Enlightened Marketing in Challenging Times

The standardization/adaptation debate in international advertising is a topic on which little consensus prevails and which remains heavily discussed. By relying on evolutionary psychology, I develop a typology of advertising cues and explain their cross-cultural transportability. I highlight three distinct categories – human universals (evolved similarities), local adaptations (evolved differences), and local socialization (differences not due to evolution). The paper contributes to advertising theory by providing a meta-framework for the study of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the processing of advertising cues. It further assists advertising practice by delivering a framework aiding in cross-cultural advertising copy decisions.

Over the year’s scholars have conducted several studies to examine consumer attitudes toward advertising. While countless studies concern consumer reactions to the advertisements of specific products and brands, only a small number focus on the public’s attitudes toward advertising as institution. There seems to be little research designed with the purpose of exploring and understanding rather than attempting to measure and predict these attitudes.This Paper examines public sentiment toward advertising through cartoon analysis. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following research questions: Which advertising aspects are highlighted in cartoons? What is the sentiment? Are cartoons sensitive enough to measure public sentiment toward advertising? Finally, do the findings provide insights for management?Caricature theory contends that editorial cartoons serve as time-specific reflections of public sentiment toward issues. One approach to guide the process of cartoon analysis is the framework developed by Greenberg (Can Rev Sociol Anthropol 39(2):181–198, 2002). We collected data from a number of online cartoon repositories and our final sample consists of 236 cartoons, from the pens of 68 cartoonists.The findings confirm the public’s general distrust of advertising and the need for a balance in truth and exaggeration, and the need for a closer working relationship between advertising agency and client.

Humor in advertising targets a very heterogeneous audience simultaneously on the local and national even international scale. While it is universally practiced, practices of humor are nevertheless extremely varied, and it use in advertising may require adaptation when communicating in different contexts (Alden et al. 1993).As advertising is strongly based on the culture of the country (Ozdemir and Hewett 2010), on tradition and on a specific mode of communication (Newman 2004; Tungate 2007), it can register strongly in this context which will impact the understanding and perception of the message it wants to convey and influence consumer behavior and purchasing decisions. (Palmatier et al. 2006). Considering this, some advertising campaigns would be totally impossible to export (De Wulf et al. 2001) while others might require some adaptation to suit different cultural contexts (Alden et al. 1993).The question of standardization and adaptation of advertising campaigns on the international scale has been the subject of extensive research (Schmid and Kotulla 2011). However, reviews of existing literature show doubt on the results of the previous research (Birnik and Bowman 2007). In the case of humorous ads, companies are advised to “standardize” in their international communication (Alden et al. 1993) and at the same time to “adapt” their strategies even locally on their national markets (Rutigliano 1986).Considering that the proportion of international advertisements using humorous appeals can reach up to 50% of TV advertising campaigns in US, while similar statistics can be observed in other countries and other types of communication (Millward Brown Brand report), and the huge and growing global advertising spending which represented $550 billion dollars in 2016 (McKinsey, Wilkofsky Gruen Associate: © Statista 2017), it appears essential to understand the stimulus of humor in ads tendency with a cross cultural comparison. The objective of this research is to understand the cultural differences in terms of humor in ads and the influence of culture in the consumer perception and behavior.

Web search data are a valuable source of marketing information. Previous studies have utilized Google Trends web search data for economic forecasting. We expand this work by providing an algorithm to combine and aggregate search volume data, so that the resulting data are both consistent over time and consistent between data series. We give a brand equity example, where Google Trends is used to create several brand equity indices of 100 top ranked brands. Monthly Google Trends data are collected from 2008–2017 for each of the 100 brands. We utilize our algorithm to combine the data and ensure that they are consistent, both between the different brand series and over time. The indices are compared with the widely used Interbrand index and the results show good face validity.Google Trends data have been utilized for both economic forecasting and nowcasting. Nowcasting is the process of using current data to predict information that is released after the period for which it is collected. Information of this type include company financial results and economic indicators. We utilize the gathered Google Trends data both for forecasting revenue for the individual series components and for nowcasting a range of economic variables. These variables include the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, the OECD Composite indicator of consumer sentiment, an index of personal expenditures on durable goods, and the civilian unemployment rate. We describe the importance of out of sample prediction when nowcasting and show how principal component analysis (PCA) can be used to improve the signal to noise ratio and prevent overfitting in nowcasting models.In summary, we have created an algorithm that can patch together different Google Trends searches to create a single multivariate dataset that is consistent both between items and over time. We have given an example where Google Trends is used to create a trends-based index of brand equity and this index is used in a range of forecasting and nowcasting applications. There is scope for future work in combining this index with other measures of consumer buzz, such as social media buzz and with sentiment-based measures of brand approval.

With the advent of the digital age and the increasing use of Big Data, potential customers can be easily reached by companies seeking to collect their personal data in exchange of personalized targeted offers. However, these individualized marketing activities are often considered intrusive by consumers, who feel they are losing control over their personal data and their right to privacy. This study contributes to bridge a gap in the literature, identified as a Marketing Science Institute research priority, by developing and testing a comprehensive model of theory-based drivers and deterrents of consumers’ willingness to disclose personal information. Furthermore, the model considers the moderating role of service type, customers’ age, gender, experience. Data was gathered using a self-administered online survey, resulting in a sample of 956 consumers who had recently disclosed personal information during online interactions with self-selected companies. The study concludes that consumers face a trade-off between the costs of privacy loss and the benefits of personalization when they decide to disclose personal information, and partially or fully supports the moderating effects proposed. The study provides valuable insights for companies interested in obtaining consumers’ consent to use their personal data during online interactions, across target segments and industries.

The complexity that characterise the dynamic nature of the various environmental factors makes it very compelling for firms to be capable of addressing the changing customers’ needs. They are expected to achieve agility in combining data across the organisation. Big data has become a crucial driving force in any company’s success.The current study examines the role of big data in new product success. It gives insight into the role of customer agility in new product success. Furthermore, the relationships between key concepts of data aggregation tools, data analysis tools, customer agility, new product success, environmental turbulence and organizational slack are also examined.The study suggests a workable framework for small companies for how to rely on big data in their new product’s success. This study unpacks the interconnectedness of the effective use of data aggregation tools, the effectiveness of data analysis tools and customer agility. It also explores the link between all of these factors and new product success. The study is reasonably telling in that it shows that the effective use of data aggregation and data analysis tools results in customer agility which in itself explains how an organisation senses and responds speedily to opportunities for innovation in the competitive marketing environment.The current study provides significant theoretical contributions by providing evidence for the role of big data analytics, big data aggregation tools, customer agility, organizational slack and environmental turbulence in new product success.

One of the major trends in today’s businesses that is developing into a new strategic resource is the transformative big data (BD) phenomenon (Alharthi et al. 2017). While research on low-level operational aspects of BD is flourishing (Lehn 2018), little is known about its impact on firms’ strategies. Strategic orientations guide the firm’s decision-making and action-taking and describe how resources are allocated and employed. While orientations success depends on intelligence (Hakala 2011), BD is a related field of knowledge management (Xu et al. 2016) that provides knowledge that traditional systems cannot provide (Kumar 2018). Hence, firms need to harness the value of data into orientations since it possesses the potential to shift strategic decisions and actions (Mazzei and Noble 2017).This study examines the impact of BD utilization (extent of BD assimilation in decision-making) on firms’ strategic orientation (market, entrepreneurship, and learning) en-route implications on performance (strategic and financial). The three orientations are marketing-related, still attract scholarly attention, and are widely employed by organizations (Gnizy et al. 2014). BD assists in uncovering unforeseen patterns in developing clearer insights on customers, markets, and environments and offers innovative opportunities that improve the development of new strategies (Lee et al. 2014). Hence, BD utilization should enhance strategic orientations, the latter drive performance. Additionally, BD is a positive factor for performance and companies that utilize BD outperform peers (Schmidt et al. 2014).Drawing on data from a sample of managers in firms, this study provides empirical evidence on the BD-strategy-performance relationships. Key findings: BD utilization enhances orientations, which in turn improve performance, and the BD-performance relationship is mediated by the three orientations with stronger effects on strategic rather than on financial performance.The study provides theoretical and practical reflections. BD enriches strategic orientations and can push firms be more market, entrepreneurial, and learning oriented. The role of BD lies in its power to enhance strategic and financial performances directly and indirectly through orientations. The study extends knowledge on the potential for broader impact of BD and adds to the understanding of intelligence theories (e.g., knowledge-based, information behavior system). It offers researchers grounded guidance on strategic utilization of BD and expands knowledge on contemporary antecedents of orientations.Practically, the study unpacks for managers how BD can generate new sources of strategic value as well as the routes through which value is realized.

Perceived authenticity (PA), known as individual’s impressions of the genuineness, uniqueness, workmanship, aesthetics, utility, multiple integrity of attributes and object free activities in a destination (Bryce et al. 2015; Fu et al. 2018). Two important gaps have been identified in this area of research. First, it has been investigated by major studies in culture- or historic- tourism context (Frost 2006; Lu et al. 2015; Zhou et al. 2013). However, there is no agreement on what constitutes the PA in a general tourism context. Second, despite that an increasing research has explored the impact of PA on destination branding relevant concepts, such as destination image (Lu et al. 2015), satisfaction (Chhabra et al. 2003), and loyalty (Yi et al. 2017), there is a lack of a holistic and in-depth understanding of how PA influences the destination relationship quality (DRQ). DRQ, conceptualised as satisfaction, trust and attachment in this study, is the emotional connection between tourists and destinations (Aaker 2004; Chen and Phou 2013; Veloutsou 2015).To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted by asking visitors and non-visitors about their memories, ideas and overall feelings towards Scotland as a destination. The data analysis detects three aspects of PA that matter to tourists, namely the nature, heritage, and activity-based PA. The heritage-based authenticity results in tourists’ satisfaction and attachment of the destination, which is partly consistent with findings from Chhabra et al. (2003), Bryce et al. (2015) and Scarpi et al. (2019). The nature-based and activity-based authenticity result in tourists’ satisfaction, attachment and trust of the destination. The findings highlight that nature-based tourism should be a high priority for Scotland. The development of tourism products related to the unique nature of the destination could further enhance tourists’ experiences providing opportunities for a long-lasting relationship with the destination. In general, most marketers promote a destination based on the alliance of different aspects of PA. Therefore, a study of PA should be contingent upon which aspects the destination is mainly focusing on. Certainly, there is more work to be done in understanding specific elements included in each aspect of PA. A survey should be conducted to further confirm whether the configuration of those elements will predict positive DRQ.

In many situations, consumers prefer regional over non-regional products and are willing to pay a price premium. Yet, the concept of regionality is often ambiguous and misleading. While consumers perceive something ‘regional’ as being produced within their direct home region, legally the term only describes something produced within any specific region. This discrepancy between consumer perceptions and legal requirements allows for loopholes in branding strategies on the managers’ side through which consumers may intentionally be deceived. By using regionality-brand strategies, managers may (legally) deceive consumers, create false associations and subsequently boost brand attitudes.In the present study, we assess the concept of regionality by exploring the discrepancy between legal requirements and consumer perceptions. We analyze how consumers interpret the concept of regionality and which associations are linked to the concept.In complementary experimental studies (total N = 720 consumers) in varying product categories we assess the impact of different regional designations on consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions towards the respective brand.The present results show that consumers (mis)interpret regionality as ‘distance’. Particularly with typical product categories, consumers tend to largely prefer brands with regional designations, as perceived regionality positively correlates with perceived environmental friendliness and healthiness.The results further show how different regionality-brand strategies impact consumers’ brand attitudes. Brands with an unspecific regional designation or a regional branding (brand name) thereby significantly increase consumers’ brand attitudes compared to a neutral brand showing how managers may deceive consumers.However, the present findings further prove that detection of such regionality deception leads to a significant drop in consumers’ brand attitudes, regardless of the underlying product category or regionality-based branding strategies. We explore this ‘dark’ side of potential deceptive regionality-brand strategies by exploring consumers’ negative reactions when they find out that they were deceived.We, thus, shed light on the surprisingly understudied topic of regionality from a theoretical perspective and provide concrete managerial insights on the use of regionality-brand strategies.

When it comes to creating a preference position among customers, brand nostalgia and brand heritage are tried and tested concepts. Although for both constructs there exists a broad body of conceptual literature setting them both clearly apart from each other, this picture is not as clear when it comes to measuring brand nostalgia and brand heritage. A literature review shows ambiguity in the utilized scales and, in consequence, triggers the question whether both concepts are distinct from each other against the background of the prosed conceptual dimensions and measurement approaches. Investigating three sporting goods brands and applying structural equation modeling, we find that brand nostalgia and brand heritage are two distinct constructs that are independent from each other. Furthermore, out of the three proposed dimensions for brand nostalgia, personal nostalgia, historical nostalgia, and perceived brand oldness, only the first two reflect brand nostalgia distinctively, whereas perceived brand oldness stands apart, apparently more leaning towards the brand heritage construct.

The retail atmosphere is one of the most active areas of retailing studies (Applebaum 1951; Cox 1964; Cox 1970; Curhan 1972; Frank and Massy 1970; Granbois 1968; Kotler 1973; Kotzan and Evanson 1969; Smith and Curnow 1966). This area of studies has grown in the retailing literature encompassing all the environmental cues that surround shoppers and influence their behavior. However, studies undertaking a comprehensive approach of shopping atmosphere factors are lacking. This research uses the atmospherics’ classification provided by Turley and Milliman (2000), the general interior variables (GIV). This framework encompasses an extensive list of atmospherics including flooring and carpeting, color schemes, lighting, music, temperature, etc. This research empirically examines the effect of the Shopping Mall’s GIV on shopper’s emotions and behaviors.For this purpose, a convenience sample of mall shoppers was investigated. Data has been analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the proposed research model. The results indicate several direct relations between color schemes, mall lighting, scent and temperature, on one side, and shopper satisfaction and the desire to stay at the mall, on the other. When considering the mediating role of emotional states, pleasure and arousal mediate the impact of many relations between different variables and shopper satisfaction and desire to stay. Specifically, pleasure mediates the impact of flooring and carpeting, color, music, and physical characteristics and both outcomes, Arousal mediates only the relationship between color, music, and the desire to stay at the mall. The mediation of dominance is not supported.In addition to contributing to studies using the S-O-R model, and extending the atmospherics macro level literature, the current study demonstrates how different combinations of variables influence consumer emotions and shopper behavior. Moreover, the study adds to research about the effect of general interior variables on satisfaction and desire to stay at the mall while considering the mediating role of shopper’s emotional states. Furthermore, the study provides several managerial implications; although retailers are already aware of the importance of atmospherics, this study stresses the importance of considering all the variables surrounding shoppers during their shopping visit and sheds light on how atmospherics influence consumers. Importantly, the current study demonstrates how different formulas of variables aligned with each other to influence different outcomes.

This research aims to bridge the gap between the sensory congruence literature and the wider congruity literature. The schema congruence literature supports Mandlers (1982) inverted U curve effect of congruence such that a moderate degree of incongruence is preferred. However, this is not the case in sensory marketing studies where congruity is preferred.This paper aims to determine whether there is a preference for incongruity and presents an expectation model for visual-haptic congruence. Past studies have neglected valence; a disconfirmation of expectations can indeed be positive. The paper finds significant differences in emotion and behaviour between positively versus negatively valenced (in)congruent products.This study presents two experiments to explore the research objectives. The First experiment (n = 322) employed a three (congruence: congruence vs moderate incongruence vs extreme incongruence) by two (valence: positive vs negative) between subjects design. Experiment one’s stimuli was a mock webpage selling a soft square pillow. This set an expectation which was then (dis)confirmed by a haptic product review which formed one of the six conditions. Experiment two (n = 206) employed the same three by two design using a mock webpage selling a smart phone. The two products represent high (mobile phone) and low (pillow) involvement. After viewing the stimuli participants then completed emotion and behaviour measures. The data was analysed using SEM techniques and MANOVA.The experiments revealed that there was a linear positive relationship between congruence and pleasure (p = <.001) but a negative relationship for arousal (p = <.001) ratings for the pillow (low involvement) The resultant behaviours reveal that congruence had a direct positive effect on quality ratings (p = <.001) and indirect positive effects on willingness to buy (p = .001) and willingness to pay (p = .001) through quality. In the positively valenced conditions quality, willingness to pay and willingness to buy were highest for congruent products. Interestingly, when the congruity was negatively valenced, moderate incongruence received the highest quality and willingness to pay ratings. For experiment two a similar pattern of results is witnessed. However, the effect of congruence on arousal did not reach significance (p = .304). Again, in experiment two positively valenced congruence received the highest willingness to buy and quality ratings but when valence was negative, the inverted U curve effect occurred. For willingness to pay, the inverted U curve effect was witnessed regardless of valence (all p < .001).This adds to the growing body of sensory marketing literature and provides a new contribution to knowledge by considering the valence of an incongruity revealed profound differences in behaviour as a result. Managerial and theoretical contributions are discussed.

Marketing literature has studied the influence of human senses on consumption behavior and has identified several benefits for companies who considerate sensorial aspects in their products, packages, or communication. For example, previous studies have found that certain shapes of packaging can influence the perception of consumption amount and taste of products (Folkes and Matta 2004; Hoegg and Alba 2007; Wansink and Van Ittersum 2003). Other research has found that touching products can affect consumers’ perceptions about products and purchase intentions (Balaji et al. 2011; Krishna 2011; Peck and Shu 2009). Researchers have also studied the influence of background music on consumers’ behavior (Milliman 1986; Seco and Oliveira- Castro 2011). Additionally, past research has found a connection between smell and memory showing that ambient scent can increase recall and recognition of brands (Morrin and Ratneshwar 2003) and that product scent increases memory for information associated with the product (Krishna et al. 2010). It has also been found that ambient scents can improve product evaluations (Bosmans 2006; Spanenberg et al. 1996). Other research has evaluated the effects of odor congruence with the product category (Mitchell et al. 1995). In particular, this working paper focuses on the influence of smell on consumers’ online purchase behavior. Today, consumers are more inclined to use the Internet for shopping; selling online is a good opportunity for companies but it limits marketers’ ability to reach some senses such as smell and touch. Therefore, present exploratory study attempts to address a gap in the literature by evaluating the effect of a physical scented sales promotion on consumers online purchase behavior. Findings from this research are motivating for those online retailers that are limited to provide only visual and verbal stimuli to consumers through their online platforms as it shows that consumers may be stimulated by smell using scented sales promotional stimuli that are used while shopping online.

Through four studies, this research empirically demonstrates that physical hand movement and the elicitation of the embodied metaphor of hands enhance creativity and unveils its underlying mechanism. To test our prediction about the positive influence of hand use on creative cognition and judgment, we conducted four experiments. Using various measures of creativity and experimental manipulation of hand use, we demonstrated that hand use increases creativity through the activation of the symbolic metaphor of the “craft-making”. We also investigated the roles of “curiosity and imagination” as a potential mediator, and “the belief of hands as tools” and “engagement” as the boundary conditions for the effect of hand use on creativity. In addition, the current paper verifies that the mediation and moderation effects found in the studies could be applied further to actual consumer setting and influences purchase intention of the featured product. These findings demonstrate that hands serve an important embodied-oriented function and can assist in creative thinking.

Significant developments have been made in the service sector highlighted by the increasing adoption of automated services, use of virtual agents and artificial intelligence, and in the introduction of consumer-facing service robots (Hollebeek et al. 2017). Service robots, operate in service environments across the globe, interacting with consumer and service entities alike (Li 2015), signalling the era of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (Mende 2017). Barnett et al. (2014, p. 1134) define interactive service robots as “social robots capable of working within service environments and interacting with consumers through various service encounters”. Service researchers have acknowledged that the field of service research is behind in studying the impact of robots on various aspects of service (Mende 2017; van Doorn et al. 2017), which constitutes the focus and contribution of this research. In this paper, we conduct a Systematic Scoping Review of interdisciplinary journal articles and conference proceedings, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al. 2015) and the methodology outlined by Peters et al. (2015).The first stage of the search process resulted in 1477 articles published in a wide variety of journals ranging from marketing and business journals (i.e. Journal of Service Research and Journal of Business Research) to articles published in journals from other disciplines (i.e. International Journal of Social Robotics, Technology Innovation Management Review and Frontiers in Psychology). Following the PRISMA guidelines our final sample consists of 95 publications. Our results indicate a great disparity in the conceptualisation and definitions of service robots and HRI in service (e.g. terms used to refer to service robots range from ‘anthropomorphised robots’ to ‘socially assistive robots’). Interestingly we found that many papers simply ‘operationalised’ service robots, offering no conceptualisation, definition or explanation. Our analysis of the various conceptualisations and operationalisations leads us to propose a comprehensive definition of service robots in service which may be used to guide future service research and clarify the boundaries of what a service robot is and is not, particularly in comparison to other similar and related technologies such as artificial intelligence. This study found that service robots as a research field is disparate, and disjointed with a weak theoretical foundation where the majority of studies are empirical in nature. This research proposes multiple research avenues and acts as a guide for future research, allowing service researchers to delve further into this phenomenon. By exploring and understanding service robots and human-robot interaction in service researchers and practitioners will be able to better integrate robots into service.

At the era of technology, customers’ dining experiences are revolutionary different than ever before. Thus, this study seeks to understand the impacts of restaurant technology on customer dining experiences Furthermore, the study places particular emphasis on exploring the moderating effects of the need for interaction on customer dining experiences through the application of restaurant technology. A theoretical framework has been proposed to explain the relationships among restaurant technology, service quality, service experience, relationship quality and need for interaction. The questionnaires are distributed in 28 restaurants which adopted different levels of technology services in Taiwan. The total of 712 surveys are collected for further analysis. The study tests six hypotheses using structural equation modeling, bootstrapping, and multi-group analysis. As expected, the study findings suggest that restaurant technology have positive effects on service quality and service experience. The findings indicate that customers who experience restaurant technology are more likely to perceive high service quality and service experience. Moreover, the results suggest that restaurant technology have a detrimental impact on relationship quality. Customers are likely to show lower relationship quality when they experience high level of restaurant technology. Finally, need for interaction changes the nature of the relationship between restaurant technology and relationship quality. More specifically, restaurant technology has stronger negative effects on relationship quality when need for interaction is high rather than low. The results of study provide useful information for the restaurant industry to incorporate the technology applications in the operation and service enhancement.

After service failures (e.g., unfriendly staff), dissatisfied consumers increasingly turn to marketer-created social media platforms – like Facebook brand pages – to voice a public online complaint and to achieve their individual and collective complaint goals (e.g., seeking redress, revenge taking, warning other consumers). This research demonstrates that companies can benefit from segmenting online complainants according to their customer-brand relationship status (i.e., affective brand commitment) and the consumer’s initial desire for revenge to improve online complaint handling (i.e., ‘webcare’).Cluster analysis applied on multi-national survey data from both Germany and the US (n = 812) reveals that marketers have to deal with three major complainant types: (i) ‘Revengeful loyalists’ (i.e., committed, revengeful customers driven mainly by webcare-independent motives and immune to all forms of service recovery efforts) (63%/60%); (ii) ‘Constructive loyalists’ (i.e., committed, cooperative customers with a deep interest to restore the customer-brand relationship, but high recovery expectations) (19%/25%); and (iii) ‘Constructive unattached customers’ (i.e., webcare-receptive customers having weak relational bonds, but no interest to cause harm) (18%/15%).This study further shows that the three segments differ in respect to various characteristics pertaining the individual and the failure circumstances (e.g., attribution of blame, emotions, complaint history). Besides profiling these segments, this study shows that webcare responses help to mitigate post-webcare negative word-of-mouth when they match the needs of the segment. Besides theoretical contributions, this research also bears some practical implications like demonstrating that about 80% of online complainants have strong pre-webcare social bonds with the brand. This makes webcare efforts particularly demanding: only (highly) accommodative reactions (e.g., a sincere excuse with an explanation and a redress offer) are likely – if at all – to prevent follow-up NWOM among constructive loyalists. These complainants are originally attached ‘brand lovers’ who grant marketers various opportunities to restore the currently disordered customer-brand relationship. However, they have high expectations towards the brand and towards the online recovery episode.

Evolutionary approach generally views conspicuous consumption as homogenous. However, conspicuous consumption incorporates two distinct typologies (i.e., bandwagon and snob). The primary aim of this study is to examine the role of emotions (i.e., fear versus romantic desire) on the type of conspicuous consumption behavior (i.e., bandwagon versus snob). Moderating role of personality traits such as need for belongingness and need-for-uniqueness have been included in the research model within the context of personality-situation interaction. Drawing upon modern evolutionary approach literature, persuasiveness and behavioral intentions depend on both the mind-set promoted by specific emotions and the specific psychological mechanism being activated by relevant overlapping fitness-enhancing cues that strengthen the goal-oriented behavior -i.e., protecting oneself or motivation to attract a mate-. Based on this approach, present study emphasizes the positive effect of fear on bandwagon luxury and negative effect on snob luxury versus the positive effect of romantic desire on snob luxury and negative effect on bandwagon luxury consumption. In order to test these evolutionary-driven hypotheses, an experimental study design has been recommended. The study also highlights the prominence of modern evolutionary approach within the consumer behavior realm and its potential conceptual and theoretical contribution capacity by its interdisciplinary and rich epistemological nature.

Brands and retailers have solidified their presence online and their interaction efforts with consumers on social media. Studies have looked at the interaction of brands with consumers and their ability to advertise (Ashley and Tuten 2015; Hudson et al. 2016). However, utilizing social media platforms in marketing brings a challenge to brands due to its openness as well as fast changing nature (Colliander and Marder 2018). The luxury market will be worth nearly 375 billion by 2020, and millennials (Generation Y and Z Cohort) are expected to account for 45% of the global personal luxury goods market (Luxury Goods Market 2014; Solomon 2017). The millennial generation is extremely technology savvy and more likely to use the internet wirelessly, thus expecting to be engaged and communicated via online seamlessly (Chu and Kamal 2011). Parasocial Interaction Theory (PSI) is defined as “an illusionary experience, such that consumers interact with personas (i.e. mediated representations of presenters, celebrities, or characters) as if they are present and engage in a reciprocal relationship” (Labrecque 2014, p. 135). This study adopts Instagram, a visual-oriented social media platform, as the study context. As one of the popular social media platforms, Instagram is recognized as the most effective platform for luxury fashion brands (WWD Staff 2017). college students from a large Midwestern university were recruited (n = 385). The survey was consisted of 35 series of questions that assess brand relationship to a celebrity influencer and the brand on Instagram. The survey questionnaire included consumers’ perceived interactivity (McMillan and Hwang 2002; Labrecque 2014), similarity/likeability (Reysen 2005), parasocial interaction (Rubin et al. 1985; Labrecque 2014); willingness to share information (Schoenbachler and Gordon 2002; Labrecque 2014). A total of 121 usable responses were retained, and the data was analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Since this study is an exploratory nature, simple statistical analyses such as descriptive statistics, reliability tests, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), independent t-test, and regression analysis were conducted. This study concludes that people who follow both (brand and celebrity influencer) feel more interacted with the brand. Overall the millennial consumer prefers interactions with both brand and celebrity influencer, which would create a feeling of PSI. The results present that if a brand is using a celebrity influencer, influencer needs to be interacting with the followers on Instagram more often whereas a brand needs to be transparent on Instagram in order to gain trust of millennials through open conversations (e.g. what they offer, sustainability, communication, etc.).

Platform-based business models have brought large disruption to several industries during the past decade. This disruption has been possible as digital platforms now intermediate a large number of interactions between buyers and sellers, bringing a large number of exchanges from the physical to the digital marketplace. Yet despite digital platforms arguably transforming how retailers, suppliers and customers interact and transact across the retail value-chain, digital platforms remain largely unexplored in marketing literature. This review thus seeks to understand the state of digital platform research in marketing journals. Based on a review of 44 articles published in 19 marketing journals ranked in the 2018 ABS journal guide, the review shows that digital platforms remain largely unexplored in marketing journals and further attention and theorizing is required in order for scholars to grasp their full effects. These articles were analyzed according to broad thematic, theoretical and methodological dimensions. It marks the first systematic effort to review the state of digital platform research in marketing journals and understand how marketing scholars are coming to grips with the implications of digital platforms on exchange relationships and incumbent marketing and retail channels. Furthermore, the findings show that digital platforms have become a ‘buzzword’ used by several marketing scholars, as only a handful of articles published in marketing journals were identified to actually seek to expand theoretical understanding regarding digital platforms and multi-sided markets. There is thus potential for marketing scholars to further grasp the implications of digital platforms on retailers, customers and suppliers and particularly incumbent marketing and retail channels. As digital platforms have already taken a dominant position in several industries, further understanding and theorizing is critical in order to ensure that marketing scholars stay on top of changes and disruptions in the dominant business model, and how these disruptions in the value-chain will affect marketing, retail and distribution throughout the next decade or so.

The present research aims to develop a context-independent customer experience quality scale. The scales that have been proposed thus far are developed focusing on either a specific context or a type of experience, presenting adaptability issues as contexts give rise to varying experience requirements of customers. Context-independence will be achieved through employing a grounded theory approach, whereby underlying similarities in customer experience requirements will be developed into a more consistent dimensionality of the concept.In the initial stage of the grounded theory process, interviews were conducted iteratively with 21 participants who were required to relate a good and a bad experience. The narratives collected in this manner represent a wide variety of contexts. The analysis of the emergent categories in the coding, comparison and memo-writing processes reveal that customers evaluate their experiences under three dimensions. (1) Interaction experience involves five sub-dimensions and covers customers’ functional (access, information quality and feedback) as well as emotional (tone and caring) experience requirements during their interactions with service providers across various channels. (2) Process experience covers customers’ evaluations of the customer journey through two sub-dimensions, convenience and customer-centric processes. Finally (3) cost experience involves customer assessments of the costs (monetary as well as time and effort) during their interactions. Further theoretical sampling will be employed to better delineate the properties and interrelationships of the categories developed thus far. Once the dimensionality is established, the research will ensue with item generation, purification and validation following established scale development procedures. Furthermore, the development of the suggested scale will enable the researcher to evaluate the differential effects of customer experience quality on value dimensions perceived by the customer and their effects on customer-based performance metrics.The successful operationalization of the customer experience quality construct will enable managers to track and evaluate strategic marketing investments towards managing customer experiences and aid resource allocation decisions. Furthermore, as the link between customer experience and marketing outcomes is based on mainly qualitative studies and at times anecdotal evidence, an improved understanding of the differential effects of customer experience quality dimensions on customer perceived value and in turn their effects on customer-based performance metrics will contribute to marketing literature.

Why do consumers reject leftovers? Knowing what effects operate at the point of transition from a state of food to one of food waste can save food from being wasted. One key aspect here is the contact of a consumer with the food s/he has started to eat. The law of contagion assumes that a consumer’s contact with a product transmits an essence from that consumer to the product (Rozin et al. 1986 based on Frazer 1959 [1890] and Mauss 1972 [1902]). This essence remains with the product even after the cessation of physical contact. Another facet of the reaction to food leftovers might be the transition of this essences from the food item to the consumer who eats these leftovers. Findings based on the you-are-what-you-eat paradigm show that the properties of a food item can be transferred to the consumer who eats it (Nemeroff and Rozin 1989). Bringing these ideas together, we ask: To what extent can perceived consumer personality and character traits be transmitted through the food these consumers have left, to other consumers who continue to eat these leftovers?We designed three pretests to choose appropriate stimuli photos depicting the consumers who left food on their plate. Four stimuli photos (female vs. male x less attractive appearance vs. attractive appearance) were selected in the first pretest (first online survey – female photos: N = 34, 50% women, Mage = 24.9 years, second online survey – male photos: N = 44, 45.5% women, Mage = 25.0 years). In the second pretest (online survey, N = 22, 45.5% women, Mage = 22.3 years) the participants were asked to freely associate personality and character traits with these four photos. The tendency to differentiate the stimuli based on the level of attractiveness is supported. Furthermore, the attractive woman and man tend to be perceived as self-confident, whereas the less attractive woman and man tend to be perceived as shy. Other personality and character traits were found at an individual level. In this preliminary analysis, no gender difference was found for the free associations between the stimuli.In the main study, we will investigate the transmission of personality and character traits from one of the four stimuli consumers through their food leftovers to another fictitious consumer. Accordingly, we will use standardized scales developed from the results of the second pretest and tested in a third pretest.

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) initiative to combat the epidemic of obesity and dropping youth sport participation rates. With the introduction of the YOG, the OG research domain has extended its frontiers. While the issue of youth sport participation is becoming an essential part of the Olympic movement, there are only a handful of studies on YOG. The current study aims to examine the impacts of YOG on the attitudes of Canadian (non-host-country) youth guardians within the context of the III 2018 Summer YOG held in Buenos Aires (Argentina) (BYOG) and to make a comparison with attitudes of Norwegian (host-country) guardians II Winter 2016 YOG held in Lillehammer (Norway) (LYOG).The Norwegian convenience sample (usable N = 43) was approached online via invitations posted on the municipal websites during the LYOG (i.e., February 12–21, 2016). Given the low response rate in Norway, the data collection methodology was modified and, to secure a more reasonable sample size, the Canadian sample was approached via a marketing panel research company. The Canadian sample (usable N = 500) was drawn from a general population in Ontario (Canada) during the BYOG (i.e., October 6–18, 2018). The parents/guardians in both countries were asked to share their views on the benefits of regular sport participation for their children as well as their own attitudes towards the YOG and the benefits of regular sport participation.The analyses of data from both events suggest that there are overall positive attitudes towards the YOG in both host- and non-host-country cases. In both countries, parental individual involvement with the YOG proved to have a strong significant effect on guardians’ attitudes towards children’s sport participation; however, Canadian guardians, in comparison to Norwegian ones, showed overall higher involvement level with the YOG. This was an unexpected outcome since it was expected that the host-country sample would exhibit more excitement and, hence, involvement level with the YOG. The factor analysis revealed differences in item loadings in two countries, which could be contributed to cultural differences as well as host/non-host status of the samples. The regression analyses in both samples revealed that parental conative attitudes are significantly influenced by their evaluation of the LYOG and BYOG respectively and perception of the sport participation benefits. In both sample, the guardians shared strong significant positive attitudes on the impact of the respective YOGs on their children’s individual and social development. This comparative study contributes to the existing theories and knowledge creation through the investigation of the YOG. It brings forward the issues related to youth sport participation by illuminating the potential of sport mega-events to create new ways of motivating youth to engage in more active and healthy lifestyles.

Sport has the ability to both produce and counter racism, and should therefore be studied and understood more fully (Carrington and McDonald 2001). Previous studies have demonstrated the role that sport and recreation can play in the settlement and social inclusion of immigrants (e.g., Lee and Funk 2011; Kim et al. 2016; Taylor 2004; Vancouver Foundation 2012). When it comes to community sport and recreation opportunities, immigrants are largely expected to fit in to mainstream dominant culture activities, often having limited roles in the organization or training (Forde et al. 2015). Forde et al. (2015) call for more “structured opportunities whereby native-born residents could learn about the physical culture of newcomers in ways that promoted interculturalism, thereby increasing opportunities for mutual learning and cross-cultural understanding” (p. 137). Social inclusion is a process with participants as active agents within it (Ponic and Frisby 2010). The participatory dimension of the Ponic and Frisby’s (2010) social inclusion framework points to the need for opportunities for newcomers to share their skills and knowledge and to be recognized for their contributions.In the Northern Ontario communities of North Bay, Timmins, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, cricket clubs organized and run by immigrants and community organizers have sprung up. Typically, players of all ages, genders, and abilities are welcomed to play. Occasionally, tournaments are held and sponsored by immigrant-owned businesses. The sport not only tends to attract immigrants from Britain and British Commonwealth countries, where cricket is popular, but also provides opportunities for native-born citizens to try out the sport and receive instruction from newcomers.Using the social inclusion framework developed by Ponic and Frisby (2010) as our guide, we surveyed 54 players and conducted interviews with 10 players, coaches, organizers, sponsors, and community partners in order to ascertain their perspectives on the impact of the cricket teams on newcomer social inclusion and the recognition of immigrant-owned local businesses. We found evidence to suggest that participation in cricket increases newcomer players’ sense of social inclusion and that players perceive gains in social capital as a result of their participation. Sponsorship or the lack thereof has an impact on players’ sense of social inclusion. The benefits to immigrant-owned businesses of sponsoring community cricket teams are limited by the existing low profile of the sport in Northern Ontario. The cricket teams and tournaments provide limited opportunities for interculturalism, mutual learning, and cross-cultural understanding but these opportunities are expected to grow in the future.

Recognizing the many benefits of sport on individuals, communities and society, Canadian Sport Policy endeavors to increase the number and diversity of Canadians participating in sport. Female engagement is of paramount importance as recent reports indicate a concerning drop in women’s sport participation (CAAWS 2016; Canadian Heritage 2012). The sport of hockey is well entrenched in Canadian culture with hundreds of thousands of Canadians actively participating as players, coaches and officials (Hockey Canada 2017). This passion for hockey is spreading worldwide as the International Ice Hockey Federation reports over 1.7 million players (IIHF 2017). Minor hockey, men’s programs and high performance competition have traditionally enjoyed particular fanfare and broad support. The purpose of this research is to bring needed attention and understanding to a passionate group of women recreational players who are steadily growing in the shadows of mainstream hockey and who exert significant marketplace influence.This particular study is part of a progressive research project that was initiated in 2012 with a quantitative inquiry that profiled 781 women recreational hockey players. Output from these efforts revealed a passionate and influential group of hockey consumers with unique needs and considerations. Also discovered through this initial study was the growing skill gap and rising tension brewing among recreational players. In 2016, in-depth player interviews were conducted to better understand this tension and risk of conflict between young competitive- minded players and more mature recreationally-spirited players. The broad age range of participants in women’s recreational hockey coupled with the historical barriers to women’s active involvement in this sport, accentuate the probability of inter-cohort conflict and the need to better understand and manage such risks. This third phase of research reveals the most recent input from over 800 current or past women recreational hockey players in an effort to further profile and segment these evolving sport consumers in terms of influencers, perceived benefits, skill level, competitiveness, cohesiveness and sport commitment. Identified segments include social newbies, keener beginners, intermediates, still superstars and mellow competitors. While findings confirmed some persistent cohort differences, increasing similarities were also revealed with less than anticipated concerns regarding cohort conflicts. Further consideration is needed in addressing older participants’ insecurities, younger players’ quitting risks, and the ongoing management of skill level gaps.Output from this work is intended to influence the design of alternate playing options that will meet the needs, interests, and involvement of various player groups while ensuring a pleasurable and challenging sport experience for all. This learning can also be effectively extended to the management and marketing of other women’s and recreational sports.

Experiential learning is a topic that continues to receive much attention and promotion in academic settings. Given enhanced program funding, mounting student opportunities, and increased research consideration, there are ample guidelines and widespread support for the effective integration of theory and practice. In 2002, Kayes reported that there were over 1500 refereed articles, dissertations and papers that studied theories and applications of experiential learning (Kayes 2002). Over a decade later, in 2013, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) mandated the integration of academic and professional engagement and instructed schools to offer business students “a portfolio of experiential learning opportunities” (AACSB 2016, p.38). Since this time, momentum has soared as has the published knowledge surrounding theories and practices of experiential learning. While some may question the added-value of sharing yet another such case, this presentation offers unique perspectives recorded through the implementation of four progressive experiential learning projects in sport marketing courses at Nipissing University (Canada). Learning objectives were numerous including the development and execution of event plans, financial management and fiscal responsibility, managing multi-stakeholder relationships, advancing professional skills, and developing social and self-awareness. In all cases, students worked in dedicated management teams to organize charity-linked varsity sporting events that raised almost $30,000 for worthy community causes. Lessons learned from each event were instrumental in influencing the design of subsequent projects and enhancing the student learning experience. A retrospective analysis of the management and delivery of these events is contrasted with other published cases in order to inform and advance the understanding and creative application of these learning methods and to present recommendations for broader pedagogical use and adaptation.The main themes that will be shared with respect to developing sport marketing experiential learning opportunities include: Ideal class sizes and the management of both intra and inter-team dynamics and communication. Student ownership, active engagement, and learning reflection. Measuring individual versus group learning outcomes. Instructor support and mentorship. Enriching social interactions and citizenship through multi-stakeholder relationships. Enduring growth and innovation in recurring program offerings. Integration of faculty research in experiential learning settings. Extending learning platforms through inter-university collaboration. Common barriers and resource demands of experiential learning initiatives.

Store equity is an important source of sustainable competitive advantages for retailers in today’s competitive environment. Therefore, retailers should work hard to develop and improve their store equity. Measuring it should constitute the first stage of the development process. The present research develops the construct of consumer-based store equity, and offers a measurement scale for measuring this construct. It first discusses the store equity construct and then describes procedures for developing and refining a multiple-item measurement scale for the construct. Scale reliability, factor analysis, and validity are then discussed based on an analysis of the data gathered from several independent samples. The study concludes with a discussion of some potential applications of the scale.

This study contributes to the literature on brand strength in three ways. First, it examines a variety of antecedent influences on brand strength. Second, it examines the inter-dimensional influences among brand strength’s three dimensions. Third, it examines brand strength’s influence on word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior, and brand preference’s mediation influence on this relationship. To attain these contributions, an empirical research study was conducted. Data were collected using an online survey approach (N = 449) and analyzed using a structural equation modeling (SEM) methods. The results reveal that all but one of our proposed antecedents had a significant influence on our target brand strength dimensions. We found that brand familiarity has an antecedent influence on brand attitude and brand remarkability, which covary. We found that brand strength’s influence on WOM is partially mediated by brand preference.Favorable marketing outcomes like brand preference and WOM are influenced by brand strength but are distinct from, and should not be conflated with, brand strength. Brand strength is determined by the perceptions of one’s target market or group. Increasing brand strength, then, is achieved by favorably influencing the target segment’s perceptions of one’s brand. These perceptions are developed over time by information about the brand from all sources received by the target market or group as well as their experiences with the brand. In the case of brand attitude, brand experiences exert the greatest antecedent influence.To attain a strong brand, the brand object should be perceived to be excellent. It should be perceived as the best among its competitors or peer brands. This can be achieved by ensuring that the target brand performs in a superior manner (compared to other brands) with respect to the brand attributes that the target market or group considers to be important. In effect, a brand should be made to be extraordinary, excellent, and superior first. Then, brand familiarity can be increased through an ongoing communication program. Because consumers receive communications about a brand from different sources, managers should take measures to ensure that brand experiences are consistently favorable over time.

Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been applied in many industries and firms. Previous research has seldom studied and discussed what drive firms to be technologically ready to adopt IoT technology. The research purpose is to study why firms will be technologically ready for the IoT technology adoption based on the views of market orientation and buyer-supplier dependency. The research contribution is to bridge the academic research gap and to provide academic and managerial implications and suggestions by proposing an integrated model to disclose the mechanism how firms’ technology readiness for IoT adoption can be affected by the strategies of their market orientation and buyer-supplier dependency. This study used questionnaire survey to conduct empirical research and to collect data. Taiwanese public offering and listed electronics firms were selected as the sample firms. The questionnaires were distributed to the R&D and sales/marketing managers in those sample firms to collect empirical data.The data collected from returned questionnaires was analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the constructs robustness, examine the proposed hypotheses, and verify the goodness-of-fit of research model. The results proved good reliability, validity, and goodness-of-fit of the research model. The study found that a firm’s dependence on customers has positive influence on its responsive market orientation. The findings also showed that firm’s dependence on customers positively influences its proactive market orientation. Both the responsive market orientation and proactive market orientation were found to have significant influence on a firm’s adaptive capability. Furthermore, a firm owing more adaptive capability will be more technologically ready to adopt IoT technology. However, proactive market orientation has not significantly direct influence on technology readiness for IoT, and only has the indirect influence through the mediation of adaptive capability. Being contrary to previous studies, the other interesting finding disclosed that IoT technology uncertainty has positive influence on technology readiness for IoT adoption.

In a recent essay, Lusch (2017) took a “long view perspective to the past” to develop four observations that marketing scholars might use as a foundation for examining “economic exchange systems” (i.e., distribution) at all times, in all places, and over all stages of economic development. He observed that four behaviors are endemic to humans: (1) trade or exchange; (2) creation of tools or technology; (3) hidden costs; and (4) institutions “to coordinate exchange and interactions with each other.”To address the causes and consequences of increasing complexity of distribution (i.e., trade), technology, and institutions, as well as their consequences, we utilize a theoretical, macroeconomic approach, illustrating it with historical examples. The essence of our approach is to separate actions that are deliberately undertaken by people and/or firms from the ramifications of those actions. Therefore, we focus on purposeful behavior (trade, technology, and institutions) and the consequences of these behaviors (wealth creation, wealth distribution, and externalities – whether deliberate or unrecognized).It is our hope that an historical analysis of actions and consequences can lead to an enriched understanding of the full complexity of today’s distribution systems at a macrolevel. While much of marketing is focused on the microlevel with a managerial emphasis, strategic planning requires a broader perspective that understands not only the environment in which it operates, but also the basic constraints of institutions and technology and the three main consequences discussed above. In the words of Mark Twain, each of these themes “are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

International marketing is complex (Kaspar 2017) forcing firms to cope with unexpected events and frequent shifts in technology and consumer preferences. Thus, global managers in search of superior performance need guidance beyond traditional concepts such as marketing planning (Whalen and Holloway 2012). Accordingly, and in line with the resource-based view theory (RBV), we argue that international firms need to recognize that distinct performance outcomes in dynamic global world depend on the related capabilities of agility and ambidexterity. Specifically, these capabilities serve as bases for designing responses to multiple changes in the environment (Zahra and Garvis 2000). To the best of our knowledge, although both are interrelated, no paper has addressed them simultaneously yet. Moreover, most papers on these concepts were published in the operations and strategic management literatures but much less in international marketing context. Our paper is designed to address these gaps. Specifically, we argue that these constructs are positively related with two performance outcomes (international new products (NPD) performance and international market performance) and should be empirically tested together to assess their joint and specific contributions. By running two parallel models (each time with a different performance outcome), we follow Katsikeas et al. (2016) recommendation to study distinct aspects of performance as it is more appropriate than measuring a latent global performance variable.It is apparent from the results that if resources are readily available, agility and ambidexterity deserve the attention of international marketers as they positively impact international performance. The findings provide important validation and extension to Kester et al. (2014) and Asseraf et al. (2019) studies as they demonstrate that the impact of agility is stable across two performance outcomes, beyond the impact ambidexterity.

The outside-in – inside-out conflict is alive in the business world. Both the literature and real life have shown that some business leaders prefer to begin by looking outward, adopting an outside-in (OI) strategic approach, while others concentrate on their firms’ internal resources, implementing an inside-out (IO) approach. However, little is known about the antecedents for OI and IO behaviors? What cause managers to adopt one of these approaches, is a mystery. This is important as according to the Upper Echelons theory (Hambrick and Mason 1984) organizations become reflections of their top managers.In an international context, Asseraf and Shoham (2014) proposed that firms’ export marketing strategy can be anticipated based on its IO or OI approach. Specifically, they suggested that OI leads to the development of marketing capabilities while IO leads to the development of technological capabilities. This line of thinking follows Atuhene-Gima (2001) notion that strategic orientations “shape the way organizational members process information and react to the environment through the nature of control systems and rewards they engender” (p. 55). Hence, strategic approaches of managers are important for the development of international marketing activity as they have the potential to shape the way firms approach international markets. Accordingly, the purpose of this study (based on in-depth interviews with senior manages) is to (1) identify the underlying sources of OI and IO to provide insights into what causes managers to harbor OI or IO approach and (2) provide insights into the consequences of OI or IO in the context of international marketing. Our qualitative study, which is exploratory in nature, revealed that an OI approach is crucial for international marketing and that an important driver for developing such approach is ‘professional drivers’. However, we suggest that at this early stage of research, the lack of empirical evidence should not be interpreted as invalidating theoretically based other drivers.

The literature has discussed numerous strategic orientations as determinants of export performance including export market orientation (MO) (Cadogan et al. 2006; Cadogan et al. 2009; Young 2005), international innovativeness orientation (IO) (Kropp et al. 2006; Lages et al. 2009; Monreal-Pérez et al. 2011), learning orientation (LO) (Kropp et al. 2006; Souchon et al. 2012), and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Boso et al. 2012; Knight 1997; Kropp et al. 2006; Lisboa et al. 2011; Sundqvist et al. 2012). Notably, most of these cited papers have used an isolated perspective of a single orientation. Such approaches are problematic, as firms regularly use multiple strategic orientations (Cadogan 2012), which are interrelated and have mutually dependent influences on firm performance (Deutscher et al. 2016). Additionally, the notion that firms can be too market- (Cadogan et al. 2009), entrepreneurial-, or innovative-oriented (Bhuian et al. 2005) underscores the importance of potential relationships among the four orientations (market, innovativeness, learning, and entrepreneurial orientations, hereunder MILE) and export performance.While some scholars have examined the effects of combinations of strategic orientations on performance and export performance, they have relied on net effects’ analyses (e.g., SEM, multiple regressions) leading to inconsistent findings (Ho et al. 2016). Our study follows the tradition of using multiple orientations and examines the complementary (Moorman and Slotegraaf 1999) effects of the four strategic orientations comprising MILE on export performance (Morgan et al. 2009).A set-theoretic approach was used to explore whether single or some configurations of the MILE orientations may be “necessary” or “sufficient” conditions to exceed average export performance. Set-theoretic methods are useful to analyze complementarity as they treat each firm as a holistic unit (a unique case) that consists of specific levels of each strategic orientation (conditions) and specific levels of export performance (outcome) that are interrelated. Thus, we advance knowledge about the complementarity of strategic orientations in export context by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Israel is a tiny country founded in 1948 that usually sparks news and emotions regarding its history, tourism, political environment and more recently the innovation center that has become. A famous book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, themed the country “The Startup Nation”. This book explains the miracle economic upturn the country and Israeli society has overcome. Indeed, the country has had a very impressive economic performance lately, as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a distinguish institution of 35 wealthy nations, has accepted Israel as a full associate since 2010. Such prominence has been so important that foreign people now makes business trips to learn and try to refabricate back home the innovation environment. Among those visitors there are also investors and traders looking for new businesses. Some explanations for that success was the focus in the Research & Development (R&D) powerhouse that Israel has become, mostly funded coming from the Venture Capital (VC) Industry. Since the VC was the main driver to boost the creation of the innovation cluster, the connection was mainly naturally made from the biggest center of investment, the USA. After the first successes, many followed by and the VC industry soared. This has sparked the creation of many Startups. There are therefore a lot of studies into the VC industry, the Israeli culture, the innovation cluster and its contribution for the economic rise, the emigrant societal impacts (also a key pillar for the economic boom), but there are also studies regarding the counter forces against anything the country produces and exports like the conflict with the Arab countries and the boycott movement (called BDS). Most of the High-Tec services and products provided by Israeli startups are sold abroad. Has this selling or promotion been marketed as a clearly Israeli made service or product? Has this changed over time? Does the BDS, Arab Boycott inflicts any damage? The investigation was produced based on a partially integrated mixed methods research, where data from a sample of Israeli companies were gathered and classified quantitatively, in terms of acknowledging its Israeli roots. Qualitative interviews followed to understand reasons for acknowledging difficulties on an interpretivist aspect. Results were consistent with a specific situation that happens to the country of investigation. Companies using its origin may have beneficial outcomes to some publics and not to others. The need of comprehensive checking the expected results and target audiences is a must to avoid what was called “Liability of Israeliness”. Albert Einstein once said, “you have to learn the rules of the game and then you have to play better than anyone else”. It seems Israeli companies are following that quote whether they use or hide their country-of-origin.

Customer relationship marketing (CRM) is a rapidly advancing area of marketing. CRM practitioners face challenges such as efficient management of enormous amount of data generated by customer interactions plus extracting, analyzing and interpreting this data to give true value to the information received (Bradlow et al. 2017). A further challenge is the centralization of data from interactions on digital interfaces, social networks and Internet of Things (Culotta et al. 2015), in CRM to provide value for the business objectives. Whilst the application of artificial intelligence (AI) may seem like a radical innovation, most eminent predictive techniques- Neural networks (NN) and Classification and Regression trees (CART) have their roots in AI. Indeed, automated notifications and auto-responders are early examples of automation in customer relationship management. Of late, these automated forms of interactivity are becoming increasingly sophisticated with the rapid advancement in the AI technologies. Interestingly authors Kumar et al. (2016) point to an considerable increase of customer relationships and interactions with the businesses through automated means in near future, particularly as the main objective of AI as a science is to create intelligent machines to do things that otherwise would require intelligence if done by humans (Boden 1977).The quantity of academic works examining the impact of AI on CRM remains limited reflecting the nascence of the topic. However there remains a gap for work that examines the perceptions, understanding and attitudes of the business professionals who will be adopting and implementing AI in their business practices. In this paper we use Affordance Theory as a lens with which to identify the affordances and constraints that AI offers business practitioners. Drawing on the work of Nagy and Neff (2015) we utilize the concept of the “imagined affordance” to test a model of AI acceptance that draws user perception, attitudes and expectation. Our work develops the role of imagination and vision in technology acceptance research and provides an alternative approach to the dominant by rational, conscious and process-orientated perspectives (Nagy and Neff 2015).

This paper critically examines the ethical issues of current and predicted adoption of AI within fashion. AI is a branch of computer science that combines machine learning, logic and natural language processing to emulate human intelligence. By processing vast amounts of data and recognising patterns in the data, AI produces insights and analytics at or above human capability (IEEE 2017). It has been applied to fashion in trend forecasting, personalisation, customer interaction and the use of CGI models. For example, Amazon developed “Echo Look” which combines computer vision with predictive AI and human analysis to assess a consumer’s current wardrobe choices and provide recommendations of what to wear. Users can ask the machine to rate two different possible outfits in terms of current trends and actual appearance (Gibbs 2017). Online styling subscription Stitch Fix uses machine learning algorithms to determine its customers’ preferred styles and offer personalised recommendations. AI has also been developed to mimic the role of social media influencers and models. CGI character “Miquela” has 1.6 million Instagram followers, collaborates with luxury brands and launched her own clothing brand, but is not a real person. There is a dedicated digital modelling agency (Davis 2018). Such innovations are likely to further inflame the ongoing ethical debate about using digital technologies and virtual reality at the risk of opportunities for real people, for example diminishing already scarce opportunities for black models (Graham 2018), or introducing norms of artificial appearance and personal aesthetics impossible for ‘real’ people to achieve. AI has the potential to revolutionise fashion through greater precision, accuracy and effectiveness in decision-making, but at what cost? To what extent can and should AI replicate and replace human creativity and presence in an industry sector founded on human input in creating new trends? Yet, AI that predicts garment suitability and offers greater customisation for consumers may reduce waste and over-consumption (Snow 2017). Producing items which have greater relevance could reduce returns, markdowns and warehouse space, plus increase customer satisfaction and experience. Automating repetitive tasks could save money and time for greater value-added activities, for example through the use of chatbots for online customer service. This paper applies the lens of CSR to inform the debate on whether core fashion retailing functions can and should be replaced by AI. A CSR approach argues for businesses assuming social responsibilities beyond any economic, technical and legal obligations which constitute its existence, with the objective of reconciling economic, social and environmental objectives (Davis 1973).

From a consumer marketing perspective, undergoing any surgical procedure is, for the average individual, a “credence” good, those which the quality cannot be ascertained through search, and cannot even be realistically judged after their purchase and consumption (Darby and Karni 1973). MedcineNet is a website containing detailed articles on different medical conditions and diseases as well as detailed articles on various medical procedures like knee replacements, C-sections and colonoscopies. A patient comments section is available on many of these articles that contain comments from patients who have undergone a similar procedure to read. For many perspective patients, the patient comments section may be comforting to read as they prepare for their own procedure. In the case of colonoscopies, most patients don’t have the expertise to know whether they even really needed a colonoscopy or not, and once it has been performed, most patients are not really in a position to judge whether it was performed poorly or well. After surgeries, patients frequently turn to social media to assess the experiences expressed by others and to talk about their own.In this study, we collected 93 patient reviews from MedicineNet from patients who underwent a colonoscopy procedure. We first employ IBM Watson to examine how patients who have undergone colonoscopies talk about their emotions and express sentiment through their comments online. We explore their emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness) and their overall sentiment after undergoing a colonoscopy. While a colonoscopy is not a positive experience for most patients, evidenced by mostly negative sentiment and high levels of fear and sadness, some do express a positive sentiment, and the emotion of joy. This was seen in patients who shared commend that they were happy that the procedure was “over”, or they were relieved when their results indicated no evidence of cancer or other serious illnesses. Limitations are acknowledged, managerial implications identified, and avenues for future research are suggested.

Social media has fundamentally changed how people communicate and share information (Kaplan and Haenlein 2009), and healthcare communication has certainly not been immune to this information revolution (Kreps 2011). With the potential to impact the effectiveness and dissemination of healthcare information (Cranston and Davies 2009), organisations wanting to reach specific audiences have been compelled to keep pace with users showing high usage adoption (Bolton et al. 2013). A number of studies also underline the significance of age and emphasizing that reach and impact will be optimal when a younger generation is targeted (Chib et al. 2010; Chou et al. 2009), especially in developing countries with younger populations, dominated by Generation Y (Gen Y) who have limited access to healthcare (Bolton et al. 2013). As a highly connected cohort, social media usage among Gen Y has received increasing attention over the past decade (Hawkins et al. 2010), yet little research has explored this group’s perception and attitude towards using these platforms for healthcare marketing. This study addresses this gap and explores Gen Y’s interpersonal expectations of social media and their perception and attitude towards its use for healthcare marketing in the developing market context.Two salient theories, the media richness theory and the channel expansion theory, served as theoretical framework. A mixed-methods approach involving six semi-structured focus group interviews and 991 anonymous online surveys provided the data for this study. A conceptual model consisting of two overarching groups: need utilities (user expectancies, which contribute to the forming of perception); and design utilities (design of social media to facilitate the user expectations of the medium) was developed. Under need utilities, interpersonal expectations (familiarity, message control, privacy, trust, and endorsement) formed one sub-group. Design utilities encompassed social media utility (a place to interact, a place to get information, a place to escape to); and design appropriateness (create health-related content, consume health-related content). It was hypothesized that interpersonal expectations drive social media utility and that social media utility is positively associated with design appropriateness.Message control, privacy, trust, and endorsement emerged as the most pertinent interpersonal expectations or need utilities of social media in a health communication context. These factors are likely to influence the social media utilities of being a place to interact and a place to escape, which in turn drive the design appropriateness of social media for the creation or consumption of health-related content.

Obesity has a significant impact on public health (Redondo et al. 2018). The widespread obesity problem is attributed to the increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) among consumers (Malik et al. 2010). This is particularly prevalent in South Africa, with the average consumption of SSBs by consumers in the country estimated to be over 200 ml per day (Tugendhaft et al. 2016). Despite the implementation of a Sugary Beverage Levy in South Africa, effective as from the 1st of April 2018, there is a lack of communication on the part of the South African Department of Health (Scott et al. 2017) which may be used to supplement the imposition of this Sugary Beverage Levy (Manyema et al. 2014).Public health campaigns are commonly used to address national health concerns and are implemented with the aim of (i) persuading attitudes, often through mass media channels (Wayman 2010), (ii) compelling consumers to cease or adopt a behaviour and (iii) preventing undesirable outcomes from occurring (Mayén et al. 2016). For example, interventions (i.e. public health campaigns) in nutrition-related education can be used to supplement the imposition of a tax on SSBs (Redondo et al. 2018). This in turn communicates the risks of excessive SSB consumption to compel consumers to reduce or cease their consumption of these SSBs (Rahman et al. 2014). Of interest to marketers is the implicit consumer attitudes that are under-researched in the marketing literature. Despite a few exceptions (see for example Wanke et al. 2002; Ackermann and Mathieu 2015), the importance of these implicit attitudes is either undermined or non-existent in marketing theory.Understanding the roles that implicit attitudes play in behavioural change has important implications for public health campaigns and the design thereof. By identifying whether these attitudes or associations are central to affecting an individual’s behaviour, avenues for more effective targeting can be created for future public health campaigns (Brunton and St Quinton 2017). Further, the exact influence of various public health campaigns in the context of SSB consumption requires further clarity (Morley et al. 2018).

We are witnessing a rapid development in digital and innovative technologies and their application in omni-channel retailing. Such developments have entailed changes to consumer in-store shopping experience, which in turn, have been re-shaping consumer decision-making. As smartphones have become the norm of online shopping, the showrooming phenomenon has swayed the revenues of brick-and-mortar retailers. Consumers take advantage of the characteristics of the shopping experience in a brick-and-mortar store, come to a conclusion about the product they are willing to buy, and then use the online or physical retail channels to obtain it at a lower price. Besides product price, consumers follow their moral principles in purchase decision making (Muncy and Vitell 1992). Morality has been an influencing factor that guides consumers’ behavior as they recognize a need, and then search, buy, and use products. Their choices have to be justified and aligned with their ethical norms to satisfy their needs (Wilk 2001).In this article, we investigate the impact of price perceptions and moral values on consumers’ purchase intentions in showrooming. Across three studies, we provide evidence for the joint effect of product price variation and consumers’ morality on purchase intentions. In the first study, we showed that the price variation is associated with purchase intentions, to the extent that increasingly higher product price variation (i.e., increasingly lower price out-of-store) increases out-of-store purchase intentions. In the second study that introduced the price matching policy, this joint effect of price and moral identity is strong as consumers’ inferred motive is negative toward the retailer’s policy. However, in case of high price variation in the marketplace, price outweighs morality in forming purchase decision. In the third study, we found that the moral identity is not associated with purchase intentions when it comes to expensive products. In the same vein, the monetary sacrifice as a fraction of the price variation is substantial for expensive products, opting consumers not to buy in-store.In sum, we offer an investigation of showrooming which is considered one of the crucial phenomena that retailers have to face nowadays. To address the research gap, we conceptualize purchase decision making as a process in which subjective product price and objective price knowledge in the marketplace is translated into an objective judgement by weighing both the price information and moral beliefs. We showed that price variation influences consumers’ purchases intentions to the extent that increasingly price variation is positively associated with out-of-store purchase intentions, but this influence varies in the presence of price matching. Similarly, consumers’ morality is associated with purchase intentions. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

A question that has pre-occupied many qualitative researchers is how we can come to know others who are a part of this social world (Doucet and Mauthner 2008) and thereby make the unknown known.I-poems are a feminist, qualitative method which enables researchers to hear how respondents uniquely make meaning of their social world (Woodcock 2005). A collection of personal pronouns and the verbs/actions that go with them are presented in a format similar to that of a contemporary poem.I-poems have been recognised as an emergent method in social research (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2006) but only a small number of marketers have adopted this method.We introduce this innovative method in a study conducted on the relationship young girls have with money. We reflect on the contribution that the use of I-poems can make in marketing by comparing and contrasting the findings from a thematic analysis with that using I-poems.Six semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with girls aged from 12 to 16 years old. All the interviews were transcribed and analysed independently by the two researchers. This was done firstly using thematic analysis, and secondly using I-poems.Two conclusions clearly emerged from the data. Firstly, the use of I-poems provided more depth and greater nuance to the overall analysis. Secondly, a theme was identified which only came from the analysis using I-poems.We therefore argue for the wider adoption of I-poems by fellow marketing academics because I-poems not only allowed more subtlety to our existing themes, but also uncovered a new theme which did not emerge from the thematic analysis.

The business press and academics have written many obituaries for traditional retail, (i.e., “Warren Buffett just confirmed the death of retail as we know it”; Business Insider 2017).Many suggest that traditional retail is being ‘killed’ by digital (Kara 2017; Adweek “Bad news, Brick –and-Mortar Stores: The Internet Finally has you Beat”). Not only merchandise stores, but whole industries have been transformed due to the internet – particularly books/music/movies (McCracken 2011) and theaters (Moore 2017). Nearly all products can be bought online, as well as many services. While many proclaim the death of traditional retail, others are stating that “Why Technology Won’t Kill Brick and Mortar Retailers” (Forbes 2018) and “Online Shopping Hasn’t Killed Brick-and Mortar Retailers” (ABC News 2018). One thing is common among the proponents of B&M retailers is that the shopping experience itself is a competitive advantage. Industry experts have suggested that physical retail not focus only on the merchandise offering but also the experience – “Physical Retail Isn’t Dead. Boring Retail Is.” (Dennis 2018).Interestingly, although prior research has focused on exploring and measuring specific elements of consumer experience, there is little knowledge regarding how to identify and measure all factors that go into consumers’ experiential outcomes in retail, events, etc. The present study seeks to address this gap by creating and testing a holistic measure of consumer experience. In particular, we create an experience scale that measures 6-dimensions of consumer experience across a variety of contexts: affective, cognitive, behavioral, sensory, and social/self-identity. In study 1, we validate this scale in the context of retail shopping. In study 2, we validate the scale in the context of a music concert.It appears that a general scale of experiential consumption/shopping is indeed possible. However, a discussion of the dimensionality of the scale need be conducted before further construction. Examination of the most common six dimensions (Affect, Cognitive, Behavior, Sensory, Social, and Relate) were empirically examined herein. The empirical results suggest that some of these dimensions may be inseparable or perhaps antecedent, or at minimal highly related. In particular, the affective, relate (self-identification) and sensory dimensions appear to overlap within the EFA. There seem to be two potential explanations for this: (1) the dimensions are simply conceptually overlapping and need to be measured more precisely and/or (2) one is antecedent to the other. Discussion among the authors (which we hope for input from the conference attendees), is that perhaps sensory experiences are antecedent to affect and one or both may be antecedent to self-identification. In addition, the social aspects might be antecedent to affective and cognitive dimensions. Each dimension appears to have high correlation with brand equity/loyalty as per Brun et al. (2017).

Corporate sustainability crises involve imbalances of a company’s goal system and related actions that appear to relevant stakeholders to be one-sidedly directed at achieving economic profit at the expense of environmental or social goals. Such crises can substantially jeopardize the company’s existence unless suitable strategies of crisis management are applied. In addition to reactive measures, such strategies also include forward-looking means capable of preventing lasting crises or mitigating crisis aggravation. This paper suggests a framework for managing corporate sustainability crises with reference to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), focusing on general conditions and crisis phases for managing a crisis effectively and efficiently. It becomes clear that companies can successfully cope with various crisis situations through the use of active and reactive CSR when taking into account the temporal fit, content fit, stakeholder fit, and corporate fit of the measures envisaged. Several management implications for crisis resolution are derived.

Studies of firms’ eco-friendly efforts flourish in trade and academic publications. Despite its size, the literature shows equivocal results on the impact of firms’ initiatives to preserve the natural environment. Corporate executives are increasingly sensitive to the topic of sustainable business operation. However, their suspicion of whether the benefits of firms’ environmental commitment can offset the costs is exacerbated by the lack of consensus among empirical studies. To help resolve this issue, we conduct a meta-analysis of 330 correlations between corporate environmental commitment and firm performance (i.e., effect sizes from 94 empirical studies) to investigate the boundary conditions under which corporate environmental initiatives can boost business bottom line.Given the positive central tendency of the relationship between corporate environmental commitment and firm performance, firms will benefit from their environmental activities. This holds true especially when corporate environmental commitment initiatives are undertaken in partnership with other organizations (i.e., corporate environmental activities performed with partner organizations generate better firm performance, all else being equal). The results also underscore the importance of country-level business environment. Specifically, companies that align their corporate environmental commitment efforts with a country’s cultural values (i.e., long-term orientation), economic situation (i.e., slow economic growth), and ecological conditions (i.e., high environmental degradation) see stronger positive returns. Finally, as the returns on corporate environmental investment may differ across different aspects of company performance, we investigate the influences of companies’ environmental efforts on three major business outcomes, including product (e.g., product quality), process (e.g., efficiency), and market (e.g., profitability) performance. While the impacts of corporate environmental commitment on product and market outcomes are not significantly different, we find a stronger positive effect of this commitment on process than market outcome.In summary, our findings may help guide managers in their attempt to effectively integrate sustainability initiatives into business activities. The differential effects of corporate environmental commitment on firm performance will help executives objectively allocate resources to meet proper performance goals. Our study also seeks to reconcile the inconsistent findings in the extant literature, and provide directions for future research.

Leveraging the power of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is strategically important to corporations. Despite various studies have explored the positive effects of CSR, relatively limited attention has been devoted to investigating CSR in relation to service employees from internal marketing perspectives. Therefore, this research aims to fill this research gap by developing a conceptual model, based on social influence theory, to explain how internal CSR initiatives affect service employees’ attitudes and behaviors.This study develops and empirically tests a theoretical model that examines the impact of internal CSR initiatives (i.e., internal dissemination of and management support for CSR) on service employees’ attitudes toward an organization (i.e., employee–company identification and employee–company value congruence), which ultimately enhances their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) toward customers, other employees, and the organization. Survey data from 271 front-line employees of service firms which are actively involved in CSR-related activities were examined with structural equation modeling (SEM).The results suggest that perceived internal dissemination of and management support for CSR lead to service employees’ citizenship behaviors toward customers, other employees, and the organization through the mediation of employee–company identification and value congruence.Internal CSR initiatives are highly related to service employees’ various OCBs which are beneficial to improve service performance of firms. Therefore, internal marketing dissemination should call attention to companies who devote resources to CSR activities. Also, since managers’ attitudes and behaviors trickle down to employees, service supervisors’ support of CSR activities plays a significant role in forming employees’ perceptions of firms’ CSR dedication.This study represents one of the first studies that views internal CSR initiatives as an effective internal marketing lever. In addition, the relationship between internal CSR initiative and service employees’ three types of OCBs: OCB toward customers, other employees, and the organization is proposed and tested with an empirical model, providing significant contributions.

Firms are increasingly engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and actively communicate this engagement to stakeholders. In doing so, they can use different types of framing. For example, firms may emphasize that they engage in ethical or socially responsible conduct or, contrariwise, that they avoid unethical and socially irresponsible behavior. For example, Unilever’s 2014 Sustainable Palm Oil Report states that more than 98% of all palm oil directly sourced for Unilever’s European Foods business is traceable and certified sustainable; alternatively, the company could also have stated that only 2% of all directly sourced palm oil is not traceable and certified. Objectively, both statements provide the same information in terms of CSR engagement. However, the framing of the information may lead to different consumer responses. Research on message framing has referred to this type of framing as “attribute framing”. Attribute framing involves wording the description of an attribute of a company, product, or other attitude object. It is one of the simpler types of framing, and can be distinguished from goal framing, which involves stating the positive outcomes of doing something versus the negative outcomes of not doing something; and risky choice framing, which involves a choice between a risky option and a riskless option, framed as gains versus losses. Surprisingly little is known about how attribute framing of CSR communication affects consumer responses. Relatedly, only little is known about the psychological mechanisms that explain how positively vs. negatively framed CSR messages inform consumer behavior. This research examines the role of positive versus negative attribute framing of CSR information on brand attitudes and brand purchasing intentions. The results of our experimental study with fictive brands indicate that positively framed CSR communication leads to more favorable consumer responses than negatively framed CSR communication. Moreover, attribute framing effects seem to be contingent on the type of product: the effects are stronger for products that consumers can easily evaluate (here apparel) than for products that are more difficult to evaluate (here smartphones). Finally, consumers’ beliefs about the company’s social responsibility, but not their beliefs about the company’s ability in producing and delivering its outputs, explain how CSR attribute framing affects attitudes and purchase intentions.

This study investigates the role of consumer judgement of self-deservingness in customer-brand relationships which require high levels of consumer effort in co-creation to optimise product value or benefit. Whilst there is a precedent for applying deservingness theory to self-reflexive judgement in social psychology, and affective responses to judgements of balance/imbalance between actions and outcomes have been examined (Feather and McKee 2009), deservingness has not previously been investigated in relation to satisfaction in customer-brand relationships (Mick and Faure 1998; Pancer et al. 2017).Deservingness theory may be particularly relevant in customer-brand relationships which are highly collaborative or involve co-creation of value experiences and outcomes (Vargo and Lusch 2008; Wagner et al. 2010). In such relationships, customer effort is key to the product or service achieving optimum outcomes, but can be variable and jeopardise brand performance if effort exerted by the consumer is insufficient or unsustained (Hibbert et al. 2012). The relationship between customer effort, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, has recently been highlighted in a health care context (Gallan et al. 2013; Sweeney et al. 2015). When a high level of consumer effort is required to optimise brand performance, consumers tend to assume a portion of the blame when outcomes are sub-optimal (Pacheco et al. 2017).The aim of this study is to investigate how consumers’ self-reflexive judgement of deservingness, based on perceptions of their own high or low effort in co-creating outcomes, may impact customer satisfaction and future behaviour. Data are derived from interviews with 14 commercial weight-loss program users.Self-deservingness manifested in four contexts, namely: (a) Deserving good outcomes due to high levels of effort; (b) Not deserving good outcomes due to low levels of effort; (c) Deserving poor outcomes due to low levels of effort; (d) Deserving better outcomes than those achieved due to high effort.These insights led to the development of a theoretical model demonstrating the potential role of consumer judgement of self-deservingness in impacting customer satisfaction and subsequent behavioural intentions towards the brand. The model suggests that, for brands involving consumer effort in co-creation, there are three pathways towards customer satisfaction and only one which results in dissatisfaction. Importantly, consumer perception of how much effort they have exerted is likely to depend on how much effort they believed would be required, which can be influenced by the marketing process.The study is the first known investigation of deservingness theory in marketing at the level of consumers’ self-judgement. The theoretical model arising from the study has potential for further empirical study and practical application in marketing management to improve customer-brand relationships.

Analyzing multiple customer contact points that span the so-called customer journey is an essential prerequisite for the targeted implementation of advertising (Qaqish 2018). Various procedural models seek to provide methods for conducting such analyses (e.g., Rosenbaum et al. 2017); they differ in terms of how many contact points they analyze and how much importance they assign to contact points that take place online (Ament 2017; Brynjolfsson et al. 2013). Yet in previous approaches, distinct online channels rarely are differentiated (Barwitz and Maas 2018). Against this background, it seems necessary to examine closely the various online contact points between potential consumers and an advertising firm.This study proposes a methodology to determine the significance of each online advertising channel, in isolation and in combination with other (online) channels. According to this, marketing decision makers can calculate direct and indirect value contributions of their advertising channels. Study starts with a literature review, to identify and describe various theoretical approaches to explaining purchase decisions. After that, study offers criticisms of extant approaches, methods, and attribution models, with a view to their potential applications to online marketing. This critique establishes a foundation for pursuing the theoretical research goals and designing the proposed model. This model aims to make a significant contribution to the analyses of the customer journey, particularly in a context of increasing digitization.To build on the deductively derived model, this research will attempt to confirm the proposed model, using empirical investigations. The empirical procedure ensures comprehensive coverage of concrete application scenarios within the model development framework, as well as careful considerations of pragmatic relevance. Empirical investigations base on real data, gathered by a German service company that sells educational services almost exclusively over the Internet. Spanning a period of almost 10 years, the data set refers to more than 60,000 inquiries from interested persons who have requested information, reflecting their interest in the company’s offerings. Data set also contains information about approximately 10,000 customers who previously used or currently use the company’s services. Thus, it reveals details about when each customer has purchased each specific service.Based on the theoretical, deductive considerations and the initial empirical investigations, it is reasonable to assume that a more differentiated analysis of online advertising channels is worthwhile in the context of understanding customer journeys. By identifying channels that produce particularly high or low purchase probabilities, whether in isolation or in combination with other channels, marketing decision makers gain valuable information about which channels they should promote and which they can safely discontinue.

Digital revolution has turned into a pervasive phenomenon that individuals and firms of any kinds and size cannot afford to overlook (Verhoef et al. 2017). Digital technologies are enabling many changes in firms’ boundaries driving firms’ internationalization and market entry strategies. Despite the increasing interest of firms in expanding abroad throughout online channels, there is a lack of research investigating aspects related to the use of e-commerce websites and/or platforms for firms international growth.Our paper aims to review studies on e-commerce and firm’s internationalization in order to identify the main areas of research and interest, as well as future research trends, by using a bibliometric analysis over a period of 10 years, from 2007 to 2017.To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first attempts to review the literature at the intersection between e-commerce and internationalization theory, through a bibliometric analysis. We contribute to extant literature on the field by using the importance-performance analysis to identify the most influential articles (Seebacher et al. 2013), stimulating empirical studies and moving this research area forward.The analysis revealed a recent rise in academic interest for this research field that can be explained through the “technological breakthrough” connected to the digital transformation involving every firms’ managerial area and activity with relevant effects on the different research management topic, including firms’ internationalization.

Psychological flow refers to a positive experiential state, based on enjoyment, concentration, and low self-awareness, which occurs during active task performance, when the performer is totally connected to the performance, in a situation where personal skills equal required challenges (Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Jackson and Marsh 1996; Ullén et al. 2012). In this research, we explore the relationships between sociodemographic variables and psychological flow in the context of outdoor adventure tourism. Furthermore, we explore the consequences of experiencing such a psychological state for that form of tourism, in terms of word of mouth (WOM) and in terms of tourists’ life satisfaction.Tourism represents an important financial source for many countries worldwide (WTTC 2018). Among the many and different forms of tourism (Maltese et al. 2016; Sidali et al. 2015; Smith and Eadington 1992), the outdoor adventure tourism, which is traditionally centered on adventure recreation, is constantly growing (Morrison and O’Leary 1997). In particular, Hudson (2012) emphasizes the role of sport activities by introducing the idea that holidays for rest and relaxation has shifted to more health-related and quality-of-life experiences, which include active and sports-oriented trips. However, despite the relevance that having memorable experiences may have for tourists (Pizam 2010), no research has shed light on the antecedents and the effects of psychological flow in the context of tourism. Therefore, this research is aimed at filling this gap by exploring the role of sociodemographic variables in generating experiences that deeply involve tourists when engaged in outdoor activities. We focus on cycle tourism, which refers to practicing cycling to visit places and attractions during vacation (Han et al. 2017). Drawing from Hudson (2012), we propose that outdoor adventure tourist activities, such as cycling, might be so physically and mentally involving that tourists might experience a “flow” state when practicing them.Results show that age is positively related to psychological flow, which in turn increases tourists’ likelihood to recommend cycle tourism to others and their satisfaction with life. This research, therefore, contributes to the different streams of literature, which regard age as segmenting variable, outdoor adventure tourism, psychological flow, WOM, and life satisfaction. Relevant managerial implications for tourism managers emerge from this research, which are presented in the General Discussion section.

In recent years scholars and practitioners have suggested omnichannel management as the best approach to reach and engage the customer in the buying journey. Traditional literature on distribution channels has focused on the co-operation and mostly on conflicts and competition among a company’s direct and indirect distribution channels (Frazier 1983; Gaski 1984; Coughlan et al. 2006). More recently, literature on marketing channels has debated the need for a multi-channel approach based on separated offline and online channels (Neslin et al. 2006). At present, the prevailing focus is on an omnichannel management strategy intended as the synergetic and integrated management of the numerous available channels – online and offline - and customer touchpoints to optimize the customer experience and channels’ performance. An effective omnichannel strategy lets the consumers use channels seamlessly and interchangeably and experience the channels uniquely (Verhoef et al. 2015).Most of the literature refers to omnichannel management as a strategy to increase customer experience and customer loyalty, thus focusing on omnichannel management and marketing strategy. A few research refers to the study of the interplay between omnichannel management and operations and logistics management (Marchet et al. 2018). The goal of this paper is to understand at which conditions a company can get the most from an omnichannel management strategy both at marketing and sales level and at the operations and logistics one. In other words, the paper faces the question concerning the conditions at which the implementation of integrated online and offline channel strategy by the introduction of the e-commerce on top of the traditional sales channels lets the company get benefits in terms of improved marketing and supply chain management performances.On the basis of the literature review and of a Delphi study we developed research hypotheses and a related framework that considers two variables as impacting on the value of an omnichannel strategy: the level of product’s value density (high, low) and the main (if not unique) distribution channel typology (direct, indirect). By crossing these two dimensions, four combinations can be identified. For each of them, a case study was analyzed.Preliminary evidence from the case-studies points out the most relevant differences among the four typologies, in terms of opportunities and threats that companies must cope with in the fields of marketing and supply chain management, when pursuing an omnichannel strategy.

Research has established that consumers not only seek out brands for the instrumental and functional roles they serve, they also seek meaningful connections with brands and their corporate entities (Aaker 2012). As a result, companies build brand equity through brand personalities that encourage consumer interactions and build relationships (Lloyd and Woodside 2013). A brand personality refers to the overall persona created by a cluster of human-like characteristics attributed to a brand name (Azoulay and Kapferer 2003). In the context of relationships between luxury brands and their consumers however, we argue that traditional views of brand personality are less relevant since luxury brand-consumer relationships transcend functional relationships (Keller et al. 2011). Given the role of emotional and transformative brand values in luxury branding, we propose that brand charisma, as a brand personality is more likely to resonate with luxury brand consumers.Despite the breadth of research examining charismatic leadership in the psychology and management literature, research on charisma and its relationship to brands has remained limited due in part to the lack of consensus regarding what brand charisma really is. The most useful definition of charisma seems to be in terms of attributions of charisma to a leader by followers (consumers) who identify strongly with the leader (the brand) (House 1977). The follower’s attribution of charisma thus depends on the observed behavior of the leader. Brand charisma is therefore socially constructed and an observable behavioral process. Surprisingly, in brand-consumer relationships, little is known about the behavioral components responsible for such attributions.Against this backdrop, the objective of this paper is to define the conceptual domain of luxury brand charisma and its foundational dimensions. We present an exploratory study to shed light on the behavioral attributes of charismatic luxury brands. Our research has the potential to break new ground in academic brand research and specifically in the emerging area of luxury brand management.

Luxury brand consumption has been the focus of considerable research examining the reasons for lavish expenditure on luxury goods. Researchers argue that consumers buy expensive possessions to convey their level of prestige, boost their self-esteem, express their identity, and signal status (e.g., Belk 1985; Han et al. 2010; Richins 1987). Cross-cultural research argues that the applicability of theories studied in Western cultures may prove to be problematic in non-Western cultures (e.g. Arnould and Thompson 2005; Ger and Belk 1996; Gould 1992; Wallendorf and Arnould 1988). While previous studies have examined luxury brand consumption in Western societies, research is scant in examining such buying behavior on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) consumers, with few exceptions. GCC consumers spend approximately between USD 6 billion and USD 10 billion per year on luxury products (Pivac 2014), therefore, making it a very lucrative, yet understudied market. This paper aims to fully explore and understand the drivers behind luxury consumption for women in the GCC area.Specifically, we draw on social role theory (Eagly and Wood 1999) to develop a deeper understanding for gender-related expectations pertaining to Arab female luxury consumption. In so doing, our study extends the existing literature on luxury consumption, by exploring this type of consumption through the lens of social role theory, a vastly under-studied area in the Arab context. According to social role theory, men will occupy roles that afford them greater power and status, where they reflect behaviors that are assertive, individually-oriented, directive, and autocratic – termed agentic behaviors (Eagly 1987). Women’s social behaviors, on the other hand, are less assertive, and more caring and nurturing – termed communal behaviors (Eagly 1987); thus, women occupy roles with less status and power (Ridgeway and Diekema 1992).Our results interestingly contrast with the drivers that would be expected to be used by female Arab consumers. Social role theory posits that, through socialization, females, in general, develop an interdependent self-concept embedded in a communal, caring, and nurturing social role. Our study shows that Arab women display largely independent and agentic behaviors, roles generally associated with men, in their luxury consumption. We offer plausible explanations to our findings along with theoretical and managerial implications from our study.

Industry data estimates that the global pre-loved luxury brand market was worth $149 billion in 2018, accounting for 24% of luxury sales (Ryding et al. 2017). The increased prevalence of this market necessitates investigation into the motivations of this brand consumption phenomena. The concept of pre-loved luxury brands is ambiguous within the research to date, and includes pre-owned second-hand goods, vintage items and collectors’ pieces. Markets and platforms for circulating pre-loved luxury brands are varied, examples include professional sales websites, auctions and traditional second-hand retailers (Cervellon et al. 2012; Zhan and He 2012), which indicates that pre-loved luxury brand consumption takes various forms (Turunen and Leskinen 2015).Noticing the market expansion, pre-loved luxury brands could facilitate closer consumer-brand relationships than with new luxury. The sale of pre-loved luxury brands helps to extend the lifecycle of brands and construct new meanings and personalities to enhance consumers’ luxury experiences (Turunen and Leskinen 2015). To better understand the challenges and strategic opportunities in the pre-loved luxury market, luxury brand marketers need to understand the underlying reasons driving consumers’ appetite of pre-loved luxury brands.Prior research has discussed consumer motivations and purchase intentions in the context of second-hand consumption (Guiot and Roux 2010) and luxury consumption (Hung et al. 2011; Hudders and Pandelaere 2012). The literature suggests a positive relationship between the concept of sustainable consumption and second-hand consumption (Guiot and Roux 2010) but a negative relationship with luxury consumption (Achabou and Dekhili 2013). With regards to luxury consumption, status consumption has been examined as the prominent factor that drives consumers to consume luxury brands (Hennigs et al. 2017). However, when specific luxury brands are obtained through second-hand consumption, it remains unclear as to what types of alternative luxury experiences could be generated to satisfy consumers’ status-signaling demands. Research also emphasise the significance of consumers’ strong positive emotions to motivate them to seek ownership of loved brands from the second-hand market (Guiot and Roux 2010). However, it remains unclear whether consumers’ love emotion drives their purchase intention of pre-loved luxury brands (Turunen and Leskinen 2015).Thus, it is necessary to re-examine the influence of the prominent motivators of second-hand consumption and new luxury brand consumption on consumers’ purchase intentions towards various forms of pre-loved luxury brands and further explore the existence of new motivations. This research aims to provide insight into consumers’ pre-loved luxury brand consumption behaviours, with a focus on determining the motivation of consumers’ purchase intentions. Using a multi-method approach, this research investigates consumer-brand relationship within this luxury re-sale market, whilst providing conceptual clarity to the ‘pre-loved’ luxury brand.

This interdisciplinary study combines insights from attachment theory, services research, and organizational management to investigate how a Chinese restaurant chain creates a strong service climate by satisfying emotional attachment needs of low-skilled employees. Employee attachment has been used extensively to predict employees’ attitudes and behaviors (Wang et al. 2018), which are important for service climate (Hong et al. 2013). Despite the importance of attachment to understand employees’ attitudes, behavior and positive service climate, the use of attachment theory in services research is still recent. Scholars identify the need to understand the antecedents of service climate (Bowen and Schneider 2014). Specifically, how employees bond with co-workers to align their personal goals with those of the organization (Tang et al. 2014), how these bonds relate to social stressors (such as those caused by supervisors or colleagues), and the impact on service climate. This understanding is relevant in the context of low-skilled Chinese workers moving from the countryside to the city, leaving their families behind, and facing adaptation difficulties, which in turn activates their attachment system.While prior literature has identified the positive impact of valuable employees on firm performance, studies have focused on highly-educated workers in Western economies (Swart and Kinnie 2010). Research on developing country contexts and low-skilled workers is scant and increasingly important. Our research helps to address this gap by developing an in-depth understanding of the processes that support low-skilled workers to feel secure with multiple relationships at work (Yip et al. 2018). We conduct a case study of Hai Restaurant, named the fastest growing Chinese restaurant chain by the China Chain Store and Franchising Association in 2008. Hai Restaurant employs rural migrants and this new context activates new employees’ attachment system, as moving far from their families causes separation anxiety (Qin et al. 2014).This paper (1) uncovers the approaches that enable low-skilled employees to develop multiple emotional attachments, advancing the understanding of normative attachment; (2) develops new insights on how attachment bonds among low-skilled workers inform service climate; (3) offers a new conceptualization for the antecedents of service climate that adds employees’ emotional attachment needs to human resources practices; and (4) augments previous literature on superior firm performance delivered by a highly-educated workforce with insights on how service value can be produced by low-skilled workers.

Although demographic trends indicate the increasing importance of bilingual consumers, only few studies have examined the usage of code-switched messages in advertising to ethnic bilingual minorities. Besides, these studies focused on the general effects of mixed-language advertising. However, some industries are unique in terms of appropriateness of code-switched messages and require an individual approach. Drawing on Speech Accommodation Theory and the Markedness Model, we have partially addressed this gap by developing three theoretical propositions about the applicability of code-switched advertising to bilingual minorities in the health care sector. Firstly, in the health care industry, code-switched advertising may not be a universally successful advertising approach. Secondly, if such messages are to work in this industry, greater persuasiveness might be attained by switching to the language that conveys more professional credibility with regard to medical care. Thirdly, in case of the majority and minority languages conveying a relatively equal degree of professional credibility, the effect of code-switching might be primarily determined by sociocultural factors. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are provided.

The construct of online consumer engagement (OCE) has emerged as a key metric of social media marketing outcomes. Research has focused on positive OCE resulting in limited insight into negative OCE. It is important to address this gap since negative OCE maintains relationship proximity but exhibits intense antagonistic thoughts, feelings and actions towards the brand; which are manifested actively (unlike disengagement which is manifested passively) (Hollebeek and Chen 2014; Naumann et al. 2017). Examples of negative OCE include resisting firm-initiated communication (Gretry et al. 2017), posting abusive comments (Keashly and Neumann 2008), complaining (Presi et al. 2014), boycotting and revenge (Tuzovic 2010). We focus upon negative OCE as a lack of research attention means there is limited insight into the frustration and angry reactions present within the dark-side of social media (Gebauer et al. 2013; Hollebeek and Chen 2014).We focus upon customer and organisational negative OCE in a financial services setting. We draw on Institutional Theory (Suchman 1995) to evaluate the strategies that are employed to legitimise or delegitimize negative OCE discourse within brand-controlled social media page. We gather netnographic data from the customer service Facebook pages of eight retail banks and combined this with social media practitioner interviews from three of the banks. In our analysis we identify how Institutional Logics provide organising principles, a vocabulary of motive and identification of a sense of self for consumers and organisations within social media.This paper shows how banks and customers are strategically drawing on legitimacy dimensions to gain advantage through emergent practice and “establish legitimacy discursively in order to authenticate their roles” in social media (Leppanen et al. 2015: 2). There is evidence that of misalignment in customer narratives drawing on moral legitimisation strategies, external bank narratives drawing on regulatory and cognitive legitimacy whilst internal organisational narratives mobilise pragmatic legitimacy. The use of Institutional Theory highlights that OCE may be targeted at a broader network of actors than has been previously conceptualised.

Negative events are known to damage a guilty brand and spillover and damage other innocent but close brands. Extant literature on brand spillover has largely been constrained to brand portfolios, competing brands or brand partners/alliances (see for example, Mackalski and Belisle 2015); with very few studies evaluating brand spillover beyond immediate brand partners and consumers (for example Magnusson et al. 2014). This study considers the wider, business context in which firms operate and examines brand spillover within a business ecosystem. A business ecosystem is a dynamic community where members with direct and indirect links to a central organisation actively interact (Iansiti and Levien 2004; Moore 1993). Recent research has applied the ecosystem to marketing (Akaka et al. 2013; Baron et al. 2018) and parallel research in branding has argued for branding theory to be re-envisaged within a wider context (Miller and Merrilees 2013).This study aims to extend theory through an in-depth study of how the negative effects of a brand crisis spillover into an ecosystem. It sets out to address these gaps through an empirical study of brand spillover that draws on multiple data sources to address the complexity of the phenomenon. The study examines brand spillover in UK general insurance and the impact of a series of crises in its business ecosystem.The study makes the following contributions to brand spillover theory. First, brand spillover originates at different levels of the ecosystem and is not limited to close relationships. Second, the role of consumer knowledge as a moderator is identified; where consumers have a low knowledge of industry structure brand spillage is higher. Third, the role of individual ecosystem actors in advancing negative brand spillover is identified. These actors are not the source of the spillover or necessarily affected but play a key role in communication and influencing the attitudes and beliefs of others. These findings have implications for practitioners as brand spillover can only be managed if the ecosystem works together.

Interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the role of marketing in developing CSR strategies grows apace but further work in other contexts is needed. Societies and cultures have developed market systems that tend to reflect their institutions, ethics and social relations, so there will be differences in how firms pursue their social responsibilities Firm activities are often developed with the aim of gaining a degree of legitimacy for their business with their stakeholders with marketing communications frequently used in support. Legitimacy theory therefore provides a robust theoretical lens for this study.Legitimacy theory is concerned with the social acceptance of actions so that if the actions of a firm are desirable, proper or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, then it is acting legitimately (Suchman 1995). Gaining of legitimacy is highly valued but problematic, so managers seek to legitimate the firm through practices such as communications directed at co-creating norms with particular actors (Basu and Palazzo 2008). Firms can achieve this through corporate social reporting, which aims to enhance the firm’s reputation through the creation of a positive image (Hooghiemstra 2000). Marketing communications absorbs these reports into a coherent strategy dedicated to engaging its stakeholders with CSR practices (Jahdi and Acikdilli 2009). This study aims to uncover how firms in sub-Saharan Africa build legitimacy with stakeholders through their marketing communications strategies.Ghanaian banks play a key role in the economy by contributing to economic and social welfare, improvement of living standards and creating employment thus have an interest in achieving legitimacy for their CSR practices. Data gathered from interviews with senior managers revealed two dominant communications approaches for building CSR legitimacy. The first strategy of ‘giving back’ recognised that firms were set-up to make profit but also dependent on their relationships with society (Waddock et al. 2002). The second approach of ‘licence to operate’, revealed that CSR strategies were motivated by a desire to gain stakeholder acceptance (Bowen 2017). The study contributes to CSR theory by investigating practices in sub-Saharan Africa and notes that CSR is shifting from an ad hoc, non-strategic set of activities to a more coherent and structured approach. It provides evidence of firms building legitimacy through communications with their stakeholders centred around two approaches: ‘giving back’, i.e., meeting community expectations based on cultural and societal needs; and through building their image, legitimacy may be achieved through obtaining a ‘licence to operate’.

Delegation of consumption decisions to an agent, or surrogate, has attracted research attention in recent years. This emerging body of consumer psychology literature gives much attention to influential factors and reveals that engaging in decision delegation is a function of a number of factors (Aggarwal and Mazumdar 2008; Broniarczyk 2014), including consumer characteristics (e.g., confidence and expertise), product attributes (e.g., complexity and risk), and market conditions (e.g., number of substitutes and access to information). This stream of research, however, has largely ignored the effects of trust on consumer decision delegation despite its obvious importance. This study proposes and tests the role played by levels of trust and distinct aspects of trust in determining consumer decision delegation in the context of financial services. It has been noted that trust serve as a choice heuristic (Altman 2012) and consumers may well take the short-cut of delegating the decision when trust is high. Financial services is considered an ideal test-bed for the study, given the well-rehearsed challenges that consumers face when making choices (Devlin et al. 2015; McAlexander and Scammon 1988). This study provides an empirical investigation of decision delegation strategies and, in particular, the impact of levels of trust on the propensity to delegate decisions. The context for the investigation is financial services, an area where decision delegation plays a significant role. When making a decision consumers can delegate various tasks, such as deciding what attributes or features should be investigated, what alternatives should be considered or the complete decision in its entirety. This study tests the impact of cognitive trust, affective trust and system trust on the likelihood of engaging in the various levels decision delegation. Data were collected from customers of seven types of financial provider. Results indicate that trust levels on the part of consumers are an important determinant of levels of decision delegation employed, but that the relationship between trust and decision delegation is more nuanced and complex than expected.

The mechanism of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has evolved into an omnichannel phenomenon, given the crossover between the online and offline domains where consumers share information and experiences being evident. That is, displaying a hashtag within a television advert for the purpose of driving digital consumer engagement has become common marketing practice in the field. Social media in this case have been acknowledged as a channel where eWOM occurs, both for its generation and dissemination. Instagram, as a visually-rich social media platform, portrays a socio-cultural construction of consumption through user-generated content seen as collective narratives of life experience. eWOM, contextualising within the communicative domain of Instagram, can thus be considered as syntactical visual imagery, a branch of visual semiotics in which meanings are produced, conveyed, interpreted, and represented. Despite eWOM research becoming mature, the omnichannel phenomenon of visual eWOM has yet been fully investigated and thus warrant deeper exploration. This paper aims to explore the typological characteristics of user-generated imagery in response to hashtags embedded within television advertisements, and to analyse the social semiotics of these visual postings on Instagram.Given the research aim proposed above, this study employs a social semiotic analysis of visual eWOM. Semiology provides a qualitative analytical lens to approach the production of the signs and symbols in a systematic manner and thus allows this research to identify the socio-cultural construction of meanings that are implicitly referred to by the use-generated images. John Lewis Christmas advert 2017 is chosen as the focus of this research, given it being one of the most high-profile television adverts of the year in retailing. A total of 4901 images available in the public domain are identified with the hashtag #mozthemonster, which matches the one displayed at the end of the television advert. The analysis involves an iterative process of thematic coding for semiotic data, with emphasis on identifying the typological characteristics of the collected images.The initial coding of the result outlines a preliminary framework of visual eWOM genres derived from classifying the semiotic narratives expressed in user-generated imagery. The findings suggest that projectionism and anthropomorphism are the dominating genre types that capture the combined effect of intimacy and attachment connecting the advertising object and the consumers posting the images. It is evident that visual eWOM evokes emotions through the semiotic cues embedded within the user-generated imagery. User-generated images thus can be considered as a possible new genre of eWOM whilst the visually-rich social media platform like Instagram can be seen as a vehicle of eWOM representing a socio-cultural construction of emotional brand attachment orchestrated by an omnichannel marketing approach.

With the highly changing market environments, enterprises must understand market trends and customers’ needs, they should develop and adjust business activities with market demands as well to create values for customers. In this vein, enterprises should develop the capabilities to acquire the market information in accordance with their business strategy to compete in the market in order to achieve the aim of the company. So far, although many studies tried to examine the effect of market orientation and strategy orientation on performance, there has been the contradiction in the findings because of the neglect of the alignment effect. Therefore, according to strategic alignment perspective, this study proposed and examined the strategic alignment effect between strategic orientation and market orientation on business performance. For testing the alignment model, fit as covariation was used to validate the hypothesis. A number of 140 respondents were collected from Taiwan’s companies. The findings showed that the alignment relationship between strategic orientation and market orientation is confirmed and demonstrated a significant effect on business performance.

Content analysis has become a widely used technique for the analysis of the large quantities of data that are generated online. Especially relevant for marketing researchers are customer reviews on websites such as TripAdvisor and Amazon, because they express customers’ satisfaction and they represent an important source of word-of-mouth for other consumers. Although the recent preference for sentence-constrained approaches has increased the accuracy of analytical methods, in many cases these methods still ignore some of the nuances contained within online reviews. In particular, current methods may not detect when a single topic is discussed both positively and negatively in a single review, or when a single sentence discusses two separate topics.The topic-sentiment method that is proposed in this paper addresses these two issues. It is a sentence-constrained approach that identifies ‘topic-sentiment pairs’; sentences that contain one word that describes the topic, and another that expresses the sentiment (positive or negative). To illustrate the analytical process, the method is applied to a dataset of 17,225 TripAdvisor reviews for restaurants in London. Results indicate that the topic-sentiment method offers a more nuanced approach for the analysis of customer reviews, while it retains the intuitiveness and simplicity of currently used methods.

Experts’ reviews shape consumer’s preferences and purchase decisions because they are often perceived as unbiased and trustworthy. Wine industry is a high value agricultural industry from the perspectives of both the main raw agricultural and the value added in the finished products. As a high value industry to both governments and consumers, countries spend billions on marketing their agricultural industries to not only their own citizens but also foreign citizens all over the world including these experts to establish a good product reputation. This paper examines the role of country of origin in expert eWOM (ratings and reviews) through large dataset from the global wine industry. Furthermore, we processed the review content by applying a structured automated text analysis program Diction. The result of ANOVA test demonstrates that there are significant differences between countries in terms of price, rating, and all the Diction content dimensions at the p < 0.001. We also find significant effects on wine quality ratings of price, country of origin, and review of content by conducting regression analysis. Indicated by the size of effect on ratings, expert reviewers use price as signal of quality when they provide eWOM. Country image significantly influences their review in most cases exception of Australia and France. USA variable is non-significant when considered alone but is significant when considered with price. France variable is non-significant with price included in the regression but has a significant bonus in ratings when not considering the effect of price. The Australia variable was non-significant in all regression analysis indicating that there was Australian wine ratings were not statistically different than minor wine producing countries. This paper provides several contributions in the field of expert eWOM and country of origin literatures. Wine producer in prestigious wine producing countries such as Germany and Italy can extract a price premium related to the country that is perceived by expert as high quality. However, producers in less prestigious wine producing countries (e.g., South African or Chilean) can signal quality through a higher price that can help them overcome the country image bias and aid the perception by experts of high quality, and they can also take advantage of the low price segment of consumers. Producers can also manage expert eWOM by priming these reviewers to use more active, certain, optimistic language in reviews to increase quality ratings. Furthermore, governments and industry associations can encourage experts to writes reviews with active, optimistic and central language to have an influence on quality rating, and thus develop country images.

Social influencers have developed into an advertising medium whose importance may surpass the one of traditional advertising in near future. Communication through social influencers meets the needs of modern consumers through customization, perceived authenticity and interactivity. Given these benefits, it is crucial for brands to know the success factors of Social Influencer Marketing. So far, major research has been based mainly on digital performance indicators (KPIs) such as (high) number of followers, retweets or page rank. At first glance, these metrics seem to be excellent indicators of the success of a social influencer campaign. However, social influencer campaigns, which have failed despite full compliance with the requirements of these criteria, suggest that there are other relevant indicators, in particular credibility issues. This study will close this gap by examining the extent to which the requirements of the source-credibility model of Hovland et al. are relevant for social influencers. It analyzes to what extent the (1) attractiveness, (2) expertise and (3) trustworthiness of social influencers are relevant to an online social influencer campaign and the impact on brand perception constructs (brand satisfaction, brand image, brand trust) and behavior (purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium). As fashion is the most common field of activity for social influencers, the focus is on an entry-level Brand for luxury fashion. The study focuses on micro-influencers as they are the key priority for fashion brands. The testing of hypotheses is done by Structural Equation Modeling. In total, 288 data sets were employed. The results show that the most important requirement is (3) trustworthiness followed by (1) attractiveness, while the relevance of (2) expertise is surprisingly close to zero. Thus, brands should especially pay attention to the issue that their influencers communicate in a way that is perceived (e.g. not distorted by the influence of third sources.) Based on these partially counter-intuitive outcomes, implications for management and further research are developed.

Social media, especially social media-based influencer marketing, has become an important factor in consumer decision making. Studies have recently begun investigating the effects of influencers on consumer behavior. Owing to these people’s origins, they often appear more credible than celebrity testimonials (Djafarova and Rushworth 2017); consequently, they are deemed to have a greater influence than conventional advertising activities. Results by Dost et al. (2019) indicate that seeding campaigns, like social media-based influencer marketing, can increase the total sales of fast-moving consumer goods by between 3% and 18%. Despite the increasing interest, studies examining influencers’ tangible impact on consumer behavior are scarce. Researchers have only recently started investigating the effects of influencers empirically. Studies have shown that celebrities are less credible than influencers, although both impact consumers’ purchase behavior (Djafarova and Rushworth 2017). Furthermore, Lim et al. (2017) find that influencers’ source attractiveness positively effects consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention.An online study (n = 222) undertook new research to gain further understanding. Specifically, the study examines the following: first, the impact of consumers’ perceived influencer credibility, using the source credibility model by Ohanian (1990) in respect of attitude toward advertising, product liking, and purchase intention; second, the impact of the organizational behavior concept ‘psychological ownership’ based on Pierce et al. (2001) on consumer behavior by showing that the concept had significant positive effects on the product evaluation and on consumers’ willingness to buy like in prior research; third, the congruence and relationship between the influencer and the consumer in order to understand the relations.Results show that perceived influencer credibility serves as a significant criterion, determining the product and purchase’s persuasiveness, while contributing an instrument for transferring convincing messages to increase the perceived psychological ownership feeling for a product and, thus, influence consumer behavior positively. Theories on celebrity endorsement, their credibility, and their connection to the psychological ownership concept allowed a framework to be developed to assess the importance of influencer’s credibility and its influence on consumers’ perception of the products they advertise, to better understand the interactions in the influencer marketing context. Consequently, credible influencers can act as the tool to transfer their persuasive message, which increases customers’ psychological ownership feelings and influences consumers’ consumption behavior positively. This suggests that it is essential for companies to consider that kind of people who perceived as attractive, competent, and trustworthy for a specific target group to be most effective.

Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) influences consumers’ potential attitudes and behavioral intention toward a product. Since consumers access online information based on their relationship, online communities function as a benchmark for assessing information quality. This study seeks to shed light on the following question: does positive e-WOM always improve firm's performance? We used data from Deliveries XYZ (fictitious name), a Brazilian fast-food business, to perform regressions between the following variables: number of website orders, total store sales revenue, and website sales revenue, as dependent variables; average rating assigned by customers and meaning of comments, as independent. We estimated 18 regressions, six for each dependent variable, with the following independent variables: 1-average rating; 2-comments; 3-both rating and comments; 4-inclusion of a dummy variable, 5-inclusion of a trend variable, 6- inclusion of dummy and trend. Contrasting published research, this study found a non-significant relationship between consumer ratings and comments and firm performance. An attempt to use a dummy variable accounting for seasonal effects did not change the results. However, we found that a trend variable, which captures the long term effect of positive ratings and comments, was significant and increased the model explanatory power, with R̅2 equals .584 for store total sales, .503 for number of orders, and .536 for website sales. Therefore, even though the company receives favorable grades and comments from its customers, these variables alone were not able to explain sales growth. Perhaps this is due to the sole reliance on the monthly data, where dependent sales variables have undergone considerable changes, but the commentary and the ratings have remained stable and high from the beginning. The main academic contribution relates to the analysis of the effect of ratings and comments of actual consumers in a real emerging market. Studies of the real firm’s data combined with consumers’ attitude are scarce, and this research attempts to fill this gap. As managerial implications, it is worth mentioning that, while the importance of consumer evaluations is proven, the standard econometric models sometimes are not able to capture them. Therefore, managers should be aware of the comments’ meaning in social media but should not take them as a direct and strong predictors for future sales. As suggestion for future research, one may consider additional independent variables, such as type of social media; specialized reports about the sector; participation in fairs and festivals; leafleting; coupon distribution; co-marketing, and other marketing activities.

Marketing managers have continued to grapple with the transitory targets of what are the most efficient and effective levels of marketing and sales expenditures given optimal return. Numerous studies suggest that there is a correlation between marketing and sales budgets and firm performance, however marketing scholars have been slow to integrate managerial relevance when decision making (Fischer et al. 2011). In addition, little cohesive research results suggest marketing allocation optimization in varying product categories or geographic regions. Moreover, there appears to be little consensus as to the identification of consistent input firm or customer level variables consistently associated with favorable outcomes and good practice. The proposition here is a firm level examination of variables with a particular effort to confirm impact on firm and marketing performance measurements across cultural settings. Specifically, a sample of 722 retail trade firms from Japan, Germany and the United States are empirically analyzed in an attempt to answer the following primary questions: (a) Does a common set of high ranking determinants for Maximum Net Marketing Contribution exist among retail trade firms from the examined countries, combined? (b) Does a unique set of high-ranking determinants for Maximum Net Marketing Contribution exist within the retail trade firms from each country, individually?The specific proposition results are as follows: (P1) A common set of high-ranking export determinants for Maximum Net Marketing Contribution exists among service firms from Japan, Germany and the United States combined. This was affirmed as Firm Sales Growth Rate (fsg), Change in Marketing Budget to Sales (cmbs), and Product Price Position (ppp) were all extracted demonstrating significant feature identification with Maximum Net Marketing Contribution. (P2) A unique set of high-ranking export performance determinants for Maximum Net Marketing Contribution exists within retail trade firms from Japan, Germany and the United States individually. This was also affirmed as unique features from each country were extracted. Japan variables included Firm Asset Size (fas) and Firm Revenue Size (frs), Germany included Marketing Budget to Sales (mbs) and Regional Business Cycle (rbc), and the United States included Domestic Market Share (dms).The study is useful because it: (1) fills a void in the research area of organizational behavior and optimal marketing resource allocation; (2) identifies particular organizational determinants associated with Maximum Net Marketing Contribution across diverse cultures; (3) employs a statistically sophisticated non-linear technique for classification, offering an alternative approach for analysis.

Exporting is believed to hold the key to growth for developing countries, as exemplified by their government policies supporting firms to seek international markets. However, exporting leaves developing country firms vulnerable to the race-to-the-bottom, low-price, commodity game. As foreign buyers troll for bargains among indistinguishable offerings, developing country firms witness eroding margins and vanishing sales. Increasingly, these firms are turning to innovation to ensure long-term export sales by creating new products that are unique and provide higher value to international customers. But how can these businesses, with their weaker capabilities and hostile environments relative to developed country counterparts, pursue the innovating-for-exporting strategy? To address this question depth interviews were conducted with firms and experts in Romania, a country transitioning from totalitarian rule to a capitalist market economy. The Contingent Resource-Based View was then applied to the qualitative data set to identify the exogenous and endogenous determinants of the innovating-for-exporting strategy. A host of factors at managerial, organizational, national, regional, and global levels were found to drive pursuit of this strategy. The nested nature of these factors suggested they form complex and embedded impacts on whether and how developing country firms proceed with innovating for exporting. For instance, Romania was found to have a negative country image within Western Europe. This resulted in a bias that restricted the volume and nature of Romanian exports into the region despite economic and regulatory integration. To circumvent this constraint, Romanian companies developed new products for select markets outside the region, specifically markets with neutral to positive views of the country. Another finding is that after developing these innovations for international sales, firms were able to direct the new products to domestic markets. Hence innovations originally intended to shore up exporting produced the added benefit of new domestic audiences. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications for developing country firms were formulated for the strategy of innovating to export.

Starting from a ‘dichotomous’ view i.e. to adapt or standardize in the early 1960s, the debate ended up as a consensus on a ‘continuum’ view in the late 1980s (Jain 1989) and continues to be the preferred approach (Hollender et al. 2017; Lages et al. 2008) even now. Such continuum perspective is based the contingent action required by the marketer after considering the differences in the determinants including market conditions.As per the contingency theory, organizations launch standardized products if they locate intermarket segments; well defined and similar cluster of customers identified on criteria across markets (Samiee and Roth 1992; Simmonds 1985; Shoham 1995). In case of absence of intermarket segments organizations prefer product adaptation.Broadly, product adaptation was researched till date in international marketing when segments are from multiple countries. What if the adaptation of products happens within segments of a country? This was the moot point of our enquiry in this paper. We elaborate on the specific case of the influence of rural and urban markets in a country.Does it mean that this paper is a mere adoption of the construct ‘product adaptation’ to a different context i.e. rural marketing? The answer is plain ‘no’. Reason being the complexity of the construct ‘rural’. In case of international marketing, irrespective of the segmentation variable, there is a definite geographical boundary that defines the guest and host segments. This is not the case with rural markets as rural has been arbitrarily conceptualized and there is no agreed way of operationalization by the industry and the researchers. Hence, issue of identifying the adaptation of products and aggregating at an industry level becomes difficult.Hence, we take a detour to understand product adaptation than the conventional approaches provided till date – a phenomenological route of understanding the difference between rural and urban markets using Social Relations approach grounded in the Theory of Social Representations (Moscovici 1993). We initially explored how marketers and sales managers understand rural markets to be different from urban markets. Later we explored how this understanding of the differences between rural and urban markets help marketers take decisions like product adaptation in rural markets. This novel approach is the significant contribution of this paper.

Until recently, the Bottom of Pyramid market was largely ignored by the multinationals, due to huge challenges it possesses to overcome; but now an increasing number of multinationals are trying to tap this huge and lucrative market. Most of the attempts of multinationals are resulting into partial success or no success at all. On the other side, many academicians have criticized this approach on the grounds of vulnerability of its consumers, market size and sustainable profits for MNC’s. Thus, there is an urgent need to build a robust theoretical framework that will help in not only overcoming the criticism laid by the various academicians but also will help in understanding the dynamics of this huge lucrative yet challenging market. This study aims to address this lacuna, by developing a theoretical framework with completely new perspective, which is, borrowed from a different discipline of literature – Town Planning.The Geddesian Theory of town planning has its roots deeply anchored in three different disciplines of Biology, Sociology and Social Sciences. The Biological perspective is based on Darwin’s theory of triumvirate of Organism, Function and Environment. The Sociological perspective is based on Le Play’s understanding of social structure of society and the Social Science perspective is based upon Geography, Economics and Anthropology, the three contemporary components of Social Science. Geddesian Town planning theory is one of the oldest and widely known theory of town planning. The uniqueness of Geddes theory is that it keeps the people or what Geddes popularly call them as Folk at the centre stage. Both, Geddes Town planning theory and Bottom of Pyramid literature are common in terms of their focus on vulnerability of people, focus on being people centric. Moreover, both the theory and practice are considerate about employment opportunity and the economic aspect of people.The three main tenants of Geddesian Theory – Folk, Work and Place are reflected as Consumer, Propensity to consume, and Place in this new framework. The purpose of this research is twofold, firstly to draw parity between Geddesian Town planning theory and Bottom of the Pyramid market and secondly to develop a new framework, which will help in understanding this market from a fresh perspective.

Despite its popularity in the literature, the capabilities perspective has been criticized for its ill-defined boundary conditions and its confounding discussion of the effect of dynamic capabilities. One key question that begs for an answer is: does capability increase firm performance at all times? This study sought to assess the effect of involvement capability on firm performance among service firms in an emerging economy. The study tested the quadratic effect of involvement capability on firm performance as well as the moderation effect of customer demand and marketing competition on such relationship. Service firms operating in an emerging market – Ghana – were used to test the relationships. The study estimated two nested models and found that the relationship between involvement capability and firm performance was quadratic with an inverted U-shape. This suggested that the effect of such capability rises to a point and starts declining. Both customer demand and competition were found to further reduce the effect of involvement capability on performance in high periods. This study shows customer involvement capability does not always offer positive effect on their own but depends on the height of its development and deployment and the market condition. It must also be said that if such capabilities are aligned with other capabilities i.e. if involvement capability is aligned with innovation capability, for instance, firms may enjoy more rent.Service firms must be guided in their development and deployment of capabilities, as they may not offer advantages at all levels. In the service environment, customer involvement is seen as a prerequisite for value creation as value is more than ever co-created. While this is true, it must be said that such involvement must be managed to yield optimal results for the firm. Increasing customer involvement may bring about production inefficiencies. Managers of service firms can manage the possible negative effect of customer involvement by clearly stating the level of allowable involvement and the role the customer has to play in the value creation process. Firms must seek to deploy their relational assets through their involvement capability in order to fully utilize the customer as an external resource.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) ride sharing companies actively contribute to economic activity in developing economies with low-income levels, where many citizens may not own motor vehicles. However, more guidance is needed on the recruitment and retention of service providers (drivers) and customers (riders). Extant research is silent on the extent to which customers may assist when engaging with fellow consumers on the service. Considering customer citizenship behaviour, it is plausible that customers appreciating the benefits of the P2P sharing riding service may want to reciprocate and voluntary advocate its advantageous to fellow customers, help them to use the service and provide feedback for improvement. In doing this, the P2P ridesharing company may be in a better position to recruit, retain and win back customers and service providers, as customers are more likely to listen to communication from fellow consumers than that from the service company and customer feedback may assist in service enhancement. Hence, the study focussed on obtaining further insight into customer interventions for service recruitment and retention in a sharing economy, as denoted by customer citizenship behaviours and the factors that may motivate them to perform these behaviours. A total of 611 self-administered questionnaires from P2P share riding customers in South Africa were analysed, using structural equation modelling. Theoretically, the findings advance knowledge of C2C helping behaviours, as applied to the sharing economy context. Insight is also provided into customers’ contributions to the successful management of relationships between future service businesses and their stakeholders that are more complex in nature, involving a service enabler, service providers and customers. Practically, the findings assist service enablers like P2P ridesharing companies with a cost-effective, hands-on approach to recruit, retain and win back service providers and customers, which may result in a sustainable competitive advantage in the long term from which emerging market countries may also profit.

Multichannel retailing means retailers engage in selling merchandise through more than one channel (Levy and Weitz 2011). With the current development of the internet and modern technology in e-commerce, adopting multiple channels has become increasingly popular among retailers. However, what motivates channel adoption is extensive (e.g., Ansari et al. 2007; Kumar and Venkatesan 2015; Melis et al. 2015; Venkatesan et al. 2007). Previous studies establish the multichannel retailer generally with only two types of channels, the physical store and the online environment. Consequently, the attention of multichannel studies has been mostly on the growth of the online channels, such as channel switching behavior from offline channels to online channels (e.g., Melis et al. 2015; Vherhoef et al. 2007) or how the additional channel affects the sales and profitability of retailers (e.g., Avery et al. 2012; Pauwels and Neslin 2015; Van Nierop et al. 2011).Currently, the channel scope expands fast and includes more channels and some customer touchpoints such as social media, a company website, as well as traditional touchpoints (e.g., TV, radio, print, etc.) (Li and Kannan 2014; Verhoef et al. 2015). The major research question addressed is: what customer characteristics and channel characteristics stimulates new channel adoption in an environment with a substantial number of channels? Our unique data set consists of 5 primary channels (own physical stores, telephone ordering, own website, partner websites and mobile apps) for a total of 23 unique channel opportunities of a new Indian based, food retailing start-up with comprehensive records at both individual level and channel level.We propose that a customer’s decision to adopt a new channel is affected by both customer characteristics and retailer channel characteristics. We find that at the individual customer level, promotion is a key factor determining a customer’s adoption behavior. At the retailer channel level, intense promotion and good service encourage a customer to adopt a new channel. We segment customers into limited users and multichannel users by their usage level and find that the two types of customers behave differently in their channel migration process. We further find that the two types of customers bring different benefits to a retailer: multichannel shoppers generate more revenue, more transactions and utilize more promotions than limited channel users. The results provide useful insights for how retailers should create new channel strategies as well as consistent communications strategies.

Market orientation over the years has received a lot of attention in academia with various studies establishing a positive relationship between market orientation and firm performance. In the last 1990s, following the research work by Urde (1999) discourse on brand orientation surfaced among scholars. Most of the studies on brand orientation have focused its conceptualisation (Mzungu et al. 2017), antecedents (Huang and Tsai 2013) and extensions (Anees-ur-Rehman et al. 2016). In more recent history, there has been calls for brand and market orientations to be synergized and treated as one strategic orientation due to their perceived complementary.A few studies conducted on synergizing brand and market orientations reports of the existence of a dynamic relationship depending on the focus of firm (Gromark 2013; M’zungu et al. 2017). Others have proposed brand orientation should be treated as a strategic resource of the firm.Brand and market orientations are perceived as being complementary with the potential to provide more value to businesses if “hybridised” and treated as one strategic orientation. Conceptual and empirical studies conducted on their similarities and relationship have fallen short of establishing the nature of interactivity between them and how this interactivity impacts firm performance. Neither has any study clearly established what type of interactivity between the two strategic orientation leads to enhanced firm performance.This paper sets out to assess the nature of interactivity between brand and market orientations on their influence on firm performance using a testable conceptual framework. This framework, is predicated on positions posited by Bridson and Evans (2004), Gromark (2011) and Reid et al. (2005) on what constitutes the components of brand orientation and the cultural components of market orientation by Narver and Slater (1990).Grounding the study on two theoretical frameworks – the Resources Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capacity Theory (DCT), this study will seek to understand how the firm leverages its unique brand identity with its market sensing capabilities to generate value delivery services that lead to enhanced firm performance.To test the hypotheses, a purposive random sampling technique (Etikan 2016) will be applied in selecting hundred (100) service firms with the aim of reaching the managing directors, marketing managers, and financial controllers. Data collected will be analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to determine the strength of relationship between the constructs and confirmation factor analysis to test the fit of the model (Laukkanen et al. 2013).Findings from the analysis will reveal the validity or otherwise of the framework, the nature of interactivity and strength of the relationship between the constructs. This will inform the conclusion to be reached and help identify gaps in the study and opportunity for future studies.

By 2021, around 2.1 billion people are estimated to buy products and services online. As an increasing amount of commerce shifts from the physical to the digital marketplace, many firms marketing strategies are also adjusting to the possibilities provided by online and digital technologies. For example, as online retailers increasingly generate and analyze large amounts of data about each individual shopping trip, they can now use this data to personalize the online shopping experience and design increasingly targeted pricing strategies. By using advanced algorithms to model a consumer’s recent purchase history, retailers can thus come up with an estimate of how much consumers would be willing to pay for any given product or service and use different, both verbal and visual, strategies to communicate this price to end-customers. In this study we seek to create more understanding about the effectiveness of such dynamic pricing practices, particularly in encouraging customers to purchase products previously abandoned in a virtual shopping cart. As modern consumers are bombarded with a large number of marketing communications related to pricing in online retail channels, for example about price changes and other more or less personalized discounts based on their previous purchase behavior, it is vital for both scholars and practitioners to decipher how effective these practices are in increasing purchase intentions. To explore these questions we conducted an experiment to understand the effectiveness of dynamic pricing on purchase intentions after an item had previously been abandoned in a virtual shopping cart and study the moderators of this effect. Our results identify that changes in the price for items left in a virtual shopping cart lead to increased purchase intentions when the price has decreased, which is in line with the microeconomic understanding of pricing and demand elasticity. On the other hand, we also find that different types of pricing communication (verbal vs. visual) have an effect on consumer purchase intentions when the price has increased, and indeed a significant number of consumers are willing to buy the product despite a communicated price increase after their previous visit. We also identify boundary conditions for these effects. The results contribute to our understanding of pricing in an online retail environment and the role of a consumer’s risk aversion and rational-decision making tendency as a moderator for purchase intention after a communicated price change.

Placing value on green consumption can be viewed as an example of consumers changing things themselves? Has the consumer found a new value? This study seeks to answer this question, as an affirmative answer would make the green consumption value sustainable. Since the Second World War, industrialization in the West has led to economic growth and improvement in consumption levels, resulting in material richness. However, resource depletion has created environmental problems, such as climate change, destruction of the ozone layer and global ecosystems, desertification, acid rain, and marine pollution. As a result, human survival is threatened (Chan 2001). According to the United Nations-sponsored IPCC’s fourth report in 2007, without further reductions in carbon dioxide emissions the temperature of the atmosphere will rise between 1.4 °C and 5.8 °C by the end of the twenty-first century. The report found that the shift in weather patterns as a result of climate change cost $3 billion a year in the 1950s but rose to $40 billion a year in the 1990s.Research on green consumption, which has been attracting attention from marketing since the 1970s, arose due to various sustainability studies in the twenty-first century (Kinoti 2011). The research problem that has been consistently pointed out is the gap between behavior and attitude (Claudy et al. 2013). Many studies have also found a gap between intention and behavior (Zabkar and Hosta 2013). In other words, consumers approve of green products and behavior, but consumers’ follow-through with green behavior does not match their good intentions. Various studies have been conducted in an effort to learn how to reduce the gap between attitude and behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of differences in socio-demographic variables on environmental behaviors and environmental consciousness, and to identify the factors influencing environmental behavior through socio-psychological variables such as values and beliefs (Stern et al. 1999). As mentioned earlier, there are many discussions about sustainable consumption behavior in studies of attitudes and behaviors of consumers. Further research is needed to discover the keys to developing and sustaining consumers’ green consumption value. Therefore, in this study, we analyze the existing theory of green consumption value, identify important factors, and suggest theoretical discussion and policy implications to develop consumers’ green consumption value.This study establishes and confirms a new model for sustainable consumption behavior based on the theoretical basis of existing green consumption value research. Based on this analysis, factors to be considered for future development of consumers green consumption value were identified and analyzed. Therefore, in order to continuously expand the green consumption value in enterprises and national policy, psychological stabilization related to economic value will lead a psychological transition in favor of the green consumption value.

As the world population grows, the earth is being placed under extreme pressure (de Marsily and Abarca-del-Rio 2016). The bulk of the growth, both population and economic, is occurring in the emerging markets. Due to the harmful effects on the environment, sustainability has been emphasized by businesses and a higher priority has been placed on understanding the environmental habits of consumers (Gadenne et al. 2011; Jansson et al. 2011). Environmental concern and its link with environmental behaviour is a complex topic and has not been well understood in the past. According to Royne et al. (2011) and Zhou (2013), some studies report a positive correlation between environmental concern and environmental behaviour, while Steg (2008) states that more than often no significant correlation is found between green concern and behaviour. Most studies have also taken place in 1st world countries (Young et al. 2010) and according to de Barcellos et al. (2011) research has been very scarce in developing countries, such as South Africa. This research intended to develop a greater understanding of consumer environmental concern by assessing the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values of individuals and their relationship with environmental consumer behaviour. Bamberg and Möser (2007) state that ecological behaviour is perhaps best described as a combination of one’s self-interest (egoistic), concern about the well-being of future generations (altruistic), as well as concern about animals and the health of the earth (biospheric).In order to accomplish the above objective, a descriptive and quantitative study was conducted using a sample of 386 students from a South African university. This study specifically focused on young adults’ they have the ability to make a difference in sustainability (McDougle et al. 2011). A structured questionnaire using a Likert scale question format was designed to measure the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values, and environmental behaviour of young adults. Cronbach’s Alphas for the three value orientations and environmental behaviour were all 0.7 or above. Correlation tests and multiple regression analyses were employed to investigate the relationships between environmental values and behaviour. It was found that both altruistic and biospheric values have significantly positive relationships with green behaviour however only biospheric values are a significant predictor of green behaviour. Recommendations for governments, businesses, marketers and green behaviour models are made.

The organic food industry has grown continuously over the last two decades and is frequently regarded as “one of the biggest growth markets in the food industry” (Hughner et al. 2007, pg. 2). In the last 15 years, the “market for organic food sales have increased fourfold” with the largest growth in North America, accounting for more than half of all international sales (Golijan and Dimitrijevic 2018, pg. 129). In Canada, the 2017 The State of Organics report indicated that the Canadian organic sector “was estimated to be worth $4.7 billion in 2015, up from $3.5 billion in 2013” (COTA 2017, pg. 6) pointing at the strong growth perspective. Although the Canadian organic landscape is growing strong, academic research on the subject is minimal: “geographical coverage of the analyzed evidence is, by and large, limited to Europe” as their industries have been advancing at faster rates (Thogersen 2010, pg. 172). As the result of the effects of different market and legal factors in different countries, there are identifiable differences in organic food consumption among countries, which calls for further research into under-analyzed countries like Canada (Golijan and Dimitrijevic 2018, pg. 126). Accordingly, the aim of study is to conduct an in-depth literature review on organic produce consumer behaviour, focusing on Canada in an attempt to broaden the knowledge of country-specific organic consumption patterns. In doing this, a research model is also proposed using Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model, where future insight gleaned may suggest improvements to Canadian organic governance to promote more sustainable organic consumption amongst Canadians (Ajzen 1991).The review paper examines three key areas of organic produce consumer behaviour: motivations to purchase organic produce (i.e. health concerns, food safety concerns, environmental concerns, lifestyle, and ethics), barriers to purchase organic produce (i.e. affordability and availability) and the demographic implications of organic produce consumers. First, findings from relevant organic consumer behaviour studies, regardless of geographical focus, are reviewed in the paper. Then, the focus is narrowed to any Canada-specific organic studies published to collect a basis of all Canadian organic knowledge known to-date. The findings from the review outlined above were used to propose a new research model using the TPB. For this proposed model, four constructs were developed specifically from this study; they are consumer lifestyle (diet, family, state of health), consumer values (health and environmental concerns, culture and self-identity), perceived product affordability (income, produce price) and consumer consumption methods (food usage, involvement, frequency). The proposed research model then seeks to examine the effects of these four new constructs on the TPB constructs: attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, intention and behaviour.

Innovation capability is widely viewed as a competitive advantage. Yet literature on innovation and new product development have also recognized the existence of hurdles in the successful practice and implementation of innovation within the supply chain. In an uncertain and highly competitive business environment, it is not uncommon for organizations to pass on innovation tasks to supply chain partners. This is particularly so in the case of the manufacturing supply chain in which powerful Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) often pass on innovation introduction activities to their suppliers. This research seeks to determine whether such “Innovation Pressure” is conducive to good Supplier – OEM Relationships and also how it compares with price pressure exerted similarly by OEMs.A research model is developed with overall supplier-OEM relationship as the final dependent variable. In addition to a set of intermediate relationship variables (Communication, Buyer Help, positive and negative aspects of Working Together, and Profit Partnership), the model has two exogenous variables – one representing price pressure and the other representing pressure to innovate. After following a detailed scale development procedure, data were collected through a survey from North American, Europeans, and Asian suppliers in the electronics industry and the automotive heavy vehicles industry. Statistical analysis using structural equation modeling (LISREL) and oblique centroid multiple group factor analysis shows differences in the impacts of the two initial variables on the outcome variable. Innovation pressure has substantially more positive links with the intermediate relational variables as well as the dependent variable than price pressure has. However, the researchers note that that the hurdles reflected by the negative links are not unsurmountable as they provide cues for managerial action. Appropriate and timely managerial decision-making can counter the tendency among suppliers to view OEM pressure as being hostile and encourage the formation and maintenance of good B2B supplier-customer relationship.

For manufacturers to deliver complex advanced services successfully, they usually need to be following a servitization process and to bring in new capabilities from their network. This paper explores how firms’ servitization activities may involve value appropriation (from the rest of the network), contrasting with the narrative norm for servitization: that it creates additional value. This suggests that not all actors in the network will benefit from a servitization strategy. It also highlights the importance of understanding the tensions that servitization activities create within networks and shows how using a territorial and/or spatial lens can provide additional theoretical clarity as well as managerial insight. Some firms may be able to improve servitization performance through co-operation rather than competition. Others may need to become much more aggressive, if they are to take a greater share of the ‘value’ from the value chain or network. Servitization activities require the development of new capabilities and the redistribution of activities between actors within networks. We explore tensions that may arise as manufacturers move into spaces and/or territories previously occupied by other actors in their networks. An exploratory qualitative approach utilizing semi-structured interviews with senior executives from manufacturers, intermediaries and customers across a range of industrial sectors was taken. The interviews were coded thematically and an abductive approach was used to develop an understanding of the tensions that the territorial changes invoked. The findings identify tensions relating to developing or acquiring two key sets of capabilities have been identified as servitization networks evolve. These capabilities relate to (i) operant technical expertise and (ii) operand service infrastructure. From a managerial standpoint we suggest that firms need to be aware that their actions may be seen to challenge existing territorial norms and should be prepared to put in place strategies to overcome the issues this may cause.

Previous research on luxury (Hansen and Wänke 2011) focused on the role the type of language luxury brands might use to deliver their messages demonstrating that abstract descriptions of luxury products make them be perceived by consumers as more luxurious than concrete descriptions. Despite its relevance, however, this insight does not take into account an important distinction between possible approaches to luxury consumers might have, that is whether luxury consumption is more socially- versus self-oriented (Vigneron and Johnson 1999). We argue that the role of language in luxury communication cannot be fully understood if one does not investigate the differential effect of abstract versus concrete language on attitudinal and behavior responses of consumers characterized by different approaches to luxury consumption. Therefore, we propose that the general effect of language abstractness on consumers’ perceptions might be shaped by consumers’ motivation toward luxury consumption. In this respect, we rely on the distinction between consumers with an internalized versus those with an externalized approach to luxury (Amatulli and Guido 2012). Internalized approach to luxury implies that consumers mainly buy luxury items to satisfy their personal style and tastes, while externalized approach to luxury implies that consumers mainly buy luxury items to show others their status. Moreover, different than Hansen and Wänke’s (2011) work, we examine such marketing consequences of language abstractness as brand attitude and consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB).Our results offer interesting suggestions to luxury managers. Our three experiments demonstrate that the effectiveness of luxury brand communication depends not only on the type on language used but also on the type of luxury consumption approach (internalized vs. externalized). In particular, the type on language used in luxury communication should be consistent with the product logo strategy decided by product/merchandising managers. Moreover, luxury managers should preliminary segment consumers on the basis of their level of conspicuous consumption orientation in order to develop more consistent and effective communication messages.

The men’s fashion market is expanding at a faster pace than womenswear and men’s fashion is predicted to outperform womenswear in terms sales growth to contribute £380 billion to the global clothing and footwear market by 2020. Despite this growth and the contribution that the men’s fashion sector makes to the global economy in terms of GDP and employment levels, there is a paucity of research within this area. Traditionally, fashion companies have expanded through organic means moving from wholesaling and exporting to franchising and direct ownership. More recently, fashion retailer have increasingly adopted a born global approach to enhance existing strategies or by expanding in some cases only through online sales to becoming omnichannel companies. For many fashion companies, this increase in online sales has impacted upon their in-store sales and as such there has been an increase in the decline and failure of a number of traditional bricks and mortar fashion stores. Bricks and mortar stores, however, are still a necessity in driving sales and still account for the majority of total sales. In the face of this, there remains a very successful global fashion market where key players combine methods of expansion to satisfy the needs of ever expanding and differentiated global markets. Much of this expansion takes place amongst global companies who receive their investment from shareholders, thus allowing them to expand more rapidly and through direct foreign investment such as retail stores. Entrepreneurial ventures which are generally owner managed have tended to expand more organically by methods such as exporting, wholesaling and franchising which offer less risk in the face of business decline and this form of ownership allows for greater control over investment. This exploratory research, which aims to provide an analysis of the menswear fashion brand to guide strategy for the expansion of the menswear industry, was carried out with by means of in-depth interviews with senior personnel in 14 menswear fashion retailers across Europe. It considers expansion, ownership and communication strategies thought to be the key areas for success for menswear fashion retailers. It also considers the differences in expansion and operational strategies between menswear and womenswear through the lens of owner managers or directors of menswear brands and aims to build a model of successful menswear retail strategy across Europe.

This research suggests that customer engagement goes beyond the task of providing data for new product development (NPD), and that customers may play a more active role in data analytics. We view customer involvement in data analytics as consisting of two aspects: Customer as Data Provider (CDP), defined as customers (passively) providing data through different channels; and Customer as Data Analyst (CDA), defined as customers (actively) participating in data analytics, such as acquisition and implementation, to co-develop innovative outputs. While CDP is consistent with the mainstream research on data analytics, CDA introduces a new aspect of customer involvement in data analytics practice.Big data is often used to understand customer needs. Thus, we further explore how customer needs characteristics moderate the proposed effects of customer involvement in data analytics on new product performance. We examine two characteristics, tacitness and diversity, and suggest that they both moderate the main effects, but their moderating mechanisms are opposite.We collected survey data of Business-to-Business (B2B) innovation projects. All 148 respondents held management-related positions at the time of data collection. Data quality was satisfactory based on reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant validity, and common method bias tests. Results showed that both CDP and CDA were positively related to new product performance. In addition, it was found that while customer need tacitness negatively moderated the effect of CDP on new product performance, it positively moderated that of CDA. Meanwhile, customer need diversity positively moderated the effect of CDP.To our knowledge, we are the first to empirically test CDA. Extant literature is dominated by a conventional view of CDP. However, as big data prevails, we challenge the assumption that customers always serve as a data source; instead, they can participate more in data analytics for NPD. As a result, this research contributes a new insight into the literature of data analytics.

Increasingly, start-ups focus on developing and launching digital innovations (DIs). Whether consumers eventually decide to adopt a DI largely depends on their first impression of the DI’s trustworthiness. Nevertheless, research about consumers’ initial perceptions of DIs – especially initial trust perceptions – is scant. Based on signaling theory, this study proposes that start-ups can signal trustworthiness by designing specific aspects of their business models when launching their DIs. Our research based on several experiments investigates whether consumers integrate initial trust in their decision to adopt a start-up’s DI and how to overcome low initial trust perceptions. Specifically, we examine the influence of different digital business model aspects, i.e. benefit communication and revenue model, on initial trust perceptions.Overall, we demonstrate the importance of initial trust perceptions in DI adoption, and specify how start-ups can overcome low initial trust perceptions by designing specific aspects of digital business models as signals of trustworthiness. Our study contributes to the effectiveness of the design of specific digital business models. First, we add to research investigating the influence of message content on adoption intention. Here, we demonstrate that the communication of origin-specific benefits, such as being personal, leads to higher initial trust perceptions than focusing on digital benefits, such as being transparent. Second, we see a rise in the use of data-based revenue models in contrast to pay-per-use revenue models. Start-ups tend to implement data-based revenue models, which seem to come with the advantage of offering their DI for free, with the intention to increase consumer acceptance and adoption. Our study takes a first step in investigating the effectiveness of such data-based revenue models finding that in order to overcome low initial trust perceptions of DIs, start-ups should reevaluate whether to charge a data price or a monetary price. In fact, employing a pay-per-use revenue model seems to yield higher initial trust perceptions and adoption intentions than employing a data-based revenue model where consumers ‘pay’ with their data.

This study utilizes qualitative research to examine how social power affects creative entrepreneurial action for experienced CEO’s of small venture firms. The initial findings suggest that the perceived social influence of the entrepreneur by the owner himself has a direct influence on the entrepreneurs’ decision to act. This social influence can be defined as social power. There are many studies on entrepreneurial behavior in terms of economic outcomes but few in terms of social outcomes. Many scholars attempt to explain why an entrepreneur starts a business, what makes an entrepreneur successful vs. not, what is more valuable-a social network or skills or an opportunity, or which comes first, the entrepreneur or the firm (Aldrich and Zimmer 1986; Ajzen 1991; Alvarez and Barney 2005; Aquinis et al. 2008).Social power is a sociological phenomenon that looks at relationships between powerholders and power perceivers, and is associated with a number of theoretical frameworks including: entrepreneurial activity, social capital, and social influence (Aguinis et al. 2008; Fiol et al. 2001; Francalanci 2015; Overbeck and Park 2006; Schaerer et al. 2016). As the research on social power began, the first connection was not social networks, social capital or any other social framework, it was action (French and Raven 1959; French 1956; Friedkin 1986). Albeit the substantial works on entrepreneurial action in small venture firms, most describe entrepreneurial action in terms of the economic theory of the firm without consideration of a social outcome as a valuable goal (Busenizt and Barney 1997; Gaglio and Katz 2001; Kirzner 1989; Shane and Venkatraman 2000). We used Kitching and Rouse (2016) definition of entrepreneurial action, “investments in resources intended to produce goods and services for market exchange, in terms of the interaction of agential, social-structural and cultural causal powers,” (p. 2) to structure action around valuable social outcomes, to justify that influence is not about a specific action but more about influence capabilities that require action to work, and to support further investigation into the impact of social power in terms of venture creation, market exchange, and strategic decision making.We interviewed seven CEO’s about their social experiences to explore and understand how existing small venture firms’ social power affects their ability to act. Initial results show that social power can only be used to influence after an entrepreneur’s social channels have been perceived by the entrepreneur as powerful. Certain types of structures of sociological and cultural factors, and personality traits that form their social power, by definition, appear to have an impact on entrepreneurial activity.

As the globalization of production and markets continue to grow at an accelerated speed, the global business environment has become more competitive and challenging. Therefore, higher education institutions, especially business schools (hereafter B-schools), around the world have shifted its curriculum towards emphasizing an international perspective by adopting their teaching methods, activities and experiences offered to prepare students for the changing global business environment.A component of any international business curriculum would include the study of international marketing or some variation thereof. While the study international marketing is undoubtedly important, to what extent do students understand the role it plays? For the purposes of this study, we explore students’ views of various topical areas pertaining to international marketing and, to a broader extent, international business. These B-school students are from four emerging markets, namely China, Peru, Mexico and Guatemala. More specifically, how do students from B-schools in China, Peru, Mexico and Guatemala view different areas of study in international business and marketing? What are the preferred learning methods of B-school students from the aforementioned four countries?To answer the above questions, this study explores B-school students’ perceptions of topical areas in international business/marketing as well as their preferred learning methods. Data for this paper was collected using a survey administered in the classroom to university- level students matriculating in B-school in Peru (n = 320), Guatemala (n = 126), Mexico (n = 237) and China (n = 252). In general, we found the students from the three Latin American countries mostly shared common perceptions but quite different from their Chinese counterparts. Mexican and Peruvian students preferred multi-media and case analysis learning methods. Guatemalans preferred the use of guest speakers while the Chinese students preferred lectures and hands on applications.

Experiential learning environments and learning by doing are argued to be effective methods of instruction. Depending on their design, they can also be effective methods to instruct the instructors. This study describes a multi-part experiential learning exercise developed to be conducted across a semester in an introductory marketing research course for both student and faculty to learn by doing. Following the five general steps of the marketing research process, the exercise is designed to flexibly address both student and faculty learning objectives through the development, collection, and analysis of primary survey data on a topic purposefully selected as relevant to both parties. The version of the exercise described here focuses on the marketing curriculum and immerses students into a “real world” approach to marketing research for their own academic institution. Specifically, students evaluate their perceived current and future curriculum needs in their business school’s marketing department, while applying the research processes, techniques, and skills embedded in the learning objectives for the course. The approach is designed to capture students’ interest as they actively learn the research process while working on an authentic problem. Concurrently, faculty learn in real time from students about their preferred topics of study for curriculum planning and other areas that may need attention to improve student learning. These methods provide an opportunity for both marketing students and faculty alike to achieve their goals using a common classroom research survey module. Students not only collect and analyze the data, they actually take the survey so they understand firsthand the content, options, and types of questions. Because students create the information and work with it in each research phase, they know that their voice and findings will be used. They feel empowered and assume ownership of these important inputs to the curriculum. For faculty and the marketing area the approach is an efficient and effective experiential learning methodology and a quality improvement process, as well. It fosters student and organizational learning, inclusive of multi-year improvements that include new courses, minors, concentrations and the associated changes in outreach and informational materials.

Approaches to higher education pedagogies and techniques evolve as the learner needs and instructional technologies change. The new generation of tech natives are seeking more engaging activities and expect learning to be an enjoyable experience according to PearsonEd (2018). Consequently, gamification is gaining popularity both among students and instructors looking for practical solutions to make classrooms more dynamic and interactive. In addition to higher education, game-based modalities are also common in employee training (e.g. call center simulations) and customer retention (e.g. monopoly games by McDonald’s and Safeway). The measurement of this modality in the classroom setting may also inform the job training and customer retention contexts by explaining the process. Thus, there is a need to assess the impact of these types of techniques and how they affect the learning process.In this project, we focus on one specific aspect of gamification, Game-Based Learning (GBL), as a classroom discussion and knowledge assessment tool. Schrader and Helmke’s model (2015) suggests the learning activity should have direct impact on student performance. Recent research in K-12 students suggests that increased engagement (Lee 2014) and experiencing enjoyment (Schukajlow and Krug 2014) from an activity have a positive impact in student performance. In addition, studies on GBL activities overwhelmingly suggest that GBL increases enjoyment on average (de Freitas 2006; Deterding et al. 2011; Reeves and Read 2009), and majority of GBL activities also increase engagement (Deterding et al. 2011; Hamari et al. 2014) with the class content, instructor and classmates. Therefore, we propose that GBL activities will increase learner performance through increased engagement in, and enjoyment of, the learning activity.We plan to test the impact of using a game-based modality in comparison to a traditional one, utilizing a within-subjects experimental design in multiple sections of upper-division marketing classes; starting with the first round of experiments in fall 2019, in two public and one private higher education institutions. In the traditional version, the review session consists of a quiz summarizing the course module followed by peer grading and discussion based on the questions. In the game-based version, the instructors will use an online quiz tool called Kahoot! followed by discussion. Each section will have four review sessions, two traditional and two game-based, in random order with the same questions. All sections will also use the same final exam to measure any impacts on long-term retention and integration of concepts at a higher level of Bloom’s taxonomy (See Bacon 2011 for a similar experimental design). If a main effect can be observed in this study, the next phase of this project will focus on the mediating variables (i.e. enjoyment and engagement) as suggested by the literature and indicated in our proposition.

At a time when university students report feeling stress at unprecedented levels (Time 2018), it is widely acknowledged that exams can increase anxiety levels, which in turn creates a variety of negative effects including impaired concentration, thinking, and reasoning abilities (Beck and Clarke 1997). Instructors need to be cognizant of student stress and consider designing courses to reduce the impact of exam related anxiety. This study focusses on the value of crib-sheets (student-created aids that can be used in exams). Typically, this aid will be a one-page, student-created note sheet with the aim to reduce the need to memorize information. Crib-sheets serve as a mid-way alternative between closed and open book exams and continue to interest researchers in their potential as a study aid to help students synthesize course material (Hamouda and Shaffer 2016). A student can benefit from creating a crib sheet not only by processing taught information, but also by developing an effective tool and stress coping mechanism, similar to a child’s security blanket (Drake et al. 1998; Trigwell 1987). This aid is claimed to be especially helpful when the exam type calls for more than mere reproduction of learned facts, freeing cognitive capacity for higher order thinking thus improving exam performance (Erbe 2007). The study draws on information processing theory and contributes to the body of research on its application in the domains of cognitive learning theory and constructive learning theories. The study investigates how crib sheets that can be used in exams, can assist the study process whilst also serving as an authorised support that can reduce exam stress by having students see their preparation. The authors examine the construction and use of crib-sheets in the marketing discipline and the results reveal that crib-sheets have potential that may work as an effective tool to alleviate pre-exam anxiety, thus indicating that they are perhaps better if used in new or additional ways than as an in-exam memory substitute.

One significant fallout of post-colonial development in Africa is intercultural tensions between groups descending from the colonisers and the colonised. South Africa (SA) is aiming to resolve these tensions by peaceful means of developing a Rainbow Nation (RN) building strategy, following the progressive dismantlement of the apartheid regime (Bornman 2011; Petzer and De Meyer 2013). RN ideology is underpinned by inclusivity to all cultural groups and building communities where cultural diversity is recognized and respected (Runhare and Mulaudzi 2012; Stewart and Ivala 2017). SA legislation strongly encourages marketers to cater to all the consumers in the marketplace (Sallaz 2010).Problematically, there is a growing consumer frustration with marketing efforts to engage with and reflect RN as a lived experience. While SA marketers widely utilise multicultural marketing strategies, these campaigns often remains stereotypical and is perceived as discriminatory, i.e. consumers discontent with depictions of Black people dancing for everything from tea to signal (Dayimani 2015). Prior research indicates perceived disingenuity of marketing as a social function is a key driver of consumer frustration with marketer efforts to act as catalysts of social transformation (Heath et al. 2017; Kipnis et al. 2012; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013). Indeed, operating in multicultural marketplacess delivers two major challenges to marketers: pressure to return on investment despite restricted budgets (Forbes 2018; Sinkovics 2016); and an expectation to engage with and reflect the social agenda in the marketplace (Dadzie et al. 1989; Kennedy 2016, 2017). Yet, given growing consumer expectations to accurately reflect their often complex, multicultural realities (Cross and Gilly 2017) engaging with these challenges is necessary for marketing to maintain relevance with consumers.We examine whether marketing outputs align with RN building strategies and lived realities of co-living in superdiverse SA, through a systematic review of SA marketing campaigns over 25 year period. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, we conceptualise three historical stages of this evolution whereby regulative, normative, and cultural cognitive components of intercultural relations assume different prominence. We offer a conceptual model to depict the interplay between the ideological and lived facets of intercultural relations in post-colonial SA. We propose that for marketers to continue serving as brokers between ideologies and lived experiences of nation-building a different concept of marketing – intercultural marketing – is necessary, contributes to development of multiculturally-sensitive marketing research.

One in five people in the world live with a disability (WHO 2011; Waldrop and Stern 2003) making people with disabilities (PWD) one of the largest minority consumer groups. Given historical discriminatory associations assigned to the notion of disability, consumers with disabilities are susceptible to experiencing vulnerability in the marketplace (Baker 2006; Baker et al. 2005).Consumer research has shown a steadily growing interest in the role of marketplace experiences on PWD’ perceived marketplace and by extension social inclusion (or, inversely, exclusion) over the last decade and a half. However, prior studies have so far predominantly focused upon experiences stemming from non-accommodation for physical characteristics of these consumers. Our study focuses on examining the effects of PWD (mis)representation in advertising on their perceptions of disability and PWD position in society. Investigating the potential impact of advertising (mis)representation on PWD wellbeing bears urgency as inclusion of PWD in advertising and marketing collateral and narratives is growing given the increased recognition of PWD buying power (Donovan 2016; Shaewitz 2018).We report preliminary findings from an ongoing two-phase study which includes: (1) semi-structured, video-elicitation supported quantitative and qualitative survey utilising online data panel sourced through Qualtrics; and (2) follow up in-depth interviews. The study covers the UK and USA to allow for a cross-national perspective in line with the increasingly broad international reach of brands; preliminary findings pertain to USA study only (n = 45).Findings indicate that PWD respond negatively to advertising depicting ‘The Supercrip’ – i.e., a PWD portrayed as achieving beyond expectations and abilities. Such depictions elicit responses of unrealistic pressure to ‘appear more able/non-disabled’ rather than a realistic understanding of disability. Furthermore, findings show PWD internalising discriminatory perceptions of disability overall (i.e., internalised ableism – Campbell 2009), as well as enacting hierarchical attitudes to disabilities in line with prior studies identifying such attitudes among non-disabled populations (Tringo 1970; Thomas 2000).We argue that engaging with consumers with disabilities as focal constituents and beneficiaries of this research and examining sociocultural and situational contextual specifics pertaining to these consumers is necessary for disability advertising representations achieving transformative outcomes to enhance PWD marketplace and social inclusion.

A strategic shift towards multicultural marketing has manifested in an increase in multicultural integrated advertising (MIA), a type of advertising that aims to simultaneously engage consumers of diverse backgrounds through representations of multiple cultural cues within the material of one campaign (Johnson et al. 2010). In the current context of volatility in intercultural relations, organizations appear to make a concerted effort to promote the principles of cultural diversity through their brands’ voice (e.g., AirBNB – ‘We Accept’). Whether these campaigns have the desired positive effect remains unclear since heightened exposure to advertising portrayals of cultural diversity may lead to resentment among consumers from cultural majority groups (Johnson and Grier 2011).Our experimental study examines the effects of different MIA appeals framing on perceptions of benefits of multiculturalism and attitudes to intercultural relations by consumers belonging to a market’s cultural majority. We hypothesize that by mobilizing multiple cultural cues to convey a brand’s positive stance towards cultural diversity and inclusiveness, MIA campaigns encourage mental simulations of experiencing multiculturalism, and have a conditioning effect on consumer attitudes towards cultural diversity. Recent studies (Rios and Wynn 2016; Yogeeswaran and Dasgupta 2014) indicate that framing of multiculturalism-related non-visual stimuli affects individuals’ stances on intercultural relations and perceived benefits of multiculturalism. Pro-multiculturalism scenarios framed in concrete versus abstract form can produce unfavorable outcomes among majority group members. We investigated whether consumer responses to MIA reflect the effects of pro-multiculturalism message framing, whereby concrete depictions of cultural diversity elicit lower perceptions of benefits of multiculturalism and higher threat cognitions.We employed a single factor, three-condition design whereby cultural majority (white) participants were exposed to all-white (control) vs. concretely-framed multicultural (depicting a diverse, engaged group) vs. abstractly-framed multicultural (depicting a diverse, non-engaged group) visual appeals. Participants (n = 209) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions – control (n = 69), abstract (n = 64), or concrete framing (n = 76). Dependent variables included perceived benefits of multiculturalism, symbolic and prototypicality threat, and attitudes towards the ad and brand. Findings reveal significant differences in reactions to appeals’ framing. We discuss how examining the effects of multicultural appeals framing on pro-diversity/inclusiveness sentiment can inform MIA designs that promote positive attitudinal and behavioral changes to cultural diversity and intercultural relations.

Globally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has risen over the last 35 years, and is associated with higher incidence of a range of non-communicable diseases (Poirier et al. 2006; Ng et al. 2014). Commercial weight-loss programs (CWLP) support the population’s desire and need to lose weight (Cleland et al. 2001). This study is positioned as ‘transformative consumer research’ which seeks to understand consumer behaviour in order to benefit or improve the well-being of consumers themselves (Crockett et al. 2013; Ozanne et al. 2011).Expectancy-value theory indicates that expectations, and the value or valence individuals place on them, are key drivers of human behaviour (Feather and Newton 1982; Feather 1992; Nagengast et al. 2011; Henning et al. 2012). Understanding expectations in relation to CWLP may benefit consumers by enabling them to make more informed purchase decisions (Ames et al. 2005). Marketing practitioners, entrepreneurs and weight-loss counsellors engaged in the delivery of CWLP may find the study provides useful insight regarding the expectations of their customers.The purpose of the study was to explore participants’ expectations in relation to CWLP. Thematic analysis identified and describe major themes and sub-themes arising from 14 semi-structured interviews with past users of CWLP. In total, 25 major themes were identified, of which 15 related to positive and 10 to negative expectations. In summary:Outcome expectations: Positive themes: ‘Lighter’, ‘Slimmer’, ‘Educated’ and ‘Keep it off.’ Negative themes: ‘Dependant’ and ‘Regain.’Self-efficacy expectations: Positive themes: ‘Easy/Convenient, ‘Short-term’ and ‘Long-term.’ Negative themes: ‘Unsustainable’ and ‘Incompatible.’Program performance expectations: Positive themes: ‘Nutritious/Delicious’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Guidance’, ‘Support’, ‘Flexibility’ and ‘Value’. Negative themes: ‘Unpalatable’, ‘Expensive’ and ‘Not good for me.’Emotional expectations: Positive themes: ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Healthy change.’ Negative themes: ‘Ashamed’, ‘Moody’ and ‘Deprived.’This study contributes to expectancy-value theory in marketing by highlighting the importance of considering consumers’ positive and negative outcome, self-efficacy, product performance and emotional expectations when seeking to understand motivations for consumer behaviour.It concludes that a marketing approach which encourages consumers to have realistic expectations, and development of programs which align with consumers’ positive expectations and provide strategies to avoid or minimise the manifestation of negative expectations, could improve customer satisfaction and retention whilst also enhancing consumer well-being.

Unhealthy diets are a risk factor for ill health. Consumers from a lower socioeconomic (SE) background typically report unhealthier diets illustrating a need for a targeted approach. Supporting healthier food purchasing behaviour may facilitate healthier diets. Changing purchasing behaviour may be challenging due to inadequate nutrition knowledge, and routines and habits impede the use of reflective decision-making. Change may be supported by disrupting undesirable routines while simultaneously facilitating self-control and building knowledge. Apps offer a potential tool to support healthier behaviour due to their widespread use across all social groups. There is limited evidence in the context of healthy food purchasing. This research examined the impact of simultaneously disrupting undesirable routines and building personal resources, using a health app, on healthy purchasing behaviour. A qualitative approach explored the lived experience of behaviour change in women from a lower SE background over an 8–11 week period. Multiple data collection methods across different time-points captured an in-depth account of the behaviour change experience. Methods included accompanied shops, incorporating think-aloud protocol and researcher observations, semi-structured interviews, self-completed questionnaires, participant reflective accounts, and till receipt analysis. Approximately 2½ to 4 h of data were available per participant. Interpretative phenomenological analysis examined the individual experience and important personal, social, and environmental factors. Findings suggest that the simultaneous strategy of disrupting undesirable routines and exerting self-control may support healthier purchasing behaviour by facilitating a more conscious approach that is driven by healthy food goals. The app encouraged self-monitoring, problem solving, and behavioural prompting to identify and modify undesirable routines and related behavioural cues. Individual self-control was necessary to facilitate change, primarily due to the retail environment which elicited goals that competed with healthy food goals. Self-control was required to override the saliency of competing goals and ensure healthy food goals directed behaviour. This reliance on self-control may hinder change as individual capacity is limited. There is a need to move beyond individual behaviour change and focus on modifying the retail environment and social norms to facilitate sustained change. An individual’s goal system appeared to shape the change process and the degree to which conscious reflection was employed. A counterfinality goal configuration, where fulfilment of one goal undermines the attainment of another, appeared to prompt greater conscious reflection during food purchasing as individuals aimed to resolve potential goal conflict. This illustrates the importance of considering the individual’s broader goal system to design appropriately tailored health initiatives.

The food industry is expanding quantitatively and qualitatively, with consumer trends changing all the time (Costa and Jongen 2006). One consumer trend growing over the years is food consumption, especially in sustainable food consumption (Vermeir and Verbeke 2006). As with the theme of the conference highlighting enlightened marketing during challenging times, the paradigm of consumption has changed due to the increase in consumers’ interest in food consumption. Food consumption has moved past the concept of just nutrient intake. Nowadays, food consumption is intertwined with the environment, society, and culture (Duchin 2005). For example, Subway used to be a leading retailer in food retailing; however, nowadays, that is not enough. Subway is losing sales as other restaurants that focus more holistically on sustainable food consumption are increasing in market share (Taylor 2018). This is not only affecting consumers at restaurants but also in-home food consumption. Reflecting this belief, the World Summit on Sustainable Development conducted by the United Nations emphasized sustainable food consumption as a concept of food consumption that considers various qualitative factors (WSSD 2002). Sustainable food consumption is defined as economic development through food choices beneficial to individuals, society, and the environment, and that can enhance the quality of life for consumers. It refers to food consumption that minimizes environmental pollution and social problems (Sustainable Development Commission 2005). This is related to eco-friendly food consumption because it considers the consumers’ health and the environment. However, sustainable food consumption can be influenced by socio-cultural factors (Verbeke 2005). The specific content ensures that consumers are consuming stable and nutritious food. It can contribute to public social interest, including satisfying the needs of low-income families (Johnston et al. 2014). Overall, the results of our study confirm our three hypotheses, that consumers getting food assistance from governmental programs the findings show that consumers on governmental food assistance programs are more likely to suffer from emotional health issues, are more likely to consume fewer fruits and vegetables, and are more likely not to limit their caloric food intake, compared to consumers who do not get assistance from governmental programs. As research has shown, consumers on governmental assistance programs are those who are in lower-income brackets (Cutler and Katz 1992; Duchin 2005). Therefore, our findings illustrate that, unfortunately, sustainable food consumption is harder for consumers with lower incomes. Since, our findings illustrate that, unfortunately, sustainable food consumption is harder for consumers with lower incomes, marketers must know how to communicate healthy and sustainable food choices effectively to consumers of all income levels, and to those who use or do not use governmental assistance programs to help buy food.

Digitalization is an ongoing trend in every area of life. Based on a typology of individual behavior, the study analyzes the perception of digitalization across seven consumer types. A total sample of 20,847 consumers is surveyed in face-to-face interviews following quota sampling based on age and sex. By means of naive Bayes classification, the respondents are categorized into seven behavioral types. Analysis of variance identifies differences across the seven behavioral types according to digital anxiety, digital competence, and digital composure. The study also adjusts for age, sex, and education. Female and male consumers perceive digitalization differently in few cases. For almost all consumer types, age has an intuitive tendency: Younger consumers consider their digital competence higher and feel less anxious than older consumers. In contrast, the effect of education differs regarding digitalization. Even though differences exist across consumer types, all seven types feel some digital discomposure. Conformists feel considerable anxious and perceive their competence comparatively low. The difference is less pronounced for pursuers of harmony, appreciative, and self-determined consumers. Gourmets and deniers of responsibility perceive similar levels of digital anxiety and competence. In contrast, hedonists are the only group who judge their digital competence higher than their digital anxiety.The present study contributes predominantly in three ways to the literature. First, the study adds to our understanding of digitalization. Digitalization is perceived along the dimensions of anxiety, competence, and composure. Second, consumers perceive some degree digital anxiety and feel discomfort towards the technological development. Especially hedonists are less anxious with regard to digitalization. As another dimension of digitalization, consumers consider their digital competence. Consumers further perceive the level digital anxiety and their competence very differently. The study also finds some indication of digital (dis-)composure. Consumers in general feel in varying degrees discomfort towards digitalization. Third, the study validates the consumer behavior typology proposed by Gansser and Lübke (2016, 2017). The consumer types vary in their perception of digitalization and thus demonstrate the applicability of the consumer typology.

The ability to create user-generated content (UGC), provides consumers with enormous power in the marketplace. However, a fundamental question for a UGC site is: how can the UGC site motivate users to (1) commence participation (i.e., initiate voluntary contribution of new content) and (2) maintain participation (i.e., repeated voluntary contribution of new content) over time? Specifically, this research attempts to answer the following research question via an extended technology acceptance model (Davis 1989): what is the role of extrinsic & intrinsic motivation in the UGC context? While intrinsic motivations have been extensively studied in prior UGC research such as (1) self-enhancement (Angelis et al. 2012; Fiske 2002), (2) innovativeness and opinion leadership (Sun et al. 2006), (3) ability and self-efficacy (Gruen et al. 2006; Huang et al. 2009), (4) individuation, (Ho and Dempsey 2010), (5) neuroticism (Picazo-Vela et al. 2010), and (6) altruism (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004). This research disembarks from prior research by (a) investigating and disentangling extrinsic motivations (financial motivation (FM) and social-recognition motivation (SRM)) associated with participation on a UGC site, (b) including perceived enjoyment as an intrinsic motivation, and (c) incorporating both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations into a robust & parsimonious model to explain continued participation on a UGC site.A sample of 374 participants (53% female; Mage = 34) consisting of active contributors on the UGC site Yelp was used for analyses. The majority of respondents (54.5%) have earned between one to five badges and a large number of respondents (23%) have not earned any badges. Furthermore, over 85% of respondents had not obtained a status recognition on the UGC site. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis (Everitt and Hothorn 2011) showed that there is a negative relationship between FM and perceived usefulness (PU). This indicates that those who are more financially motivated tend to find the UGC site less useful. This may be due to financial rewards in this UGC site being relatively low (e.g., 10% off a purchase). When financial rewards are low, FM may not be activated (Eysenck and Eysenck 1982). Additionally, FM has a positive relationship with perceived ease of use (PEOU). In contrast, there is negative relationship between SRM and PEOU, which indicates those who are more socially motivated tend to find the UGC site more difficult to use. This may be due to the ambiguity of associated with obtaining social-recognition rewards on this UGC site. Ambiguity has been shown to impact task performance (Daft et al. 1987). Consistent with prior work associated with PRM (Anderson et al. 2006, 2015), PRM had a positive relationship with PU. Finally, in contrast with prior literature (Benabou and Tirole 2003, 2006; Deci and Ryan 1985), the intrinsic motivation is not crowded out, but represents the greatest impact on PU and PEOU.

Emotions play an important role in consumer-brand relationships. Previous studies on consumer–brand relationships provide significant insights into strong and positive ones; nonetheless, there are also relationships on the other extreme, where consumers’ negative perceptions towards some brands generate not only negative feelings but also destructive actions. Those were termed as brand dislike or brand avoidance in prior literature, with brand hate being the strongest. Hate is defined as “a deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility toward a person, group, or object” (Reber 1985, p. 330). Consumer–brand relationships are believed to follow patterns that are identical to interpersonal relationships, where individuals are expected to build and continue affective bonds with brands (Aaker et al. 2004; Aggarwal 2004; Fournier 1998) that are primarily motivated by simple human instincts (Park et al. 2009) and interpersonal social norms (Gretry et al. 2017). Hence, very recent research on brand hate, relying on brand avoidance literature, demonstrated that individual perceptions and evaluations of brands’ ideological misconduct and identity incongruence as well as negative experiences with the brand can lead to brand hate (Hegner et al. 2017; Zarantonello et al. 2018). Gregoire et al. (2009) further validated that individual-level differences such as perceived betrayal shape consumers’ responses towards brands’ actions; as it was validated for interpersonal relationships that it may not only worsen interactions and could push individuals further apart but also make people hate each other deeply (Fitness 2001). Relying on the previous literature, the current research suggests and tests the role of perceived betrayal in the transformation of passion into hate. Further, the consequences of hate were tested to advance knowledge on brand hate.

Recently, the negative consumer-brand relations received increasing attention (Davvetas and Diamantopoulos 2017). Although this growing relevance, researchers confirm how this area is still underdeveloped (Fournier and Alvarez 2013). Managerially, these negative feelings toward brands could become extremely dangerous since they are today instantaneously and broadly diffused through the Internet. In this networked scenario, the contents widespread through websites, and social media platforms can easily damage brands’ online reputation by influencing consumers’ perceptions and consequently their purchase decisions (Grégoire et al. 2009). Among these negative feelings, the brand hate concept represents a relatively new concept largely disregarded as a topic of research (Zarantonello et al. 2016). Conceptually, different studies examined the brand hate’s outcomes without simultaneously considering their online and offline nature (Hegner et al. 2017; Johnson et al. 2011). Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a scarcity of studies dedicated to a specific target composed by consumers who hate a brand they already used and experienced. Notably, these customers represent the most fearsome brand haters with significant negative impacts on firms and brands’ performances (Kucuk 2015). In this regard, the objectives of the study are three-fold: (i) to analyze the brand hate from the actual customers’ perspective; (ii) to examine the possible relationships between brand hate, offline negative word-of-mouth (NWOM), online complaining, and non-repurchase intention; (iii) to test the possible mediating effects of offline NWOM and online complaining on the relation between brand hate and non-repurchase intention. To reach these objectives, structural equation modeling has been employed on a sample of 408 actual consumers.Findings reveal that brand hate positively influences offline NWOM, online complaining, and non-repurchase intentions. Furthermore, offline NWOM has a strong positive effect on non-repurchase intention, as opposed to online complaining. Results also show that only offline NWOM mediates the effect between brand hate and non-repurchase intention.The study provides several theoretical implications by extending the brand hate analysis in a cross-channel setting (online/offline environment), and by extending the taxonomy of brand hate outcomes, thus including offline NWOM, online complaining and non-repurchase intention in the negative consumer-brand relationships’ framework. The paper also analyzes the relations between non-repurchase intention and both offline NWOM, and online complaining by identifying a significant relation only with offline NWOM. This result can be explained in light of the fact that the context’s nature (online/offline) in which consumers complain about a brand can influence their non-repurchase intention. Managerially, possible strategies, for firms, to monitor consumers’ brand hate, both in the online and offline context, have been proposed.

There has been much discussion within the marketing literature about marketing’s influence both within the firm and within the family of academic business disciplines (e.g. Clark Key et al. 2014; Eisend 2015; Homburg et al. 2015). This begs the question of whether or not marketing provides the relevant answers and knowledge base needed in areas of theoretical and conceptual innovations that reflects the changing social, technological, and global-growth oriented realities of the twenty-first century (Webster and Lusch 2013; Ferrell and Ferrell 2016). These issues signal significant change to business models, growth strategies, marketing channels, customer relationship management, as well as the domain of mainstream marketing research, its methodology and relevance. Inquiries into the adequacies of marketing’s extant knowledge base for continued development may uncover intellectual, methodological, and conceptual ruts that further distance marketing scholarship from its proper place in knowledge creation at every level of the firm and academic scholarship.The purpose of this Special Session is to stimulate critical, forward-looking conversation on the nature of marketing insight, its place in the firm, and in the family of business disciplines. Questions of marketing’s ability to create relevant understanding within various contexts: in the marketplace, in the lives of consumers, in society, will be taken up, with a view to addressing marketing’s ability to answer the following question “how does marketing fit in today’s world?”

Generation Z is expected to be a dominant demographic and economic group. Cyber-waviness, constant reliance on smart devices that allows them to be always connected are among some of their intrinsic characteristics. The combination of this reality with the ever-changing technological environment is compelling retailers to reshape their business strategies, to meet this group desires and expectations and to foster their engagement. Augmented reality (AR) is emerging as a technological solution that pleases both consumers and retailers. This paper aims to answer two main questions: (1) How does generation Z evaluate an AR experience? (2) Which attributes/benefits do they value or not during an AR experience? Drawing on a qualitative methodology – content analysis of 34 interviewees – we discuss six main dimensions the potential customer value of the relationship between them and AR experiences under retailer context.

With the development and the competition between airports, they share more and more similarities with malls with the presence of international brands, large commercial spaces, many bars and restaurants, but also many services intended to complete or improve passengers’ experience. In a typical mall, consumers engage in many activities above and beyond shopping (they can socialize, pass time and so on). But research about passengers in airport generally focuses only on shopping and excludes the other activities. The aim of this research is to investigate the similarities and differences between airports and malls, in terms of activities’ patterns as well as passengers’ profiles. Our data is derived from a survey administrated in an international mid-size airport during summer 2017. First, using principal component analysis, we identified few differences, but many common points between airports and malls. Secondly, based on passengers’ activities and a hierarchical clustering method, we identified 4 clusters of passengers. Our results can have direct implications for airport management, to refine segmenting and targeting, and also to improve passengers’ overall airport experience.

Behavioral economists established the paradoxical relationships between an individual’s objective facts of life and subjective satisfaction with these. A large-size fish caught during vacation may make an accomplished scholar happier than yet another book publication. A wealthy farmer may be more satisfied with life while riding in a subway for the first time than with abundant harvest.Subjective well-being (SWB) is an area studied by different disciplines, including marketing (Kim-Prieto et al. 2005). Marketers need to understand the underpinning of consumption processes increasing SWB and stimulating repeat purchases. Equally important are communications helping potential customers link product/service features to future SWB.Dynamic global environment demonstrated the considerable cultural differences among and within emerging markets (EMs) and need to explain consumption paradoxes in EMs (e.g., Han et al. 2010). That is why the most productive targets of the focused EM research are social groups espousing discernable cultural traits (Kivenzor 2015). Among the factors affecting group norms and motivating member choices is a cognitive process determining a ‘typical’ level of public consumption and balancing it with intrapersonal ‘ideal’ level (Bear and Knobe 2016).Millions of EM consumers get elevated to the middle-class every year. Striving to join groups with the higher social status, they struggle with an uncertainty of consumption choice due to an imbalance between their newly elevated economic state and anterior lower social status. In a sense, these newcomers are motivated to revise their previous psychological ‘anchors’ (Ariely 2008) related to consumption level and set up the new ones. To do this, they have to resolve the major discord between the perceived risk of non-acceptance by the target group if a new ‘anchor’ is set up too low and acute economic pain of over-spending if a new ‘anchor’ is set too high.The suggested theoretical framework allows analyzing the EM consumer decision-making based on the probabilistic assessment of volitional and compulsory factors. It was operationalized through research propositions that can be converted into testable hypotheses specific for each social group. Managerial implications should help marketing managers develop more effective strategies for promoting luxury and premium goods and services in EMs, focusing not only on the features and characteristics of products but rather on cultural norms of social groups and aspirations of their members. Future research should include the characterization of the dominant types of cultures associated with social groups and linking them to the respective levels of luxury consumption by the current group members.

This research is to examine the impact of self-construal patterns on young individuals’ green consumption behaviors in a cross-cultural context. A survey shows that millennials are more willingly to pay more for green products which are committed to positive social and environmental impact (Nielsen 2015). To date, very little research has focused on the influence of self-construal patterns on young individuals’ green behaviors between Western and Eastern consumers. This study develops a framework to show how differences in self-construal patterns could affect the impact of attitude, social influence, green brand equity and self-consciousness on consumers’ green consumption behaviors. Specifically, which factors are more salient in influencing consumers’ intentions to purchase green products in a cross-cultural context is examined. This study seeks to address the following research questions in regard to the differential role of self-construal plays in the green consumption process in a cross-cultural setting. RQ1. How do self-construal patterns moderate attitude toward green advertising, self-expression, brand association and social influence? RQ2. How do attitude toward green advertising, self-expression, brand association and social influence affect young American and Japanese consumers’ intentions to buy green products? RQ3. Are there any differences in the relationships among the constructs between the two cultures? Data were collected in the U.S. and Japan using an online survey administered through Qualtrics. Two hundred and sixty-six Americans and one hundred and ninety-nine Japanese consumers participated in the online survey. All respondents were between 18–34 years old. The SEM structural paths show that not all the relationships are significant and positively related in both samples.The research findings show that both antecedents and outcomes of the relationships are moderated by nations’ cultural orientations. Different factors influence American and Japanese respondents’ intentions to purchase green products. For the American sample, attitude, self-expression, brand association and social influence all have positive impacts on intention to purchase green products. Among them, social influence exhibits a more significant on Americans’ behavioral intentions among all variables. For the Japanese sample, social influence and attitude are the significant predictors of intention. Social influence exerts stronger influence on Japanese consumers’ intentions to purchase green products than attitude does. However, brand effects have less influence on Japanese respondents’ green behaviors. The negative relationship between self-expression and independent-self in the Japanese respondents does reveal that Japanese consumers are less likely to express their self-image in the context of consuming pro-environmentally friendly products.

Nowadays, global brands often use Chinese elements in their products to attract consumers and increase market share. However, research on this topic is still in its infancy. This article aims to investigate the relationship between three independent variables (cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity), and a dependent variable (purchase intentions) toward the global brands using Chinese elements in their products, both in the Chinese and North American markets. Another aim is to understand how acculturation moderates the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intentions, and the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intentions.The data were collected from China and North America respectively. 163 Chinese participants and 165 Chinese immigrants from the U.S. and Canada participated in this research. The measures of cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and purchase intention were adopted from previous research and had validity and reliability. Hierarchical linear regressions were used to test the direct effects hypotheses, and all were supported. The Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) method was used to test the moderation hypotheses.The findings show that cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity are positively related to the purchase intentions of global brands with Chinese elements for both the Chinese consumers and the Chinese immigrants in North America. There is a partial moderation effect of acculturation on the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intentions; however, there is no moderation effect on the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intentions. These findings have important implications for marketers of global both in terms of the Chinese market at home, but also among Chinese immigrants abroad.

Business-to-business customers are increasingly demanding total solutions in response to suppliers who are increasingly seeking to grow their revenues by focusing on providing customers with end-to-end solutions. Given that the solution sales process in business markets is inherently complex and significantly different from the traditional sales process, there is evidence that many salespeople are unable or unwilling to meet the requirements of solution selling. Although researchers have begun focusing on business-to-business customer solutions, the very nature of business-to-business solutions suggests that there are problems to be solved, and research exploring business-to-business solution provision at the intersection of problem solving and sales is extremely limited. In this research, we focus on the customers’ perspective of salesperson’s problem solving approaches. Specifically, we provide a brief overview of problem solving literature in the context of personal selling and sales management. Second, from the perspective of B2B customers, we develop a model with the consequences of the creative and deliberate problem solving routines of business-to-business salespeople and their direct and curvilinear effects on customer outcomes. Third, we provide details of our data collection efforts. Specifically, data collection was accomplished through an online survey of purchasing managers (respondents had purchasing manager, buyer, procurement manager, or similar titles) from a panel managed by a reputed research company. Respondents were (i) screened to verify that their purchasing role required them to interact frequently and extensively with salespeople of different vendors and (ii) asked to think of one of their important vendors and complete the survey with respect to that vendor’s salespeople. Here, we also screened the respondent for interaction and knowledgeability. Fourth, we discuss the method and analyses corresponding to the testing of our framework. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of our research’s implications for research and practice. Indeed, the results of the curvinear effects found in this research provide significant implications for firms in managing the role of salespeople in solution provision.

Across existing sales studies role ambiguity is a stable antecedent of sales performance and exhibits significant negative effects. While existing sales research focuses on the consequences of ambiguity-based role stress, it is neglected to identify psychological resources that enable salespeople to deal effectively with role ambiguity. Complementing existing research, we consider a seller’s psychological state of resilience that may buffer the negative consequences of role ambiguity on sales performance. For a deeper insight into this effect of resilience, we refer to the mechanisms of the role ambiguity-sales performance relationship and, therefore, propose that the negative effect of role ambiguity on sales performance is mediated by a seller’s personal accomplishment and work engagement. In addition, we incorporate a seller’s proactivity as a condition of resilience and investigate its impact on resilience’s effect.For the investigation of the compensatory effect of resilience we conducted two online surveys. 142 salespeople participated in study 1 and 175 salesmen attended study 2. The respondents of both studies were randomly selected from an address database or from professional networks and recruited via e-mail. The objective of study 1 was to examine the effect of resilience in the mediated role ambiguity-sales performance process, while the evaluation of its robustness and the analysis of the interaction effect of resilience and proactivity were the aim of study 2.Results confirm the beneficial effect of resilience for sales performance in the presence of role ambiguity. At this, resilience buffers the negative indirect effect of role ambiguity through personal accomplishment and, in parts, through work engagement. However, there is some evidence that a seller’s proactivity might be a boundary condition of the compensatory effect of resilience.Our findings complement existing research on the role ambiguity-sales performance relationship that mostly neglected to explore psychological resources that buffer the negative effects of role ambiguity. With resilience we introduce a psychological resource that buffers the negative effects of role ambiguity on sales performance and enables sellers to deal effectively with ambiguity-based role stress. In doing so, resilience constitutes interpersonal differences within the same selling situation, and thus, is an important addition in order to better understand the process from situational characteristics to sales performance. Moreover, we reveal a process model of the role ambiguity-sales performance relationship that incorporates a seller’s personal accomplishment and work engagement. In contrast to existing research that widely assumed a direct relationship we offer a deeper understanding of the interplay between ambiguity and sales performance.

It is estimated that 80% of companies’ data is unstructured. Unstructured data, or data that is not predefined by numerical values, continues to grow at a rapid pace. Images, text, videos and voice are all examples of unstructured data. Companies can use this type of data to leverage novel insights unavailable through more easily manageable, structured data. Unstructured data, however, creates a challenge since it often requires substantial coding prior to performing an analysis.The purpose of this study is to describe the steps and introduce computational methods that can be adopted to further explore unstructured, online reviews. The unstructured nature of online reviews requires extensive text analytics processing. This study introduces methods for text analytics including tokenization at the sentence level, lemmatization or stemming to reduce inflectional forms of the words appearing in the text, and ‘bag of n-grams’ approach. We will also introduce lexicon-based feature engineering and methods to develop new lexicons for capturing theoretically established constructs and relationships that are specific to the domain of study. The numeric features generated in the analysis will then be analyzed using machine learning algorithms.This process can be applied to the analysis of other unstructured data such as dyadic information exchange between customer service, salespeople, customers and channel members. Although not a comprehensive set of examples, companies can apply results from unstructured data analysis to examine a variety of outcomes related to customer decisions, managing channels and mitigating potential crisis situations. Understanding interdisciplinary methods of analyzing unstructured data is critical as the availability of this type of data continues to accelerate and enables researchers to develop theoretical contributions within the marketing discipline.

Self-congruence theory is one of the most widely cited theories explaining consumer behavior (Aguirre-Rodriguez et al. 2012; Sirgy 1982, 2018). The importance of congruence between a self-image and the brand user image stems from the meaningfulness of self-concept to well-being and an individual’s functioning (Carver and Scheier 1998; Higgins 1997) as well as the large potential of brand image for constructing the user self-concept (Belk 1988; Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1982). Researchers note that the validity of self-image congruence studies is threatened by the lack of universal instruments (Avis et al. 2014), the domain adjustment problem (Avis 2012), the unidimensionality of measurement (Eisend and Stokburger-Sauer 2013), underestimating the salience of undesired typical brand-user images (Bosnjak and Brand 2008). The purpose of presentation is to propose a solution to the problems by providing a new conceptualization of self-image congruence and on their operationalization according to a methodological framework of psycholexical studies applied in personality psychology (De Raad 1998; Saucier and Srivastava 2015).Polish participants were selected for the qualitative and quantitative studies using quota sampling. Age gender were established as the controlled variables. For the qualitative study, eight interviewers surveyed 583 people aged 13 to 82 (M = 36.6, SD = 16.9); 51.8% were women. The quantitative study was carried out by nine interviewers on a sample of 652 people aged 15 to 83 (M = 37.0, SD = 15.0); 53.8% of the sample were women.Results of 583 interviews, analyzed under a psycholexical research procedure, were compiled into a list of the most frequent brand user attributes. A quantitative study resulted in positive (Sophistication, Sociability, Responsibility, Agency) and negative (Haughtiness, Old-Fashionedness, Boorishness, Avarice) dimensions of consumer-to-typical brand user comparisons. Based on the principal self-evaluation motives, a Self-Brand Meaning Model was developed, which enabled a multidimensional measure of a confirmatory value and positive and negative added value of the brand for the consumer self-image. The structure and explanatory value of the model were successfully tested on a sample of 240 consumers.In comparison with users of brands are important not only personality traits, but also other aspects. The study showed that people buy a brand not just for improve themselves or confirm their own characteristics, but also to avoid undesirable image. The proposed measurement of congruence explains substantial part of brand preference variance.

This research reviews literature from marketing, medicine, nutrition, metabolism, genetics, pathology, and other academic areas that offers empirical evidence of the role of the ketogenic diet in treating inflammatory diseases.The research herein was motivated by one of the author’s experience with the ketogenic diet, which is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. Upon this author receiving a diagnosis of Glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, she immediately began the ketogenic diet, which has been empirically demonstrated to treat cancer. While her cancer has been addressed and managed with multiple surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy, she is convinced the diet is a major factor in her success at keeping the cancer at bay thus far and in offering her a high quality of life.Despite her success with this diet, marketing academics have typically assumed a “healthy” diet is one that is low fat (and thus low calorie) (Bolton et al. 2015; Cook et al. 2013). These studies have typically been in the context of weight management (Bolton et al. 2015) or the effects of the availability of nutritional information on consumer choice (Tangari et al. 2010). This prior research assumes that low fat diets and calorie restriction lead to decreased obesity. This viewpoint, which has prevailed since the 1950s, is primarily based on the diet-heart hypothesis that posits a high-fat diet leads to high cholesterol and thus heart disease.However, many researchers claim that the diet-heart hypothesis has weaknesses. Specifically, the hypothesis (1) is based on questionable research and tenuous results showing weak correlations, (2) was promoted by the American Heart Association and sensationalized in media reports, and (3) was incorporated into government publications such as the food pyramid due to pressure from the sugar and wheat industries (Teicholz 2016).Further, evidence is rapidly accumulating suggesting the ketogenic diet is a healthier alternative to the low-fat diet. Contemporary metabolic research in the areas of nutrition (Phinney et al. 1983), medicine (Abassi 2018), and cell biology (Roberts et al. 2017) is building evidence that a ketogenic diet not only leads to weight loss, but also serves as an adjunct medical therapy for treating and preventing epilepsy, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, Alzheimer’s, brain injuries, and other inflammatory illnesses (Gasior et al. 2008; Stafstrom and Rho 2012). Furthermore, research has demonstrated that the ketogenic diet slows the aging process, provides endurance athletes with the energy to exercise for extended periods, and promotes mental clarity.To be effective in promoting public health, marketers need to be aware of the history behind food guidelines and to have the ability to distinguish healthy diets based on empirical evidence from those historically marketed as ‘healthy.’

Evidence from two studies, in which both parents and children were surveyed, leads to new insights on children’s preferences regarding fast food. The research approach tries to handle the trade-off between comparability of results and necessary adaptions of the research instrument to the needs and wants of respondents in three age groups to ensure validity. Moreover, two examples of the implementation of gamification and playfulness in market research targeted at the youngest consumers are given.Findings from an observational study discovered lost potential regarding communication efforts of sales staff, as sellers ignored children in 60% of all observations. Interactions were most of the time focused on parents/caretakers, which highlights the underestimated role of children in the purchasing process. The results also show that the needs and wants of parents and children concerning store experience for children at the point-of-sale differ. While parents and caretakers especially stressed utilitarian aspects such as fast lanes, healthy food, easy order solutions or sanitary standards, kids in contrast put considerably more emphasis on hedonic aspects such as tasty food, entertainment, and playfulness.The originality of the research resides in its qualitative approach since it provides insights into the underlying motivation of children by using games and picking up on children’s creative potential. This study shows that adapting market research to the needs of young consumers can offer true insight that may pay-off in the competitive environment.This research adds to existing literature in the area of children as consumers, by using a combined approach of surveying children and their parents. As doing research with children comes with a lot of challenges, as well as ethical concerns and legal limitations, the key hypothesis is that gamified information presentation improves research outputs and leads to more engaged respondents. A combined research approach with parents and children may prove most fruitful and lead to distinct results.

Brands are not only applicable to products and services, but can also include people (Kotler and Kotler 2012; Rein et al. 2006). According to McNally and Speak (2002 p. 29) “everybody has a brand”, including professors (Jillapalli and Jillapalli 2014). With an increased competitive educational environment (Casidy 2014; Tanrikulu and Gelibolu 2015), creating a strong brand identity for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) includes the use of professors, instructors and teachers (as educators) to attract students and funding. Due to limited research into professor brand identity, the purpose of this research is to investigate the nature and development of a professor brand within a business school, specifically the creation of a brand by professors.In the study, use was made of personal branding theory (Montoya and Vandehey 2002; Peters 1997) where the professor is regarded as the CEO of “Brand You” (Gad 2002). Additionally, theory from Corporate branding (Abratt and Kleyn 2012) which identifies two major components of corporate identity namely strategic choices and corporate expression was incorporated. In applying this to a professor brand, the strategic choices include course management (e.g. planning, goals) and the representation was expanded to include language, tone and style of personal presentation (dress) (Rein et al. 2006).This exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews among educators to achieve the purpose of the research, using a convenience sample of professors in a Swedish HEI. An interview guide was developed associated with the theoretical concepts. Interviews were recorded and transcribed prior to content analysis in order to ensure trustworthiness of the data.Professors identified various roles and target audiences, and that brand development took place in different ways was dependent on the role undertaken. The initial findings suggest mixed responses to the identification of a professor brand. Themes identified include the Performance (of the professor in the student experience), Flexibility or responsiveness to student needs and Respect towards the students. The potential “dark side” of the strong brand was also noted.Theoretically, the findings will enable the development of an integrated model of professor brand identity, including both antecedents and outcomes. Practically, this research suggests strategies for the development of professor brands as positive professor brand equity can impact the students’ retention, engagement and word-of-mouth, creating a positive effect for the HEI’s brand equity.

In response to public concerns over issues such as global warming, slavery and human trafficking, mental health and gender inequality, the last decade has seen an increased focus on both company and consumer ethics. The concept of corporate social responsibility has permeated the values of global and national organisations and subsequently, for many successful companies, brand purpose has become the central focus for brand ideology, positioning and communications. Brand purpose is not only the cause that the business supports and seeks to improve, it is about the difference the brand aims to make in the world and the communication of that difference to the target audience. Brands who use the concept of brand purpose successfully connect that purpose to consumer values and human needs. The expectation is that this ethical societal focus will pervade the company, becoming the focus of corporate brand philosophy in terms of vision, mission and strategy, products, supply chain and communication, and also in terms of the ethical treatment of its internal and external stakeholders. These humanising characteristics provide a hook in which to assure consumers that the brand understands what it important to them. However, as the ethical consumption literature has established over the last few decades, consumers express preferences for brands that fit with their ethical and moral stance, a view that does not always follow into actual consumption choices. Utilising four company cases, this research aims to explore the issues of ethical consumption and the purchase behaviour of Generation Z. Through the medium of social media, Generation Z have become the most environmentally, socially and politically aware generation in history. It is to these consumers that many global companies are targeting their brand purpose message and communications. Critics of brand purpose propose that brands are responding to the ethical principles of young consumers as a marketing strategy. The companies themselves, however, would propose that they are risking brand reputation and potential sales in the support of such causes and that their brand purpose is based on their concern for global issues. Using interviews with this cohort, the brand purpose of four international brands is unpacked to understand how addressing social issues and taking a stance impacts on the consumer perceptions and purchase behaviour of Generation Z. The four brands selected have taken a social and/ or political stance: these include Nike, Adidas, Dove and Lynx. Initial findings provide evidence of genuine concern by the cohort and an appreciation of such campaigns.

In today’s technological environment, the consumption of information online is the norm. Further, consumers are oftentimes acquiring news from social media sites rather than directly from trusted news sources. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, two thirds of Americans (67%) report getting at least some of their news through social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (Shearer and Gottfried 2017). In a time when non-verified information is readily available, shared, and promoted, the need for editorial oversight and consumer judgment is greater than ever.The marketing industry is at a moral crossroads. At a time when research shows that 75% of American adults who were familiar with a fake news headline viewed the story as accurate (Silverman and Singer-Vine 2016), consumers are more likely than ever to pass along “news” that is inaccurate or even harmful. Additionally, brands are at risk. Google and Facebook are under increasing pressure to take aim at the perpetrators. The American electorate is at the epicenter of fake news, with many reports suggesting the 2016 election fell pray to online fake news sources perpetrating attacks on various political entities. And popular brands have fallen victim to fake news stories impacting revenue and customer equity.Rumors are not new. We adapt the definition of fake news based on Berthon and Pitt (2018): “fake news can take the form of fake stories, fake pictures, fake reviews, and fake polls” (page 1). In addition to the growth of fake news via increased online media, the social media generation has less media literacy than previous generations. Additionally, the internet as a media vehicle has less editorial oversight and a vast potential for virility. These developments have led us to the following research question: given such limited editorial oversight, what is it that leads consumers to believe and share, or alternatively, believe yet not share, fake news stories?We aim to address this question through the lens of the confirmatory bias theoretical perspective.

The emergence of social power has a dramatic impact on the relationships between buyer and seller, specifically in business to business relationships. Businesses can no longer simply advertise a product they want potential business customers to see; the evolution of technology has led to a power shift that buyers and sellers must recognize. The conceptual framework proposed in this paper investigates and discusses the factors behind emergence of social power in business to business relationships.There is a certain amount of power that can be held by the buyer and by the seller in a buyer-seller dyadic relationship. The nature of these power structures is based on both professional and situational variables that are present in the buyer-seller relationship. The integral power structures associated with social power can have a significant impact on the types of relationships developed, the relationship activities pursued, and the attributes required for profitable relationship outcomes (Anderson and Johanson 1994; Cannon and Perreault 1999; Meehan and Wright 2012; Möller and Halinen 1999; Pereira et al. 2016; Subbian et al. 2014).Competitive success, consumption experience, and buyer empowerment becomes increasingly contingent on buyer-seller relationships (Meehan and Wright 2012). To capture this complex phenomenon, the present study addresses the research question: RQ1: How does social power emerge in business to business buyer-seller relationships? Due to the lack of a well-established source of social power (Seligman 1974; Simon and Oakes 2006; Schaerer et al. 2016; Wrong 1968), we explored the research question using two theories: an identity model of power by Simon and Oakes (2006) and the theory of social power by French and Raven (1959).We agree with French (1959), that influence is grounded in the definition of social power, and influence is defined in terms of psychological change through manifest power. However, an integrative model of interaction among identity, legitimacy, and power potential provide the platform for defining how social power emerges. Researchers are working with various parts of these constructs (Clauss and Bouncken 2019; Courpasson 2000; French 1956; Franco et al. 2014; French and Raven 1959; Johnson et al. 2006; Tajfel and Turner 1978; Sparks and Shepherd 1992), however, in developing a conceptual model of the emergence of social power, we explore the role of business identities in forming perceptions of legitimacy and their interplay with two key variables, namely influence, and power in forming social power.

Cost transparency refers to the practice of corporate sharing of cost information with consumers (Mohan et al. 2015; Simintiras et al. 2015). This study empirically confirmed that consumers’ perceptions vary according to available cost information (Study I), and its differential effects based on retail prices (Study II) and product type (Study III).First, when the product is a basic t-shirt and its price is fair, providing the cost structure did not help in enhancing price fairness and brand credibility perceptions (Study I). However, if the product prices were higher than the market price and thus perceived as unfair, disclosing the cost structure was more effective in improving perceptions of price fairness and brand credibility than providing the retail price only (Study II).Second, in the context of purchasing a cashmere sweater (Study III), presenting the cost information of traditional retailers’ inferior benchmarks was effective in increasing favorable perceptions of price fairness and brand credibility regardless of the retail price. However, when the given retail price was perceived as unfair, providing cost information was less likely to enhance perceptions of price fairness, as compared to when given a fair retail price of the same product.Third, in the $60 cashmere sweater setting (Study III), showing the itemized costs without the benchmark information elicited even lower perceptions of price fairness than when consumers were presented with the retail price only. This result may provide a support for a number of studies to explore whether or not cost transparency is always good for improved consumer perceptions (Kuah and Weerakkody 2015; Simintiras and Dwivedi 2015). These findings suggest that it would be better to present the retail price only without revealing its true cost and markup if their products are high-involvement objects priced below market (i.e., the $60 cashmere sweater in this study). However, the same information plays an important role in justifying the price when the firm inevitably charges higher retail prices than market prices.Fourth, inconsistent responses of price fairness and brand credibility affected by cost information suggest that transparent cost information plays differently in creating short-term price fairness and long-term brand credibility. In this vein, companies need to understand the effect of transparent cost strategically in meeting their short-term or long-term objectives. Future studies on successful cost transparency strategies may stem from the valuable findings of this study.

In response to the increasing demand for consumer empowerment, marketers are paying attention to an empowerment strategy where consumers take part in producing a product or service (Fuchs et al. 2010). This study aims to examine: (1) how different empowerment strategies have varying effects on product attitude and (2) if psychological ownership mediates the effectiveness of empowerment strategies in the context of a brand’s new product development. In the context of co-production, two commercial types of empowerment strategy exist: (1) an empowerment-to-create tactic that offers opportunities for consumers to design products and (2) an empowerment-to-select tactic that invites consumers to make a choice among many alternatives. In contrast, a non-empowerment tactic let consumers make a choice within given options offered by the brand (Bachouche and Sabri-Zaaraoui 2017). Firm performance enhances as consumer involvement in the product development decision-making process increases (Bachouche and Sabri 2017). H1. The empowerment-to-create strategy most effectively increases product attitudes, followed by the empowerment-to-select strategy and then the non-empowerment strategy. Psychological ownership theory asserts that an individual can develop a psychological bond with a target object and such feelings of possessiveness influence their subsequent reactions (Fuchs et al. 2010). Previous work showed that empowerment causes beneficial outcomes through stronger psychological ownership (Fuchs et al. 2010). H2. Psychological ownership mediates the effect of an empowerment strategy on product attitude.A web-based experiment (N = 177) was conducted using a single factor between-subject design (empowerment strategies: empowerment-to-create vs. empowerment-to-select vs. non-empowerment). The one-way ANOVA results confirmed that the effect of empowerment strategies on product attitude was significant (F(2, 174) = 12.46, p < .001). Post-hoc analyses showed that participants in the empowerment-to-create condition exhibited highest product attitude (M = 5.87, SD = 0.997), followed by the empowerment-to-select condition (M = 5.33, SD = 1.25) and non-empowerment condition (M = 4.73, SD = 1.48). The PROCESS (Hayes 2013, Model 4) results revealed that psychological ownership significantly mediated the effect of empowerment strategy on product attitude (β = .44, 95% CI = .27 to .62), supporting H1 and H2.Based on these findings, retailers are recommended to prioritize their marketing efforts in increasing consumer contribution and involvements in the product designing process. Moreover, marketers may develop programs that can boost consumers’ feelings that the product is mine, which can directly improve brand performance.

Value co-creation referred to as joint creation of value by the company and the customer to co-construct personalized experience (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004) has been the recent trend in the services marketing literature (Vargo and Lusch 2016). Value co-creation is capable of leveraging positive results for both customers and service providers, and yet, many service providers are struggling to motivate customers to engage in co-creation activities (Sugathan et al. 2017). Value co-creation maximizes the lifetime value of customer segments (Payne and Frow 2005) and reinforces the relationships between customers and brands (Hajli et al. 2017). Merz et al. (2018) claimed that while co-creating value, brand equity also gets co-created. The value co-creation practice also encourages the customers who are acting as co-creators to spread positive word-of-mouth (Merz et al. 2018). However, there is limited empirical research examining the motivation to engage in co-creation behavior and determining the relationship between value co-creation, customer-based brand equity (hereafter, CBBE) and word-of-mouth (hereafter, WOM). Considering the conceptual ambiguity and limited application in practice, the objectives of this study is twofold: (1) to identify customers’ motivations to engage in value co-creation process; (2) to examine the relationship between value co-creation and CBBE and WOM behavior. The results from this study contribute to the body of knowledge in multiple ways. Our first contribution lies in examining the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on value co-creation in a smart tourism context. Our second contribution emanates from extending the work of Neghina et al. (2017) in the smart tourism services context. The nature of motivation leveraged towards value co-creation in the existing literature has been mostly qualitative, exploratory studies (Engström and Elg 2015; Roberts et al. 2014), however, this study applied the self-determination theory and conducted a quantitative analysis that contributes to value co-creation. Our third contribution is related to testing the impact of communicating, relating, and knowing mechanisms on value co-creation. Our final contribution is in validating the impact of value co-creation on CBBE and WOM behavior.

As consumption increasingly shifts to experience-based, offers of cocreation in product design, production, and even service recovery are on the rise. In this research, we provide a motivation-based framework that helps reconcile the inconsistent empirical findings in the literature and offers a clearer understanding of customer cocreation and its effects. We demonstrate that cocreation can be a double-edged sword as the effort input can be considered either a disutility or an opportunity depending on consumer motivations. Consumers’ motivation (regulatory focus) and shopping orientation toward the process versus outcome component of a cocreation activity create a regulatory fit effect, such that those with a promotion focus match with a process shopping orientation and those with a prevention focus match with an outcome shopping orientation to enhance willingness to pay (Studies 1A and 1B). This is because promotion-focused consumers are more sensitive to the process experience while prevention-focused consumers are more sensitive to the attractiveness of the outcome.Furthermore, based on this fit effect, consumers with different motivations may vary in their response to cocreation task characteristics such as the degree of autonomy and complexity of the task. Consumers with a promotion (prevention) orientation are more (less) willing to pay for a cocreation activity when it offers more freedom (vs. more structured, study 2) and the task requires more (vs. less) effort (study 3). The studies incorporated a series of cocreation activities including assembling Legos, piecing puzzles, makings crafts, and baking. This research offers theoretical contribution in understanding the effect of cocreation as well as managerial implications in cocreation service design.

Customer loyalty in the service exchange has been shown to be a primary objective when designing and implementing a marketing or service strategy (Cronin et al. 2000). While the extant literature is replete with examples of the importance of loyalty as a competitive advantage (c.f. Wolter et al. 2017), loyalty remains a somewhat elusive and perhaps understood concept.The primary purpose of this paper is to first increase our understanding of loyalty as an outcome of the service experience. To his end, we outline five loyalty outcomes resulting from the service exchange. Further, we attempt to determine key drivers of each outcome and to determine if the same antecedents influence each loyalty outcome.The findings demonstrate that loyalty is contingent upon consumer’s level of satisfaction with the service encounter, yet this effect is mediated by perceptions of value in four of the five cases examined.The primary theoretical implication herein is that, while satisfaction is necessary for the stimulation of loyalty, its effect is contingent on perceptions of value. This implies that, while satisfaction with the service encounter is necessary for stimulating loyalty, it is the perception of value received that emerges as the primary driver of loyalty.From a practical perspective, service providers are reminded that, while it is important that their customers feel that the encounter with the service provider is positive, they MUST feel that they are also receiving an exceptional value within the exchange process. In practice, this means that providers must not only focus on the face-to-face encounter that their customers experience but that the customer must also feel that the service itself be perceived as being an exceptional value.

The relation between destination image and local agricultural industry has been seldom explored in research although the correlation between local agricultural products and destination is actually quite strong. In recent years, areas that rely on local agriculture as the main economic activity have been actively developing product branding and expanding distribution channels. Due to the close relation between local agricultural products and their place of origin, the place of origin may cause consumers to make positive or negative associations, which affects how consumers view products from that specific location and, in turn, influence their purchase intentions. Located in the outlying islands of Taiwan, Penghu County holds rich touristic resources such as island landscapes, diverse natural ecology, recreational, and humanities; the tourism industry has also brought several benefits to Penghu’s overall economy. However, Penghu County’s agricultural environment is relatively more restrictive compared to that of other parts of Taiwan, and it has limited industrial scale and economic value. The agricultural products of Penghu County also face many challenges. The farms in Penghu County are urgent to change their previous production models and transforming farms by inducing co-creation of value from consumers.This study takes the agriculture industry in Penghu County for case study. It uses in-depth interviews and content analysis methods to collect opinions of agricultural producers, conducts field research on how local agricultural industries incorporate service-dominant logic perspective and destination image in their operations, and explores how to construct the Penghu County’s destination image for production and distribution environment of local agriculture, as well as how to create the value of Penghu County’s agricultural experience together with consumers. This study also uses the means-end chain to verify the relevance and relation between service-dominant logic and destination image, simultaneously investigating the crucial factor relevant for the incorporation of service-dominant logic by Penghu County’s agricultural industry to develop its destination image. The following recommendations proposed to the farmers of outlying island agriculture in Penghu County with regard to marketing. Firstly, agriculture should be combined with experiential activities incorporating unique characteristics of Penghu to create a deep impression of Penghu’s destination image on tourists and trigger their intention to visit again. Penghu has unique marine and rural culture, characteristics, and attractions; therefore, it is possible to combine local agricultural characteristics with experiential activities. Secondly, since it takes time for agricultural products to grow from seed to harvest, it is difficult to complete all the farming activities from sowing seeds to harvesting within a day. Therefore, farmers can prepare the fields and provide them for tourists’ hands-on experience. Thereby it can achieve value co-creation of farmers and tourists through agricultural experiential activities and subsequently enhancing the destination image of Penghu.

‘Only 7 left in stock’, ‘Only 7 days to claim’: the scarcity of a product/product deal has been well-established in the academic literature about marketing as leading to positive consumer cognition and behaviour. However, the scarcity of advertisements themselves due to short duration (i.e. ‘This ad will only last 7 seconds’) has received very little academic attention. The key question for theorists and practitioners is, does an advert which is ephemeral (i.e. scarce, and accessible only once for a few seconds) outperform those advertisements which are accessible over time (non-scarce)? Marketing practitioners often take advantage of scarcity in developing promotional campaigns for product/services. Through scarcity, consumer perceptions regarding product quality and desirability could be altered to enhance the consumers’ perceptions of the product/service’s value.Predominantly, two type of scarcity appeals are used by marketing experts: limited-time scarcity and limited-quantity scarcity. Scarcity advertising raises a product’s value as perceived by consumers, hence influencing consumers’ attention to the advertisement (Eisend 2008). Significant research has been done on various aspects of consumer attention, including an investigation into internal factors such as motivation, personal choices and mental cognition, and external factors such as environment, product characteristics and advertising features. The ‘Fear of Missing Out’ is the experience of the ubiquitous anxiety that one’s peers are enjoying higher social status or social relationships than the person themself. However, research related to consumers’ attention to advertising (or ad) that is only available for a limited time and consumers’ recall of advertising has rarely been investigated by academic researchers.In this paper, I will contribute to the literature about consumers’ response to limited time availability of advertising through the theoretical lens of scarcity of ads. This paper investigates the relationship between attention and recall under scarcity conditions linked to an advertisement. The key proposition in this paper is investigated in three ways. The first is a discussion of scarcity, in particular limited time/quantity appeals and consumers’ perceptions of value regarding the product/service. Second, we investigate consumers’ ad attention, linking it with resource scarcity for ad effectiveness. Finally, we highlight the importance of consumers’ ad recall and its relationship to scarcity. The key focus of this paper is to contribute, through the theoretical lens of scarcity, the effect of consumers’ attention and recall of ads. An experiment has been carried out to evaluate the efficacy of scarce vs. non-scarce marketing on the attention given to adverts by consumers (n = 110). The findings illustrate that greater attention is paid to an advertisement if it is known to be scarce, leading to greater recall among consumers. This paper also contributes the first empirical support for the use of ephemeral marketing to the academic literature about marketing.

Emerging from the growth of consumer fandom, global football brands have become some of the most profitable in the world, while the football industry can be categorized as big business. Thus, market-orientated practices such as branding, have become synonymous with the spectacle of sporting events. However, the prominence of capitalist ideology within the marketplace has diminished the liberties of extreme football fans, resulting in marketplace exclusion. Extreme fans no longer see their football clubs as symbolic representations of the local community or local culture, but as an embodiment of a globalized, cosmopolitan, market-driven world, detached from the people it originally represented. Digitized communities, including those communities that transcend online environments, have been a topic of great debate among marketing academics, with recent studies advancing the understanding of a number of research contexts, such as; gaming communities, therapeutic communities, and educational communities. Knowledge surrounding the conceptualizations of consumption communities has also advanced, with new modes of online consumer participation emerging within academic literature, such a brand publics. However, despite such advancements, Moufahim et al. (2018) state that critical conversations must continue, specifically pertaining to the darker side of online communities and interaction, which exert forms of social control, exclusion, destruction, and hostility. This netnographic study focuses on how extreme football fans engage in collaborative glocalization, with implications for the manifestation of fan resistant practices which are proliferated and celebrated through the utilization of digital sharing platforms. Extreme fans are no longer engaging in reflexive social performance solely based upon their own experiences, but also the experiences of similar ‘others’. Thus, the current study shows how extreme fan cultures engage in various forms of collaborative glocalization as they seek to align their own identities with that of the broader fan culture ideology. The prevalence of digitized technologies within this resistant fan culture, results in an amplification of deviant acts which permeate transnational boundaries. Such enhances the understanding of how the darker aspects of fan communities manifest through online platforms, and the impact of same.

This research aims to estimate a prediction model for understanding how the engagement occurs considering a digital and emotional context for the brand. Throughout the following sections the theoretical foundations and methodology to be followed is displayed.Management and brand building have become years, one of the most important marketing topics, this mainly because buying motives are becoming less utilitarian and have become more hedonic. Therefore, the selection of the product to buy comes not only from the functional benefits but also from the intangible benefits that are normally associated with the brand, such as emotions, social and self-expression.The information was collected between April and May 2018. The sampling method was convenience that implies a non-probability sampling. 222 students from the Faculty of Economics and Business. Students receive a participation incentive to cooperate with the investigation. The sample was composed of 52% women and 48% men, whose age ranges between 18 and 23 years.PLS structural equation modeling was employed for testing the model. According with the statistical model, we can conclude that digital interaction, loyalty and brand attachment generated by marketing strategies are predictors of engagement.The inner model suggests that digital interaction has the strongest effect on brand attachment (0.531) followed by loyalty on engagement (0.525) and Digital interaction on loyalty (0.480). The hypothesized path relationship between constructs is statistically significant (bootstrapping) but in case of brand love and engagement, the relationship is negative. Thus, we can conclude that digital interaction, brand attachment and loyalty are moderately strong predictors of engagement; and digital interaction is moderately strong predictor of brand attachment and loyalty.According with the hypothesis stated prior, we could accept all of them. We test the relationship between brand love and engagement and the result shows that there is not a direct relationship in this model. However, brand love is highly explained by digital interactions, brand attachment and loyalty.

Do-it-yourself (DIY) marketing applications (e.g., Survey Monkey, Google Forms) provide an easy to use set of tools for conducting marketing research in a convenient manner with rapid turnaround and low administration costs. However, while these DIY tools provide the mechanism through which to collect market research, they do not automatically come with the expertise to use these tools effectively. In particular, they potentially make it easier for novice DIY marketing researchers to create ethical dilemmas that professionals, by drawing upon their expertise and following their codes of conduct, would be more likely to avoid.The effectiveness of codes of conduct is well established within the literature for professional groups in improving ethical decision making. However, of critical concern is whether individuals are aware of the codes of conduct and if they recognize the ethical content of specific situations where principles in the code of conduct apply. For professionals, this is part of their socialization and professional obligations as members of professional societies, while for non-professional DIY researchers such codes and norms do not exist. Reminders in this context could serve as triggers for mindful consideration of the ethical content of the situation so they are both aware of the immediate concerns as well as the broader implications. Mindful individuals are more likely to act ethically, uphold ethical standards, and use principled approaches to ethical decision making. Mindfulness can be developed through training over an extended period or induced during brief episodic moments of reflection.This study proposes that for novice DIY researchers, (1) reviewing an abridged ethical code of conduct immediately before designing marketing research will reduce the number of ethical decision violations when compared to those with no code of conduct exposure and, (2) reviewing specific ethical guidelines embedded at key relevant points while designing marketing research will reduce the number of ethical violations when compared to those receiving an abridged code of conduct.

Existing literature tends to examine ethical judgement in organizational contexts (Jones 1991; Trevino 1992), or the connection between ethical judgement and consumers’ own ethical or unethical behaviors (Hunt and Vitell 1986; Vitell et al. 2016). These debates under-represent consumers’ perspectives (Shabbir et al. 2018). Thus, we focus on unpacking the interconnections between consumer ethical judgment, consent and context. We do so by using Miller and Wertheimer’s (2010) theory of consent transactions to explore how consumers judge the morality of threat-based experiential marketing communication campaigns. An understanding of consent in ethical judgement is needed, where consumers might experience visceral emotions through marketing communications without being fully informed, and where the moral beliefs of marketers and consumers might clash (Wempe 2009). Given that ethical judgement involves the degree to which something is morally acceptable to a consumer (Reidenbach and Robin 1990), lack of perceived consent can lead to negative consumer ethical judgement. Therefore, there is a need to explore how consumers judge threat-based experiential communications.We examine how consumers judge the morality of such marketing communication campaigns in the context of horror film marketing, given the congruency between the genre’s threat appeals and the emotional responses horror communication campaigns elicit from their audiences, for hedonic consumption purposes (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982). The three-stage qualitative research included 27 participants and we used a thematic approach to data analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006; King and Horrocks 2010).Our findings demonstrate that consumers can feel positively about being shocked, judging threat appeals as more or less ethical depending on the kinds of negative emotions they experience. Data also show that the intersection between ethical judgement, consent and context lies where perceptions of fairness and consequences lead to contextualized normative approval of marketing communication practice.Our research makes three contributions to relevant literature. First, it extends theory in the area of ethical judgement, by focusing on the significance of consent for eliciting positive consumer moral responses to experiential communications. Second, this research adds to research on emotions in consumer ethical judgement (Singh et al. 2016), by determining that negative emotions can elicit positive consumer ethical judgement. Third, this research contributes an original perspective to prior works in marketing ethics by illuminating the criteria that can make experienced shock positive or negative, boring or risky.

Research on consumer ethics has recently emerged and predominantly focuses on the direct associations between consumers’ judgements of ethically questionable practices and selected antecedents drawn from Hunt and Vitell’s (1986, 1993) general theory of marketing ethics. Mixed findings in previous studies and the disparity between consumers’ concern about ethics and their actual behaviour in the real world suggest ethical judgments are not a reliable measure of ethical consumption (Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher 2016). On the other hand, mindfulness has been suggested as an intervention mechanism to activate people’s self-control that ultimately results in changes in their habit underpinning the attitude – behaviour gap (Papies 2017). This study, therefore, aims to examine the role of mindfulness on ethically minded consumer behaviour (EMCB) dimensions through self-efficacy for ethical consumption (SEEC). EMCB includes five dimensions (Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher 2016): ECO-BUY – the intentional selection of environment-friendly products; ECO-BOYCOTT – the refusal to purchase the environmentally-harmful products; RECYCLE – the intentional selection based on recycling issues; CSR-BOYCOTT – the refusal to purchase the products based on social issues; and PAY-MORE – the willingness to spend more for ethical products.Data were collected through a survey with Vietnamese consumers. Invitations to participate were posted on social media channels Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as were sent through emails. The usable data of 309 responses (97.8% of returned responses) were analysed using PLS-SEM approach. The findings reveal that mindfulness has both direct and indirect effects only on ECO-BOYCOTT, whereas the effects of mindfulness on other EMCB dimensions (ECO-BUY, RECYCLE, CSR-BOYCOTT, PAY-MORE) are mediated by SEEC. The current study contributes to the body of knowledge on consumer ethics as it differs from earlier research that mostly focuses on consumers’ ethical judgements or tends to be limited to pro-environmental behaviours. No published research has attempted to examine the mechanism in which mindfulness turns consumers’ non-routine ethical responses into habitual ethical consumption behaviour. Second, it adds validation to newly developed EMCB scale in a Asian emerging market setting. This is significant since limited research on consumer ethics has been done in Asian developing markets that are fast-growing, as well as environmentally and socially responsible consumption has increasingly become a critical issue. From a practical perspective, policy makers, academics and marketers can benefit through insights regarding the impact on ethical consumer behaviour. Mindfulness training, in conjunction with ethical consumption training, can be offered to consumers. Once being trained mindfulness, mindful consumers can learn to change the habituated non-ethical behaviour; as well as they can become more attentive and aware of present socio-cultural situations.

This special session presents a group of research analyses related to the broad range of not-for-profit and nongovernmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), which includes the arts/culture/ heritage, philanthropic/charitable, economic development, education, health, religion, social, sport, and sustainability sectors. NPOs and NGOs are challenged with establishing and maintaining relationships with the markets and stakeholders which provide their support and funding. To remain financially and operationally viable, they must leverage innovative ideas, strategic and tactical management / marketing tools, and best practices of sector leaders around the world to survive and thrive. Doing this requires thinking across disciplines and recognizing their historical evolutions and literature. Marketing owes significant debts to other fields beyond business (e.g. the humanities, economics, mathematics, and decision sciences), and this session examines NPO/NGO marketing through the lens of Scottish Enlightenment concepts (which have spread far beyond the U.K., throughout Europe, America, and to the rest of the world) and the relevance of its ideas in the worldwide environment in which NPO/NGO organizations exist.Research presentations which form the basis of this special session focus on the topics of: Market vs. Non-Market approaches – an examination of Nonprofit Marketing in the context of Adam Smith’s work The importance of Internal Marketing of organizational continuity planning for nonprofit organizations, framed in Lord Kames’ idea of natural sociality and mutual responsibility Acts of peer support (e.g. volunteering) as a “route to enlightenment and interdependence” The desirability of supporting consumers in subsistence marketplaces, interpreted in the context of Adam Smith’s fellow-feeling as the thread that weaves the social fabric together The session panelists will also engage the audience on three broader questions: (1) What are the implications of this research for NPO/NGO organizations in general? (2) How does nonprofit research on these topics contribute to for-profit marketing and management (which is the reverse of the common question of what for-profit marketing has to contribute to nonprofit research and practice)? and (3) What additional relationships and implications can be drawn between these topics and the unique intellectual and practical contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment?

Nonprofit organizations, like their for-profit counterparts, are susceptible to a variety of disasters and severe outage situations. Examples include (1) the large-scale 2017 WannaCry ransomware cyberattack affecting more than 100 countries, which froze 300,000 computers in 48 of England’s National Health Services trusts until a bitcoin payoff was processed, (2) the 2018 fire which gutted the National Museum of Brazil and over 90% of its 20 million artifacts, and (3) damage from 2018’s Hurricane Florence (estimated, at $170 billion, to be the costliest storm ever to hit the U.S.), which closed many local nonprofit organizations whose mission is to provide support to those in need (CoreLogic 2018) These situations, which are disasters for affected nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders, have something in common. Due, perhaps, to resource constraints, organizations in the nonprofit sector are less likely to have developed, maintained and exercised robust in-house disaster preparedness and recovery plans. A common perspective (shared by many for-profit organizations) on the potential for serious disaster/outage situations is “it’s never going to happen”, “it won’t happen here” and/or “it won’t happen to us”.Nonprofit organizations, however, are particularly susceptible to disaster and critical outage situations, since they tend to operate under tight monetary, operational and personnel resource constraints. They often house significant amounts of donor information (both personal and financial) as well as their own staff employment and insurance data, often without sufficient information systems/security personnel and expertise to properly maintain and protect that data. They may, therefore, be at serious risk in terms of their abilities to manage disruptions, identify and resolve operational and system issues, and prevent cybersecurity breaches and fraud.This special session presentation explores and discusses risks facing nonprofit organizations and the need for organizational continuity planning, which focuses on mitigation of threats related to the nonprofit’s processes, assets, and stakeholders. It operationalizes the ideas of societal order and protection of property espoused by Karnes (Herman 2001) with the use of internal marketing, by an organization’s board of directors and executives, to communicate the criticality of organizational resiliency to the nonprofit’s stakeholders, including donors (who can fund the endeavor), managers (who will manage the endeavor), and staff (who will support the effort). Setting and reinforcing the right “tone from the top” provides an important foundation for development and maintenance of a workable, successful organizational continuity program that provides proactive protection for the nonprofit, its stakeholders, and the community at large.

As Barrick and colleagues (Barrick et al. 2005) stated, acts of peer support, such as volunteering, can be regarded as a “route to enlightenment and interdependence”. Volunteers are a crucial resource for nonprofit organizations and help them to achieve societal goals. Given the scarcity of resources in nonprofit organizations, it is important for organizations to know how potential volunteers can be efficiently recruited. This study is designed to determine which combination of ad features is best perceived by recipients of the ad. Based on those results, decisions can be made regarding the optimal design of advertising appeals and the allocation of advertising budgets.Based on the theory of functional (volunteering) motives and previous advertising/marketing research, this paper examines how volunteering appeals can be optimized. According to the Clary and colleagues’ (Clary et al. 1992) functional approach to volunteers’ motivation, volunteering serves different functions, namely: (1) values functions (i.e., expression of personal values) (2) understanding function (i.e., learning new things and facts or developing new skills) (3) enhancement function (i.e., personal development) (4) career function (i.e., acquisition of soft skills desired by employers) (5) social function (i.e., strengthening of social bonds), and (6) protective function (i.e., avoiding of negative feelings) The study design considers volunteer engagement motives as an attribute of volunteering appeals. In addition, and as a substitute for monetary costs, the time expense that relates to the volunteering engagement is considered as another attribute of volunteering appeals. Further attributes will be included in the study based on previous advertising research.This empirical research uses a choice-based conjoint approach in order to estimate pathworth utilities as well as the relative importance of the consider appeal attributes. The study is based on a sample of students from different study subjects of a German university.

Marketers may be familiar with reference to Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” (Smith 1776) but his earlier work, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (Smith 1759), reflecting more clearly his work as a moral philosopher may be less known. Analysis of Smith’s work indicates that he did not separate the two positions, but his system of analysis, though presenting some difficulties in interpretations, saw these as a unified system. Smith sought to analyze the advantages of the emerging “market”, enhancing understanding and strengthening the emerging system, in contrast with the preceding non-market conditions of patronage, benevolence and obligation. Smith developed the conceptual system to analyze social interactions that mattered for the wealth of nations. According to him, it is the economic link between production and consumption in free markets that binds society together. Smith further argued for the benefits of specialization. It was in the mutual exchange between specialized groups that “wealth of nations” developed.Considering both selfish and unselfish motives, the action of sympathy and impartial spectator indicate how human emotions and regard for others balance the passion of self-interested actions.“It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct. It is he who, whenever we are about to act so as to affect the happiness of others, calls to us, with a voice capable of astonishing the most presumptuous of our passions, that we are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it; and that when we prefer ourselves so shamefully and so blindly to others, we become the proper objects of resentment, abhorrence, and execration.” (Smith 1759).This paper considers the work of Smith and our current approach to nonprofit marketing and examines whether nonprofit marketing can usefully be positioned as uniting the work of Adam Smith. This argument is based firstly on the position that nonprofit marketing can be seen as a further development of specialization, observed by Smith as underpinning a market-based society. The paper further advances the argument that nonprofit marketing, acting in the system of human affairs, develops and enhances two specific mechanisms; that of the impartial spectator and the capacity for sympathy, to influence human behavior.

There has been growing interest in understanding consumers in subsistence marketplaces as evidenced by the burgeoning body of literature on the topic (Viswanathan and Rosa 2010). The subsistence marketplaces approach focuses on gaining a bottom-up understanding of life circumstances and marketplace interactions of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs. Research shows that the basic concern for consumers in subsistence marketplaces is to satisfy physiological needs in the best way possible. This may not just be a matter of price, as is often assumed, but also their concern for fairness, product quality, compatibility with existing lifestyles etc. Thus, despite the fact that consumers in such marketplaces face a variety of constraints which affect their behavior, they have unique needs and can make distinctions between what is useful to them and what is not. However, organizations targeting such segments have often failed in their attempts because of a lack of understanding of these unique needs. A key challenge before enterprises operating in these contexts is how to deliver some kind of value to consumers, that is sustainable over a long period of time. The emergence of social enterprises is seen as an important mechanism for supporting economic activity in subsistence marketplaces deemed unprofitable by the private sector and often neglected by the state.This study is inductively built upon a case study of the Hans Foundation, a social enterprise working in India. The foundation combines innovative business and marketing practices to achieve social objectives. It invests in research, employs the latest technologies and builds products that are innovative to offer them to consumers in subsistence markets. Its focus is on developing high quality products which last for years and are compatible with the circumstances of the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). This contrasts with the common belief that products sold to the poor are made for charity and therefore not good quality. To reach such consumers, the organization works closely with other grass-roots organizations that operate directly within their own communities. This enables Hans to build and strengthen relationships with the communities. The study suggests that to present a value proposition in the subsistence marketplaces organizations must not only understand the life circumstances of the BOP but also identify their priorities to be able to introduce products. For instance, when a person is hungry, his immediate need is food, not education. Thus, understanding and connecting with consumers in subsistence marketplaces through an understanding of their priorities is a key requirement for the success of social enterprises. The philosophical foundations of the above case can be traced to the ideas of Smith, who emphasizes the importance of fellow-feeling as the thread that weaves the social fabric together. He further states that “we can only conceive of what others feel by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation” (Smith 1790).

This study, utilizing two national samples of Americans, examines the impact of the Big Five personality traits and social media usage on the level of price consciousness for millennials and baby boomers. Study One, looking only at boomers, finds that those boomers who are more open are less price conscious. Study Two examines both boomers and millennials and found no difference in the level of price consciousness between the two cohorts. Given no difference in the level of price consciousness the two cohorts are combined to test the impacts on price consciousness. The results offer that extroverts are more price conscious, while open individuals are less price conscious. The other Big Five personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism have no impact on price consciousness. The amount of social media usage also impacts the level of price consciousness with those spending more time on social media being more price conscious. The study also examines the differences between social media usage by cohort and finds no significant difference in their time spent on Facebook, but there are significant differences in their time spent on Twitter, Instagram and Snap Chat as millennials use all three of these SNS more than baby boomers. The results suggest that while levels of price consciousness do not vary by generational cohort, personality (particularly openness in Studies 1 and 2, extraversion in Study 2) and social media use can impact price consciousness. Marketers can utilize social media to reach price conscious consumers and encourage extroverts to share/respost their business’ price deals so their friends are aware of them. Which social media site, however, that would be more effective for businesses to utilize would vary by cohort. If businesses are trying to reach a broad target market that includes both millennials and baby boomers, Facebook would be the best option, given its popularity across age groups. If marketers are focusing on the millennial market they may also want to have a presence on Instagram and Snapchat. Finally, in terms of differences in personality traits among the two cohort groups, the study found that millennials are more open, but less conscientious, less agreeable and less neurotic than baby boomers.

Even though social media content is as varied as the viewing selection in a movie theater, current research has provided attention to prosocial positive content and its effects. However, negative antisocial content also exists in the Internet. We propose a model of social media use based on different sources of anxiety, including face-to-face social interaction, social media anxiety, and exposure to aggressive and non-aggressive cyber content. An interesting aspect of this study is that the sample is not limited to young students or young adults. Our results indicate that socially anxious individuals participate more actively in social media, possibly to alleviate anxiety. In addition, aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial content have a significant negative effect on social media use.The highlights of this study’s findings are summarized in the following key points. First, the results show that social anxious individuals participate more actively in social media, possibly to alleviate anxiety according to them. The social interaction anxiety construct assesses fears of all face-to-face social interactions. Mattick and Clarke (1998, p. 457) define social interaction anxiety as the “distress when meeting and talking with other people, be those people, members of the opposite sex, strangers, or friends. Social anxiety is defined as a “heightened self-consciousness characterized by a fear of humiliation and/or negative evaluation by others in social settings” (Levitan 2017, p. 80). Extending this definition to the social media setting, we assume social media anxiety may result from fears of humiliation and/or negative evaluations by other social media users.Antisocial behavior are acts that run contrary to society, and its norms of conduct that promote interaction and wellbeing also known as prosocial norms. Antisocial cyber content is classified into two categories: aggressive antisocial cyber content and non-aggressive antisocial cyber content, as is supported in the literature (Hamer et al. 2017; Vitaro et al. 2015). Accordingly, aggressive antisocial behaviors may encompass expressions of violence whereas non-aggressive behaviors may include actions that break rules or social norms. This distinction has been useful to explain specific emotional responses. The findings reveal that aggressive antisocial content has a negative effect on social media use. In addition, it was found that nonaggressive antisocial content has a negative effect on social media use.

This study examines consumer attitudes and behavior during periods of economic contraction. Despite the importance of such research topic, little is known about consumption decisions during recessions and the way consumers re-organize their lives and reassess their priorities. In particular, the study aims to answer the following research questions: i) what are the main direct/tangible and indirect/intangible effects of crises on daily consumption decisions; and ii) what are the main consumers’ coping strategies, namely ‘what’ and ‘how’ they buy. The research was conducted during the Portuguese economic downturn in 2014. The Portuguese economic crisis had its peak in 2011, with the Portuguese Government request for financial assistance to the European Commission. However, in 2014, Portuguese consumers were still facing hard times, serious monetary constrains and high levels of unemployment (13.9% which compares to 7.6% in 2008). The fieldwork adopts a qualitative approach to capture, not only the purchase dimension but also, and fundamentally, the social and cultural context of consumption. The sample includes experienced and mature consumers, with different education and economic levels, professional occupation and family status. It also combines employed and unemployed consumers. The study reveals that, during recession, consumers are very committed to keep spending under control through explicit budgeting rules. They become very price conscious, less impulsive and more frugal. Simultaneously, in what concerns the more indirect and intangible effects, empirical evidence shows that consumers feel concerned and insecure about the future, even when they do not experience serious monetary constraints. In general, there is a major change in consumption patterns and several adaptation strategies to consuming less and differently.

This research examines how political advertising is operated in a volatile context, such as a state of war or instability. The study employed a self-completing cross-sectional survey to gather the data in the period of the 2016 Syrian elections for members of parliament. The research tested the hypothetical model and its equivalency related to political involvement by structural equation modelling. The outcomes of the tests revealed the structure of belief as a four-dimensional variate. The four dimensions encapsulate information, veracity, sarcasm, and cynicism. In addition, perceptions during conflicts had a negative effect on attitude through sarcasm displayed by voters with low political involvement. The results also found that negative attitude had a link with lower degrees of veracity with regards to voters who are less involved but to greater degrees of cynicism highly politically active individuals. We found that less favourable attitudes to political advertising lowered the likelihoods for voters to watch political ads or announcements, support a runner, and be willing to go to the poll. We found no relation between the fact of paying attention to political advertising and intention of voters to use their ballot.

Disgruntled consumers often punish a brand because of the misdeeds of its country-of-origin. Consumer animosity reduces ownership and intentions to buy products from the target country (Klein et al. 1998; Riefler and Diamantopoulos 2007) and increases product avoidance and negative word of mouth (NWOM) from consumers aiming to damage economically the hostile nation (Harmeling et al. 2015). Animosity research has relied heavily on structural equation modeling (SEM), testing whether and to what extent one single model explains the outcomes of interest (Woodside 2013). However, crises are very complex social phenomena, ignored by SEM approaches. One contested area, in the animosity literature is the contradictory findings on the impact of animosity on quality perceptions of products originating from the target country. Scholars find that animosity is independent of product quality judgments (Fong and Burton 2008; Funk et al. 2010; Klein 2002; Maher et al. 2010), while others indicate that high levels of animosity reduce product quality perceptions and in turn, this explains negative behavioral reactions such as NWOM and product avoidance (Ettenson and Klein 2005; Leong et al. 2008).To complement existing SEM-based research, this is the first study to use a set-theoretic, person-centered approach to explore the configuration of causes that explain animosity in two different contexts. We use Harmeling’s et al. (215) animosity model as our basis. Data were collected from China and the USA, examining evaluations of Japan and China, respectively; and analyzed through fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) (Ragin 2008). With a fsQCA approach we are able to identify a typology of the main explanatory models able to account for the outcomes of animosity. We demonstrate multiple causal configurations for all outcomes examined (product quality judgments, NWOM, and product avoidance). In some configurations animosity is independent of product quality while in others the hostility also affects quality perceptions. Based on the two mediating emotions examined (i.e., anger and fear) between cognitive animosity beliefs and outcomes (as per Harmeling et al. 2015), we find that while animosity beliefs and anger explain animosity in the majority of causal combinations, they cannot be considered necessary features of the outcomes of animosity. SEM-based analysis therefore underestimates the causal complexity associated with international crises and leads to misleading predictions for sizable sub-groups of consumers. Consequently, future research might consider the most appropriate marketing campaign for the sub-group of consumers based on the identified configurations.

Given the lack of research on the link between individual cultural values ​​of the Millennial Generation (MG) and brand love, mediated by religious commitment, this research intends to fulfill that gap. For this, two studies were carried out. First, an exploratory study was done to understand the individual cultural values of Portuguese millennial consumers. Then a conceptual model was proposed to understand if the Religious Commitment can mediate the relation between the individual cultural values and the brand love of Portuguese millennial consumers. This research intends to confirm what Sharma’s work individual cultural values prevailed in Millennials Portuguese consumers (Study 1). Then, knowing that they are the individual cultural values of power, tradition and independence, the individual cultural values that prevailing in the Millennials Portuguese consumers, we developed a conceptual model to confirm the mediated effect of the religious commitment between the individual cultural values and the brand love. A quantitative methodology was employed for this research. It was used a survey for the study 1 and study 2 to measure relationships between constructs on a theoretical model. The study 2 follows the two-step structural equation modelling methodology recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). An online survey of Millennials Portuguese consumers was conducted to collect data, between May and June of 2018, to measure all constructs (n = 215). We opted for a structured questionnaire. In April 2017, we conducted a pre-test to 104 university students, where it was asked to identify a brand, in a set of selected brands (Adidas, Levis, Nike, Abercrombie, between others), with which they had a strong emotional attachment. The Levis brand was selected. We measured individual cultural values using 30 items developed by Sharma (2010), religious commitment using the 10 item scales proposed by Cutright (2012) and brand love using the short scale of 6 items developed by Bagozzi et al. (2017). In the study 1, we performed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to evaluate the items of the individual cultural values of the Millennium consumers and answered to the first research question raised in this paper. The main findings from the data analysis show that the values independence, power and tradition negatively influence intrapersonal religious commitment and that the interpersonal religious commitment positively influences brand love. This study gives an important contribute to the comprehension of the relations between religion, values and consumer behaviour, one of the research area that is still limited, especially in specific countries and contexts and with Millennial Generation.

Luxury brands are adapting to the online environment (e.g., Gucci 2018). Yet, some marketers suggest that “digitalization of luxury brands” is somewhat paradoxical, since customers of luxury brands expect exclusive access, insider knowledge, and more personalized, intimate service than online environment can offer (Popomaronis 2017). While a luxury brand’s online presence can heighten awareness and desire, it can also decrease perceptions of rarity. This produces disagreement on the optimal brand strategies in luxury marketing literature (Baker et al. 2018; Kapferer and Bastien 2012; Geerts and Veg-Sala 2011; Okonkwo 2009). Could it be the case that digital presence has favorable impact on some luxury brands, but not on others? The primary goal of this paper is to determine whether digital presence leads to differential consumer outcomes depending on the luxury brand personality.One of the personality traits discussed in prior literature is the temporal perspective of the brand. Building on the existing literature (Aaker 1997; Heine 2009; Roux et al. 2017), we define it as follows. Modern brand personality refers to perceived differentiating brand characteristics that embody present-orientation and future-orientation. This includes openness to change, progressiveness, trendiness, youthfulness, openness to new experiences, forward-thinking, creativity and excitement. Traditional brand personality refers to perceived differentiating brand characteristics that embody past-orientation. This includes conservatism, knowledge, experience, craftsmanship and customs.A pretest conducted on a sample of European consumers (N = 38, Mage = 23; 52.6% women) determined the typology of luxury brands for future studies. It suggests that modern and traditional brand personality traits are not mutually exclusive. Each brand personality is characterized by both perceptions of modernity and perceptions of traditionality, while one of these traits might be perceived stronger than another.Next, an experimental study (N = 146, Mage = 28; 71.9% women) was conducted that employed 2 (Luxury brand: modern vs. traditional) × 2 (Social media page: shown vs. not) between-subjects design. The more modern brand was more influenced by the presence of the social media page than the traditional brand. Specifically, for the more traditional brand, viewing the social media page did not influence its website evaluations. In contrast, viewing the social media page of the modern luxury brand decreased its website evaluations. We speculate that this is because the modern brand was seen as less special after viewing its social media page, and these negative associations affected downstream consumer judgments when evaluating the brand website.

This study explores the relationships between the consumer-brand identification (CBI) and the customers’ satisfaction, commitment, trust and loyalty toward hospitality brands. The methodology included a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that assessed the reliability and validity of previous tried and tested measures in marketing sciences. A two-step structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse the relationships among the latent and observed constructs. The findings have reported a satisfactory fit for this study’s research model. The empirical results shed light on the direct and indirect effects from the exogenous constructs on brand loyalty. This contribution implies that brand trust had the highest effect on brand loyalty, and this was followed my other determinants, including; consumer-brand identification, consumer satisfaction and commitment. In conclusion, this paper identifies its research limitations and puts forward possible research avenues.

Luxury brands have the characteristic of rarity (Berthon et al. 2009) and differ from non-luxury brands at three levels: functionalism, experientialism, and symbolic interactionism (Buchanan-Oliver et al. 2008) and reasons to buy them have been examined for many years (Boisvert and Ashill 2010; Jelinek 2018; Veg-Sala and Roux 2014). Recently reports suggest that the luxury market is changing (Chandon et al. 2016; Wilson et al. 2015), primarily because of the environmental conditions related to issues such as changes in the customers’ income levels. These development influence customer perceptions towards luxury brands, and the change in overall luxury purchase behavior (Chandon et al. 2016; Kapferer and Valette-Florence 2016). Consumers though seem to try to balance pleasure and guilt when they make the decision to consume luxury products (Han et al. 2017; Ki et al. 2017) and difficult economic conditions can make this internal conflict even more profound, but still allowing individuals to purchase luxury items.This paper sought to address the gap in understanding the socio-cognitive and external factors affecting luxury purchase intentions during economic downturns and examine the role of intrinsic and environmental factors influence consumers’ luxury purchase intentions. It focuses on four socio-cognitive factors (escape, impulsiveness, self-expression, and social status), one marketing factor (promotions), and one overarching environmental factor (recession effect on society).Greece was chosen as the context of the study because of its severe economic recession (O’Brien 2018). An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Out of 258 responses, 231 were used for the analysis, with 53% male, 39.8% 21–30 old, 51.5% with a High School qualification, 57.1% full-time employed, 63.2% with a household income €20,000 and €40,000 and 43.7% spending 11–20% of their annual income in luxury products.A significant positive relationship between escape and luxury purchase intentions (β = 0.10, p < .05), and also between impulsiveness and luxury purchase intentions (β = 0.167, p < .05 was found. Self-expression (β = 0.025) and social status (β = −0.038) were not associated with luxury purchase intentions. The moderation effects were then examined. Sales promotions strengthen the link between escape (β = 0.12, p < 0.05) and luxury purchase intentions, but sales promotions are not moderating the links between impulsiveness, social status, and luxury purchase intentions. Recession effect on society augments the link between self-expression and luxury purchase intentions (β = 0.122, p < 0.05) and the link between social status and luxury purchase intentions is (β = 0.097, p < 0.05), but not the society and impulsiveness on luxury purchase intentions link.These results indicate that there is a need for global luxury brands to clearly understand the differences in the economic conditions of the countries they are operating in.

Transportation contributes to 15% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, 60% of which comes from light vehicles. From a public policy perspective, it is increasingly acknowledged that people have to be encouraged to switch to more sustainable travel modes. To that effect, online communication is widely used nowadays. This research focuses on the effects of the design of a website, beyond its content in information. We draw on the concept of virtual hospitality, a form of online social and economic exchange fostered by the warm, friendly, welcoming, courteous, open, generous behavior of a host creating a hospitable social environment online. We show that four dimensions structure the concept of virtual hospitality: spaciality, which encompasses navigability, sociality, reciprocity, and recreation. We focus on the first two to hypothesize that navigability and sociality positively influence behavioral intentions (to share the information read on the website and to follow the recommendations related to the content of this information) both directly, and through the mediation of processing fluency, self-efficacy, and well-being. A 2 × 2 plus control group online experimentation manipulating navigability and sociality led to developing five different websites, to which our respondents were randomly assigned. Based on a sample of 187 people, our results confirm the direct effects of virtual hospitality on behavioral intentions. In contrast, mediation effects have to be nuanced. Processing fluency does mediate the effects of navigability but not the effects of sociality. More precisely, we show that processing fluency is a full mediator of the relationship between navigability and self-efficacy, but only a partial mediator when well-being replaces self-efficacy. We also show that well-being mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and behavioral intentions, and that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between processing fluency and well-being. This research contributes to the literature in several ways. We first confirm the positive effect of navigability. We then bring evidence that sociality should also be a dimension to consider when developing a website. We also provide additional empirical evidence of the existence of the relationship between processing fluency and self-efficacy in a new context, compared to extant literature. Finally, we also document the relationships between self-efficacy, well-being, and behavioral intentions in the digital field. To our knowledge, this research is one of the first attempt to introduce, at least partly, a processing fluency and a self-determination perspective in a context where a planned behavior framework is generally considered. From a practical perspective, we suggest that public actors give at least as much importance to form as to substance when delivering online information on sustainable modes of transport. Finally, this study does not take into account potential moderators, such as lack of perceived facilities, habits, or environmental concern, which opens as many research avenues.

Advances in digital technologies continue to transform the way that organisations conduct business, and none has been more widely anticipated than Virtual Reality. Numerous academics and practitioners in a variety of industries have identified valuable opportunities that come with implementing Virtual Reality technologies into various contexts. Stakeholders are actively experimenting with Virtual Reality implementation to achieve objectives, and recently Virtual Reality technologies have been applied in business environments to aid virtual commerce. This research implements a conceptual approach to clearly define virtual commerce and the Virtual Reality ecosystem. Literature review aided the process of examining and understanding the larger virtual reality environment in which the different stakeholders operate and how value is created by and through the different elements in order to drive the business-to-consumer virtual reality market. As such, it helped determine the scope as well as the mapping and analysis of the current state of the Virtual Reality market and the central value-adding activities that different stakeholders undertake in the Virtual Reality industry. After evaluating the literature and the market, the researchers were able to clearly define the Virtual Reality ecosystem’s architecture, which was visualized and turned into a strategic analytical and decision support tool. As the Virtual Reality market grows, matures and becomes less fragmented, adoption across industries is expected to speed up and Virtual Reality will eventually gain a prominent place within the global economy. This brings about changes and implications regarding the ways in which commerce will be conducted. With several online retailers already at the forefront of commodifying virtual shopping, and an even bigger part implementing it as a marketing tool for business, the technology can be expected to become a valuable asset in enhancing and personalizing the online shopping experience. The paper closes by discussing future developments and research implications for theory and practice.

Online customer experience comprises all subjective responses consumers may have when interacting with a website (Rose et al. 2012). Companies have long recognized that providing optimal customer experience has become a key challenge (Ho and Bodoff 2014; Lemon and Verhoef 2016). To address this challenge, worldwide companies have developed personalized websites with the aim of improving customer experience on their website (Ho and Bodoff 2014). Personalization enable them able to learn from their online consumers’ data and tailor website content accordingly (Bodoff and Ho 2014).Prior research suggests that personalized content is generally more efficacious than non-personalized content (e.g.: Bodoff and Ho 2014; Tam and Ho 2006). However, despite companies’ effort to personalize content, discrepancies may occur between actual and perceived personalization such that a non-personalized content might be perceived as personalized and a personalized content might be perceived as not personalized (Komiak and Benbasat 2006; Li 2016). While actual personalization relates to the adaptation of content initiated by the system, perceived personalization refers to the extent to which consumers perceive a message as personalized (Li 2016). Li (2016) recently showed that perceived personalization, instead of personalization, generates favorable responses.With this research, our objective is to extend Li (2016)‘s study by investigating how personalization affects online customer experience and especially its playfulness dimension. We developed a personalized furniture website to carry out a between-subject lab experimentation. A first study shows that perceived personalization (no matter what is actually done on the website), has a positive impact on website playfulness, instead of actual personalization. This effect is mediated by content congruence.Our research will have both theoretical and managerial contributions. We first contribute to the literature on customer experience by examining online customer experience on personalized websites. Second, this research aims at providing companies levers for action to implement personalization processes that improve online customer experience.

Health care organizations are facing significant marketing challenges as a result of the rise in patient consumerism (McColl-Kennedy et al. 2017), in addition to the ever-increasing transparency in health care (U.S. News and World Report 2015). The current health care industry has seen a shift from ‘fee for service’ to ‘fee for value’ (Schroeder and Frist 2013), necessitating a need to improve the quality of care, while also enhancing hospitals’ performance (Mandal and Mandal 2017).Firms like Consumer Reports, US News & World Report, and the Leapfrog Group have increased healthcare organizations’ marketing challenges by providing and communicating relevant information in a consumer-friendly way (Ranard 2016). For instance, a Hospital Safety Score is assigned to US-based hospitals by Leapfrog in the form of a letter grade (A-F). One consequence of these consumer-friendly measures is that consumers increasingly rely on them to make decisions about whether to see a specific healthcare professional or visit a hospital (Findlay 2016). With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government began pressuring healthcare organizations to improve patient outcomes.Since 2017, hospitals that do not demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in care quality are penalized up to 2% of Medicare reimbursements. As a result, hospitals have begun to increase the level of quality they deliver in order to enhance their performance. Marketing and Operations Management research in this area focuses mainly on three types of quality (i.e., conformance, experiential, and environmental) as if they were orthogonal (e.g., Boulding et al. 2011; Makarem and Al-Amin 2014; Marley et al. 2004). Conformance Quality (CQ) is defined as the technical quality of care provided by hospital staff (Marley et al. 2004), while Experiential Quality (EnQ) is related to patients’ perception of the interpersonal quality of care (Makarem and Al-Amin 2014). Environmental Quality (EvQ) reflects the number of “conditions that patients acquire while receiving treatment for another condition in an acute care health setting” (CMS 2015).This research examines the impact of hospitals’ Integrated Quality (IQ), which is defined in this research as the combination of CQ, ExQ, and EvQ. The goal of this study is to answer the following research question: How does a hospital’s IQ impact hospital performance, specifically in reducing readmission rate and enhancing patient experience?

Walker and Laplume (2014) argue that sustainability is inherently considered with long time-frames. At a broad level, and according to the principles of sustainable development, companies need to actively pursue sustainability practices (Linnenluecke and Griffiths 2010; Sharma 2003). That is, sustainable development implies the need for economic, social and environmental sustainability in business models (Bansal 2005; Bocken et al. 2013). Høgevold et al. (2014) found different organizational directions in connection with organizational efforts and priorities of sustainability initiatives through time.This research provides the basis to understand the evolution through the time of organizational priorities and endeavours of sustainability initiatives. This leads to reveal differences and similarities between the healthcare sector entities.Theoretical propositions can be developed to guiding data collection and analysis in case studies as proposed by Yin (1994). This study has been conducted in one industry, overcoming contextual bias (Hartline and Jones 1996), targeting both public and private hospitals in Spain. The researchers carried out two series of seven in-depth interviews consisting of an initial round and then a follow-up round with directors of communication in private hospitals, and the executive responsible for CSR in public hospitals. The objective of the interviews was to acquire knowledge about the past and present efforts and priorities of sustainability initiatives. During the interviews, that lasted between 75 and 90 min, the research team was taking notes and making summary reports.The dual 15-dimensional framework of past and present efforts and priorities applied in this study has well served to accomplish the research objective. Another research implication is that the empirical findings reported have disclosed key determinants of organizational direction in private and public health care organizations. The principal key determinants of the organizational direction affecting efforts and priorities of sustainability initiatives are found to be: (i) change in organizational leadership, (ii) financial assets of the organization, (iii) religious orientation of the organization, (iv) organizational connection to the health care system, (v) internal values of the organization, and or (vi) top-staff orientation in the organization.

Adolescent smoking is a persistent public health problem across countries, including the UK (Unger and Rohrback 2002) that appears climbing (Chen et al. 2008; Farrelly et al. 2002). The model used in this study expands the EPPM model to include social factors (parental and peer pressure) and a range of emotions beyond fear. After pre-testing the field study included 1479 non-smoking adolescents 11–13 years old and 358 smokers 11–13 years old from a mix of schools in southern England. All scales proved reliable and the data were submitted to SEM. Among non-smokers parental views of smoking have a strong effect on smoking attitude and intentions to smoke, as does susceptibility to peer pressure. Perceived threat of smoking results in attitudes toward smoking being more negative for social threats only, while perceived efficacy reduces both attitudes and intentions for both social and physical threats.A main challenge identified by this research is that adolescents who smoke showed lower levels of perceived threat for smoking than do non-smokers. Literature shows that smokers who see a warning respond in a defensive manner and downplay the negative health effects of smoking. This lower perceived threat acts as a defence mechanism and is compatible with the notion of strong optimistic bias among adolescents. Perceived efficacy is an important factor in shaping future smoking attitudes and for intentions among both smokers and non-smoking adolescents. This study contributes to existing knowledge by showing how mechanisms of coping response can regulate reactions to physical and social threat appeals, physical (e.g., fear) and social (e.g., shame).The research has implications for both theory and health promotions. The results enhance knowledge of the effectiveness of threats, particularly for the under-research adolescent segment who are potentially vulnerable to peer pressure and, at times, resistant to parental influence. It also has implications for the design of public health anti-smoking campaigns for adolescent targets.E-cigarettes are growing health risk, potentially, among adolescents. The results are also a call for inquiry into adolescent responses to e-cigarette public health messages. As the use of e-cigarettes increases around the world, there is an urgent need to not only investigate the health implications of this tobacco product but also how successful health communications may and may not be strategically similar to those of traditional tobacco products, such as cigarettes.

The traditional fashion consumption model has evolved over the last two decades. Digital selling platforms (e.g. website, mobile applications) and pure-play retailers have allowed to consumers to engage in alternative forms of consumption (sharing) (Belk 2014). Consumers are moving away from disposable purchasing and enhancing their social consciousness leading to fashion retailers garment recycling opportunities (Armstrong et al. 2015). Despite the success of garment exchange platforms, companies are yet to introduce sharing platforms within their retail strategy.Through engagement in the process of sharing fashion consumers can reuse clothing, which offers an alternative to fashion consumption as a means of projecting self-identity. Authors relating to sharing consumption themes have explored attachment ownership (Belk 1988, 2014), re-circulation through second hand markets (Gregson and Crewe 2003), sharing within a sustainable context (Botsman and Roo 2010) and the digital sharing economy (Martin and Upham 2016). However, Choo et al. (2014) debated that there is very little research into fashion sharing behaviour from a consumer perspective. Furthermore, they suggest that the relationship between ownership, identity formation and recirculation needs further exploration to be understood in terms of relevance within this research.The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between sharing, identity and garment ownership to allow fashion retailers to establish whether sharing platforms can be introduced in their selling strategy.To establish the role of ownership and identity within consumers sharing behaviour, a purposive sample of millennial females (generation y and z) (Hall and Towers 2017) was recruited. Respondents engaged within a sharing event (e.g. a swap shop) recorded their experiences which were followed by an in-depth interview. Employing an interpretivist perspective, interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to establish the core themes presented by consumers. This will indicate whether consumer’s experience of sharing engagement compromises individual identity and their potential use of pre-owned garments.The findings of this research shall develop consumption literature by providing a fashion sharing context. This will identify the implications within the fashion industry and address the research gaps outlined. Fashion retailers can then determine the potential of including sharing platforms within their retail channel strategy.

Retailers in the fashion industry are constantly employing new strategies in attempts to increase demand and revenue. The premise of such strategies often involves the use of scarcity perceptions which can take the form of various restrictions set by a firm in terms of purchase limits, purchase conditions, time limits, and product limits (Inman et al. 1997). Although numerous positive benefits may result from scarcity purchases, this study reveals a potential dark side to how marketers can use consumers’ perceptions of scarcity to capitalize on consumer buying behaviors. Such practices are labeled as “manufactured scarcity,” and combines both types of true scarcity (demand and supply) in an attempt to influence the “psychology of scarcity.” This term was identified by Kizilbash and Smart (1975) and refers to “the changing behavioral patterns of firms and individuals as a result of actual or perceived shortages (p. 64).” This is believed to potentially induce a state of panic or impulse buying.To understand the impact of such scarcity practices, two fundamental human needs are also investigated in this study: Need for uniqueness and need for belonging. Uniqueness theory states that people are motivated to maintain a level “specialness” relative to others in order to define their own self-related evaluations, thus will possess a greater desire for more scarce products perceived due to limited supply. An individual’s need to belong is one a core social motives used to establish strong and stable relationships with others. If an individuals’ sense of belonging is high, they may have a greater desire to purchase products when scarcity is perceived due to demand.A two-part study is being conducted to investigate this scarcity practice. For part one of the study, participants are asked to take a personality survey which assesses their need for uniqueness, need for belonging, and demographic variables. For part two, a mock fashion website was created in which participants are told to shop. Purchasing choices are then manipulated using scarcity tactics based on high demand (i.e. over 1000 sold, only X left) or on limited availability (i.e. we only X of these items total). Measured DV’s include: purchase intentions, willingness to pay, intent to spread EWOM, and other related outcome variables amongst the various groups. The results of this study can show how various needs of individuals can provide a better explanation of why scarcity works.

For luxury fashion brands, building brand awareness and image is paramount (Atwal and Williams 2017; Heine 2012). The increased use of social media marketing (SMM) among luxury fashion brands has led to the interest in analysing the effectiveness of SMM activities (Godey et al. 2016; Kim and Ko 2012). Saudi Arabia symbolises a robust potential market for international luxury fashion brands as a lucrative market (Chalhoub-Group 2017). Saudi females in particular are renowned for their high disposable incomes, use of social media to find about latest trends, and are eager to purchase luxury fashion brands (Redvers 2016). Due to limit of literature in understanding how Saudi female consumers perceive and respond to luxury fashion brands’ SMM activities in conservative society, the present study serves as groundwork to explore the subject matter in Saudi Arabia. Based on semi-structured interviews with Saudi female luxury fashion consumers, who follow luxury fashion brands on social media, the study helps to address gaps in prior social media branding literature. Specifically, the study indicates perceived luxury fashion brands’ SMM activities are composed of four factors, and they are labelled as trendiness, social role and image, irritation and value corruption. Consumers behaviourally expressed a negative response to the content when it is not appropriate to Saudi society by skipping the content, avoid purchasing from the brand, stop following the brand on social media, or sharing negative WOM. This exploratory study contributes a fundamental knowledge that makes explicit how SMM activities impact upon important branding goals of generating favourable consumers’ behavioural response. From managerial standpoint, SMM strategies ought to consider content that is trendy and stimulating social role and image to generate positive consumers’ responses. The findings also mean that luxury fashion brands should ensure that social media content is appropriate to Saudi society and consumers’ values to avoid negative consumers’ response.

Findings from three studies demonstrate that consumers’ processing of persuasive messages is related to their motivation to use technologies (also referred to as media, device or platform) on which the persuasive messages are transmitted. A vast body of literature asserts that, in part, motivation to process information influences the extent to which consumers allocate attention and processing resources to comprehend and elaborate on information (Petty and Cacioppo 1986; Maclnnis and Jaworski 1989). Prior research in this area has focused on the effect of message executions and cues on consumers’ motivation to process brand information. These cues include music or emotional appeals, and are within the actual message. The present article examines the effect of media, which is external to the actual message, on consumers’ motivation to process advertising.A separate body of literature asserts that consumers’ media use is motivated; and that greater functionality of a medium increases its acceptance and use (Katz et al. 1974: Rubin 1994; Ruggiero 2000; Vanketesh 2000). Taken together, this research examines enhancing processing motivation via factors external to the actual brand information. Doing so has implications for subsequent attitudes and intentions towards the firm. Very little is known about how consumers’ navigation and integration of brand information is affected by the various types of devices or interfaces, reflecting internet-enabled environments consumers use.Over the years, it has become even more pressing an issue that marketing practitioners must often select and integrate technological platforms into their marketing strategy while having little knowledge of the impact of these selections on consumers. With the medium being more tied to the processing of the message than ever, and users’ interaction with media becoming more relational and experience-based (i.e., mobile sites, UX design), research on how to enhance the effectiveness of advertising should come to account for factors associated with the transmitting technology. In response to this, Yadav and Pavlou (2014) proposed that marketing theory should produce more research related to computer-mediated consumer–firm interactions this research advances our understanding of brand information processing (MacKenzie and Spreng 1992). Most notably, motivation in one context appears to interact with other sources of processing of motivation and spill over onto motivation of other but related things (motivation to process advertising).

In view of the impact of advertisement on consumers’ response and purchasing behavior toward brands, more and more brand managers hope to communicate brand-related information and build up the connections with consumers through various advertisements. Based on reviewing the literature of the types and effects of advertisements, this study combines the view of situational continuity and transportation theory to investigate the effects of narrative advertisement on consumers’ subjective comprehension of advertisements and brand experience.Before the formal experiment, this study conducted two pre-tests to select the focal product and brand name. After the two pre-tests, the professional team wrote the script and produced the narrative film-advertisement. This study conducted two experiments to examine consumers’ responses while viewing a new brand’s narrative film advertisement with different combinations of situational continuity. The results of Experiment 1 show that compare to the argumentative advertisement, narrative advertisements can lead to consumers’ higher level of subjective comprehension, sensory experience, affective experience, and behavioral experience. Subsequently, Experiment 2 tests the effect of different situational continuity factors on consumers’ brand experience. The results show that consumers’ subjective comprehension of narrative advertisement is affected by the casual and time continuity of narrative advertisements. Moreover, the effect of casual and time continuity of the narrative advertisement on consumers’ brand experience is mediated by their subjective comprehension and transportation.The main effect of causality is statistically significant, indicating that consumers have more subjective comprehension of narrative advertisements with high causality than those with low causality. Second, the main effect of time continuity is statistically significant, indicating that consumers have more subjective comprehension of time-continuous narrative advertisements relative to time-discontinuous narrative advertisements. Third, the results show that the main effect of spatial continuity is not statistically significant. Consumers’ subjective comprehensions are not significantly different when they watch spatially continuous and discontinuous narrative advertisements. Finally, the results show that transportation indeed plays as a mediator role in the relationship between situational factors and consumers’ brand experience.The results confirm that consumers’ brand experience can indeed be generated by viewing narrative ads. This study enriches the inadequacy of past literature in consumer brand experience by discovering the impact of narrative film-ads on brand experience. In addition, this study applies the situational model that used to be used to explore the narrative structure of texts in narrative film ads. It helps to build a more precise causal relationship between situational factors and consumers’ brand experience.

Although Consumers’ awareness about the environmental impact of consumptions and their appreciations of green products are on the rise. However, past research has shown that the adoption of green products is still relatively low. In this research, we propose that consumers’ internal locus of control (i.e., the degree to which consumers believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives) and the attribution of human emotions to a product, termed as product anthropomorphism might jointly affect consumer purchase decisions. Specifically, in this research, we examine the moderating effect of product anthropomorphism on the relationship between consumers’ internal locus of control and purchase intention of an anthropomorphised green product. In this research, we use the adoption of an energy-saving electric kettle as our research context.We conducted two studies. In the first study, using an online survey data (N = 120), we tested the direct effect of consumers’ internal locus of control on consumers’ purchase intention of green products. Our results revealed that consumers’ internal locus of control has a positive effect on consumers’ purchase intentions. In the second study (N = 400), for the same anthropomorphised electric kettle, we examined the moderating effect of green product anthropomorphism on the relationship between consumers’ internal locus of control and the consumers’ purchase intention of green products. The results of second study revealed that consumers’ internal locus of control positively affects purchase intention, replicating results of the first study. However, more importantly, the results of the second study revealed that the effect of consumers’ internal locus of control on purchase intention is moderated by green product anthropomorphism. That is, product anthropomorphism enhanced the positive effect of locus of control of purchase intention, such that consumers are more likely to purchase green products when the product is anthropomorphised. The implication of this research are that adding the anthropomorphic features of green products and communicating that consumers could contribute to environmental sustainability could increase green product adoptions.

In the symptomatic case of energy use, despite insistent messages prompting consumers to reduce energy consumption, many people do not change their behaviour in buying and/or using more energy-efficient products (Paço and Lavrador 2017; Sempels and Vandercammen 2009). Few studies have focused on the concept of non-adoption of environmentally responsible behaviour despite its importance for firms and public policies in the energy sector (Bartiaux et al. 2006; Pierce et al. 2010; Steg 2008). To improve our understanding of consumers’ non-adoption of energy-efficient behaviours, we referred to recent literature on anticonsumption and consumer resistance (Nepomuceno et al. 2017; Roux 2007). To address the lack of research on this topic, we conducted a two-level qualitative study that examines two phases of purchase and use of products and equipment with low energy consumption considered as environmentally friendly. The first level embodies an exploratory participative online study consisting of discussions on five French online forums combined with a second study based on twenty semi-structured and thematically focused interviews. This research revealed an oppositional behaviour that can be considered as a form of resistance to deconsumption and thus as a kind of ‘resistance to consumption resistance’. Moreover, this research proposes a consumer typology towards saving energy (The influenced and the opportunistic; The convinced environmentalist; The extrinsically constrained and the revolted; The inherently constrained, the indifferent and the counter resistant). This typology is obtained by crossing two variables: whether the consumer adopts or not an energy-efficient behaviour and the attribution of the cause of this behaviour to the self (internal cause) or to external factors (i.e. public policy, social pressure). Finally, this study attempts to derive managerial implications that may help relevant organizations and companies to make households adopt more environmentally responsible behaviour towards home energy consumption by influencing those who do not adopt energy-efficient behaviour to change their attitude.

Since environmental degradation principally ensues from human activities, reversing its progression lies with altering consumer behaviors. Environmental concern and improved awareness about pro-environmental initiatives is essential but insufficient for generating enduring behavioral shifts. Beyond pecuniary and product performance concerns, unless consumers hold a sense of empowerment and responsibility for achieving green outcomes, “…green ‘creeds’ are unlikely to translate into green ‘deeds’” (Cleveland et al. 2012, p. 210). We submit that consumer’s propensity to undertake proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) is also helped or hindered by beliefs stemming in part, from situational cues that respectively encourage or thwart the enactment of PEBs.Building upon the concept of Environmental Locus of Control (ELOC)—which refers to a person’s personal efficacy and responsibility to change the environment (Cleveland and Kalamas 2015)—this research examines the intervening roles played by consumers’ perceptions of enabling and constraining contextual factors, in mediating the relationships between the two broad loci of external ELOC (“powerful others”, and “chance or fate”) and PEBs. These enabling and constraining factors are classified along a continuum of objectivity vs. subjectivity (i.e., real vs. perceived), and we investigate how these constructs independently and jointly (i.e., by mediating the predictive ability of external ELOC) affect PEBs. With two studies (n1 = 670 students, n2 = 310 mainstream adult consumers), we examined the construct validity of our psychometric and behavioral measures, and using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, tested our hypothesized model.The results largely corroborated the mediating role of environmental constraints and enablers in explaining the role between external ELOC and PEBs. These mediating factors provide an important missing piece to help bridge the proenvironmental attitude-behavior gap. The task facing marketers and public policy makers is not just to understand consumers’ environmental dispositions and ascriptions of responsibility for achieving environmental goals, but moreover, to (re)engineering the context to enhance the pre-eminence of enablers (ease of being green, availability/quality of eco-options, etc.) and curtail the implied presence of hindrances (cost, effort required, quality trade-offs, etc.).

Green marketing may provide a marketer with a differential advantage. However, a great concern for green marketers is the “ethical consumption attitude-behaviour gap” sometimes simply referred to as the “green gap” or green “attitude-behaviour gap” – reflecting the reality that while consumers may care about the environment, they would not necessarily engage in green consumption behaviours. A plausible approach to closing the green “attitude-behaviour” gap may involve relying on customers’ willingness to act as “partial marketing employees” and voluntarily assist other consumers by advocating product benefits and persuading others to make a green purchase. Customers could also provide feedback to the firm to improve its product, which may lead to further green purchasing behaviour. Subsequently, the successful investment in customers as “partial marketing employees” would require additional information on: (1) who the potential candidates are, (2) how likely they are to seek the job, (3) the candidates’ behavioural characteristics and (4) where firm investment may be needed to enhance performance. The present study aimed to provide insight into these matters. A total of 1243 self-administered questionnaires were completed by a subset of consumers in the United States. Latent class analysis and structural equation modelling assisted in finding the required information to effectively invest in customers as “partial marketing employees”. Ultimately, the findings serve to further enlighten scholars on the role and value of green marketing practices that can also be performed by fellow customers, which may offer a more cost-effective and practical solution for closing the green “attitude-behaviour” gap and obtaining a competitive advantage. The results further indicate that there is a large workforce of “partial marketing employees” who may assist marketers in facilitating greater green product adoption, as both strong and weak supporters are likely to engage in citizenship behaviours, Hence, scholarly research should not only focus on understanding and motivating strong supporters of green behaviour. Although strong supporters are more likely to engage in citizenship behaviours, it may be worth also nurturing weak supporters and improving their employability to perform citizenship behaviours.

Does seeing a friend supporting a non-profit organization on social media affect one’s subsequent behaviour on social media? How is it different from seeing a friend supporting a luxury or utilitarian company on social media? These questions are particularly important for non-profit organizations as social media platforms have provided enormous opportunity for community outreach and strengthening relationship with fundraisers. In three experiments, we answer these questions by examining the differential influences of social network endorsement types (i.e., Facebook vs. offline social engagement) on one’s subsequent social behaviour on Facebook. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 show that for a non-profit organization, peer-influence is more beneficial when encountered in an offline social engagement (e.g., wearing a cause pin as a result of donation) than viewed on Facebook. However, for-profit companies displayed no difference or the opposite effect of peer-influence when endorsing that company. Specifically, for a utilitarian company, peer-influence is more beneficial when happens on Facebook than offline social engagement. For luxury companies, there is no differential effect of peer-influence on Facebook or face-to-face. Drawing on costly signalling theory, Experiment 2 demonstrates that perceived altruism is the underlying mechanism for the positive effect of offline social engagement for non-profit organizations. Experiment 3 introduces the self-company connection as the boundary condition and shows that the positive effect of prior exposure to social offline engagement for non-profits (and Facebook endorsement for utilitarian companies) only emerges when the self-company connection to the non-profits is low. When personal connection to a non-profit organization is high, individuals support the non-profit regardless of the way their peers endorse the organization.

This research tests a valenced model of fit for cause-related marketing (CRM) partnerships developed by Liebetrau et al. (2018). Liebetrau et al.’s (2018) model proposes nine specific categories of fit, particularly drawing from Zdravkovic et al. (2010) and Basil and Basil (2003). Specifically, the model examines two key factors: valence and commonality. Valence refers to whether the company and the cause are apparently working toward a unified purpose or cross-purposes outside of the partnership. Commonality refers to whether the company and cause appear to have something in common. Crossing these factors develops a two-dimensional space upon which three general types of CRM fit (positive, neutral, and negative) are placed and within these general types, nine different sub-types of CRM fit are placed.An on-line, scenario-based experiment was conducted to assess the proposed model. Participants were sourced from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, resulting in 544 usable responses. Model fit, attitude, and purchase intention toward the general fit types of CRM partnerships were assessed.Fit was shown to be a multi-faceted concept, yet individuals see differences in the types of fit relatively consistently. Positive fit was most consistently categorized, rated on commonality and valence, and had the most favorable attitudes and purchase intentions. The high CRM attitude and purchase intention ratings for the various forms of positive fit (natural fit, mission, and function fit) suggest that if the supported cause or charity is directly related to a company’s business practice, purpose, written statement, or products, consumers recognize and reward that. Among the negative fit sub-types, the form of negative fit impacted consumer response. Prevention fit, which occurs when a company attempts to alleviate the harm they cause, has potential to evoke favorable attitudes and higher purchase intentions. Prevention fit can be used by companies to communicate a behavior change, whereby the company moves away from creating a harmful effect on the cause to actively addressing and changing its behavior. Other forms of negative fit (e.g. complicity and redresser) may be somewhat confusing to consumers and therefore risky to use. Marketers are advised to exercise caution when contemplating a negative fit CRM alliance.Model revisions were proposed based on study results. These should be tested in further empirical research. In summary, it was demonstrated that consumers consistently see discernable differences between CRM partnerships based on the nature of the fit between company or brand and charity, and the fit distinctions proposed by the model are a useful means of understanding these differences.

Recent developments in business practices have led marketing experts and practitioners to expect more focused action on social causes in marketing communications and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with businesses interested in areas where they can make the most impact (McPherson 2018). At the same time, studies have shown that most consumers want brands to take a stand on social and political issues (Oster 2018). Specialists have underlined that corporate America has gotten involved in causes such as gay rights, gun control, gender equality, civil rights, immigration, climate change, and the minimum wage (Shephard 2018).The purpose of this paper is to study the changes in corporate social responsibility that have occurred in recent years, their implication for organizations that take social causes, as well as their micro and macro level effects. First, in a qualitative study, we analyze the recent evolution of corporate social responsibility and its relationship with major social and political events on the national (US), and international scene. Second, in an event study, we assess the effect of marketing based on social causes and its relationship with the business’ bottom-line.We started first with a case study and analyzed the Twitter posts from Nike during the period June 2017 – September 2018 and created Nike’s sociogram using NVivo. We then extracted 7133 consumer tweets posted 2 weeks after the launch of the Collin Kaepernick campaign in September 2018, focused on promoting civil rights and protesting police brutality. We performed a qualitative analysis of consumer tweets to identify the main themes present in consumer messages and to create a conceptual map. Results emphasized the high polarization and widespread support that Nike’s decision to take one side of the politically charged topic has created. Unlike typical CSR examples, meant to gain a positive reaction, the implication of the business in this social cause has created both significant positive and negative reactions from consumers, with overwhelming positive effects on sales and stocks (Creswell et al. 2018).For the quantitative part of this paper, we performed an event study to analyze the effect on the share prices of businesses that endorse or promote polarizing social and political issues. Some of the events analyzed, representing some of the most debated events, showed that under certain circumstances financial markets do react significantly to the asset prices of organizations that have taken a stand on social causes. The study of recent CSR events has shown a trend toward CSR 2.0, in which global corporate responsibility is completed with the involvement of business organizations in highly polarizing political causes, helped by the use of the digital platform.

The clothes we wear have considerable power over how others perceive us (e.g., Forsythe 1990) and these perceptions are often internalized. Yet, despite knowing this, the children’s clothing market is incredibly gendered, offering female children shirts with stereotypical feminine images and words such as “kind” and “sweet”, while young boys can choose from stereotypical masculine options that often say things like “tough” and “strong.” Yet, at the same time retailers are offering gendered children’s products, society has also begun to shift their opinions on gender norms and their importance. For example, in a 2017 study conducted by the international marketing firm Havas, researchers surveyed 12,000 people across 32 countries and found that the majority of adults (61% women and 46% men) believe children should be raised in a gender-neutral manner, while less (39% of women and 54% of men) preferred to see girls and boys raised with gender-specific products such as toys and clothing.With these two conflicting trends, the question becomes whether consumers are ready to rid the industry of children’s gendered products. We argue that children would benefit from wearing clothing that includes gender-congruent and gender-incongruent depictions and test whether consumers are willing to buy both options. The goals of our studies are (1) examine whether there is a difference in product offerings to children on the basis of gender, (2) assess whether parents have a preference for gender-congruent clothing for their children, (3) explain why they may have this preference, and (4) identify ways to decrease this preference and increase purchase intentions of gender-incongruent options. Our results indicate that retailers offer more gender-congruent than gender-incongruent options and this may be driven by parental preferences for gender-congruent clothing. Furthermore, perceptions of fit can explain a preference for congruency, which is moderated by implicit bias. Finally, by improving perceptions of fit, retailers can decrease congruency preferences.

Many things in life don’t come easily. Often losing weight, becoming fit, managing serious illness and getting a higher degree are experiences fraught with difficulty. While pain is recognised as part and parcel of most consumption experiences (Liu et al. 2018; Scott et al. 2017) what it means for value outcomes is less clear. Pain is understudied in service contexts, and when it has, it is bundled with promotions and motivations (Liu et al. 2018) rather than value. Typically value is viewed as a trade-off: costs or sacrifices are subtracted from overall benefits (Zeithaml 1988). An alternate approach, goal directed, means to an end, focuses on the outcome (Gallarza et al. 2011), thus it is about the goal not the difficulty of the journey to get there. But what if the degree of sacrifice increased rather than decreased the overall value? Recent research has indicated that this could be the case (Scott et al. 2017). The current paper posits that this translates into changing the conventional value equation. We could possibly value something particularly highly because it is hard to obtain. This would mean the negatives enhance rather than detract from value; sacrifices could add rather than subtract to benefits, in contrast to the conventional trade-off approach to value adjudication.The current study posits that pain can have an additive effect to value; it can also lead to a positive value outcome. We explored a credence good, that of an executive MBA experience, to analyse positive and negative experiences that occurred during acquisition of the MBA. It focused on peer to peer learning vehicles, namely MBA syndicates. Making use of the critical incident technique, insights were generated on how peer groups contributed towards the value creation process. The findings indicated that syndicate interactions, while often fraught with difficulty, ultimately added more value for personal rather than academic development. There are implications for service design. We further supported the literature on the role of fellow consumers in value creation and we established that negative processes could in themselves create valued outcomes and thereby provide pain as an additive rather than subtractive part of the value process. Findings draw from positive psychology and the concept of flow to explain the navigation of complex service environments where the individual needs to participate and undergo change.

Luchs and Mick (2018) developed an empirically derived five-facet theoretical framework of consumer wisdom which we use as a starting point for the development of a measurement scale. Our first step was to generate a set of 120 potential scale items that were then administered to an online sample of 286 Prolific Academic participants. An exploratory factor analysis suggested a six-factor model. We retained 24 items based on factor loadings and conceptual breadth. We named these factors as: Lifestyle responsibility, Purpose, Flexibility, Perspective, Prudent reasoning, and Transcendence. Next, we tested a hierarchical model in which a single higher-order consumer wisdom factor predicts the six lower-order factors. The results of confirmatory factor analysis reached acceptable levels of model fit per Netemeyer et al. (2003).For our second data set, we recruited an online sample of 439 Prolific Academic participants. In addition to providing ratings for the 24 CWS items, they also provided responses for a variety of related scales. As expected, CWS was positively and significantly correlated with consumer spending self-control (.57), elaboration of potential outcomes (.50), consumer self-confidence (.35), need for cognition (.22), growth mindset (.18), voluntary simplicity (.21), green attitudes (.46), and socially responsible purchase and disposal (.34). Also as expected, CWS was negatively and significantly correlated with materialism (−.15), compulsive buying (−.31), and spendthrift behaviors (−.39). Overall, CWS was related to all of these constructs as expected, yet the correlations were all moderate to weak thereby affirming the unique position of CWS within this network of related consumer research constructs.Data set 3 was used to demonstrate the incremental predictive validity of CWS. A third party vendor recruited an online sample of 660 participants using a quota sampling approach to match the demographics of the latest US Census. After responding to demographic questions, participants provided ratings for the 24 CWS items. Next, participants provided responses for four measures of well-being. In order to assess the incremental predictive validity of CWS, we also included Walen and Lachman’s (2000) personal relationship support scale, Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian’s (1996) job satisfaction scale, and Huh and Shin’s (2014) health assessment scale. We first established a baseline set of regressions, model 1, which included the demographic measures as control variables and all of the predictors of well-being except for consumer wisdom. Next, model 2 added consumer wisdom to model 1. As expected, consumer wisdom was a significant predictor in model 2 for all four measures of well-being (all p < .0001). Further, the addition of consumer wisdom significantly improved the model for all four measures of well-being (all Fchange p < .0001). Overall, our hierarchical model of consumer wisdom provides a refinement on Luchs and Mick’s (2018) theoretical framework and provides a psychometrically sound 24-item measurement scale.

Consumers often make decisions that involve either a spatially close or distant consumption experience (Tversky 1992). These decisions have fascinated scholars, and recent scholarship has added to our body of knowledge regarding the roles of spatial distance in information processing and ensuing consumer judgments (e.g. Raghubir et al. 2011). Yet, much remains to be learned regarding how advertising messages about consumer experiences that will occur at different spatial, geographic distances are processed. Two separate experiments were conducted, both manipulating spatial distance and elaborative approach. The current inquiry increases knowledge and understanding about spatial distance by demonstrating that: (1) far spatial distance dampens the flow of triggered episodic memory and thus diminishes the efficiency of the consumer imagination in producing consumer responses, (2) close spatial distance facilitates the retrieval of triggered episodic memory, enhancing the consumer imagination and improving consumer responses, and (3) certainty and involvement provide the explanatory mechanism for the effects of spatial distance (far vs. close) on consumer responses when the tested cities evoke some degree of certainty.Overall, spatial distance perceptions differentially impact information flow in the imagine Our findings have implications for marketing practice. Results suggest that marketing communications that include various degrees of spatial distance differentially impact consumer responses. Advertising messages should be developed with consideration to how spatially close or far the consumption event will be. The appropriate elaborative approach should be utilized, based on the degree of spatial distance employed. Thus, marketing messages can be developed to take into account that when a consumption setting is spatially far, the flow of episodic memory is suppressed and the imagination is obstructed as a persuasive tool. For example, a vacation getaway to a distant, exotic, named locations (such as Bora Bora, Kathmandu or Timbuktu) is likely to be best received when promotional messages give specific details about the trip and the location.

Rapid growth of Internet and other technologies has spawned a virtual world resulting from Web 2.0. Firm-hosted online brand communities (OBCs) are among the social medium that have emerged as effective vehicles for organizations to establish long-term relationships with consumers and to facilitate interaction with and among consumers. By engaging in firm-hosted OBCs, consumers not only share similar interests, exchange brand-related information, support others with product- or brand-related issues, but also receive news in advance from the organization. Thus, recent research increasingly focuses on consumers’ OBC engagement, which can be seen as the extent of participants’ specific interactions and/or interactive experiences.Despite an increased interest in the connections among OBC engagement, customer–community relationship, and customer–brand relationship, relatively no empirical research has explored the important role of moderating mechanisms that enhance such relationships. Accordingly, we intend to shed light on how customer–community relationship affects OBC engagement, which in turn, leads to a customer–brand relationship. Drawing on both use and gratification theory and social cognitive theory, we investigate the important role of function-based supports (i.e., cognitive function and social/affective function) as moderators of the relationship between OBC identification–OBC engagement and OBC engagement–brand loyalty. In particular, we identify learning benefits and self-development benefits as key factors of cognitive functions while social/affective function includes social integrative benefits and hedonic benefits. Results based on a 294-respondent survey data show that Social/affective function factors positively moderate both the OBC identification–OBC engagement relationship and the OBC engagement–brand loyalty relationship. Cognitive function factors, on the other hand, only moderates the effects of OBC engagement on brand loyalty. The findings provide academic insights for scholars and marketing implications for practitioners in building and managing firm-hosted OBCs.

To succeed in the complex and fast-changing marketplace nowadays, firms must not only exploit existing marketing knowledge and practices but also explore new ones; that is, firms must incorporate ambidexterity into their marketing functions (Day 2011). Through the simultaneous pursuit of exploitation and exploration across marketing programs, firms would be able to identify and seize market opportunities to a greater extent, resulting in higher performance. However, studies examining the link between marketing ambidexterity (MA) and firm performance are scarce, and limitations in these studies restrict our understanding of this complex relationship.This study aims to contribute to the marketing literature in several ways. First, we refine the conceptualization of MA as the marketing function’s bilateral focus with equal attention paid to marketing exploitation and marketing exploration respectively. Empirically, MA is operationalized as convergent levels of exploitation and exploration across major marketing actions, including product design, promotion, segmentation and targeting, pricing, and customer service. Then, we examine the nature of the relationship between MA and firm performance in terms of sales growth.Second, this study examines how the firm’s AC moderates the relationship between MA and sales growth. Since one salient aspect of AC is the capability of integrating internal and external knowledge (Cohen and Levinthal 1990; Rothaermel and Alexandre 2008), AC plays a crucial role in resolving the trade-offs between the inward-focused exploitation and the outward-focused exploration. In addition, it is likely that firms that possess strong AC are vigilant to emergent market opportunities and proactive in seizing those opportunities through the use of market-related knowledge stored in organizational knowledge repository (Vorhies et al. 2011). Therefore, AC possibly affects the extent to which firms can benefit from embracing MA. Examining the interplay between MA and AC, the present study shows their complementarity in creating market offerings that induce greater customer demand, resulting in higher sales.Analyzing a unique dataset that combines survey and archival financial data from 318 private firms, this study finds that MA is positively associated with sales growth for firms with relatively strong AC. This relationship becomes negative for firms with weak AC. Results are robust when the additive and multiplicative terms of exploitation and exploration are controlled for. The findings underscore the critical role of organizational knowledge processing in ensuring that firms can benefit from the pursuit of MA.

This paper aims at presenting and discussing the ways the Resource-Advantage (R-A) Theory can help integrate Marketing knowledge after a long period in which marketing has become disentangled and fragmented. The paper trails the evolutionary periods (five eras) proposed by previous authors in the examination of how Marketing has developed as a discipline (Hunt 2018; Wilkie and Moore 2003). ‘Era IV’, in particular, exposes a process of fragmentation of marketing strategy into special fields like marketing orientation, relationship marketing, brand equity, and market segmentation, after 1980. Thus, ‘Era V’ signals the future advancement of strategic marketing after 2020.The role of Resource-Advantage (R-A) Theory in strategic marketing, in particular, and Marketing, in general, has evolved and become prominent in current strategic marketing. Thus, the focus of this paper is to examine how this role can take place in ‘Era V’ of strategic marketing. The R-A Theory is integrative and offers auspicious paths to remedy the fragmentation of marketing knowledge in ‘Era IV’. It is an overarching theory that helps explain the changes in the markets and understand the ubiquitous role of investment, innovation, and organizational learning in economic growth.The R-A Theory is well-founded to study economic crises and economic growth beyond the macro constructs of purchasing power, the poor-rich gap, capital accumulation, secured property rights, progression technology, and business creation. The internal forces of competition, such as firm competitive advantages and comparative advantages the R-A Theory is based on, can help grasp why the mis-allocation of resources due to greed and opportunism that produced the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Accordingly, micro-level factors may have prevailed over macro-levels factors in the generation of the financial crisis.The inclusion of environmental factors, fundamentally societal resources, societal institutions, competitors-suppliers, consumers, and policy makers (government), in the process of R-A competition (Hunt 2000, 2015) facilitates the integration of knowledge to better understand economic growth and the wealth of nations under various social and political conditions. The potential integration of relevant environmental factors in the process of generating competitive and comparative advantages by the firm in specific markets can facilitate research to answer the why question in business and marketing problems. The integration of firm internal forces (e.g., competitive and comparative advantages) with societal resources and institutions (e.g., proactive and reactive innovations, protected property rights, social trust, and codes of conduct) can explain both firm-level financial performance and country-level economic development, consumer well-being, and sustainable wealth.

Knowledge is undoubtedly one of the most important factors that help organization to achieve competitive advantage against rivals. Absorptive capacity (ACAP) reflects an organizational capability that enables firms to assess, assimilate and finally applicate their knowledge within the organization. At the same time, the implementation of organizational knowledge is expressed through adoption of an appropriate organizational strategy. In this study we choose pioneering orientation (PO) to be a strategy whereby the organizations think, make decisions and act in order to advance new product development. Against this background, our study aims to advance the marketing literature by examining the impact of ACAP on new product performance (NPP) and identifying the role of PO as a mediator of the ACAP – NPP relationship. A growing body of research has documented the positive contribution of ACAP to NPP. However, understanding how to manage PO as organizational strategy is important managerially and theoretically.Following Cadiz et al. (2009), we define ACAP as a three-dimensional construct: assessment, assimilation and application. The PO scale was taken from Covin et al. (1999) and included four items. The NPP scale was taken from Murray et al. (2011) and included three items. We hypothesize that PO mediate the relationships between ACAP and NPP.Data were collected through a professional online panel company. The sample included 304 managers in Israeli organizations, who responded to a questionnaire with 7-point scales (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). All scales were reliable with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient exceeding 0.70 (Nunnally 1978). Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via AMOS software the results of the measurement model indicate a good fit with χ2 = 167.12, DF = 82, χ2/DF = 2.04, p = .00, IFI = .98, CFI = .98, TLI = .97, and RMSEA = .06. The data indicated a positive and significant impact of ACAP on PO (β = 0.73; p ≤ 0.01). Also, the impact of PO on NPP was found positive and significant (β = 0.78; p ≤ 0.01). However, the direct effect of ACAP on NPP was not found significant. These findings indicate that PO can play a role of full mediator between ACAP and NPP.In light of these findings we can argue that PO looks like an excellent pathway that helps to exploit and use the knowledge absorbed in the organization when the goal of the organization is the success of NPP.This study provides several managerial implications. First, managers should constantly pursuit after new ways to acquire, assimilate and applicate knowledge within the organization in order to leverage their competitive advantage and strengthen their absorptive capacity against their rivals. Second, managers should take some risks in order to enhance their pioneering strategy. By doing so they may respond effectively to competitive threats in the marketplace, and differentiate themselves from others to promote new product development which eventually may improve their NPP.

Healthy lifestyle is usually investigated for its influence on salutary food choices, habits, and regular physical activity, as well as for its function in preventing chronic diseases (Gadais et al. 2018). Furthermore, some studies also attempted to analyze the huge impact of this topic on the marketplace, particularly with reference to the food industry (Divine and Lepisto 2005), and dietary supplements (Miles Homer and Mukherjee 2018). However, few contributions (Roodhuyzen et al. 2017) focused their attention on the possible relation between healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity. For this reason, the study aims to enrich this research gap by investigating the possible impact of a healthier food lifestyle (i.e., regular eating habits, healthy food consumption, habits of eating at home) on both food waste intensity and actions preventing food waste. Moreover, the paper investigates the mediating effect of actions preventing food waste on the relationship between lifestyle components and food waste intensity. Based on an online survey of 1941 consumers, the research hypotheses were tested using PLS-PM approach to Structural Equation Model.Results show that consumption of healthy food positively influences food waste preventing behaviours, while it has a negative effect on food waste intensity. This means that people, putting high attention on the healthy properties of foods they eat, tend to follow a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Additionally, meals’ regularity has no significant impact on food waste intensity, while it positively affects the adoption of actions preventing it. Finally, the greater the propensity to eat at home, the lower the intensity of food waste is, while actions preventing food waste are improved by such a habit. This result suggests that people, who prefer to eat at home, produce less food waste by showing great abilities in planning food purchases, reusing leftovers, and managing food before its deterioration. Concerning the mediation analysis, findings indicate that food waste prevention plays the role of partial mediation on both the relationships healthy food consumption-food waste, and habits of eating at home-food waste. This means that even if consumers are driven by health-related values, the intensity of food waste reduction is higher when they are also led by a positive attitude towards food waste reduction.The study provides both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical viewpoint, the work deepens the food waste management literature by focusing on consumers’ lifestyle and by considering actions preventing food waste. Furthermore, the article focuses its attention on the causal mechanisms of consumer food waste – a topic still little explored – by confirming that preventing behaviours can improve the influence of healthy lifestyle dimensions on food waste intensity. Managerially, the article provides implications for institutions, associations, producers, and retailers by identifying possible strategies for reducing the food waste intensity.

Over the past 20 years, health and environmental issues have led to the reshaping of a more sustainable or resilient agriculture and to increased sales of organic and local products. However, organic food accounts for only $4 billion in Canada, barely 3% of total annual food consumption, and direct-to-consumer markets represent only 3% of Quebecers’ food consumption (Mundler and Laughrea 2015).As sustainable consumption patterns became more prevalent, the food retail landscape had to adapt and has dramatically changed. Academic literature in management, and to a lesser degree in marketing, used to oppose or to study separately the legitimation process of different types of food retailing (Beylier et al. 2011; Lanciano 2018; Zaidi-Chtourou and Vernier 2017).This paper proposes a more integrative understanding of the dynamics of change in the food’s organizational field. Sociological neo-institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell 1983) has focused on the dynamics of institutional change and is able to explain both continuity and change in social practices (Maguire and Hardy 2009). Moreover, it provides a broader perspective on the analysis than Consumer Culture Theory (Arnould and Thompson 2005), which remains focused on the company-consumer dyad.Our ethnographic study allows us to establish a primary diagnosis of the food’s organizational field in Quebec. Sustainable food is an emergent field in transition between theorization and diffusion stages (Maguire et al. 2004): if the actors share the same values and the same sense of reality, rules of interaction are still under construction on a macro level (Bitektine and Haack 2015).Results highlight the institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006) of individual actors in order to influence the three pillars of institutions that structure the organizational field (Scott 1995). However, data analysis reveals three major issues which affect respectively each of the three pillars: the lack of pragmatic legitimacy (Bitekhtine 2011), the need for collective standards and the absence of political representation. These issues impede the cognitive legitimation process (Suchman 1995) and stop the institutional change (Greenwood et al. 2002).Such diagnosis allows marketing practitioners to identify what needs to be done in order to contribute to institutional change. As Chaney and Ben Slimane (2014) argued, marketing can contribute to influence the legitimation process, which implies integrating or adapting the value proposition of the organization into shared meaning patterns. For example, we suggest the “anchoring” market transformation strategy, which consists of inserting the new offering in existing institutions.

The banking industry is undergoing a paradigm change in the form of financial innovation and enabling technology. The advent of Financial Technology, or FinTech, in banking has changed the landscape of firm-customer interactions and delivery of unique customer experiences. Revolutionary FinTech firms are using technology to design and offer novel services that proactively meet consumer needs of financial services in direct and valuable ways (Gomber et al. 2018). The disruptive innovation triggered by technology has pitted incumbent banks against the agile new entrants, such as challenger or digital-only banks and FinTech firms. Crucially, customer experience has emerged as the new competitive front for financial services. Banks can no longer compete on product, price or the number of physical branches they have. What wins customer over is innovative products, proactive approach, and convenience in interacting via wide variety of channels (EY Banking Survey 2016).Despite widespread media and industry interest in FinTechs’ increasing ability to provide superior customer experience, academic research on this issue is still in an embryonic stage. This research seeks to understand how FinTech firms are developing greater customer orientation by delivering superior customer experiences. Does FinTech-driven experience promote greater consumer trust and satisfaction, and does it have a positive impact on word-of-mouth? This research aims to inform the industry and marketing professionals in understanding how the acceptance of technology by customers is influencing their customer experience.Our research methodology aims to explore the perceptions of customers of various large banks through a survey questionnaire. The survey consist of statements related to the factors affecting acceptance of online banking (TAM), online consumer experience antecedents and statements related to the interaction between service provide and customers via technology. Findings will provide insights into how banks can formulate successful strategies to address emerging competitive threats.Our policy contribution is to inform the industry and marketing professionals in understanding how the acceptance of technology by customers is influencing their customer experience. This research joins ongoing regulatory dialogues (e.g. Australian Securities and Investment Commission, 2018; Chartered Banker Institute, 2018), which assert that despite an increasingly important role of technology, service staff still plays a key role in rendering superior customer experience in banking. This study aims to conduct a detailed analysis of the dynamic role played by employee- customer (Branch-level) and technology-customer (FinTech) interfaces. Are they complements or substitutes? Our findings will provide insights into how banks can formulate successful strategies to address emerging competitive threats.

The traditional mode of service typically represents a one-way delivery when people receive the service just the way the company distributes it to them. However, customer participation promptly emerges during service delivery as the customer’s willingness to participate in service building increases. The mechanism of service deliveries in the financial service industry has gradually transformed and developed over time. It has shifted from a one-way delivery of services to a situation where customers take part in the service by suggesting their desires. Such participation not only improves the service but also results in the satisfaction of customers toward the service. This study investigated the antecedents of customer participation, including interactional justice, customer education, affective commitment, and company support, and explored if customer participation strengthens customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it considered role identification and perceived benefits as moderators, depicting if these variables enhance customer participation toward customer satisfaction. The proposed model is deemed appropriate for an investment services context in which customers and investment consultants frequently interact with each other and in which customers are willing to engage in customer participation. The study collected data by delivering surveys to customers of financial brokerage companies. A total of 324 entries were considered as valid entries. Results show that customer education, affective commitment, and company support substantially increase the degree of customer participation. Customer participation also has a significant impact on customer satisfaction toward service delivery. Perceived benefits were found to positively moderate the enhancement of customer participation toward customer satisfaction. These results provide insights into how the Taiwanese financial service industry could increase customer participation and further enhance customer satisfaction in service delivery. These findings will also help companies discover ways to promote customer satisfaction given the competitiveness of the financial market. Financial companies will finally be able to develop customer satisfaction with the firm and service by identifying the aspects in their service that may increase customer participation throughout service delivery.

As academics and scholars are increasingly recognizing customers’ active role in shaping their service experience and co-creating value, the marketing literature has witnessed a significant rise in research on customer engagement. According to Brodie et al. (2011), customer engagement denotes customers’ psychological state with a particular focal object (i.e. a brand or a firm) occurring during interactive service experiences. It is manifested through engagement behaviors that go beyond the fundamental purchase, and has ensuing mutually beneficial outcomes for both firms and customers, including increased satisfaction, loyalty, and competitive advantage (Brodie et al. 2013; Kumar et al. 2010; van Doorn et al. 2010).Existing literature is currently fragmented in regards to several aspects related to the construct. These include definitions, conceptualizations, conceptual relationships, as well as notions of engagement intensity and valence. Recent calls have been made for further theoretical advancement of customer engagement research (Hollebeek et al. 2019). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to draw from extant theoretical and empirical customer engagement literature to critique existing findings, highlight areas of inconsistency, and present future areas of research in order to advance a more holistic theoretical understanding.The discussion leads to the identification of a number of gaps in knowledge, and subsequently a number of research directions destined to advance customer engagement marketing theory. Suggested themes for future research include: (i) examining the specific nature of engagement dimensions through empirical study; (ii) the dynamics, drivers, and outcomes of varying engagement intensities and valences (Li et al. 2018); (iii) disengagement as a potentially multi-dimensional construct; (iv) the role of external and contextual factors in shaping engagement; and (v) the managerial application and value of firm-driven engagement strategies. These have potential implications for practice, since understanding customer engagement should aid firms to effectively design engagement-informed marketing strategies to achieve desired outcomes.

Customer experience (CE) is the essence of what constitutes the interaction of a service and a customer. It is multidimensional and comprised of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social elements resulting from a direct or indirect interaction with a firm (Lemon and Verhoef 2016, p. 71). CE has many definitions and descriptions of its constituent elements, which adds a layer of complexity in constructing comparable studies across the board. This fragmentation poses limitations for new researchers who attempt to study CE, described as “widely used, and abused”, and at the risk of being “dismissed because of the ambiguous manner in which it has been applied” (Palmer 2010, p. 196).To this extent, the aim of this work is to (i) explore the definitions of CE and its elements, (ii) analyze conceptual and empirical studies relating to these elements, and (iii) from the previous two objectives incorporate a bottom-up approach, producing a unified elemental mapping framework enabling a more integrated and holistic manner in which CE is studied and observed in both academia and practice. Following the objectives for this work, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) search pertaining to CE and its elements, analyzing the different conceptualizations of its meaning and empirical foundations. We then extract and semantically group the CE elements into a unified list. After reviewing and analyzing our results we note that the literature defines CE through socioeconomic, phenomenological, or a combination of these lenses. Furthermore, we observe that these lenses are driven along service and customer centric perspectives. We build upon the inductive experiential mapping scheme used by Lofman (1991) to build a sub-elemental framework from the unified CE element list we obtained.From a theoretical standpoint, we attempt to redefine CE from the extant SLR. Additionally, we propose a sub-elemental mapping framework which would alleviate some of the conceptual fragmentation we highlighted in studying CE. From a managerial standpoint, we aim at addressing CE managers and executives by providing them with a theoretically-driven framework enabling them to map their organizational CE. As a result, a standardized means to measure and better understand CE in practice could be achieved. As a way forward, our mapping framework could provide a starting point to potentially connect technology-driven methods using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to for example, utilize text-mining, and heuristic internet of things to map experiential data. This would enable researchers and managers to conduct studies in different contexts and domains, providing a customer-centric approach to CE while subsequently contributing to our holistic understanding of this concept.

Despite the popularity of online service recovery, little is known about the ways in which a retailer’s management responses to negative reviews shape prospective consumers’ perceptions of retailer complaint-handling. This study investigates the impacts of recovery management response strategies from a perspective of prospective consumers. Specifically, we investigate how two types of recovery messages, namely, warmth- and competence-oriented responses influence prospective consumers’ service recovery perceptions (i.e., perceived diagnosticity, perceived sincerity, and perceived fairness) and attitudes toward retailer. Warm-oriented responses emphasize retailers’ friendliness and kindness in service interactions, and competence-oriented responses emphasize retailers’ efficiency, and knowledgeability of their service/products (Kirmani et al. 2017).A scenario-based experiment comprised a single factor (retailer response: warmth vs. competence) design. A total of 233 participants were recruited from a market research company and they were randomly assigned to one of two experiment conditions. The management response manipulation was confirmed. One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) yielded a significant effect of management response on service perceptions. Planned comparisons suggested that participants perceived warmth-oriented retailer responses to be more relevant than competence-oriented responses in judging retailer’s service recovery efforts and the former is perceived to be sincerer than the latter. However, there was no group difference in perceptions of fairness between warmth- and competence-oriented responses. Further, SEM indicated prospective consumer’s service recovery perceptions influence their attitudes positively.Theoretically, the current study enriches the consumer complaint management literature by exploring the complaint management phenomenon from the perspective of the prospective consumer. It also sheds light on the interpersonal communication skills embedded in online service recoveries by identifying the warmth and competence dimensions as key characteristics of management responses. Practically, the results of this study demonstrate how retailers can effectively respond to negative consumer reviews to maintain Electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) with prospective consumers.

Active and experiential learning has become an integrated part of modern teaching style. Changing classroom environment and increasing expectations demand proactive and engaging styles of teaching. Active and experiential learning are found to be facilitating and improving students’ learning process, and improving retention rates (Allery 2004; Dixon 1994; Frontczak and Kelly 2000; Klimoski 2005; Kolb 1984; Kolb and Kolb 2005; McLeod 2013). Active and experiential learning has been particularly important dealing with the new generation of students—Millennials—who found to exhibit high level of apathy and lack of active involvement (Drea et al. 2005; Shanahan et al. 2006). The current study is based on Kolb’s (1984) model of experiential learning defined as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (1984, p. 38).This work-in-progress study presents a team-building activity, adapted from Jon Tucker’s “The Ultimate Icebreaker and Teambuilder Guide” (2007), that has been successfully employed in delivering the concept of the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in business courses in two universities in Canada and Lithuania. Data are collected via self-administered online questionnaire distributed to students as well as via instructor’s observation of students’ actions during the activity and students’ post-course survey feedbacks. The final sample for the current report is comprised of 41 participants; however, the data collection is still on-going.The questionnaire was comprised of three sections, with information collected on (a) general information regarding gender, age, year of study, program, etc., (b) memorability, relevance, and the ability of the exercise to enhance understanding of the marketing concepts as well as its ability to initiate collaboration between team members via eighteen 7-point items (Elam and Spotts 2004), and (c) “take-aways” via open-ended questions. The mean values ranged between 4.07 and 5.8 indicating the overall positive attitudes towards the activity. The factor analysis produced three factors: Conceptual (α = .917), Social (α = .886), and Negative (α = .538) (the latter one was dropped due to low reliability). The results of the ANOVA and linear regression analysis provided a strong support for significant direct positive impact of both summary constructs on students’ satisfaction with the course; while only the Conceptual factor had strong direct positive impact comprehension.The preliminary results suggest that the activity is not only useful in delivering the concept of IMC, but also positively impacts the students’ satisfaction with the enrolled course. The activity is useful in motivating students to partake more actively in in-class discussions and contributes to students’ engaged reflective observations and relevant conceptualization. Hence, the activity is strongly recommended for marketing courses, in particular, and business courses, in general.

As the history of marketing thought is disappearing in doctoral education, there is a need to analyze the development of marketing channels from a historical perspective. There is an opportunity for marketing education and practice to make better decisions by understanding more about how marketing channels developed and the forces behind the present. This paper uses a descriptive approach, which focuses on a synthesis of the work of early scholars, recorded facts, census data and our acquired knowledge. Proceedings from the Conference on Historical Analysis and Research (CHARM) and the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing provide a rich source of information. In addition, Robert Bartels provided books on the history of marketing thought (Bartels 1976). Various other scholars provided facts on the development of retailing (Hollander 1959) and wholesaling (Beckman 1926). Our purpose is to provide an overview that helps to explain how marketing channels and their institutional members provide a foundation for the existing structure. In other words, how did we get here?While marketing has been practiced for thousands of years, marketing scholarship has gained prominence over only the last 120 years (Ferrell et al. 2015). Possibly the first course in marketing was Distributive and Regulatory Industries taught at the University of Michigan. Arch Shaw (1912) “viewed marketing as demand stimulation and physical distribution.” During this stage of marketing development, distribution was a major theme often tied to understanding the marketing of commodities (Weld 1916). L.P.H. Weld (1916) laid the foundation for the study of how marketing channel members influence marketing strategy (Shaw and Jones 2005). He is called the “founding father of the institutional school” (Sheth et al. p.74). Classifying intermediaries provided greater understanding of functions and the creation of value in the marketing channel. When we think of a marketing channel, we most often think of it as consisting of a focal firm, usually a manufacturer, followed by wholesalers and distributors who perform a number of functions to get the products to the right places, and then retailers who make the products available and carry most of the promotion function, directly to consumers. Channels historically represents this movement of information, goods and finances between a firm and its customers.This paper focuses on the development of marketing channels in the US and Canada since 1850 from both the academic and industry perspectives.

Given the importance of being able to generate publishable theoretical contributions, marketing educators must ensure that students of marketing are well trained in understanding what a theoretical contribution is and how to develop one. Yet, not all doctoral programs in marketing offer a course on theory, and those that do vary greatly in their coverage of this essential topic. Little guidance exists on how, exactly, marketing educators can go about this task. Providing guidance on the instruction of marketing theory is the central goal of this paper. Specifically, the questions this paper aims to address are: Why is theory, and marketing theory in particular, so difficult to understand? How can marketing teachers effectively convey instruction on the topic of theory in marketing? How do marketing students know whether they have generated a theoretical contribution? The purpose of this paper is to elucidate what, exactly, a theoretical contribution in marketing is, and to offer practical advice for marketing educators on how to instruct aspiring scholars on this important topic.The challenges in understanding and developing theoretical contributions are noted by scholars in many disciplines. In addition to the typical challenges related to theory that scholars in all disciplines face, marketing as a discipline faces additional challenges that make contributing to theory in especially difficult. Despite these challenges, the discipline of marketing has produced a number of seminal theoretical contributions. To illustrate, we examine three examples of work that have advanced marketing theory and are particularly effective in conveying their theoretical contributions. These include: Price, Arnould, and Tierney’s 1995 paper on service encounters, the work of Kerin, Varadarajan, and Peterson (1992) on first mover competitive advantage, and Gaski’s (1984) paper on power and conflict in marketing distribution channels.This paper provides guidelines for educators regarding instruction of these complicated topics. These guidelines provide a resource that marketing educators can consult when developing courses or course modules on theory. Ultimately, we hope that this article will not only help marketing educators and students to better understand what reviewers are looking for and thus increase the likelihood of their article being accepted and published by an academic marketing journal but will also help authors to craft significant contributions that will enhance current marketing thinking.

Salespeople often face the dilemma of having to protect their personally acquired market knowledge from others in their organization, while also seeming to be a team player. In order to not being perceived as being opportunistic by their colleagues, salespeople have the option of: (1) sharing their information, or (2) neglecting to divulge their knowledge, possibly being perceived as uncooperative, or (3) appearing to share information while in actuality obscuring substantive knowledge, which we call evasive hiding. As a way to protect their knowledge, evasive hiding occurs when salespeople intentionally appear to be openly sharing sales knowledge when they are actually deliberately avoiding the need to provide any useful information to others (Connelly et al. 2012). Research has shown that individuals evasively hide knowledge due to interpersonal and situational factors (Connelly et al. 2014). Yet, knowledge hiding can have serious consequences for performance (Černe et al. 2014; Peng 2013), as salespeople may not consider this to be so detrimental. We surmise that knowledge is a critical source of competitive advantage for individual salespeople, especially when you consider that research has shown a positive relationship between salesperson knowledge and performance (e.g., Mariadoss et al. 2014). To further exacerbate this, firms tend to foster situations where salespeople have to compete with one another in order to enhance sales force productivity, resulting in the unintentional side effect where salespeople end up viewing their colleagues as internal rivals in competition for limited organizational rewards like public recognition, promotion, and financial compensation (Anaza and Nowlin 2017). Therefore, salespeople may act to defend their source (e.g., knowledge) of competitive advantage much like any organization would. Leveraging social exchange theory, we investigate the relational antecedents and customer-directed outcomes of evasive hiding as well as the conditional effects of pushover manager and environmental dynamism. The empirical findings reveal that the antecedents’ effect on evasive hiding are conditional upon the managerially-actionable construct of pushover manager. Evasive hiding was subsequently found to have a negative impact on customer-directed outcomes, particularly at low levels of environmental dynamism.

China’s banking industry has undergone important changes since the Chinese economic reform and its admission into the World Trade Organization. An increasing competitive market revealed that Chinese banks face important challenges and that using managerial relationship behaviours can be instrumental in helping Chinese banks implement relationship strategies and be more successful in the marketplace.In a marketing relationship context there might be synergy when managers adopt specific managerial relationship behaviors – like managerial coaching – to promote specific salespeople relationship behaviors – like customer orientation (CO) and adaptive selling (AS). Accordingly, our study tests the effect of managerial coaching on salesperson’s performance and the mediating effect of CO and AS in a Chinese environment.We used a non-experimental design and collected data using a convenience sample of salespeople from a large bank in Dalian (China). We received 242 complete answers (response rate: 69.14%) with 61.6% of female respondents. The sample presented an average age of 34 years with an average selling experience of 6 years. We used existing scales from the literature and a Chinese version of them that have already been used in a previous study. The scales presented high reliability, as well as convergent and discriminant validity. The measurement model fit the data well.Results indicate that managerial coaching has a positive and significant impact on customer orientation, customer orientation on adaptive selling, and adaptive selling on salesperson performance, suggesting a full mediation model: CO fully mediates the effect of managerial coaching on AS and performance, and AS fully mediates the effects of coaching and CO on performance. This is an interesting result, as other studies normally present a significant path between coaching and performance – additional to the mediating path under study – suggesting that in a sales context coaching influences performance through many different mediators. In our case (i.e. a credence service) it seems that CO and AS are so important to develop long-term trustful relationships with the customers and eventually sales performance, that the potential effect of other mediators is diminished.The study makes a contribution to the literature in relationship managerial behaviors concerning the similarity of results with studies using Western samples: managerial coaching seems to be an effective tool to promote salespeople relationship behaviors and improve their performance, suggesting that cultural differences – between Western and Asian respondents – might be less salient in an industry with global players that compete globally.

Participative leadership has become the norm where the leader acts as a coach to set clear directions and orchestrates company resources and actively seeks salespeople’s suggestions and ideas in his/her decision-making process. However, this supporting style can become ineffective when the sales manager seeks the collective wisdom of his/her salespeople but is unable to follow through and act on it. This study examines how a manager’s inability to make timely decisions can impair their sales team’s motivation and negatively impact their job performance.The study proposes five hypotheses: H1: Participative leadership is positively related to salesperson’s intrinsic motivation. H2: A salesperson’s intrinsic motivation is positively related to his/her job performance. H3: Participative leadership is positively related to a salesperson’s job performance. H4: A sales manager’s indecisiveness moderates the relationship between the manager’s participative leadership and salesperson’s intrinsic motivation. H5: A sales manager’s indecisiveness moderates the relationship between the manager’s participative leadership style and salesperson’s job performance. With a sample of 255 sales employees from two multinational banks in India, a structural equation model (SEM) was run to test the relationship among participative leadership, indecisiveness, intrinsic motivation and job performance. Gender, tenure and current work experience were used as control variables. Model result fit indices were acceptable. χ2 = 204.42; df = 94; RMSEA = 0.068; CI 90% 0.055–0.074; CFI = 0.92. (McDonald and Ho 2002).The results show that participative leadership is positively related to intrinsic motivation (H1) and intrinsic motivation is positively related to job performance (H2). Additionally, participative leadership directly and positively influences job performance (H3). However, there was no support for moderation of the participative leadership to intrinsic motivation relationship by manager’s indecisiveness (H4). Support was found for the relationship between participative leadership and job performance where job performance was weaker at higher levels of a sales manager’s indecisiveness (H5). It is important for sales managers to be aware of the potential negative impact of decision indecisiveness on their sales team’s job performance particularly when using a participative leadership style.

The research question is whether the sequential logic of quality constructs tested and retested across multiple contexts and through time in supplier-buyer business relationships also applies to downstream seller-customer business relationships. The research objective is therefore to test the sequential logic of quality constructs in downstream seller-customer business relationships. The aim is to establish a foundation to assess the relationship quality of firms’ inbound and outbound business relationships.We identified a cross-industrial sample of Norwegian companies with at least 50 employees at the Norwegian data base of Sales Navigator at Linkedin. The criteria to select key informants are sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers to research seller-customer business relationships. We identified and subsequently contacted 841 key informants by phone. We talked to 582 of them to verify whether that each informant was qualified to participate in the survey and, if not, to identify another sales rep who was appropriate at the same company.A total of 523 sales reps were approved to participate in the survey. The selected key informants at each company was then provided with Qualtics-link and asked to fill in a questionnaire online. A total of 310 responses were returned (59.3%), all of which 97 were excluded due to incomplete filled in questionnaires. In sum, 213 correctly filled in questionnaires were returned generating a valid response rate of 40.7%.The findings of this study supported by Structured Equations Modelling show that both firm’s inbound and outbound downstream business relationships can be assessed based on the same sequential logic of antecedents, mediator and outcomes.The seller-customer research model enables a firm to align its buying and selling relationships with both its suppliers and customers. It offers therefore another managerial foundation to make a combined assessment of the relationship quality in both seller- and buyer relationships of the firm may be performed.

Gambling has been around for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years, and is perhaps one of the oldest forms of entertainment. It is a multifaceted phenomenon that allows a person the chance to win large sums of money or a significant prize. While being a fascinating aspect of consumer behaviour, marketing scholars have given it surprisingly little attention. This research focuses on recreational gambling and pursues a consumer behaviour perspective that seeks better understanding of online betting intentions, by applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology – UTAUT/ UTAUT 2, to an online betting context. It proposes model enhancements by incorporating the role of anticipated enjoyment and perceived fairness.Anticipated enjoyment is conceptualised as a pre-purchase cognition – something that one is looking forward to experience – as opposed to enjoyment, which is more closely linked to satisfaction and thus a post-consumption experience. In addition, fairness has become an important point of discussion for legislators as countries seek to improve regulation of online gambling within their jurisdiction. Particular concern has focused on issues surrounding promotions and their terms and conditions, the fairness of games, as well as monetary transactions and the correct handling of customers. Prevalence studies have also shown that customers take fairness seriously. It is therefore expected that both anticipated enjoyment and perceived fairness impact online betting intention.Data are collected from 593 customers of an online gambling firm and analysed using PLS-SEM via Smart PLS. Results of the comparison of UTAUT and UTAUT 2, both with and without all moderators and with the additional constructs of anticipated enjoyment and perceived fairness, indicate that both added constructs are significant drivers of gambling intention. Perceived fairness is found to be fully mediated by effort expectancy, anticipated enjoyment and social influence.Shorn of drivers and moderators that have not been found to be significant in UTAUT/ UTAUT 2, the resultant gambling intention model titled UTAUT-GIM is presented. Managers of online casinos would do well to appreciate the positive impact on customer intention and retention resulting from customers perception of a site as being fair and fun. The research suggests that anticipated enjoyment and perceived fairness are likely to play a role in other contexts as well. Further studies could investigate the relevance UTAUT-GIM beyond online casinos to other online gambling contexts and in addition consider the role of risk and responsible gambling as further enhancements to the model. The model can also be extended to other forms of online entertainment and to stock market trading. In a number of ways, the latter can be said to be similar to gambling.

The consumption of experiences has become an important part of our economy. We put a great deal of effort, time and money into planning and pursuing what we do in our leisure time. Is the “consumer journey” a good metaphor for this decision process? This research examines people’s interest in, preparation for, and consumption of several long-distance hikes.The first study analyzed printed memoirs of the Camino de Santiago, Appalachian Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. The first step in the consumer journey – awareness – often results from serendipity. The notion may incubate for months or years until the second step when an event or events trigger the decision to attempt the trail. The next step – trial – often involves intensive planning and test hikes. The fourth step, purchase decision – the hike itself – is a time of discovery. Post-hike experience involves reflections, memories, and sometimes insights or sharing of their experiences.The second study examined the experience of John Muir Trail hikers examining online forums and on-trail face-to-face interviews with hikers. Again, awareness often begins with accidental exposure and adding the idea to a mental “bucket list.” More information is gathered. After making a decision, the trial phase includes both high-involvement mental preparation and practice hikes to test their abilities and equipment. The hike itself is its own journey filled with first-hand learning and self-discovery. Finally, many hikers share the journey with others and serve as evangelists to other potential hikers.In many ways making a decision to take a thru-hike follows the traditional consumer journey; however, there are also differences with the traditional view of the consumer journey. First, a decision to hike does not usually begin with a felt need in any cognitive sense. Second, consideration often percolates for a long while. Third, the decision to go is often triggered as a result of a life change. Fourth, the decision results in a protracted preparation process of planning and provisioning. Fifth, the journey itself is not a single discreet decision but is frequently revisited. Finally, sharing these experiences is an opportunity to relive and bring some closure to the journey. Although the decision process has been envisioned as a “funnel” this model is based on working backwards from a purchase decision to how a consumer “got there”. From a consumer’s point of view, a more accurate metaphor may be a decision tree, with branches at each decision point leading toward a variety of potential outcomes. Tens of thousands of people may develop an initial awareness of a product or service through serendipity, and may not only be contemplating the initial possibility, but other possible alternatives.

Virtual Reality (VR), an immersive computing technology (ICT) that incorporates multiple technologies to submerge the user in a responsive virtual world (Berg and Vance 2016; Brooks 1999), is receiving increasing attention from marketers. Because of increasing interest in VR applications, several researchers have begun to investigate how to use these applications to engage consumers with brands. For instance, research suggests that increasing the number and intensity of sensory inputs increases the imagination potential of VR. Existing technologies and applications offer a high degree of visual and auditory output, though the development of other sensory input is ongoing; the advancement of VR to facilitate the stimulation of all five senses has been a topic since the 1960s (Burdea and Coiffet 2003; Guttentag 2010; Gutiérrez et al. 2008; Price et al. 2013). Thus, the aim of this investigation is to test the effects of two sensory inputs – smell and sound – on consumer responses in a VR setting.In study 1, fifty-four undergraduate students (male = 16; mean age = 22) from a French university participated in a 2-level (smell: yes vs. no) between-subjects experience involving a virtual reality experience with chocolate (Villakuyaya). In study 2, sixty-one undergraduate students (male = 20; mean age = 23) from a French university participated in a 2-level (sound: yes vs. no) between-subjects experiment involving a virtual reality experience with tequila (Hacianda Patrón). The results of both studies indicate that the presence of an additional sensory input beyond the visual domain (either smell or sound) enhance purchase intentions toward the brand due to increased engagement with the experience.The findings underscore the need for marketers to incorporate multiple modalities in virtual reality experiences to increase consumer responses – doing so can increase competitiveness in the marketplace. This finding is especially important in digital marketing, especially in the contexts of online retail spaces and social media experiences.Future research should test these effects in additional sensory domains, including taste and touch. Further, scholars should investigate the influence that combinations of multiple sensory domains with a visual virtual reality experience can have on consumer responses. Additionally, given that the present investigation focuses on food and beverages, in what other product contexts might multisensory virtual reality experiences be effective, such as furniture, tourism, apparel, health and beauty care, and automotive?

In the digital and social marketing age, characterized by ubiquitous usage of smartphones and social media, marketers leverage the power of the brand to cultivate strong consumer-brand relationships which have the ability to transform consumers into a powerful “communication medium,” i.e., consumers become the vehicles to spread messages to other consumers, just as traditional media operates. Heightened consumer-brand relationships transcend mere product or service dimensions to include deep psychological attachments and active supportive behaviors directed toward the focal brand. Ultimately, such consumer-generated behaviors and communication are important because they affect brand choices including brand purchase decisions, brand expectations, and brand attitudes.Drawing from the literature on consumer-brand relationships, brand imagery, self-concept, and social identification theories, this study develops and tests a framework of brand evangelism through the theoretical lens of brand attractiveness and brand-self connections. The framework proposes brand attractiveness, brand-self connectedness, and brand salience as antecedents of brand evangelism. In addition, the framework contends that these antecedents explain additional variance in brand evangelism, while controlling for brand trust and brand identification, and a battery of additional control variables such as brand usage, extraversion, income, social economic status, and gender.Consistent with the theoretical framework, the results indicate that brand attractiveness and brand-self connection are important drivers of brand evangelism. To engender brand evangelism, brands must be perceived as attractive relative to other brands suggesting that firms must pay special attention to how their target market perceives their brands; this highlights the importance of brand communications, brand imagery, positioning strategies, and brand performance relative to competing brands. Interestingly, while brand attractiveness increases brand purchase intentions, it does not show a direct effect on positive referrals and oppositional referrals. However, brand attractiveness does impact all three aspects of brand evangelism indirectly through brand-self connectedness. Contrary to expectations, brand salience has no significant influence on any of the three components of brand evangelism. Based on the results, theoretical implications and future research directions are unearthed for brand scholars and practical implications are discussed for marketing practitioners.

Product design plays a major role in drawing consumers’ attention to the product at the beginning of consumer-product interactions (Blijlevens et al. 2009; Crilly et al. 2004; Kreuzbauer and Malter 2005). Such interactions, however, do not occur in vacuum and external factor could also influence consumers’ perceptions of the product. While previous research suggests that environment congruence facilitates consumers’ positive evaluations of the product and thus the product’s environment must be aligned with the design elements embedded in the product (Berger and Fitzsimons 2008; Meyers-Levy and Tybout 1989; Wu et al. 2013), the generalizability of this idea is challenged in this study. More precisely, this work empirically investigates how product design cues, environment visual congruence, and their interaction may influence consumers’ aesthetic, affective, and behavioral responses.A lab experiments with a 2 (high-level design cues vs. low-level design cues) × 2 (congruent environment vs. non-congruent environment) between-subjects, full-factorial design was conducted to test the hypotheses using a digital camera as the stimulus. Ninety-one college students (56 males and 35 females) from a large public university in the United States were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions manipulating the independent variables. The three dependent variables (i.e., perceived aesthetic, affective response, and purchase intention) were then measured. The results overall support the notion that product design visual cues elicit more positive aesthetic and affective responses. Environment congruence, on the other hand, plays a moderating role; design cues elicit stronger consumer responses in a congruent environment, whereas no such effect was found in a non-congruent environment. In other words, for products with low-level design elements, the congruence of promotional environment may not be instrumental in eliciting more favorable consumer responses.From a theoretical standpoint, this study contributes to two distinct but related research streams: product design and environment congruence. From a practical standpoint, the findings have significant implications for product designers, retailers, and merchandising professionals. For instance, this investigation reveals under what conditions the degree of visual match between a product and its environment could help retailers to provide a more positive experience and increase their sales.

In response to the conscious consumer movement, brands are communicating about their fair labor initiatives through their marketing messages to create a niche for themselves and to show that they are doing their part for social improvement. In this study, we particularly focus on how framing of brands’ fair labor-related messages, particularly using regulatory ‘fit’, can influence consumers’ message evaluations through three measures of message effectiveness, namely, perceived message credibility, attitude toward message, and perceived message persuasiveness.Adult participants (n = 199) were recruited using a national research firm, Qualtrics for an online experimental study and data was subjected to univariate ANOVAs. For promotion focused messages, participants considered eager framing as more credible, and more persuasive, and had more favorable opinions than vigilant framing. However, for prevention focused messages, participants considered vigilant framing as more credible than eager framing although no such difference was observed regarding opinion or persuasiveness.Given the importance and popularity of FL initiatives from brands in the fashion industry, focusing on how consumers perceive brand messages regarding the same is beneficial to the industry as well as academia. From a theoretical perspective, overall, the findings are encouraging for the hypotheses that regulatory fit can enhance the perceived message credibility, attitude towards message, as well as perceived persuasiveness of FL message from a brand, thereby filling a gap in literature. Further, given that consumers often lack trust in brand’s FL initiatives and question the authenticity of such efforts (Bhaduri and Ha-Brookshire 2009), it might be beneficial for brand managers to ensure ‘fit’ in their messages (eager framing if using promotion focused messages or vigilant framing if using prevention focused messages) to come across as more credible in their FL claims. In this light, several brands spend substantial resources on certifications/accreditations to portray their credibility. However, for brands with limited resources (such as smaller/new enterprises), ensuring fit, than investing resources on certifications, might be a more cost-effective way to ensure credibility of their FL claims. In addition, ‘fit’ also seemed to play a role in consumers’ attitude toward FL messages as well as their perceived message persuasiveness. Although no significant difference was observed for ‘fit’ versus ‘non-fit’ for prevention focused messages, eager framing seemed to be more favorable for promotion focused messages. Thus, brand managers might find it beneficial to frame their FL messages with ‘fit’ in mind, particularly using promotion focused messages with eager framing (based on study results) to elicit favorable responses from consumers as well as come across as more persuasive.

The current research addresses two marketing areas: sensory marketing and online retailing. While online retailing continues to gain importance, online grocery retailing, especially perishable products such as produce, lags behind other product categories. For example, 62% of consumers buy books and 52% buy toys or games online (Statista 2017), yet only 4% of US grocery shoppers rely on online channels (Hartman Group 2018). This study focuses on a psychological explanation grounded in sensory marketing for consumers’ hesitation to purchase produce online: consumers’ innate need for touch (NFT) and thus the absence of haptic diagnosticity in online retailing. Peck and Childers (2003) define NFT as the ‘preference for extraction and utilization of information obtained through the haptic system’ (p. 431).In two online studies, consumers rate their perception of produce offered in an online shop. Specifically, they assess quality concerns, affective product evaluation, and willingness to pay (WTP) in offline versus online retailing contexts. Results demonstrate that high-NFT consumers express higher quality concerns and lower affective product evaluation of online offered produce. Further, quality concerns mediate the negative impact of NFT on affective product evaluation. In study 1 (n = 199), this negative influence of NFT is even stronger if consumers use an indirect touch interface (e.g. touchpad or mouse) versus a direct touch interface (e.g. tablet or smartphone). Consequently, input interface type moderates the effect of NFT on affective product evaluation. Study 2 (n = 181) investigates the impacts of NFT on WTP differences between offline and online offered produce at the consumer level. The higher the NFT, the higher the WTP difference. Both quality concerns and affective product evaluation mediate the relationship between NFT and WTP difference between offline and online offered produce.These results have economic implications for online retailers who offer produce for the same price as offline retailers. Overall, e-retailers need to reduce customers’ uncertainty towards online grocery purchasing. For example, technical devices can facilitate the replacement of missing haptic input by offering zooms, 3D-functions, or augmented realities to better imagine haptic properties (Choi and Taylor 2014; Huang and Liao 2017). To conclude, this study closes the gap in research and contributes to the expanding literature on online grocery retailing – specifically produce – by identifying NFT as a diagnostic variable in explaining consumers’ online grocery buying behavior.

As human population continues to rise there is a growing demand for resources to feed the planet. One solution is to introduce edible insects into human diets. Entomophagy – the practice of using insects for human consumption – is a sustainable practice that is currently being engaged by various cultural groups around the globe. Despite its many advantages, entomophagy is barely accepted in Western cultures. Ingesting insects is unappetizing to the majority of western consumers who show a strong implicit negative association and attitude towards all insects. This study uses the knowledge-attitude-behavior model as a framework to understand how – based on their subjective knowledge about entomophagy – consumers develop value perceptions of entomophagy (attitudes) and, eventually, intentions to consume (behaviors). In order to evaluate the complexity of value perceptions towards entomophagy, we used Sheth et al’s theory of consumption values and market choices. Results suggest that subjective knowledge positively affects four value perceptions (functional, social, emotional and epistemic value) explaining high percentages of their variance. Support was also found for the positive effect of emotional value and epistemic value on intentions to use and for functional and epistemic value on positive word-of-mouth.

Subconscious behaviours can have a profound impact on decision-making and purchasing outcomes, yet can go unreported using self-reported measures. In the labelling domain, self-reported measures are subject to over-reporting and misreporting (Grunert et al. 2010; Graham et al. 2012), thereby leading to increased interest in eye-tracking (ET) applications in this domain. However, this has resulted in an over emphasis on label-specific factors, leading to calls to situate label usage within the broader decision-making context (Mawad et al. 2015). Given the efficacy of self-reported measures over ‘objective’ measures in capturing the motivational component of label usage (Miller et al. 2015), this paper argues that, although paradigmatically opposed, supplementing traditional self-reported introspective techniques with ‘objective’ (ET) behavioural measures can enhance probing, offering new insights into consumer behaviour.This study adopted a sequential data collection approach leveraging ET methodology, retrospective think aloud (RTA) protocols and qualitative interviewing. Yogurt acted as the case food for this study. Seventeen participants were recruited using quota-based purposive maximum variation sampling. Participants were assigned an open-ended task to avoid biasing of gaze data through atypical information search, and were presented with labels for five fictitious yogurt products, based on an audit of contemporaneous labels. A remote eye-tracking system was located beneath a computer monitor, and participants’ progress during the experiment was monitored remotely for real-time visual (qualitative) analysis of label usage data, which facilitated preparation of resources for the post-experiment interviews. No time limit was placed on the viewing. ET outputs were explored through a cued RTA protocol and qualitative interviewing. RTA allowed participants to retrace the sequence of cognitive events enacted during the ET experiment without creating the increased cognitive burden experienced with concurrent think-aloud (Elling et al. 2011). Discrepancies and omission between ET and RTA data were recorded and acted as the basis for probing during the subsequent interview, allowing for more precise questioning, reflective of individual participants’ interaction with the experimental labelling stimuli.Various label attributes reported as salient in decision-making during interviewing were not viewed during ET experiments, indicating discrepancies between reported and observed behaviours. Interviewing revealed gaps between reportedly important attributes and motivational drive to seek out attribute relevant information. Consequently, qualitative analysis of ET visualisations prior to introspective data collection was demonstrated to improve probing. Future research may consider the role of introspective techniques in supplementing ET research in better accounting for the factors underlying ET observations.

Mankind is now facing serious sustainability challenges of the environment and the society from climate change to inequity social problems. Consumers can take responsibility to society and the environment by purchasing products that are least harmful to humans and nature. By doing so, the opportunities of life and consumption of other people and future generations are affected as little as possible. Previous studies indicated that the inclusion of perceived moral obligations in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model has greatly improved the prediction of individual’s behavioral intention. Self-identity was also found as a significant predictor of pro-environmental behaviors. But an individual’s skepticism and uncertainty of climate change may reduce his or her willingness to act pro-environmental behaviors. In view of the growing coffee consumption market in Taiwan and the environmental impact of coffee production, this study aims to explore Taiwanese public’s attitude toward purchasing sustainability labeled coffee and their purchase intentions. People’s perceived moral obligation and pro-environmental self-identity are included in the TPB model to increase the model’s explanatory power. The moderating effect of people’s skeptical attitude toward climate change is also considered in this study. A nationwide and self-reported questionnaire was distributed in Taiwan. The collected data was analyzed by moderated regression analysis. The research results revealed that as expected the original three components in the TPB model (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) have influences on people’s purchase intentions of sustainability labeled coffee, the additional two factors (i.e., perceived moral obligations and pro-environmental self-identity) also have influences on people’s purchase intentions of sustainability labeled coffee. Moreover, the moderating effect of climate change skepticism on the positive relationship between pro-environmental self-identity and purchase intentions of sustainable labeled coffee was verified. The empirical research findings facilitate a better understanding of Taiwanese public’s attitude toward purchasing sustainability labeled coffee and their purchase intentions.

Researchers have studied relationship marketing in a variety of subdisciplines of marketing including service marketing, channel relationships, and business-to-business marketing. However, prior research has predominantly focused on interpersonal relationships between service providers and customers and business-to-business relationships, as opposed to relationships between firms (or marketers) and consumers, even though the existence of such relationships has been explicitly acknowledged (Dwyer et al. 1987; Webster 1992). In this light, the current study examines the possible impacts of relationship quality (as a consequence of relationship marketing efforts) on the likelihood of a consumer’s new product adoption. Specifically, two research questions are addressed: (1) “If a consumer develops trust in and commitment to a firm (or a marketer), then is he/she more likely to adopt a new product introduced by the same (focal) firm?” and (2) “How would relationship quality with competitors influence the likelihood of adopting new product introduced by a focal firm?” The main goals of the current study are (1) to empirically test the effect of multiple relationship quality on consumer’s new product adoption; and (2) to provide a theoretical rationale for extending relationship marketing to the consumer product area and outline a future research agenda.We propose three important categories of variables to explain new product adoption: product innovation characteristics (positive or negative features), personal characteristics (consumer innovativeness and product involvement), and consumer’s relationship quality of focal firm and competitors. The current study broadens the latitude of relationship marketing and its applicability, and conceptualizes that relationship quality is an important antecedent of new product adoption, which has not been studied before. The current study also examines the effect of multiple relationship qualities that consumer would have developed, which is a more realistic assumption than using only one single relationship quality with the firm that introduces a new product. The explicit conceptualization of multiple relationship quality will still be useful in further analysis such as comparative analysis of the effect of multiple relationship quality on retention in the business- to-business and service context.

While an increased importance of value co-creation both in practices and academia, the extant literature seems to have its focus on its conceptual development, and thus the empirical studies on value co-creation are scantly reported and under-explored. This study thus fills up this research gap, and empirically tests this value co-creation theory, by using related constructs, i.e., experience co-creation, employer branding, employee engagement, employee loyalty, customer loyalty, intensity of co-creation, and by illustrating both customers and employees as interactive actors in the co-creation processes. By doing so, this study has its importance, because it presents one of few studies, empirically test the value co-creation theory, particularly in the customer-employee relationships.This study uses survey as its research method, and collects 240 questionnaires from several service industries, such as insurance, banking, real estate, and retailing. Data is analyzed via. Partial Least Squares (PLS). The following results are found: (1). Experience co-creation has positive effects on both employer branding and employee engagement, both of which, in turn, have positive impacts on employee loyalty; (2). Employee loyalty, surprisingly, has no direct and positive effects on customer loyalty; (3). Experience co-creation has a significant effect on value co-creation, which then positively influences customer loyalty.This study is important for the following reasons: (1). Departs from prior studies focusing on customers only, and further proposes an innovative and interactive model of customer loyalty, mutually co-created between customers and employees, particularly in the service contexts; (2). Demonstrates the mediating roles of employees’ psychological processes, i.e., employer branding, employee engagement and employee loyalty, in developing customer loyalty, and thus proposes a process model of customer loyalty with a focus on employee, ignored by prior literature; (3). Empirically demonstrates the validities of three theories, i.e., encounter processes, JD-R (Job Demands-Resource), value co-creation, applied in the customer loyalty model.

The service network notion indicates that actors are interconnected (Hedaa and Törnroos 2008), that real competition exists (Büyüközkan et al. 2011), and that relationships among the actors are long-lasting (Håkansson and Snehota 1995). In addition, since the growing demand for healthcare in developed countries generates a context of scarce resources, Spohrer et al. (2007, p. 75) conclude that sustainability is an: “…extremely relevant target…”. Therefore, focusing attention on the sustainability approach of health service seems pertinent for research.The research purpose is double: (i) to frame the base of healthcare organizations’ sustainability endeavours and the direction of sustainable development through the time; and (ii) to reveal the influence of the network on the public healthcare sector.Following Yin (1994 p. 1) a case study methodology has been used. The framework proposed by Orlikowski and Yates (2002) was selected to structure and give sense to the information collected. These authors pointed out that the time structuration process require flow and periods to have meaning. The inductive approach proposed by Thomas (2006) has been used to gather data. This study was carried out by the research team divided into three stages in the studied public hospitals. First, the research team contacted by phone the general manager at 15 public hospitals in different regions, only seven of them considered sustainability as part of their core activity for the future. Second, a series of in-depth interviews were carried out during a two-year period with the key informants of each hospital. Third, the research team also interviewed three additional general managers at other hospitals not included in the initial sample.The empirical findings and the previous discussion of findings indicate that the foundation of sustainability efforts undertaken across the studied healthcare organizations has not been homogenous. On the contrary, it has been distinctly heterogeneous across the studied regional autonomies. The direction of sustainable development has also varied across the studied public healthcare organizations and their related regional autonomies.Organizationally sustainable development by the studied public healthcare organizations appears to be affected by both micro- and macro-related determinants in the regional autonomies. The findings have also revealed that the direction of sustainable development in the studied public healthcare organizations across regional autonomies was either positive, negative or none at all.

Gender equality has received increasing attention, yet women’s limited presence at the senior management level suggests women still face lack of support in their career advancement. One of the major reasons is reduced development opportunities for women within organizations. The authors show that the organizational culture becomes more gender supportive when the number of women managers achieves a critical mass. Moreover, women managers influence their organizations to attain a higher performance-oriented culture with less power distance. Data gathered from Peru, Mexico and USA shows how a critical mass of women in management changes their organizational cultures and attains significantly higher gender egalitarianism scores.The research question is whether an increased percentage of female managers contributes to making the corporate culture friendlier to female employees. The explanatory effect of the nine organizational dimensions scores, as used in the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study, towards gender equality was examined using regression. Gender equality, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender. Among the nine dimensions, and using the complete data set from the three countries, power distance, performance orientation, institutional collectivism, ingroup collectivism and gender egalitarianism significantly affect gender equality. This finding suggests, therefore, that corporate cultures significantly affect female employees’ ease of access to opportunities and resources.Previously, body counts had been emphasized as the key measure of improved gender equality. This study takes one step forward to measure the differences in corporate culture measured below and above obtaining a critical mass benchmark. We find evidence that women can overcome substantial barriers when they wish to implement change. There are marked and statistically significant differences in women leadership as evidenced in this study. A critical mass of women managers can achieve a gender supportive climate, and provide a significant influence in their organizations, improving their gender egalitarianism scores.

This study investigates international marketing activities between firms at the relational level; specifically, how perceived institutional distance influences the relationship between the psychological contract and aspects of commitment in an exporting context. Scholars have explored exporter-distributor (E-D) relationships from various theoretical approaches, such as transaction cost economics, resource-based view, network theory, institutional theory and the behavioural paradigm (Samiee et al. 2014). Aykol and Leonidou (2018) suggested that the influence of institutional differences on the formation and management of E-D relationships warrants attention.Institutional distance i.e., the degree of dissimilarity in the institutional environment can create various difficulties in building successful relationships. It also creates complications within the socialisation aspects of E-D relationships (Miocevic 2016). Scholars have repeatedly asked for a richer understanding of how individuals interpret their institutional context, as there is a need for micro-level explanations of the role of institutions (Powell and Colyvas 2008).Inter-organisational relationships emerge and evolve via individual activities (Ring and Van de Ven 1994). Managerial perceptions are critical for the development of relationships with business partners (Griffith and Lusch 2007; Sousa and Bradley 2006). Drawing upon literature from social exchange theory (Homans 1958), mainly focusing on the psychological contract perspective (Rousseau 1995) and institutional theory (North 1990; Scott 1995) we investigate two key research questions. First, what influence cognitive managerial predispositions (in the form of psychological contracts) have relative to dimensions of commitment in the context of E-D relationships? Second, what is the influence of institutional distance on the relationship between cognitive managerial predispositions and dimensions of commitment?Data was obtained from an online survey of 127 New Zealand exporters and was analysed using PLS-SEM (Ringle et al. 2005). In contributing to the international business-to business marketing literature, this study highlights the influence of managerial predispositions in the form of a psychological contract on E-D relationships. Additionally, we demonstrate the boundary conditioning effect of institutional distance on micro-level relationships (single exporter-distributor). The results show the differentiating effect of the psychological contract on two dimensions of commitment (affective and calculative commitment). The findings also show the moderating influence of institutional distance on a psychological contract’s two separate relationships with commitment.

When marketers strategize for social impact, a critical decision is to serve the poor, marginalized, less affluent consumer in emerging markets by a useful product with an embedded social purpose. While emerging markets are attractive due to their high and persisting growth, many emerging markets also display high levels of inequality. The high economic growth may likely not reach those at “bottom of the pyramid”. Thus, there is a continuing need to provide innovative products for those at the margins still experiencing deprivation. However, there is insufficient theoretical underpinning to unpack the poor consumers understanding of products with an embedded social purpose and guide marketing managers in product development and strategy. Adopting a subaltern lens, this study employed video-ethnography in two major cities in Bangladesh, to uncover the lived experience of poor consumers of the innovation of a fortified yoghurt, Shokti doi. Though little used in marketing, the subaltern perspective is appropriate as it enables the view of people subordinated due to conditions of belonging to different class, age gender, caste, etc. to emerge. It presents a viewpoint of those masses usually unrepresented. Video-ethnography also allows a richer, deeper understanding of consumers’ lives. The impact of the innovative product, a fortified yoghurt, on poor consumers is interpreted in five themes: desperate need, commodified hope, democratization of value, (de)marginalization, and furnish trust. These themes are then related to processes of engagement with the product of access, experience and advocacy. The processes and themes are interpreted within the overarching hegemony and marginalization of the poor consumers. We interpret and discuss these findings and then consider the implications for theory, practice and policy in emerging markets, followed by limitations and future research directions.

Research of the quality of life (QOL) has been studied in various ways. One research is that various factors associated with QOL. The other researchers focus on the how to improve the QOL. It is difficult to figure out how to improve the Quality of Life in the different economic situation. However, the capability is one of the important elements of Quality of Life (Sen 1993). Many previous types of research show a result associated with capability and QOL. In this study, we focus on a capability related work. According to the capability theory, there are many different capabilities when people are in QOL. Research on individual capability, income, and QOL have a wide variety of perspectives. Therefore, understanding their relationship mechanism is a very important research problem. In marketing research, understanding this mechanism is important to understand consumer well-being. Based on these research problems, this study confirms the inconsistency between consumers’ capability and QOL to understand how to increase consumer well-being. We compare two models based on a poverty line to identify differences in happiness after achieving a certain income level reported in previous studies. This confirms the discrepancy between the capability and QOL in the two models. A new method for solving the discrepancy is presented. This study investigates the mediation effect of consumer grit level between capability and QOL. This study can suggest ways to solve income inequality and low QOL.There are three conclusions. First, people in poverty had relatively low capability to work. This can be explained by the relationship between income and capability in previous studies (Kuklys and Robeyns 2005). However, the capability in this study suggests objective capability and subjective capability. This significant difference in the presence or absence of poverty can ultimately affect both objective and subjective capabilities. Next, through the structural equation, we confirmed the expected relationship. We could confirm the significant effect of capability on QOL. Also, as expected, poverty had a mediating effect on the relationship between capability and QOL. To be more specific, the ability to overcome poverty has a positive impact on QOL. However, those in poverty could not confirm that the capability has a significant impact on QOL. This confirms the Easterlin paradox claimed in previous studies. Individual capabilities increase but may not directly affect happiness. Therefore, it is more important to diversify the capability for the happiness of individuals. Finally, in this study, we considered a solution through grit in this relationship between capability and QOL. According to our SEM, we have confirmed that the variable grit can be a new solution. Developmentally, we have confirmed that the consistency concept of grit is more effective in grit composed of two concepts.

This research presents the results of a preliminary, though thorough, scale development and validation effort that attempts to establish a subjective measure of front-end of innovation (FEI) performance. (By subjective, the authors mean a scale meant for key respondents such as innovation managers.) The authors offer two separate multi-item scales that are effective in capturing FEI performance. The first scale (FEI-1) is a global assessment measure of overall FEI performance. The second scale (FEI-2) is an attribute-level assessment of FEI performance that focuses on specific FEI outcomes as a gauge of performance. The inspiration to provide two distinct scales arises from the goal to provide scholars with options as they explore varying FEI phenomenon. To elaborate on each scale, the FEI-1 scale reflects a manager’s general perception as it relates to their firm’s overall FEI performance. On the other hand, the FEI-2 scale captures a manager’s outcome specific performance ratings of various attributes deemed essential to measure a firm’s FEI performance; like the preciseness of product concept definitions, financial feasibility of product concepts, etc.The authors used a survey with a panel of key respondents (i.e., managers and decision makers) to collect data. The sampling frame includes individuals that are directly involved in innovation decision-making. One hundred and seventy-eight respondents qualified based on a screening criteria and were presented with the survey instrument.Each scale employs seven-point Likert type items (strongly agree-strongly disagree). Both scales begin with the phrase: “Please select the appropriate response in the context of your innovation activities, especially its early stages (also referred to as the front-end of innovation).” The FEI-1 scale includes five items (1. The front-end results of new product projects I’ve led have been really good, 2. Front-end idea screening is considered a strength here, 3. Front-end concept development processes are considered a strength here 4. When I think about our NPD processes, the front-end activities are excellent, 5. In our front-end process, we excel at producing solid product concepts for future development.) The FEI-2 scale has four items (1. Product strategies that result from our front-end process are clear, 2. Our front-end idea screening produces sharp product definitions, 3. Product concepts that we recommend for further development are financially feasible, 4. In our front-end process, we excel at producing clear product definitions.)The scales are ultimately intended to aid scholars looking to further examine FEI performance phenomenon in a manner that allows them to offer normative recommendations to managers.

A key question facing firms today is should they integrate customers into their innovation processes and co-create new products. This research examines how strategic change (e.g. closed to open innovation) impacts the attitudes of the periphery of customers and how a firm’s current innovation reputation impacts strategic change. The results show that firms will benefit by moving from closed to open innovation. This relationship is contingent on a firm’s current innovation reputation. When a firm has a high reputation for building innovative products, it should continue with its current strategy for innovation (i.e. regardless of open or closed). Conversely, having a low innovation reputation suggests that any change of strategy is good in order to overcome previous negative perceptions of the firm’s reputation.

A growing body of literature notes that seller-buyer relationships can be an important contributor to new product development (NPD) success in technology-based, industrial settings (Chang and Taylor 2016). Collaborative relationships can enhance product innovativeness (Chang and Taylor 2016) and quality (Hoyer et al. 2010) thereby hastening the diffusion process (Narayanan et al. 2015). However, involving potential buyers during the NPD process can also pose several challenges. Buyers may reveal technology and product related information to potential competitors which reduces the time for competitive offerings to enter the marketplace (Charterina et al. 2017). Also, buyer demands for joint intellectual property or exclusivity rights may slow down or even prevent offering the innovation to the larger marketplace (Eng and Wong 2006). The ensuing conflicts that follow can result in ineffective relationship management and NPD failure (Lynch et al. 2014).Following calls for greater research in the area (see for example, Athaide and Zhang 2011), significant research has focused on identifying the antecedents, nature, and outcomes of seller-buyer relationships during NPD (see for example, Chang and Taylor 2016). Despite this progress, empirical studies of seller-buyer relationships during product development remains underdeveloped (Cui and Wu 2016). To address this deficiency, we empirically investigate if sellers can enhance their NPD success by tailoring their relationship approach to match their situational context.Our results show that sellers engage in three different relationship approaches with potential buyers during NPD; we refer to them as bilateral, bidirectional information exchange, and unidirectional information exchange approaches. The choice of a particular relationship approach correlates with four situational characteristics: perceived buyer knowledge, prior relationship history, product customization, and technology uncertainty. Sellers engage in bilateral relationship approaches when the four situational characteristics are at the highest levels; in contrast, the unidirectional approach is associated with the lowest levels of the four situational characteristics. Further, high levels of NPD success are associated with all three approaches; this suggests that sellers appropriately tailor their relationship approaches based on the four situational characteristics.

Professional services firms (PSFs) try to provide high levels of service quality to their customers as they need to be profitable to survive in the competitive market. PSFs are known to have some specific characteristics. First of all, they are human-intensive firms meaning that professional service employees directly create their products. In addition, these professional staffs are considered as mobile and skilled work forces. In other words, they possess a position enabling them to bargain toward their firms (Nordenflycht 2010) since their skills can be transferred to other companies easily (Teece 2003).Although job engagement level of non-front-line employees have experienced an increase from 2009 to 2012, statistics show that job engagement of front-line employees has declined in that period (Gallup 2013). Therefore, it is a critical issue for PSFs to have engaged employees because there are several evidences illustrating that disengaged employees are more probable to leave their jobs (Schaufeli and Bakker 2004; Chang et al. 2009; Knudsen et al. 2009; Hu et al. 2011). Instead, engaged employees provide higher levels of service quality compared to disengaged employees leading to more customer satisfaction.The purpose of this study is to explore the associations between job demands, job resources and job engagement in professional employees. Using the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Demerouti et al. 2001; Bakker et al. 2010), this research was designed to investigate how job demands (i.e. role conflict and role ambiguity) can influence job engagement in lawyers as professional employees and how a job resource (i.e. job autonomy) may affect the relationships between job demands and job engagement. For this purpose, we collected data from 229 senior solicitors who worked on business cases. The results show that job engagement of solicitors is affected by role conflict negatively. In addition, the analysis depicts that job autonomy moderates the relationship between role ambiguity and job engagement.

With the difficulty in evaluating some types of services, peripheral cues within the servicescape or as part of the service encounter are used by consumers to help evaluate the service. This evaluation however, is exacerbated where the service exchange is not undertaken face to face or within the servicescape of the firm. Situations where the customer interacts with call centre representatives is such a case in point. In these cases, the customers’ perception of the service is solely based on the phone encounter. The continuing growth of outsourcing customer service call centers to low cost countries adds an additional layer to the evaluation difficulties of customers as service providers may speak with accent different to the customer’s accent. However even were firms do not outsource phone based customer service to ‘foreign’ countries the customer may still encounter an accent that is different to the standard spoken English of their home country. This is especially likely in countries, like Australia, with a large immigrant population. This study examines how three service-related extraneous factors, service criticality, service type and service-accent congruency, affect the extent to which service employees’ accents influence service evaluations. We report on three studies utilizing between-subject experimental design to uncover the boundary conditions when service providers’ accents are likely to affect service evaluations and when they do not. These studies are analyzed using MANCOVA, with the service provider’s accent and the boundary condition as the independent variables. The dependent variables are customer satisfaction and intention to purchase. The respondents’ acceptance of accent and their level of xenophobia were also measured and held as constants to avoid any bias due to underlying personal beliefs. The results show that customers hearing an Australian accent were more likely to be more satisfied with the service encounter than those hearing an Indian accent in an experiential service situation. However the effects on customer satisfaction due to an accented service employee were not seen in the credence service. Customers saw no differences due to service criticality in satisfaction when dealing with a British accented service provider. Likewise no differences in satisfaction were found between a Chinese accented and a British accented service provider when dealing with a service of low criticality, however accent did affect satisfaction in a high criticality situation. When examining the effects of congruency between the service provider’s accent and the service itself (e.g. Chinese accented employee in a Chinese language school) we found no differences in satisfaction for a congruent service but there was for an incongruent service. The same effects were found for the intention to purchase from a congruent/incongruent service.

Encouraging physical activity and fitness is a key goal of many organizations and governments today. At the same time, the last decade has witnessed an unprecedented growth in ability to track behavior. The fact that anything and everything can now be tracked also means that anything can be turned into a game. Gamification, or the application of game design principles to non-game contexts (Robson et al. 2015), thus is on the rise. Health gamification is a potential means of motivating behavior changes (Robson et al. 2015, 2016) that support improved health and fitness. This work explores the point collection and redemption behavior of users in a large gamified fitness program. The results provide a framework to develop gamified experiences that are effective at generating improved sustained health through physical activity while also being cost effective.This project utilizes data from a university-wide fitness program that is intended to encourage improved fitness levels in student and staff from a large European university. We obtained data on 3093 users (Mage = 25, 61.1% female) of a gamified fitness tracking rewards program from over a six-month period. Program members obtain points for engaging in tracked movements; these points can be redeemed for small rewards (such as beverages or discounts at popular websites) or can be saved up for larger rewards (such university branded hoodies or t-shirts). The program is free to join for students, faculty, and staff and works in conjunction with most major fitness trackers (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc.).The dependent variable we investigated was the total number of exercise points collected by an individual, which reflected each person’s fitness over the period. Independent variables included average redemption size in points and the proportion of points redeemed relative to collected. Our findings reveal that point redemptions are in general associated with collecting more points, suggesting that obtaining a reward is effective in motivating physical activity. However, our results also reveal that all prizes or point redemptions are not equally effective in motivating further physical activity, as those users who redeemed the majority of the points they collected ultimately collected fewer points than less avid redeemers. At the same time, our results reveal that redeeming on fewer occasions, but for larger or more valuable rewards, is linked to more physical activity. Our research reveals that sharing workout history was not effective in motivating physical activity – rather, it was linked with less activity unless users also redeemed their points at least once.

For multinational mobile retailers, one of the greatest challenges lies in carefully managing their websites across multiple national markets, which often vary in their stage of readiness and motivation for m-commerce usage. However, catering to the unique preferences of customers in different markets generally proves challenging for firms (Morgeson et al. 2015), resulting in m-retailers often offering standardized online platforms across these markets. Such cross-national standardization allows m-retailers to lower costs and easily manage their websites (Batra et al. 2017; Katsikeas et al. 2006). However, it can also reduce local market relevance by creating a misfit between shopping experience offered and what consumers want (Torelli et al. 2012). This is may be a possible cause for the relatively low mobile conversion rates of 1.4%, compared to 4.1% for desktop shoppers, and could explain why consumers may still be reluctant to use m-commerce across different countries (Xu et al. 2017).Against this backdrop, the present study contributes to this rich field of study by adding insights on what could directly influence adaptation/standardization decisions regarding m-commerce, which is an increasingly important retail channel for international marketers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to contribute to decisions to standardize/adapt m-commerce solutions based on consumers’ m-commerce readiness and their motivations behind using m-commerce. This research posits that the way consumers’ motivations (hedonic vs utilitarian) influence their behavior (intention and habit), and in turn how behavior affects m-commerce usage, will be moderated by technology readiness. Unlike past cross-national studies exploring m-commerce through the lens of cultural differences, we argue that that the differences in the m-commerce readiness stage among countries may provide a more nuanced understanding of consumers’ behavioral differences when studying a new technology, like m-commerce.Our work contributes to the m-retailing literature because it is among the first that examines the competing roles of hedonic and utilitarian motivations on the one hand, and intention and habit on the other, by leveraging the data collected across various countries that are at different m-commerce readiness stages. Our work has critical implication for m-retailers who operate globally. Given that large multinational corporations, such as Starbucks, Amazon and Alibaba, are becoming more dependent on foreign markets for their revenue and profitability, our findings can provide a rich understanding that can help m-retailers leverage the performance of their m-commerce initiatives and campaigns across diverse international markets.

Today, social media influencers (SMI) are key marketing agents, core to a brands digital strategy. Current knowledge on personal self-disclosure by marketing agents assert that such disclosure is detrimental to brands and should be avoided (Jacobs et al. 2001; Andersson et al. 2016). Influencers challenge this status quo, as self-disclosure is known to be central to their success. The aim of the present research is to provide the first understanding of the role of self-disclosure by SMI on consumer behaviour.Self-disclosure is “the act of revealing and sharing personal information with others” (Jourard 1971). Self-disclosure has two main dimensions which are breadth (quantity) and depth (quality) (Collins and Miller 1994). Breadth refers to the number of different topical areas (items) in a person’s life included in the disclosure (Utz 2015). On the other hand, depth refers to the level of intimacy of the information disclosed.A between-subject experiment (n = 454, 2 × 2 × 2) examined, disclosure depth, breadth and gender of Instagram travel influencers, on Appropriateness, Affective Trust, Cognitive Trust, Product Attitude, Purchase Intention, and Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM). Findings, contrast existing knowledge promoting greater self-disclosure, leads to favourable consumer behaviour, a relationship mediated by appropriateness, affective and cognitive trust, and product attitude. Primarily this study extends knowledge of self-disclosure of marketing agents as well as highlight the importance of appropriateness. Implications for marketers are also provided.This paper has a multi-disciplinary nature and accordingly it contributes to different literatures. First, it extends literature of self-disclosure to new important key players on SNS, whom are SMI. Up to our knowledge none of the literature that explores SMI have focused on their self-disclosure and its impact on consumer behaviour. Additionally, this paper highlights the importance of appropriateness, which plays a key mediator role in this relationship. In terms of practical contribution, it provides important implications for influencers. For example, SMI should incorporate self-disclosure with high depth and breadth in their marketing strategy as long as it will be perceived as appropriate by their followers in order to have a positive impact on consumer behaviour.

The Millennial generation exerts a peculiar fascination on both managers and academics. Yet, the way Millennials engage with brands in social media is an area meriting more research attention. Are they mainly passive observers, or are they actively engaged with and loyal to their loved brands? What are the real benefits brands can reap from Millennials avid use of social media? In order to answer to these research questions, this study focuses on this generational cohort and develops a holistic model of social media engagement, validated across different social media platforms. Through an online survey, data was collected from 343 social media users (all belonging to the Millennium generation), based on self-selected self-expressive, loved brands. Findings suggest a disconnection between online and offline brand relationships: though Millennials love and are very loyal to their favourite, self-expressive brands, they are not very active or engaged online. Moreover, brand experience was found to play a major role in developing brand love, which in turn is positively related with engagement and brand loyalty. Managerially, this study provides insights to brand managers who wish to successfully use social media to stimulate engagement and build relationships with Millennials.

The relationship between place attachment and its behavioural consequences has attracted considerable interest among researchers since this affective bond that people have with the place leads to behaviours that generally benefit that place. In particular, place attachment and its dimensions have often been documented as good predictors to explain people’s intention for pro-environmental behaviours. However, the literature shows that the effect size regarding the impact of place attachment on pro-environmental intention varies across different studies. Thus, a meta-analysis study is needed to clarify the nature of the relationship between place attachment and pro-environmental intention. How big is the impact of place attachment on pro-environmental intention? Does place attachment always have a positive impact on pro-environmental intention? And what are the contextual factors that might influence the relationship between place attachment and pro-environmental intention?This meta-analysis synthesizes the empirical findings in order to better understand the magnitude of the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental intention, and to evaluate the extent to which various operationalizations of place attachment and contextual factors such as type of sample and culture contribute to the variations in the reported effects of place attachment on pro-environmental intention.Our results support prior expectations of the presence of a positive effect of place attachment on pro-environmental intention, and the effect size is small to large. Furthermore, we find that variations in the effect sizes can be explained by the study context and culture. More specifically, the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental intention is stronger for tourists compared to residents—both groups obviously have different forms of relationships with different types of places. Our results also show that the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental intention tends to be stronger in collectivistic countries (e.g., China) than in individualistic countries (e.g., US). We do not find any evidence that the operationalisations of place attachment have an effect on pro-environmental intention.

Over the course of the past 40 years, there have been numerous policies and practices established by governments, corporations, and consumers seeking to address the environmental and social problems facing the world. As a result of these activities, consumers are considering the potential impact of sustainability issues which affect their purchasing decisions respective to ecological products. Thus, consumers are now seeking further information on the origin of products they are purchasing, where frequent amount of studies have demonstrated that country-of-origin (COO) information can strongly affect consumers’ behavior.Nevertheless, this extensive literature poorly considers the impact of environmental and social aspects of origins. In fact, countries do vary in their seriousness in treating environmental and social issues and thus, project different ecological images.However, and to the best of our knowledge, no research has investigated the country of origin ecological image construct before. Hence, this study proposes to give insights into its nature and dimensions.To fill this objective, and based on the exploratory nature of the research, we conducted a qualitative study with a sample of 23 professionals in the field of sustainable marketing (15 in France and 9 in Australia) and 3 focus groups with consumers (1 in France and 2 in Australia). The findings of the study suggest that the COO ecological image construct is composed of eight dimensions: political, technological, economic, historical, natural, climatic, people’s characteristics, and the eco-product dimension. Consequently, theoretical and practical implications of the findings for companies and society are also discussed.

Global warming is real! Citizens are influenced by public figures, and some tend to believe that this is a myth. They are then far less inclined to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, consequently increasing their carbon footprint. The alarming issue of global warming is becoming irreparable with increase commute by car (Steg 2003). For the individuals to adopt “good” behaviors, it is not appropriate only to debilitate their beliefs but also to help them change their habits by a little help; that said, by a nudge.Previous research has shown the effectiveness of nudges on behaviors (Thaler and Sunstein 2008), this research proposes to use digital nudge as there is a growth in the relevance of nudging in the digital sphere as individuals are taking decisions on the influence of mobile applications or websites (Mirsch et al. 2017). This research examines two choice architectures. First, the feedback nudge – to put the targets in a favorable context so that they incline towards the right decision; it will also assist in knowing the adoption of public transport and more generally modes of public transport. Second, the planning prompts nudge to push them to act (i.e., go beyond the intention of change). The presentation of the social proof in the form of the story without contradicting the worldview of the recipient, the fake news could be debunked. These messages will be broadcasted on a mobile application, allowing personalized content delivered at a convenient time chosen. Other features of the messages like the social norm, will also be studied. A qualitative study and then experiments will make it possible to highlight the effects of a variety of characteristics of digital nudges on the debunking of beliefs, the intention of behavior, and actual behavior. The mediating role of processing fluency will be shown as well as the moderating role of online social support and credibility of the source.We point out three main contributions. First, this research addresses the question of the mechanism of a digital nudge. Second, we signify the combination of social influence and feedback nudge choice architecture for behavior change and debunking. The presentation of the social proof in the form of the story without contradicting the worldview of the recipient, the fake news can be debunked. Third, through this study, we propose that planning prompts nudge can be utilized in closing the intention-behavior gap in the context of mobility-related research. Finally, the disadvantages of Travel feedback programs (TFP’s) that had developed in Japan to increase the use of public transportation (Fujii et al. 2009) have been addressed as TFP’s are expensive to apply, with no theoretical and methodological framework.

Sustainable development implies closing a gap between two points in time. There is a need to complement the evolutionary determinants reported by Høgevold and Svensson (2016) and Høgevold et al. (2014). The research objective is therefore to frame the sustainable development in private hospitals based on descriptive determinants of orientation and organization from the past to the present.The fact is that sustainability, as a mantra for the “new societies”, has “drastically changed the way in which companies do business” (Linnenluecke and Griffiths 2013, p. 382). Nowadays, sustainability: (i) is a central element of the business itself (Yang et al. 2017); (ii) is integrated into a company’s strategy, vision and culture (Jin and Bai 2011; Stead and Stead 2000); and (iii) relevant decisions are made at a strategic level (Engeert et al. 2016). Even so, Daily and Huang (2001) indicate that there is a lack of clarity on how to implement sustainability in organizations. Authors such as Plakoyiannaki and Saren (2006), or Quintens and Matthyssens (2010) argue that time can be seen as a frame of reference for explaining and understand organization, management and marketing processes.This study was conducted in the Spanish healthcare industry, but specifically in the private sector, and focusing on hospitals. The selection of each hospital was based on judgmental sampling (Fischhoff and Bar-Hillel 1982). The inductive approach proposed by (Thomas 2006) was considered relevant to this study. As in Høgevold et al., (2014) and a follow-up study by Høgevold and Svensson (2016) in the in-depth interviews, informants were asked about sustainability initiatives across different areas through a large number of questions, in order to assess the direction through time of the hospital.This study contributes to framing the sustainable development through descriptive determinants in private healthcare organizations. It also contributes dividing these determinants into two groups, namely the orientation and organization of sustainability initiatives. The organization of sustainability focuses on three internal determinants to describe an organization’s sustainable development, while the orientation of sustainability initiatives focuses on three external determinants to describe an organization’s sustainable development in relation to the market and society. Furthermore, each group of determinants contains three spectra of anchor criteria that enables the positioning of past and present sustainability initiatives, such as: (i) orientation: value/business, environmental/social, reactive/proactive and (ii) organization: employee/top staff, improvised/planned and unstructured/structured.

Sustainable Tourism heralds an inclusive approach to tourism by involving local communities in wealth creation. Past research on the benefits of sustainable tourism is splintered into two different streams with some suggesting that sustainable tourism provides significant social and economic benefits to the local people (Torres 2003; Goodwin 2009) by providing additional income through selling goods and services to the tourists and creating job opportunities to work in the hotels and restaurants that tourists’ patronage. However, others warn that growth in tourism and development of protected areas burdens local communities (Jensen 2010), conflicts with indigenous use of forest resources (Machlis and Tichnell 1987) and in general widens income inequality.This paper examines the perceptions of a much neglected stakeholder in this dialogue, the views of local people towards conservation and tourism development that directly affects them. In so doing, we contribute to the literature on sustainable tourism in three ways. First, we capture the indigenous people’s opinions and attitudes towards tourism. Second, we identify a missed opportunity in excluding local businesses in tourism development. Finally, the study offers an inclusive approach towards sustainable tourism development in an emerging economy.The paper chooses a context which is one of the most popular tourist destination in India. Jim Corbett national park is visited by more than 2.5 million people every year from across the world, despite being closed for visitors between June and October, due to heavy rains. The findings of the paper can be related to similar contexts in other parts of the world, such as in developing countries and in particular where tiger reserves are established as tourist spots. We hope our research paves the way for a critical examination of the way sustainable tourism development is planned and executed.Our analysis identified community participation as a necessary precondition for the sustainable development of a tourist destination. The paper exemplifies that just inclusion of people from nearby areas, including local villages, among the key development stakeholders is not enough for ensuring community participation. It is clear from the interviews that the community is not benefited enough with the management decisions and actions. Local communities are neither consulted during the planning process nor are their businesses promoted through infrastructure development. Tourism development should have provided them a complementary opportunity to indulge in economic activity. Ironically, they are even deprived of their traditional economic activities for which they were dependent on natural resources of the forest.

This study sheds light on ways online guests’ rating in the hotel review website TripAdvisor differ between Chinese- and English-speaking groups. The study adopted mixed methodology and applied with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The dual analysis with 800 online reviews of eight hotel brands that considered as a representative of its category located in Bangkok city, Thailand. Results from quantitative analysis revealed that 2-star hotels were rated positively than 3- to 5-star hotels. English-speaking guests gave higher ratings than Chinese-speaking guest in all the hotel service attributes (e.g. Service, Cleanliness, Room, Sleep Quality, Location, Value, and Overall). From qualitative aspect, ten service attributes that impacted on traveler satisfaction were identified. These attributes were then classified into three broad themed categories known as Intangible Service, Tangible Service and Staying Experience. The result further reveals the most frequently used words when cross-cultural travelers give online reviews on the sites. Implications of the divergences in themes abstracted are discussed.The current research offers practical insights for hotel operators who would like to improve their service quality. More online reviews on the hotels’ webs is better for the hotel performance since those online reviews can be considered as good references for the travelers during their searching process. Positive reviews mean satisfaction and positively influence on consumer purchase decision while negative reviews consider as a gift for hoteliers for further development their service standard. In this case, the hotelier could consider developing the customer incentive system (e.g. membership rewards) to guests who post reviews of hotels products and services on the social media platforms, which plays an important role in eWOM for younger generation who prefers using social media platform rather than traditional WOM (Kim et al. 2016).

Recently, more and more consumers have participated in recreational and tourism activities together as diverse communities, which help them to develop and accumulate social capital (Hsiao and Chiou 2012). Social capital captures any aspect of a social system (e.g., a leisure community) that generates valuable outcomes and facilitates an individual’s actions within that social system (Coleman 1988). Consumers are likely to meet new friends, exchange recreational resources, share leisure experiences, and receive social support with each other in these leisure- or tourism-related communities.In addition, leisure involvement refers to “an unobservable state of motivation, arousal or interest toward a recreational activity or associated product” (Havitz and Dimanche 1997, p. 246). Leisure involvement has been regarded as a key antecedent that affects a consumer’s behavioral intention toward a leisure activity (Havitz and Dimanche 1997, 1999; Kyle and Mowen 2005). Although recent research has put emphasis on the sociological approach of leisure involvement (Kyle and Chick 2002, 2004), very few studies have provided empirical evidence for the sociological antecedents of leisure involvement.Drawing upon the literature of social capital and leisure involvement, this study attempts to investigate the relationships among leisure social capital, leisure involvement, and behavioral intention toward leisure activities in leisure communities. This study first proposes three facets of leisure social capital, including social interaction ties (structural capital), community social norms (relational capital), and community shared value (cognitive capital). This study also examines the mediating role of leisure involvement on the relationship between leisure social capital on behavioral intention in leisure communities.This study selects bicycle-riding communities as the research context because bicycle riding is regarded as a popular leisure activity in the studied country. After collecting data from 382 voluntary participants in several bicycle riding clubs and associations, the results show that three social capital facets positively affect a consumer’s leisure involvement, which in turn to positively affect his or her behavioral intention toward a leisure activity. The mediating role of leisure involvement between leisure social capital and behavioral intention is also verified by the data. Finally, this study provides several implications for leisure and tourism marketing.

We explore the effects of CSR rankings inclusion on stock market performance by considering Ethisphere’s annual announcements of companies the independent rating institution deems the World’s Most Ethical Companies® (WME). While Ethisphere provides a third-party confirmation to firms’ ethical behavior, participants in the index are self-selected. By requesting to be evaluated by Ethisphere, firms send signals about how they want to be perceived. External stakeholders may see the index as an additional marketing tool rather than an informative ranking of “The World’s Most Ethical Companies”. Prior studies have claimed that from investors’ perspective, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index is the most rigorous and the most credible in terms of CSR information (Hawn et al. 2018). That would mean that from a purely informational standpoint, Ethisphere’s list would be of little value to investors. Accordingly, we investigate whether Ethisphere listings provide any value and what kind of value might that be. Our findings indicate that companies entering the WME list register abnormal returns robust to the specification of the estimation window (0.17% on the day of announcement of the list). Further, we suggest that the value may be reputational rather than informational. We formulate competing hypotheses by investigating the moderating effect of other reputational rankings. Specifically, if a company’s presence on other reputation-related lists augments the value of the WME list, then we are observing a reputational effect as investors are already familiar with that reputational dimension. Reversely, if companies that are not present on other lists are boosted by the WME listing, we can assume that the effect is informational. We attempt to explain which dimension of the reputational asset is augmented by the Ethisphere list. Following Rindova and Martins’ (2012) categorization of reputational dimensions, we introduce proxy interactions for: (a) specificity – abnormal returns moderated by GRI reports; (b) accumulation – abnormal returns moderated by a strong brand; (c) breadth of appeal – abnormal returns moderated by listing in the Forbes’ World’s Most Reputable companies list. We observe that companies with stronger brands are rewarded with higher abnormal returns pointing at the accumulation dimension of reputation. None of the informational value hypotheses is supported.

The results from two studies suggest that valued characteristics are critical in the evaluation of sustainable product’s performance. Despite the popularity of sustainable product the sales represent a small percentage of the overall product category. A study indicates that out of 30% of the consumers who preferred to do ethical shopping only 3% of them end up in doing so (Futerra 2005). Most of the consumers avoid sustainable product with belief that they have to incur some amount of inconvenience and cost for an inferior product. Therefore it becomes important to identify conditions under which sustainability enhances the performance of the product rather than preference as done in past research (Luchs et al. 2010), specifically when expressed preference is not leading to sales. Thus in study-1, authors demonstrate that consumers perceive the performance of the sustainable product to be superior when gentleness related characteristics are valued and inferior when strength related characteristics are valued. Contrasting to slight preference shown (Luchs et al. 2010), the performance of the sustainable product is perceived inferior when strength related features are valued.In study-2, the authors show specified ways to overcome the perceived performance inferiority of sustainable product by linking sustainability from central to peripheral attributes of the product. The above studies contribute towards the understanding of consumer behavior in the recent practices of sustainable consumption. In the process, we also enrich the fields of compensatory inference theory and centrality of attribute investigations in the field of valued characteristics in a product – perceived performance relationship. It helps the firms to mediate the efforts of sustainability effectively. This finding can be used to design products in accordance by linking sustainability to central/peripheral attributes of the product depending on valued characteristics in the product.

Despite the important role of culture in consumer behavior studies, there has been no study of effect of indulgence vs. restraint, the sixth and last dimension of Hofstede’s cultural framework, at the individual-level in consumer behavior. This is mainly because there has been no scale yet developed to measure indulgence vs. restraint at the individual-level. Given that ascribing national-level cultural scores to individuals causes an ecological fallacy, the four studies of this research conceptualize and develop a measure for individual-level indulgence and establish the reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, as well as the nomological validity of this new scale.First, we developed an 8-items scale to measure indulgence vs. restraint, the sixth dimension of Hofstede’s cultural framework, at the individual level. The wording of the items of this scale was designed to measure indulgence. A high score in indulgence means a low score on restraint and vice versa. Then, through four different studies, we carefully followed all the classic steps in the scale development process, including reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and finally nomological validity.More specifically, the nomological study of this research shows that hedonic and utilitarian attitudes fully mediate the relationship between individual-level indulgence and repurchase intentions and between individual-level indulgence and WOM, and this mediation effect is stronger for hedonic attitudes than that for utilitarian attitudes. Moreover, post-purchase positive emotions fully mediate the relationship between individual-level indulgence and utilitarian attitudes and between individual-level indulgence and hedonic attitudes.

Retail brand competition is increasing, global competition coupled with the economic crisis of 2008 has impacted on the UK high street; many well-known retailers went into administration and others are streamlining with store closures and redundancies. The expansion of discount retailers may appeal to price sensitive consumers, but this has incurred allegations of exploiting producers. In the past, research has found that consumers consider that workers in developing countries cannot expect the same salaries and working conditions as western-workers but more recently there have been allegations that UK employees are exploited with low pay and poor working conditions. With discount retailers appearing to grow their market-share in this price sensitive climate, it seems that retailers who have attempted to install stronger brand identity through better quality products, superior customer service and stable employment are suffering from applying integrity to their business practice. However, there also seems to be a backlash against businesses that focus on the ‘race to the bottom’ and the impact this has on society. This research seeks to explore how consumers perceive the integrity of retail brand identity and how that translates into a buying decision. To do this, focus groups that target Baby Boomers and Generation X examined consumers interpretation and perceptions of retail brands found on the UK high street, including: middle-market retailers John Lewis and M&S that communicate customer service, product quality and enhanced employee conditions will be contrasted against Primark and Sports Direct, which both focus on low pricing. The results found that similar to research that examined exploitation in developing countries, where a consumer centric approach was adopted based on product attribute evaluation (Eckhardt et al. 2010), there was some heightened concern for UK employees. This was of particular concern when the participants had experienced, or their family or friends had experienced, reduced worker conditions and salaries. The findings advance the debate around consumer citizen (Gabriel and Lang 1995) as to whether or not consumer actions endorse free-market capitalism. Although there was some consideration that discount retailing had increased competition and reduced pricing thresholds which led to the loss of UK high street retailers, it was also considered that UK retailers were not proactive in enticing consumers onto the high street with homogenised product offering (which encourages price sensitivity) or unique experiences that would enhance retail brand identity.