benefit by looking at those issues that remain hidden in other disciplines.

Syed Tariq Anwar
Monet’s, Nympheas… $11 Million; Rothko’s, White… $73 Million; My Youngest Son’s, The Burial of Our Dog Rover… Priceless!: Consumer Behavior in the Fine Art Market

Today’s international fine art market annually accounts for billions of dollars in revenue, millions of jobs, and boasts consumers who are among the world’s wealthiest and most influential individuals. Outside of the financial impact of the industry, the fine art market is unique in that it provides value for consumers on multiple levels: social, financial, and aesthetic. Despite the complexity and enormity of the fine art market, limited research has been conducted related to consumer behavior within it. A qualitative, interview based, study was conducted in order to build theory and extend the literature about consumer motivations in the purchase and sale of fine art, and how intimacy can be created between the consumers of fine art and the creators of it.

Anjali Bal, Leyland Pitt, Michael Parent
Going Under the Needle for Your Brand: Tattooing as the New Market Medium

This conceptual paper proposes Carnival as a relevant and useful theory with which academics and practitioners can better understand concepts such as consumer generated advertisement and how to better engage consumers in positive brand communications. We propose that the Internet can provide the necessary conditions for modern day Carnival to take place. Consumer generate advertising is becoming an increasingly popular form of caricature and ridicule. Individuals in society with traditionally low societal power have access to the Internet and are able to upload videos and caricatures mocking brands, politicians and individuals. Prior to the Internet, individuals would not have had access to the mass distribution capabilities of YouTube, Facebook, My Space and more. Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1976) explores themes related to communication and protest through the concept of carnival. In today’s society, similar themes are increasingly prevalent in modern communication channels, specifically the Internet. With the increasing popularity of consumer- generated content related to brands, consumers often engage in mass public dialogues like those originally developed and discussed by Bakhtin.

Anjali Bal, Kelly Weidner, Chris Archer-Brown, Adam Mills, Samantha Rains
Going Under the Needle for Your Brand: Tattooing as the New Market Medium

The global sports market accounts for an estimated $146.4 billion dollars in revenues, millions of jobs, and some of the most passionate and connected consumers of any industry in the world. The global sports sponsorship market alone is expected to hit an astounding $45 billion in 2014 and this market is expected to grow at the rate of 4 % or more over the next several years. Athletes are gaining more and more power over the marketing and distribution of brand messaging because of the international acclaim and fanaticism they attract. Traditional mediums for sponsorships include: clothing, product placement, banners and guerrilla campaigns. However, there exists a new and controversial medium for sports sponsorship: that of sponsorship tattoos. Sponsorship tattooing is the act of adorning skin with a corporate logo, slogan or symbol in exchange for a financial incentive. While the popularity of logo tattooing is growing, no research has been conducted as to consumer response to the placement of commercial art on athletes. A series of propositions are presented herein based on an extensive literature review.

Samantha Rains, Anjali Bal, Kelly Weidner, Christopher Leeds
Infusing Personality to Brands: The Key Influence of SME Owner/Managers

As consumers go into relationships in their own personal lives, it has been argued that consumers may understand brand relationships better by personifying the brand. This process by which brands forms a relationship with consumers is based on the theory of anthropomorphism of brands. For this study, brand as a person is defined as brand personality and other human-like traits which may be linked to functional attributes and benefits. Importantly, no research today has studied this dimension in detail in relation to the personality of SME brand owner/managers (O/Ms). Our aim is to explore the link between the personality of the brand O/M and that of the brand. Thirty case studies were used for data collection. Semi-structured interviews offered sufficient structure to keep the interview on the right track and also flexibility for appropriate discussion and exploration. Data was analyzed through thematic coding. NVivo helped to systematically and objectively compare and contrast theory-driven and data-driven codes. Two key findings emerged from the study: (1) a clear indication that there are close similarities between personality traits of O/Ms and their brands, and (2) two distinctive types of brand personalities emerged, one being more rational and the other more social. This study sustains prior arguments that organizational identity in SMEs often mirrors the personality and characteristics of the owners. Some implications may indicate that (1) this brand dimension may help improve brand emotional relationships with consumers and may also reinforce a coherent brand identity; (2) training programs for O/Ms designed to develop brand strategic tools such as brand personality may assist brand SMEs to become more competitive in the marketplace.

Edgar Centeno, Susan Hart, Keith Dinnie
Leveraging Synesthesia for Novel Idea Generation

A firms’ ability to constantly generate new products is strongly related to the capacity to achieve a competitive advantage, especially in times of uncertainty (Grønhaug and Kaufmann 1988; Han et al. 1998). Not surprisingly, a recent survey of more than 1,500 senior executives conducted by the Boston Consulting Group in 2013, indicated that executives rate the importance of innovation as higher than ever (Wagner et al. 2013). In this effort, idea generation is of critical importance as it is tightly related to innovation success (Soo et al. 2002). A relevant concept here is synesthesia, which permits associations among seemly-unrelated cognitive sensations (e.g. hearing colors) (Ramachandran and Hubbard 2005). Although generally considered “fixed”, recent evidence suggests that a type of pseudo-synesthesia may be acquired through training (Colizoli et al. 2012). This study draws from associative theory to explore the unexamined link between learned synesthesia and creativity.

Felix A. Flores
Create or Appropriate? Strategic Alignment Preference in Incumbent-New Venture Alliances and Innovation Outcomes

Incumbent inertia, defined as the inability to enact internal change in the face of significant external change (Ghemawat 1991; Gilbert 2005), leads to the downfall of incumbents in industries in which they once had a competitive stronghold. Incumbents that fail to enact internal change and innovate suffer from the capability-rigidity paradox (Leonard-Barton 1992; Atuahene-Gima 2005) in which more success leads to reinforcing commitment to a firm’s current course of action (Gilbert 2005). Firms are able to build competitive advantage via resource deployments and developing capabilities that allow them to outperform competitors (Day 1994), but capabilities that led to previous success may cause firms to become uncompetitive as the competitive landscape changes. Previous research suggests that firms are better able to overcome incumbent inertia by entering vertical alliances (i.e. different levels of the value chain). While the majority of horizontal alliance research focuses on firms that are similar in size and resources; in this study we suggest that the incumbent-new venture dyad is an exception to knowledge transfer and redundancy issues that plague horizontal partnerships. By entering into alliances with new ventures, incumbent firms can become more innovative and overcome incumbent inertia that affects firms entrenched in product and market positions. In a sample of 693 incumbent-new venture partnerships over a period of 4 years, this study investigates how the strategic emphasis of incumbents impacts the number of partnerships with new ventures and subsequently innovation outcomes. The results show that incumbent firms with a strategic emphasis on value creation enter more partnerships with new ventures to gain access to innovative ideas. In addition, an incumbent’s age and new venture’s legitimacy are investigated as to how they may impact the relationship between strategic emphasis and the number of partnerships with new ventures. As firms become older, the relationship between strategic emphasis and the number of partnerships with new ventures is strengthened. The results show that a new venture’s legitimacy has no impact on the relationship between strategic emphasis and number of partnerships. Finally, the results show that incumbents become more innovative when they enter into more partnerships with new ventures, a key to overcoming incumbent inertia.

Todd Morgan, Sergey Anokhin, Eric Johnson
Team Trust and Team Learning in New Product Development Projects

One of the most significant current discussions in project management and innovation management literature is New Product Development (NPD) projects, and they are enormously clear environments to be observed the terms of uncertainty, turbulence and volatility. Continuous improvement and learning is vital for NPD project teams and, hence, they are better able to take advantage of new opportunities in the complexity of today’s business markets. Team trust supports team creativity and learning, and promotes a better learning climate in an organization, and so team trust is especially crucial for uncertain and turbulence environments which require special capabilities such as adaptability, creativity, learning etc. In this study, we focus on examining whether there is a mediation effect of team trust between team factors, which are team autonomy, team member experience and team stability, and team learning.Findings support that team autonomy, team stability, and team member experience are significantly and positively associated with team trust. Also, mediation influences have been tested between team factors and team learning through team trust. There is complementary mediation between team autonomy and team member experience, and team learning. Also, there is indirect-only mediation between team stability and team learning. Hence, team trust provides better relationship between team factors and team learning.This study has explored the importance of team trust for team learning. Trust becomes prominent by affecting outcomes and processes indirectly and changes relationships in team. It is also apparent from this study that team trust changes relations and the degree of effect among variables. This situation reflects importance of trust in project teams as so an important variable in organizations studies. Trust holds team together and opens ways to develop and survive good relations and network in team. Another result to emerge from this study is that team trust fully mediates the relationship between team stability and team learning. Our results reveal that if team members trust each other, team might have a learning climate for members. So, this result emphasizes the importance of trust by demonstrating that team members do not be part of team learning without trust, no matter if they have been working together for a long time.

Gary S. Lynn, Volkan Polat, Richard R. Reilly
Influence of Behavioral Integration Within Top Management Teams and Board Control on Market Orientation, Innovation, and Firm Performance

Market orientation represents a fundamental theoretical domain within the marketing literature and, arguably, one of the most important contributions of marketing thought to the business discipline (Menguc and Auh 2006). This study contributes to the extant literature by developing and testing an integrated framework of the influence of an organization’s top management teams and board of directors on market orientation and the subsequent impact on innovation and firm performance. First, extending perspectives that top management influences an organization’s market orientation (e.g., Jaworski and Kohli 1993), behavioral integration within top management teams (Hambrick 2004; Simsek et al. 2005) and control exerted by board of directors (Walters et al. 2010) are examined as antecedents of market orientation. Second, shedding further light on the relationship between market orientation and innovation (e.g., Grinstein 2008; Han et al. 1998), two types of innovation, namely exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation (Jansen et al. 2006), are investigated as outcomes of market orientation.The proposed framework was tested using data collected from 234 executives (either CEOs or members of top management teams). Adopting the cultural perspective, market orientation is defined in terms of three dimensions – customer orientation (where employees place a customer’s satisfaction first and foremost), competitor orientation (where all existing and potential competitors are actively monitored), and inter-functional coordination (where active coordination across different organizational functions is encouraged) (Narver and Slater 1990). The findings demonstrate that both behavioral integration, which was conceptualized as a higher-order construct with three components – collaboration, joint decision making, and exchange of ideas, and control exerted by the board of directors were found to enhance market orientation. The findings also show that, in organizations with market-orientated cultures, both exploratory and exploitative innovations are likely to flourish. Yet, of the two types of innovation, only exploitative innovation was related to performance. As exploratory innovations involve higher upfront costs and risks as well as yield lagged returns, their influence on performance is perhaps likely to materialize over a longer period of time as compared to exploitative innovations. Overall, the findings demonstrate that strategic leadership and upper echelons (i.e., top management teams and board of directors) influence strategic resources (i.e., market orientation), strategic actions (i.e., exploratory and exploitative innovation), and firm performance (e.g., Geletkanycz and Hambrick 1997; Ketchen et al. 2007).

Indu Ramachandran, Vishag Badrinarayanan
I’m Proud of It: Consumer Technology Appropriation and Psychological Ownership

While a common narrative is that we are increasingly living in a “technology-mediated” world, a quick assessment of emerging digital technologies suggests that today’s standards will soon seem old-fashioned and quaint. For example, advances in circuitry, flexible displays, projection, and wearable computing promise to literally and figuratively weave technology into the fabric of our lives.

Colleen P. Kirk, Scott D. Swain, James E. Gaskin
Brands: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Brands are all around us and impact our lives in more ways than we can imagine. Not surprising, extant literature revolving around the notion of brand is rich and varied. However, not enough research attention has been given to family as a decision making unit and brands preferred by this unit. We first propose a conceptual framework outlining various decision making domains of family decision making unit and use secondary data to understand if there are clusters of brands preferred by mothers and kids, jointly or individually. The findings indicate that most of the brands fall within the domain of food for indulgence and entertainment. We also discuss these findings and suggest implications for researchers and marketers.

Audhesh Paswan, Pramod Iyer, Arezoo Davari
The Role of Online Social Interaction in the Recommendation of a Brand Community

In the last 15 years it has been established that consumers willingly look for others likeminded individuals and they are seeking for interaction around activities or objects that they are passionate about. They are forming communities that are focusing in this activity or object and they enjoy interacting having as common ground the activity or object of interest (Koh and Kim 2004). The activities can vary and they include the support of branded services (i.e. Carlson et al. 2008) or goods (i.e. Algesheimer et al. 2005; Bagozzi and Dholakia 2006; Matzler et al. 2011; Marzocchi et al. 2013). It is acknowledged that in these occasions brands can act as agents for development or relationships both the brand itself but also with other likeminded individuals (Veloutsou 1999).

Cleopatra Veloutsou, Georgia Maria Arvaniti
Nonprofit Advertising and Persuasive Messages

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that cannot rely on public (i.e. government) funds are dependent on donations and volunteers to remain operational. Most rely on persuasive messages to inform, educate, and convince message recipients to donate. However, the effectiveness of these efforts to affect philanthropy, gift-giving, and fundraising is a gap in the cause marketing literature (Dunn et al. 2007).Because researchers and practitioners need to understand the various underlying processes in order to develop campaigns and programs that translate into long-term behavioral changes (Smith et al. 1994), two studies were conducted to determine what messages resonate with potential donors. First a qualitative review and content analysis of existing NPO ads determined two key components: (1) most commonly used format; and (2) most commonly used phrasing of messages asking for contributions. The second study relied on the results of Study 1 to develop nonprofit ads that implemented, and manipulated, the messages identified to determine if some are more effective than others.A total of 125 ads from a variety of nonprofit organizations were sampled, and their content analyzed for length, use of imagery, use of text, music, spokespeople, voice over, and appeal messages related to donating. It was discovered that most NPO ads (70.4 %) do not include contribution requests, but when they did, a variety of messages were used. The phraseology that appeared more often was a temporal framing “for less than X amount over X time period,” which has been leveraged by nonprofit organizations making donation requests in this analysis 54.1 % of the time. Specifically, the phrase “for less than a dollar a day” was used in 13.5 % of the donation messages.As Study 1 found no one dominant format, a combination of still image photography and text on the screen accompanied by music was used in Study 2 because pictorial display is often used in nonprofit advertising to create effects of vividness (Barnett and Hammond 1999; Isen and Noonberg 1979; Perrine and Heather 2000; Thornton et al. 1991). A key step in developing effective messages is comparing the desired message with a no-message control or alternative messages (Rucker and Petty 2006). Therefore, Study 2 evaluated normative and minimal giving messages in this way.Data were collected online (n = 235) and analyzed using a one-way ANOVA, finding a significant difference (F(1, 80) = 5.168, p = .026) between high (M = 4.40) and low (M = 3.68) injunctive normative messages, but no significance between high and low descriptive norms (p = .740). Analysis also showed significance (F(1,51) = 6.211, p = .016) between the “even a penny” minimal giving message (M = 2.13) and a control group (M = 3.26), as well as “even a dollar” (F(1, 57), p = .020, M = 2.28) and the control group (M = 3.33). There was no significance (p = .167) between “for less than a dollar a day” and the control group, meaning the message NPOs use most does not appear to resonate with audiences. Research shows if behavioral influence techniques are overused, consumers may turn against entities that use them (Mowen and Minor 2006). Also interesting is that “even a dollar” was significant, as it was not in the initial research (Cialdini and Schroeder 1976). The time between studies is a potential cause as today’s audiences may view a dollar as a minimum donation.

Eric Van Steenburg
How Resistance to Change Affects on Brand Loyalty in Consumables Market

A search for the perfect ingredients to achieve brand loyal consumers has been popular focus in brand literature and studies have proposed numerous brand loyalty patterns. But how much of the brand loyalty is explained by resistance to change? As the typical human tendency is to strive for consistency and status quo rather than continuously look for new and alternative behavior it is likely that brand loyalty is partly explained by resistance to change. This paper empirically tests the role of resistance to change in brand loyalty in the consumables market. We test two models, first with brand satisfaction and brand trust as assumed antecedents of attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty, and a second model in which resistance to change is added to explain attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty. Attitudinal brand loyalty is considered as an antecedent to behavioral brand loyalty in both models.Our data included 808 effective responses that were collected through an online questionnaire link posted on a Finnish confectionary company’s Facebook wall. First a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. All factor loadings are greater than the general threshold limit of 0.5. In addition, discriminant validity is supported, as the square root of Average variance extracted (AVE) of each construct is greater than the correlation with other constructs. Moreover, composite reliability statistics indicate adequate internal consistency of the constructs.Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships between the constructs. First we calculated the results for Model 1. All paths except the relationship between brand trust and behavioral brand loyalty were found significant. Brand satisfaction was found to positively influence on attitudinal brand loyalty (0.28) and behavioral brand loyalty (0.40). Attitudinal brand loyalty was found indeed as an antecedent to behavioral loyalty (0.49). However, when exploring the results of Model 2 the positions of the loyalty antecedents are shifted. In Model 2 the effect of brand satisfaction to attitudinal loyalty fell out of significance and resistance to change rose as a significant construct to explain attitudinal brand loyalty (0.60). On one hand this brings up an interesting discussion whether consumers’ attitudinal loyalty is connected to the brand or does it occur just because of their embedded habits? On the other hand, when consumers are resistant to change, are they actually so emotionally attached to brand that they become attitudinally brand loyal? This result brings more light to the debate of brand loyalty among consumable goods. It has been stated that attitudinal measures might not be reasonable in brand loyalty research among consumable goods. Nevertheless, in our research setting resistance to change is found to be a very significant factor to attitudinal loyalty.The comparison of the two models generated interesting results. Due to Model 2, we found a new pattern to explain brand loyalty in the consumable goods market. In addition the goodness of-fit –measures for Model 2 (χ2 = 445.890; df = 80; p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.075; CFI = 0.95) achieved better results than Model 1 (χ2 = 394.863; df = 48; p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.095; CFI = 0.94). Since the effect of resistance to change in loyalty has sprung only a few studies the results of this paper encourage for more empirical testing.

Anna Kuikka, Tommi Laukkanen
Do/Feel Good: Health Risk Display Formats and Decision-Making

Healthcare is experiencing a shift from traditional one-way communication to a two-way communication process in which the patient is expected to be an active participant in the decision. This shift has heightened the need to understand what formats are most effective for communicating health information to patients and the underlying mechanism(s) by which risk information influences decision-making. The goal of this paper is to investigate these questions. We investigate consumer responses to five different presentation formats and test a model of decision-making involving three different decision paths – a cognitive path, an affective path, and a cognitive fluency path. We find that the impact of display format on decision-making is mediated consecutively by verbatim and gist knowledge and that processing fluency enhances this cognitive process as well as creates a path on its own. In addition, we find evidence of an affect-driven decision path. Implications of these findings for better engaging patients and encouraging improved decision-making are discussed.

Ilgım Dara, Elizabeth G. Miller
Does Firm Strategic International Orientations Synergize?

Firm strategic orientations continue to draw scholars’ attention. While research on various aspects of orientations is voluminous and plethora of research has found orientations to contribute to organizational success and performance, little is known about the interplay among orientations, specifically their possible synergistic interactions and how they affect performance. Although scholars have argued that firms should employ multiple orientations, most prior studies have assessed the impacts of individual orientations on performance. Notably, the international context of orientations have been under-researched. Internationalization in a globalizing world is the most common strategy for expanding sales and allows firms to achieve higher levels of performance.This survey-based study focuses on three orientations (market – IMO, entrepreneurship- IEO and learning – ILO) in an international context. Scales were derived from the literature slightly adjusted to the study’s context. Systematic sampling technique resulted in 103 participating senior managers of international firms. Multiple regression analysis was used. Each set of tests included two models (the first with the individual three orientations, followed by the second that included the orientation interaction terms). The models were significant and the additions of the interaction terms led to a significance change in R2. The individual IMO and IEO constructs had significant positive effect on overall performance and its sub-dimensions in both models. However, ILO is almost consistently unrelated to overall performance and its sub-dimensions in both models. When the interaction terms were added, IMOxIEO and IMOxILO were significantly related with the satisfaction sub-dimension only (positively and negatively, respectively). Interestingly, the IEOxILO interaction term was consistently related negatively with overall performance and its sub-dimensions.The results indicate that the standalone IMO and IEO affect performance individually and play a positive role in enhancing performance interactively. Thus, these two orientations exhibit positive synergy. However, the standalone ILO does not affect performance and it exhibited negative synergy with IMO and IEO. In other words, emphasizing ILO in addition to IMO/IEO diminished the impact of the latter orientations on performance.We conclude that international orientations have positive and negative synergistic effects on performance. We contend that managers responsible for international operations need to recognize that considering multiple international orientations when setting strategies may carry a potential bounded rationality penalty. Such managers that have been exposed to research documenting a relationship of an individual orientation with performance might incorrectly assume that multiple orientations should be always employed simultaneously. This study argues for caution when combining several orientations, which may result in a sub-optimal approach.

Itzhak Gnizy, Aviv Shoham, Yoel Asseraf
Conceptualizing and Operationalizing the Reverse Internationalization Phenomena of Firms

Internationalization is a two way street and firms can move through its processes forward and backward. Reverse internationalization (RI) is a common but crucial phenomenon for firms that operate in a world of heightened globalization. However, while research on internationalization is voluminous, the exploration of RI remains limited. In light of the 2008–2009 economical global crises, many international firms worldwide have experienced RI episodes. Given that scholars and practitioners have been sending warning signals about a potential global crisis on the horizon, and given that RI must be considered as a serious strategy, revisiting the RI domain, its patterns and drivers, is a topical and important research area. Notably, the literature has not converged on its definition and drivers and a clearer and richer view of RI is needed to facilitate its conceptualization. Many previous studies were restricted in the range of RI forms included and analyzed RI using mainly one dimension.Grounded in data emerged from field in-depth interviews of executives from 20 internationalizing firms, this study employs a qualitative approach. The primary objective is exploratory work and theory development. The study illuminates the RI phenomenon further, proposes a broader conceptualization and operationalization of RI, and develops propositions. The exploratory nature is limited to an in-firm analysis of RI patterns and antecedents situated within an internal (e.g., reduced knowledge of the firm) and external (e.g., foreign market dynamics) factors context. The basic unit of analysis is the reduction in firms’ cross border activities. Content story approach was used as main analytic tool. The study built on the stage-based internationalization models and on the resource-based-view theory.Findings show that RI emerges as a multifaceted formative construct reflecting a reduction in firms’ activities on one or more of four dimensions. These include the (i) number of active foreign markets, (ii) width/length of product lines, (iii) stage of internationalization, and (iv) pace of internationalization. Additionally, various internal and external factors (i.e., international knowledge/experience, planning/strategy/formalization of the internationalization process, intensity/complexity of international services, and various characteristics of the international environment such as turbulence, competition, and customers’ demand and preferences for services) foster RI. Since firms apply sophisticated forms of international exposure, RI domain should address its wide-ranging forms with a clearer and richer view that facilitates RI’s conceptualization.The study concludes with a model of RI patterns and drivers that aims at directing future research. Managers learn to pay attention to likely episodes in internationalization that may arise and lead to RI and of ways to approach them.

Itzhak Gnizy, Aviv Shoham, Yoel Asseraf
Brand to Brand: Consumer Evaluations of Spillover Effects in Interbrand Communications

Prior research on communications of strategic brand alliances assesses spillover effects of these alliances on consumer attitudes toward brands (Simonin and Ruth 1998; Baumgarth 2004). However, social media strategies have shifted firms’ months-long bureaucratic approval processes of formal alliances to real-time brand-to-brand communications, or interbrand communications (IBCs). This has given firms the ability to co-create brand value, alongside consumer value co-creation. The purpose of this research is to identify and examine the effects of IBCs – using social media – on brand co-creation of value via spillover effects. We simulate an IBC in a controlled between-subjects experiment and use SEM to evaluate the spillover effects of IBCs on consumers’ attitudes to brands. Our results indicate IBCs have positive spillover effects on consumer attitudes toward brands but that those effects are moderated by brand familiarity. However, we fail to find support for consumer attitudes to IBCs leading to consumer-brand engagement. This initial research on IBCs has theoretical implications for social media, brand management, and marketing communications research, as well as practical implications for firms adding IBCs to their communications strategies. We conclude with insights for extending research on IBC characteristics and spillover effects.

Spencer M. Ross, Fatima Hajjat
Review of Research on CSR in International Marketing: 1993–2013

Although Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been an issue of major concern for marketers for more than half a century, less attention has been paid to its international marketing dimensions. However, there is a sufficient critical mass of articles on the link between CSR and international marketing to warrant attention. Thus, the aim of our study is to systematically review, assess, and synthesize extant research on the subject. Specifically, we have three major objectives: (a) to identify and analyze the theories that provided the theoretical background of articles on the subject; (b) to assess the research methodologies employed; and (c) to organize and discuss the key thematic issues addressed. Using a combination of electronic and manual literature search methods, we have identified 132 studies that appeared in 107 articles and were published in 61 academic journals during the period 1993–2013. Theoretically, slightly over a third of the articles were not anchored on a specific theory, and this was particularly true during the early stages of this research. The remainder employed one of the following theories: stakeholder theory (20.6 %), institutional theory (8.4 %), resource-based view (5.6 %), resource-dependence theory (3.7 %), legitimacy theory (3.7 %), and information processing theory (2.8 %). Theories used less frequently were: signaling theory, agency theory and upper echelons theory. A tenth of articles used multiple theories. Methodologically, pertinent articles were characterized by growing sophistication and rigor, as demonstrated by a gradual shift of research from descriptive to formalized, from exploratory to causal, from widening the range of focal country settings, from extending the unit of analysis to cover both firms and various stakeholder groups, from non-probability to probability sampling designs, from single to combined data collection methods, and from univariate and bivariate analytical methods to structural equation modeling. Empirically, this literature covered a wide range of issues, with the most commonly studied being those focusing on the elements of international marketing strategy, external environmental influences, and CSR practices, such as stakeholder management, cause-related marketing and philanthropy, and performance-related issues (although limited attention was paid to social and financial performance). The least studied issues referred to internal influences (e.g., organizational and managerial considerations), consumer retaliation and boycotts, CSR communications, and factors stimulating or obstructing CSR adoption. In conclusion, the literature on CSR issues in international marketing seems to have a rapidly developing and widely spreading pattern, which is characterized by increasing sophistication, innovative elements, and useful insights. This is particularly true of the last 4 years, in which reach on the subject has grown at an unprecedented pace. Since this body of research is expected to grow further in the future, as a result of increasing public concern and sensitivity to social-related issues, the imposition of stringent legislation, and the intensification of competition on a global scale, we end up with a comprehensive list of future research avenues that fall under nine different categories. Our review contributes to the international marketing discipline in three different ways: (a) it synthesizes a novel body of research characterized by great fragmentation and diversity into an organized and holistic framework; (b) it creates an inventory of knowledge that could help marketing scholars to advance research on the subject, and practitioners to gain insights into the role of CSR issues in their foreign operations; and (c) it offers public policymakers a framework for formulating sound policies to encourage socially responsible behavior among international firms.

Pantelitsa P. Eteokleous, Constantine S. Katsikeas, Leonidas C. Leonidou
United We Shop! Chinese Consumers’ Online Group Buying

This study aims to understand the underlying mechanism of Chinese consumers’ online group buying intention to gain strategic consumer insights and advance the theoretical understanding of online consumer behavior. Recognizing the social connotation of consumers’ online group buying behavior, this study pays special attention to the factors pertaining to social relationships – susceptibility to normative influence, need for uniqueness, and perceived homophily as key antecedents driving online group purchase. An online survey was conducted with nonstudent adult respondents. Hierarchical regression results show that two counterintuitive factors – consumer need for uniqueness and perceived homophily significantly and positively influenced online group buying intention, while susceptibility to normative influence did not. Based on the Beta coefficients in the regression, consumer need for uniqueness emerged as a more powerful antecedent than perceived homophily. Additional statistical analysis suggests that consumer need for uniqueness appeared to be a possible mediator between normative influence and online group buying intention, thereby dramatically diminishing the effect of normative influence on online group buying intention. Results indicate that participating in the popular yet innovative trend of online group buying constitutes an important means for consumers to seek uniqueness in a socially approved manner. Although collectivist Chinese societies emphasize the need to be part of the mass, being too similar to others may lead to countervailing pressures for distinctiveness. In fact, the findings may reveal a cultural paradox that when Chinese consumers engage in online group buying which already meets the expectation of collectivism, their need to feel unique may be stronger.

Jie Zhang, Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai
Expressions of (Dis)Respect: Understanding Respect in a Consumer Context

What (dis)satisfies consumers is a central question in marketing research (Luo and Homburg 2007). Existing work has largely focused on the role of judgments of product or service performance (e.g., Falk et al. 2010), complaint handling (e.g., Zheng et al. 2013), and equity perceptions (e.g., Oliver and Swan 1989) as antecedents of satisfaction. The current work suggests that satisfaction is also likely to be strongly influenced by the inferences that consumers draw about the extent to which the firm showed them respect. We expect that such inferences can be drawn from a wide variety of firm actions. As such, respect may account for some of the impact of a variety of known antecedents of satisfaction, but it might also be capable of explaining additional variance in the satisfaction response.Respect plays a central role in the quality and outcomes of interpersonal interactions (Lind 1989). It has been characterized as a fundamental entitlement (Miller 2001). Actions and words that convey a lack of respect can be enormously upsetting (Sennett 2003). Conversely, respectful relationships are more rewarding and likely to endure (Murphy 2007; Sleebos et al. 2006). Despite the demonstrated importance of respect in interpersonal settings, it has received little attention in the context of marketing exchanges (Berry 1996; Costley et al. 2005). The purpose of the current work was to provide an initial investigation into the role respect might play in consumers’ satisfaction response.Four-hundred and fifty participants (students at two universities) recounted either a satisfying or dissatisfying purchase experience and completed a variety of relevant measures. As expected, dissatisfying experiences were associated with poor product, service, and post-purchase service performance. They were also more likely to result in lower attitudes toward the store, more negative affect, more negative word-of-mouth, and reduced repurchase behavior. More relevant to the current ideas, dissatisfying incidents were characterized by perceptions of a lack of respect and reduced self-esteem. Within each type of reported experience (i.e., both satisfying and dissatisfying), inferences of (dis)respect predicted satisfaction, beyond the variance explained by the three performance variables (product, service, and post-purchase service). Additional analyses suggested that the relationship between respect and satisfaction was mediated by self-esteem and affect. Also consistent with our broad ideas, inferred (dis)respect had a stronger influence on self-esteem and (dis)satisfaction when it came from a seller with which consumers had previously perceived to have a strong relationship.

Maureen Bourassa, Laurence Ashworth
We Clapped for the Hologram: Authenticity in Experiential Consumption

For experiential marketers or for service providers, holographic technology implies labor cost-savings, standardizing customer interaction, and potential revenue opportunities through simultaneous experiential replication. The novelty of holograms has encouraged businesses to rapidly adopt their use, however, little is known about consumers’ reactions to and interactions with virtually-replicated experiential consumption. In this paper, we propose and test a model of how holographic experiences can still lead consumers to have positive, seemingly-authentic consumption experiences, even though the mode of presentation is inauthentic. The results of an experiment demonstrate few significant differences between control, live performance, and holographic performance groups with respect to various outcomes of experiential consumption. Further, we find no significant differences between groups on consumers’ likelihood to watch again, likelihood to recommend the performance, and willingness-to-pay. These findings suggest that, although holographic technology is currently costly, the ability to replicate experiential consumption could be cost efficient in the long-run. We conclude with insights for extending research on holographic experiential consumption.

Spencer M. Ross, Lauren I. Labrecque
Understanding Consumers’ Brand Aspiration: A Scale Development and Validation

Being a dream brand and distinctive among other competitors often results from the brand aspiration signals conveyed by the brand that consumers choose to display and process. Conceptual models of social psychology recognize that an individual’s strong aspiration works as a driving force towards the motives for action and create behavior when time tends to be consistent with the aspiration that the individual pursues (Sheldon et al. 2004; Pyszczynski et al. 2004; Sheldon 2004; Kasser and Ryan 1993, 1996; Kim et al. 2003). Building on these notions, the effect of aspirations on consumer luxury brand preference have been demonstrated (e.g. Truong et al. 2012). Recognizing the importance of goal oriented motives for developing strong behavior, practitioners too focused on imparting aspirational values over and above their stiff price competition to get a competitive advantage.Despite this interest, branding literature offers limited guidance on the observable characteristics of consumers’ brand aspirations that might influence behavior. This understanding is vital for several reasons. First, increased attention on consumers’ aspirations in the academic literature has gained support for managing consumers’ brand attachment (Park et al. 2006). Second, the significance of brand aspirations in shaping consumer behavior is interesting as self-determination theory in social psychology. Ryan and Deci (2000) suggest that individual motivation is concerned with the development and functioning of personality in the social environment. Third, an individual’s aspirations determine their important life decisions, define specific perceived values and also influences and shape the perceptions, judgments and behavior (Kasser 2002; Weinstein et al. 2009). Thus, the present study addresses this need for a measure of Brand Aspirations by empirically constructing and validating a measure of consumers’ brand aspirations and further tests its impact on consumer brand relationship outcomes.

S. Sreejesh, Subhadip Roy
Evaluating the Role of Positive Emotions and Character- Brand Interaction on Implicit Attitudes for Brand Placement Effectiveness

There is an increasing interest in the study of the role played by emotions in marketing and advertising in the recent years. According to Hirschman and Holbrook (1982), they may often be crucial as “primary motivator of behaviour”, playing an important role in the both cognitive processes and outcomes (Erevelles 1998). Effect of emotions on implicit brand placement processing is, hitherto, an unexplored area. This study examines the impact of positive emotions (happy, interest) and level of character-brand interaction on consumers’ implicit attitudes towards brand placements. In the experiments conducted, it was observed that consumers in a positive emotional state were more likely to respond favourably to the placed brands when the character interaction with the placed brand was low. The industry implications are discussed in herein.

Anvita Kumar, George Balbanis
The Use of Social Media Tools in the Sales Organization: Individual, Organizational, and Customer–Related Antecedents

There is ample recognition that social media tools (for example, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and LinkedIn) are being used by marketers to influence consumer preferences and purchase decisions and to generate word of mouth (Kumar and Mirchandani 2012). However, social media usage in the sales function and/or organization is still in an early stage, and research in this area is required. Previous related research has looked at some determinants of technology adoption by salespeople, such as sales force automation (SFA) or customer relationship management (CRM) tools (Jelinek et al. 2006; Richard et al. 2007; Speier and Venkatesh 2002). However, social media tools differ from SFA or CRM not only in their relative newness, but also in the sales purposes they can help to achieve (for example, prospecting for customers, obtaining market information, promoting products, and identifying candidates for sales positions, among others). In addition, most previous research has examined the individual salesperson’s adoption of technology, rather than the adoption of technology by the sales organization, which could be considered a more strategic issue for a company.

Rodrigo Guesalaga, Dimitri Kapelianis
How Mobile Shopping Affects Customer Purchase Behavior: A Retailer’s Perspective

Shopping or buying with a mobile device (M-shopping henceforth) has become an increasingly important topic that has drawn much attention in both industry and academia. Forrester Research (Husson 2014) predicts that media companies and retailers receive more than 50 % of online traffic from mobile devices. M-shopping is also expected to grow substantially compared to the rest of the retail space. Deloitte Consulting (2012) predicts that $31 billion worth of retail revenues will be transacted using mobile devices by 2016. While the overall retail revenue annual growth rate is forecasted at 4 % for 2015 through 2016, mobile commerce is estimated to grow at 21 %–29 % (Mulpuru et al. 2013). The growth in M-shopping provides ample potential for marketers and advertisers to leverage the channel. Using a unique dataset from an Internet-based firm, we are able to compare customers’ behavior based on whether they use mobile devices, i.e., smartphones, tablets, and/or personal computers (PCs) when composing, modifying or placing orders online. We find that purchase probability and order size, i.e., the size of the order in dollars, increase as customers become accustomed to M-shopping. In addition to the cumulative effect, orders that are made with one or more mobile devices are more likely to lead to shorter times-to-next-order than PC-only orders. However, not all mobile orders are the same. Orders made with two or more device types are larger than those that are made with only a single device, e.g., smartphone-only orders. Orders made with all three device types, i.e., smartphones, tablets and PCs, are the largest. We propose that customers utilize mobile devices because the technology provides ubiquitous convenience, which leads them to incorporate M-shopping into their habitual routines. Managerially, we recommend that firms should not only promote their mobile platforms, but also encourage their customers to engage through multiple devices, including PCs. Firms can increase their customers’ spending by leveraging anytime, anywhere access and customer engagement via multiple devices.

Rebecca Jen-Hui Wang, Edward C. Malthouse, Lakshman Krishnamurthi
The Effects of Online Negative Word-of-Mouth: An Empirical Study

Previous studies on the effects of word-of-mouth (WOM) have rarely distinguished the effect of creating and reading WOM messages. This paper investigates how posting and viewing online negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) affect customers’ subsequent purchase behaviors. We also identify different types of negative emotions expressed in NWOM and examine their impact. Using a dataset that combines customers’ posting and viewing activities on the firm’s online forum and their purchase and redemption histories, we find the interaction effect between posting and redeeming to be positive, and viewing to be negative. Regarding emotions, anger has a negative effect, while concern has a positive effect. We propose an explanation for these findings, and discuss their implications and applications.

Su Jung Kim, Rebecca Jen-Hui Wang, Edward C. Malthouse
Salespeople and the Verification Process: The Critical Role Salespeople Can Play in Firm Verification Strategies

Relationship marketing has garnered significant attention recently from business strategy researchers with findings indicating that firms engaged in strong relationships with their exchange partners can accrue significant relational benefits. However, research has also indicated that there are potential downsides for exchange partners that grow too close, develop too much trust, and expose themselves to opportunism. Gundlach and Cannon (2010) suggest that exchange partners can protect themselves against opportunism through the use of verifications strategies, including direct and indirect monitoring of exchange partners. Given their unique position at the interface of the exchange process, salespeople are potentially well suited to be actively involved in the informal monitoring function for organizations. In this paper, we explore the opportunity for salespeople to play a critical role for organizations in a monitoring capacity and identify the key factors that contribute to salesperson success in such a role. The proposed research indicates ways in which salespeople can operate more efficiently for their organizations and outlines additional benefits to the organization such as greater and more current market intelligence.

Matthew M. Lastner, Stephanie Mangus, Patrick Fennell
Is There Such a Thing as Reverse Psychology?

As little children, we were frequently admonished by our parents to “eat our vegetables.” After the broccoli sits on our plate for a half hour, our exasperated parents decide to take control of the situation. “Fine,” they say. “Don’t eat your vegetables. I bet you can’t finish your plate anyway.” Defiantly, we shove all the vegetables in our mouths, chew, and swallow. It is not that we’re happy we ate the vegetables—more so that we’ve emerged victorious over what we’ve been told not to do. Meanwhile, our parents have actually claimed victory over us using the tactic commonly known as reverse psychology.Reverse psychology, better known in the psychology literature as strategic self-anticonformity (SSA), is defined as a requestor’s advocacy of a position that is opposite of his or her true position (MacDonald et al. 2011; Nail et al. 2013). Research on reverse psychology, as a compliance technique, is recent in the psychology literature and has been limited to interpersonal communications (MacDonald et al. 2011; Nail et al. 2013). However, a recent trend in marketing promotions expands this notion of reverse psychology to include not only interpersonal communications but also communications to a wider target base. More specifically, marketers have utilized reverse psychology as a way to: (1) promote a product to the entire market, without deliberatively excluding a specific market segment (e.g. Little Caesar’s “Do not call this number” “Do not visit our website” campaign), (2) promote a product to a certain targeted segment while purposefully excluding another (e.g. Dr. Pepper’s “Not for women” campaign), and finally, (3) promote a certain company or brand image (e.g. Patagonia sustainability initiative “Do not buy this jacket”).Generally, the success of reverse psychology, SSA, as an influence technique is attributed to the source’s ability to conceal the fact that s/he is using a persuasion tactic (MacDonald et al. 2011; Nail et al. 2013), and his or her knowledge of the expected negativity, contradiction and disagreeableness from the influence target (MacDonald et al. 2011). The expected negativity, disagreeableness and contradiction is akin to the concept of psychological reactance, which suggests that if an individual’s freedom is reduced or threatened, he or she will be motivated to reestablish the lost freedom (Brehm 1966).The purpose of this research is further the understanding of reverse psychology as a persuasion technique (MacDonald et al. 2011; Nail et al. 2013). Specifically, we would like to examine when and why reverse psychology can be used effectively or ineffectively as a persuasion technique? How does framing play into the effectiveness of the persuasion attempt? And finally, how does reactance to a specific reverse psychology attempt affect behavioral intentions, attitude towards the behavior and pass-along rate? By understanding this persuasion technique, we hope to extend it to marketing promotions.

Fatima Hajjat
Scientometric Analysis of Marketing Theoreticians

Albert Einstein notably asserted that “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” Cast against the backdrop of Einstein’s assertion, the present research critically examines the enduring yet unresolved controversy regarding marketing as a science. Consider that the marketing discipline is nearing its first-century of inception and the Journal of Marketing is approaching its eighth decade of publication. Yet there is a paucity of theory formation within the marketing discipline and marketing academicians still debate the epistemology of marketing itself. The century between 1913 and 2013 witnessed a dearth of theory development toward advancement of a cohesive body of marketing knowledge. Shankar (2009) concurs: “…marketing has long been the poor relation, intellectually, to other management disciplines with the academic study of management itself pretty low down the social science pecking order.” He specifically calls for the current research toward “elevating the scholarly, intellectual or academic status of marketing” (p. 683).Epistemology is the study of knowledge and understanding, and is the basis for theory building. Theory building is important because it is the fundamental framework for analysis, facilitating hypothesis testing and is essential for advancing marketing knowledge and practice. Sutton and Staw (1995) suggest that “the lack of consensus on exactly what theory is may explain why it is so difficult to develop strong theories in the behavioral sciences” (p. 372). Following which, they suggest five “wrong-way” signs for what theory is. “Marketing theory” has been sparse at best, and is largely borrowed from classical and neo-classical economics, contractual law theory, and allied social sciences. None of the above has led to a high degree of self-development or generation of original theories of marketing. The reality is that effects applications of extant theories dominate marketing after one century.This research seeks to critically review a body of marketing theory to illuminate gaps in the epistemic foundations of marketing knowledge development, and to critically assess the generation and advancement of the marketing theories within a consonant framework. The goal is to empirically assess the impact of marketing theoreticians’ contributions to knowledge advancement to marketing and allied social science disciplines, using scientometrics. Second, this study seeks to identify a body of theoretical development emanating from the marketing discipline that has been proffered by outstanding marketing academicians. The research aspiration is to potentially link the theoreticians to the epistemic process in the marketing discipline. The applied contributions of this study are to glean implications from this analysis toward proffering normative insights into the development of both emerging marketing scholars as well as promoting theory development within the marketing discipline. The attendant questions to answer are: Should emerging scholars learn how to develop theory? How should the Ph.D. pedagogy and curricula address the development of theory in the discipline? Grounded in a relevant sub dynamic of the theory of composition, and using scientometric analysis (Nalimov and Mulchenko 1969), the domain of references across the allied behavioral science literatures will be empirically assessed.

Mel F. Zuberi, Lou E. Pelton
Strategic Trade-offs in Hotel Best Rate Guarantees

Ever-growing access to information represents a disruptive influence on many traditional industries. With an increase in access to a wide range of distribution channels, consumers experience greater pricing transparency than at any time in the past. At the same time, expansion of revenue management systems within the hospitality industry has led to a proliferation of rates and increased frequency of rate adjustment as property managers seek to optimize the match between prices offered and willingness to pay of each individual customer in a highly competitive market. Increased pricing disparities across distribution channels has shaped the opinions of consumers, who have responded by engaging in higher levels of search behavior in an effort to secure better deals, and a decrease in perceived pricing fairness (Gazzoli et al. 2008). Through promoting greater search effort on the part of customers, hoteliers effectively increase their competitor set, cutting into potential margins. Major hotel chains have responded through adoption of “Best Rate Guarantee” (BRG) policies and “Look No Further” lowest rate marketing messages, offering to match lower prices for identical rooms. Generally, these offers include an additional incentive in an effort to reassure customers that booking directly will always result in the lowest prices. The current study examines differences between the pricing strategies selected by different hotel chains. Specifically, frequency of BRG compliance compared to the magnitude of self-imposed penalties for violations.

Bradley Baker
Investigating the Drivers that Determines Brand Loyalty: A Study of the Experience-Commitment-Loyalty Construct

The marketing field first took an interest in brand loyalty on an academic level through Copeland’s work in 1923 (cited in Kabiraj and Shanmugan 2011, p. 288), with the understanding that brand loyalty existed only at the behavioural level. At this time, brand loyalty was measured using factors such as purchase sequences, percentage of total purchases, and purchase probability (Kumar and Advani 2005; Kabiraj and Shanmugan 2011; Iglesias et al. 2011). This notion led to a focus on price, functionality, and quality when marketing products and services, with the expectation that customers would develop a repeated purchase pattern if these factors met the customer’s criteria. However, another level of loyalty was revealed during the 1950s, as brand loyalty became an increasingly popular research area. Several researchers, such as Cunningham (1967), Day (1969) and Jacoby (1971), began to recognise that the attitudinal aspects of brand loyalty were just as important as the behavioural aspects. As it became apparent that brands often held an emotional component as well as a functional one, marketing strategies shifted to focus on relationships and value creation (Iglesias et al. 2011). Wel et al. (2011) explained the two components of the phenomenon that is brand loyalty, by stating that in addition to having the intention to repurchase a brand, brand loyalists also have to hold some degree of emotional connection and/or commitment towards the brand.

Vishwas Maheshwari, George Lodorfos, Siril Jacobsen
Does Sexual Humor Work on Mars, but Not on Venus? Exploring Consumer Acceptance of Sexually Humorous Advertising by Gendered Brands

In this paper, two studies demonstrate that the efficacy of sexual humor in advertising is more complicated than the conventional wisdom of “works for males, but not for females.” The findings suggest that males and females tend not to exhibit significant differences in sexual humor evaluation (how funny is this?) but that advertising utilizing sexual humor is more likely (less likely) to generate positive attitudes (do I like this advertisement/brand?) when a masculine (feminine) brand is communicating with male (female) consumers. However, brand gender differences and the resultant consumer attitudinal differences can be eliminated through the use of gender-atypical brand personality. Taken together, the results show that the mere presence of sexual humor does not drive gender-based differences in advertising response; rather, it appears to be the fit of such humor with brand personality.

James Mark Mayer, Piyush Kumar, Hye Jin Yoon
Contingent Effects of Humor Type and Cognitive Style on Consumer Attitudes

In the spirit of examining humor contextually, we consider a basic question in this essay: do different humor types “play by the same rules,” cognitively speaking? We examine the relationship between humor and cognitive processing style, as operationalized through Need for Cognition. We find that humor based on disparagement processes “breaks through” the cognitive differences inherent in incongruity humor. Rather than exhibiting incongruity-based humor’s affective response transferring to attitude for low-NFC subjects, and more centrally-employing high NFC subjects’ higher tendency to dismiss the humor’s effect on overall attitude, disparagement based humor is processed the same by both low- and high-NFC respondents. Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between cognitive processing (as operationalized through Need for Cognition) and resultant attitudes is a complicated one, strongly contingent on humor type. Were only incongruity-based humor utilized, our findings would have reinforced Zhang’s (Psychol Mark 13:531–545, 1996b) assertion that a person’s Need for Cognition will play a key role in the evaluation of humor, but our results suggest that a more complex conceptualization of the relationship between humor and attitude formation is required when humor is treated as a potentially more complicated, context-dependent construct.

James Mark Mayer, Plamen Peev, Piyush Kumar
The Efficacy of Sexualized Female Models in Young Adult-Male Oriented Cigarette Advertising

This paper explores the portrayal (efficacy) of female models in male-targeted cigarette print advertisements through a content analysis (experiment). We first describe the presence and portrayal of females through a content analysis on male-targeted cigarette advertisements in magazines; we find that, in aggregate, females are often used as sexually attractive decoration, and the overall female portrayal is fundamentally different (and unequal) to that of the male. We next investigate the efficacy of these portrayals through an experiment among young adult-aged male smokers and nonsmokers. Our experimental findings indicate that these sexually charged advertisements generate superior attitudinal results in non-smoking males than smoking males, a finding that – in conjunction with the portrayal of females in the content analysis – suggests potential societal and public policy implications.

James Mark Mayer, Tae Hyun Baek
A Structural Equation Modeling-Based Examination of the Private Label Brand (PLB) Consumer Evaluation Process

The goal of this paper is to answer the question “What variables influence consumer private label brand (PLB) evaluations?” We employ structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to analyze a hypothesized process by which consumer-based evaluations of retailer and product category, along with perceived risk of the category and PLB all affect the ultimate PLB brand evaluation. PLBs have been heavily researched in academic marketing research journals but SEM-based research is minimal. Research has generally been conducted using model-building techniques which are then empirically tested using real-world data. Given the complexity of the process, an alternate approach is to use experimental techniques to gain first-hand PLB data and then analyze it using appropriate methodology. The current project represents a step in that direction. While the model is subject to limitations that call its utility into question, it does provide guidance for a future, more theoretically-sound a priori model and resulting SEM analysis.

James Mark Mayer
How Social Media Works: Using Web Analytics

This study is intended to provide marketing practitioners with an overview of web analytics to explore the issue of how to define and measure the effectiveness of social media through analyzing the various activities of current/potential consumers as well as provide a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of digital content marketing using social media. These analytics answer broad questions about which types of social media metrics are best at referring traffic, about conversations at the organization’s website, and about comparing different social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter in this study. These analytics employ time series analysis to specifically address activities in SNSs that effectively drive traffic to a website and accomplish business goals. This study is one of the first empirical investigations in the marketing communication field related to measuring social media’s effectiveness. The major goal of this study is to demonstrate the value of businesses’ efforts and to optimize their digital/social marketing strategy using web analytics. Based on this goal three research questions were identified: (1) can the model identify social media performance variables that are related to audience response which can be represented by website traffic?; (2) which social media sties are driving traffic to a firm’s website, specifically in B2B environment?; and (3) can the model provide insight into the importance of those variables? The results of the analysis are encouraging and suggest the model as specified was able to identify the social media variables that were significantly related to the companies’ website traffic. This finding implies that the traditional media variables of reach and frequency are still important in the social media space. As expected, the engagement variables are also a critical part of the social media experience. From a media strategy perspective, all three components – the number of messages and the size of the audience appear to work with active audience participation to produce effective communication in the social media environment.

Kyungok Kacy Kim, Jung Hwa Choi, Tae Rang Choi
Cultural Appropriation of Death Celebrations: The Case of Halloween

Major cultural death celebrations such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead, Halloween, and All Saint’s Day in many Christian countries, all involve the remembrance of the ancestral dead in various aspects. Holiday celebrations can differ in purpose. Some focus on recommitment – aiding in socialization of society’s members, social integration, and reaffirming commitment to values. Others serve as tension management holidays, enabling celebrants to “let off steam” or “let loose.” Tension management holidays only indirectly enforce shared beliefs by offering the occasional release from conformity and behavioral norms of society (Etzioni and Bloom 2004; Durkheim 1965). Studying holidays as cultural products offers a unique perspective of society’s cultural values and enhances our understanding of consumer interpretation of foreign consumption rituals.Researchers have explored Halloween as a consumption ritual (Belk 1990; Levinson et al. 1992) with both carnivalesque (Belk 1994) and community building properties (Harris 2006; McKechnie and Tynan 2008). We find that newly adopted Halloween rituals are an under-researched consumption phenomenon, especially within the global context. One exception is McKechnie and Tynan’s (2008) study on British consumers’ celebrations. We respond to their call for further investigation on the diffusion of North American Halloween celebrations by conducting a qualitative study of Swedish Halloween celebrations. In doing so, we seek a deeper understanding of consumer perceptions of foreign celebrations, and the dimensions of their readiness to adopt unfamiliar practices. Through qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews, participant observations and open-ended questionnaires we seek to answer the following: Why is death celebrated? What fascinates consumers to dress up as “dead” or “dark” figures? What motivates Swedes to adopt yet another holiday? During the 2012 and 2013 fall seasons, we collected two rounds of open-ended questionnaires from High School students (96 in total), in-depth interviews with families (adults and children) and participant observation at Halloween themed resorts, trick or treating events and Halloween parties (children/family oriented). The data analysis entailed thematic coding through individual iterative hermeneutic analysis (Thompson 1997). In our findings we discuss four emergent themes: Embracing versus Resisting, Identity Play, Media and Retail Facilitation of Ritual Adoption, and Protecting Kids.Global market participants often interpret and modify cultural practices and meanings to match their local backgrounds (Bennet 1999; Klitgaard Poulsen 1996). Based on extant research and this study’s findings it is clear that many consumers edit and engineer certain aspects of rituals to fit their needs (Etzioni 2004). Given the increasing popularity and growth of Halloween, our insights contribute to the literature by extending previous work on the mechanisms of adapting foreign culture celebrations (Kimura and Belk 2005) and add to the understanding that celebrating foreign holidays goes beyond national appropriation i.e. Americanization (Etzioni and Bloom 2004; Etzioni 2004).

Pia A. Albinsson, Marco Wolf, G. David Shows, Karen M. Hood
Sports Sponsorship Effectiveness: The Impact of Transformational Consumption Experiences

As technology such as DVR, television subscription services (e.g. Hulu), and video streaming (e.g. Netflix) continues to change the advertising game, more and more marketers are turning to sponsorship of live or interactive events to capture their target market (Schultz 2013). North American firms will spend nearly $14 billion on sports sponsorship in 2013 an expected increase of 6 % over 2012 and almost three times the expected increase in overall ad spending (2.3 %) for 2013 (IEG 2013). Of these sponsorships, title sponsorships are the most coveted with firms paying upwards of $35 million dollars for the naming rights of an event (e.g. Bank of America Chicago Marathon; IEG ImageTrack). According to research on experiential consumption, the experiences consumers have at the sponsored events can potentially impact their perception of the sponsoring brand (Dodson 1996; Schouten et al. 2007). In this study, we find that consumers reporting transformational consumption experiences, defined as intrinsically enjoyable experiences laden with intense emotional content, illustrated significantly greater change in brand integration than consumers who reported more mundane experiences. This relationship was mediated by the degree of self-transformation (measured by change in self efficacy) resulting from the event.

Colleen Harmeling, Brad Carlson
Ingredient Brand Versus Host Brand in Smartphone Market

New market rules have changed the structure of market and pushed firms for new strategies to compete and survive in uncertain and competitive environment. Some significant market realities, such as easiness in gaining knowledge about product/service, and attainability alternative brands, forced organizations to find out new ways to reach market success, in addition to traditional competition tools. Firms must supply attractive and novel products faster and better while developing and presenting new ideas. However, not only either own brand or product/service capabilities may not be adequate for producing and marketing new products, but also firm may not perform these with sufficient speed. Hence, in the term of branding, marketers have increasingly turned to brand alliances strategies such as co-branding (e.g. Nike–Apple), composite branding (e.g. Special K frozen waffles) and ingredient branding (e.g. Intel–Dell).Previous studies are mostly conceptual and empirical works revealing success of ingredient marketing strategies. They have majorly focused on retail products or some widely known technological products with similar ingredient brand examples. In this study we attempt to examine the importance of host and ingredient brand separately for consumer/user buying influence, and discuss results according to the current smartphone market developments in order to shed light to academicians and practitioners for further studies and practices in the market.We have asked to respondents to measure the importance of phone (host brand), operating system (OS) (ingredient brand), and to compare with the OS brand results, processor brand (ingredient brand) in interval-level. Also, respondents were asked in categorical-level for their role in buying the smartphone, and other demographic questions. The results of this study show that smartphone, OS and processor brand are related with consumer/user’s influence for buying smartphones. Additionally, descriptive statistics present deeper insights about consumer approaches. For instance, the most of participants, who highlight the phone brand, OS brand and processor brand as important or extremely important, make own decision when they purchase the smartphone.This study draws attention to that more research on this topic is essential to understand more clearly whether general brand strategies and concepts are adequate and compatible for ingredient branding. Hence, ingredient brands should be examined academically and practically for deeper insights, not only for smartphone market, but also for other markets/products.

Volkan Polat, Waldemar Pfoertsch, Ahmet Tuncay Nergis, Ali Ekber Akgun
Cross-Cultural Issues in Sales Behavior Research

Sales researchers and managers have long sought to identify and promote effective selling practices that improve firm performance. One prominent stream of relational sales research has dealt with the concept of adaptive selling behavior (ASB). A meta-analysis of over 31,000 salespeople by Franke and Park (2006) identified antecedents and outcomes of ASB, but focused largely on U.S. salespeople. Thus, relatively little is known about such sales practices in alternative cultural contexts.

George Deitz, Jared Oakley, Alexa K. Fox, Jeong Eun
Use of Consumers with Disabilities in Advertising: A Proposal for Research

According to a 2012 US Census Bureau report, in 2010 there were some 56.7 million members of the non-institutionalized US population that had a disability; this represented slightly more than 18 % of the population. The report further stated that people with disabilities in the United States accounted for more than $200 billion in discretionary spending and also spurred technological innovation and entrepreneurship (US Census Bureau). Moreover, in 2008, the federal government spent an estimated $357 billion on programs for working-age people with disabilities; this was about 12 % of total federal expenditures for the year (Brault 2012). However, a cursory examination of current advertising in the US would never lead to the conclusion that about one-in-five persons suffers from a disability, or that this group is a target for goods and services. Not surprisingly, there has not been much academic discourse on the image of disability in advertising.

Ainsworth Anthony Bailey, Mojisola Tiamiyu
From Product-Market Data to Business Intelligence: Marketing Pioneers Who Engaged Their Clients

This paper is a historical review of how business information was transformed to business intelligence during the past half century when a bright group of pioneers established the foundations for organizing market/product information. The discussion moves beyond description and into an analytical mode, probing how and why their approaches succeeded. Included are: (1) a conceptual framework for business decision-making that enabled market information and product data specialists to offer user-friendly products; (2) the key role that coding played in reducing quantity and upgrading quality of data; (3) the wide variety of abstracts, indexes, and digests that were developed for customers; (4) brief portraits of a few pioneers in the field and how they succeeded in catering to diverse needs of clients by their product offerings; and (5) the specific path that organizations used to collaborate to “grow the field” even while they remained as keen rivals. In illuminating the early work of marketing information pioneers, we show how they enriched the field by building the data foundation on which organizations rely even now. We demonstrate that aggressive marketing strategies can be coupled with engaging clients and what the “take-away lessons” are for data mining today.

Andrew Gross
The Impacts of Brand Cohesiveness and Similarity in Feedback Extension Effects

Extant brand research has discussed the feedback effects of brand extensions from the three major perspectives of the characteristics of extensions, the characteristics of brands, and the characteristics of perceivers. The first stream specifically discusses the extension characteristics of accessibility-diagnosticity, similarity, valence, and leveraging strategies. The second stream examines the brand characteristic of quality variability. The third stream examines the perceiver characteristics of cultural orientation, implicit personality theory, motivation level, need of cognition, processing style, self-construal, and self-regulatory focus. In comparison, findings of the first and third streams have been fruitful, while less is known about the influences of brand characteristics. Therefore, this research advances feedback extension research by examining the moderating effects of brand characteristics, specifically in the perspectives of brand similarity and cohesiveness.Recent social cognition research has paid considerable attention to the influence of group entitativity on group perception. Entitativity refers to the wholeness of a group, or the degree to which a social aggregate is perceived as “having the nature of an entity,” and is characterized by proximity, similarity, and common fate. A high-entitative group is a collection of people bonded together in a coherent unit, such as task (e.g., airline flight crews) or intimacy (e.g., members of a family) groups. Extant research documents that the transference of group members’ behavioral traits is more salient in high-entitative groups consisting of similar and cohesive group members. The results imply that perceived entitativity moderates group perception, and the group members of high-entitative groups exert more influence on group impression formation. As with social groups, we argue that perceived entitativity moderates brand evaluation, and the brand extensions of high-entitative brands exert more influence on brand evaluations. As brand failure is more critical for brand management, we specifically examined the negative effects of unfavorable brand extensions on the evaluations of entitative brands. Capitalizing on the perceived entitativity theory, we propose that negative extension information instigates more salient impacts on high-entitative brands consisting of similar- or dissimilar-cohesive brand extensions.The hypotheses were examined with a three-group between-subjects experimental design consisting of similar-cohesive, dissimilar-cohesive, and dissimilar-incohesive conditions. The results indicate that similar-cohesive and dissimilar-incohesive brands are perceived as high- and low-entitative brands and are more favorably and unfavorably evaluated, respectively. Moreover, brands with dissimilar extensions are perceived as high-entitative brands if the dissimilar extensions are perceived as cohesive. However, while perceived as high-entitative brands, the dissimilar-cohesive brands are not more favorably evaluated like the similar-cohesive brands do because the negative effect of brand dissimilarity counterbalances the positive effect of brand cohesiveness on brand evaluations. Moreover, negative extension information instigates more negative impacts on high- (vs. low-) entitative brands, including similar- and dissimilar-cohesive brands. The results parallel the findings of social group perception.

Joseph W. Chang, Jiayun (Gavin) Wu
Radical Innovation, Technological Orientation, and New Product Development Performance

Innovations and new product development are the lifeblood of any firm. For firms active in markets characterized by competition, new product development (NPD) is essential because it contributes to firm survival as well as to competitiveness, and growth. New product development “can influence the competitive success, adaptation, and renewal of organizations” (Brown and Eisenhardt 1995, p. 344). New product development is a critical means by which product managers diversify, adapt, and even reinvent their firms to match evolving market and technical conditions. Also, new developments and changes occurring in the market force firms to develop more effective and competitive cultural orientations. High performance due to the adopted orientation results in sustainable competitive advantage and a powerful organizational culture (Zhou et al. 2005). This research investigates relationships among radical innovation, market turbulence, and technological orientation, and their effects on NPD program performance. Employing a sample of 183 U.S. technology based companies, the study uses partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships.In SmartPLS 2.0, standardized path coefficient values are generated by the PLS algorithm. As a follow-up analysis, a bootstrapping method is used to generate the significance of path coefficients. Organizational age and R&D expenditure were the control variables for our study as these might present an alternative explanation for the hypothesized relationships. The cross product of market turbulence and radical NPD had a significant effect on NPD program performance. This significant interaction effect suggests that indeed having a higher proportion of radical NPD projects impacts NPD program performance but this effect is likely to be less at higher levels of market turbulence. The results also indicate that technological orientation has a significant positive effect on NPD program performance. In total, these variables were able to explain about 13.8 % (R2 = 0.138) of variation in NPD program performance.The goal of this research was to identify the effect of radical innovation, market orientation, and technological orientation on NPD program performance. Firms can enhance NPD program performance by fostering technological orientation. It seems that when a firm that harmonizes its structures, systems, and resources with market and technology and shows willingness to use the technology as a competitive element it has higher performance. By focusing on knowing more about their market as well as new and emerging technology, firms can generate better performance by seizing opportunities in emerging new product categories.

Prashant Srivastava, Srinivasan Swaminathan, Gary L. Frankwick
The Customer Fishbowl: Strategic Approaches to Customer Privacy

Customers are living in a fish bowl, where they are open to regular personal information surveillance by firms that threatens their privacy. This customer surveillance includes the collection, usage, and storage of customers’ personal information, such as for example personal identification details, consumption habits, and financial data. Due to advances in digital technology (e.g., optical scanners, location-tracking devices, computerized databases, web crawlers), one or more firms are often tracking the consumption decisions and behaviour of customers. Firms face a struggle to maintain the delicate balance between customer personal information surveillance and protecting the customer-firm relationship. In the short term, a firm is compelled to seek personal information from its customers in order to construct more attractive market offerings that enable a competitive edge against competitors. However in the long-term the implications of a surveillance activity by a firm may bring a negative reputation among customers and thus may decrease the attractiveness of that firm’s goods. Therefore firms need to manage their customer surveillance activity in a way that protects customer privacy. This article seeks understanding of how firms view customer privacy and how it is currently managed using in-depth interviews with 25 key managers in a large financial services firm. In doing so, it proposes a typology of customer privacy strategies and offers implications for practice and further academic study.

Frauke Mattison Thompson, Kirk Plangger
The Effect of Brand Crisis on Consumer’s Response: The Moderating Roles of Brand Associations and Brand-Customer Relationship Strength

The purposes of this study are (1) to investigate the influence of the types of brand crisis on the change of consumer’s response such as emotions, attitude, trust, purchasing intention, and behaviors, (2) to analyze the moderating roles of the types of consumer’s brand association and brand-customer relationship strength on the consumer’s response to the types of brand crisis, and (3) to interpret this mechanism through information integration theory. For the purposes, two studies are conducted with integrative approach of qualitative and quantitative methods.For study 1, a qualitative research method, ethnographic interview, targets domestic electronic market (Samsung Electronics/LG Electronics: two pulling companies in electronic industry in Korea). In study 2 with an empirical model, a quantitative approach is conducted. Proposed hypotheses are examined by employing a 2 (brand crisis types: CA/CSR) * 2 (brand association types: CA/CSR) * 2 (brand-customer relationship strength: low/high) between-subjects factorial design. Variables for consumer’s response include consumer’s attitude, purchasing intention, and behaviors after exposure to negative information for brands.It is shown from the study 1 that consumers with high brand-customer relationship strength are inclined to maintain their attitude, trust, and purchasing intention and the synergistic effect between consumer’s brand associations and brand-customer relationship strength significantly influences consumer’s response to the types of negative information for the brand. The results from Study 2 indicate that the three-way interaction effects with the types of brand crisis, the types of brand associations, and brand-customer relationship strength (low/high) on consumer’s response are significant. Specifically, consumers with strong brand-customer relationship strength and brand association related to CA (CSR) show more favorable response to brand crisis related to CA (CSR) rather than brand crisis related to CSR (CA). The results of this study could contribute to the research area and marketing practice related to brand crisis by providing crucial insights for in-depth understanding of the consumer’s response-mechanism to brand crises.

Jung Ok Jeon, Sunmee Baeck
Paying More for Victoria than Tonya: The Moderating Effect of Brand Anthropomorphism on Phonetic Symbolism

Women’s fashion items are frequently sold with women’s names (i.e. the Victoria dress); however, this trend does not occur in men’s fashion very often. When brands humanize the product by naming it with a person’s name (i.e. Lucky Jeans’s Lolita jeans), the brand is subtly anthropomorphized. Previous research finds that there is a universal positive effect for anthropomorphized brands. Additionally, previous literature also finds that there is a gender effect regarding the preference for the sounds of brands, where men like the sound of back vowels (o, a), and women like sound of front vowels (i, e). In a series of two experiments we find, consistent with previous literature, that women prefer brands with front vowels and that men prefer brands with back vowels in non-anthropomorphized ads. Conversely, the effect is reversed in anthropomorphized ads; we find that women prefer brands with back vowels and that men prefer brands with front vowels. We believe that the mechanism influencing this reversal is narrative transportation.

Brooke Reavey, Yanliu Huang, Trina Larsen Andras
Exploring the Influence of Brand Innovation on Marketing Performance Using Signaling Framework and Resource-Based Theory (RBT) Approach

Consumer markets are imperfect and asymmetric information exists between consumers and firms. Firms signal credible production and commitment to consumers by applying different levels of production and market standards. From consumer’s perspective, production standards are a proxy for product quality and a strong signal of the performance that they can expect from the product. The strong market credibility lowers the consumer’s information search cost and thus provides greater overall utility to consumers (Erdem and Swait 2004). Signaling theory suggest that brands are an important medium of quality assessment between the consumers and firms. This theory can be useful for describing behavior when two parties have access to different levels and types of information. One of the ways consumers can resolve their uncertainty is through signals from the brand, yet signaling theory does not address how this mechanism affects brand performance and influences a firm’s success and competitiveness. Resource based theory (RBT) can help bridge this knowledge gap as it incorporates traditional strategy insights concerning a firm’s distinctive capabilities (Mahoney and Pandian 1992).

Nicholas Grigoriou, Nebojsa Davcik, Piyush Sharma
Comparative Evaluation and Framing: How Price-Quality Relationship Is Vulnerable to Attribute Framing

As many of our decisions rely on relativity in judgmental processes, consumers also conduct comparative evaluations to build most of their preferences, if not all. This research investigates how framing of product information influences the comparative evaluation process performed during purchase decisions. In particular, we study the impact of attribute framing on consumers’ perceptions and attitudes, and eventually on their preferences. In a series of six experiments, we show that consumers tend to perceive two products more differently from each other, when the focal attributes of products are framed negatively (vs. positively). We explain this greater perceptual difference in negative frames with stronger sensitivity to losses (vs. gains), which leads to the amplified unfavorability of the inferior product in negative frames. In addition to the perceptual shift, results also show that framing changes attitudes towards price. We observe a stronger price-quality association in negative (vs. positive) frames and explain this finding with the adversity of drawing quality inferences out of unfavorable information. Hence, consumers are more likely to build favorable attitudes for high-priced products, when attributes are framed negatively (vs. positively). As a result of this stronger price-quality inference, preference for the more expensive product is found to be greater when products are presented in negative frames than in positive frames. Overall, this research contributes to framing and pricing literatures by observing how the entire comparative decision process is shaped on the basis of attribute framing.

Selin Erguncu
Prioritizing Retail CSR Strategies: Developing and Applying the Kano Approach

Retailers’ decisions regarding CSR activities become ever more complex as the CSR domain widens. The “obesity epidemic” and attention to marketers’ roles (Chandon and Wansink 2012) have brought promotion of healthier eating patterns (ProHEP) firmly into retailers’ CSR portfolios (Lee et al. 2014). For prioritizing diverse CSR activities, the Kano concept (Kano et al. 1984) offers a theoretically grounded and managerially relevant framework, originally applied in the sphere of product attributes (e.g., Berger et al. 1993; Matzler and Hinterhuber 1998). This approach to understanding customer expectations for various attribute performance levels has since been applied the contexts of service marketing (e.g., Chen et al. 2011) and marketing strategy (Menguc and Auh 2006).The present studies aim to: (1) evaluate the appropriateness of the Kano framework for prioritization of CSR strategies related to ProHEP; (2) test the application of Kano measures to specific CSR strategy options, drawing upon insights from consumer pilot survey data and managerial discussion groups; (3) deploy segmentation variables to profile customers’ expectations for CSR activities; (4) develop new measures to minimize ambiguities in the wording, given the scope for error in the traditional Kano measurement systems; (5) test the alternative Kano measures on six ProHEP strategies, based on a national US survey; (6) compare perceptions of the Kano positioning of ProHEP strategies for leading US grocery chains; (7) draw conclusions for CSR researchers and provide recommendations for retailers and other marketers seeking to prioritize their CSR investments.Our empirical studies include five group discussions with a senior management panel, a “quasi-qualitative” consumer survey (n = 236), a UK pilot survey (n = 223), and a national survey of USA shoppers (n = 1,107), testing and applying the new the methods of Kano measurement. By eliminating the need for alternating positive and negative questions, measurement error is reduced and clear distinctions demonstrated between the Kano functions of different ProHEP and other CSR activities. Contrasts also emerge in classifications by different stores’ clienteles, demographic groups, and healthy eating (non)adoption stages. Researchers have opportunities to extend this work, with further validation of our revised Kano methodology in other national and strategic contexts. The study offers retailers and other marketing practitioners a robust and customer-focused aid to prioritizing their CSR strategies.

Peter J. McGoldrick, Marzena E. Nieroda
A Content Analysis of Texting and Driving Danger Advertisements

Distracted driving, specifically texting and driving, in the US has become a public health problem in the US. In response, several ad campaigns designed to reduce this behavior among drivers are currently in press. Using content analysis, this study seeks to describe the existing print campaigns and compare to literature about the success of similar campaigns for other risky behaviors, for the purpose of informing future social marketing interventions that may help reduce this dangerous behavior. This is an exploratory study to identify elements and themes upon which further empirical work may be based.Public Service announcements and corporate cause advertisements are a major element in social marketing campaigns, where companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies have sought to use marketing to promote positive behaviors among certain groups in a population (Andreasen 1994.) Following the methodology outlined by Kassarjian (1977), this study seeks to describe the themes and messages featured in current advertising campaigns aimed at decreasing texting and driving behaviors. Using 25 print, online and outdoor advertising images, with each image as a unit of analysis, the following research questions were addressed: RQ1: What types of images are used in Anti-distracted driving advertisements? RQ2: What consequence appeals are used in Anti-distracted driving advertisements? RQ3: What calls to action are used in Anti-distracted driving advertisements? RQ4: What are the sources of advertisements for anti-distracted driving?The analysis yielded six categories: graphics, imagery, message, source, comparison of behavior or effects, and call to action. A total of 50 dimensions emerged within the categories and ratings by two investigators yielded an inter-rater reliability of 0.84. Nearly all of the ads used a combination of images and text while six used text only. Of those using images, about half used photographs and three fourths included a computer generated image. Seven ads included images of a crash, and eight included images of a road. The remaining most common images were mobile phones, parts of a car, and broken glass. An image of blood was included in three ads, as were the images of a child and a medical or hospital setting. Other images, each occurring once, included a gun, beer, corpse, and fire.Messages in the advertisements included statistics about results of texting and driving behaviors. Seven of the ads included specific statistics (numbers). The potential consequences of this behavior illustrated in the ads included the driver’s death (6) someone else’s death (3), damage to a vehicle (6), potential for self-injury (5), and someone else’s injury (6). Of these, two highlighted damage to a vehicle, six mentioned the texter’s death, four mentioned someone else’s death, and two mentioned each damage to a vehicle and damage to other property. Three ads compared driving while distracted by texting or using a smartphone to other behaviors, including using a gun, drinking and driving, and being a detached, “stupid girl.” Nine ads used the word “don’t” in their call to action, seven directed readers to a website for more information, five used the word “stop,” and one each called readers to “wait to (text),” “join the conversation,” and “designate a texter.” Nineteen of the ads were corporate advertising, nine had some affiliation with non-profit organizations, seven with a government agency and one specifically with a law enforcement agency.

Karen M. Hood
Managing Crisis Overseas: An Explorative Analysis of Apple’s Warranty Crisis Communication in China

Guanxi, is defined as “durable social connections and networks a firm uses to exchange favors for organizational purpose” (Gu et al. 2008). Although guanxi has been found the dominant factor for business to succeed throughout China (Lovett et al. 1999), scholars have noticed that guanxi is less salient than strategies in improving performance after China joined in the World Trade Organization (Law et al. 2003). Scholars also found that guanxi won’t work in managing relationship with the public. Recently, Ye and Pang (2011) show how guanxi failed in helping a local company cope with its product-harm crisis. Thus the question comes, when building strong relationship with government no longer guarantee success in Chinese market, how and what multinational companies (MNCs) could do when facing crises in Chinese market? Most of current studies on crisis management suggest various managerial strategies when facing product-harm crisis (e.g. Cleeren et al. 2013). However, the extant literature lacks information on how MNCs communicate crisis to consumers despite of their strong guanxi with the government. The purpose of this study is to fill in the gap through analyzing the case of Apple ®’s warranty crisis in China suggest guidelines for MNCs in China in such a multi-media era. The study also urges for an integration of social media into current crisis management theory frameworks, such as Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory (2007), Attribution theory (Kelley and Michela 1980), Image Restoration Theory (Benoit 1995) in dealing with crisis in the context of international business.

Lili Gai
Exploring the Concept of Celebrity Brands Amongst College Students

For more than 150 years, celebrities have been used by companies to endorse products. Today celebrities appear in approximately 20 % of advertisements in the United States (Solomon 2009). Using celebrities as endorsers in advertising is not a new concept. In recent years, however, there has been ambiguity between the celebrity as a person and the celebrity as a marketable brand. Thus, the result is the concept known as “celebrity brands,” which has been coined by pop culture, but relatively ignored in academic research. The purpose of this work is to expand the knowledge of celebrities as more than endorsers and to identify and understand conceptually how consumers perceive celebrity brands. More specifically, this work addresses the following research questions: (1) how do consumers define celebrity brands; (2) what positive associations do consumers have about celebrity brands; and (3) what negative associations do consumers about celebrity brands. To address these research questions the authors conducted an exploratory study.

Christine M. Kowalczyk, Kate Pounders
Internal Marketing, Retail Employee Commitment, and Employee Response to Retail Theft: An Exploration

Inventory shrinkage, the financial loss to retailers attributable to a combination of employee theft, vendor fraud, shoplifting, and administrative errors, continues to be a major concern for US retailers. Of particular interest to this study is that portion of these losses that is attributable to retail employees, as, in the US, the bulk of shrinkage in the retail sector is attributable to this source. A National Retail Foundation Security 2011 report indicated that, of the $34.5 billion losses owing to shrinkage, 43.9 % was attributable to employee theft. Consequently, retailers have tried different strategies to stem this problem, among them encouraging employees to report shrinkage. The thesis in this study is that the nature of the relationship that employees have with retailers will influence the likelihood of their cooperation in this endeavor. This relationship will be based on internal marketing, which should lead to retail job satisfaction and employee commitment.

Ainsworth Anthony Bailey, Aditya Mishra
A Qualitative View of Hailers: Retail Salespeople Near the Entrance of Retail Stores

Retail salespeople are critical in customers’ perceptions of the retail environment and retail experiences. They occupy a pivotal and boundary-spanning position for retailers, as they are the primary point of contact between a retailer and customers (Bell et al. 2010). Westbrook (1981) named salespeople as the most influential component of overall retail store satisfaction. Retail salesperson behavior is a critical influence on the success or failure of a retailer because of its influence on consumer responses, including store patronage and purchase intentions (Darian et al. 2001), purchase decisions (Babin et al. 1999), perception of service quality (Mittal and Lassar 1996), and overall image of the retail store (Weitzl et al. 1989). This study examines a particular retail salesperson behavior that has been largely overlooked in the literature: retail salespeople standing and waiting for customers near the store entrance in traditional shopping malls. For purposes of this research, these retail salespeople are called “hailers.” The subsequent behavior of hailers after the initial greeting distinguishes them from designated “greeters.” Once hailers greet a customer, they attempt to continue the interaction, accompany the customer throughout the store, and attempt to influence the customer to make a purchase. Theory and the small amount of previous research that incorporates retail salespeople greeting customers as they enter the store suggests that a retail salesperson’s presence at the entrance of a store would be a positive influence. This practice is common and many retailers require their salespeople to stand within a few feet near the entrance. However, anecdotal evidence and initial exploratory results suggest the opposite. Many consumers feel uncomfortable with a hailer’s presence because they feel like the salesperson is waiting to use high pressure sales tactics on them. This image can lead to negative outcomes for the retailer. Also, this work addresses the calls that Babin et al. (1999) make for future research to investigate (1) the antecedents of attitude toward the salesperson in retail settings and (2) the effect of specific salesperson behaviors on a consumer’s attitude toward the salesperson and the retailer.

Carolyn (Casey) F. Musgrove, George Franke, Kristy E. Reynolds
Relationship Marketing and the Patient Physician Relationship

Effective relationship marketing has been conceived to be both “defined by” and “dependent upon” trusted customer relationships. Developing trust appears imperative and central, yet the organizational problems of managing relationships in health services can easily become quite problematic among those with different perspectives of health services. There is both a profound asymmetry of knowledge between patients and physicians, and relationship communication problems that need to be considered by marketers of healthcare products and services. Effective health services are highly dependent upon the centrality of patient-physician relationships (PPRs). However these cannot be considered simply as explicit “relationship marketing” transactions which, as defined by Palmatier (2008, p. ix), are primarily intended “to improve customer loyalty and the seller’s profits.”This paper examines the PPR as central to effective healthcare. It then reconsiders the contexts of specific type of marketing relationships of health organizations to contribute a new perspective to the marketing literature. The hypothesis that humans differentiate their relationships into different kinds has been called relational models theory (Fiske 1991, 1992) or, alternatively, relationship-specific social psychology (Wilson and Daly 1997). The goal is of the paper is to contribute to the literature on the development of effective relationship marketing programs in a manner that is better attuned to the specific demands of the healthcare context.Relational theory is useful to relationship marketing concerns in that it aids in describing the basic structures and operations in terms that are socially constructed as meaningful. The four fundamental models for organizing relationships are defined by Fiske (1991, 1992) as Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing. These models function to construct, coordinate, and contest social actions, as well as providing the means to interpret, plan, and remember their significance.The issue is an especially important one in that physicians are central actors in healthcare systems. Physicians provide more than simply the delivery of health as a transactional service; they are also important as information conduits and decision-makers (Limbu and Kay 2011). Even more fundamentally, physicians are bound to serve patients –the Hippocratic Oath symbolically defines physician responsibilities much more broadly and in ethical terms. Moreover, the success of physician-patient interaction has a very real and definite effect on patients’ health. As Larson and Yao (2005) note, treatment outcomes and compliance to treatment are both significantly better when doctors show more empathy and take the time to make sure patients are clearly informed.Since healthcare significantly impacts critical life decisions, considering healthcare services as an area of “relationship marketing” can raise different type of decision problems. Communication is critical for patients and also for trusted advisors who often make decisions for the elderly and infirm. Managers of healthcare organizations need to more broadly consider different type of social and relational contexts to be effective.The PPR has been subject to considerable research attention over the past two decades, in both medical and marketing contexts. In the medical literature, discussion of the PPR has commonly been in the context of physician control over treatment and the necessity to talk to patients to acquire the information needed to diagnose disease conditions. The importance of the patient relationships to physicians tends to be framed within various professional tasks, such performance of diagnosis as well as effectively explaining treatment regimes.In the marketing literature, on the other hand, the goal of examining PPR is often framed as one of enhancing service perceptions, communicating and influencing potential customers, and supporting medical or organizational brands. For example, PPRs have been a particularly important concern in the context of spending on pharmaceutical promotions (Kay and Limbu 2011). Yet the behavioral outcomes of marketing promotions have raised questions from the point of view of medical professionals. For example, Robinson et al. (2009) found that 55.9 % of physicians believed that DTC advertisements affected interactions with patients by lengthening clinical encounters, and 80.7 % indicated that this lead to patient requests for specific medications which was sometimes questionable. Moreover, two-thirds of physicians agreed that DTC advertising was changing patient expectations of physicians’ prescribing practices. Other studies indicate that DTC ads can have good and bad effects on quality of care, the doctor-patient relationship and affect health service utilization. Murray et al. (2003) note that physicians filled 69 % of requests they deemed clinically inappropriate.In spite of the widespread adoption of marketing concept by healthcare organizations, relationship marketing efforts may be at odds with the organizational mission goals or standards of medical service professionals. If marketing efforts are perceived by medical professionals as contentious, this will affect medical outcomes and quality. Issues of the specific medical information needs of consumers to improve medical performance and outcomes could certainly be better examined by marketers.Finally, medical decisions are regularly knotty and problematical, as it is in end of life decisions. Fiske and Tetlock (1997) note that such internal or value conflict is rooted in the cognitive problem of incommensurability. People reject certain value trade-offs due to the fact that the requisite mental operations to make these decision are unfamiliar or especially difficult. People view health or life value trade-offs as impermissible; they respond with varying degrees of indignation and discomfort. The conflict occurs whenever a trade-off decision requires assessing the value of something governed by socially meaningful relations and operations of one relational model in the terms of a disparate relational model. Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing are relational models that can provide new perspectives on such relationship marketing, communication, and decision problems.

Mark J. Kay
Healthcare Resort: An Integrated Approach to Re-model Healthcare Services

With the increasing popularity of medical tourism practices, the healthcare industry, as one of the key service providers and stakeholders, is facing both challenges and opportunities. Healthcare, like hospitality, is an experience and credence service. Services with predominantly credence attributes are typically the case for highly specialized services or services that only occur once a twice in a lifetime, such as medical diagnoses and hospitalization. Credence services are the most difficult to verify because they often lack physical evidence of the service process. To evaluate the credence qualities of the service, inferences will be made based on experience-based portion of the total service delivery process.One of the emerging trends in the industry is to introduce the concept of hospitality into hospitals. For example, Severt et al. (2008) explore an organization-wide philosophy of hospitality (i.e., hospitality centric philosophy) in a hospital setting. It is not new for the healthcare industry to learn from other industries including the hotel and entertainment industries (Cheung-Larivee 2011a; Kaissi 2012; Lee 2004). Disney has also been marketing its services to hospitals even before the government demands an online patient satisfaction surveys. Florida Hospital’s children’s unit improved its patient satisfaction scores from the bottom 10 % of the country to the top 10 % 1 year after it hired Disney. The purpose of this study is to explore various ways to incorporate hospitality management practices and customer service into hospitals and opportunities that these proposed changes may bring to the healthcare industry in the U.S. This study focuses on, (1) market expansion, (2) integrated medical services, (3) quality measurement and creation of improved patient experience.Proposition 1: A hospitality enhanced healthcare facility will not only be able to serve the needs of local residents but also patients who live in other states or countries. Proposition 2: A hospitality service enhanced healthcare facility is composed of three major functions: core medical service (the core medical product that patients value the most when they make decisions regarding their well-being), support service (informational and environmental services), and hospitality service (service that focuses on enhancing the total experience for patients, which is a proposed new addition to the traditional healthcare service structure). This model proposes a transformation from customer relationship management (CRM) to patient relationship management (PRM). Proposition 3: A hospitality enhanced medical facility will enable patients to enjoy an improved experience at the facility. Besides clinical outcomes, patient experience is valued as a critical component to measurement of quality outcome. Patients’ satisfaction is believed to improve recovery rate, speed up healing process, provide healing power of mind, and increase patient compliance.In conclusion, our model illustrates how hospitals may expand their target market, generate more revenue, improve service quality, and build a strong loyalty program by creating hospitality enhanced healthcare facilities and implementing key customer service concept in the entertainment industry.

Yawei Wang, Avinandan Mukherjee
What Motivate Consumers to Participate in Online Communities: A Critical Review of Extant Knowledge

The Internet has significantly changed the way how people interact and communicate with each other. The world witnessed the booming success of many social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, YouTube, Pinterest, QQ, Flickr, and LinkedIn. People participate in the online communities on these SNSs to connect with other users (e.g., friends, family members, strangers), share information (e.g., blogs, photos, videos), and help individuals and organizations with other purposes (e.g., promoting new products, recruiting new members). Online communities refer to the persistent collections of people with common or complementary interests use Internet to interact with each other (Preece 2001).Despite the consensus of the importance of consumer participation in online community, the literature lacks theoretical review and summary about what motivates consumers to participate in online community. Thus, the present study attempts to fill this gap by (1) reviewing and synthesizing the literature about the drives that are associated with consumer participation in online community, (2) describing what we know and do not know about the antecedents of consumer participation in online community, and (3) developing an agenda for future research to bridge the gaps in our knowledge.Review of prior studies suggests that consumers participate in online community because of various motives. Our research framework accepts the work made by Etgar (2008) and proposes that consumers engage in online community to achieve various goals. A number of potentially relevant drives include the economic drives, and psychological and social drives. The economic drives include accessibility, time, low cost, usability, and ease of use. The psychological and social drives consist of group identity, attachment and engagement, self-expression, self-fulfillment, and trust. Furthermore, these potential drives are associated with consumer perceived utilitarian value and hedonic value based upon prior literature.The present study summarizes what is currently known about the drives of consumer participation in online community. Next, we present a research framework that shows the association between these drives and perceived values and participation intention. Researchers may extend prior work in the following areas. First, more work is needed to develop the constructs of various drives. Zeithaml’s (1988) means-end approach to this conceptual development could be one potential way. Second, we can further address questions about the impacts of different consumer online participation drives on consumer online experience after the concepts and measures of these drives have been developed. Third, the impact of different types of contents on online communities needs more attention. Finally, more studies are needed to investigate the input from the firms which own and operate the online communities.

Weiling Zhuang, Gajana Porosjan, Nayoung Lee
An Evaluation of the Demand for Orphan Drugs as a Response to Promotional Expenditures

Orphan drugs describe a subset of medicines which aim to serve rare diseases and therefore do not have a sizeable demand. As the market for these drugs is small, pharmaceutical companies do not have an incentive to manufacture this genre of drugs. However, in the USA, the Orphan Drug Act provides various incentives to manufacturer of these drugs. The USA is also one of the few countries that allow drugs companies to advertise “prescription only” drugs. This gives the opportunity to disseminate information about rare diseases and its potential cures to people who would not otherwise have known about these options. In our paper, we examine how the demand for orphan drugs has been influenced by these promotional expenditures. We examine the demand in response to the promotional expenditures for different companies, both by examining orphan drugs as a sub-set of all prescription drugs, as well as differentiating between different types of orphan drugs themselves. The results have potential implications for public policy about this important sector of health and medicine.

Kabir Chandra Sen, Vivek S. Natarajan, Avinandan Mukherjee
The Effect of Prices on the Prescription Behavior of Pharmaceuticals

Health care spending has been increasing sharply and shifting towards outpatient care and drug prescriptions in particular. Despite the cost of prescription drugs being an important component of health expenditures, relatively little attention has been spent on the effects of prices on either aggregate demand or on physician prescription behavior. In this study we demonstrate how price elasticities can be obtained from prescription data where we also show the effects of constraints that are specified for prescribers (physicians). More specifically, the possible differential responsiveness of HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) and non-HMO physicians to drug prices may shed more light on the price sensitivity of pharmaceuticals. HMO physicians are directed by insurance providers to contain and reduce the cost of medication and treatment, which could guide their prescription decision. Our objective is to expand the rather limited empirical base of knowledge on this issue by studying the differential effects of price on HMO and non-HMO physician prescription behavior.We examine an extensive database covering 11,235 prescriptions for 19 brands in four therapeutic classes, recorded by 2,320 physicians. We find that price effects on prescription choice are significantly negative and up to four times higher for HMO physicians, who, on average, exhibit an elastic response. Our findings are in contrast with those reported by previous studies using physician-level data.

Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, Peter S. H. Leeflang, Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai
A Modified RFMI Framework and Strategic Implications for Analyzing VIP Customers in Logistics Companies: A Case Study of Jiaji Co. Ltd. in China

The characteristics of an ‘ideal’ customer vary widely according to the requirements of different industries; however, it is generally unknown what kind of “ideal” customers contributes to the logistics industry, an industry characterized by high growth and volatility over the last few years. The RFM framework is one of the most popular customer segmentation models widely used in CRM (Fader et al. 2005; Hughes 1995; Reinartz and Kumar 2003; Verhoef et al. 2003). However, little is known about the mechanisms that segment customers in the logistics industry. This paper aims to address these issues by presenting an integrated case study that investigate the RFMI model and marketing strategies of a giant logistics company in China.The RFM model is a key means for segmenting customers according to customer value and profitability. R (Recency) represents the time apart from the most recent purchase; F (frequency) represents how often a customer has purchased during a certain period; M (monetary value) means the money customer spent during a certain period (Bult and Wansbeek 1995; Blattberg et al. 2008, pp. 323–326). In order to better identify the characteristics of VIP customers, we upgrade the RFM model to the RFMI model by using four factors—R, F, M, and I to segment customer groups. Since different industries have differences in frequency, recency and monetary value, we incorporate the factor of industry characteristics, and propose a new RFMI model.Specifically, this study takes Jiaji Co. Ltd. in China, a large scaled private logistics corporation, as an example to propose a new marketing strategy for logistics companies. In the light of K-Means algorithm and customer relationship life cycle, we subdivide VIP customers into four categories, i.e. Honor, Diamond, Platinum, and Gold. In response to these different segments, we propose consequent strategies—locked-in strategy, differentiated marketing, reference marketing, and relationship marketing. We suggest that, by adopting and automating our RFMI practice, companies will be well placed to increase sales from their existing VIP customer base and to expand into new potentials—meeting their growth objective.Specifically, by adopting our RFMI model and such marketing strategies in 2006, Jiaji had seen explosive growth, with the number of new outlets increasing to over 500 in 2007, and profits increased by 1 % per month in these years. The sales reached ¥0.8 billion RMB in 2008. Particularly, in 2009, Nanchang branch of Jiaji has finished the sales of ¥45.15 million RMB, and profits of ¥2.11 million RMB.

Weihua Gan, Zhenning (Jimmy) Xu, Hongbin Wang, Ting Geng
Emotional Capital: The Missing Link Between Social Media Usage and Customer Relationship Performance

Many companies are increasing the allocation of financial resources to social media management For instance, companies with over $15.6 billion in revenue will invest about $19 million in social media this year (Tata Consulting Services 2013). However, the contribution of social media management to firm performance remains uncertain. Hence, in this paper, we attempt to fill this gap. Specifically, we propose that investment in social media management is positively related to performance through emotional capital. Furthermore, we posit that this relationship is stronger for firms that manage emotional brands and firms that have products with short life cycles.Emotional capital refers to the emotional assets and emotional liabilities related to a brand (Abeysekera 2004). Emotional assets include positively polarized attributes such as pride, passion, love, attachment and trust. While emotional liabilities include negative attributes such as anger and hate (Abeysekera 2004; Thomson 1999, pp. 22–25). Firms that are able to timely and accurately estimate the emotional capital of their brands can better manage the brand to take advantage of opportunities and to overcome threats. Furthermore, according to the Resource Based View (Barney 2005), the firms’ ability to efficiently manage a brand’s emotional capital can be an intangible company resource that is valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable or substitutable. Hence, emotional capital can be a source of competitive advantage and superior financial performance.We further suggest that emotional capital is predicted by a firm’s social media usage and the level of ambidextrous interaction with its customers. Additionally, we argue that emotional capital leads to higher customer relationship performance for products with short rather than high product life cycles and for brands that employ emotional appeals. Practical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Zhenning Xu, Fernando R. Jiménez
The Heterogeneous Market Dynamics and New Product Success in the Web 2.0 Era: An Electronic Marketing Orientation Perspective

New product development is a major strategic activity for many companies; however, it is one of the most complex activities. Peres et al. (2010) investigated the effect of innovation diffusion on new product growth and found that consumer network effects via social network and product network externalities have profound effects on new product diffusion. The study adds to the current research on new product development by exploring the interaction effect of Electronic marketing orientation (EMO), innovation and network externalities effects which most of the companies have not put in their agenda yet due to strategic and technological limitation.The most fundamental transformation recently happening in business is the diffusion of E-business practice. EMO, E-market orientation (Shaltoni and West 2010; Fazlzadeh and Nezhad 2010) or E marketing (Tsiotsou and Vlachopoulou 2011; Asikhia 2009) is a new concept which reflects a transformation of marketing activities from the traditional brick-and-mortar era to the web 2.0 era. Companies use E-marketing as the main vehicle to engage in customer relationship management, promotion, preannouncement, and to deliver superior value to customers. E-marketing also helps enhance channel relationships (Sultan and Rohm 2004) and gain competitive advantage. Empirical evidence supports the adoption of the internet to perform business transactional activities, e.g. ordering, selling, and payment are positively associated with superior performance (Drennan and McColl-Kennedy 2003). We suggest that companies, who engage in strategic innovation, take advantage of EMO strategy, and build networking with other partners by harnessing power of network externalities, are likely to achieve new product success.Most theoretical research has examined the role of strategic orientation on new product development, while strategic orientation is difficult for small companies to mimic. In comparison, EMO addresses the new dynamic marketing strategy which focuses on value creation and engagement instead of profit maximization. This strategy has been proved to be easy for small companies to duplicate. The study extends Kotler and Zaltman (1971)’s social marketing philosophy, and Vargo and Lusch (2008)’s Service Dominant Logic (SD). We argue that in a networked economy, instead of pushing products to consumers, managers require a new EMO mindset to integrate electronic media, virtual reality, online interaction, word of mouth communication, and consumer co-creation, and eventually to create value for the firm, customers, and the society.

Zhenning Xu, Gary Frankwick, Pan Liu
Microfoundations of Ethical Marketing Decision Making

Effective marketing decision-making calls for a distinct organizational capability in order to apprehend the multiple links between the value creation process and strategic marketing decisions that are carried out at micro and macro levels. When thinking and designing a value proposition, marketing organizations are brought to pay close attention to the pivotal role of managers who are expected to identify and exploit different sources of value and participate in ethical marketing decision making processes. Marketing decisions cannot be dissociated from the firm’s core values and competences. As such they are likely to influence stakeholders’ choices and collective actions. In this paper, we focus on the microfoundations of ethical marketing decision making by providing evidence from decision making and cooperative schemes that result from macro and microenvironment imperatives and challenges. A particular emphasis has been placed on the theory of social exchange (Blau 1964; Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995; Tynan 1997) and ethical governance as well as the pivotal role of stakeholders in carrying out strategic marketing missions under economic, social and environmental constraints.

Sharam Alijani
Is Proactive Cannibalization a Profitable Strategy? Preliminary Results and Implications for Future Research

Whether it is between products within the same branded product line (see Seitz 2012), between different branded product lines/inter brands (within the same portfolio) (see Financial Express 2010) or different product categories under the phenomenon of convergence (see Worthen and Sherr 2012) or from offline to online (see Nuttall 2008), fear of cannibalization is high among marketing managers especially in changing market conditions.

Laurent Tournois
Promoting Nation’s Soft Power: How U.S. and Korea Use Public Diplomacy in Nation Branding in Social Media

Public diplomacy becomes concerned more about maintaining relationship with domestic and foreign audiences than delivering messages (Fitzpatrick 2007; Hayden 2009), and its increasing appearance in public relations and branding literature reflects its importance (Manheim 1994). In public diplomacy, soft power (e.g., tourism, culture) appears to function more critically in relational perspectives, compared to hard power (e.g., politics, economics) (Grunig et al. 2002).This study aims to empirically investigate how nations execute a public diplomacy using soft/hard power. To better understand specific strategies and its impacts on nations, this study adopts Stafford and Canary’s Relationship Maintenance Theory and Anholt’s Nation Branding Index. Also, reflecting the importance of social media as a tool of public diplomacy (Zaharna and Rugh 2012), social media activities, Facebook in particular, are considered. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to (1) identify differences of public diplomacy efforts between nations with strong (the U.S.) and weak (Korea) brands; and (2) investigate the relationships between the brand strength and the power focused in public diplomacy.The result of content analysis of 883 Facebook messages showed that the U.S. implemented the asymmetrical one-way relationships by delivering hard power while Korea built mutual relationships by focusing on soft power.

Jiyoon Karen Han, Young-A Song, Soyoung Lee, Sujin Kim, Arnold Dongwoo Chung
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Let’s Get Engaged! Crossing the Threshold of Marketing’s Engagement Era
herausgegeben von
Michael W. Obal
Nina Krey
Christian Bushardt
Copyright-Jahr
2016
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-11815-4
Print ISBN
978-3-319-11814-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4