ABSTRACT. Storytelling refers to the act, process or skillset of telling a story (Herman and Vervaeck 2019). Although increasing attention has been paid to storytelling in business, research on storytelling and its impact on buyer-seller interactions is still in its infancy (Lacoste and La Rocca 2015).

In order to further understand the role storytelling in buyer-seller interactions, this research is designed to answer the following questions: 1) How are the stories told through salespeople’s coordination over different resources? Specifically, we want to understand whether and how different sources available to the salesperson inform their stories and whether the stories are composed differently throughout the customer journey. 2) How do the buyers perceive the evolution of the stories? Specifically, we aim to understand how customers are part of the storytelling process, by, for example, initialing interrupting, or complementing the salesperson’s storytelling. 3) How does the storytelling impact the quality of the buyer-seller relationship? Specifically, we aim to investigate how different stories affect buyers cognitive and affective responses as well as trust in the buyer-seller relationship. In answering these research questions, our research extends the limited knowledge on storytelling in B2B.

ABSTRACT. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is typically studied at a macro level. However, since B2B salespeople interact with multiple stakeholders within and without the firm, they are central actors that participate in the implementation of the firm’s CSR strategy. Precisely, our study seeks to analyze how B2B salespeople and firms align their objectives to implement a successful CSR strategy. To investigate our research question, we propose a multi-level examination, zooming in and out from the macro to the micro perspective by using a theories-in-use (TIU) approach to interview B2B salespeople and sales managers about CSR initiatives. The TIU approach will allow us to formulate relevant hypotheses which we plan to test in a survey, as well as via a scenario-based experimental design. We expect our findings to offer new perspectives on how salespeople that operate across firm boundaries (i.e., the organizational frontline) can represent, implement, and encourage CSR and sustainability among various stakeholders.

ABSTRACT. Recent research demonstrates the positive impact of celebrities on the sustainable activities of luxury brands, thanks to their compatibility with both the luxury worlds, through their successful lifestyle, and the sustainable world, through their diverse social and environmental commitments. A new kind of endorsement is also observed: the collaboration between luxury brands and influencers. These individuals benefit from a stronger perception of proximity from individuals, hence could be perceived as less compatible with the dimension of inaccessibility of the luxury brands. The purpose of this research is to better understand which type of endorser could enhance the perception of fit between the brand and the cause, and a particular attention will be paid to the age of the respondent (Gen Z and Millennials). This study also expects to underline in which conditions this perceived fit can increase the positive perception of the brand, particularly if it has an effect on brand charisma, and if this brand charisma can in turn impact brand attractiveness. Finally, this study offers a better understanding of the effect of different endorsement strategies of luxury sustainable activities on output variables, such as perception of luxury, willingness to pay a premium price, and proselytism intentions.

ABSTRACT. Academic researchers have introduced the concept of “pro-social” LP to highlight LPs which “convey companies’ contribution to the wellbeing of society” (Hwang and Kandampully, 2015, p. 346). They may allow members to donate their loyalty points to charities (Eason et al., 2015; Hwang and Kandampully, 2015; Kumar, 2019; Liu and Mattila, 2016), reward the purchase of green products and/or reward sustainable non-purchase behaviors, such as bringing one’s own bag to the store. While research has pointed out that pro-social LPs can build loyalty through perceived value (Hwang and Kandampully, 2015), existing studies have not investigated to what extent pro-social LPs could contribute to increase pro-social purchase and non-purchase behaviors, and, in turn, life satisfaction. The present research focuses on those pro-social LPs offering self-oriented rewards in exchange for specific pro-environmental behaviors, namely pro-environmental purchase and non-purchase behaviors. Based on warm glow theory (Andreoni, 1990; Isen 1970), this research aims to explain under which conditions pro-social LP perceived value drives pro-social behaviors and positive consequences in terms of loyalty to the company and consumer wellbeing. Exploring this is crucial, as it might prove the high potential for value creation of pro-social LPs for companies, consumers and the environment.

ABSTRACT. As early as the late 90’s did researchers acknowledge the progression of the marketplace from a single location to an arena of a holistic consumption experience (Pine and Gilmore 1999). Today, these progressions are evident in the emerging of transformed retail spaces (Verhoef et al. 2015; Zhu et al. 2021). In this increasingly complex shopping context, the nature of the physical, digital, and mobile shopping experiences and related constructs - especially shopping value - need to be reconsidered. From a methodological perspective, current research often adapts existing scales to fit new context and countries. Furthermore, most of the available scales about shopping value have been developed in the US which limits applicability in other cultures and countries. The objective of this research is to theoretically reconsider and empirically investigate SV consumers derive from physical stores and extend SV to the new digitalized contexts. Additionally, this research aims to compare cultural influences in determining the importance of value across different shopping environments.

ABSTRACT. While it is common for moral transgressions committed by person-brands to negatively impact consumers of their brand, the size of this impact can vary tremendously. We test in three experiments how transgression diagnosticity impacts consumer perceptions of and intentions toward a person-brand. Holding the transgression itself constant, we find that high-diagnosticity transgressions lower consumer behavioral intentions regarding the person-brand and their endorsed products, and that consumer-brand identification plays a key role in the process. As predicted by social identity theory, transgression diagnosticity lowers consumers’ identification with the person-brand, and this effect is stronger when consumers initially had higher levels of identification with the person-brand prior to the transgression. We also show that the trustworthiness of the person-brand and attitude toward the person-brand are additional serial mediators of transgression diagnosticity. Finally, we present implications for theory and for practitioners.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to estimate a prediction model for understanding how the consumer-brand relationship occurs considering brand love, brand image, loyalty, engagement as relations, and advocacy and word of mouth (WOM) as consequences. The following sections display the theoretical foundations and methodology to be followed.

For years, management and brand building have become one of the most important marketing topics, mainly because buying motives are becoming less utilitarian and have become more hedonic. Therefore, the product selection comes not only from the functional benefits but also from the intangible benefits typically associated with the brand, such as emotions, social, and self-expression.

Companies have been providing their brands with human characteristics, so they can bring them closer to their customers and generate the long-awaited “engagement.” They intend to evoke feelings and emotions that connect on a personal level and are durable in the long term. Brand love is a relatively new construct in the marketing context that has been developed over recent decades and has taken the attention of academics and professionals

ABSTRACT. Digital media are the dominant information technology of our time. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok invite new kinds of interaction, impacting friendships, family and peer groups, and business relationships while reconfiguring public engagement and discourse through influencers, memes, and viral media. That said, the algorithms drive how social media is consumed and often drive the influence these platforms can have over individuals and a population. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered and there is continued debate about the impact and meaning of social media (Sujon 2021). Thus, the primary purpose of this research is to examine the impact of social media/artificial intelligence on consumer culture. This research comprehensively reviews the digital media landscape and its interface with today's consumers. We examine the impact of digital media on three cultural areas, including the culture of participation, the culture of public presentation, and the culture of digital literacy. Furthermore, we propose a theoretical framework that may capture the meaning of digital interfaces with consumers. Ultimately, this study contributes to marketing literature by enriching theories on technology and consumer culture and providing future research directions for marketing scholars.

ABSTRACT. Artificial intelligence is expanding in many products and offers. From a marketing perspective, it leads to many opportunities. However, the factors fostering its adoption are still under-explored in the literature. In particular, the impact of the consumer's trust in a brand known for AI on consumers behavioral intentions remains unknown. Relying on the UTAUT framework, we set up an online experiment (N=504) to compare the effect of brand trust on behavioral intentions towards a virtual agent, for five well-known “AI” brands (Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Samsung). Results lead us to identify brand trust as an antecedent of the UTAUT model, leading us to better understand the drivers of the adoption of virtual assistants. Moreover, we identify brand affect and smartphone use as moderators of this model. From a theoretical perspective, this research complements the original UTAUT model and sheds new light on the levers driving the adoption of AI. This should help brands knowing how they can get their consumers to start using virtual assistants.

ABSTRACT. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has heightened the significance of personalisation for all marketing initiatives (Aksoy et al., 2020). Among the various AI tools and applications used for personalised marketing, recommender systems remain widely popular as it is regarded as one of the most useful tools to provide a high degree of real-time personalisation (Kumar et al., 2019; Zanker, Rook and Jannach, 2019) with little to no intervention from humans as the algorithms are trained to ‘learn how to learn’ and extend beyond their initial programming by humans (Davenport, 2019). Traditional CRM system has evolved from no personalisation involved to current-day AI-enabled personalisation (Khan and Iqbal, 2020). The recommender systems can be integrated with CRM to create more accurate and relevant personalized messages for customers with lesser interaction efforts from customers. It can learn from consumption patterns and consumer data to perform appropriate real-time segmentation, prioritization and personalisation that exceeds human capabilities (Chatterjee et al., 2019). Therefore, this research aims to investigate the use of a hybrid AI recommender system in providing personalised recommendations to consumers and their subsequent behavioural actions through a three-step methodological approach which includes designing and testing a hybrid recommender system.

ABSTRACT. Research suggests that memories formed around brand interactions impact consumer decision-making in the near and far future, though, less is understood about virtual brand interactions. Particularly, delivering brand interactions through virtual reality (VR) might influence the resulting memories. In this research, we investigate the impact of the new VR forms of brand interactions on consumer memories. In doing so, we draw parallels and contrasts between VR and traditional brand interactions. Further, we study recollections of complex interactions, therefore contributing to the research on consumer memory in a realistic marketplace setting. Empirical data collection was facilitated via a large scale longitudinal field experiment in the Liege Aquarium Museum in Belgium. Findings suggest that as time passes, consumers who participated in the VR brand interactions had more correct episodic memories, and are more confident in them, than those who participated in regular brand interaction. Qualitative analysis suggests that memories might be richer over time, while similar in nature. Notably, VR stands out as a true brand interaction highlight, which solidifies over time as a “wow moment”, even if specific details of the VR are forgotten. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Brands are moving towards the Metaverse (3D immersive virtual spaces) where the growth of intangible products and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in I-commerce (Immersive-Commerce) are evolving into a new type of hybrid experience for the users. This paper aims to establish the role of “Immersive brand engagement” and its influence on consumer-based brand equity for intangible products (NFTs) in the Metaverse and examine the mediating role of Brand’s visual appeal in the Metaverse and virtual brand love in the Metaverse. Also, explore the consumers’ intention to use virtually wearable products in Metaverse and their intention to use the brand’s physically wearable products in the real world. To evaluate the conceptual model structural equation modeling was used. This study provides insights into the Metaverse – a new taxonomy of technology, in the context of embodiment, presence of AVATAR, and interactivity in the virtual world, supported by the Social Exchange Theory.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays, the Metaverse is one the most discussed concepts as it could offer excellent opportunities to companies. Although the fully immersive and interoperable metaverse platforms have not been achieved yet.

Therefore, this study aims to examine how the Metaverse can change the marketing activities in the luxury fashion industry by analysing the main characteristics and motivation of the brands that adopted a first mover approach. Furthermore, this research aims to explore the awareness of companies about the metaverse contributions to offering a unique customer experience which will create a competitive advantage. To that end, an exploratory design with an interpretivist approach is adopted in this research. Qualitative content analysis is utilised to infer meaning from interviews with the CEOs and representatives of well-known luxury fashion brands.

The findings support that despite the high interest in the topic and the correlated hype, luxury fashion brands do not consider this tool central to their strategy. Instead, they plan to use it as an operational tool to reinforce their strategies. In other words, the Metaverse is considered one of the multiple branding and communication tools that can be used to increase brand equity and the customer experience, not a disruptive strategy enabler.

ABSTRACT. Defined as a virtual reality space that uses internet and augmented reality (AR), the Metaverse is quickly establishing itself as a brand-new environment where people may buy, enjoy entertainment, and take part in events that blur the boundaries between real life and virtual life. By helping brands create a truly frictionless and seamless shopping experience that is Direct-to-Avatar (D2A) - as opposed to Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) - the Metaverse represents a further step in the evolution of omnichannel. Despite the increasing interest in the Metaverse, scant research has dealt with the characteristics of the Metaverse on consumer behaviour. This research consists of a qualitative study (i.e., 10 semi-structured interviews with brand managers) and three experimental studies that test a number of hypotheses in relation to the Metaverse experience in influencing purchase intention. This research also investigates the role of perceived seamlessness as mediator of the relationship between type of shopping experience (D2A vs. D2C) and purchase intention, and the role of brand authenticity as a mediator of the relationship between type of shopping experience and customer engagement. Results show that the type of shopping experience has a significant main effect on purchase intention and confirm the mediation effects.

ABSTRACT. Empirical research places developing relationships and networks as central to every aspect of the entrepreneurial process. Focusing on craft food and drinks sector cases, this paper identifies and describes how emotions both enable and constrain the entrepreneurial firm’s development of network capability. Connecting network capability development to emotions is important because the emotional experience in interaction may enhance, restrict or confirm the perceived benefits that the entrepreneur would expect to gain from developing network capability. Our contribution rests in identifying how emotion influences network capability development in an entrepreneurial context based on a multi-level analysis. We also respond to calls for research to examine entrepreneurial emotions, in interaction, in relationships.

ABSTRACT. Through two studies using Critical Incident Techniques (CIT) and Surveys with B2B salespersons, we find the importance of adopting reacquisition strategies with the consideration of their fit with customers’ defection causes, both from the business regain and relationship recovery perspectives.

ABSTRACT. Negotiations between buyers and sellers are critical key processes within organizations because transactions within most markets occur through such negotiation processes. Despite their importance and considerable research efforts, many issues around B2B negotiations remain unclear. There are also calls for new methodological approaches, which may help the research field of business negotiations to develop further. The research question of this project is as follows: How can neuroscientific experiments contribute to and extend current B2B negotiation knowledge? More specifically, we rely on a meta-review by Hüffmeier et al. (2014) on the effects of different negotiation styles, and see whether the findings can be replicated in a neuroscientific experiment. We focus on four core factors of negotiations: the negotiation style, economic negotiation outcomes, behavioral long-term negotiation outcomes, and most importantly socio-emotional negotiation outcomes. With our approach we would be one of the first to evaluate the effects of B2B negotiation styles in distributive negotiations on socioemotional outcomes and price using neuroscience. This new methodological approach could strongly contribute to further developing the B2B field in times where its foundations are challenged by neuroscientific findings.

ABSTRACT. Successful buyer-supplier relationships have long been identified as critical to SME performance, but never has the management of this relationship been so crucial. This exploratory study seeks to investigate the promise of MI in relation to the enhancement of SME channel management capabilities, and also the reciprocity of buyer-supplier relationships. Given the informational nature of market intelligence, it is deemed to provide the relevant insights to improve and ratify decisions relative to customer value and satisfaction. This may give direction to intuitive ideas and increase suppliers’ confidence in conceptualizing and delivering ideas to buyers. In turn, this suggests that market intelligence facilitates knowledge exchange and opens opportunity for more collaborative communication between SMEs and their retail buyers.

ABSTRACT. Member-initiated online communities (MIOCs) serve as digital spaces where members meet, exchange ideas, and form relationships around a topic of common interest. With the rise of digital communication channels, MIOCs have grown and constitute potential market segments for companies to seize. Prior research has investigated information exchange and value generation in MIOCs for members, but third-party leverage of MIOCs from a marketing perspective is an unexplored research field. The current research investigates brand-generated posts in MIOCs from a persuasion knowledge and social capital theory perspective. Adopting varying levels of brand prominence, our findings from an exploratory survey study and two online experiments show that lower brand prominence of a brand-generated post induces higher WOM and purchase intention, mediated by the mechanism of perceived post authenticity. Further, we find that the persuasion knowledge and authenticity mechanism are weakened for members with high social capital. This finding contributes to a better understanding of the role of social capital in situations where brands attempt entry into MIOCs. Our study is the first to generate insights into how brands can best enter MIOCs, contributing to the literature on brand prominence in online communities and monetization of social capital.

ABSTRACT. Influencer marketing has become an integral part of companies’ marketing strategies. Previous marketing literature examines how social media influencer characteristics affect the influencer’s perceived authenticity in sponsored content. The current research argues that organic content plays an equally important role in shaping consumer perceptions of an influencer and, as such, must be managed as well. Specifically, the study will examine the context in which influencers encourage more consumers to follow them. Supported by self-determination theory and framing theory, the research proposes that influencers who encourage consumers to follow them for more content are intrinsically motivated and will be perceived as more authentic with indirect message framing. Influencers who encourage consumers to follow them to reach a particular number of followers will be perceived as extrinsically motivated and therefore inauthentic. The study will test the model using an experiment with a directly framed message condition, an indirectly framed message condition and a control. The study aims to find applicable evidence for influencers to implement in their organic content strategies.

ABSTRACT. Attracting the attention of consumers is becoming increasingly difficult as they are flooded with an increasing number of advertisements across all platforms. Advertisers are experiencing a significant decline in click-through rates for their online ads, and even the once so promising social media ads seem to drastically lose their persuasive power. One way to differentiate from typical promotional posts on social media platforms is through branded augmented reality (AR) filters. Branded AR filters provide a subtle way to convey an advertising message and to provide the consumer with a unique experience. Our study investigates the effect of branded AR filters on consumer-based brand equity, as a long-term, and purchase intention, as a short-term business goal. In addition, this study places a special emphasis on the mediating effect of consumers' flow state. Our results reveal a dilemma regarding flow, which may lead to conflicting goals of promotional activities. Contrary to expectations, the results show a negative impact of the flow state on consumer purchase intention, while positively impacting consumer-based brand equity. Our findings provide useful information on how advertisers can use technology to attract their customers. In addition, our results underscore the relevance of matching promotional activities to target variables.

ABSTRACT. The study addresses the proposition that social media may allow consumers, including high materialists, to achieve certain consumption goals they once achieved with physical goods. Quantitative cross-sectional data examine the degree to which Instagram followers experience parasocial relationships with influencers, connect with an influencer’s human brand or feel a psychological sense of community among other followers. The study also provides insight on whether followers who perceive the relationships and connections will likely purchase brands that influencers post. A final multi-group analysis addresses whether the rise of consumer self-definition through experiences prompts materialistic consumers to participate in the activities and places they see influencers feature. Results reveal that engaging in parasocial relationships with influencers, connecting with an influencer’s human brand and feeling a psychological sense of brand community among other followers all occur to some extent across individuals. The studies also suggest the occurrence of influencer-inspired purchases of both material and experiential nature.

ABSTRACT. There have been significant artificial intelligence (AI) advances over the last five years, leading companies to adopt this technology at a rapid pace. When considering the application of AI, marketing is becoming the function most impacted.

The infusion of AI can have positive effects, but also carries inherent risks. Research and companies are in the early stages of addressing ethical challenges. However, this is a critical time in the adoption of AI since, as the growth of AI use expands, ethical issues are also expected to increase.

The objective of this panel session is to discuss the idea of AI ethics in both academia and practice. First, we will conduct an analysis of the present situation which includes consumer, corporate and ethical perspectives to better understand ethical AI in marketing. Second, we will explore the role of government regulations and self-regulating corporate strategies in protecting society from unethical AI. Finally, we will present findings from existing research and discuss future opportunities. The panel session will include an introduction to AI ethics in practice, panel member insights for designing and implementing AI ethical principles, and strategies for advancing research, followed by audience Q&A.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to examine the extent to which customers can respond positively to robotic service failure recovery. By conducting a field experiment and a scenario-based experiment to test our theoretical model, we found that, in the context of robotic service failure, a service robot's use of the recovery strategy that combines apology and compensation is more effective than its use of the apology-alone strategy in driving customer forgiveness towards the robot, which increases the perceived service quality of the robotic employee. Moreover, the positive impact of the combination recovery strategy on robotic employee quality perception is stronger as customers' perceived levels of a robot’s threats to human beings decrease and occurs when customers are victims rather than observers. This research takes initial steps toward understanding how different methods of service failure recovery provided by service robots vary in effectiveness. In addition, it sheds light on the possibility that service robots can be a target of customer forgiveness, whereby only organizations and human employees were previously considered. It also offers service organizations a better understanding of how to manage robotic service failure encounters.

ABSTRACT. Marketing and consumer behavior in the peer-to-peer sharing economy differs from that in other facets of the sharing economy (e.g., marketer-provided sharing). Because peer-to-peer sharing platforms serve two market sides and depend on a critical mass of users, a comprehensive understanding of marketing and consumer behavior is essential. Although several studies have illuminated the field, a holistic view of the accumulated knowledge is lacking. This study reviews 141 articles using the theory-context-characteristics-methodology (TCCM) framework to paint a comprehensive picture of the field and to develop a future research agenda. Our review reveals an existing focus on user- and exchange-related theories. While there is much research on the accommodation and mobility industries, future research should focus on the consumer goods and business-to-business sectors. Furthermore, more future research should adopt the platform perspective. The use of newly emerging research methodologies (e.g., automated text analysis of consumer big data) is also recommended.

ABSTRACT. In a world where generalized anxiety is on the rise, consumers (especially younger consumers), may seek to avoid anxiety in their consumption decisions. ‘Consumer comfort’ (defined generally as the opposite of anxiety) has been studied in various services contexts, and has been identified as a psychological driver of repeat purchase behavior. Researchers typically investigate “comfort” during personal interactions with a service provider to determine which front-line employee behaviors and attitudes have the greatest positive impact on consumer comfort. These studies focus on the behaviors of an individual front-line service provider. Although specific behaviors may drive consumers’ comfort in such settings, this is a limited view. We suggest that the existing definition allows for additional dimensions. In this research, we study three dimensions of consumer comfort: Personal Interaction Comfort, Social Choice Comfort, and Ease of Choice comfort. Of these, only Personal Interaction Comfort has been studied. Our research will test the relative impact of all three dimensions on consumer behavior across a variety of consumer settings: fast casual restaurant, department store, local clothing shop, and doctor’s office. Implications for theory and practice are provided.

ABSTRACT. Advertising literature is rife with consumer behavior in the pre-purchase phase, but little is known about consumer behavior in post-purchase advertising. This research examines the impact of longer exposure to advertisements in the post-purchase phase and how it affects attitudes and especially positive word of mouth (WOM). Social comparison literature enabled the uncovering of the psychological motivations and beliefs that drive the willingness toward post-purchase advertising effectiveness. Longer exposure to repetitive ads helped to mitigate a cognitive bias called a “bias blind spot”, resulting in a more favorable attitude toward ads and the brand, as well as a higher chance of positive WOM for consumers with a low level of uniqueness. Additionally, repetitive advertisements are objective tasks delivered by algorithms, and consumers generally believe algorithms to be superior at these tasks in comparison with humans. This belief satisfies consumers’ expectations and yields post-purchase advertising effectiveness. These findings make contributions to understanding consumers’ behavior in post-purchase advertising and who would be a suitable customer to be targeted in order to enhance positive WOM, the most desirable post-purchase behavior for practitioners.

ABSTRACT. Digital is a real growth driver for organizations that engaged a massive digital transformation of their journeys without considering users’ digital difficulties. Given this, organizations must adopt a more digital and inclusive approach. However, few research has been done specifically on the processes of digital inclusion and the psychological and social mechanisms they contain. Nonetheless, perceptions strongly shape users' consumption experiences and perception of digital inclusion could better explain and predict users' digital practices than their digital literacy alone. So, we carry out a literature review on the process of inclusion supplemented with an exploratory qualitative study to propose a conceptualization of user's digital self-inclusion in 4 dimensions (accessibility, autonomy, external equity, and recognition). This research provides new insights into understanding the process of digital inclusion to support companies in creating more inclusive marketing strategies and digital journeys for the benefit of memorable and fulfilling experiences.

ABSTRACT. Popular media are known to facilitate the dissemination and the transmission of information and values associated with Alcohol and Tobacco Products (ATP), impacting the normative beliefs of the viewers. The content analysis methodology is recognised as an interesting methodology to analyse the media and the messages that are carried to the population/the consumer. However, no unanimous content analysis support has been developed yet in order to document the presence of ATP online. This research program documents the literature review that has been undergone in order to create a comprehensive and replicable content analysis. A total of 1,050 articles were selected to extract the variables of interest for our research, with the remaining 75% of the articles gathered from the literature review (4,444 articles) being disregarded. The data aggregated from these articles selected for analyse have generated 131 variables of interest for our research. These variables have been classified at four different levels: the Platform on which the media is published, the User of the account publishing the media, the Media/Post generated by the user and the Behaviour regarding ATP depicted on the post. Implication of this research, the variables considered and further development will be discussed during the conference.

ABSTRACT. In the mid-20th century, with the discovery of an ecological crisis threatening the very existence of human civilization, a worldwide environmental consciousness emerged. Ever since, Governments have taken actions to encourage citizens to shift toward a more sustainable lifestyle. In the hope of encouraging people to adopt more sustainable consumption patterns, this paper aims to highlight the internal factors that determine consumer resistance or acceptance to changing daily practices that harm the ecosystem. Our research brings a new viewpoint to the habitual factor that might be the biggest barrier against behavioral change regarding sustainability. Through behavioral science literature and exploratory research, our main objective is to better understand the discrepancy between attitude and behavior and outline the psychological mechanism of behavioral change towards sustainability by highlighting the multi-intentional process of decision-making. Our framework is based on Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of planned behavior, although many authors working on sustainable consumption would modify the model to adapt it to the attributes of this particular behavior. Therefore, our conceptual model includes "intention towards habitual behavior" as a predictor of sustainable behavior. To put our theoretical framework into practice, an exploratory phase is foreseen to refine the proposed model and its components.

ABSTRACT. This research explores transferability of utility across digital and non-digital planes and the impact this can have on consumers' (physical and virtual) social identities, using the context of sport NFTs.

We combine social media data analysis and in-depth interviews with sport NFT holders to examine the benefits, utilities and perks associated with sport NFTs and whether/how they support the transfer of utility between digital and non-digital worlds.

Our results suggest that often the main utility associated with NFTs relates to their ability to enable users to express their identity and status within their social circles. Our results showcase four main dimensions of transferability of NFT utility that can affect social identity in different ways; Digital to non-digital, Non-digital to digital, Digital to digital and Co-existence. Furthermore our findings propose a distinction between the terms ‘NFT utilities’ and ‘NFT perks’ based on the transferability of utility they offer.

Our findings contribute to existing knowledge on NFTs by demonstrating how they can become a means to transfer utility across different digital and physical platforms. Additionally, we contribute to social identity literature by supporting the existence of a ‘phygital’ identity, i.e. an extension of identity that co-exists between physical and digital worlds.

ABSTRACT. As one of the most visible and versatile applications of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies have been touted to become ubiquitous with a range of applications in finance such as payment processing and money transfers to broader applications such as on the Internet of Things network, health care data, or supply chain data. Despite the unknown dangers, governments and large corporations are increasingly involved with crypto because of the benefits of tighter security, time, and cost savings. We extend the TAM model with social and personality factors as additional predictors along with the trust as the essential concern in crypto adoption. Although studies have established the role of trust new technology adoption, personality and social predictors are yet unexplored in a TAM model. This study examines the added determinants of social influence and social support along with the Five-Trait personality factors with a central role of trust in predicting crypto adoption. We applied a hybrid SEM-ANN approach to better reflect and capture the non-linear and non-compensatory relationships among the predictors of crypto adoption. We propose and test our integrated (Crypto Adoption-Personality-Social-Trust) CAPSTRUST Model.

ABSTRACT. Hybrid reality games are transforming the city into a virtual playground. Commercial venues wishing to be transposed in such games play a proactive role in this large-scale gamification process. By playing outside, hybrid reality game players are now part of the urban landscape. More specifically, by playing at the point of sale, players become part of the service environment. Yet, little is known of how technology influences customer-to-customer interaction on-site. Also, the negative consequences of gamification remain understudied. Hence, we wonder, how players’ service experience may be negatively impacted by the interaction with customers who do not play and, ultimately, how this new type of interaction may negatively affect players’ perception of the gamified venue. We address these gaps in knowledge using a mixed method approach: the Critical Incident Technique reveals that non-players can trigger a significantly negative service experience for clients who play. In turn, using a between subject experiment among 377 hybrid reality game players, we show that players’ satisfaction and word of mouth intention vis-à-vis the point of sale are deteriorated by the negative interaction with non-players. We also investigate how venues can right the wrong by offering players an exclusive discount.

ABSTRACT. Due to the observed discrepancy between the verbalised opinion of buying centre members regarding brand trust and their behaviour, there is a need for research to measure implicit and explicit views in the B2B sector. A combination of neuroanalytical survey methods and a classic survey seems suitable for this purpose. With the help of an electroencephalogram and facial recognition, the present work investigates the implicit effect of advertisements, which relate to the determinants of brand trust derived from the literature: competence, predictability, relationship and open communication. It was found that, in contrast to the prevailing opinion in the B2B literature, the affective determinants in particular achieved the highest activation at B2B professionals. In addition, a conceptual model on B2B-brand trust was tested with an industrial panel. A similar situation could be observed here. Especially the determinant “relationship” seems to be of central importance. In general, our findings outline the relevance of affective factors to B2B brand trust.

ABSTRACT. Brand heritage has recently gained traction in the B2B literature. However, its effects on the relationship with buyers (i.e., trust, loyalty), as well as the mechanisms for and conditions under which such effects are observed, remain underexplored. This research thus examines if perceived quality and identification—two critical determinants of close B2B relationships—function as mechanisms that explain the effects of suppliers’ brand heritage on buyer loyalty. Further, given that heritage is grounded in the past, this research investigates past time orientation as a boundary variable for the positive effects of suppliers’ brand heritage on buyer loyalty. To this end, a first cross-sectional study was conducted with professional buyers. It showed that supplier brand heritage increases buyer trust by triggering buyer-supplier identification and increases perceived supplier quality. Using an experimental design, a second study replicates these findings and shows that past time orientation moderates the impact of brand heritage, prompting more loyalty among buyers with a positive orientation toward the past. Such evidence of the effects of brand heritage in B2B contexts adds to our understanding of how brand heritage can boost supplier-buyer relationships in industrial markets.

ABSTRACT. Companies have recognized their role in achieving sustainability while incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guiding principle. And while companies in the business-to-business (B2B) sector could leverage the communicative power of brands to promote sustainability and the SDGs to industrial customers, and other stakeholders, the question remains as to how exactly B2B branding and the SDGs influence each other. To clarify the relationship between B2B branding and the SDGs, this study applies bibliometric methods to the current body of sustainable B2B branding literature and derives an agenda for future research. The results indicate that the engagement of B2B marketing scholars with the SDGs is still at a nascent stage. To date, hardly any of the SDGs have been directly addressed in the B2B branding literature, either as a potential target of branding activities or as a factor contributing to branding. This raises intriguing questions regarding the constituents of a sustainable B2B brand, the measurement of its impact on the SDGs, as well as the causal direction between sustainability efforts and branding decisions with a focus on the inside-out perspective of companies. These need to be investigated further and thus form the basis for a future research agenda.

ABSTRACT. Firms approaching financial markets engage in various voluntary (e.g., press releases) and mandated corporate communications (e.g., financial statements) to achieve positive market outcomes. However, these firms often struggle to identify what communication appeals should be deployed to create persuasive corporate communications directed toward financial stakeholders. Rational communication appeals – the objective presentation of factual information through logical arguments – might reassure financial stakeholders by lowering information asymmetry and reducing choice uncertainty. Emotional communication appeals – emotionally-charged language and contextual cues – could operate as powerful indirect signals and increase financial stakeholders’ trust in the firm. It is important to examine how firms can deploy the appropriate mix of corporate communication appeals to persuade financial stakeholders and achieve the expected market outcomes. Aiming to investigate the relative importance of rational and emotional appeals in corporate communications directed toward financial stakeholders, this article uses dictionary-based automated text analysis to examine a sample of 1657 registration statements submitted by US firms during the initial public offering process. We found that emotional appeals affect the market premium and are stronger than rational appeals. In addition, we found that brand traits mediate the impact of communication appeals on the market premium.

ABSTRACT. This article investigates the impact of assortment’s characteristics on consumers’ future deal anticipation (FDA) and waiting for a future deal (WFD) for perishable products. Based on retailing literature we suggest that assortment’s size and variety will drive positively consumer’s anticipation of future deal. This anticipation will then lead consumer to wait for a future deal. The results of two experiments (n1 = 130 and n2 = 202) reveal that assortment size, but not assortment variety, has a direct influence on waiting for a future deal. However, we didn’t find any mediating effect of future deal anticipation on the relation between assortment size and waiting for a future deal. This research presents a theoretical contribution for assortments literature as well as practical implications to manage assortments and deals.

ABSTRACT. Most agree on variety being a good thing. However, literature shows that too many alternatives may result in negative consequences (i.e., choice deferral or no purchase at all), often referred to as choice overload. In a field experiment with a major chocolate brand conducted at a German retail chain, we test for variety during a price and display promotion. The control group offered 23 chocolates on promotion, while test stores displayed a reduced selection of 16 products. We find a significantly positive effect of the display promotion on unit sales but cannot confirm on choice overload. Further findings show a stronger promotion uplift for less popular products in stores with high variety on the display. This suggests that more variety may increase consumers’ willingness to try new products, when the financial risk is low. We contribute to the literature on variety for consumer choices by offering insights from actual purchases with store-level scanner data of display promotions.

ABSTRACT. Product demonstrations are powerful promotional tools which can vary in how they present information, either illustrating step-by-step processes, or showcasing final outcomes customers may achieve after product usage. Our research investigates customers’ cognitive and social experiences while viewing product demonstrations to reveal which type is most effective in driving purchase intentions. Drawing on theories of mental simulation, cognitive flow, and narrative transportation, we propose that when a customer views a demonstration with a process (versus outcome) focus, this encourages a cognitive flow state which facilitates customers’ absorption into the product story, and results in increased purchase intentions for the demonstrated product(s). Effects are attenuated when the customer is part of a larger group. We find support for our proposed process across five studies using multiple product categories and presentation modalities, and offer practical guidance to help marketers optimize product demonstrations to motivate purchasing in a constantly evolving, increasingly digital marketplace.

ABSTRACT. Lessons in marketing learned over a 50 year career building brands and venture capital investments. Learn how research proves critical in building global brands and Lyt overcame societal barriers in developing markets for companies including Scott Paper, where he marketed the first disposable diapers in the US, and then became a "popping" success with Hunt Wesson Foods.

ABSTRACT. Every doctoral student or young academic faces a vast array of challenges, especially during the early years of their career. However, international scholars experience even more difficulties beyond academic challenges, such as cultural ambiguities and uncertainties. As a result, international scholars often seek out company from students or young scholars sharing the same home country to keep cultural comfort. This special session aims to assist international doctoral students and young academics in their acclimation efforts in the USA by addressing the following three questions to further explore the difficulties and challenges accompanying their journey: 1) What obstacles and challenges do international doctoral students face in American doctoral programs? 2) How can international doctoral candidates successfully position themselves on the American job market? 3) What added difficulties do international scholars face when teaching in the USA?

ABSTRACT. The current research examines how consumers respond to charitable appeals after seeing someone else donate to the same cause. Specifically, six experiments featuring both hypothetical and incentivized designs demonstrate that consumers are both more likely to donate and donate more money in response to a low-income versus high-income donor’s donation. These effects are robust across various charitable domains, and are driven by enhanced feelings of moral elevation, or a warm, uplifting feeling experienced after witnessing others’ kindness and goodness. We further demonstrate why moral elevation shifts in response to donor income—observers believe that low-income versus high-income donors have stronger altruistic motivations for their giving.

ABSTRACT. Are consumers more dishonest toward large firms than small firms? Although we would like consumers to behave honestly to all firms, recipient characteristics can affect the moral acceptability of dishonesty. Throughout history, we have tended to root for the little guy. We romanticize underdog stories and want the Davids to win against the Goliaths of the world. In that vein, we present findings from three studies to demonstrate how consumers are more dishonest towards large firms than small firms. First, we experimentally demonstrate that consumers are more likely to actively lie (Study 1) or avoid being truthful (Study 3) to increase their economic gains against large than small firms. Second, we show that low vulnerability and moral perceptions seem to drive this effect (Study 2). Third, we present behavioral evidence from an incentive-aligned experiment where people actually cheated a large-signaling firm more than a small-signaling firm for economic gains (Study 3). Our findings contribute to the literature on consumer dishonesty and how recipient characteristics affect dishonesty.

ABSTRACT. Brand activism, in which a brand publicity takes a political or social justice stance, has been steadily increasing over the years. Companies have begun to overtly weigh in on sociopolitical issues such as immigration, gun control, racial inequality, and women’s empowerment. While a brand’s sociopolitical stance may be well-intended, it may not always appear clear and genuine, resulting in perceptions of inauthentic brand activism or “woke-washing”. This is often followed by consumer backlash. To gain more insights into the woke-washing phenomenon, we conduct two studies to examine consumers’ sentiments and perceptions of woke-washing, along with effective brand responses to mitigate the allegations. Qualitative results uncovered six emerging themes and suggest that woke-washing occurs across various industries. Woke-washing as an umbrella term, societal pressure on brands to conform, and the dilution of authentic efforts are a few of the themes that provide a better understanding of attributes that lead to woke-washing allegations and their impact on society. The experimental study identifies differences in consumer attitudes toward brand responses to woke-washing allegations. An apology plus either policy changes or donations from a new product creation in line with the cause were the most well-received brand responses.

ABSTRACT. Influencer marketing as a major strategy used by brands has attracted much attention. While research on endorsements by human social media influencers (SMIs) is on the rise, recently brands are using a new form of influencer for their endorsements.

Synthetic virtual influencers (SVIs) are artificially created characters developed using emergent technologies. These influencers are made of pixels rather than biological cells. The use of SVIs especially has increased during the pandemic when SMIs were immobile or sick. SVIs can provide many benefits for brands including reduced costs, control, avoiding transgressions, and unbounded availability. While scholars have studied the implications of SMI endorsements, we lack a proper understanding of the opportunities and consequences of use of SVIs.

This research addresses this managerially relevant issue. Specifically, building on literature on attribution theory, authenticity, and human-computer interactions I suggest that SVIs are perceived as less authentic than SMIs. This lowered authenticity perception affects consumers’ (a) attitudes toward the influencer, (b) attitude toward the brand, and (c) intention to purchase the endorsed product. In addition, I suggest that these effects are moderated by the type of the promoted product (utilitarian vs. experiential) and SVIs (SMIs) can be more effective for utilitarian (hedonic) product endorsements.

ABSTRACT. How and should brands converse with other brands on social media? Conventional wisdom suggests that brands should refrain from mentioning competitor brands as this may contribute to free publicity. Yet, nowadays, it is common to find brands commenting on, re-sharing and endorsing content of other brands on social media in order to go viral or engage with new audiences. Brand-to-brand (B2B) dialogue, which refers to brands engaging in explicit interactions with other brands, is an emerging social media marketing strategy used by brands to improve their online presence in a fragmented digital marketplace. B2B dialogue, however, is an elusive phenomenon that is not well understood by marketing researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to identify and conceptualise the different B2B dialogue strategies that take place on social media. We use netnographic observations to develop a holistic framework of B2B dialogue strategies that range from more positive to more negative ones. Our findings offer theory and practice four distinct B2B dialogue strategies, including confronting, teasing, PR hijacking, and praising.

ABSTRACT. This research attempts to describe the mechanisms that online platforms provide to illustrate how employer brands can foster application intention. A quasi-experimental study was carried out on three online platforms of an IT sector company: its corporate site, its official page on LinkedIn (owned media) and its profile on Glassdoor (earned media). The study was conducted with 282 participants who were ignorant of the company. The results show that perceived information credibility of participants triggers application intention through participants’ attitude toward a site and its employer brand image, regardless of online platform.

ABSTRACT. Due to the pervasiveness of AI in consumers lives, marketers now operate in brand contexts that are increasingly shaped by evolving technologies. There is increased pressure on brands to embrace AI to gain a competitive advantage and sustain healthy profit margins (Love, Matthews, & Zhou, 2020). Much has been written claiming that the path to brand purchase discovery has changed in recent years (Chiu et al., 2019), yet little research has mapped how this happens in practice, particularly from a consumer’s perspective. Therefore, this research seeks to gain a better understanding of claims surrounding the impact of AI on consumer autonomy and brand decision making. We adopted a qualitative multi-method approach to data collection which includes semi-structured interviews and customer journey mapping. Findings indicate the potential to create a framework that presents a typology of brand consumers in the AI environment. This includes specific states that describe the consumers behaviour such as ‘risk free browser’ or ‘cautious controller’. Our research contributes to explaining how branding practices have altered and keep evolving. The research will also have some useful practical suggestions for brand managers on how consumers make decisions about their brands and products in the pervasive digital environment.

ABSTRACT. With both AR and DA technologies serving a plethora of consumer needs and services, and as they are expected to see considerable growth over the coming years, it is important to not only examine them individually but also collectively. Doing so will further understanding into these technologies and their propensity to transform the consumer experience. Thus, the term “Augmented Reality Digital Assistants” (i.e. ARDAs) is coined. This research is advancing theory in respect to (1) the role of anthropomorphism within an ARDA app, (2) Developing our understanding of ARDAs through the theoretical lenses of Social Presence Theory, Media Richness Theory and Consumer Lay Theory of Achievement, and (3) the methodological contributions in testing anthropomorphism on learning experiences and subsequent WOM through experimental research. To the authors’ knowledge, no research examining anthropomorphism on learning through the lens of ARDAs has been conducted. With emerging technologies and ever-changing consumer attitudes and behaviours, this research is important in developing greater understanding on the role of digital assistants delivered through AR.

ABSTRACT. The advanced development of technologies of all kinds is opening up new opportunities for brands to engage with their existing and potential consumers, for example through digitally enriched products. One technology that holds great promise in the digital extension of analog products is augmented reality (AR). AR causes a fusion of reality and virtuality by overlaying virtual information on the real environment, which creates an immersive experience for consumers. Despite the promised advantages of AR-enabled products over their analog counterparts, it should be noted that this application area of AR has received only sporadic attention in the scientific literature. The target of our study are two outcome variables: consumer-based brand equity and repurchase intention. Interestingly, studies so far neglected to include constructs of the post-purchase phase. Furthermore, this study places particular emphasis on exploring the mediating effect of consumer-brand engagement and the moderating effect of perceived irritation, which has also been neglected in current research. Our study can be considered an early-stage project, with two field studies planned. Our results provide marketers with valuable information for their product marketing and help them better target and engage their digital customers.

ABSTRACT. Social influencer marketing has developed into a powerful form of marketing communication. Influencers, akin to any type of endorser, may cause scandals by lying. As influencers’ main field of activity is the internet, a lie may propagate swiftly and cause damage to both an influencer and an endorsed brand. Against this backdrop, we close a research gap by developing a framework that includes four lie-based scandals typically caused by influencers and map the size of the detrimental impacts on the influencer and brand. We verify our assumptions with an empirical investigation including 418 participants. In this way, we fill a gap in scandal frameworks and align our work with research on other types of celebrities. The results reveal the significant differences in the seriousness of different types of lies.

ABSTRACT. Although most social media influencer marketing campaigns are done in collaboration with real-life influencers, the use of virtual influencers, and especially computer-generated imagery (CGI) influencers, is increasingly popular. Yet, little is known about how consumers respond to the social media communications of CGI influencers, and how brands can leverage this new type of influencers in their social media marketing campaigns. This pilot study examines consumers’ attitudes toward brands in response to influencer marketing campaigns involving real-life and CGI influencers across two types of promotional messages focusing on either hedonic or utilitarian product values. The outcomes of the pilot study show that while consumers generally have more favorable perceptions associated with communications of real- life influencers, messages focusing on hedonic (cf. utilitarian) product attributes improve consumer responses to posts shared by CGI influencers. Perceived creepiness and trustworthiness as well as social presence of communications are defined as mediators explaining individual campaigns’ impacts on brand attitudes. Notably, posts shared by CGI influencers evoke higher creepiness, explaining likely reasons behind more negative responses to CGI (cf. real-life) influencer marketing. This pilot study provides a foundation for a larger- scale study, which will also address the development of consumer-CGI influencer relationships over time.

ABSTRACT. The past decade has witnessed the rise of social media health influencers. Researchers have posited that government and public health organizations can benefit from using social media influencers to spread relevant health information and promote positive health behaviors. This research aims to better understand physicians as social media influencers and to explore their use of the video platform TikTok, in terms of how they present themselves, the content they share, and consumer engagement with that content. A content analysis of 330 TikTok videos posted by eleven physicians, identified as top/most followed on TikTok showed that physicians on TikTok present themselves with medical credentials and other cues that reflect their professionalism. Their content on TikTok focuses on healthcare information and advice and on life as a healthcare professional. Although physicians on TikTok seem to understand the importance of getting higher visibility by using TikTok music/sound trends even when those are not related to their messages, they might not be using all the technical capabilities TikTok offers, including popular formats such as Duets or speech-to-text which can result in higher consumer engagement. This study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the personal branding of physicians and their digital marketing strategy.

ABSTRACT. Instagram presents opportunities for marketers to encourage people to post about their products and brands. However, sometimes individuals post because they are simply Like-seeking, cognisant that the number of Likes received from others is a social currency and a means to signal popularity and status to others. In this context, this paper proposes Instagram Like-seeking as a modern form of conspicuous consumption as, consistent with this concept, the number of Likes one acquires is visible to others, highly prized by others, and a means to signal status and relative position to others. In particular, it investigates materialism, vulnerable narcissism and self-monitoringtraits commonly associated with conspicuous consumption as antecedents of Like-seeking. It distinguishes between normative Like-seeking and deceptive Like-seeking where a false impression may be presented to gain Likes. It also explores the mediating role of Instagram intensity in the relationship between these traits and Like-seeking. Data from a sample of 436 Instagram users in the United States show that those traits normally associated with conspicuous consumption are directly associated with deceptive Like-seeking in particular. Findings also reveal new insights into users’ Instagram intensity and its role as a mediating variable between materialism and self-monitoring and both forms of Like-seeking.

ABSTRACT. Research shows that credibility may stem from multiple entities including the source, the message, or the channel. Overall, this line of work demonstrates that when persuasive messages are perceived as credible, consumers’ cognitive and emotional responses should be more favorable. Research also suggests that credibility is related to concepts such as believability, skepticism, and trust. Recognizing that credibility relates to varied entities and different concepts, previous work has relied upon multiple ways to study and measure aspects of discount credibility. Nonetheless, existing research on discount credibility is fragmented, which has resulted in multiple conceptualizations of discount credibility and consequently no reliable and established measure of this construct. To address this research gap, the purpose of this research is to conceptualize discount credibility and develop a new multi-item measure of it. In addition, this research aims to offer a nomological network of theoretical constructs that will explain how discount-related concepts conceptually relate to and differ from each other and from the proposed discount credibility construct.

ABSTRACT. While previous research often focused on negative effects of dynamic pricing on fairness perceptions, we suggest a more optimistic outlook and argue there is an overlooked price fairness paradox which occurs under certain constellations of fluctuating prices. Based on loss aversion theory and regulatory focus theory, we compare price fairness perceptions for four dynamic pricing sequences: three prices below a given reference price vs. three prices above the reference price vs. two prices below the reference price and one above vs. two prices above the reference price and one below. Our results show that customers who previously received advantageous prices but ended up with a disadvantageous price, report higher fairness levels than customers who receive the same disadvantageous price but were never faced with advantageous prices. This is unexpected, as one would expect fairness perceptions to be lower for the customers who had previously been exposed to cheaper prices. Customers who first received disadvantageous prices and then received an advantageous price develop similar fairness perceptions as customers who were always given an advantageous price. The group faced with three advantageous prices experienced stable and high fairness perceptions, whereas the group faced with three disadvantageous prices reported declining fairness perceptions.

ABSTRACT. We study the optimal markdown pricing of fashion-like seasonal products, in the presence of customer anticipated regret. Building on previous research, we quantify markdown demand, reservation price, and integrate the effects of high-price and stockout regret into the optimal markdown pricing model. We model a regret-prone customer’s purchase decision using a utility based economic model and estimate the parameters of this model with data obtained from a brick and mortar fashion retailer. High-price regret arises when customers buy the product at a regular price and therefore incur the mental cost of knowing that the product may be available later at a markdown price. At the other extreme, they may anticipate stockout regret if they wait for the markdown price and incur the mental cost of possibly facing a stockout during the markdown season. Our analysis shows that considering customer regret in the pricing decision during markdown season for apparel can bring an advantage to the retailer and increase in expected revenues. Our results highlight the importance of assessing the relative strength of regret and of accounting for these factors in designing effective markdown pricing strategies. We conclude by discussing the implications of the research and suggest future research directions.

ABSTRACT. Psychological ownership – a feeling that an object is “MINE!” – is associated with positive effects such as commitment to the organization, higher willingness to pay, and better care for public goods. Literature in management and marketing suggests that feelings of responsibility are expected of owners. We identify three types of ownership: Pure Actual (or legal); Pure Psychological; Limited Actual. Much research has focused on outcomes based on the existence or level of psychological ownership, without consideration of ownership type. We investigate whether psychological ownership produces similar feelings of responsibility across four settings that vary in type of ownership, and discuss the implications for marketers of shared goods and “liquid” experiences. This research has the potential to demonstrate different levels of reported responsibility (both general and financial) across scenarios that vary in ownership type. This research is the first to investigate a boundary condition for the positive effects of psychological ownership. With the three ownership types in mind, researchers can now investigate outcomes which may be unique to each type of ownership.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we demonstrate how consumers’ judgments differ significantly when they see the objectively equivalent information of the different arrangements of pictograms. At the process level, we propose that consumers show optimism bias when the quantitative information is presented in sorted pictogram format. Study 1a investigates the effect of attribute framing (negative and positive) and the format of graphical representations (sorted and unsorted) on individuals’ judgments. Study 1b tests the effect in a different context. Study 2 tests the combined (i.e., graphical and numerical) effect of framing on judgments. Study 3 tests the relationship between graphical representation format, the use of pronouns (self vs. others) and attribute framing on judgments. Study 4 tests the effect of pictogram format on compliance behavior. Study1a shows the validity of framing effect on the graphical domain. Study 1b shows that the individuals are more optimistic under sorted pictogram. Study 2 addresses the potential issue about the misestimation of graphical quantity. Study 3 depicts the optimism bias in sorted pictogram condition. Lastly, study 4 demonstrates the applicability of the phenomenon to the communication messages using Covid 19 scenario. So, our purpose is to demonstrate the impact of perceptual features of pictograms on consumer judgments.

ABSTRACT. We focus on understanding the investment decisions of retail investors who do not have homogenized expertise in the stock market. Specifically, we examine the influence of visual representation (i.e., the highlighted vs. unhighlighted area under the stock price line chart) on the perception of financial information. The irrationality in choices and decisions that has been continuously acknowledged in behavioral finance literature should bring up the necessity to consider other psychological factors which influence investor decision-making processes (Barberis and Thaler 2003; De Bondt 1998; Slovic 1972; Tversky and Kahneman 1979; Thaler 1980). The highlighted area under the price curve compared to the unhighlighted area normally should act as an irrelevant factor in stock price volatility and risk perception. According to our findings, the highlighted area under the curve reduces(enhances) the perception of volatility for increasing(decreasing) prices and facilitates the stock price trend prediction for the next period. Furthermore, apart from the biased volatility assessment, we decipher illusory weight perception in 2D figures signaled through the shapes filled with colors perceived as more solid and heavy than the unfilled shapes. Therefore, we propose the perception of solidity as the underlying mechanism for distorted risk and volatility perception.

ABSTRACT. Consumer pessimism is at an all-time high due to economic uncertainty, as the world recovers slowly from the pandemic yet finds itself in the midst of a geopolitical crisis. Consumer behavior has been influenced by the pandemic for the previous two years, and after the pandemic began to fade, many believed that pent-up demand would fuel an economic resurgence, but something else was in store for the global economy. The invasion of Ukraine has replaced COVID-19 as the most pressing issue, followed by roaring global inflation. Consumers on every continent have a pessimistic opinion of the state of the economy and the chances of a recovery. Nearly one-fourth of European consumers name the war in Ukraine as their primary concern, while 44 percent cite price increases. The pandemic, which has dominated public life for the past two years, is now only the third most pressing issue (Kammer, Azour, Selassie, Goldfajn, Rhee, 2022). Due to disruptions in supply from Russia and/or Ukraine, the prices of a variety of items, notably natural gas and oil, have increased. Wheat prices have reached an all-time high, with Ukraine and Russia accounting for thirty percent of world exports.

ABSTRACT. We often observe and experience social exclusion in our daily lives. Mindful practice can help combat social exclusion. There is a growing interest in practicing meditation among consumers to achieve mindful living. In this present research, we aim to understand the role of voice in mindfulness practice and answer the question of whether one gender of voice is preferred by consumers in a guided meditation to combat social exclusion. Findings from two experiments support our theorizing and illuminate that female-voice is preferred over male-voice for socially excluded individuals. Implications for theories on mindfulness, resource replenishment, and well-being are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Despite a growing need for financial services and their practical importance, consumer decision-making for financial services has not gained enough attention in academia, specifically in the COVID-19 situation. To fill the gap in the literature, this study has two research purposes. First, this study examined if finance-related construal levels of psychological distance were associated with financial advice-seeking behavior by types of professional services. Second, this study analyzed whether the financial situation affected by COVID-19 was associated with financial advice-seeking behavior by types of professional services. To achieve these purposes, logistic regression analysis with seemingly unrelated estimation (SUE) was employed in this study. As result, the effect of psychological characteristics varies by type of financial advice-seeking. As financial stress levels increased, the use of some form of financial advice-seeking behaviors increased, while a lower level of financial stress was related to not seeking financial advice. In the meantime, the financial effect of COVID-19 was only associated with seeking advice from financial advisors. It implies that clients under some circumstances such as a pandemic crisis would seek advice on a specific part of their portfolio rather than their whole financial performance that includes other areas of personal finances.

ABSTRACT. The shared use of micromobility, such as e-scooter, is currently enjoying considerable popularity in business and academia. From a marketing perspective, researchers and practitioners need to understand antecedents and outcomes of successful adoption. Although initial usage intention is an important indicator of adoption success, it does not necessarily lead to the desired results unless the intention continues. This study’s objective is to investigate antecedents and outcomes of usage intention of micromobility sharing and how users’ evaluations evolve as experience increases. Therefore, we use a longitudinal model for micromobility adoption within an organizational environment. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), we integrate constructs from consumer’s perceived value and employee enablement theory to study the impact of usage intention on subjective well-being and organizational identification. For model testing, we did a two-wave longitudinal study with a representative sample (n=135) and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Our results reveal that performance expectancy, task enablement, hedonic and environmental value, impact behavioral intention, which influences users’ subjective well-being and can strengthen users’ identification with the providing organization. Moreover, we show that the proposed antecedents can reasonably predict usage intention for both evaluation times, without and with test experience.

ABSTRACT. The ongoing advancement and growth of information technology has stimulated increased interest in whether-and-how the concept of consumer engagement (hereafter CE) emerges in a different manner within contemporary online consumption contexts when compared to more traditional (and tangible) alternatives. Thus, understanding CE and its relationship to different aspects of the customer-website-company interface is important for managers hoping to develop and facilitate deep, lasting company-customer(s) relationships. We contend that as a customer interacts with and experiences an online commerce website, a specific psychological state is generated; therefore, conceptualisations of CE should reflect the nature of the relationships that develop during these customer-website interactions. In doing so, we propose that CE within this context may stimulate positive behaviours and attitudes toward the online commerce website in question. Using online customer survey within the Digikala e-commerce website (N=810), the proposed structural model is consistent with the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTATUT), to demonstrate the factors capable of enhancing CE and customer trust within the e-commerce context. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings and interesting directions for future research are provided.

ABSTRACT. An e-commerce live streaming customer engagement model, including customer engagement perception (CEP) and customer engagement behavior (CEB), is proposed from the perspective of contextual environments. Drawing on the dual model of environmental perception and Gestalt theory, we assume the effects of contextual environments on customer engagement in three sequential stages: initial attention capture, integrated perception formation, and subsequent engagement behavior. Using real-world live streaming as stimuli, we conduct an eye-tracking study to validate our model. Study results reveal that contextual environments initially capture attention to the servicescape (background and anchor) and focal (product) areas. Then, perception processing in these areas promotes perceived diagnosticity, which further enhances product preference and approach tendency. Similar product display and product involvement are boundary conditions that moderate the effect of contextual environments on customer engagement. This research contributes to the e-commerce live streaming customer engagement literature and provides significant implications for live e-commerce businesses.

ABSTRACT. Intelligent Conversational Agents (ICAs) have emerged as a tool for supporting customer service activities in myriad industry sectors. Along with social platforms, virtual agents are the main tool when it comes engaging contact with customers, having an additional advantage of constant availability. Recent forms of communication raised new realities about the perception of interpersonal relationships and branding.

This study proposes a multi-methodological approach to better understand how the use of ICAs affects the perception of realities in brand experiences and relationships. Through three studies, data mining, qualitative and mixed, we discovered that individuals build various construal representations in the presence of psychological distance to the brand.

First, when interacting with distant brands, consumers seek the prevalence of brand imagery congruence, cognitive experiences, or social presence in the perceived quality of the service. In contrast, when psychological proximity occurs, the post-phenomenological perspective excels through kinesthetic experience, perception of the quasi-sentient other, and customer orientation.

Results illustrate how individuals perceive conversational agents as a social extension of brands, resulting in a relationship of both alterity and immersion. In light of these results, we further discuss theoretical and managerial contributions.

ABSTRACT. The selling job of B2B salespeople is an excellent example of studying emotions due to the ups and downs they experience daily. Among studies relating to B2B salespeople's emotions, they either focus on the customers or do not emphasize basic emotions per se. To study the basic emotions of B2B salespeople, we adopted Ekman's (1992) six basic emotions: Anger, Fear, Surprise, Disgust, Joy, and Sadness. We used almost 28,000 job reviews B2B salespeople wrote on Glassdoor.com and the NRC emotion lexicon (Mohammad & Turney, 2013) to measure the emotions expressed in the job reviews. We found several intriguing patterns. First, there is a monotonically decreasing trend as the company rating goes up from one star to five stars for Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness. Second, the scores for Surprise and Joy rise as the company rating increases from one star, reaching the peak at four stars, and then declining. Third, all six emotions significantly predict company rating, with Joy being the only emotion that rises as the company rating increases. We provide some possible explanations for our findings. Then we conclude this paper by discussing the study's managerial implications, limitations, and avenues for future research.

ABSTRACT. As sales organizations are forced to adapt to changes in the market and economic climate, they may find resource structures becoming more limited and competitive. If changes begin to make a salesperson feel they are losing something from their current professional relationship that is assigned to another, then jealousy can begin to plague the salesperson's morale. This study uses the conservation of resources theory (COR) and equity theory to explore constructs that may serve to intensify these negative effects of salesperson jealousy. We find that salesperson jealousy significantly influences job stress. In addition, we show that job stress leads to both unethical selling behaviors and turnover intentions. These effects are further analyzed through a mediation analysis showing that job stress provides a significant mediated effect on both unethical selling and turnover intentions. Finally, organizational commitment is examined as a moderator that enhances the mediated effect. Our findings show that organizational commitment strengthens the role of jealousy in driving job stress. This effect suggests that those that have organizational commitment may take resource reallocation more personally and experience greater tension when jealousy is experienced.

ABSTRACT. Although the idea of classifying sales jobs is around for some time, literature typically makes recommendations to managers that refer to the “generalist” salesperson. However, sales practice has advanced significantly away from such a generalization, developing more specific types of sales jobs, from order-takers to more complex order-getters and order-creators. While all three categories fall into the general sales jobs, the job demands vary substantially, as well as the resources needed to perform the everyday tasks of these job types. This means that recommendations related to sales “generalist” may not fully apply to any of these sales job types. To understand the differences between the demands and personal resources required for customer success in different sales jobs, this study uses job demands-resource theory (JD-R) to examine how perceived helpfulness influences customers’ satisfaction and loyalty, and the role of emotion regulation in sales encounters when customers are faced with order-takers, order-getters, and order-creators. To test this, we present a series of studies involving a total of 270 B2B customers. We find that helpfulness and regulation of emotion have different direct and interactive effects on customer satisfaction, and ultimately on customer loyalty across the three different types of sales jobs.

ABSTRACT. The body positivity movement has been growing over recent years, and increasingly many retailers have started to acknowledge this and have models with different body types present their products and services. While the impact of more “average” rather than skinny models on brand perceptions has been studied in the past (mostly in advertising research), their role in assisting specific product evaluations and purchase decisions has not been investigated. We study how presenting clothes on differently sized models influences consumers who are shopping for clothes online. Across four experiments we find that consumers who perceive the model’s body to be more like their own perceive a lower level of risk regarding the fit and appearance of the item. This, in turn, results in higher intentions to purchase the item. We discuss the implications and offer recommendations to online retailers to encourage them to take more inclusive action by showing how to best do so.

ABSTRACT. According to order effects, the order of item-price (vs. price-item) in a multi-item package is preferred because it attracts consumers’ attention to benefits (e.g., the quantity of items earned) rather than to costs (e.g., price). Numerosity effects make the order of item-price more attractive because people perceive the product with a greater value as expressed on a large scale. Because of this, order effects are attenuated when unit price calculation is relatively easy. Across six studies, we find that item-price (vs. price-item) is more effective in increasing hedonic purchase intention, but not in increasing utilitarian purchase intention, when unit price calculation is difficult. Those with a hedonic motive anticipate more feelings of guilt associated with hedonic purchases. Item-price helps them selectively pay attention to benefits (the number of items to be received) of the package, which reduces said guilt, increasing purchase intention. The presence (vs. absence) of unit price indeed decreases the intention to make a hedonic purchase. Contrary to well-established order effects, when a price discount is offered, price-item (vs. item-price) becomes more attractive because the price discount is used to justify hedonic purchases.

ABSTRACT. Seamlessness experience has become one of the most critical aspects of the omnichannel consumer journey. The impact of the seamlessness experience on important customer engagement behaviours, including customer purchase behaviour, customer knowledge behaviour, customer referral behaviour, and customer influencer behaviour, remains unknown. This study aims to unravel the link between journey seamlessness experience and customer engagement behaviours, as well as the contingent role of self-brand connection and feeling of groundedness. PLS-SEM is used to evaluate hypotheses based on 474 usable questionnaires from omnichannel customers in Vietnam. The data shows that seamlessness experience affects consumer purchasing behaviour the most, followed by customer knowledge, influencer behaviour, and referral behaviour. The mediating role of self-brand connection on the nexus between seamlessness experience and consumer engagement behaviour is also validated, meaning the transfer from omnichannel experience to engagement behaviour requires a strong self-brand connection. Furthermore, consumer feeling of groundedness elevates the effect of journey seamlessness experience on self-brand connection. These results have crucial implications for multichannel retailers who want to enhance their customers’ self-brand connection and subsequent engagement behaviours.

ABSTRACT. Due to the rapid increase of mobile devices among consumers, many retailers have adopted mobile channels and attempted to align the service and operation between mobile and existing channels. This study focuses on cross-channel integration between mobile channels and physical stores and examines the impact on mobile channel success. The authors first analyze the characteristics of retailers’ apps and propose a conceptual framework for cross-channel integration between mobile and physical channels. Based on this framework, the authors hypothesize and test to what extent mobile and physical channel integration in the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase phases influence the number of mobile channel users. The statistical analysis of data regarding 81 retail apps suggests that mobile and physical channel integration has a significant positive impact on the number of mobile channel users. The results also suggest that the positive effect of cross-channel integration in the post-purchase phase is stronger than in the purchase phase.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates marketing managers’ practices to engage consumers in creative activities. Drawing on sixteen interviews with experts from different industries, in three countries – Belgium, France, and Japan – as well as secondary data, we analyze (1) the different factors managers consider engaging consumers in creative activities, (2) how they perceive the engagement of ordinary consumers vs. brand fans and, (3) under which conditions they believe this leads to more efficient collaborative strategies. The findings reveal the importance of five key factors that structure these collaborative strategies: the target, the scope, the format, the environment, and the time. This investigation contributes to a better understanding of managers’ beliefs and objectives while engaging regular consumers or brand fans in creative activities and extends the literature both on brand loyalty and consumer creativity management.

ABSTRACT. This research explores the roles of AR perceived values (i.e. (utilitarian, social and hedonic) in value cocreation and the moderating impact of brand love on the cocreation engagement relationship on both shared and individually consumed products. Data was collected using an online survey via MTurk.The results support the proposed model hypotheses. More specifically, experience quality of using AR applications for both Wannakicks and IKEA drives users perceived values (utilitarian, social and hedonic). Further, the results support the mediational roles of perceived value on customer value cocreation. For both samples, hedonic and social values mediate the effect of AR experience on value cocreation. However, the results did not support the effect of perceived utilitarian value of using IKEA AR on value cocreation, but it was significant for the Wannakicks users. Finally, the data support the finding that value cocreation is a pre-requisite to increasing customer engagement for both study samples, but this effect is moderated by customers love for IKEA brand, but not for the Wannakicks brand.

ABSTRACT. Customers are using social media to post complaints about poor product or service experiences with firms. Two unintended consequences of social media complaints are third-party customers who can respond rudely and the huge audience of virtually-present observers watching the exchange. Despite recent research examining such online incivility, no research has examined the effects of observers' perceived C2C schadenfreude, defined as the perception that one customer is experiencing malicious joy at another customer’s misfortune, or the related sympathy it may produce. The current research seeks to fill this gap by exploring the detrimental effects of perceived schadenfreude and sympathy from observers' perspectives. The results show that the degree of perceived schadenfreude (stronger versus milder) and the online persona of the rude commenter (loyal customer versus troll) produce varying effects on observers’ sympathy and, subsequently, observers' purchase intent with a firm.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the impact of omnichannel strategies in franchised networks on the franchisee-franchisor relationship quality. It proposes hypotheses regarding the impact on relationship satisfaction of three sets of antecedents, related to franchisee perceived omnichannel value, omnichannel integration quality, and how the relational aspects of franchisee empowerment, franchisor support and intra-brand competition are modified in an omnichannel context. Quantitative data from 400 French franchisees are used to test the hypotheses with PLS-SEM. The results indicate that omnichannel strategies seem to have ambivalent effects on relationship satisfaction, where franchisees search for both support and autonomy, and appreciate omnichannel consistency while dreading the external transparency and internal competition it brings. We find no significant differences in the paths to satisfaction between retail and service franchisees. However, we report significant differences between franchisees with vs. without territorial exclusivity clauses in their contract. Under territorial exclusivity, omnichannel perceived value enhances franchisee satisfaction with the franchisor. Conversely, in the absence of territorial exclusivity, omnichannel strategies seem to deteriorate the franchise relationship, as franchisees not only find intra-brand competition more damaging, but also perceive the empowerment and the value they receive from omnichannel strategies negatively to the extent that it hinders their satisfaction with the franchisor.