ABSTRACT. A slide deck announcing the winners of Academy Awards for 2021. The slides contain links to videos produced by the winners of the Parasuraman, Distinguished Marketer, and Cutco/Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award winners. Other announcements include the Sheth Award for best JAMS paper from the previous year and the Harold and Muriel Berkman Faculty Development and Achievement Award.

ABSTRACT. 2020 AMS Review Awards Announcements

Includes Best Paper, Outstanding Reviewer and Special Recognition Awards.

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

ABSTRACT. This research paper investigates the motivational factors (need for competence, autonomy and relatedness) underpinned by self-determination theory and customer-owned resources (social interaction with contacts and brand knowledge) underpinned by service-dominant logic, that influence customers’ online participation in brand-related user generated content (UGC) to enhance customers overall brand involvement. Co-creation of value by customers is the key strategic factor for firms to sustain in the competitive service ecosystem and create a presence for themselves. Value co-creation is possible through brand involvement via customers’ interaction on online media (UGC). Thus, an empirical model is formulated and tested through structural equation modelling employing SmartPLS. Results from data collected via online surveys administered to 265 Australian respondents, demonstrate that brand involvement is positively affected by customers’ participation in brand UGC. In turn, UGC participation is positively dependent on customers’ intrinsic need for relatedness, their social interaction with online contact and their brand knowledge, creativity acting as a control variable. This research also adds to the vast literature of consumer engagement, online digital-brand management and service development. Online brand managers can enhance brand involvement by developing strategies to increase customers’ participation in brand UGC on social media, hence, co-creating value for their brands and services.

ABSTRACT. This study demonstrates that customers change their motivation to engage in on-line settings depending on the interaction between the company and other customers. In on-line settings, where customers can observe how the company rewards other customers, customers compare own treatment with that of others, and consequently change their motivation to engage. Previous studies clarify the effect of rewards on customer motivation, though they do not consider the effect of rewards on other customers who just observe the rewarding activity. This research provides theoretical and managerial implications on how companies can manage customer motivation to engage when companies’ behavior to the individual customer is visible to all customers. In order to understand how a company’s attitude toward an individual who engages with them influences other members’ motivation to engage, I use Organization Citizenship Behavior research framework. How companies treat employees who in engage in citizenship behavior, for example, through praise or promotion, is visible to other employees in the firm. This situation is similar to the interaction between the company and customers in on-line interactions. The analysis presented in this paper is based on a unique data set of company and customer interactions drawn from YouTube, consisting of 1.2 million comments.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines how basic human values such as self-enhancement and self-transcendence and social mindfulness predict the choice of exchange offer. An exchange offers is a solution to collaborative consumption, moving products from the haves to the have-nots through a mediator/firm in a sustainable manner. An exchange offer is a consumer sales promotion program in which the seller offers to a prospective buyer an incentive in exchange of an old, used product while purchasing a new one. Two studies were conducted to test the basic premise of the current research. Results reveal that values of self-enhancement and self-transcendence are related to the choice of economic or social exchange offers. Further, the presence of social mindfulness enhanced the relationship between values and offer frames on choice of exchange offer. This study has implications for marketers, policy makers and scholars in the area of collaborative consumption. Future research may validate and extend the findings of this research using different samples to improve external validity.

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

ABSTRACT. Younger generations present significant disadvantages compared with their older counterparts due to job instability, cost of living, economic stagnation, amongst others, creating significant wealth inequalities across generations (IMF, 2018). Catastrophic environmental change and economic inequality are contributing to feelings of powerlessness, particularly among 16–34 years old consumers (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010), hindering their ability to reallocate capital towards sustainable businesses and drive social progress. Emerging digital micro-investment platforms provide young consumers, with limited capital, the ability to invest in sustainable firms. This research studies the impact of empowering young consumers to invest in sustainable options on their ability to create wealth. We focus on the relationship between socially responsible micro-investing (SMRI) and willingness to invest (WTI), and the influence of empowerment, sustainable attitudes and feelings of warm glow. A series of controlled experiments has been conducted to examine these relationships. Results provide a better understanding of the importance of sustainable investments on WTI in the context of micro-investing platforms. Marketing managers can use results for product development within the investment and banking industry that maximises feelings of empowerment of young investors, and to leverage these emerging platforms to appeal to young consumers.

ABSTRACT. Academic publishing has recently faced numerous ethical challenges, but journal reviewing practices present an under-explored area of concern. In particular, reviewers have ample opportunity for undisclosed conflict of interest (COI), but scant attention has been paid to this issue. In business, COI policies are typically communicated clearly, and violation can be grounds for dismissal, yet academic reviewing practices regarding COI are much less clear. This study analyses academic publishers’ COI policies and the communication of leading business journals about guidelines for ethical reviewing – in particular, the practice of reviewers recommending their own publications for citation during blind peer review, sometimes without academic merit – a practice we refer to as ‘coerced citations’. The results show a disturbing lack of obvious attention to possible COI in the peer review process at many high-level business journals. We discuss implications for academic pulishing.

ABSTRACT. Ridesharing platforms like Uber and Lyft have recently come under public scrutiny regarding the "independent contractor" vs "employee" status of their drivers. To address whether or under what circumstances, the platform, the drivers and consumers are better off under the "employee" or under the "independent contractor" status, we derive the optimal compensation design under each of these two statuses. We show how the profitability and welfare comparisons for the platform, drivers and consumers across the two statuses depend on key market characteristics, such as difference in demand between rush hour and non-rush hour periods and the degree of heterogeneity in the outside options of drivers. Our paper provides support for the concerns in the public arena by highlighting potential regions of conflict where the platform's preferred the contractor status can leave drivers worse off. There are also scenarios where the drivers and the platform are aligned in their preference for the contractor status, and any regulatory intervention forcing a switch to an employee status may leave drivers worse off. In addition, we highlight areas where such intervention can improve drivers’ welfare but hurt consumers in the process, as well as areas where the intervention can benefit both drivers and consumers.

ABSTRACT. The advances of the Internet and social media have given rise to bloggers or vloggers, also referred as micro-influencers who have less followers than traditional celebrities but wield powerful influence over their audience. This study aims to investigate micro-influencers’ cues of persuasion, jointly with other essential communication elements, impacting on consumer engagement behaviours (CEBs). Data was collected online using convenience sampling method with Vietnamese consumers who have previously purchased or planned to buy a mobile phone within six months and have viewed product reviews about mobile phones as part of their information search. After quality screening, a usable data of 371 responses was analysed using PLS-SEM. Findings reveal that online opinion leadership (OOL) and parasocial interaction (PSI) have significant impact on message quality, which in turn affects significantly CEBs: Intention to interact with the post; intention to follow advice of the micro-influencer; and intention to recommend the micro-influencer to others. While the result only finds online interaction propensity elevates the impact of message quality on consumers’ intention to interact with the post at p<0.10; findings show significant direct impact of OIP on CEBs, though not hypothesised. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided.

ABSTRACT. Theory and research call for advances in customer journey mapping, moving toward more adaptive and customized mapping and incorporating more of the pre - and post- components of the customer journey within the firm. This study contributes to the evolving stream of literature focused on the business education in the digital age and co-creation of value in relation to online business education, reporting on the meaningful elements and touchpoints in the consumer journey of mature-age online MBA prospective students in Australia. Only few studies attempted to map out student journeys reflecting on customer experiences, however, these studies do not address online business education context and explored the perceived value of e-learning without a clear focus on mature-age prospective students interested in the online MBA education. Moreover, while extant literature offers limited empirical evidence on understanding various factors influencing the consumer decision making process in the online learning context; no studies have integrated these factors into student journey relevant for mature-age consumers in Australia. This research address such gap, mapping out consumer journey of prospective MBA students via service pre-experience and pre-purchase stages and identifying relevant factors that may influence the conversion rates of e-tailers.

ABSTRACT. Wine tourism is a fast-growing industry that can be particularly important to the development and sustainability of rural areas. However, these regions often struggle to successfully differentiate themselves. Virtual reality experiences can be utilised as differentiating promotional tools to increase immersion and illicit emotions for the purpose of impacting the development of wine tourism and wine sales. This study explores the role of immersion in the VR experience on behavioural outcomes such as desire to visit the region and desire to purchase products produced in the region. Moreover, it explores factors influencing perceptions of immersion as well as behavioural outcomes. Focus groups were conducted in both USA (4 focus groups) and China (4 focus groups). A survey was also distributed to the participants in order to quantify the results. Data was analysed using Leximancer (qualitative data) and SPSS (quantitative data). Sensory engagement, perceived quality of the VR experience, presence of an authority figure (such as a tour guide), perceptions of authenticity of the experience and perceived control within the experience were found to play an important role in influencing perceptions of immersion in the VR experience as well as desire to visit and purchase products produced in the region.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research is to assess the consequences of voluntary self-disclosure in social media functioning as a consumer’s personality trait by examining user-generated content (UGC) perception – drawn from source credibility and attractiveness – and UGC behavior – drawn from consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs). This study examines the extent to which self-disclosure favorably impacts perceived UGC trustworthiness and familiarity, and how this in turn affects subsequent brand attitude and purchase intention. This study further looks into how UGC behavior affects purchase intention. Using 301 valid responses, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) are employed. The results indicate that consumers with a high level of self-disclosure not only generate trust and familiarity toward UGC but are also active in engaging in UGC behavior. The findings suggest that the more consumers create, consume, or contribute to UGC, the more they want to purchase the products and/or brands shown in UGC. Perceived UGC trustworthiness and familiarity, in turn, lead to positive brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Coincidently, this study confirms that self-disclosure begets positive UGC behavior using UGC perception as a mediator. This research provides practical insights into the mechanisms underlying UGC perception and UGC behavior, and it ultimately helps facilitate consumers’ self-disclosure to improve brand attitude and purchase intention.

ABSTRACT. Product-harm crises are becoming more widespread with each passing day, and these crises may cause many negative effects both on the firm/brand and stakeholders of the firm. Thus, managing a product-harm crisis is a challenging period, especially for the firms operating in different countries, since culture plays a vital role as a perceptual lens to shape and interpret information and other factors. As a matter of fact, cultural characteristics, namely uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism, could determine various aspects such as how individuals will evaluate firm strategies (proactive vs passive), whether they will attribute blame to the firm, how they will process information (functional or emotional) in their evaluations for the product and how their expectations differ according to the firms’ corporate reputation levels (high vs low). Therefore, two different studies with a 2x2 between-subjects factorial design were conducted. Study 1 was performed using the data obtained from Turkey selected as a collectivist structure with a high level of uncertainty avoidance country. It was concluded that blame attribution and negative emotions were serially mediated the effect of crisis response strategies on repurchase intention. Study 2 was conducted with the data obtained from the USA, which has an individualist structure and a low level of uncertainty avoidance; the functional evaluation was found to mediate the relevant process. Also, it was observed that corporate reputation had a moderating role on the indirect effect of firm strategies in both studies, where these effects also showed differences between studies depending on the culture. While proactive efforts of the firm with the high reputation level appreciated more in the collectivist and high level of uncertainty avoidance country, proactive efforts of the firm with the low reputation level provided better results in individualist and low level of uncertainty avoidance country. Theoretically, culture causes differentiation of individuals’ information processing, blame attribution, and perceptions of corporate reputation. Thus, practitioners are advised to understand the cultural characteristics of the market they serve for taking appropriate steps in the face of product-harm crisis, especially for creating the correct message content or offering satisfactory compensation.

ABSTRACT. Inter-organizational cooperation is considered highly important for company success. While the concept of inter-organizational cooperation itself is well-established, the great potential of cooperation specifically with startups emerged over the last few years. Interestingly, even though there are strong motives for this specific kind of cooperation, researchers identified a lack of profound understanding and abilities of established companies in terms of interacting successfully with relevant startups. Drawing on resource complementarity as conceptual basis, we investigate how established companies can develop a generic approach to manage startup cooperation effectively and efficiently. In a first step as part of a broader research endeavor, this study identifies the difficulties lying in this kind of cooperation from the startup perspective. The results reveal the issues established companies need to solve in order to interact with startups in a productive way. A follow-up study will offer the necessary guidance for strategic decisions on startup cooperation initiatives and consequently enhance the chances of realizing the high expectations associated with startup cooperation.

ABSTRACT. The reputation of companies is an important and well-researched topic in the marketing discipline, as positive reputation is known for having a positive influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can lead to competitive advantage as well as an increase in a firm’s performance. This study looks at the drivers of reputation of the German banking sector as well as its influence on sustainable satisfaction from a customer perspective. For this study, reputation is modeled as a two-dimensional construct consisting of competence and likeability according to Schwaiger (2004). A 71-item survey has been conducted and sent out to a representative sample with n= 3443 respondents of the German population. The study contributes to the ongoing discussion on customer-based reputation and satisfaction by replicating, adapting and further extending a well-established corporate reputation model. The findings show that for the German banking sector, perceived attractiveness is the most important driver of both dimensions of corporate reputation, namely competence and likeability. Quality is the second most important driver of likeability, whereas performance is the second most important driver of competence. Furthermore, the affective dimension, likeability, is more important in explaining the target construct, sustainable satisfaction, than competence.

ABSTRACT. Tourist expenditure plays a vital role in the economic growth of a destination, both at its national and regional levels. When it comes to tourist consumption, it's important to identify the factors that affect the tourist consumption behaviour and understand the effect of these factors on tourist expenditure patterns. We are using the tourist behaviour microdata by The Bank of Italy for 2019 that contains 48,477 interviewed tourists. We have applied the robust standard errors and Hall/Sheather bandwidth estimation methods with 200 repetitions. This study contributes to destination marketing literature, particularly to the destination and place branding research stream. The study presents a novel way to explore what kind of experiences the most profitable segments are spending on and how Italy as a top tourist destination could brand different places according to the tourist segment.

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

ABSTRACT. Recent literature on B2B interactions highlights the importance of touchpoints and their influence on B2B relationships, yet fails to test empirically the long-term effects of specific touchpoints on essential measures of customer perceptions. The purpose of this study is to compare the short- and long-term impacts of different provider-controlled touchpoints on B2B customer perceptions. Specifically, this study assesses the impact of touchpoints related to sales force, product, consulting, communication, tangibles and standardized contacts on customer perceptions of firm expertise, service reliability and service excellence. To test the proposed model, data from a multinational insurance company are used to obtain a random panel dataset of 2,175 companies over five years. The results confirm that sales force and product touchpoints are crucial in maintaining long-term positive customer perceptions, while the effect of touchpoints related to consulting, tangibles and standardized contacts on customer perceptions is weaker over time. The findings of this managerial-oriented study provide empirical evidence of how the impact of touchpoints on customer perceptions changes over time. The implications are crucial for academia and best practice alike, as this research analyzes the changes and identifies the interactions that will have the most important long-term effects on the B2B customer–provider relationship.

ABSTRACT. Brand anniversary celebrations are common practices especially when addressed to various audiences. Such celebrations are key opportunities for brands to showcase their identity, history, achievements, and future perspectives. While there is a clear interest from managers, brand anniversaries lack theoretical foundations. Anthropologists and sociologists study people’s birthday celebrations as rituals. However, although there is literature on organizational rituals, and on the actualization of brand heritage through rituals, no research has explored how the anniversaries of abstract objects (brands) are ritualized when projected to external audiences (consumers). In addition, the operationalization of temporality in specific ritualized events (brand anniversaries) is neglected. Building on three streams of literature, this research aims to extend theory on brand management by answering the following RQ: How is the ritual of a brand's anniversary celebration articulated? An exploratory methodological design mobilizes the qualitative analysis of 52 cases of brand anniversary celebrations. Findings inform that such celebrations involve five key dimensions and seven symbolic meanings associated with specific temporal orientations and three major outcomes. The latter are consistent with an existing typology of corporate rites. From these results, a research agenda presents three research proposals for further research on brand management.

ABSTRACT. Companies that use pricing tactics such as dynamic pricing are often considered norm-violating by customers, which in turn negatively influences fairness perceptions and increases customer retaliations. Moreover, only a handful of companies disclose information about the pricing criteria, potentially leaving customers feeling confused, resulting in higher perceptions of price complexity. This research will lead to a better understanding of whether dynamic pricing strategies can be used by companies without the formation of negative perceptions by customers, and if mitigation attempts using explanations are effective. We tested four pricing tactics (uniform pricing, dynamic pricing without an explanation, with a short or a complete explanation) applied to a touristic flight, and measured price fairness and complexity perceptions, as well as purchase and complaint intentions. The results show that additional explanations about dynamic pricing can fully restore fairness perceptions to the same level as uniform pricing but at the same time do not fully eliminate perceptions of complexity. The results for the second level consumer response variables, purchase and complaint intentions, show that at least a complete explanation of the criteria used for dynamic pricing helps to establish intentions that are as high as in the case of uniform prices.

ABSTRACT. Patients’ adoption of Electronic Health Records varies substantially. Governments need to deal with the patients’ disparities to reach the expected high performance for healthcare systems and improve the quality of diagnoses and care delivery. This study investigates patients’ perceived benefits and concerns of EHR in order to develop a typology of patients, identify characteristics of different clusters, and propose practical measures for policymakers. Cluster analyses identified four clusters: the worried, with the highest means of privacy concerns and perceived risk, are the most concerned. Conversely, the ready adopters, showing an absolute lack of privacy concerns and risks, are the most motivated by EHR benefits. Yet, compared to the worried, concerned adopters express far less privacy concerns about their health data and perceive more favorably EHR benefits. The balanced adopters, relatively close to the ready adopters for EHR motives, are still concerned about their health data, suggesting a segment easier to convince. ANOVA analyses on intentions to create EHR and willingness to disclose health-data across clusters confirm that ready adopters, followed by balanced adopters, are more likely to create an EHR and disclose health-data. The concerned adopters and lastly the worried exhibit the lowest intentions for EHR creation and data disclosure.

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

ABSTRACT. This paper focuses on the relationship between environmental sustainability perception and different consumer attitudes such as consumer loyalty, satisfaction, and purchase intention; it considers this relationship in the light of the moderating effect of price. Environmental sustainability actions can positively encourage consumers’ behaviors. However, sustainability practices can increase the cost of operations, and it may lead firms to charge a higher price for their goods and services. Hence, the price may have a moderating effect between these different consumer attitudes and environmental sustainability actions of the companies. A quantitative research technique was conducted to test the relations between these variables through an online survey in Turkey. The findings confirmed the positive relationship between environmental sustainability actions and consumer attitudes. Besides, it also confirmed that price has a moderating effect between these actions of the companies and consumer attitudes. This research demonstrates that consumers care about environmental issues as long as the price is reasonable. Likewise, companies need to consider the optimal price level by conducting environmental sustainability practices to get a competitive position in the market.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the phenomenon of organizational ambidexterity in financial services. While literature has looked at ambidexterity and its distinct forms (e.g., contextual ambidexterity and structural separation) and countless facets (e.g., antecedents and consequences), this research delves into the process of how ambidexterity is implemented. More precisely, we explore how a multinational financial services provider executes its plan to become ambidextrous once activities and responsibilities are agreed upon. Following an inductive research design, the authors conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders to develop a holistic perspective of the organization. The case illustrates how to implement a dual orientation across entities to adopt an ambidextrous organization and pursue exploitation and exploration simultane-ously. The authors discuss implications for theory and practice.

ABSTRACT. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the capabilities of performing tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and language translations, among others. Where AI has become especially pivotal for users’ interactions is in the case of voice-based assistants (VAs). VAs have developed considerably in recent years and their functionality goes way beyond initial perceptions. Some reports go as far to discuss how Amazon has plans to be able to run someone’s entire life from the Alexa on the basis that the systems are getting so sophisticated and the data being collected is so vast that the Alexa will be capable of predicting needs. Despite the benefits and opportunities of AI software, it is inherently limited by capabilities surrounding planning, reasoning, knowledge, natural language processing, ability to move and to empathise. It is this lack of emotional connection that is a fundamental component of users being less trusting towards AI voice-based assistants. This paper discusses the emerging capabilities of VAs whilst acknowledging the roles of trust and privacy concerns and proposes a mixed-method methodology approach, comprising of qualitative interviews and experimental design. Results of the qualitative data collection are reported and discussed and provides direction for the experimental design.

ABSTRACT. Today, thanks to the implementation of natural language processing, AI voice-activated assistants (VAs) are able to engage in conversational-based communication with users whereby they can adopt different types of conversational styles characterised by a more social-oriented or task-oriented approach. Despite the increasing adoption rate of such technologies, users are often reluctant to engage with AI due to a lack of trust and negative perceptions surrounding their own vulnerability. Previous studies have observed that technology has the capabilities of increasing consumer vulnerability, which in turn hinders usage and adoption. Yet, consumers' vulnerability in interactions with AI conversational agents remain underexplored. This study wants to fill this gap and it investigates how interaction with VAs can foster consumers' trust based on the AI conversational style. In addition, we propose that this process will be mediated by the consumers' perception of vulnerability and moderated by individuals’ locus of control. The study adopts a mixed-method approach, comprising of in-depth qualitative analysis and experimental design. Preliminary results of the qualitative study show that users who interact socially with VAs perceive to be less vulnerable and exposed to potential damages.

ABSTRACT. In this research, we focus on big data as an organisational asset. We claim that big data is a part of organisational assets that is related to consumer-generated data as an intangible asset. From this point, this research aims to explore how value co-creation drivers, namely consumer attitudes such as trust, satisfaction, and commitment are related in the context of big data. Furthermore, consumers’ privacy has become an important issue on online platforms, as third parties can get personal information for marketing purposes (Tufekci, 2008). In this study, the Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM), and the Social Exchange Theory (SET) are adapted to investigate consumers’ trust, commitment, and satisfaction behaviours on companies’ value co-creation, and we aim to explore how the privacy concerns of consumers affect consumer behaviour on the way of creating value for the organisation.

ABSTRACT. Financial reporting and disclosure are important means for management to communicate firm performance and governance to external stakeholders. Existing research provides limited insight into firms’ disclosure of information about their market-based assets such as brands, although brand is an important part of firms’ value proposition. We address this research gap by conceptualizing a brand-related information (BRI) framework and investigating firms’ BRI disclosure in 10-K reports. Using automated text analysis allows us to process massive amounts of text efficiently and reliably. Extant text analysis applications rely on word-level analysis, yet most concepts entail multiword terms or phrases to convey meaning. We address this limitation of existing methods by applying phrase-level analysis to BRI disclosure. We build on insights from computer and information science to devise a method to extract and match dictionary phrases on BRI from 10-K reports. Using this data, we develop a BRI disclosure index to quantify the BRI disclosure level in 10-K reports.

ABSTRACT. With the increase of smart mobile technology, the way companies conduct market research has advanced dramatically. Today, consumers answer surveys by using both direct touch interfaces (e.g., touchscreens) and indirect touch ones (e.g., trackball, mouse/keyboard combo). Despite, previous research focusing on the effects of varying interface types on consumers’ online purchase decisions, no research yet has examined the influence of interface types on the outcomes of market research studies. This research fills this void in presenting evidence from a meta-analysis, an online study, and an experiment that shows how the use of direct (vs. indirect) touch interfaces systematically increases estimates of WTP and general product demand, while decreasing price sensitivity derived from adaptive choice-based conjoint studies. We additionally highlight the role of study enjoyment and consumers’ need for touch as psychological process explanation. As conjoint analysis is one of the most widely applied quantitative marketing research techniques, researchers should, therefore, control for respondents’ interface type in order to adjust the type used in market research studies with the type of interface future customers will use when purchasing the focal product and services.

ABSTRACT. We suggest a machine-based research literature reading method specific for the academic discipline of marketing, adopting artificial intelligence developments made in the research field of materials. We describe how offline and online marketing research would be extracted from documents, classified and tokenised in individual words which could eventually be used for automated hypotheses formulation and the transfer of knowledge to practice. Recommendations for next steps are made.

ABSTRACT. Artificial intelligence and its corresponding automated technologies such as intelligent agents, chatbots, advanced robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are radically changing the interplay between customers and organisations (Lariviere et al. 2017). As a result, the ways in which products and services are being delivered, experienced and consumed are changing rapidly (Van Doorn et al. 2017; Ostrom et al 2015). As service functions based on automated technologies become more prevalent there is an increased likelihood that the way in which value is co-created and co-destructed is changing (Karteemo and Helkkula, 2018; Paschen et al., 2019; Van Esch et al., 2019). Vargo et al. (2017) assert that there is an imperative need to study fast, technology induced changes in service eco-systems. These technology induced changes along with their impact on customers’ experience of value co-creation and value co-destruction are the central phenomenon of this research. Specifically, the research presented in this study explores how (and if) customers’ experience value co-creation when interacting with brands’ automated technology in service based value networks. In doing so, this paper reveals a more accurate understanding of how automated technology shapes the dynamics of value co-creation and value co-destruction.

ABSTRACT. Technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are rapidly changing service interactions. Customers are increasingly being required to interact with AI-powered applications, such as chatbots, to self-serve; representing instances of co-creation. Although the advantages of AI-powered chatbots are clear, their introduction within service production and delivery does not preclude service failure. Rather, services that rely on high levels of customer co-creation are more prone to failure because of the increase in the quantity and complexity of interactions between the customer and service provider (Hedrick, Beverland, & Minahan, 2007). This paper draws on co-creation literature and attribution theory to explore customer responsibility attributions post service failure. Specifically, we investigate responsibility attributions of service failures that are co-created in interactions between customers and AI-chatbots.

ABSTRACT. The present digital marketing approaches rely on immersive technologies such as augmented reality for product trials and virtual experiences. As the immersive technologies are poised to become a ubiquitous marketing tool in the near future, it is important to study the corresponding influence on consumers beyond experiences and purchase intention. Hence, this paper focuses on AR-enabled pre-consumption experiences and consumer self-expression. Using self-referencing theory, supported by self-discrepancy theory, social comparison theory, and cultivation theory, this study follows an exploratory approach using netnography. While the study is still ongoing, the initial findings suggest that using AR trials and selection helps consumers choose products that enable them to craft unique self-expression rather than conforming to societal and advertising generated stereotypes. In the process, AR enables consumers to experiment with new patterns of consumption, unrestricted by the stereotyped notions, irrespective of age, gender, or cultural contexts. The study contributes to the self-referencing theory by relating self-referent processing to self-expression. The findings open up new avenues for brands to be a meaningful part of consumer extended selves through AR-enabled authentic self-expression.

ABSTRACT. Since customer journeys take increasingly more place in the online sphere, the optimization of the digital product presentation becomes focal for scholars and practitioners. The primary disadvantage of the digital product presentation is the restricted ability to provide consumers with multi-sensory product impressions. Against this background, we investigate Augmented Reality’s (AR) effectiveness on consumers’ decision confidence and purchase intention. For this purpose, we develop a conceptual model founded on the consumer learning theory and the adjacent theories of psychological ownership and customer inspiration. We apply the conceptual model in a series of three confirmatory studies, all relying on scenario-based experiments. The model shows strong explanatory power and provides evidence for AR’s superiority over the website-based product presentation. Besides, we find evidence for the AR-based product presentation to be similarly effective as the reality-based product presentation. By means of a longitudinal study, we are able to show that AR-effects are stable over time and not affected by a novelty effect.

ABSTRACT. Virtual reality (VR) has been outlined as one of the most important technological developments to influence the tourism industry due to its ability to engage consumers and to market tourism destinations. The purpose of this research is to understand the role of VR in influencing tourism consumers’ attitudes towards a tourist destination. Through a lab-based experiment with 204 tourism consumers this research found that following a VR preview experience of a tourist destination consumers will have more positive attitudes towards the tourist destination than prior to the VR experience. Interestingly, in comparison, a website preview has no significant effect on influencing tourism consumers’ previously held attitudes towards the destination. More so, the results indicate that tourism consumers have more positive attitudes towards a tourist destination in a VR preview in comparison to a less immersive website preview. Thus, the inherent interactive, immersive, and sensory rich attributes of VR have a positive effect on tourism consumers’ attitudes towards a destination.

ABSTRACT. While frontline employees (FLEs) have traditionally served customers, their role has evolved to include monitoring and enforcement of customers’ deviant behaviors. In addition to guarding against forms of deviant behavior such as shoplifting, FLEs have recently been tasked with ensuring customers’ compliance with store policies involving wearing masks and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, at some point, the role of FLEs has evolved into not only serving customers, but also to policing customer compliance. Academic researchers and practitioners have proposed the use of FLEs to reduce deviant behavior yet little is known about the impact of using FLEs in a guardianship capacity on the FLEs themselves. Thus, the current work explores the mechanisms and outcomes of expecting FLEs to act as guardians against consumers’ deviant behaviors. Our theoretical framework draws upon equity theory where we propose that retailers’ deviant behavior policies reduce FLEs perceptions of organizational justice. Our framework also posits that certain policy elements (e.g., employee empowerment, strictness of policy from the perspective of the FLE’s actions) and social factors (e.g., whether there are customers around to witness the FLE’s response to deviant behavior) moderate the effect of deviant behavior policies on perceptions of organizational justice.

ABSTRACT. Metaphors and metaphorical thinking have enriched business management in general, but have hardly impacted marketing management even though marketing as science, theory, and practice could benefit from metaphors more than other disciplines in management. This paper explores the rich potential of metaphors, root metaphors, metaphorical thinking, and reasoning as an overarching methodology for developing marketing science. In this context, we review three major theories of metaphor-origins – comparison theory, semantic interaction-tension theory, and cognitive theory – for developing metaphoric thinking and reasoning in marketing science. Along each theory of metaphor-origin we extract layers of metaphorical utterances that we label as zero-order data sentences, first-order theory sentences, and second-order value sentences that indicate higher layers of conceptual and theoretical richness in marketing science. We formulate several research propositions to illustrate the sub-metaphor producer-consumer relationship under the root metaphor of Free Enterprise Capital System. We discuss managerial implications, limitations, and new directions for research.

ABSTRACT. This session is designed to introduce marketing strategy researchers to recent marketing methods and analytics work and to facilitate collaboration between methods researchers and strategy researchers in marketing. This will be done by introducing three different methods. For each method, there will be a non-technical discussion of the method and its assumptions. A short hands-on application of the method will be given, along with references to more detailed resources (e.g., documentation, publications, and tutorials), and a discussion of how best the technique can be employed by strategy researchers. The session will be integrative and will explore the commonalities between the methods and how they can be combined. The three chosen methods cover some of the important areas of marketing modeling and data analytic research. The first method allows researchers to build and validate a range of brand equity indices from web-search data. The second method provides an innovative method of brand mapping and positioning analysis, where researchers can analyze the trajectories of brands and how brand competition changes over time. The third method utilizes online reviews and user-entered keywords or language features to perform a dynamic segmentation of reviewers and helps characterize reviewer behavior in different segments.

ABSTRACT. This special session will celebrate over 50 years of audio logos. The sonic logos we can’t get out of heads. Whether you consider them to be music to your ears or earworms, these are the twelve most noteworthy sonic logos of all time, and the people who gave them the notes. So open your computer and meet Water Werzowa (Intel) and Brian Eno (Windows 95). Turn on your favorite television show or movie and say hello to Mike Post (Law and Order), Dr. James “Andy Moore (THX), and John Williams (Jaws) and don’t forget to hum those NBC chimes. Keep your phone on in case you get a ring from Lance Massey (T-Mobile) and Joel Beckerman (AT&T). And if you get hungry, there’s always Coca-Cola (Joe and Umut) and McDonald’s (Bill Lamar). And you can charge it on your Mastercard (Raja Rajmannar). The plan would be to bring some of these audio logo creators to be on the panel.

ABSTRACT. Amid skyrocketing costs and student debt, much has been written about the increasing skepticism of whether a traditional four-year degree is “worth it.” Attitudes toward higher education are changing and this change does not favor traditional marketing programs. In the midst of this transformation, branded digital marketing certificates have presented themselves as a more economical alternative. Most worrisome of which is the recently announced Google Career Certificates, six-month long programs geared to prepare workers for the digital economy. Google leadership states these new certificates are meant to be the equivalent of a four-year degree given that “college degrees are out of reach for many Americans, and you shouldn’t need a college diploma to have economic security.” The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss what our response should be to the changing perceptions of value and increased competition. Are there opportunities for collaboration? How should we adapt or change our value proposition?

ABSTRACT. With this study, the authors intend to demonstrate the conflicting roles of service adaptation and service authenticity on positive cross-cultural service outcomes. Using scenario-based experiments, they explore if there is an optimal level of adaptation/authenticity when service outcomes such as satisfaction, WoM and repatronage intentions are the highest (Study 1). Furthermore, the authors explore if different generations respond differently to the various adaptation levels and authenticity perceptions (Study 2). Finally, the authors suggest that customers' cross-cultural experiences may bridge the perceived authenticity – customer experience gap  (Study 3, in progress). We find that too much authenticity may actual hinder the optimum service experience. Specifically, while younger customers generally prefer moderate adaptation aka moderate authenticity (rather than the expected low adaptation) when seeking cross-cultural service experiences, older generation seem more adventurous and perceive a better service experience (satisfaction, WOM, repatronage intentions) when there is low to no adaptation (full authenticity). Specifically, we find a significant difference in positive service outcomes (significantly higher for the older generation) between the younger and older generations when adaptation is low.

ABSTRACT. Despite their popularity and benefits, international interfirm partnerships are inherently risky, and most of them dissolve shortly after their inception. Previous studies have investigated a variety of factors that affect the dissolution of these partnerships in various environmental and organizational contexts. While extant literature provides valuable insights, our knowledge of the drivers of stability and dissolution of interfirm partnerships by emerging-market multinational enterprises is rather limited. In this study, drawing from Resource Dependence Theory and Real Options View, we develop a series of main effect and interaction effect hypotheses in order to shed light on the dynamics of the dissolution of IJVs including at least one EMNE with a particular focus on host-county related factors in comparison to their DMNE counterparts.

ABSTRACT. Consumer culture theory developed for and tested in more stable Western economies insufficiently explains the dynamics of consumption preferences in emerging markets (EMs) (Nielsen et al. 2018). EM consumers remain under emotional stress stemming from steep political and socio-economic transformations. COVID-19 crisis exacerbates already acute concerns, disrupts many established consumption practices, and amplifies the feeling of uncertainty for the future. The main research question the present conceptual study attempts to address: which compulsory and hedonic drivers motivate a substantial increase of luxury consumption in EMs? First, we analyze the effect of emotional stress induced by the social transition on consumer value orientation. Second, we review the process of social migration in EMs and the dynamics of intrapersonal psychology in the light of the prevailing cultural norms in desired social groups. Third, we examine cultural transformation in EMs at the societal and group level as a factor motivating hedonic consumption. Fourth, we suggest the probabilistic model explaining the phenomenon of burgeoning luxury consumption in EMs resulting from the consumer volitional and compulsory choices. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications and directions of future research.

ABSTRACT. Purpose – While there have been reviews of place branding literature, none focus on destination branding within emerging markets. This purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and categorization of the literature on destination branding in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach – The authors review empirical and theoretical articles published in peer-reviewed journals over the last decade, from 2008 to 2019. Selected articles were further analyzed in terms of keywords and content. Findings – The findings show that majority of the research is centered in the Asiatic and MENA regions, uses exploratory methodology, was not published by top-ranking journals, and reports predominantly the use of offline branding methods. A combination of online and offline branding methods is encouraged. In addition, the use of mainstream and social media monitoring is encouraged. Originality/value – This study differentiates online branding methods used in destination branding in emerging markets from the offline branding methods. It also provides invaluable insight into best destination branding practices for decision makers (governments, destination marketing organizations, etc.)

ABSTRACT. Mobile advertising has become an important digital marketing tool for marketers to reach targeted consumers worldwide. Much research has been done on identifying factors influencing consumers’ adoption and usage of mobile advertising. However, most prior studies have treated mobile technology as just another new medium and failed to give sufficient consideration to the uniqueness of mobile communication such as being highly personal, always connected, and location sensitive. To address this issue, this study focuses on two most relevant but under-examined factors affecting mobile effectiveness including incentives and privacy concerns in a cross-cultural setting of the U.S. and South Korea. Our results show that privacy concerns was a significant negative factor of consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising whereas incentive was a positive and significant influencing factor in both countries. Moreover, in both markets, perceived informational usefulness, perceived entertainment usefulness and perceived ease of use emerged as significant factors influencing users’ attitude toward mobile advertising. Perceived social usefulness is a significant predictor among Korean consumers but not among Americans. Finally, consumers’ attitude towards mobile advertising significantly influences intention to use mobile advertising and purchase intention.

ABSTRACT. To understand how brands play a powerful role in the changing lifestyle patterns of young consumers, it is important to explore some psychological core factors. The impact of self-concept theory is inextricably connected to these consumers’ brand perceptions and brand choice. Using the principles of self-congruity that discusses the congruence of product/brand image and self-concept (Sirgy 982), many researchers have suggested that consumers’ attitudes and loyalty are driven by self consistence (how a consumer views himself or herself) and social confirmation (how a consumer believes others view him or her), and these concepts parallel the real and looking-glass selves replete in the consumer literature to date (Erz et al. 2018; He and Mukherjee 2007) . The goal of this article is to explore the impact of the self-concepts among global young consumers to develop a conceptual framework that assists brand managers to leverage these psychological factors in developing brand loyalty. The also study accommodates brand connections to support the congruity effects between self/gender consciousness and brand perceptions, and further examine how brand connections lead to brand knowledge and then further enhance brand attitudes and brand loyalty.

ABSTRACT. This research examines the impact of purchase types on consumer's purchasing decision while the product exhibits polarizing reviews. The authors propose when facing a higher level of polarized review, consumers are less likely to make an experiential purchase(vs. material purchase). This effect is driven by the higher perceived risk that is associated with experiential purchase. Our study will contribute to the word of mouth research and extend the research in the field of purchase type. Moreover, our work will provide practical implications for marketing managers to help them improve their product quality and manage the mixed feedback from consumers.

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

ABSTRACT. This research investigates how aversive states of shame and guilt mediate the effect of value congruence and shopping motive (i.e., hedonic vs. utilitarian) on purchase intention and online information search (i.e., examining consumer reviews). Shopping motive literature implies negative affect such as guilt to be an outcome of hedonic shopping. However, we argue that it is the value violation associated with hedonic shopping that leads to negative emotional states. In instances of value violation, utilitarian motive can also result in feelings of shame or guilt. To alleviate these aversive emotions and mitigate their negative effect on purchase intention, consumers turn into online information search. A value violating purchase causes the individual to read more online consumer reviews because the content of the reviews can provide the justification (i.e., quantifiable benefit) one needs for the value violating-purchase. However, reading reviews are only effective when guilt is evoked as a result of the value-violating purchase. In instances of guilt, the quantifiable benefits found through information search serve as the justification the shopper needs. However, shameful behavior cannot be as easily atoned through information search because shame involves public perceptions of self which is more difficult to alter.

ABSTRACT. Luxury industry has been swift in adopting new technologies such as chatbots. Yet little is known about the emoticon use in luxury chatbot communication. This research seeks to address this important question by examining the influence of the luxury brand chatbot’s use of emoticons on luxury perception. Results from the current study suggest that the luxury brand might be better off without using emoticons in the chatbot communications. More importantly, the study uncovers inappropriateness as the underlying mechanism. This research contributes to the understanding of luxury brand communications using chatbots. In addition, it adds to the ongoing research of AI in the luxury industry and suggests the appropriate way to communicate with luxury consumers.

ABSTRACT. Our research looks at a novel domain within online ad customization as well as online ad intrusiveness literature. Although extant literature has studied online ad customization and the perception of intrusiveness, none of the studies have looked at the perception of intrusiveness related to selling of goods by individuals in secondary markets. We hypothesize felt intrusiveness when customized ads are pushing to buy will be more than the felt intrusiveness when customized ads are pushing to sell. This will be the driver of downstream consequences such as clickthrough and behavioral intention to purchase or sell.

ABSTRACT. E-commerce website operators design their pages to make them aesthetically appealing and to facilitate visitors’ navigation and search for information. Using eye-tracking technology, this research investigated if visitors viewing an e-commerce site would show an "inward bias" and follow the eye gaze of models on the page. Findings suggest that consumers show an inward bias while browsing e-commerce web pages. Evidence was also found to suggest operation of eye-gaze following.

ABSTRACT. Over the last few years, Samsung has been developing implantable healthcare devices to diagnose diseases and treat the human body from the inside. Since 2017, Facebook has had an eye (and wallet) on brain-computer interfaces and hypothetical telepathy. Although sounding like a Sci-Fi storyline, this high-tech scenario is at the heart of the Transhumanism movement. Transhumanists envision the creation of “more-than-humans” by the integration of cybernetic devices and biochemical solutions with the human body. Recently, scholars have begun to call for studies exploring thus far undertheorized emergent and speculative technologies, their relationships with consumer behavior, and their social implications. To begin responding to these pleas, this conceptual work presents an overview of the Transhumanism movement, two of its technological domains (i.e., Dryware and Wetware), and psychological, social, and ethical issues regarding consumers’ acceptance of such technologies. Not only for theoretical reasons but also for practical reasons, the present essay may help us to better understand the promises and perils of the transhumanist movement and its implications for the future of consumers.

ABSTRACT. Innovations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics have brought about a new class of products with high intelligence that perform autonomously such as robotic vacuum cleaners and autonomous lawnmowers. Many organizations are developing such autonomous intelligent products (AIPs). They hope that these products will find their way into consumers’ lives and the organization will enjoy a piece of the more than $150 Billion Dollar pie that is expected for these products by 2025. However, despite their high hopes, the rate of penetration of AIPs is below 10% worldwide at this time. Managers are perplexed about the causes of this low interest in AIPs. Our paper offers an initial answer to the failure of AIPs to attract consumers’ interest. We suggest that consumers generally have positive evaluations of AIPs. However, in their evaluations, two parallel processes based on perceptions of control and expectations of life-transformations compete against each other to convince consumers to adopt AIPs. Through a series of experiments, we show that transformation expectations have a stronger effect on intentions to purchase AIPs than perceptions of control. Managers can persuade consumers and reach their organizations’ goals by highlighting AIPs life transformations through their marketing communications and advertisements.

ABSTRACT. Firms aim to constantly develop new products and selectively reveal information about those activities to influence different stakeholders. In this multi-study paper, the authors investigate by means of secondary data modeling as well as experimental designs, how the demonstration of new products may impact consumers’ online search behavior for the brand, and subsequently a firm’s market performance. The authors also explore how the relationship between new product demonstrations and the online brand search could vary with the product’s development stage at the time of the demonstration. Data from Google Trends and international automobile trade shows reveal that while new product demonstrations, on average, improve market performance through a boost in consumers’ online brand search, this relationship is stronger for new products at the middle stage of development, compared to early and advanced stages of development. Two experimental studies further validate the findings, while extending the results on causation and underlying mechanisms.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the effect of the secondary market on the manufacturer's new release and investment decisions. By building a theoretical model that can capture consumer's choice and the linkage between the two markets, we quantified the effect of depreciation and the friction level in the secondary market on the primary market. We find the positive relationship between the increase in the secondary market transaction and the frequency of new releases based on empirical analysis.

ABSTRACT. The fitspiration trend, which is supposed to help achieve fitness goals, has been found to influence individuals’ perception of the ideal body shape and size (Ho et al, 2016). Considering how males are similarly vulnerable to women in developing body dissatisfaction (Pope et al., 2017), this study will examine whether this relationship exists among both males and females, along with other factors that may influence this relationship, including emotions.

ABSTRACT. Electronic sports (eSports) have enjoyed a giant leap in the entertainment industry. However, eSports have faced negative images after the effort to become categorized under sport. Currently, they do not have a fixed identity due to a marginal appeal as a sport product. This study aims to explore if an athlete celebrity can transfer meaning to a sport organization (eSports) in which the brand personality is less established and examine if the debate of eSport being a sport can be eased by using traditional sport spokesperson's expertise. To do this, we will conduct an in-depth review of the literature and an experiment to identify if potential factors (i.e., implicit self-theory and celebrity meaning transfer) affect the meaning transfer. Furthermore, how these transferred meanings influence consumer behaviors (attendance intent, merchandise purchase intent, perceived athleticism, brand attitude, and brand image) will be examined.

ABSTRACT. ESports is currently one of the fastest growing industries. While current research on eSports has investigated the governance and expansion of the industry, as well as the information system design for the industry, few studies have looked at teamwork in eSports. Our research aims to explore gamers' behavior in eSports. The present research consists of two studies. The first study was a conjoint study that investigated general public’s preference for teammate selection in eSports. The second study investigated the behavior of the preferred segments of the population in their responses to outcomes of games. We found that although male and advanced gamers are the preferred groups in eSports teams, these two groups showed attribution bias.