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. Brand love has ignited renewed attention of researchers and practitioners, with recent development of the first pragmatically useful brand love scales. Consumers are argued to engage in relationships with brands that serve their self-goals, which are:  to express own self (value expressive); to maintain self-esteem (social adjustive); and to bolster self-esteem (affiliation). This research aims to examine the relative impact of self-related goals on brand love, and subsequently behavioural intentions that consist of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Data collected from a mall-intercept survey with 216 fashion clothing consumers and 198 smartphone consumers were analysed to test hypotheses using SmartPLS 3.3.3. Fashion clothing and smartphone products are selected as the purchases of these products are usually non-routine decision-making situations. The result reveals that brand identification and social adjustive moderately influence brand love, which in turn affects brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Mediational analyses show brand love mediates fully the effect of brand identification but only partially the effect of social adjustive on brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. The finding also shows that sense of brand community, while not significantly influencing brand love, drives consumers' brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

ABSTRACT. Consumer desire for luxury is driving consumption of luxury branded products in developed and developing markets. Chinese consumers’ spending patterns have resulted in China becoming the largest growth market for luxury in the world. However, Chinese consumers also make use of mimic branded items in their repertoire of luxury or pseudo-luxury goods. To explore the motivating forces of these consumers’ aspirations toward pseudo-luxury brands, this research was conducted in Beijing, China and among Chinese consumers. It incorporated in-depth interviews, projective methods, and non-participant observation. The findings reveal how envy as a tacit motive and the desire for identity reflect a change in the dynamics of Chinese consumer culture. This contrasts with our understanding of Chinese values and motivations being a reflection of self-construal of interdependence and directed towards social harmony. More broadly, pseudo luxury consumption provides a vehicle for renegotiation of Chinese cultural values in a period of increasing abundance.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to examine the impact of new product preannouncements on consumers’ perception of brand innovativeness. The mediating role of perceived risk and the moderating role of brand credibility and the degrees of innovation of the proposed new product (radical versus incremental) are also to be examined. The new product preannouncement-perceived risk-brand innovativeness relationship was developed using signalling theory. The conceptual framework was tested using a survey experiment. A total of 280 participants were recruited through Qualtrics Australian consumer panel. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results of this study indicates that brand innovativeness perception start forming early at a product’s life and successful preannouncements inspire such perception. Furthermore, preannouncement brand’s credibility and degrees of innovation of the new product has a direct impact on brand innovativeness and this relationship is mediated by perceived risk. Thus, preannouncement is a strategic tool that marketing managers can employ to enrich the information set available about new products and increase the credibility of their marketing signals. The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of brand credibility and degrees of innovation by the preannounced brand on brand innovativeness.

ABSTRACT. The current study positions guest experience as the focal variable in understanding guest satisfaction. The first contribution is to evaluate the differential role of service quality and experience in directly influencing guest satisfaction. Secondly, the study tests whether experience mediates the relationship between service quality and guest satisfaction. It can also provide hotel managers with more understandings about hotel guest’s experience to improve guest’s satisfaction level.

ABSTRACT. Brand crises can cause significant financial and reputational damage to a company. The most effective means for a company to mitigate potential damage to its brand during a crisis is with its crisis response. Yet research into the most effective response (corrective action vs reduction of offensiveness vs denial) to a values-based brand crisis is unclear. This research seeks to clarify the issue of crisis response and expands understanding of this type of crisis by investigating the effects of blame attribution and perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This results of an experiment (N = 236, Australian consumers) indicate that corrective action is a more effective response than a reduction of offensiveness strategy, for improving brand evaluations, post a values-based brand crisis. Crisis response affected evaluations of the brand through blame attribution, and that this effect was moderated by consumers’ perceptions of CSR, such that lower CSR led to a greater effectiveness of corrective action. This research contributes to brand management and brand crisis literature. It also provides guidance to managers of companies going through values-based brand crises, and allows for the creation of evidence-based crisis management strategies.

ABSTRACT. In response to the negative impact of consumption on ecological sustainability, some brands have begun to practice green demarketing (GDM) – an extension of demarketing that discourages demand for products for the sake of the environment. Given the potency of consuming less in fighting environmental issues, engaging in GDM is likely to become increasingly interesting for brands that target environmentally conscious consumers. The present study adds to existing research (e.g., Armstrong Soule & Reich 2015, Reich & Armstrong Soule 2016) by examining the impact of GDM messages on attitudes toward the ad. Moreover, we shed light on the processing of GMD messages. We propose two opposing mechanisms that affect consumer’s attitudes towards a GDM ad message. Thus, while GDM ad messages might profit from their sustainability focus, attitudes toward GDM ad messages are also likely to be compromised by low processing fluency and increased skepticism. Results showed that attitudes toward sustainable ad messages were significantly higher than attitudes toward the non-sustainable ad message. Additionally, results revealed a positive and significant direct effect of GDM ad message on attitudes toward the ad and a negative significant indirect effect mediated serially by processing fluency and skepticism on attitudes toward the ad.

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

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to shed more light on B2B interactions, assessing the effect of customer-provider touchpoints on both customer perceptions and customer outcomes—as a chain of effects path. A 5-year panel dataset is used to test the proposed model. Data is obtained from B2B insurance services from 2013 to 2017 and contains a sample of 2175 companies. Study results demonstrate the importance of the sales force in B2B relationships, along with the relevance of firm expertise, service excellence and service reliability as drivers of profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength. This paper provides empirical evidence of how touchpoints and customer perceptions impact outcomes over time. This is a vital issue for marketers, as firms gain a better understanding of company-customer interactions and the extent to which different factors impact decisive customer outcomes in a B2B context.

ABSTRACT. Canvassing and closing – the beginning and the end of the sales cycle – are moments of asking for rejection and involve significant amounts of stress for salespeople. Some salespeople react with procrastination and absenteeism, while others do not. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory and stress research, this study investigates which combinations of carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) and the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism are beneficial in sales contexts. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 594 salespeople, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that carrying SERT S only yields positive effects on canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. If neuroticism is high, the effect of carrying SERT S is negative.

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

ABSTRACT. Coordination between the marketing and sales departments is a sensitive and recurring managerial problem. The objective of this qualitative research is, on the one hand, to understand the development and implementation of the alignment between the marketing strategy and the sales department and, on the other hand, to identify the solutions put into practice by managers to solve the coordination problems encountered, in a French context. A content analysis conducted among three types of respondents (marketing managers, sales managers, and consulting company managers) identified various critical practices, such as the lack of regular meetings involving department heads, the absence of internal procedures determining the respective objectives, or the lack of collaborative projects. These results lead to recommendations on the coordination mechanisms and methods to be mobilized and those to be avoided in order to maximize the chances of success.

ABSTRACT. Starting from the observation of the weak mobilization of the French immigrants during elections, this exploratory research aims to deepen the understanding of this phenomenon by analyzing the relationship of individuals with an immigrant background to the question of "voting". To this end, we will examine the meanings French North African citizens associate to their vote and their perceptions of the political marketing used to target them. On the basis of the analyzes carried out, it appears that the notion of "diversity" is certainly a mark of recognition of the difference but can therefore refer to the register of exclusion rather than inclusion.

ABSTRACT. While extant branding literature has focused on external communication, internal branding has received much less research attention. The few available studies on internal branding have adopted the employees’ perspective. Drawing upon contingency theory, this study investigates internal branding from a managerial perspective, as well its antecedents and consequences in international firms. A conceptual model is developed, and the study employs a quantitative, survey-based approach. The hypotheses are tested through structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on data collected from 248 Austrian managers of firms with international business activities in Central and Eastern Europe. The results of data analysis show that a standardized employee role leads to increased performance. The internal branding factor of brand leadership has positive effects in terms of a standardized execution of employee role and performance. Likewise, the use of external advertising as an internal branding tool exerts a positive impact on both employee role standardization and performance. Thus, a standardized strategy of internal branding measures is feasible for internationally operating firms. The results contribute to the branding literature where international studies are scant. This is the first quantitative study to investigate internal branding in the international firm from a managerial perspective.

ABSTRACT. Increasing global competition is pushing firms to develop creativity capabilities with the aim of enhancing international performance. However, creativity might have a darker side; Prof. Theodore Levitt argues that creativity can be destructive to business, as organizations by their nature are designed to promote order (Levitt 2002). According to this point of view, creativity may hinder rather than help a company if it is incongruent with discipline and conformity. This paper examines the joint roles of creativity and marketing capabilities and their interaction effects on different international performance outcomes. Data from 179 international ventures retrieved through a survey-based approach are analyzed using structural equation modelling. Paradoxically, while both marketing and creativity are found to positively impact performance, their interaction effects are negative. Importantly, the findings reveal that in three distinct models, marketing capabilities are more beneficial for international performance then creativity capabilities. These results are analyzed through the theoretical lens of effectual versus predictive logics. Based on the findings, we recommend that managers engaged in international business drop skepticism about the importance of marketing capabilities while exercising caution in placing excessive reliance on creativity.

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

ABSTRACT. Climate change, fact or fiction? How are consumers in denial of current and future effects of climate change/global warming? Do happier individuals believe that the effects of climate change have negative consequences for their country’s future? Proposing an experimental methodology, this paper will advance how high/low construal mindsets are associated with growth/fixed mindsets within consumers to strengthen/weaken their belief in perception of incremental consequences of climate change. Happier countries (Finland) vs. countries low on the happiness index (India), tend to be leading the climate change movement. The studies will develop happiness literature, by examining how ‘happiness’ increases individuals’ scepticism of future impact of global warming. The proposed research will aid policy makers and social marketers across cultures. Answering, why consumers’ deny that climate change would worsen over the years? Providing an effective frame of climate change debate with abstraction and growth mindsets, for forecasted consequences, thus promoting pro-environmental action.

ABSTRACT. E-tailers’ marketing strategies and new technology developments on the internet frequently increase the likelihood of impulsive e-buying in consumers. Although, in some cases, these strategies may prove profitable and satisfactory for both the consumer and e-tailer, in other cases, the e-impulsivity of the consumer creates undesired business consequences, such as consumer regret and product returns for refund. Therefore, there are some circumstances under which impulse e-buying should be prevented for the mutual benefit of the consumer and e-tailer. The present research aims to investigate whether, in the face of undesired impulse e-buying, it is possible to manage consumer impulsivity through gamified strategies reducing the probability of future returns and thus to prevent economic costs at the company level. Our results show that gamification approaches may help consumers reevaluate their decisions and retract them, thus reducing the volume of product returns resulting from impulse e-behavior. As managerial implications, in industries where impulse e-buying provokes high volumes of product returns, it will be appropriate for e-tailers to help consumers make timely and better decisions, in turn reducing the cost of reverse logistics and promoting consumer satisfaction with their brands.

ABSTRACT. In sequential presentation of product information, determining which form of presentation is better and why is theoretically important (Klink and Smith 2001), and holds implications for communication of product value through advertising, packaging, brand extension, and brand alliances. This research proposes and tests a novel affect-based mechanism for product evaluation under ordered presentation. In this mechanism, affect not only mediates the impact of ordered presentation on willingness to pay (WTP), but does so by determining whether heuristic or systematic processing is employed.

ABSTRACT. Environmental contexts, like temperature and social density, can influence consumers' decision making considerably. The literature explains temperature and social density’s downstream consequences (e.g., product preferences)—hitherto predominantly examined in isolation—as semantic fits or compensatory effects. Further, previous research established a bidirectional link between temperature and social proximity, but neglected that temperature and social density do not always correlate. We address this research gap by not only conducting a preregistered experiment with an orthogonal design on temperature and social density, but also by measuring product preferences within various categories (innovativeness, premium, safety, scarcity, and uniqueness). Following previous research, we hypothesize that temperature and social density have similar effects, but find they have distinct ones. We find compensatory effects for safety and premium products, i.e., under cold or neutral temperature conditions the high tier choices increase when the social density is high, but this does not apply to warm conditions—suggesting that warmth has an attenuating effect. Warmth attenuates the preference for innovative products, which also profit partly from lower social density. Scarce and unique products’ results are inconclusive. Our findings suggest that temperature and social density have complex consequences for decision making, reveal product-category-specific effects, and need follow-up research.

ABSTRACT. Why do customers engage in an activity? Do they engage more in an activity framed as a sport (versus not a sport) ? Through two studies, we show that framing an activity as a sport increases engagement through competitive mindset and social value. We also rely on self-protection approaches to show that, for people high in narcissism, the framing of an activity as sporty leads to less competitive mindset, which results in lower anticipated social value and willingness to engage.

ABSTRACT. The objective of the study is to test a model of leisure-time exercise behavior that integrates participatory and regulatory motives in the context of Covid-19 pandemic conditions. The effects of isolation, positive and negative affect, amount of stress, and ability to handle stress on exercise participation motives and exercise behavior are also examined. Data gathered from 283 university students is analyzed using structural equation modeling.  The study results demonstrate that physical and psychological exercise participation motives are significantly associated with exercise behavior. Concerning the behavioral regulation constructs, it is revealed that intrinsic and introjected regulation predict exercise behavior. Additionally, while isolation and negative affect have a negative impact, coping with stress positively impacts exercise behavior. Moreover, it is shown that the indirect effects of participatory motives on exercise behavior are mediated by amotivation and intrinsic regulation. Finally, significant mediating effects of exercise participation motives are shown linking positive and negative affect, ability to cope with stress, and exercise behavior.

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

ABSTRACT. This study adopts motivational theories and endorsement theories to establish a research framework to identify consumer goal-oriented behavior in the social media content. Drawing from extant literature, the research argues that consumers’ regulatory focus affects consumer outcomes through constituting regulatory fit. Furthermore, this link is moderated by social media content types, regulatory mode, influencers’ perceived similarity and expertise. Five empirical studies will be conducted to test these hypotheses. These results will offer important insights regarding the effects of consumer motivating wants on consumer outcomes in the age of social media. In addition, our result will help companies and influencers to boost their brands through providing products that their consumers’ circumstances dictate.

ABSTRACT. The Internet is, an indispensable platform for the provision of products and services of a company and for the communication with customers (Hsu et al. 2013) . A significant increase in the number of e-commerce interfaces in the Business-to-Business (B2B) environment has been already been noticed since for several years (Pohl 2018). One of the biggest challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the construction industry is the complex issue of retaining customers in a B2B business relationships (Forooz Pishgar et al. 2013). Especially in an internet-based, constantly changing context, this is an uncertain and ambitious challenge (Pitta et al. 2006). In our study, we investigate the antecedents of customer loyalty of B2B-customers on using the iInternet . Based on the findings of Janita et al. (Janita and Miranda 2013), we developed a conceptual model containing the nine constructs potentially influencing loyalty of B2B-customers in the internet. Conducting an online survey with the B2B customers os WERUB2B customers of WERU, a German industrial component manufacturer in the building sector, our final data set contains 187 observations. Results show a direct, highly significant effect of "trust" and "customer satisfaction" and a highly significant total effect of "image" on "customer loyalty".

ABSTRACT. Conversational agents allow products and services to be sold through real-time one-on-one conversations. However, consumers tend to engage with humans and resist conversational agents. Further, conversation abandonment without leaving personal information (e.g., email) leaves marketers without the ability to re-engage with potential customers.

Drawing on the Social Information Processing theory and Affect-as-Information model, this study investigates how emotion cues: a higher positive tone from the conversational agent and emojis influence 1) the agent's responsiveness perception, and 2) consumers' intention to disclose personally-identifying information (email) to the agent retailer. The research uses a computerized text analysis of the chat scenarios and a 2 (low vs higher emotional tone) X 2 (emoji use vs. no emoji use) between-subjects experimental design.

This research focuses on the effect of emotional tone and emoji use on the conversational agent's perceived responsiveness and consumers' intention to disclose their personal information to the agent in a text-based conversational commerce context. When the conversational agent's emotional tone was higher, it was perceived as being more responsive. However, the effect of emoji use on the perception of agents' responsiveness was not significant. Finally, the present research found that the effect of higher emotional tone, emoji use, and the interaction term was significant for consumers' intention to disclose their email to the agent retailer.

This study provides several managerial implications; although emoji use did not result in higher perceived responsiveness, emojis and higher emotional tone can be used to promote email disclosure to the agent retailers and thus enable marketers to collect valuable consumer data. Further, an emotional tone can benefit a conversational website, particularly one in need of incorporating customers' personal information to provide personalized products. The findings contribute to the growing research stream on integrating emotion cues into conversational agents and their impact on consumers' perceptions and personal information disclosure.

ABSTRACT. Mobile is emerging as the dominant platform on which consumers spend most of their time. Unlike the PC, many consumers are attached to their mobile and carry them everywhere.  As a consequence, these attached consumers demonstrate unique behaviors with and without their mobile (e.g., Kolsaker et al., 2009; Konok et al., 2016; Melumad & Pham, 2020). Research to date has focused mostly on the consequence of separating from mobile while paying little attention to other aspects of mobile attachment. Therefore, its role as the communication channel for important issues like climate change requires extra attention. This study aims to uncover the impact of mobile attachment on their perception and the underneath mechanism. Through three laboratory experiments based on a combination of Attachment Theory and Construal Level Theory, we highlight the importance of psychological distance, attachment styles, and gender for the perceived credibility of an ad. Our findings have important implications for effective communication planning in climate-related subjects and various others within the emerging context of mobile.

ABSTRACT. Purpose The holistic and contingent construct of customer experience is widely researched in marketing. While we know that technology may impact customer experience, little is known about how technology may create motivations, or conversely barriers for customers in interacting with complex businesses. The aim of this paper is to identify the motivations and barriers for technology adoption in the experience of complex service settings. Design/methodology/approach This research is based a literature review on customer experience and technology adoption. The insurance industry is also taken as an industry focus, because it epitomizes the uniqueness of complex service settings. Findings The exhaustive review of the literature allows developing a conceptual model whereby technology has the potential to positively or negatively influence customer experience, due to the motivation and barriers it generates for customers. The impact of these motivations and barriers is shown to be further enhanced by industry-specific and contextual factors present in complex service settings. Originality/value A conceptual model is proposed, evidencing technology-related motivations and barriers, and context-specific industry factors, that are at play in customer experiences. This model helps businesses directing their resources toward customer experience optimization, and opens a new agenda to research interactions between different constructs and antecedents.

ABSTRACT. Digital voice assistants are becoming a pervasive technology with the potential to change entire business processes and models. These voice assistants are at the forefront of organizational frontlines, service encounters, and customer experience. Digital voice assistants naturally extend to service encounters in call centers. Our empirical results find significant effects of service expertise and emotional value on the perceived usefulness of these assistants. The technical usability further creates ease of use. All variables then form consumers’ attitude towards engaging and behavioral intention towards with these voice assistants. Results also indicate two gender differences: technical usability is more important for males, whereas emotional value is more relevant for females. Overall, the results support consumer acceptance of this technology in such service encounters. Digital voice assistants may thus reduce workload or replace human call center agents.

ABSTRACT. The competition between national brands (NBs) and private labels (PLs) as well as the regulatory framework for competition have led to a noticeable decline in NBs’ market share in the retail sector. In recent decades, this development has been attributed to intense – sometimes ruinous – price competition, resulting in increased concentration in the retail sector and the proliferation of PLs. Knowledge about determinants of NBs’ market share and the impact of distribution channels supports manufacturers and retailers by developing and executing effective marketing strategies. This study consequently analyzes determinants of the NBs’ market share and unravels differences and similarities regarding different types of distribution channels (discounters, supermarkets, and hypermarkets). An increase in regular price of PLs, the share of NB price promotions, and the share of NB variety positively affect the market share of NBs across distribution channels. Regarding the types of distribution channels, an increase in the regular price of PLs exerts the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. An increase in the share of NB price promotions, on the other hand, only has a weak positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. Our findings are in particular beneficial for retailers evaluating the effect of price changes and shares of promotional prices. For the branded goods industry, the change in the share of NB variety is especially relevant, because an increase in the share of NB variety has the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs. Further, the market share of NBs in supermarkets increases as brand preference intensifies. This is particularly relevant for the branded goods industry, since both share of NBs variety and brand preference of households can be influenced by the manufacturer brand industry by, for example, product innovations and advertising campaigns.

ABSTRACT. Service robots (SR) are becoming increasingly employed in the marketplace and are expected to gradually replace human service providers in numerous industries. As such, consumers-SR encounters represent a primary research area in shopper marketing. While the majority of studies on this topic have focused on the negative responses triggered by consumers-SR interactions, little is known on particular service delivery contexts under which human-SR encounters might be more beneficial than traditional human-to-human encounters. This research aims to fill this gap and it examines whether the interaction with a SR in the context of a potentially embarrassing service encounter may attenuate consumers’ anticipated embarrassment, thus facilitate purchasing behaviour. We argue that this occurs because of the global attribution of mind to the robots such that consumers do not ascribe intentionality, cognition, and emotion to a service robot. Moreover, we propose to investigate the influence of SR human-likeness appearance on this effect. The study employes a mixed-method approach. Preliminary findings from the qualitative analysis identify perceptions of mind and human-likeness appearance as potential factors influencing feelings of embarrassment. Further, results from a first experimental study show that interactions with SR attenuate consumer embarrassment. Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Today’s service encounters are increasingly characterized by customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in which customers regularly become targets of other customers’ misbehavior. Previous research provides initial evidence of the contagiousness of customer misbehavior in access-based settings, yet it remains unclear whether this contagiousness likewise translates to other contexts and forms of misbehavior, and what service providers can do to effectively curb its spread. Two online experiments in the context of Airbnb and gym services reveal that provider-directed blame attributions fully mediate the contagiousness of C2C misbehavior. That is, C2C misbehavior spreads because customers blame the service provider for the wrongdoings of other customers; regardless of whether this misbehavior is targeted towards another customer’s personal belongings or at other customers directly. Moreover, our results indicate that preventative service provider measures can effectively reduce blame attributions which, in turn, attenuate negative customer attitudes towards the firm while simultaneously curbing subsequent C2C misbehavior. By explicating the central role blame attributions play in the spread of C2C misbehavior, this study extends previous research on customer misbehavior and misbehavior contagiousness. Managerially, this research provides firms with explicit guidance on how to tackle the spread of C2C misbehavior and reduce negative firm evaluations with targeted preventative measures.

ABSTRACT. Online reviews have proliferated in recent years. TripAdvisor has become the most important platform, and many potential guests read online reviews before making a decision. Therefore, many hotels and restaurants have started to reply to online reviews, in particular to the negative ones, as part of their online reputation management. Although research has started to investigate the effectiveness of such a reply, little is known about how to reply. Across two studies, we investigate the impact of response strategies on hotel booking intentions and the perception of trust. Study 1 tests four different response strategies (i.e. no reply, public explanation, private message, public explanation and private message) in an experimental setting. We find that a public explanation combined with a private message has the strongest effect on trust and booking intention of potential guests. Moreover, taking the conversation offline without any further explanation leads to lower levels of trust and booking intention. In study 2, we additionally manipulate the severity of the service failure described in the online review and show that this is an important boundary condition. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

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

ABSTRACT. Due to the target group-specific pricing policies of service providers, different prices exist for the same service across customer groups like new or lost customers compared to existing customers. Current customers may notice these offers but do not receive any benefits for their loyalty. Consequently, they may react with a ‘tactical churn’ in order to obtain better offers from their current provider without having a clear intention to switch the provider. Thus, this study examines the phenomenon of tactical churn and its determinants by conducting qualitative interviews. The findings give first evidence for the phenomenon of ‘tactical churn’ as new type of customer churn behavior. The study shows that especially the price comparisons of existing customers with up to four reference groups are decisive for tactical churn. These are (a) new customers of the current provider, (b) other existing customers of the current provider, (c) customers of other providers, and (d) the price/value-change in the case of automatic renewal of the contract.

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

ABSTRACT. During the current pandemic, we have seen the way of conducting business shift from delivering value to customers, to trying to ensure safety for their employees and society as a whole. The goal of this research is to measure how psychological distances can influence the perceptions of consumers or employees toward company’s decisions in ambivalent situations. We examine such responses from both the views of consumers and employees, and rely on Construal Level Theory to inform and predict possible outcomes. During the Covid-19 crisis it is crucial that companies understand the message they are delivering to their consumers and employees may be perceived differently based on mental distance, hence being mindful of the decisions they make. Their actions, which can often send mixed messages, indicate ambivalence depending on whether they convey morality or competence efforts more. We demonstrate that this can result in varying customer perceptions. This study provides implications for better understanding employee and consumer behavior, trust, satisfaction, for better planning of brand image, public relations and marketing communications.

ABSTRACT. The coronavirus outbreak (i.e., COVID-19) has swept across a growing number of countries worldwide, including the United States. In response, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has aggressively responded to the world health crisis to protect individuals from the virus. Official guidelines not only included recommendations such as social distancing and use of personal protective equipment, but also included several mandated business closures, which severely impacted small businesses. This study sought to understand factors that may attract consumers to small businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 to assist with business continuity. Using a national survey sample (n = 313), this study found that consumers’ support for small businesses during a pandemic can be explained by emotional and cognitive (resilience and optimism) experiences and demographic characteristics. Theoretically, this study contributes to research on disaster response by incorporating findings from the unprecedented global pandemic. Based on findings, small businesses may seek to trigger active resilience and emotions (negative and positive) in their advertising avenues to attract consumers. Small businesses may consider pivoting to attract particular consumer segments that are more likely to patronize frequently and use services offered by small business.

ABSTRACT. While the literature has extensively explored psychological responses to rejection, there has been a notable lack of research emphasizing these consequences from a marketing perspective. This research examines consumer response to rejection in a promotion context. Importantly, results indicate that future purchase intentions are dependent on the value of the rejected coupon. When the rejected promotional coupon is of low to moderate value, a linear decline in future purchase intentions is present. However, once the value of the rejected offer reaches higher levels, a “rebound effect” is found to occur, wherein future purchase intentions reach levels similar to that of low value coupons. This effect is moderated by justification for the denial. More specifically, when justification is not present, the rebound effect is no longer found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Empowered by traditional and social media, human brands enjoy a prominent position in contemporary societies and benefit from the establishment of consumer-brand relationships. However, as current times are marked with uncertainty and fakeness, authenticity has become a critical element for the development of these relationships, especially for human brands. We propose and test a model that depicts the relationship between human brand authenticity and brand love. A stratified random sample of 798 respondents was obtained from a web-based survey distributed through social media. OLS regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model. Results show that human brand authenticity has a positive and significant effect on brand love. Moreover, differences by human brand contexts are analyzed, offering some insights into how celebrity authenticity is processed across human brand types. Our study revealed that the effect of authenticity is stronger for royalty members, actors, singers, politicians and television hosts. We conclude with important theoretical and managerial implications suggesting that investments in fostering human brand authenticity will pay off through the establishment of long-lasting, loving and loyal relationships, which are crucial for building brand equity, especially in the contexts where human brand authenticity yielded higher effects on brand love.

ABSTRACT. An essential goal of charities is to encourage the public to participate in philanthropic activities through both financial donations and volunteer efforts. The massive success of "The Ice Bucket Challenge" in 2014 indicates the importance of celebrities as the message source, with various public figures such as entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, actresses, and singers shared the message to get engaged and involved in the social cause. Grounded in self-verification, self-enhancement and attachment theories, this study tested a model of an individual’s actual and ideal self-congruities, attachment to the celebrity human brand, receptivity towards the celebrity-endorsed message and willingness to donate money and time to the cause. These relationships were investigated using structural equations modeling. The findings indicated an individual’s attachment to the celebrity human brand is positively related to their receptivity towards the endorse message and willingness to donate money and time. This research integrated identity and brand attachment theories to explain processes through which celebrities influence individuals’ behaviors regarding social causes. The results contribute to the existing bodies of knowledge on celebrity endorsement and cause marketing. Celebrities have a wide and captive audience, which may be used to effectively raise awareness, impact donations and influence people to volunteer for causes.

ABSTRACT. Internet banking refers to "a banking channel that enables customers to perform a wide range of financial and informal services through a banking website." Internet banking provides customers with an opportunity to manage and control their financial and transaction accounts through a banking website. The present study investigates the factors affecting the intention to adopt and recommend the technology to others: based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. This applied research is descriptive-analytical in terms of data collection. The statistical population of this study consisted of Amol Tejarat Bank. A total of 384 samples were selected using a non-random sampling method at a 95% confidence level based on Cochran's sampling formula. The data collection tool is a standard questionnaire. After data collecting and hypotheses test, it was concluded that individual and environmental factors affect the acceptance and recommendation of internet banking to others.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research is to examine the ramification posed by sharing economy businesses when one of their independent contractors commits a service failure (outcome vs. process-based failure) and different methods of recovery (personal vs. platform recovery) were used. By manipulating both the type of service failure and the recovery methods using hypothetical scenarios involving Uber services, we hoped to uncover factors most important to customer loyalty and trust in the context of a sharing economy. The results showed that customer perception toward the brand/platform can be affected by independent Uber driver’s actions. We found the following results when it comes to restoring the brand/platform image and seek customer forgiveness: If there is an outcome failure (e.g., the Uber driver was late for pick-up that may be due to uncontrollable factors), customers prefer a personal recovery, but when process failure occurs (e.g., the Uber driver was rude while providing the service), customers prefer a platform recovery. The findings provide interesting insights for service researchers and practitioners when it comes to recovering mistakes and mishaps committed by independent service providers in the context of sharing economy.

ABSTRACT. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many businesses but has especially impacted small businesses. In the early months of the pandemic, many small business owners did not have the financial ability to sustain their services due to lacking funds during the shut-down. Although past research has investigated crisis management from a marketing perspective, little research has explored how small businesses are able to continue services in a crisis of this extent. Past research recognizes that business model innovation can offer new profitable opportunities and/or provide a shield against dynamic environmental changes, but less work has explored how small businesses can attain business innovation models in the challenge of a significant crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To investigate what can enable small businesses' business model innovation during a crisis, we take an inductive, qualitative approach. Using qualitative interviews with 10 industry-diverse small business owners and 5 small business resource providers, the data reveals there are multiple paths to pursuing their interests in sustaining business. Specifically, we identify that through a cocreative process, small businesses rely on technology and intermediary organizations to foster new forms of pursuing business, specifically engaging in business model innovation.

ABSTRACT. As health organizations rely heavily on social distancing to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines whether customers’ fear of being contaminated can influence their evaluations of social distancing and how and when these evaluations drive their usage of chatbot services. Using a study design with a manipulated variable (i.e., utilitarian and hedonic service situations) and measured variables (e.g., contamination fear and attitudes toward social distancing) to examine the hypothesized relationships, we found that when the service situation is utilitarian (hedonic) in nature, customers’ contamination fear influences their chatbot usage during service encounters through their social distancing attitudes (subjective norms) and then perceived usefulness of chatbots.

ABSTRACT. As evidenced by a special issue on this in the Journal of Marketing, researchers are focusing their attention on marketing for a better world. An important part of this focus is improving the emotional wellbeing of salespeople: a large part of the workforce of most economies. Abusive supervision, because it is commonplace, significantly damages the emotional wellbeing of salespeople. Not only does it damage emotional wellbeing, but in addition it compromises resources salespeople need to cope with this damage. Recognizing this double whammy highlights the need to identify coping resources that are depletion proof, so can serve to replenish coping resources that are depleted by abusive supervision. In this research we focus on an element of emotional intelligence, emotional regulation, and show that it is depleted by abusive supervision and that it enhances job satisfaction. We then evaluate the strategy of reappraisal--finding a different way to appraise situations that trigger emotions as a way of managing emotional reactions--for its effect on emotional regulation. We find that it enhances emotional regulation. We also find that it is not depleted as a result of abusive supervision. We identify in our research, taking a resource deployment, depletion and replenishment perspective, a resource that is not depleted by abusive supervision and that permits sales employees to cope with the abuse. While our goal in this research certainly is to tout reappraisal as a depletion proof strategy for coping with abuse, our broader goal is through a framework of viewing abuse in terms of deployment, depletion and replenishment to suggest a focus in future research on identifying an arsenal of depletion proof resources.

ABSTRACT. Commission structures are often complex. In tiered commission structures, the percentage of variable pay changes at different levels of sales performance. Salesperson behaviors may change just prior to commission deadlines, depending on goal achievement. According to the deterrence doctrine, people weight temptation versus consequences before engaging in unethical behaviors. When the difference between tiers is large, it creates a larger temptation. Furthermore, salespeople should frame sales revenue differently depending on whether it leads to a new commission tier. Salespeople are likely to justify and downplay the consequences of gaming behavior that avoids rewards framed as a “loss” compared to gaming behavior intended to achieve a “gain.” Using a sample of professional salespeople participating in an experiment, this research shows that salespeople are more likely to engage in gaming behavior to avoid a loss, particularly when rewards stakes are high and their visibility within the organization is low. These findings demonstrate that commission plan structure has an impact on salesperson behaviors above and beyond the extant paradigm of variable versus fixed compensation.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of new retail employee technology on retail frontline employees’ well-being. Using the job demand-resource model, this study focuses on the impact of retail technology-specific job demands (cognitive load, fear of public failure, information distrust) and job resources (employee training) on employees’ burnout and work engagement. This study uses multi-level modeling to test hypotheses with responses of 487 US retail employees with experience of using retail employee technology as part of their job. Results show that job demands led to increased burnout and job resources led to enhanced work engagement. Further, job resources buffered the impact of cognitive load on burnout. However, job demands did not predict weaker work engagement. Rather, the cognitive load was positively associated with work engagement, which may be due to the complex nature of stressors. The findings extend the prior job demand-resource model and provide comprehensive insights for retail managers.

ABSTRACT. With an estimated 1.1 billion unbanked adults in the world, the use of mobile financial services, including mobile money services are being used to increase access to low-cost financial services (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2018). Although mobile financial services are growing at a dynamic and rapid pace, the share of adults (44%) in developing countries reported to using digital payments with mobile phones or the internet is still low (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2018). There still remains a large percent of the population in BOP (base of the pyramid) markets with limited access to sustainable formal financial services like credit, savings, payment systems, insurance and pension (Ouma, Odongo and Were, 2017). More specifically, 90% of this formally excluded population lives in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East and in Kenya, 59% of the adult population was found to be either completely excluded or using informal financial methods (Waema & Omwansa, 2014). The opportunity exists for mobile financial inclusion since the World Bank reports that 90 percent of the world’s poor have mobile signals and that, on average, 89 cell phone accounts exist for every 100 individuals in developing countries (World Bank, 2012).

ABSTRACT. Multicultural marketing, the practice of integrated marketing strategies and tactics for products and services that are race- and ethnic-neutral and agnostic to sexual orientation, has become a conventional marketing strategy. Over the years, multicultural marketing has become less of a niche tactic and more mainstream. The conventionalization of multicultural marketing has presented marketers with challenges on how to execute an optimal strategy to target diverse consumers by proffering strategic terminology with vague conceptualization, such as cross-cultural marketing, as well as the total market approach to multicultural marketing. A sample of marketing practitioners was queried on their multicultural marketing practices. Leveraging the theory of the Resourced-Based View of the Firm. An empirical model identifying the meaningful and measurable constructs within an organization that can predict multicultural marketing success was hypothesized. The model defines and operationalizes the constructs of Diversity Avouchment and the Total Market strategic approach to multicultural marketing. Findings demonstrate that through greater Diversity Avouchment and the implementation of a Total Market strategy, organizations have: higher financial and strategic performance, more effective advertising, and have the creative latitude to develop culturally-relevant marketing communications. This quantitative model makes a contribution to the marketing literature in the much-understudied area of marketplace diversity.

ABSTRACT. Race is at the forefront of marketers and consumers’ minds as the need for social justice and a focus on anti-racism enter daily conversations. Race strongly influences consumer behavior (Pitts et al. 1989; Sexton 1972) . And, consumers are increasingly engaging in various forms of protest which attempt to shape markets and organizations within them (Bradford 2020; Kates and Belk 2001; Klein, Smith, and John 2004; Kozinets, Belz, and McDonagh 2012; Kozinets and Handelman 2004; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013; Sen, Gurhan-Canli, and Morwitz 2001). Though research has established strong links between race and consumer behavior, there remains an opportunity to examine how race influences consumer behaviors that seek to contest the marketplace. This study utilizes a framework to examine the extent to which an individual’s perception of racially stereotyped advertisements may lead to forms of activism. In a 2 (message characteristics: stereotypical vs. non-stereotypical) x 2 (model characteristics: Black vs. White) between-subjects designed study, the findings reveal that individuals who view racially stereotyped advertisements are likely to participate in monetary activism (e.g., raising money to support a cause) and protest activism (e.g., attend a protest).

ABSTRACT. During 2020, most Americans were impacted in some way by events related to COVID-19 or social injustice. Black Americans were disproportionately affected by both. The confluence of these two crises has exposed the huge health, education, and wealth disparities that have plagued Black communities for centuries. Academic research on these topics primarily addresses health and economic concerns (e.g. Hill et al. 2020). This project answers the call for investigations related to COVID-19 and social injustice in other domains (Crockett and Grier 2020). Herein we probe the impact of message framing about COVID-19 and social injustice on employee stress. Initial results suggest diversity-related messages may have unintended negative outcomes in general and on White employees in particular. It is important to expose the effect of these messages as they may add to the overwhelming stress communities are experiencing and lead to downstream, negative consequences for well-meaning firms. This is the first investigation of the effect of COVID-19 and social justice in this context. It adds points to a varied pool of solutions to address this critical topic.

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

ABSTRACT. In the weeks after the video of George Floyd’s death emerged, the world was inundated with personal and corporate messages of equality, hope, and justice. Companies and organizations issued statements that denounced racism, promised financial commitments, and took a stand in solidarity with the Black community. In this era of consumer demand for corporate activism, paired with corporate concern about public outcry over “woke washing,” or inauthentic social justice messaging, the need to assess the authenticity of corporate statements of support to social justice causes has become increasingly imperative to support both social justice causes and corporate outcomes. Our research delves into the linguistic characteristics of corporate statements in response to the death of George Floyd. We analyze publicly-available statements that were released in the month following George Floyd’s death. The results indicate that corporate messages varied on multiple factors, including results finding that statements distributed by women leaders were more emotive and optimistic than those sent by men.

ABSTRACT. With the rise of feminist and social movements, new sorts of advertisements have emerged, signaling a change toward a more gender-neutral portrayal. Femvertising is a new type of advertising that aims to show women in an equal and diverse way. It strives to empower women while avoiding depictions of traditional gender stereotypes and sexuality. The aim of this study is to analyze all the research on female stereotypes in advertising conducted between January 2000 and March 2021 during the various stages of feminism: pre-feminism, feminism, and post-feminism. The systematic literature review method is used in this study, and it discusses the key research methods, the context (country, sector), and the main research topics related to female stereotypes in advertising. In addition to identifying future research directions, the current study seeks to determine the place and role of femvertising in relation to the different feminist periods.

The findings reveal that the vast majority of the studies rely on data from a single nation, with research in the United States and the United Kingdom dominating the field. About half of the studies in the current article gathered data from only one sector, with the apparel industry receiving the most attention. The other most prominent sectors in the research were beauty, personal care, and advertising. Except for the studies related to femvertising, qualitative studies predominated in all periods of feminism. The reviewed articles identify the major research trends related to consumer attitudes, the evolution of female portrayal in advertising, the objectification of women, and the social movement of women empowerment. The number of articles on the latter topic has been rapidly increasing in recent years, owing to the femvertising trend.

ABSTRACT. B2B marketing research has made significant inroads into examining emerging market (EM) phenomenon, which as the theoretical and empirical evidence shows, operates differently than developed markets. This is especially true of interfirm relationship dynamics, where social contracts, local culture, unique institutions, and special forms of relationships (e.g., Guanxi in China) that are unique to EMs require distinct relationship management protocols. However, our understanding of how interfirm relationships in EM settings influence one firm’s (i.e., supplier) decision to be innovative and another firm’s (i.e., customer) decision to adopt innovations is lacking. This research fills that void by adopting a social exchange framework to show how supplier innovativeness can build trust and commitment among customers, which in turn leads to positive innovation adoption decisions on the latter’s part. Data collected from a large sample of top-level Chinese B2B executives shows that when interfirm communications are weak, supplier innovativeness can serve as a basis on which customers build trust in a supplier. This is due to the voluntary, innovative investments that a supplier commits that can benefit a customer. This, in turn, forges a reciprocal obligation or commitment on the part of customers which manifests in favorable adoption decisions.

ABSTRACT. This study will examine the relationship between customer engagement, value co-creation and value co-destruction within online brand communities (OBCs). The purpose of this study is twofold: 1. to examine the direct effects of customer engagement within OBCs on value co-creation and co-destruction; 2. to explore the mediating effects of brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty and the moderating effect of brand satisfaction on customer engagement within OBCs. An online survey will be used to collect data. PLS-SEM will be applied to examine the utility of the proposed model. Expected results are that there will be a positive relationship between customer engagement within OBCs and brand resonance, attitudinal brand loyalty and value co-creation, while a negative relationship between value co-destruction and customer engagement within OBCs is expected. Brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty are expected to have a positive relationship with value co-creation and a negative relationship with value co-destruction, respectively. Both brand resonance and attitudinal brand loyalty are expected to mediating roles, with brand satisfaction performing a moderating role. This study is expected to add to the existing literature on customer engagement in OBCs, and drive marketers to attach more importance on the value co-creation and co-destruction within OBCs.

ABSTRACT. Brand crises can cause significant financial and reputational damage to a company. The most effective means for a company to mitigate potential damage to its brand during a crisis is with its crisis response. Yet research into the most effective response (corrective action vs reduction of offensiveness vs denial) to a values-based brand crisis is unclear. This research seeks to clarify the issue of crisis response and expands understanding of this type of crisis by investigating the effects of blame attribution and perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This results of an experiment (N = 236, Australian consumers) indicate that corrective action is a more effective response than a reduction of offensiveness strategy, for improving brand evaluations, post a values-based brand crisis. Crisis response affected evaluations of the brand through blame attribution, and that this effect was moderated by consumers’ perceptions of CSR, such that lower CSR led to a greater effectiveness of corrective action. This research contributes to brand management and brand crisis literature. It also provides guidance to managers of companies going through values-based brand crises, and allows for the creation of evidence-based crisis management strategies.

ABSTRACT. Brand love has ignited renewed attention of researchers and practitioners, with recent development of the first pragmatically useful brand love scales. Consumers are argued to engage in relationships with brands that serve their self-goals, which are:  to express own self (value expressive); to maintain self-esteem (social adjustive); and to bolster self-esteem (affiliation). This research aims to examine the relative impact of self-related goals on brand love, and subsequently behavioural intentions that consist of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Data collected from a mall-intercept survey with 216 fashion clothing consumers and 198 smartphone consumers were analysed to test hypotheses using SmartPLS 3.3.3. Fashion clothing and smartphone products are selected as the purchases of these products are usually non-routine decision-making situations. The result reveals that brand identification and social adjustive moderately influence brand love, which in turn affects brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Mediational analyses show brand love mediates fully the effect of brand identification but only partially the effect of social adjustive on brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. The finding also shows that sense of brand community, while not significantly influencing brand love, drives consumers' brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to examine the impact of new product preannouncements on consumers’ perception of brand innovativeness. The mediating role of perceived risk and the moderating role of brand credibility and the degrees of innovation of the proposed new product (radical versus incremental) are also to be examined. The new product preannouncement-perceived risk-brand innovativeness relationship was developed using signalling theory. The conceptual framework was tested using a survey experiment. A total of 280 participants were recruited through Qualtrics Australian consumer panel. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results of this study indicates that brand innovativeness perception start forming early at a product’s life and successful preannouncements inspire such perception. Furthermore, preannouncement brand’s credibility and degrees of innovation of the new product has a direct impact on brand innovativeness and this relationship is mediated by perceived risk. Thus, preannouncement is a strategic tool that marketing managers can employ to enrich the information set available about new products and increase the credibility of their marketing signals. The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of brand credibility and degrees of innovation by the preannounced brand on brand innovativeness.

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

ABSTRACT. Customer service representatives (CSRs) as organizational boundary spanners inevitably experience role stress due to conflicts demands or ambiguous job expectations. Prior studies reveal inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between role stress and CSRs’ job performance. To address this issue, we differentiate role conflicts into supervisor-related and customer-related and investigate their respective effects on job performance, through adaptive service behaviors (ASB). Moreover, we postulate that role ambiguity congruent with the source of role conflict could mitigate the negative effect of role conflict on job behavior. This study tests with 229 CSRs working in a call center. The results show that supervisor-related and customer-related role conflict both negatively relate to CSRs’ ASB which positively relates with job performance. The findings also indicate that the negative effects of supervisor-related role conflict on ASB is weakened when CSRs perceive high role ambiguity regarding supervisor’s expectation, whereas the negative relationship between customer-related role conflicts with ASB decreases when employees experience ambiguous requirements on operation. This study suggests that stressor, i.e., role conflicts might increase the degree of CSRs’ ASB, depending on degree of constraints on their role expectation that is related to the source of conflicts, which has significant implications for managing frontline service employees.

ABSTRACT. The development of the global tourism industry necessitates the need to understand the effect of international tourists’ cross-cultural adaptability on their post-travel evaluations and behavioural intentions. The two major research gaps are: firstly, the lack of research introducing cultural intelligence into tourism research; secondly, the lack of research investigating post-travel evaluations and behavioural intentions of international tourists from a cultural adaptation perspective. Therefore, this paper aims to understand how tourists’ cultural intelligence might influence their ways of thinking and behaving. To achieve this research objective, this study employs a quantitative method (i.e., online survey) to collect data from 614 adult Chinese outbound tourists. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) techniques are used to analyze multivariate variables. The findings confirm the significant impact of tourist cultural intelligence on tourist satisfaction, revisit intention and electronic word-of-mouth communication. This study complements existing literature on cultural intelligence and contributes to the knowledge and usefulness of cultural intelligence. The findings of this study also suggest that all parties involved in international tourism need to take into consideration tourist cultural intelligence as it influences visitors’ post-travel evaluations and behaviours, which are essential for the growth even the survival of a tourism destination.

ABSTRACT. The current study positions guest experience as the focal variable in understanding guest satisfaction. The first contribution is to evaluate the differential role of service quality and experience in directly influencing guest satisfaction. Secondly, the study tests whether experience mediates the relationship between service quality and guest satisfaction. It can also provide hotel managers with more understandings about hotel guest’s experience to improve guest’s satisfaction level.

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

ABSTRACT. Firms increasingly use cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies to try to increase sales. This study examines a CRM strategy where the sale of a product is bundled with a donation to charity. We conduct a field experiment augmented with a laboratory study, to determine the impact of the amount the retailer donates in CRM transactions on consumers’ motivations and willingness to pay (WTP). Results of a controlled field experiments, involving auctions, indicate that low donation levels (1% of the selling price) have a significant impact on WTP; while higher donations also do, but at a diminishing rate. Additionally, results of a laboratory study show that both warm glow and persuasion positively influence the relationship between donation promise and WTP, where warm glow mediates this relationship. At small donation promises, we find support for warm glow motives over efficacy effects or the legitimizing of paltry donations, whereas for larger donation promises we find that consumers trade off between warm glow and the sacrifice from giving. Overall results have important implications for the appeal of CRM offerings in fixed-price retail settings and suggest that charity auctions can be a cost-effective part of a retailer’s corporate social responsibility strategy.

ABSTRACT. An important challenge for charity organizations lies in incentivizing volunteer workers. Volunteer workers are not driven purely by monetary incentives, and may respond negatively to monetary incentives if these incentives crowd out intrinsic motives. The practical implication of this, as established in the extant literature, is that to increase workers’ effort, firms need to pay sufficiently high monetary compensation to overcome this crowing out. In this work, we argue that while higher pay may increase current effort, it will crowd out future voluntary effort once withdrawn. This research investigates this in the context of volunteer fundraising efforts. We report findings from a study involving incentivized slogan creators, as well as a study involving volunteer fundraisers over a two-month period. We find that whereas high monetary incentives result in the greatest immediate increase in effort, they crowd out future intentions to volunteer. We map the mediation of incentives—through effort —to the final outcome of total funds raised.

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

ABSTRACT. With continuous changes in tourists’ needs, destination marketers keep attempting to facilitate creative and satisfactory strategies in destinations which support their goals (e.g., create long-term successful pop-culture tourism). This suggests that a better understanding of the holistic perspective and the factors relevant for determining the complex relationship with regard to pop-culture tourism is needed. However, studies on the effects on psychological concepts from fans’ perspective in pop culture phenomena are limited (Lee et al., 2008). Their importance has not been comprehensively investigated in the context of travel and tourism. In this study, the authors further extend self-expansion theory in the pop-culture tourism setting.

The self-expansion model mainly introduced a concept in which human motive for the desire to expand the self through the acquisition of resources, perspectives, and identities that help one’s ability to achieve goals in conscious and unconscious processes (Aron & Aron, 1986). The self-expansion model has two key dimensions: (1) self-expansion motivation, and (2) inclusion of close others in the self (Aron, Fisher, Mashek, Strong, & Brown, 2005). Along with a concept, it is suggested that the self-expansion theory be applied into broader areas in which there are significant person-object relationships, such as environmental psychology, political psychology, and social psychology (Reimann & Aron, 2009). By adopting self-expansion theory, this study argues that fans who are attached to the pop-star and involved in his and her activities are not just recipients of the pop-star’s creative resources (e.g., music, films, and TV); they also actively invest their own resources in the pop-star so as to maintain their close relationship with the pop-star. As for pop-culture tourism, tourists driven by pop-culture mostly consist of zealous fans who seek some sort of experience associated with a particular pop-culture or media themes. Particularly, pop-star fans are a unique group of individuals as many are highly involved with and have an emotional attachment to their pop-star (Fiske, 1992)

Accordingly, the authors in this study successfully applied self-expansion theory as a theoretical foundation to bridge the relationship between fans and destinations - pop-stars’ homelands. Thus, findings of this study provide a more in-depth understanding of international fans and tourists’ emotional and behavioral responses.

ABSTRACT. A number of service sector organisations with credence attributes (i.e. law firms, financial institutions etc.) are increasingly integrating food and beverage add-ons to their main service offerings to enhance customer experiences. Despite this widespread integration of food and beverages in many businesses, there is lack of empirical understanding as to the benefits and impacts of taste on customers within these service settings. This explanatory research seeks to explore whether food and beverage integrations play a role within environments that are high in credence attributes. Using hypothetical scenario testing we evaluate the impacts of taste perceptions on customer behaviours and emotions in credence service settings. Findings from this research address a literature gap in store atmospherics and provide strategic implications for services management on the importance of environmental cues influencing customers’ emotions and behaviours. This research is timely and relevant as the role of personalising attributes and service experiences is a current research priority in cultivating the customer asset and characterising the customer journey.

ABSTRACT. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of environmentalism are the most commonly used environmental psychology theories with good prediction power. However, both theoretical models have their own drawbacks. This study combines the VBN model and the TPB model to make up the drawbacks of each model to examine the validity of this combined model applied to consumption intention of local organic foods by structural equation modeling analysis. Self-reported questionnaires were collected in Taiwan to examine the environmental psychology theories. The results revealed that the combined model can explain about 47% of the variation in people’s consumption intention of local organic foods. In addition, the results indicated that people’s attitude and perceived behavioral control determine the consumption intention of local organic foods. This result can be further explained through a causal chain: from an individual’s stable value orientations and environment general beliefs to the beliefs that their actions may affect the environment and beliefs that the individual has responsibility to reduce this threat. People’s biospheric value and altruism value are also important.

ABSTRACT. The changing economic and social environment in India has greatly altered food consumption. Despite a promising market for processed and packaged foods, consumer research for acceptance of innovative ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-cook (RTC) food product varieties is limited. The study is a novel attempt at adopting a Practice theory lens to empirically explore changes in routine food consumption patterns in a select group of Indian middle class households. Findings show that 'meanings' adopted for the performance of specified food provisioning practices are aligned with the provisioner's acceptance of RTE/RTC food products. The study also enables an explanation of how food provisioning as a dispositional practice governs the acceptance or not of packaged food products. Exploring food consumption through such a practice-centric focus has allowed an understanding of how food markets in different geographies may be shaped in response to how food consumption is socially performed and practised.

ABSTRACT. In the high tech field, we are witnessing the proliferation of variable-geometry innovations with shape-shifting structures and architectures, combining different categories of products into a single one called New Hybrid Products (NHP). Our article poses some fundamental questions to designers about the place of affordance in the design of communicating new hybrid products and how to anticipate this affordance precisely in the case of variable-geometry innovations design (e.g. monolithic (made of a single block), protean (able to change shape) or modular (formed of various removable parts) designs). A qualitative study, which involved Hi-Tech design experts, explores the importance of variable-geometry innovations affordance and its implications on their willingness to conceive them. Our findings confirm the divergence in the literature on communicating new hybrid products affordance. Depending on whether the communicating new hybrid product has a monolithic or polymorphic form, it may or may not be perceived as affordant. In addition to this multitude of issues raised, our study reveals designers reluctance to design these variable-geometry hybrid products. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are finally addressed.

ABSTRACT. Brands in consumer goods sector are increasingly using consumer empowerment strategies. As a matter of fact, enabling customers to influence marketing decisions is now a widespread strategy enabled by digital technology developments. While substantial knowledge was gained from literature shedding light on several positive outcomes of empowerment efforts for companies, benefits withdrawned by consumers from participation have been neglected by literature. Our understanding of perceptual changes of the brands relying on these strategies for the “mass” of consumers that don’t participate need to be enriched. Relying on a qualitative study, we show that participating consumers retrieve hedonic, social, cognitive and personal benefits. Then, we demonstrate that preference between empowerment strategies depends on consumers perceived expertise and projected experience linked to each setting. Finally, we show contrasted perception towards brands launching empowerment to create vs. to select strategy.

ABSTRACT. Although social media is of growing significance within the marketing discipline, research is fragmented and requires further investigation. In particular, it is noted that organizations face various barriers when implementing social media within their overall marketing strategy, but little research has addressed the implementation process. This research develops original, rigorous, and practically relevant research on the capabilities required in organizations to use social media within the business-to-business domain. By applying a qualitative, in-depth, case study research methodology, this paper identifies a four-phase process of strategy development that twelve firms went through in the development of their social media strategy. We identify how organizations put dynamic and adaptive capabilities into practice in harnessing resources to build the capacity for sensing, shaping and seizing the opportunities available through social media. The resulting model identifies both the journey organizations go through when implementing social media, and the capabilities they must develop to progress through each phase.

ABSTRACT. Submitting structured abstract

ABSTRACT. With the growth of contract and temporary work in the contemporary labor market, it is becoming increasingly important for independent professionals (IPros) to understand how to differentiate themselves from competitors and manage relationships with clients. There is a clear gap in the literature that neglects how ‘business of one’ creates its brand. This study uses corporate brand literature to explore the phenomenon of IPro brands. Empirical data is collected through unobtrusive observations and semi-structured interviews from seven cases of Ipros. It finds that the IPro brand is a combination of seven brand identity elements. These include aspects of the IPro as an individual that exist regardless of which client they are working with. These elements are curated to adapt to the client and expressed through impression management, communication and the IPro’s work profile to create the IPro brand. In addition, the findings also reveal that the professional narrative of IPros is primarily driven by the identity of the IPro rather than by outside influences and that elements can remain hidden even though they continuously exist as part of the IPro.

ABSTRACT. We study how foreign brands’ cultural accommodation delivered through multisensory website design influences local consumers’ perceptions and purchase decisions. We place particular emphasis on the Chinese fashion industry, where many non-Chinese brands suffer. Drawing upon theories of cultural accommodation and homophily bias, our experimental results indicate that foreign brands’ use of cultural accommodating multisensory cues (both visual and auditory) positively influence consumers’ purchase intention, while the congruence of culturally accommodating multisensory cues also enhances of consumers’ purchase intention. We also demonstrate the psychological mechanism in transmitting multisensory cues of cultural accommodation into purchase intention and identify the mediating roles of consumer-brand identification and brand image in this mechanism. Our study takes a novel perspective to contribute to the emerging research stream of online multisensory marketing by employing it to facilitate international online retailing and cross-cultural communication. We also highlight the significance of developing shared identity between local consumers and foreign brands (i.e. consumer-brand identification) in order to benefit from the multisensory cues of cultural accommodation. From a managerial perspective, we shed new light on foreign brands’ cultural accommodation strategies in local markets and suggest multisensory website design as a cost-effective avenue for delivering the brands’ cultural accommodation effort.

ABSTRACT. For most nonprofit organizations (NPOs) the procurement of donations is the core function of nonprofit marketing efforts (Bennet 2019). As NPOs are facing increasing competition (McKeever 2018; Bennet and Sargeant 2005) and a decline in number of donors in several OECD countries (Giving USA 2019; Jarvis 2019; GfK 2018; QUT 2016), NPOs have begun to engage in online fundraising to approach especially younger donors (Aldridge and Fowles 2013). Research has already shown that social information about others’ donation behavior can positively affect donation rates in public solicitation settings. To date, similar experiments in online environments are lacking but are particularly worth studying as theories suggest a malfunction of descriptive normative information in anonymous donation calls (Van Teunenbroek et al. 2019). Based on the assumptions that (1) anonymity weakens social pressure and that (2) anonymity gives relatively more explanatory power to altruistic considerations, it can be hypothesized that the positive effect of descriptive normative information should be at least weakened. This hypothesis was tested in an online experiment (n=392). Results indicate not only a weakened but even reversed effect of descriptive normative information on the overall decision to donate on both group level (donation rate) and individual level (donation likelihood).

ABSTRACT. Customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions can be pivotal to business performance because they can influence customer satisfaction and other outcomes. While previous studies have largely studied non-group contexts in which C2C interactions are incidental to the service experience, this study examines a group context in which face-to-face and online C2C interactions are deliberate and core to the service being provided: graduate business education. This study compares C2C interactions between face-to-face and online graduate business education where students (whether enrolled in a face-to-face or online program) are expected to interact, engage in discussion, debate, and work with other students within the student cohort. Using semi-structured interviews and the critical incident technique, we seek new insights on how C2C interactions may affect customers’ perceptions of a group service, and how differences in their experiences of C2C interactions may make them attribute service success or failure to different parties involved in this group service (e.g. the school, the program, students in the same cohort, or themselves). Further, we compare whether and how students attribute credit or blame differently for face-to-face versus online C2C interaction. The findings may be of interest to other group services that involve heavy C2C interactions.

ABSTRACT. Social media influencer (SMI) marketing represents a strategy that uses the influence of SMIs as opinion leaders to drive consumers’ brand awareness, brand image and brand-related behavior. In addition to SMI selection criteria such as the number of followers, costs per post, engagement rate or audience characteristics, practitioners are also confronted with the decision problem of choosing the type of SMI based on their origin of fame. While non-original SMIs became famous outside of social media (e.g., by being singers, actors or athletes), original SMIs became famous in social media (e.g., by presenting their lifestyle). Drawing on the concepts of similarity and wishful identification, this study investigates if social media users’ self-esteem moderates the effect of SMIs’ origin of fame on social media users’ purchase behavior. It thus aims to examine the effectiveness of the type of SMI based on social media users’ self-esteem. The results of an online experiment with 129 social media users in Russia reveal that non-original SMIs affect social media users’ purchase intentions stronger than original SMIs if social media users have low self-esteem. In contrast, original SMIs affect social media users’ purchase intentions stronger than non-original SMIs if social media users have high self-esteem.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to test how the relationship between consumers’ privacy calculus and consumers’ willingness to share personal information is systematically moderated by cultural dif-ferences across countries. We develop a conceptual framework that proposes main and moderating effects of cultural differences on consumers’ willingness to share personal information. We test our hypotheses using multilevel modeling on data collected from 15,068 consumers from 24 coun-tries. We show that consumers’ privacy calculus and consumers’ willingness to share personal information are affected by cultural differences. Those cultural differences can help explain why consumers from different countries react differently when requested to share personal information.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of cultural dimensions, perceived risk, familiarity with private labels and perceived quality differences between private labels and national brands on the propensity of supermarket shoppers to purchase Private Labels (PL). The paper is informed by a survey of shoppers in Tesco, the world’s third largest grocery retailer, carried out in China and the UK. Perceived functional and financial risk are useful constructs in predicting propensity to purchase private labels in the UK. In contrast, only social risk predicts this propensity in China. In the mature UK grocery market high levels of consumer familiarity with PL may increase the perceived quality differences between PL and national brands. As the effect in China is in complete contrast, retail managers and international marketers may aim to stimulate awareness of and familiarity with PL in an effort to improve quality perceptions vis-à-vis branded competitors. Retailers in China should develop their brand image rather than focusing on a low-price strategy. The results of the study are confined to one geographic region in each observed nation.

ABSTRACT. Amidst increasing awareness of, and concern for, environmental sustainability, one of the great challenges of our time is to change our consumption habits in order to operate within planetary boundaries and to optimise human health (IPCC, 2018). Our food practices have been identified as one of the cornerstones of the urgently required transition to more sustainable food consumption (Springman et al., 2016; Tilman & Clark, 2014). This qualitative study explores the interconnected household food practices of a sustainability dedicated cohort focusing in particular on the influence of Food Provisioning Systems (FPS) on such practices. The knowledge gained from this study aims to contribute to existing bodies of research centred on food practices and sustainable consumption.

ABSTRACT. Nutrition labels on products are displayed on an individual product-by-product basis. While standard, the effectiveness of this practice has been increasingly criticised due to consumer information processing biases. Digital technologies that present information in simpler, more accessible ways at the point of purchase are increasingly used and demanded by consumers yet we know little about how they impact decision making. One way to assist consumer processing of the available nutritional information is to present it in a more aggregated format (e.g., for the basket) to overcome numeracy biases. This study investigates how a calorie counter aids consumers in making food choices. An experiment was designed which presented consumers with aggregated calorie information and compared the choices made to those with individual product nutritional information. The results show the calorie counter leads to a reduction in the amount of calories chosen by about 9% - that is, higher than estimates of the effectiveness of the UK’s 20% sugar tax (5%). Results were moderated by other factors such as shopping duration, time pressure and consumer type. Though such technologies offer much promise and can assist users by providing more customised and relevant information further research is needed to develop this stream.

ABSTRACT. Despite having been deemed to be obsolete nearly 30 years ago, vinyl records are enjoying since 2011 a major revival and seem to change the way we listen to music again. This paper uses an ethnographic approach to explore the nature and extent of the growing popularity and deep resonance with today’s consumers. As nearly 48% of vinyl consumers these days are under the age of 35, attention is also paid to examining whether the resurgence of vinyl’s popularity is a sign for another dramatic evolution in the music marketplace. We found that young consumers experience the material ritual of handling and playing vinyl records as “new” and exciting, which are also seen as technologically superior. We also found that many consumers have felt exploited, oppressed and betrayed by the digital music providers and, hence, turned to vinyl as a music format that is seen to be dependable, trustworthy and personal.

ABSTRACT. Time scarcity is a widespread phenomenon with multi-dimensional consequences which has implications for marketing and consumer behavior (Godinho et al., 2016; Nilsson et al., 2017). Consumers’ choices are influenced by available resources, and time is increasingly seen as a valuable resource. Despite several studies looking at the impact of time related variables in consumer behaviour (eg. Lloyd et al., 2014; Godinho et al., 2016; Mitomi, 2018), there is a dearth of research focusing on how time dimensions impact on the desire to stay in shopping venues. Hence, we look at the impact of time pressure in the utilitarian (Lloyd et al., 2014) versus the hedonic shopping motivations to understand how consumers’ feelings of time scarcity affect time spent in stores. We propose a conceptual framework of how time pressure affects shopping motivations and how these impact the desire to stay. In addition, we test whether time management moderates these relationships. Results of a survey show support for the impact of time pressure in hedonic shopping motivations but not in utilitarian motivations. Hedonic motivations impact significantly on desire to stay. Finally, time pressure has a negative significant impact in the desire to stay. It is interesting to see that time pressure also has a positive impact on hedonic motivations suggesting that, shopping for novelty and experience related reasons (hedonic shopping motivations) has a positive influence in the desire to stay. On the other had, time pressure does not affect utilitarian shopping motivations, nor do these affect the desire to stay in one’s usual shopping destination. Finally, the moderating effect of time management in the proposed relationships was not supported. From a managerial point of view, the results of this paper encourage shopping venues management to increase the recreational component of their tenant mix. This may lead shoppers to stay for a longer time regardless of the time pressure. Desire to stay at the shopping is expected to lead to other outcomes like patronage intentions (Martin and Turley, 2004).

ABSTRACT. Research has limited knowledge about whether and how firms disclose information about their market-based assets such as brands although brands provide firms with many benefits. This study aims to fill this research gap by investigating firms’ brand-related information (BRI) disclosure in 10-K reports and addresses three research questions. First, we intend to conceptualize a BRI framework and a BRI coding dictionary for automated text analysis. Second, we are going to use a phrase-level automated text analysis technique to construct a BRI disclosure index that captures the quality and quantity of BRI in firms’ 10-K reports. Third, this study aims to explore key factors driving the BRI disclosure as well as the financial market consequences of the disclosing practice. Our findings will provide managers and financial market participants who need to communicate and evaluate the performance implications of branding strategies and related activities with enlightenment on the value relevance of BRI disclosures.

ABSTRACT. Digitalisation has significantly changed consumer behaviour. Tech-savvy, connected consumers value convenience, speed and accessibility where they can communicate with an organisation through several clicks. Hence, growth of digital technology has boosted the need for online customer service which allows organisations to provide flexible and efficient services. As digital technology continues to evolve, key assumption for adopting these technologies is to reduce costs by transforming firm’s service landscapes through delivery of more efficient interactions. On the other hand, instant availability of goods and services makes it harder for firms to sustain relationships with customers, forcing organisations to focus on delivery of high-quality customer support. To stay competitive, firms have realised the importance of delivering not only efficient, but also valuable and memorable interactions to consumers. Therefore, the question arise how to distribute and manage digital and human capital within customer service journeys. Hence, this study aims to understand how human and digital interactions online can enhance customer-organisation relationships through driving a change in customers’ cognitive and affective evaluations and behaviours.

ABSTRACT. A large body of research has explored how individuals respond to political marketing efforts. However, little is known about how the content of a politician’s posts on social media can influence the voter’s decision. Using Persuasion Knowledge Model as the basis of conceptualization, the proposed study aims to compare social media posts by politicians wherein they boast about their own efforts with social media posts where they attack their opponents. The boasting posts are proposed to be more persuasive than the attacking posts and the proposed results have theoretical as well as practical implications.

ABSTRACT. Blockchain is one of the key technologies that is reshaping retailers’ relationships with consumers (Mende and Noble, 2019). Introduced by Nakamoto (2008), it can be defined as a large distributed ledger that stores a continuously growing set of transaction bundles called blocks that are linked and secured cryptographically in a peer-to-peer network (Boukis, 2019). Blockchain’s uniqueness is its ability to ensure transparency, security, traceability, and accuracy of each transaction. Although the most common use of blockchain technology is in financial applications (Bumblauskas et al., 2020), its distinctive transaction mechanism is increasingly drawing the attention of other industries’ scholars and practitioners (e.g., McGhin et al., 2019). Particularly, one of the most engaging use cases for blockchain technology is in the area of food supply chain management. Indeed, due to globalization, supply chains are becoming more complex than ever (Abeyratne and Monfared, 2016), impeding both suppliers and consumers from having full access to chains’ transaction information. Additionally, following several public food scandals, the interest in transparency and traceability has become especially critical in this industry. Consumers want to know the product’s origin, where it has been processed, or who distributed it (Boukis, 2019). Having realized the value of blockchain technology, several food retailers around the world have made available blockchain-based apps through which consumers can follow food products across their entire lifecycle, from raw materials to retail centers. However, despite the widespread opinion that blockchain technology will radically significantly affect the retailing landscape (Mende and Noble, 2019), to the best of our knowledge, there is still scarce empirical evidence that shows whether and how this technology is changing the relationships between retailers andwill affect consumersconsumer’ perceptions and behaviors. Specifically, to the best of our knowledge, no empirical study has focused on the effects of blockchain technology on value perceptions and consumers’ patronage intentions. To fill this gap, we rely on Construal-Level Theory (CLT; Trope and Liberman, 2010), mental imagery (MacInnis and Price, 1987), and Signaling Theory (Spence, 1973), to answer address the following research questions: (RQ1) How does blockchain technology affect the unfolding of retail consumers’ perceptions? (RQ2) Does blockchain technology influence more consumers’ intentions to patronize than conventional certification labels?

ABSTRACT. The global health emergency situation in 2020 has accelerated the process of companies’ digital transformation. Through this process firms discovered the relevance of the new digital channel in order to manage the relationship with their customers and stakeholders. In this context, the paper wants to analyze and discuss the impact of digital channel in SMEs’ strategies. In particular, the research is conducted on Italian mid-sized companies, also known as “micro-multinational” or “pocket-multinational”, considering the key industries of Made in Italy.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates how consumers associate colors to the concept of sustainability. By adopting a broader definition of sustainability that includes all its three dimensions (i.e., environmental, social and economic), it explores how colors may enhance sustainability consumers’ perceptions in the marketplace. Sustainability has been an increasingly critical issue and clear communication using color could help direct attention to a focused message that could transform behaviors within industry and for consumers. It is, thus, very important to understand which colors may strengthen consumers’ sustainability perceptions. However, inquiry into the subject of color and sustainability communication in the marketing literature is still at early stages. While previous works have shown that sustainability concept might be associated with a particular color hue (e.g., green), very few attempts investigate this relationship looking at all the colors dimensions (i.e., hue, saturation and value). Additionally, as sustainability concept comprises three spheres, very little is known about which colors can specifically match with each of them. This research aims at filling this gap by exploring the relationship between colors dimensions and sustainability spheres. In doing so, a multi-method approach is adopted. Study 1, based on a qualitative methodology, explores the colors that are more easily associated to the different spheres of sustainability, by looking at the different color dimensions. Subsequent studies, based on an experimental design, empirically test the matching effect between color dimensions and sustainable claims’ frame and cues on consumers’ intentions and actual purchase behaviors. Theoretically, this research enriches the previous scant literature on the relationship between colors and sustainability. From a managerial standpoint, the research clearly shows how to best match colors choices and sustainable claims to boost purchasing behavior.

ABSTRACT. Marketing researchers have investigated the impact of human density (i.e., the number of people in a certain place in a certain time) on a variety of consumer reactions, but have produced contrasting results. This research analyzes how a specific social factor, that is, similarity with other customers in the crowd, moderates the relationship between human density and repurchase intention. Social factors may indeed play relevant roles in shaping the effects of human density on consumer reactions, but their effects remain largely under-researched. Based on similarity-attraction and self-categorization theories, we predict that human density has a positive effect on repurchase intention when the crowd is composed of similar customers. Differently, the same effect is negative in presence of dissimilar customers. Also, we hypothesize that such effects are mediated by perceived control, since the presence of similar people leads individuals to perceive the behavior of other customer as more predictable. We tested our hypotheses by means of an experimental study in which we manipulated human density and similarity with the other customers and measured repurchase intentions and perceived control. Results of a moderated mediation model provide support to our predictions. Our research contributes to the literature on crowding by investigating the relationships among human density, social factors, perceived control, and repurchase intention and offers a series of managerial insights for the post pandemic era.

ABSTRACT. Social media have seen the proliferation of misinformation seriously impacting brands and public policies (Di Domenico & Visentin, 2020; Visentin et al., 2019; Marwick, 2018). Combating of fake news and misinformation is a hot theme that will meaningfully shape the future of social media and marketing research, especially in balancing the risks of limited freedom of expression versus the harm of spreading misinformation (Appel et al., 2020). Social media users are unwilling to fact-check information and tend to avoid information that does not fit their intuition, but scientific literature still lacks in providing convincing explanations of the determinants of sharing misinformation on social media. Against this background, we take the perspective that sharing problematic content is related to the double effort of users to reinforce their identity within their like-minded others and to reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. Based on the contagion approach (Hedström, 1994), we propose that social media users are likely to share previously posted misinformation based on three proximities (symbolic, given by common semantic domains represented common words or expressions; cultural, given by a common set of sources of information; and thematic, given by a common set of hashtags used to disseminate contents). Our study will contribute to the nascent literature on spreading misinformation on social media and could be of value for companies allowing them to concentrate their marketing efforts on those community that feed problematic contents to stop the proliferation of their brand’s related problematic contents outside the community where it originated.

ABSTRACT. We live in an era of global mobility and social acceleration, unfolding against a backdrop of economic precarity, and political and environmental instability. This dissertation explores how this dynamic context influences consumers’ desires and behaviors as they draw on the marketplace to pursue their life projects and identity goals. It does so by focusing on the global phenomenon of digital nomadism––a growing form of contemporary living arising in response to a societal milieu where traditional notions such as homeownership, material accumulation and 9-5 work life are both increasingly challenged, as well as harder to attain. Comprised of three research papers––two empirical and one conceptual–– this dissertation argues that some consumers’ imaginaries are framed by a new form of market-mediated utopian thinking which privileges private and individualized pursuits of short-lived betterment, as opposed to long-term planning or collective improvement, and promotes immediacy and instant gratification through liquid consumption, as opposed to accumulation and ownership. In doing so, this work revisits three established marketing constructs and re- conceptualizes them with an expanded analytical focus: materialism in the context of dematerialization and digitalization, consumer desire in the context of fluidity and uncertainty, and marketplace utopias in the context of increased individualization.

ABSTRACT. Manufacturer-retailer relationships are often cited as an important determinant in product distribution. By coordinating the channel and aligning incentives, relationships can significantly affect both manufacturers' and retailers' profits and contribute to market concentration. However, empirical evidence is scarce because relationships are usually trade secrets. I study how beer manufacturers leverage their relationships with retailers to promote new products in the U.S. hard cider market. I present novel empirical evidence of mutual preferential treatments between manufacturers and retailers in assortment choices and wholesale pricing. I interpret the finding as pair-specific relationships sustained through repeated interactions, and use industry regulations on trade and wholesale pricing to address alternative mechanisms, including non-linear contracts. I estimate a structural model of consumer demand, retail and wholesale pricing, and assortment that incorporates the relationships. The results show that the relationships increase Anheuser-Busch InBev's and MillerCoors' new cider availability by 17.7% and 7.2%, respectively, and present a double win to both the manufacturers and retailers. 

ABSTRACT. AMS Mary Kay Dissertation Proposal Award

ABSTRACT. How do consumers experience their existence as cyborgs? In pursuing an answer to this question, I relied on an existential-phenomenological framework and a three-year qualitative study of near-field communication (NFC) microchip consumers that resulted in a new conceptualization: The Interactive Self. Differently from the extended self that is composed of everything humans can call theirs, the interactive self is nurtured by cyborgs’ experiential and embodied sense of ownership and a sense of agency for their actions. The concept has three conceptual dimensions: Firstly, the Identity-Enabler Object is an object (e.g., an NFC microchip) that has the power to change the human ontological status to that of fledgling cyborgs. Secondly, the iMine Boundarylessness comprises the physical, symbolic, and digital boundaries that are crossed or blurred, allowing for the simultaneous process of extension & incorporation into the self. Finally, the third conceptual dimension is the Data Meshwork, which is a bundle of data that flows through the cyborgs’ internal (e.g., an NFC microchip) and external digital organs (e.g., a smartphone). This study enriches the understanding of work on identity projects in the future transhumanist era and challenges prior consumer theory and research in which technology is framed in largely instrumental terms.

ABSTRACT. Process analysis with mediation and moderation is indispensable for contemporary marketing research. This dissertation presents three essays that apply, compare and extend process analysis methods to obtain theoretically and managerially relevant process insights. Essay 1 applies mediation in an investigation of the referral reinforcement effect: referred customers are more inclined to make referrals than non-referred customers are. Four studies provide evidence for the referral reinforcement effect, which is good news for managers who aim to grow their customer base. Essay 2 compares six existing moderation methods in the face of measurement error. A quantitative literature review, a comparison of assumptions and Monte Carlo simulations conclude that the accessible factor scores method performs equally good or better than the dominant means method and other more sophisticated methods. Essay 3 focuses on discriminant validity as a precondition for meaningful process analysis. It extends bivariate discriminant validity criteria by taking a multivariate perspective. Case studies and an online application demonstrate the proposed methods in multiple mediation and multidimensional measurement settings, important multivariate theory-testing domains. In sum, we hope that this dissertation demonstrates the strengths of process analysis methodologies, fosters their use and inspires future research.

ABSTRACT. Firms often adapt their sales structure to accommodate changing selling environments. To stay competitive in an evolving marketplace while minimizing costs, firms increasingly use technology to serve their customers. Utilizing technology to serve customers has become essential in 2020 as salespeople are not able to face-to-face meet with customers due to safety reasons as COVID-19 surges. This dissertation investigates sales force effectiveness in two new sales environments that use technology to serve customers—the inside sales channel and digital channel. First, business-to-business (B2B) companies increasingly disintermediate their sales process by transitioning customers from the traditional outside sales force channel to the digital channel. Second, companies often shift from the traditional outside sales force channel to an inside sales force channel, leading inside sales forces to become an increasingly dominant channel to connect with customers. This dissertation provides a roadmap to managers by showing how to manage sales force effectiveness in changing business conditions under respective contexts.

ABSTRACT. The general objective of the study is to propose consumer perceived brand literacy as a construct, and develop a measurement scale, its validity, and reliability. The proposed scale will help to understand the consumer perceived brand literacy through the measurement and validation of the five proposed dimensions. The study aims at describing the consumer perceived brand literacy through five dimensions such as perceived brand image literacy, perceived brand attributes literacy, perceived brand quality literacy, perceived brand personality literacy, and perceived brand leadership literacy. The data is collected from consumers within the age group of 25-45 years, distributed homogeneously. The scale development process has been carried out in two stages in reference to two different consumer brands. Scale refinement has been done based on the analysis of reliability and validity tests at both stages.

ABSTRACT. We often hear news about a brand dropping a celebrity endorser after the endorser has negative publicity. However, celebrity endorsers are not the only ones that can generate negative publicity; many brands are also guilty of this same conduct. The growing frequency of brand crises and the demonstrated relationship between brand- and endorser-reputation begs the question: What impact might a celebrity endorser experience if a brand that they endorse experiences a severe brand crisis? In Study 1, we find that negative brand publicity impacts the moral reputation of the brand only if internal locus attributions are made. In turn, the moral reputation of the brand positively impacts attitude towards the brand, attitude towards the endorser, and attitude towards other endorsed brands. In Study 2, we find that celebrity endorsers may experience more positive authenticity perceptions, moral reputations, and in turn, attitudes, if they ‘drop’ the offending brand.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this research is to examine how consumers react toward the culture-laden design of mobile applications focusing on the role of application atmospherics in the context of location-based advertising (LBA) and ridesharing apps. Drawing from previous research on culture-laden website design, our experimental study with consumers from Canada confirms that LBA displayed on locally (vs. internationally) designed ridesharing apps elicits less perceived ad intrusiveness and higher intention to purchase. Regarding mobile app atmospherics, we find that consumers perceive a local (vs. international) app design as more informative, more entertaining, and more effective. Furthermore, higher levels of app atmospherics lead consumers to perceive LBA as less intrusive as well as enhance consumers’ purchase intentions, thereby emphasizing the important role of app atmospherics to predict and mobile consumer behavior. Our empirical results confirm that two atmospherics (entertainment and effectiveness, but not informativeness) mediate the effects of culture-laden app design on consumer reactions. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings as well as managerial implications for mobile application design and LBA effectiveness.

ABSTRACT. Emphasizing product attributes signaling quality through commonly accepted standards have been at the core of marketing messages in a variety of different industries such as hospitality, automotive, ecommerce and wine marketing. Establishing quality signals for an offering previously considered illicit has become the challenge for marketers upon the legalization of adult cannabis consumption in a growing number of US states, and several countries such as Canada and Mexico. The existence of a cannabis consumption culture during its prohibition provides the opportunity for marketers to use available customer input, while establishing quality signals anew. As this co-creation process unfolds, we aim to understand how quality signals can be (and are being) established in the cannabis market, by exploring consumer-generated content on a web platform. Simply, we propose a typology of quality signals, adopting Orth and Krška’s (2002) conceptualization of product attributes. We test the proposed types by conducting text analysis first. Next, we try to answer, if these quality signals are co-created by comparing company- vs. customer-created content and the interchange in the discourse. Once completed, we foresee contributions to the literature on customer co-creation of quality signals, and inform the practitioners of cannabis marketing in their messaging and positioning strategies.

ABSTRACT. Superior Product Quality is generally considered a competitive advantage. Yet literature on quality improvement and new product development have recognized the existence of impediments in the successful practice and implementation of Quality Improvement. In an uncertain and highly competitive business environment, it is not uncommon for organizations to pass on Quality Improvement tasks to supply chain partners. This is often the case in the manufacturing supply chain with powerful OEMs. We seek to determine whether such “Quality Improvement Pressure” is conducive to good Supplier- OEM Relationships and how this compares with price pressure exerted similarly by OEMs. Overall supplier-OEM relationship is specified as the final dependent variable. In addition to a set of intermediate relationship variables, the specified model has two exogenous variables - one representing price pressure and the other representing pressure to innovate. After following a multi-stage scale development procedure, data were collected from suppliers in the automotive light vehicles industry and the electronics industry. Analysis shows differences in the impacts of the two initial variables on the outcome variable. Quality Improvement pressure has substantially more positive links with the intermediate relational variables as well as the dependent variable than has price pressure.

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

ABSTRACT. Fact or fiction: The controversy behind the importance of data quality and external validity of research findings in academic marketing journals is justifiable.

In recent years, there has been a growing concern regarding the roles that data quality and external validity of research findings play in the publishing process of academic based marketing journals. This special session uses a broader research/publication integrity framework in an effort to address the concerns with data quality and external validity issues. A panel of expert researchers breaks down research/publication integrity into different categorical types (or sources) of integrity among the player groups (researcher, respondent/ subjects, authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers) involved in researching and publishing academic marketing journal articles. The session uses a novel approach of discussing whether specific player groups’ activities can be interpreted as being “fact” or “fiction” with the audience. The ensuing discussions should provide clearer insight and understanding of the impact that maintaining integrity throughout the researching and publishing processes has on enhancing data quality and external validity of reported results, findings, implications, and added value to body of marketing knowledge.

ABSTRACT. The business-to-government (B2G) market has received increasing scholarly attention in marketing. While serving government customers, many firms engaged in revolving door appointments—a firm’s hiring of former public employees from government agencies as corporate executives and directors, to attain political connections and enhance the relationship with the government. Revolving door appointments reflect the firm’s strategic efforts in managing the relational dynamism in the customer-supplier relationships. Thus, this paper investigates the effects of revolving door appointments on customer relationship performance. Analyzing multisource secondary panel data of 102 publicly-traded U.S. firms in the B2G market over 14 years (2004-2017), the authors find that revolving door appointments enhance the firm’s performance of acquiring new customer relationships and cross-selling more items to customers. Besides, the benefits of revolving door appointments are contingent on the firm’s market knowledge and product scope. Specifically, revolving door appointments are more effective when firms have abundant market knowledge but are less effective when firms have narrow product scope. These results also provide unique contributions to marketing theories and implications for policymakers.

ABSTRACT. Firms take various approaches to mitigate the negative impacts from the misdeeds and repair the damages of the consequences. The current study examines the moderation role of two types of misdeed, business ethics or product performance related, in the relationship between three major crisis remedy strategies and the purchase intentions for both current and potential consumers. The results from 440 participants suggest that a promptness apology is important for current consumers but not for potential consumers. More importantly, the response plan has less impact on the current consumers when a misdeed is business ethics related than product performance related while the correction plan is more important when a misdeed is product performance related compared with business ethics related misdeeds; for the potential consumer, on the contrary, the response plan has less impact when a misdeed is product performance related than business ethics related.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores how the application of standard marketing processes and tools could create clearer strategic direction as to how to manage stakeholders than has so far been identified within stakeholder theory. While this approach has been encouraged by many since Kotler and Levy first proposed “broadening marketing” in 1969, it has never been fully explored systematically how to do it. The paper begins with a critical review of the stakeholder theory and stakeholder marketing literature regarding key activities in the direction-setting phase of strategic planning:  stakeholder identification, values analysis, and saliency determination.  It then describes how standard customer-oriented marketing planning steps directly and indirectly impact decisions regarding all stakeholders during the direction-setting phase.  It concludes by making the argument that the processes, tools, and concepts commonly used to develop customer-focused marketing strategies provide some crucial missing solutions for stakeholder theory and stakeholder marketing.

ABSTRACT. This study will examine the effect of irresponsible firm behavior that is damaging to the environment and infringes upon sustainability development goals. We will measure consumer reactions to information regarding six examples of varying severity and distance of effect, conducting scenario-based experiments across three nations (i.e. the US, Mexico, and Thailand). The purpose of this study is to examine consumer responses in order to understand which kinds of scenarios can raise greater emotional and behavioral response. The results of this study will contribute to the literature of consumer motivation. The study seeks to explain the various circumstances that may damage the consumer-supplier relationship and the factors that mediate this relationship such as physical proximity to the consumer and the severity of the violation. We will measure emotional reactions and their level of activism ranging from expressing anger to becoming active in demanding sustainable practices.

ABSTRACT. Obesity and chronic diseases are the leading causes of mortality in Mexico. The recent pandemic has exacerbated the public health problem. Considered by many as having weak regulations in place, the government implemented a series of strategies and regulations in order to promote a healthier lifestyle. To date, no studies have been conducted to analyze public attitudes towards the regulations, legislation or any other recent effort. In order to fill this gap, the purpose of the study is to provide a research agenda of the Mexican society’s attitudes towards recent government efforts to reduce obesity rates and promotion of healthier lifestyles, such as the new imposed tax and labeling system. The drivers or antecedents of obesity can be classified as economic, political, social, education, cultural, infrastructural and legal drivers. A model is proposed considering these drivers and their effect on demand and supply of junk food. Understanding the complex interactions between the drivers with supply and demand requires sound research that relies on an understanding of (i) Mexican idiosyncracy, (ii) the role of supply and demand, as well as the exploration of the interactions from (iii) varied perspectives applying multiple consumer research approaches. Accordingly, a research agenda is presented.

ABSTRACT. Corporations, being inconsistent between their moral responsibility assertions and actions, create perceptions of corporate hypocrisy (PCH) amongst stakeholders. Accordingly, PCH undermines their attitudes and beliefs, and in turn threatens corporations’ reputation, social standing, economic performance, and stakeholder relationships. Given the importance and critical consequences of PCH, this research, through an empirical experiment, analyzes how PCH might be variably evoked in different types of stakeholders, i.e., corporations’ consumers, and employees, based on their shared moral values. The results indicate that retail employees (more than consumers) perceive higher shared value with the corporation’s moral responsibility pledges. However, when corporations fail to follow up to their pledges, these retail employees are more negatively influenced than consumers, leading to higher PCH. The study findings make theoretical contributions to expand PCH literature and draw the industry’s attention to the importance of internal marketing initiatives to communicate with moral responsibility initiatives employees and meet their needs to reduce PCH. With the growing trend of value-based consumers and employees seeking employers with high moral values, the findings not only establish the need for value-based marketing but also indicate the negative implications of a lack thereof.

ABSTRACT. Marketplace competition is typically associated with businesses with corporate ownership and governance structures, such as investor-owned businesses (Borgström 2013). However, in the face of economic uncertainty, democratized governance and ownership structures, such as member-owned businesses, leads to longer-term approach to sustainability, which increases the economic stability of cooperatives (Birchall 2013). Despite ownership structure and governance typically being a management-side issue, the way it informs marketing strategy has implications in the way consumers approach doing business in/with cooperatives. As such, the author questions how member-owned businesses can focus on developing entitativity in ways that mimic investor-owned businesses in their ability to broaden the customer base. The author proposes a study with data currently under analysis that will be fully completed with findings to present at the conference. Using both the observations and interviews, the author highlight how marketing strategy can ensure the internal ownership and governance model of co-member-owned businesses can continue to be democratic, while presenting as externally similar to investor-owned competitors.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of the present research is to explore the multifaceted role that power plays in the context of sustainable consumption behavior. Additionally, this study aims to examine the role of moral identity; a critical construct known to interact with power in shaping self-serving vs. pro-social behavior. In this paper, a model is created in which sustainable consumption intention is predicted to be a function of consumers’ power, moral identity and attitude toward social responsibility. The authors hypothesize that power and moral identity will have a direct effect on sustainable consumption intentions. The authors also hypothesize a three way interaction between power, moral identity and attitude toward social responsibility on consumers' intentions toward consuming sustainably. Results provide support and/or partial support for the hypothesized effects.

ABSTRACT. While the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity is socially constructed and can be perceived in various ways cross-culturally, no previous research has examined how consumer evaluations of CSR authenticity differ across cultures. The current research uses focus groups and semi-structured interviews with Korean (n = 16) and United States (n = 23) consumers to show how CSR authenticity is perceived and influences consumers’ CSR evaluations differently between cultures. The key differences identified relate to: congruence, transparency, and personal connection. While congruence and transparency positively influenced Korean consumers’ CSR authenticity evaluations, these attributes had a negative impact on those of US consumers. The findings reveal that personal connection to a social cause had a positive impact on US consumers’ CSR evaluations, however results were contrary among Korean consumers. The current research proposes CSR authenticity as a powerful theoretical construct capable of understanding different consumers’ CSR evaluations across cultures.

ABSTRACT. Food and beverage companies are known to communicate certain product-related information prominently. In this regard, can nutrition information presented on the front-of-the-package (FOP) prominently influence choice? Preliminary results from a study show that when participants chose food products with nutrient information communicated in the FOP, they misjudge a healthy product to be of low quality. This finding has implications for consumers, particularly those who are health conscious.

ABSTRACT. The medical tourism industry has been increasing in popularity and profitability over recent years. As a relatively newer field of study in marketing, little research has been conducted on how patients evaluate the healthcare service within the context of medical tourism. Healthcare marketing research needs to take into consideration the dynamic, topical, and specific concerns faced by patients to be applicable and fruitful. This research seeks to make theoretical contributions about the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service in the healthcare context via Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman’s (1993) conceptual framework. We employed a mixed methods design collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, which seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of patient evaluation and expectations of service in the medical tourism industry.

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

ABSTRACT. This research shows that when firms signal sincere CSR motivations through low expected benefits and then later engage in fraud or wrongdoing, that consumers will more harshly judge a firm than if they had signaled profit-driven expectations from CSR activities and also later engaged in fraud or wrongdoing. Thus, we show how firms may inadvertently demonstrate corporate hypocrisy through their signaled intents. This research not only adds to what is already known about CSR motivations and corporate hypocrisy, but also provides evidence of how financially signaled motivations are a type of CSR statement and can give consumers indicators about CSR motivations. When signaled intent is later met with inconsistent behavior, consumers infer corporate hypocrisy and worse judgements on a firm than if the firm had just signaled from the beginning that they were engaging in a CSR activity with the hopes of obtaining high expected financial benefits.

ABSTRACT. The sub-discipline of Digital Marketing Education requires that marketing educators utilize digital marketing tools in-class projects to better prepare students for entry into the workforce. Using website builders, lectures, assignments, and class activities, we prose a method for teaching the website development process. Using this process, students will move through the various stages of learning based on a revised taxonomy of Bloom's that incorporates Knowledge and Cognition Process Dimensions proposed by Krathwohl (2002).

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

ABSTRACT. Marketing student preference to six different instructional methods was determined using a choice-based conjoint analysis. Each instructional method was a significant determinant of students’ choice of a given class, but the six methods varied significantly in terms of their importance weights. Results of conjoint analysis indicate that the three most preferred drivers of student choice for a marketing class are; 1) it employs a flipped classroom, 2) its class sessions are interactive and hands-on, rather than lecture-based and 3) it has a moderate, rather than a heavy workload.

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

ABSTRACT. Using a mixed method design, this research seeks to understand how food insecure consumers manage their hunger and nutritional food choices. There is evidence that food insecurity leads to less nutritional food choices despite healthy food availability at food banks as well as the availability of supplemental food benefits. This study seeks to understand this issue and offers theoretical contributions to life course and goal theories as well as nudge theory in the experimental design. This study also aims to offer practical implications for future research and public policy makers.

ABSTRACT. To bridge the gap between sustainable fashion and customer purchase intentions, the purpose of this study is carried out to analyze the current trends and offer techniques to increase sustainable fashion awareness among gen z and millennial consumers. Online surveys were conducted with a sample size of 29 questions targeting participants between the ages of 18-25 from a large Midwestern University. Additionally, three focus groups of approximately 23 students was also conducted. Questions pertaining to sustainable traits of apparel that include product quality, environmental effects, product pricing, purchase intentions and green awareness of apparel were of focus. Uniqueness of product was of utmost importance as well as being able to shop second. Moving from wearing items once this generation is trying to find creative ways to wear clothes as much as possible and consider quality and uniqueness when shopping for apparel over price. Recycling and upcycling are also areas of interest that not just industry marketers and retailers need to consider but also educators in how they approach a new era of design and merchandising to these new consumers.

ABSTRACT. Consumer desire for luxury is driving consumption of luxury branded products in developed and developing markets. Chinese consumers’ spending patterns have resulted in China becoming the largest growth market for luxury in the world. However, Chinese consumers also make use of mimic branded items in their repertoire of luxury or pseudo-luxury goods. To explore the motivating forces of these consumers’ aspirations toward pseudo-luxury brands, this research was conducted in Beijing, China and among Chinese consumers. It incorporated in-depth interviews, projective methods, and non-participant observation. The findings reveal how envy as a tacit motive and the desire for identity reflect a change in the dynamics of Chinese consumer culture. This contrasts with our understanding of Chinese values and motivations being a reflection of self-construal of interdependence and directed towards social harmony. More broadly, pseudo luxury consumption provides a vehicle for renegotiation of Chinese cultural values in a period of increasing abundance.

ABSTRACT. Behavioral targeting has been widely used in advertising. It recognizes potential consumers by analyzing their online behavior and displaying customized ads to individual consumer. Extant research show that a behavioral targeting ad (BTA) elicits favorable consumer reactions towards the advertised product by implying social labels that are related with consumers’ identity. Consumers tend to adjust their behaviors to match their social labels, hence showing favorable reactions towards the product in a BTA. This research investigated and revealed that a boundary condition for the effectiveness of a BTA—the valence of the implied social label from a BTA. Specifically, we found that participants show more favorable reactions towards a BTA than a traditional ad only when it implied positive versus negative social labels. This is because it is human nature to associate oneself with positive social labels but to avoid links with negative labels. Hence, BTAs will perform better than traditional ads when the implied social labels are positively-valenced and will consequently invite favorable consumer reactions. However, this effect will disappear when the implied social labels are negative, driven by people’s motivation to avoid negative social labels. Our findings advance our understanding of BTA and offers practical implications for marketers.

ABSTRACT. This paper describes the merits and demerits of the production committee system widely used in the Japanese film industry, examines various financing alternatives, and considers content development challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with producers, distributors, and experts on fund-raising methods in order to conceptualize these structural problems. The data collected were analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach. The film "Kasagi Rock!", which used product placement and crowdfunding rather than the more common production committee system, is presented as an example, along with analysis from the producer's point of view. The production committee system has a number of limitations, including barriers to utilize intellectual property and difficulties fostering a business mindset in producers. In Japan, where production committees are organized, domestic producers only concentrate on creative work rather than fundraising. The alternative model shown in "Kasagi Rock!" also has its own limitations, including a "lack of motivation" and "burned out" staff stemming from a lack of human resources and insufficient funding. This experience, however, expanded the producer's awareness of the fundraising and promotion aspects of filmmaking, leading to a greater sense of responsibility to see the project through to its completion. By thinking about various ways to raise funds, producers were able to nurture human resources and develop business acumen. Our findings indicate the importance of changes to the existing business model to meet the challenges of globalization. While publicity is effective, putting too much emphasis on marketing can limit a story and eliminate opportunities for natural growth. In order to revitalize the Japanese film industry, it is imperative to adopt new strategies for financing, staffing, and casting.

ABSTRACT. This paper encompasses two research areas, odor (the translation of a chemical stimulus into the smell sensation) (Wolfe et al. 2015), and emotion (a set of physiological changes, and evaluative, subject-related experiences as evoked by external events and the significance of such events) (Frijda 1986). In marketing, the terms odor, scent, and smell have been used interchangeably to represent both positive and negative scents.

The most immediate response we have to a scent is not analytical but hedonic (Herz 2010). Marketers often use scents that have distinctive chemical properties so consumers could recognize and differentiate each scent by its distinctive smell (e.g. lemon, vanilla). Distinctive smell thus is a critical factor in the experience of pleasure—a liking response to the hedonic impact of a stimulus (Berridge and Kringelbach 2008). Odor hedonic perception (an affective evaluation that centres on liking) is, therefore, central to sensory pleasure and subsequent behavior (Herz 2010).

Prior research demonstrates a link between odor and emotion (Lin et al. 2018). This is attributed to the close connection between olfaction and the limbic system of the brain, which governs the processing of emotions (Cahill et al. 1995; Eichenbaum 1996). Hence, scents often trigger powerful emotional responses (Herz 2010). Moreover, as emotion and olfaction are functionally analogous, they effectively convey the same binary responses (e.g. like/dislike, approach/avoid) (Bosmans 2006; Herz 2010).

Although humans can extract emotional information from scents, just as they can from facial expressions and music (Herz 2009), the critical question remains, however, which scent affects which type of emotion. The literature on consumer olfaction does not satisfactorily answer this important question. Assessing the differential role of odor-elicited emotional information can contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior across a broad range of areas. The aim of this paper is to develop a scent-emotion wheel for 19 scents that have been used in prior consumer research and are familiar to most consumers. The wheel could serve as a practical guide and as a road map for both researchers and practitioners in identifying which scent affects which specific emotion. With the aid of the scent-emotion wheel, marketers could effectively evaluate and determine appropriate scents in the marketplace.

ABSTRACT. Shopping through mobile applications is an evolving and interesting field, not only in terms of commercial repercussions but also in academic possibilities. India is a leading market not only in APAC but the world over for mobile usage, internet usage, mobile internet usage, and app-based shopping. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the role of some specific factors such as privacy, trust, and risk among different age and gender groups on the behavioral intention of consumers using mobile apps for their retail shopping in the context of India. Furthermore, the study will analyze how privacy, trust, and risk of payment security influence different gender and age groups in not preferring app-based shopping. For the analysis. the data which was collected from a structured questionnaire from 1,498 respondents was compiled. This study used the quantitative research methodology in which a multinomial logistic regression model was used to empirically investigate how some specific factors such as privacy, trust, and risk of payment security concerns influence the preference for mobile-apps over brick and mortar markets for retail shopping among different age and gender groups of consumers.

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

ABSTRACT. On many e-commerce platforms such as Airbnb, StubHub, and TURO, where each seller sells a fixed inventory over a finite horizon, the pricing problems are intrinsically dynamic. However, many sellers on these platforms do not update prices frequently. This paper develops a dynamic pricing model to study the revenue and welfare implication of automated pricing, which allows sellers to update their prices without manual interference. The model focuses on three factors through which automated pricing influences sellers: price adjustment cost, buyer's varying willingness to pay, and inventory structure. In the model, We also take into account competition among sellers. Utilizing a unique data set of detailed Airbnb rental history and price trajectory in New York City, we find that the price rigidity observed in the data can be rationalized by a price adjustment cost ranging from 0.9% to 2.2% of the listed price. Moreover, automated pricing can increase the platform's revenue by 4.8% and the hosts' (sellers') by 3.9%. The renters (buyers) could be either better off or worse off, depending on the length of their stays.

ABSTRACT. Consumer channel switching behavior in the digital revolution is becoming more complicated and difficult to comprehend. The study bases on the theory of planned behavior to examine consumer channel switching behavior in omnichannel context. To examine the phenomenon, the research conducted eighteen in-depth interviews with omnichannel customers. The framework sets out six important factors that influence channel switching decision, namely, product attributes, trust/ perceived uncertainty, social influence, customer characteristics, review culture, and time constraints. In terms of contribution, the framework further advances the model of research shopper and is the first to be carried out in the context of omnichannel retailing.

ABSTRACT. An emerging trend among multinational firms is to digitalize global operation and built building digital ecosystem. By investigating digital-platform firms listed in U.S. stock market, we challenge the doctrine thinking in international marketing that firms have a better chance to make good financial performance when expanding to more foreign markets over time. We collected annual report data which were processed with Python to compile a database with approximately 30,000 sentences. The findings indicate that digital-platform firms gain better performance in early stage internationalization.

ABSTRACT. Engaged customers positively influence a firm’s performance and co-create value with a firm through contributing operant resources. How a firm can effectively prolong customer engagement for generating operant resources remains challenging. To identify essential drivers for enhancing customers’ continuous engagement in digital environment, this study shifts the research focus on understanding motivational mechanism of customer disengagement. This study leverages self-determination theory to examine the linkage between ineffective customer resource integration and customer disengagement in a highly customer-controlled context. With in-depth interview data collected from ten self-directed informal learners, and based on the degree of incompletion in internalizing the value of digital-mediated activity, three motivational forms of disengagement were identified: amotivation, extrinsic regulatory failure, and intrinsic conflict. The research reveals the underlined mechanism of how initial motivation to perform the embedded task determines the intention of learners’ operant resource integration toward adapting digital-mediated learning. The disengagement from a focal offering results from insufficient supports of learners’ autonomy and competence linking with the task originated in focal offering and with the activity to which the focal offering contributes. This analysis foregrounds to contribute theoretical implications of customer engagement process as well as practical guidance for supporting customer resource integration of continuous engagement.

ABSTRACT. This study analyzes how CEOs communicate with their customers via Twitter. The aim is to help develop guidelines that leverage Twitter in leadership communications with customers. Based on a large-scale content analysis of over 65,000 tweets produced by 338 CEOs, we propose a model that categorizes differences in CEO Twitter use according to four dimensions: content professionalism, language professionalism, interactional effort, and information cues. We also develop coding schemes and measurement scales to map the relative position of each CEO account onto the four dimensions. The results of the study provide an effective tool for future research on corporate marketing communication on social media.

ABSTRACT. The emerging phenomenon of robot-mediated parenthood is dramatically shifting family life from parent-child dyadic relationship into parent-robot-child triadic interactions. The effort to make sense of parental role identity is thus processed in a new relational context of human-robot interactions. This research leverages sense-making and sense giving perspectives of this novel context into identity theory to examine the mechanism of parental role identity reconstruction. Based on in-depth interviews with seven families who live with educational robots, the research outlines three between roles’ identities of parent-robot: gate opener-robotic alloparent, learner-robotic teacher, and enabler-future agent. The underlined mechanism of the reconstruction of parental role identity emerged during a linear evolving process which corresponds to attempts at revision, reinforcement, and revitalization. The analysis foregrounds how parents make sense of an intelligent actor and reconstruct their role identity. Marketers can capture the new implications to develop proper facilitators of family-based offerings in an age of human-robot interactions. In addition to explicit value of adopting intelligent technology at home, implicit value of adaptation to challenges between parent and children as well as from dynamically environmental conditions for children is more important for effort in enhancing value.

ABSTRACT. This research sheds light on how companies should apply attribute and goal framing in their public responses to online complaints in order to elicit favorable reactions by complaint bystanders on social media. In contrast to earlier findings, we show that responses in which companies apply positive or negative attribute framing can have similar effects. Furthermore, we demonstrate that for goal framing, a positively framed recovery message is more effective than a negative one. Here, positively framed messages have the benefit that complaint bystanders regard them as a sincere apology by the involved company, which ultimately triggers benevolence towards the firm. These insights suggest that marketing scholars and practitioners should re-consider seemingly established framing effects and their specific boundary conditions in the context of online complaining.

ABSTRACT. Influencer marketing has become a key intermedia for brands to communicate with consumers, and for consumers to collect information and to make purchase decisions. Brands, especially luxury brands, are explosively increasing marketing efforts on social media influencer collaboration for the ultimate sales performance. Much of the existent research focuses on impacts of influencer marketing on consumer preferences and behaviors; however, there is a lack of evidence to answer whether consumers develop attachment and to what extent towards the two entities involved in the brand-influencer collaboration. This research extends the attachment literature to the social media influencer marketing context and applies social attachment theory to explain observed variations in consumer behaviors under the COVID-19 crisis. Based on a mixed method approach, this research investigates consumer attachment development logic after purchases resulting from influencer content. The findings demonstrate that satisfying purchases in the context of influencer marketing lead to consumer attachment towards both brands and influencers, identify sponsorship as a moderating variable, and suggest a considerably stronger attachment and affiliation level for consumers under COVID-19 social isolation.

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

ABSTRACT. Based on the Cialdini Principle of Likeability and the Theory of Anti-attractiveness Bias, we investigate how the attractiveness and gender of an influencer impact receivers’ reaction depending on the receivers’ attractiveness and gender. An empirical investigation including 374 observations was carried out and analyzed by structural equation modeling in SmartPls. The results reveal that in most cases, a highly attractive influencer is more advantageous than an influencer of low attractivity, even if the receiver is of low attractivity. In this case, the “high attractiveness dimension” of the Liking Principle seems superior to the (attractiveness based) similarity dimension. More surprisingly, for male fashion, a female influencer appears to be more advantageous. Counter-intuitively, an anti-attractiveness bias was found to occur among males but not females. Explanations for these rather unexpected findings are provided; based on the findings, the implications for practitioners and influencers are proposed.

ABSTRACT. After the initial course of user-driven dissemination, organizational use of social media has become popular in recent years. Even though Facebook still maintains the largest user base, the landscape of social media platforms has become more diverse. Several new platforms have emerged serving different purposes, thus creating challenges for brands to target the right customer base. Consequently, brands are adjusting their social media strategies and allocating their budgets accordingly. Whereas research primarily focuses on the opportunities of expanding social media activities and the corresponding benefits of social media communities, the present study provides insights into its adverse effects. Based on Facebook, our study demonstrates different types of organizational exit strategies from established social media communities. Besides outright abandoning their online communities, brands also choose to reduce either output quality or frequency of their activities, thereby upsetting their communities and potentially harming activities on other social media platforms.

ABSTRACT. On the foundations of research on social dilemmas in economics, political science, management science, and behavioral sciences, this research: (1) systematically reviews research on social dilemmas to identify distinct characteristics of social dilemma conceptualizations; (2) develops a summary overview of different taxonomies of solutions for social dilemmas; (3) develops an integrative taxonomy of marketing solutions for social dilemmas; (4) conceptualizes three specific social dilemmas relevant to marketing – climate change social dilemma, COVID-19 pandemic social dilemma, and social media social dilemma – as the behavior of entities (firms, individuals, social groups) favoring short-term positive consequences over long-term negative consequences of climate change, pandemic, and social media for society; (5) discusses, in detail, marketing solutions for resolving aforementioned social dilemmas; (6) discusses the relevance of this research for marketing theory and practice in solving social dilemmas.

ABSTRACT. This research proposes a model for information processing defined by two dimensions: type of information (affective-cognitive) and level of processing (conscious-unconscious). This model, which we term the ACCU model, differs from extant dual-process models in considering information processing in its manifestation rather than its outcome, and in being derived from the foundations of neural correlates of information processing. The posited model is, thus, able to accommodate a large and diverse range of theories and processes in consumer behavior, including those have spanned the realm of the affective and cognitive. Also, the model clarifies that despite being the most studied process, the conscious-cognitive pathway is only one of four pathways, and that the three other pathways are faster, albeit subject to further research. The model we propose structures and classifies extant theories of information processing and paves the way for future research through a more explicit consideration of the interaction between the affective-cognitive and conscious-unconscious dimensions of information processing.

ABSTRACT. Customer experience has received dramatic attention from researchers and practitioners alike during the last decade. This comes at a time when increasingnumber of businesses are based on access-based services (ABS). However, ABS aredifferent from traditional services due to their triadic structure, with differentiated roles and responsibilities between ABS firms and independent, profit-maximizing service providers. Existing frameworks of customer experience, which focus mainly on dyadic firm-customer encounters, are insufficient to understand the scope of customer experience in ABS settings. A framework for customer experience in ABS will help businesses better align their strategies to improve customer experience. In this paper,we provide a characterization of ABS. We use this to develop a novel framework andidentify the value creation elements of customer experience in ABS. Finally, we presenta set of broad research questions and illustrative propositions for future research.

ABSTRACT. This paper builds on current service and marketing literature on the emerging ecosystem perspective and the key role of customers to conceptualize actor alignment. Setting the ecosystem nexus as the primary beneficiary, the customer, the study situates the customer’s value-creating network of relations within the broader, often-indirect influence of actors at multiple ecosystem levels. Ecosystem actor alignment is then conceptualized as a multi-dimensional framework based on an integrative review of customer ecosystems and ecosystem alignment. The framework elucidates the dimensionality as well as the potential mechanisms and facilitators of intra/inter-actor alignment, enabling a detailed multi-dimensional assessment of alignment-misalignment in ecosystems. The paper is a step to providing structure and granularity to diverse concepts and perspectives related to the ubiquitous term of alignment. It helps researchers and practitioners to clarify and apply the concept to actor dynamics enabling diagnostics of customer and ecosystem alignment/misalignments, crucial for adaptability and change.

ABSTRACT. While many consumer behavior studies have investigated consumer coping, few have considered it as a source of future positive benefits in addition to being a matter of immediate necessity. In this paper, we draw on Bourdieu’s concept of capital to introduce the concept of coping capital. We integrate work on the phenomenon of consumer coping (from marketing and consumer research) with the concept of capital (from sociology) to conceptualize the experiential legacy gained from consumer coping. Coping capital is defined as the unintentional accumulation of resources, such as emotional and epistemic- competencies and skills resulting from coping with adversity, that may thereafter exist in an embodied state as enduring mental and physical dispositions- that later provide unintended benefits in life. This conceptualization of coping capital helps us understand the acquisition of a reservoir of resources to facilitate facing or avoiding future challenges.

ABSTRACT. This conceptual article investigates the potential for a new construct to explain and harness increased motivation, goal pursuit and aggressive goal formation termed “leveling up” using gamification theory. Multiplayer Internet game designers have found an extremely effective formula for attracting and maintaining consumers, also known as ‘Gamers’, in the billions worldwide, who have spent millions of collective real-world years with their game-brand of choice. Building on motivation theory, I define the novel motivational tool: leveling up. While traditional incentives such as trophies, badges, bonuses, and prizes motivate by appealing to extrinsic motivation and thereby risk the potential of crowding-out and reducing an individual’s intrinsic motivation, leveling up incentives/rewards differ in three critical dimensions that unlock access to new realms of possibilities and promote the establishment and continued pursuit of more challenging, longer-term goals. These dimensions include ‘keys to a kingdom’, a critical resource, and applicable utility and simultaneously appeal to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The implications for marketing practitioners, academics and policy makers are explored in these contexts. The article concludes with suggestions for additional research in the exploration of leveling up as an important new construct, including policy implications for addressing short-term focus of developing countries, and others.

ABSTRACT. With the introduction of periods of containment (in France as in most countries), local food shopping journeys were disrupted with a strong adoption of pickup stores and home delivery. The food shopping journey is a field of knowledge currently fragmented: existing theoretical frameworks have difficulties in understanding the complexity of food shopping journeys. The research proposed herein aims at contributing to the literature studying the food shopping journeys through the lens of Theory of Practice. We contribute to literature suggesting a new framework for shopper journey: according to the TP, it focuses not on consumers but on activities, competences, literacy and tools, that are embedded in a particular situation.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to advance the literature on culture, globalization, and national identity in consumer behavior, considering that the globalization of consumer attitudes and behaviors is still under debate. This study entails a state-of-the-art quantitative modeling approach to latent class analysis (i.e., marketing segmentation and targeting analysis) of American, French, and French-Canadian consumers’ perception of American and French products based on their demographics and individual-level cultural values, on the framework of globalization and cultural change theory.

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

ABSTRACT. Given the context of the rising use and importance of social media for brand management, this research examines how brand attachment influences the effect of consumer-brand online interaction strategies on consumer attitude. In particular, using Goffman’s ‘face-work’ and Schmitt's social comparison theory as theoretical lenses, we investigate how brand flatteries towards consumers in social media impact the perception of brand humanization and the feeling of jealousy. According to our conceptual development, we assume and find that brand comments flattering individuals (appreciation by the brand) have a higher positive effect on brand anthropomorphism when consumers have a low attachment to the brand than when they have a high attachment to it. Moreover, we find that when a brand flatters others this generates jealousy for observing consumers.

ABSTRACT. Interventions to tackle the problem of online gaming addiction is of utmost importance (Kuss et al., 2021). This is because online gaming addiction is a globally pervasive challenge and health problem that is affecting the societal fabric (Basol and Kaya, 2018). The prevalent rate of internet addiction varies from 12.6% to 67.5% globally (Kuss et al. 2021). Research suggests that there are various factors which motivate an adolescent for online gaming addiction including the need for belonging, developing relationships and the need to escape among others (Xu et al., 2012; Yee, 2006; Jeng, 2008). However, extant research, till date, has not examined the role of an adolescents’ micro-environment and the role of parents in avoiding and/or reducing gaming addiction. The proposed study seeks to address the problem of online gaming addiction among adolescents (age 12 to 19 years) by adopting a novel resilience-based approach.

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

ABSTRACT. This paper examines gifting, a complicated cultural practice that can be joyful, stressful, guilt-driven, and can sometimes evoke envy and burden. The aim of this research is to see if the level of price discount of a gift item influences people to purchase for a gift an item that is not perfect (i.e., “tainted”) and which may influence the degree to which it is considered material, thus taking some of the sacredness out of the gift offering. In particular, we examine gifting behavior across different age groups when discount levels vary. MANOVA results show that the age of consumers have an effect on buying a tainted and discounted gift. Specifically, younger consumers seem to be highly value-conscious and are comfortable with purchasing a tainted gift at a lower price even if the savings is small. Further results and implications will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. The application of service robots is rapidly spreading across several store types, with robots performing more complex tasks and interacting with customers. A few studies have yet focused on how the introduction of service robots can affect customer responses. In this study, we compare human-human (HHI) vs. human-robot (HRI) in-store interactions across the stages of the selling process and assess how customer immersion in the shopping experience affects store visit duration. Based on a field experiment of 50 participants, we apply a neuroscientific approach collecting and analysing participants' biometrics through wearable sensors during the interactions with a service robot or a human sales assistant. Results show how the presence of a service robot could have positive effects on the shopping experience and visit duration. However, the role of human sales assistants is critical for developing customer engagement and extending the time spent in-store by customers.

ABSTRACT. In past years, new technologies gave rise to new forms of commercialization. Retailing habits of acquiring products and services have shifted from single channel to omnichannel environment (Verhoef & Jeffrey, 2015). This phenomenon had reached several businesses, including the cinema industry. The present study aims to extend the model of omnichannel shopping experience; setting the bases to understand its impact on shopping intention through brand trust specifically for service retailers. First, this study tested omnichannel customer experience dimensions: connectivity, consistency, flexibility, personalization and integration (Shi et al.,2020), and develops a research model that posits brand trust as a key linking mechanism between omnichannel experience dimensions and shopping intention. To achieve the research objective, 204 auto-administrated questionnaires were collected assuring that the respondents had prior experiences of omnichannel shopping within the cinema industry. The results revealed that three omnichannel dimensions labeled as connectivity, consistency and flexibility were good predictors associated with brand trust. The managerial implications include insights regarding customer experience in the service industry that build on previous omnichannel experience literature (Grewal, 2009; Shi, 2020); particularly on customer shopping experience and how the different dimensions influence the customer behavior towards brand trust and how they impact customers shopping intention.

ABSTRACT. Approaching pleasure and avoiding pain is seen as a central mechanism for survival. Approaching pleasurable experiences is normally associated with positive outcomes, while pain is generally seen as negative and leads to avoidance behaviors. While pain is typically avoided and considered negative, there are some cases in which people seek out painful experiences. Pain is seen as one of the major driving forces that encourages the optimization of homeostatic balance. Therefore, pain is likely a major influencer in several consumption decisions. While pleasure has seen a great deal of attention in the marketing literature, pain is currently underexamined. The current study examines the positive outcomes derived from pain. It finds that undergoing certain activities may lead to perceptions of pain, but a feeling of deservingness results from it, which leads consumers to be more likely to treat themselves. Specifically, this study examines the impact of undergoing a wellness regime comprised of a strict diet and exercise program and finds that undergoing such a wellness regime leads to consumers being more inclined to treat themselves when mediated through perceptions of pain and deservingness. Results and implications for theory and practice are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Credit cards have a significant impact on consumer credit but also why consumers use their credit cards. Previous studies on credit cards have focused on the financial reasons why (or why not) consumers use credit cards. However, with the proliferation of credit card use, as individual consumers use various cards, and the focus on social impact for this conference, this preliminary research study focuses on how personality, risk tolerance, and religion impact consumer credit card usage, with eventual implications and future research opportunities in social impact and sustainability. This study suggests a direction for future value-driven consumer research related to consumers’ credit card usage influencing sustainable mindfulness and social impact. The presence of religion has the effect of controlling the impact of personality and risk tolerance on consumer credit card usage, which in turn, can influence the mindfulness of prosocial, sustainable mindfulness and consumption behaviors.

ABSTRACT. Consumers shopping behaviors have transformed and changed with evolving digital elements across channels such as websites and mobile applications. Previous research primarily assesses each retail environment individually, yet the current research provides a comparison of consumer behavior and shopping experience across three main shopping environments: store, online, and mobile applications. Current findings reveal diverging shopping behaviors driven by shopping environments. In addition, shopping experiences elicit varying consumer responses such as higher levels of hedonic value in store versus online and app contexts. Overall, managers need to consider these differences when creating comprehensive shopping experiences part of a comprehensive customer journey.

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

ABSTRACT. Co-production occurs when consumers participate in the production process of goods and services. The oldest form of co-production—self-checkout—has been in existence since the mid-80s. From financial institutions to technology to specialty retailers, many companies, in recent years, have begun to offer new and different types of goods and services that include co-productive actions. Our research seeks to gain a better understanding of how a consumer’s level of self-efficacy—having confidence in one’s ability—and involvement affect anticipated satisfaction with co-produced goods and services. Specifically, we examine how consumer self-efficacy and involvement moderate the effect of co-production on anticipated satisfaction. Our results provide evidence that when consumers participate in hedonic tasks, they report higher levels of satisfaction, which is moderated by self-efficacy. Hence, with a high level of self-efficacy, consumer satisfaction is stronger than with a low level of self-efficacy.

ABSTRACT. The increasing use of branding strategies and techniques employed by political candidates has created “brandidates” who are equally concerned, if not more, in managing their brand persona than presenting their policies for governing. Politicians are employing traditional branding and marketing strategies to create a brand personality in the minds of the electorate. The overall goal of the politician and/or party is to create a brand personality, based on the needs, desires, and wishes to win-over voters and motivate them to come to the polls. There is also the desire among politicians to associate their rivals and competitors with a negative brand personality. The purpose of this research is to determine which independent variables, societal priorities for the country (post-materialism) and political orientation (conservative/liberal), explain voter preference for different political brand personalities in Presidential candidates. Politicians can use this information to construct an brand personality image based on priorities of the target audience.

ABSTRACT. The current research investigates masculinity and masculinity appeals in print advertising across different magazine genres. Specifically, over 1,000 print adverts from nine magazines across three genres (men’s sport - Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and Runner’s World; men’s general interest - GQ, Esquire, and Forbes; and men’s gay interest - Out, Instinct, and The Advocate) completed the sample. A content analysis focuses on advertising, masculinity, and objectification specific variables within and across sampled magazines. Results show divergent display of masculinity across magazine genres.

ABSTRACT. This paper attempts at examining consumer responses across advertisements with varying levels of Covid-19 related cues used in product advertisements. We explore how consumers differentiate between the cues and how the various cues interact. An experimental design was used to vary the degree of cue relatedness to Covid-19 across three different product advertisements. Overall, our research aims at extending contribution to advertising literature by specifically studying the effects of types of cues and their relevance in the context of a global pandemic.

ABSTRACT. Consumer-brand relationships vary with regard to the degree of their psychological connection. Some individuals may represent general consumers, while others may consider themselves to be brand community members with a close relationship to the brand. Marketers have yet to distinguish between the types of advertising appeals that are most effective for these different consumers. Hence, this research utilizes construal level theory to posit that consumers with an increased [decreased] psychological sense of brand community will think about the brand more concretely [abstractly], and be more persuaded by utilitarian [symbolic] appeals. An original experiment reveals that the match between psychological sense of brand community and advertising appeal directly influences brand favorably, and subsequently brand interest, brand use, and willingness to pay. This research contributes to both theory and practice by providing new knowledge regarding which advertising appeals are the most effective for general consumers versus brand community members.

ABSTRACT. Augmented reality (AR) provides tremendous opportunities for brands to engage consumers through psychological, cognitive, and sensory processes as they interact with the technology. Due to the rapid development of AR, there is a dearth of research to understand how individual psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects associated with AR brand experiences influence commonly studied outcome behaviors such as brand loyalty. This study examines AR's ability to foster brand loyalty intentions through sensory, cognitive, and psychological processes. Findings suggest that brands have tremendous opportunities to create AR brand experiences that induce episodic memory, defined as the remembrance of personally experienced events associated with a particular time or place triggered by a retrieval cue, in order to foster brand loyalty intentions. Additionally, findings suggest that brands can further personalize experiences for those who have the propensity for imaginative involvement, which is an individual's ability to become receptive and open to experiences that involve a suspension of reality. Finally, findings suggest that sensory design aspects inherent within AR, such as the highly interactive touch and manipulation of computer-generated objects overlaid on the real world, can help to foster loyalty intentions by enhancing the overall AR brand experience.

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

ABSTRACT. The world is experiencing considerable unpredictability due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and retailers have been struggling to adjust to the new consumption environment, which embodies online/virtual platforms. The current study investigates the implications of (a) the use intention of a virtual platform (e.g., VR fitness tool) as a form of disease prevention behavior, (b) consumers’ applied technology advertising experience on a virtual platform during the pandemic, and (c) cultural differences in disease prevention behavior between the U.S. (individualism culture) and South-Korea (collectivism culture) among young people. A preliminary test is conducted across cultures (United States: individualism vs. South Korea: collectivism) to compare the use intention of a VR fitness tool (experience economy theory) as a form of disease prevention behavior by young consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our initial findings reveal that managers should improve users’ technology-enhanced experiences by implementing applied technology advertising strategies to impress consumers in the consumption environment, in line with the escapism motive.

ABSTRACT. Technology is intertwined in the everyday lives of consumers. As such, great potential exists for technology to actively influence consumer well-being in both positive and negative ways. However, little research has examined this phenomenon beyond a conceptual level. Therefore, we follow a grounded theory approach to understand how a chatbot and using a chatbot can influence consumer well-being across two qualitative studies. Specifically, in study one we implement thematic analysis on open-ended responses from participants who viewed a mock description and visual of a chatbot application. In study two, we analyze over 34,000 reviews of a popular AI-based chatbot application to unobtrusively obtain perspectives from real-world users. Our results revealed a theoretical model encompassing (i) what prompts users to be drawn to an AI-based chatbot, (ii) how potential users view the chatbot, (iii) the types of emotional attachment that can form from interacting with the chatbot, and (iv) how different technological concerns can be reasons for more/less use of the chatbot. Overall, these results can inform marketing scholars and practitioners of the beneficial aspects of technology on consumer well-being and the potential dark sides of technology particularly after prolonged use.

ABSTRACT. The current study explores the role of AI leadership in instilling a trusting relationship with its consumers and its influence on the consumers’ perception of the quality of their product recommendation.

ABSTRACT. Based on flow theory, the purpose of the study is to investigate whether consumers’ virtual reality (VR) store experience can increase their intention to visit the actual store through a heightened flow state. An experiment comparing 360-degree VR store videos and an online store was conducted with 237 university students under the permission of a small fashion store. The seven hypotheses were analyzed through regression analysis, including mediation effects, with 217 usable data. The results showed that relative to a conventional online website, consumers’ store experience through VR enhanced their flow state and interest in the store. Furthermore, when the flow state served as a mediator, consumers had greater intention to visit the real store as well as store interest after experiencing VR. This study, therefore, posited that VR offers higher levels of interactivity than do websites, overcoming physical and financial restrictions of small businesses. The findings of this study suggested effective ways for small independent retailers to use VR technology as an interactive communication tool.

ABSTRACT. With the meteoric rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across a spectrum of industries, consumers are often faced with choices regarding the use of AI or human assistance. Specifically, the current research examines consumers’ choices of health care providers when confronted with stigmatized health issues. Despite the rapid growth of AI in health care contexts, prior literature suggests that consumers experience reservations about AI in healthcare due to the concerns that automation reduces providers’ ability to take into consideration the uniqueness of consumers’ health-related characteristics in comparison to human providers as well as privacy concerns. However, might there be times when consumers prefer an AI provider over a human healthcare provider? We suggest that, when faced with stigmatized health issues, consumers may prefer an AI provider over a human provider. Further, we suggest that consumers prefer AI health care providers for stigmatized health issues because their fears of judgement and shame are decreased with AI providers in comparison to human providers. These findings have important theoretical and managerial implications to increase the likelihood of stigmatized patients to take early screenings and preventative measures.

ABSTRACT. Digital curation is defined as the act of using consumer data and algorithms to provide personalized, automatic, and machine-driven selections of online content. Algorithm-based curation allows firms to provide content that is personalized to each individual consumer on popular search engines such as Google and social media sites like Pinterest. While research suggests that more personalized content increases intended consumer outcomes, there is a darker side to the use of algorithms in personalization, namely the perpetuation of societal biases. “Algorithmic bias” describes systematic errors in a computer system that creates unfair or unethical outcomes, such as favoring one group of consumers over another. This research explores the consumer’s perception of algorithmic bias in online curation across three studies. The findings suggest that self-congruence and social identity are key drivers of consumer satisfaction in personalization, and that customization should also be considered by firms as a bias mitigation strategy.

ABSTRACT. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the global economy at an unprecedented scale since its start in early 2020. As consumers are spending more time at home, data shows that panic buying changed the demand for items such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The sudden nature of the changes related to COVID-19 purchase behavior makes it harder for marketers to respond effectively. As research on the topic of COVID-19 is starting to appear in the literature, there is not enough work in the area of consumer purchase behavior. In this paper, we utilize three real-time datasets to understand customer dynamics from March 2020 to December 2020 during the pandemic. We identify product categories that were the primary drivers of a sharp increase (decrease) in spending and the extent to which this increase (decrease) was maintained over time. We also shed light on stressors such as the number of COVID-19 cases and death by city and their impact on purchase behavior over time.

ABSTRACT. Ride hailing market is by far the fastest growing industry. However, even though there is a growing consumer demand to these services, the scarcity of publicly available data makes it difficult for marketers to understand the demographic patterns of ride hailing usage and to analyze whether their system functions fairly. In this research, we analyze the first of its kind large-scale dataset on ride hailing provided by the City of Chicago to examine fairness with respect to usage and price. As our findings suggest, low income neighborhoods pay higher prices than high income neighborhoods. Additionally, consumers from minority and low-income neighborhoods have less ride hailing usage than consumers from white dominant, high-income neighborhoods. Finally, we found that young and active consumers that use ride hailing pay higher prices in comparison to other populations of different ages. This is one of the first city level datasets on ride hailing services that is publicly available and provides insights about their practices in terms of fairness. By better understanding the factors that create unfair practices in the ride hailing market, marketers and policy makers can offer solutions or work together to set regulations aiming to prevent disparate impact in the ride hailing industry.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, I derive a new method to identify the distribution of the advertiser's ad-value in the sponsored search auction. Compared to previous literature, this method incorporates a weaker and more realistic assumption of incomplete information. Additionally, I apply the derived distribution to look at the effect of externality on auctioneer's revenue from ads. Firms use advertising as a medium to gain a competitive advantage, which is negatively affected if the ad appears alongside their rival's ad, a form of externality. I estimate a structural model based on a data set of Yahoo! ads to quantify the effect of externality on an advertiser's value and then simulate the revenue-maximizing number of ads. I find that externality depends on the quality and quantity of competing ads. For example, an advertiser's willingness to pay decreases by 18.5 percent due to the addition of a second high-quality ad but only by 0.15 percent due to a seventh position low-quality ad. Additionally, the counterfactual results suggest that the revenue-maximizing number of ads per page differs across the ad product category, with the average being five ads per page. Implementing the recommended number of ads would lead to 4.5% increase in revenue, on average.

ABSTRACT. The marketing literature is mostly silent regarding the strategy considerations executives are making internally to ensure that frontline employees are leveraging and optimizing AI technologies (i.e., most AI marketing research focuses on customer perceptions of AI use in the frontline). This is likely due to the novel use of AI in the frontlines and the lack of data available as many firms are still not utilizing AI capabilities in any capacity (based on ZoomInfo, less than 23% of companies use AI in any form), especially when it comes to the frontline space. In order to explore how AI manifests in organizations, we have been employing a theories-in-use approach in order to develop rich theoretical and managerial insights. More specifically, we have been conducting in-depth interviews with top-level industry leaders and executives (e.g., VP of Salesforce, VP of Intuit, VP of ServiceNow, etc.) to better understand the strategic considerations and factors that go into the implementation of AI use within the frontlines.

ABSTRACT. Tourist journeys are becoming more complex, encompassing multiple touch points that can influence expectations, experiences, and travel behaviors. The management of these different components is further complicated if tourist destinations are impacted by natural or man-made crises (e.g., financial crises, COVID-19). The current research takes a comprehensive look at how negative word-of-mouth (WOM) shapes pre-consumption expectations, which drive the actual tourist experience and subsequent satisfaction behaviors. The main premise is to investigate how tourists respond to negative information related to economic and financial crises linked to the destination site. Using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), findings confirm the influence of uncontrollable, negative WOM on destination image, yet an actual, positive experience negates these negative influences. Tourism managers can expect satisfaction and loyalty in response to these experiences, which should shift the focus of managers to creating positive experiences as a form of image restoration strategies.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact that social media influencers and celebrity endorsements have on attitudes and intention to purchase high and medium involvement products. This study aims to explore the effect that a traditional celebrity versus a social media influencer has across ethnic groups, age cohorts and gender. A national sample of 799 Instagram users was used. Overall, the results shows that social media influencers are more impactful than celebrity endorsements for medium involvement products. In addition, significant group differences were found between gender, and age groups, while no differences among ethic groups. Specifically, it was found males are significantly more influenced by celebrities and influencers in Instagram than females, yet the attitude for social media influencer on medium involvement product is not significantly different between males and females. Similarly, differences were found in relation to the impact that both endorsers in both product categories have on consumers across different age groups. Celebrity endorsement and social media influencer have the highest impact in both product categories on Millennials, followed by Gen X, then baby boomers, and last among Gen Z consumers, in that order and with no significant difference between GenZ and baby boomers.

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

ABSTRACT. Consumers are comfortable with social media and accept firms occupying the same digital space. They consume and create content in social media at varying levels as some consumers more readily engage with firms online than others. Knowing the consumer factors that lead to online consumer engagement will help firms to more effectively plan and execute a social media marketing strategy. More specifically, research is needed to examine social media dispositions and social media goals as antecedents of consumer engagement in social media. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, this study fills the gap in the literature by investigating the effect of consumer factors, namely social media dispositions (social media information sharing and social media trust) and social media goals (social media information seeking and social media experience) on consumer engagement. Regression analysis and structural equation models (SEM) are used to analyze the data from the completed surveys. The results show that social media experience mediates the relationship between social media dispositions and consumer engagement. Firms can more efficiently spend on social media marketing by providing mechanisms to enhance the social and self-promotion aspects of the social media experience.

ABSTRACT. Social media is a powerful tool for influencing voters’ opinions about politics, political candidates, and social issues. There is a great amount of concern that information presented on social media is not genuine or from reliable sources. The level of credibility given to information online may be a function of the source, medium, message, or expertise of the receiver. This research builds on research by Li and Suh (2015) which draws upon persuasion theory and is adapted to the U.S. Presidential election. The primary goal of this research is to determine to what extent voters consider information presented on Facebook about Presidential Candidates is credible based on elements of medium credibility (e.g., medium dependency, interactivity, media transparency) and message credibility (e.g., argument strength, information quality, personal expertise). A secondary goal of this research is to ascertain which specific sources of information (e.g., friends, family, various news outlets, etc.) that post information on Facebook about Presidential Candidates are considered most trustworthy. Results of this research will provide researchers and practitioners with insight into the general credibility of Facebook as a source of information about Presidential Candidates and specifically which sources are considered most trustworthy.

ABSTRACT. The consumption of information on multimedia platforms and the massification of social networks have had a direct impact on the management of print media. Since 2005, advertising and subscription revenues for US newspapers have fallen, in a trend observed worldwide. It is from the context described above that we understand the relevance of analyzing how print media have reacted to changes that have reached the traditional business model, based on the sale of advertising, finding new ways to create value. Accordingly, the value co-creation and service-centric marketing, from the perspective suggested by the Service Dominant Logic of Marketing, are pointed out as mechanisms of interaction between newspaper companies and their advertising clients, in which both work together to create new values and new products, maximizing results. To understand how print media develop co-creative solutions for their clients, this research draws on the multiple case study strategy by analyzing three partnership situations in southern Brazil. From these cases, we seek to analyze, from the perspective of co-creation, business models that have been adopted by print media, pointing out ways that can be adopted to propose new compositions of value.

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.

ABSTRACT. In response to the negative impact of consumption on ecological sustainability, some brands have begun to practice green demarketing (GDM) – an extension of demarketing that discourages demand for products for the sake of the environment. Given the potency of consuming less in fighting environmental issues, engaging in GDM is likely to become increasingly interesting for brands that target environmentally conscious consumers. The present study adds to existing research (e.g., Armstrong Soule & Reich 2015, Reich & Armstrong Soule 2016) by examining the impact of GDM messages on attitudes toward the ad. Moreover, we shed light on the processing of GMD messages. We propose two opposing mechanisms that affect consumer’s attitudes towards a GDM ad message. Thus, while GDM ad messages might profit from their sustainability focus, attitudes toward GDM ad messages are also likely to be compromised by low processing fluency and increased skepticism. Results showed that attitudes toward sustainable ad messages were significantly higher than attitudes toward the non-sustainable ad message. Additionally, results revealed a positive and significant direct effect of GDM ad message on attitudes toward the ad and a negative significant indirect effect mediated serially by processing fluency and skepticism on attitudes toward the ad.

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

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to shed more light on B2B interactions, assessing the effect of customer-provider touchpoints on both customer perceptions and customer outcomes—as a chain of effects path. A 5-year panel dataset is used to test the proposed model. Data is obtained from B2B insurance services from 2013 to 2017 and contains a sample of 2175 companies. Study results demonstrate the importance of the sales force in B2B relationships, along with the relevance of firm expertise, service excellence and service reliability as drivers of profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength. This paper provides empirical evidence of how touchpoints and customer perceptions impact outcomes over time. This is a vital issue for marketers, as firms gain a better understanding of company-customer interactions and the extent to which different factors impact decisive customer outcomes in a B2B context.

ABSTRACT. Canvassing and closing – the beginning and the end of the sales cycle – are moments of asking for rejection and involve significant amounts of stress for salespeople. Some salespeople react with procrastination and absenteeism, while others do not. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory and stress research, this study investigates which combinations of carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) and the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism are beneficial in sales contexts. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 594 salespeople, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that carrying SERT S only yields positive effects on canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. If neuroticism is high, the effect of carrying SERT S is negative.

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

ABSTRACT. Coordination between the marketing and sales departments is a sensitive and recurring managerial problem. The objective of this qualitative research is, on the one hand, to understand the development and implementation of the alignment between the marketing strategy and the sales department and, on the other hand, to identify the solutions put into practice by managers to solve the coordination problems encountered, in a French context. A content analysis conducted among three types of respondents (marketing managers, sales managers, and consulting company managers) identified various critical practices, such as the lack of regular meetings involving department heads, the absence of internal procedures determining the respective objectives, or the lack of collaborative projects. These results lead to recommendations on the coordination mechanisms and methods to be mobilized and those to be avoided in order to maximize the chances of success.

ABSTRACT. Starting from the observation of the weak mobilization of the French immigrants during elections, this exploratory research aims to deepen the understanding of this phenomenon by analyzing the relationship of individuals with an immigrant background to the question of "voting". To this end, we will examine the meanings French North African citizens associate to their vote and their perceptions of the political marketing used to target them. On the basis of the analyzes carried out, it appears that the notion of "diversity" is certainly a mark of recognition of the difference but can therefore refer to the register of exclusion rather than inclusion.

ABSTRACT. While extant branding literature has focused on external communication, internal branding has received much less research attention. The few available studies on internal branding have adopted the employees’ perspective. Drawing upon contingency theory, this study investigates internal branding from a managerial perspective, as well its antecedents and consequences in international firms. A conceptual model is developed, and the study employs a quantitative, survey-based approach. The hypotheses are tested through structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on data collected from 248 Austrian managers of firms with international business activities in Central and Eastern Europe. The results of data analysis show that a standardized employee role leads to increased performance. The internal branding factor of brand leadership has positive effects in terms of a standardized execution of employee role and performance. Likewise, the use of external advertising as an internal branding tool exerts a positive impact on both employee role standardization and performance. Thus, a standardized strategy of internal branding measures is feasible for internationally operating firms. The results contribute to the branding literature where international studies are scant. This is the first quantitative study to investigate internal branding in the international firm from a managerial perspective.

ABSTRACT. Increasing global competition is pushing firms to develop creativity capabilities with the aim of enhancing international performance. However, creativity might have a darker side; Prof. Theodore Levitt argues that creativity can be destructive to business, as organizations by their nature are designed to promote order (Levitt 2002). According to this point of view, creativity may hinder rather than help a company if it is incongruent with discipline and conformity. This paper examines the joint roles of creativity and marketing capabilities and their interaction effects on different international performance outcomes. Data from 179 international ventures retrieved through a survey-based approach are analyzed using structural equation modelling. Paradoxically, while both marketing and creativity are found to positively impact performance, their interaction effects are negative. Importantly, the findings reveal that in three distinct models, marketing capabilities are more beneficial for international performance then creativity capabilities. These results are analyzed through the theoretical lens of effectual versus predictive logics. Based on the findings, we recommend that managers engaged in international business drop skepticism about the importance of marketing capabilities while exercising caution in placing excessive reliance on creativity.

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

ABSTRACT. Climate change, fact or fiction? How are consumers in denial of current and future effects of climate change/global warming? Do happier individuals believe that the effects of climate change have negative consequences for their country’s future? Proposing an experimental methodology, this paper will advance how high/low construal mindsets are associated with growth/fixed mindsets within consumers to strengthen/weaken their belief in perception of incremental consequences of climate change. Happier countries (Finland) vs. countries low on the happiness index (India), tend to be leading the climate change movement. The studies will develop happiness literature, by examining how ‘happiness’ increases individuals’ scepticism of future impact of global warming. The proposed research will aid policy makers and social marketers across cultures. Answering, why consumers’ deny that climate change would worsen over the years? Providing an effective frame of climate change debate with abstraction and growth mindsets, for forecasted consequences, thus promoting pro-environmental action.

ABSTRACT. E-tailers’ marketing strategies and new technology developments on the internet frequently increase the likelihood of impulsive e-buying in consumers. Although, in some cases, these strategies may prove profitable and satisfactory for both the consumer and e-tailer, in other cases, the e-impulsivity of the consumer creates undesired business consequences, such as consumer regret and product returns for refund. Therefore, there are some circumstances under which impulse e-buying should be prevented for the mutual benefit of the consumer and e-tailer. The present research aims to investigate whether, in the face of undesired impulse e-buying, it is possible to manage consumer impulsivity through gamified strategies reducing the probability of future returns and thus to prevent economic costs at the company level. Our results show that gamification approaches may help consumers reevaluate their decisions and retract them, thus reducing the volume of product returns resulting from impulse e-behavior. As managerial implications, in industries where impulse e-buying provokes high volumes of product returns, it will be appropriate for e-tailers to help consumers make timely and better decisions, in turn reducing the cost of reverse logistics and promoting consumer satisfaction with their brands.

ABSTRACT. In sequential presentation of product information, determining which form of presentation is better and why is theoretically important (Klink and Smith 2001), and holds implications for communication of product value through advertising, packaging, brand extension, and brand alliances. This research proposes and tests a novel affect-based mechanism for product evaluation under ordered presentation. In this mechanism, affect not only mediates the impact of ordered presentation on willingness to pay (WTP), but does so by determining whether heuristic or systematic processing is employed.

ABSTRACT. Environmental contexts, like temperature and social density, can influence consumers' decision making considerably. The literature explains temperature and social density’s downstream consequences (e.g., product preferences)—hitherto predominantly examined in isolation—as semantic fits or compensatory effects. Further, previous research established a bidirectional link between temperature and social proximity, but neglected that temperature and social density do not always correlate. We address this research gap by not only conducting a preregistered experiment with an orthogonal design on temperature and social density, but also by measuring product preferences within various categories (innovativeness, premium, safety, scarcity, and uniqueness). Following previous research, we hypothesize that temperature and social density have similar effects, but find they have distinct ones. We find compensatory effects for safety and premium products, i.e., under cold or neutral temperature conditions the high tier choices increase when the social density is high, but this does not apply to warm conditions—suggesting that warmth has an attenuating effect. Warmth attenuates the preference for innovative products, which also profit partly from lower social density. Scarce and unique products’ results are inconclusive. Our findings suggest that temperature and social density have complex consequences for decision making, reveal product-category-specific effects, and need follow-up research.

ABSTRACT. Why do customers engage in an activity? Do they engage more in an activity framed as a sport (versus not a sport) ? Through two studies, we show that framing an activity as a sport increases engagement through competitive mindset and social value. We also rely on self-protection approaches to show that, for people high in narcissism, the framing of an activity as sporty leads to less competitive mindset, which results in lower anticipated social value and willingness to engage.

ABSTRACT. The objective of the study is to test a model of leisure-time exercise behavior that integrates participatory and regulatory motives in the context of Covid-19 pandemic conditions. The effects of isolation, positive and negative affect, amount of stress, and ability to handle stress on exercise participation motives and exercise behavior are also examined. Data gathered from 283 university students is analyzed using structural equation modeling.  The study results demonstrate that physical and psychological exercise participation motives are significantly associated with exercise behavior. Concerning the behavioral regulation constructs, it is revealed that intrinsic and introjected regulation predict exercise behavior. Additionally, while isolation and negative affect have a negative impact, coping with stress positively impacts exercise behavior. Moreover, it is shown that the indirect effects of participatory motives on exercise behavior are mediated by amotivation and intrinsic regulation. Finally, significant mediating effects of exercise participation motives are shown linking positive and negative affect, ability to cope with stress, and exercise behavior.

ABSTRACT. This study adopts motivational theories and endorsement theories to establish a research framework to identify consumer goal-oriented behavior in the social media content. Drawing from extant literature, the research argues that consumers’ regulatory focus affects consumer outcomes through constituting regulatory fit. Furthermore, this link is moderated by social media content types, regulatory mode, influencers’ perceived similarity and expertise. Five empirical studies will be conducted to test these hypotheses. These results will offer important insights regarding the effects of consumer motivating wants on consumer outcomes in the age of social media. In addition, our result will help companies and influencers to boost their brands through providing products that their consumers’ circumstances dictate.

ABSTRACT. The Internet is, an indispensable platform for the provision of products and services of a company and for the communication with customers (Hsu et al. 2013) . A significant increase in the number of e-commerce interfaces in the Business-to-Business (B2B) environment has been already been noticed since for several years (Pohl 2018). One of the biggest challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the construction industry is the complex issue of retaining customers in a B2B business relationships (Forooz Pishgar et al. 2013). Especially in an internet-based, constantly changing context, this is an uncertain and ambitious challenge (Pitta et al. 2006). In our study, we investigate the antecedents of customer loyalty of B2B-customers on using the iInternet . Based on the findings of Janita et al. (Janita and Miranda 2013), we developed a conceptual model containing the nine constructs potentially influencing loyalty of B2B-customers in the internet. Conducting an online survey with the B2B customers os WERUB2B customers of WERU, a German industrial component manufacturer in the building sector, our final data set contains 187 observations. Results show a direct, highly significant effect of "trust" and "customer satisfaction" and a highly significant total effect of "image" on "customer loyalty".

ABSTRACT. Conversational agents allow products and services to be sold through real-time one-on-one conversations. However, consumers tend to engage with humans and resist conversational agents. Further, conversation abandonment without leaving personal information (e.g., email) leaves marketers without the ability to re-engage with potential customers.

Drawing on the Social Information Processing theory and Affect-as-Information model, this study investigates how emotion cues: a higher positive tone from the conversational agent and emojis influence 1) the agent's responsiveness perception, and 2) consumers' intention to disclose personally-identifying information (email) to the agent retailer. The research uses a computerized text analysis of the chat scenarios and a 2 (low vs higher emotional tone) X 2 (emoji use vs. no emoji use) between-subjects experimental design.

This research focuses on the effect of emotional tone and emoji use on the conversational agent's perceived responsiveness and consumers' intention to disclose their personal information to the agent in a text-based conversational commerce context. When the conversational agent's emotional tone was higher, it was perceived as being more responsive. However, the effect of emoji use on the perception of agents' responsiveness was not significant. Finally, the present research found that the effect of higher emotional tone, emoji use, and the interaction term was significant for consumers' intention to disclose their email to the agent retailer.

This study provides several managerial implications; although emoji use did not result in higher perceived responsiveness, emojis and higher emotional tone can be used to promote email disclosure to the agent retailers and thus enable marketers to collect valuable consumer data. Further, an emotional tone can benefit a conversational website, particularly one in need of incorporating customers' personal information to provide personalized products. The findings contribute to the growing research stream on integrating emotion cues into conversational agents and their impact on consumers' perceptions and personal information disclosure.

ABSTRACT. Mobile is emerging as the dominant platform on which consumers spend most of their time. Unlike the PC, many consumers are attached to their mobile and carry them everywhere.  As a consequence, these attached consumers demonstrate unique behaviors with and without their mobile (e.g., Kolsaker et al., 2009; Konok et al., 2016; Melumad & Pham, 2020). Research to date has focused mostly on the consequence of separating from mobile while paying little attention to other aspects of mobile attachment. Therefore, its role as the communication channel for important issues like climate change requires extra attention. This study aims to uncover the impact of mobile attachment on their perception and the underneath mechanism. Through three laboratory experiments based on a combination of Attachment Theory and Construal Level Theory, we highlight the importance of psychological distance, attachment styles, and gender for the perceived credibility of an ad. Our findings have important implications for effective communication planning in climate-related subjects and various others within the emerging context of mobile.

ABSTRACT. Purpose The holistic and contingent construct of customer experience is widely researched in marketing. While we know that technology may impact customer experience, little is known about how technology may create motivations, or conversely barriers for customers in interacting with complex businesses. The aim of this paper is to identify the motivations and barriers for technology adoption in the experience of complex service settings. Design/methodology/approach This research is based a literature review on customer experience and technology adoption. The insurance industry is also taken as an industry focus, because it epitomizes the uniqueness of complex service settings. Findings The exhaustive review of the literature allows developing a conceptual model whereby technology has the potential to positively or negatively influence customer experience, due to the motivation and barriers it generates for customers. The impact of these motivations and barriers is shown to be further enhanced by industry-specific and contextual factors present in complex service settings. Originality/value A conceptual model is proposed, evidencing technology-related motivations and barriers, and context-specific industry factors, that are at play in customer experiences. This model helps businesses directing their resources toward customer experience optimization, and opens a new agenda to research interactions between different constructs and antecedents.

ABSTRACT. Digital voice assistants are becoming a pervasive technology with the potential to change entire business processes and models. These voice assistants are at the forefront of organizational frontlines, service encounters, and customer experience. Digital voice assistants naturally extend to service encounters in call centers. Our empirical results find significant effects of service expertise and emotional value on the perceived usefulness of these assistants. The technical usability further creates ease of use. All variables then form consumers’ attitude towards engaging and behavioral intention towards with these voice assistants. Results also indicate two gender differences: technical usability is more important for males, whereas emotional value is more relevant for females. Overall, the results support consumer acceptance of this technology in such service encounters. Digital voice assistants may thus reduce workload or replace human call center agents.

ABSTRACT. The competition between national brands (NBs) and private labels (PLs) as well as the regulatory framework for competition have led to a noticeable decline in NBs’ market share in the retail sector. In recent decades, this development has been attributed to intense – sometimes ruinous – price competition, resulting in increased concentration in the retail sector and the proliferation of PLs. Knowledge about determinants of NBs’ market share and the impact of distribution channels supports manufacturers and retailers by developing and executing effective marketing strategies. This study consequently analyzes determinants of the NBs’ market share and unravels differences and similarities regarding different types of distribution channels (discounters, supermarkets, and hypermarkets). An increase in regular price of PLs, the share of NB price promotions, and the share of NB variety positively affect the market share of NBs across distribution channels. Regarding the types of distribution channels, an increase in the regular price of PLs exerts the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. An increase in the share of NB price promotions, on the other hand, only has a weak positive effect on the market share of NBs in supermarkets. Our findings are in particular beneficial for retailers evaluating the effect of price changes and shares of promotional prices. For the branded goods industry, the change in the share of NB variety is especially relevant, because an increase in the share of NB variety has the strongest positive effect on the market share of NBs. Further, the market share of NBs in supermarkets increases as brand preference intensifies. This is particularly relevant for the branded goods industry, since both share of NBs variety and brand preference of households can be influenced by the manufacturer brand industry by, for example, product innovations and advertising campaigns.

ABSTRACT. Service robots (SR) are becoming increasingly employed in the marketplace and are expected to gradually replace human service providers in numerous industries. As such, consumers-SR encounters represent a primary research area in shopper marketing. While the majority of studies on this topic have focused on the negative responses triggered by consumers-SR interactions, little is known on particular service delivery contexts under which human-SR encounters might be more beneficial than traditional human-to-human encounters. This research aims to fill this gap and it examines whether the interaction with a SR in the context of a potentially embarrassing service encounter may attenuate consumers’ anticipated embarrassment, thus facilitate purchasing behaviour. We argue that this occurs because of the global attribution of mind to the robots such that consumers do not ascribe intentionality, cognition, and emotion to a service robot. Moreover, we propose to investigate the influence of SR human-likeness appearance on this effect. The study employes a mixed-method approach. Preliminary findings from the qualitative analysis identify perceptions of mind and human-likeness appearance as potential factors influencing feelings of embarrassment. Further, results from a first experimental study show that interactions with SR attenuate consumer embarrassment. Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Today’s service encounters are increasingly characterized by customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in which customers regularly become targets of other customers’ misbehavior. Previous research provides initial evidence of the contagiousness of customer misbehavior in access-based settings, yet it remains unclear whether this contagiousness likewise translates to other contexts and forms of misbehavior, and what service providers can do to effectively curb its spread. Two online experiments in the context of Airbnb and gym services reveal that provider-directed blame attributions fully mediate the contagiousness of C2C misbehavior. That is, C2C misbehavior spreads because customers blame the service provider for the wrongdoings of other customers; regardless of whether this misbehavior is targeted towards another customer’s personal belongings or at other customers directly. Moreover, our results indicate that preventative service provider measures can effectively reduce blame attributions which, in turn, attenuate negative customer attitudes towards the firm while simultaneously curbing subsequent C2C misbehavior. By explicating the central role blame attributions play in the spread of C2C misbehavior, this study extends previous research on customer misbehavior and misbehavior contagiousness. Managerially, this research provides firms with explicit guidance on how to tackle the spread of C2C misbehavior and reduce negative firm evaluations with targeted preventative measures.

ABSTRACT. Online reviews have proliferated in recent years. TripAdvisor has become the most important platform, and many potential guests read online reviews before making a decision. Therefore, many hotels and restaurants have started to reply to online reviews, in particular to the negative ones, as part of their online reputation management. Although research has started to investigate the effectiveness of such a reply, little is known about how to reply. Across two studies, we investigate the impact of response strategies on hotel booking intentions and the perception of trust. Study 1 tests four different response strategies (i.e. no reply, public explanation, private message, public explanation and private message) in an experimental setting. We find that a public explanation combined with a private message has the strongest effect on trust and booking intention of potential guests. Moreover, taking the conversation offline without any further explanation leads to lower levels of trust and booking intention. In study 2, we additionally manipulate the severity of the service failure described in the online review and show that this is an important boundary condition. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

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

ABSTRACT. Due to the target group-specific pricing policies of service providers, different prices exist for the same service across customer groups like new or lost customers compared to existing customers. Current customers may notice these offers but do not receive any benefits for their loyalty. Consequently, they may react with a ‘tactical churn’ in order to obtain better offers from their current provider without having a clear intention to switch the provider. Thus, this study examines the phenomenon of tactical churn and its determinants by conducting qualitative interviews. The findings give first evidence for the phenomenon of ‘tactical churn’ as new type of customer churn behavior. The study shows that especially the price comparisons of existing customers with up to four reference groups are decisive for tactical churn. These are (a) new customers of the current provider, (b) other existing customers of the current provider, (c) customers of other providers, and (d) the price/value-change in the case of automatic renewal of the contract.

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

ABSTRACT. During the current pandemic, we have seen the way of conducting business shift from delivering value to customers, to trying to ensure safety for their employees and society as a whole. The goal of this research is to measure how psychological distances can influence the perceptions of consumers or employees toward company’s decisions in ambivalent situations. We examine such responses from both the views of consumers and employees, and rely on Construal Level Theory to inform and predict possible outcomes. During the Covid-19 crisis it is crucial that companies understand the message they are delivering to their consumers and employees may be perceived differently based on mental distance, hence being mindful of the decisions they make. Their actions, which can often send mixed messages, indicate ambivalence depending on whether they convey morality or competence efforts more. We demonstrate that this can result in varying customer perceptions. This study provides implications for better understanding employee and consumer behavior, trust, satisfaction, for better planning of brand image, public relations and marketing communications.

ABSTRACT. The coronavirus outbreak (i.e., COVID-19) has swept across a growing number of countries worldwide, including the United States. In response, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has aggressively responded to the world health crisis to protect individuals from the virus. Official guidelines not only included recommendations such as social distancing and use of personal protective equipment, but also included several mandated business closures, which severely impacted small businesses. This study sought to understand factors that may attract consumers to small businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 to assist with business continuity. Using a national survey sample (n = 313), this study found that consumers’ support for small businesses during a pandemic can be explained by emotional and cognitive (resilience and optimism) experiences and demographic characteristics. Theoretically, this study contributes to research on disaster response by incorporating findings from the unprecedented global pandemic. Based on findings, small businesses may seek to trigger active resilience and emotions (negative and positive) in their advertising avenues to attract consumers. Small businesses may consider pivoting to attract particular consumer segments that are more likely to patronize frequently and use services offered by small business.

ABSTRACT. While the literature has extensively explored psychological responses to rejection, there has been a notable lack of research emphasizing these consequences from a marketing perspective. This research examines consumer response to rejection in a promotion context. Importantly, results indicate that future purchase intentions are dependent on the value of the rejected coupon. When the rejected promotional coupon is of low to moderate value, a linear decline in future purchase intentions is present. However, once the value of the rejected offer reaches higher levels, a “rebound effect” is found to occur, wherein future purchase intentions reach levels similar to that of low value coupons. This effect is moderated by justification for the denial. More specifically, when justification is not present, the rebound effect is no longer found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Empowered by traditional and social media, human brands enjoy a prominent position in contemporary societies and benefit from the establishment of consumer-brand relationships. However, as current times are marked with uncertainty and fakeness, authenticity has become a critical element for the development of these relationships, especially for human brands. We propose and test a model that depicts the relationship between human brand authenticity and brand love. A stratified random sample of 798 respondents was obtained from a web-based survey distributed through social media. OLS regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model. Results show that human brand authenticity has a positive and significant effect on brand love. Moreover, differences by human brand contexts are analyzed, offering some insights into how celebrity authenticity is processed across human brand types. Our study revealed that the effect of authenticity is stronger for royalty members, actors, singers, politicians and television hosts. We conclude with important theoretical and managerial implications suggesting that investments in fostering human brand authenticity will pay off through the establishment of long-lasting, loving and loyal relationships, which are crucial for building brand equity, especially in the contexts where human brand authenticity yielded higher effects on brand love.

ABSTRACT. An essential goal of charities is to encourage the public to participate in philanthropic activities through both financial donations and volunteer efforts. The massive success of "The Ice Bucket Challenge" in 2014 indicates the importance of celebrities as the message source, with various public figures such as entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, actresses, and singers shared the message to get engaged and involved in the social cause. Grounded in self-verification, self-enhancement and attachment theories, this study tested a model of an individual’s actual and ideal self-congruities, attachment to the celebrity human brand, receptivity towards the celebrity-endorsed message and willingness to donate money and time to the cause. These relationships were investigated using structural equations modeling. The findings indicated an individual’s attachment to the celebrity human brand is positively related to their receptivity towards the endorse message and willingness to donate money and time. This research integrated identity and brand attachment theories to explain processes through which celebrities influence individuals’ behaviors regarding social causes. The results contribute to the existing bodies of knowledge on celebrity endorsement and cause marketing. Celebrities have a wide and captive audience, which may be used to effectively raise awareness, impact donations and influence people to volunteer for causes.

ABSTRACT. Internet banking refers to "a banking channel that enables customers to perform a wide range of financial and informal services through a banking website." Internet banking provides customers with an opportunity to manage and control their financial and transaction accounts through a banking website. The present study investigates the factors affecting the intention to adopt and recommend the technology to others: based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. This applied research is descriptive-analytical in terms of data collection. The statistical population of this study consisted of Amol Tejarat Bank. A total of 384 samples were selected using a non-random sampling method at a 95% confidence level based on Cochran's sampling formula. The data collection tool is a standard questionnaire. After data collecting and hypotheses test, it was concluded that individual and environmental factors affect the acceptance and recommendation of internet banking to others.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research is to examine the ramification posed by sharing economy businesses when one of their independent contractors commits a service failure (outcome vs. process-based failure) and different methods of recovery (personal vs. platform recovery) were used. By manipulating both the type of service failure and the recovery methods using hypothetical scenarios involving Uber services, we hoped to uncover factors most important to customer loyalty and trust in the context of a sharing economy. The results showed that customer perception toward the brand/platform can be affected by independent Uber driver’s actions. We found the following results when it comes to restoring the brand/platform image and seek customer forgiveness: If there is an outcome failure (e.g., the Uber driver was late for pick-up that may be due to uncontrollable factors), customers prefer a personal recovery, but when process failure occurs (e.g., the Uber driver was rude while providing the service), customers prefer a platform recovery. The findings provide interesting insights for service researchers and practitioners when it comes to recovering mistakes and mishaps committed by independent service providers in the context of sharing economy.

ABSTRACT. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many businesses but has especially impacted small businesses. In the early months of the pandemic, many small business owners did not have the financial ability to sustain their services due to lacking funds during the shut-down. Although past research has investigated crisis management from a marketing perspective, little research has explored how small businesses are able to continue services in a crisis of this extent. Past research recognizes that business model innovation can offer new profitable opportunities and/or provide a shield against dynamic environmental changes, but less work has explored how small businesses can attain business innovation models in the challenge of a significant crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To investigate what can enable small businesses' business model innovation during a crisis, we take an inductive, qualitative approach. Using qualitative interviews with 10 industry-diverse small business owners and 5 small business resource providers, the data reveals there are multiple paths to pursuing their interests in sustaining business. Specifically, we identify that through a cocreative process, small businesses rely on technology and intermediary organizations to foster new forms of pursuing business, specifically engaging in business model innovation.

ABSTRACT. As health organizations rely heavily on social distancing to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines whether customers’ fear of being contaminated can influence their evaluations of social distancing and how and when these evaluations drive their usage of chatbot services. Using a study design with a manipulated variable (i.e., utilitarian and hedonic service situations) and measured variables (e.g., contamination fear and attitudes toward social distancing) to examine the hypothesized relationships, we found that when the service situation is utilitarian (hedonic) in nature, customers’ contamination fear influences their chatbot usage during service encounters through their social distancing attitudes (subjective norms) and then perceived usefulness of chatbots.

ABSTRACT. As evidenced by a special issue on this in the Journal of Marketing, researchers are focusing their attention on marketing for a better world. An important part of this focus is improving the emotional wellbeing of salespeople: a large part of the workforce of most economies. Abusive supervision, because it is commonplace, significantly damages the emotional wellbeing of salespeople. Not only does it damage emotional wellbeing, but in addition it compromises resources salespeople need to cope with this damage. Recognizing this double whammy highlights the need to identify coping resources that are depletion proof, so can serve to replenish coping resources that are depleted by abusive supervision. In this research we focus on an element of emotional intelligence, emotional regulation, and show that it is depleted by abusive supervision and that it enhances job satisfaction. We then evaluate the strategy of reappraisal--finding a different way to appraise situations that trigger emotions as a way of managing emotional reactions--for its effect on emotional regulation. We find that it enhances emotional regulation. We also find that it is not depleted as a result of abusive supervision. We identify in our research, taking a resource deployment, depletion and replenishment perspective, a resource that is not depleted by abusive supervision and that permits sales employees to cope with the abuse. While our goal in this research certainly is to tout reappraisal as a depletion proof strategy for coping with abuse, our broader goal is through a framework of viewing abuse in terms of deployment, depletion and replenishment to suggest a focus in future research on identifying an arsenal of depletion proof resources.

ABSTRACT. Commission structures are often complex. In tiered commission structures, the percentage of variable pay changes at different levels of sales performance. Salesperson behaviors may change just prior to commission deadlines, depending on goal achievement. According to the deterrence doctrine, people weight temptation versus consequences before engaging in unethical behaviors. When the difference between tiers is large, it creates a larger temptation. Furthermore, salespeople should frame sales revenue differently depending on whether it leads to a new commission tier. Salespeople are likely to justify and downplay the consequences of gaming behavior that avoids rewards framed as a “loss” compared to gaming behavior intended to achieve a “gain.” Using a sample of professional salespeople participating in an experiment, this research shows that salespeople are more likely to engage in gaming behavior to avoid a loss, particularly when rewards stakes are high and their visibility within the organization is low. These findings demonstrate that commission plan structure has an impact on salesperson behaviors above and beyond the extant paradigm of variable versus fixed compensation.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of new retail employee technology on retail frontline employees’ well-being. Using the job demand-resource model, this study focuses on the impact of retail technology-specific job demands (cognitive load, fear of public failure, information distrust) and job resources (employee training) on employees’ burnout and work engagement. This study uses multi-level modeling to test hypotheses with responses of 487 US retail employees with experience of using retail employee technology as part of their job. Results show that job demands led to increased burnout and job resources led to enhanced work engagement. Further, job resources buffered the impact of cognitive load on burnout. However, job demands did not predict weaker work engagement. Rather, the cognitive load was positively associated with work engagement, which may be due to the complex nature of stressors. The findings extend the prior job demand-resource model and provide comprehensive insights for retail managers.

ABSTRACT. With an estimated 1.1 billion unbanked adults in the world, the use of mobile financial services, including mobile money services are being used to increase access to low-cost financial services (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2018). Although mobile financial services are growing at a dynamic and rapid pace, the share of adults (44%) in developing countries reported to using digital payments with mobile phones or the internet is still low (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2018). There still remains a large percent of the population in BOP (base of the pyramid) markets with limited access to sustainable formal financial services like credit, savings, payment systems, insurance and pension (Ouma, Odongo and Were, 2017). More specifically, 90% of this formally excluded population lives in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East and in Kenya, 59% of the adult population was found to be either completely excluded or using informal financial methods (Waema & Omwansa, 2014). The opportunity exists for mobile financial inclusion since the World Bank reports that 90 percent of the world’s poor have mobile signals and that, on average, 89 cell phone accounts exist for every 100 individuals in developing countries (World Bank, 2012).

ABSTRACT. Multicultural marketing, the practice of integrated marketing strategies and tactics for products and services that are race- and ethnic-neutral and agnostic to sexual orientation, has become a conventional marketing strategy. Over the years, multicultural marketing has become less of a niche tactic and more mainstream. The conventionalization of multicultural marketing has presented marketers with challenges on how to execute an optimal strategy to target diverse consumers by proffering strategic terminology with vague conceptualization, such as cross-cultural marketing, as well as the total market approach to multicultural marketing. A sample of marketing practitioners was queried on their multicultural marketing practices. Leveraging the theory of the Resourced-Based View of the Firm. An empirical model identifying the meaningful and measurable constructs within an organization that can predict multicultural marketing success was hypothesized. The model defines and operationalizes the constructs of Diversity Avouchment and the Total Market strategic approach to multicultural marketing. Findings demonstrate that through greater Diversity Avouchment and the implementation of a Total Market strategy, organizations have: higher financial and strategic performance, more effective advertising, and have the creative latitude to develop culturally-relevant marketing communications. This quantitative model makes a contribution to the marketing literature in the much-understudied area of marketplace diversity.

ABSTRACT. Race is at the forefront of marketers and consumers’ minds as the need for social justice and a focus on anti-racism enter daily conversations. Race strongly influences consumer behavior (Pitts et al. 1989; Sexton 1972) . And, consumers are increasingly engaging in various forms of protest which attempt to shape markets and organizations within them (Bradford 2020; Kates and Belk 2001; Klein, Smith, and John 2004; Kozinets, Belz, and McDonagh 2012; Kozinets and Handelman 2004; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013; Sen, Gurhan-Canli, and Morwitz 2001). Though research has established strong links between race and consumer behavior, there remains an opportunity to examine how race influences consumer behaviors that seek to contest the marketplace. This study utilizes a framework to examine the extent to which an individual’s perception of racially stereotyped advertisements may lead to forms of activism. In a 2 (message characteristics: stereotypical vs. non-stereotypical) x 2 (model characteristics: Black vs. White) between-subjects designed study, the findings reveal that individuals who view racially stereotyped advertisements are likely to participate in monetary activism (e.g., raising money to support a cause) and protest activism (e.g., attend a protest).

ABSTRACT. During 2020, most Americans were impacted in some way by events related to COVID-19 or social injustice. Black Americans were disproportionately affected by both. The confluence of these two crises has exposed the huge health, education, and wealth disparities that have plagued Black communities for centuries. Academic research on these topics primarily addresses health and economic concerns (e.g. Hill et al. 2020). This project answers the call for investigations related to COVID-19 and social injustice in other domains (Crockett and Grier 2020). Herein we probe the impact of message framing about COVID-19 and social injustice on employee stress. Initial results suggest diversity-related messages may have unintended negative outcomes in general and on White employees in particular. It is important to expose the effect of these messages as they may add to the overwhelming stress communities are experiencing and lead to downstream, negative consequences for well-meaning firms. This is the first investigation of the effect of COVID-19 and social justice in this context. It adds points to a varied pool of solutions to address this critical topic.

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

ABSTRACT. In the weeks after the video of George Floyd’s death emerged, the world was inundated with personal and corporate messages of equality, hope, and justice. Companies and organizations issued statements that denounced racism, promised financial commitments, and took a stand in solidarity with the Black community. In this era of consumer demand for corporate activism, paired with corporate concern about public outcry over “woke washing,” or inauthentic social justice messaging, the need to assess the authenticity of corporate statements of support to social justice causes has become increasingly imperative to support both social justice causes and corporate outcomes. Our research delves into the linguistic characteristics of corporate statements in response to the death of George Floyd. We analyze publicly-available statements that were released in the month following George Floyd’s death. The results indicate that corporate messages varied on multiple factors, including results finding that statements distributed by women leaders were more emotive and optimistic than those sent by men.

ABSTRACT. With the rise of feminist and social movements, new sorts of advertisements have emerged, signaling a change toward a more gender-neutral portrayal. Femvertising is a new type of advertising that aims to show women in an equal and diverse way. It strives to empower women while avoiding depictions of traditional gender stereotypes and sexuality. The aim of this study is to analyze all the research on female stereotypes in advertising conducted between January 2000 and March 2021 during the various stages of feminism: pre-feminism, feminism, and post-feminism. The systematic literature review method is used in this study, and it discusses the key research methods, the context (country, sector), and the main research topics related to female stereotypes in advertising. In addition to identifying future research directions, the current study seeks to determine the place and role of femvertising in relation to the different feminist periods.

The findings reveal that the vast majority of the studies rely on data from a single nation, with research in the United States and the United Kingdom dominating the field. About half of the studies in the current article gathered data from only one sector, with the apparel industry receiving the most attention. The other most prominent sectors in the research were beauty, personal care, and advertising. Except for the studies related to femvertising, qualitative studies predominated in all periods of feminism. The reviewed articles identify the major research trends related to consumer attitudes, the evolution of female portrayal in advertising, the objectification of women, and the social movement of women empowerment. The number of articles on the latter topic has been rapidly increasing in recent years, owing to the femvertising trend.