ABSTRACT. Almost 90% of consumers rely on online reviews for their purchase decisions, and 64% look at Google user ratings before visiting a local business (Bright Local 2020; Review Tracker 2021). This publicly available information is also increasingly important in business-to-business (B2B) markets, as 80% of B2B buyers report utilizing online reviews in purchasing decisions (Demand base 2018; TrustRadius 2019). While prior work has studied the role of online reviews in business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts (Babic Rosario et al. 2020), research about online reviews in B2B and channels settings is scarce. This research investigate how a firm’s online reviews impact its purchasing relationship with a supplier. It focuses on a key facet of a firm’s online reviews, its online rating, defined as the average numerical score (usually out of five) given to the firm by its downstream end users on a publicly available online review platform. This score is readily observable and consistently links to financial outcomes (see meta-analyses by Floyd et al. 2014; You et al. 2015).

ABSTRACT. Surprisingly little research has focused on darkness, given the propensity to work at home, pay bills, and engage in consumption behaviors in the dark. We define darkness as lower than 10 lux, and is distinguishable from dimness that ranges from above 10 lux to 150 lux in extant research. The phenomenon of darkness is not well understood. While darkness is commonly thought to evoke feelings of fear (Schaller, Park, and Mueller 2003) and uncertainty (Tomar and Vijayalakshmi 2019), people spend a great deal of time in the dark engaged in a variety of daily activities (Dorin, 2015; Read, 2014;). We pose three main questions in the dissertation. How does darkness influence consumer decisions? What underlying process can explain these effects? And under what conditions might the effect of darkness on consumers’ decisions be mitigated?

ABSTRACT. This research aims to (1) pin down social motivation effects in the sales contest leaderboards, (2) quantify salespeople’s monetary motivation and social motivation in the sales contests, and (3) design more effective sales contests involving leaderboards by employing counterfactual policies armed with my structural estimates.

ABSTRACT. Firms are often anthropomorphized, a phenomenon that has numerous implications for understanding consumer perception of and behavior towards firms. Although extant literature mostly documents positive outcomes for firms or products that are anthropomorphized, less is known about its boundary conditions. Moreover, can anthropomorphism backfire for firms? Given the increasing pervasiveness of firms trying to be perceived as ‘people’ and embodied consumer-facing technology (e.g., digital assistants, service robots, etc.), we need to investigate when and for whom might anthropomorphism work. In that spirit, we explore the downstream effects of firms being anthropomorphized with 5900 observations across 48 entities (firms and otherwise). First, we find that being anthropomorphized is associated with positive outcomes of enhanced identification, attitude, and protective motives towards the firm. Second, we find that the positive effects of firms being anthropomorphized are conditional on the firm’s moral valence; such that being anthropomorphized increasingly benefits (harms) firms with more positive (negative) moral perceptions. Theoretically, given that both anthropomorphism and morality have ‘human’ underpinnings, our results offer preliminary evidence to study both in conjunction to delineate their interplay. Managerially, we recommend that firms with positive (negative) moral perceptions should leverage (downplay) anthropomorphism.

ABSTRACT. The inquiry examined consumer’s brand narratives elicited via a qualitative survey. The research questions focused on important characteristics, forming a typology, and creating illustrative archetypal consumer brand narratives for each type. Rather than using existing brand narrative types that are conceptually founded on long-form narratives, a narrative analysis of 138 consumer brand narratives empirically derived 13 types of consumer brand narratives. These types were placed into the 4 quadrants of a 2 x 2 typology. An archetypal consumer narrative was also created for each type to aid overall understanding and to help in placing other narratives into the proper type and quadrant within the typology.

ABSTRACT. Expenditures on beauty, fitness, and body shaping by females have increased significantly in the recent years. Most previous studies examined this from the psychological perspective of self-acceptance and self-liking. However, this phenomenon may also have social implications. In a male-dominated society, it has become a norm that females should be cautious about their facial appearance and body shape. Females are often forced to consume to attain physical attractiveness and to construct a favorable social image. Consumption for impression construction has become a frequently used strategy for impression management. This study surveyed 419 Chinese female professionals and found that impression management motives significantly drove female professionals to spend on their faces and bodies for impression construction, which in turn contributed to the enhancement of their social identities in three dimensions: relational identity, public identity, and collective identity. The findings provide a profound understanding of the social environment for female professionals as well as actionable insights for the promotional strategies of the beauty and fitness industries.

ABSTRACT. This study aims at investigating the impact of inferiority feelings and conspicuous consumption behavior towards smart television to derive subjective happiness and augment social value. Although there are substantial research studies available on measuring the impact of inferiority feelings on personality and social values of individuals, less is known about the subsequent behavioral outcomes as conspicuous buying to equalize social values and relationships. This study contributes to the literature of conspicuous buying behavior and social comparison literature by extending its behavioral consequences. This research extends its contributions also to the literature on the cognition and inferiority feeling among consumers. Data was collected from 324 respondents using the snowballing sampling methods. The study reveals that the consumers of lower socio-economic segments are sensitive to the social comparisons of materialistic wealth, which inculcates inferiority feeling for not being equal to others in wealth and lifestyle. Such feelings cause social alienation and self-concealment among consumers, and develops conspicuous buying behavior. Therefore, social trends stimulate me-too feeling among consumer to acquire conspicuous products like smart televisions in Mexico. Such behavior is not uncommon among Hispanic consumers in general, and Mexican consumers in particular.

ABSTRACT. For decades, a sizeable amount of corporate marketing research has been dedicated to determining psychographic segments on which to base corporate strategy. Yet, as this article argues, psychographic segmentation research has generally lacked sufficient theoretical concern about the types of variables, or theories, of any type, that should be used to develop the studies. Therefore, this article examines numerous segmentation studies to determine the extent to which they suggest promising theories for future psychographic segmentation research. From a review of this wide range of studies, several areas of theory appear to be extremely promising avenues for psychographic segmentation research. For example, the psychographic segmentation studies consistently suggest that both Rogers (2003) adoption categories, and intrinsic motivation concepts, are rich areas of further theory development in psychographic research.

ABSTRACT. As many parts of the world have started returning to normal, a hybrid mode is still preferable; for example, hybrid working and education. Researchers and retail practitioners wonder whether the online shift in the retailing industry has lasting effects. This research examines the impact of herd mentality, consumer resilience, consumer vulnerability, and mindfulness on consumers’ post-adoption disconfirmation of online shopping, ultimately affecting the continuance intention of online shopping. Data from a survey of Vietnamese consumers who have switched to or accelerated online shopping due to the Covid-19 outbreak was analyzed using PLS-SEM. Findings revealed that consumers’ mentality, capturing their discount own information and imitation of others, affected the disconfirmation of online shopping. Results offered mixed results for coping self-efficacies: whereas consumer resilience did not affect the disconfirmation, consumer vulnerability did. Furthermore, mindfulness affected the disconfirmation directly and moderated the effects of coping self-efficacies on disconfirmation. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided.

ABSTRACT. Effective financial planning is essential for financial wellbeing. Yet, too many people are financially unprepared for retirement. There is an urgent need to consider effective mechanisms to engage individuals in thinking about and planning for the future and improve longer-term financial wellbeing. The aim of the study was to explore ways in which we can connect individuals more concretely with their future selves and aid future financial planning. We build on the work of Hershfield et al (2011) that tested the effect of an aged faces intervention on future-self connection and financial planning. We extend Hershfield et al’s research by comparing four alternative interventions: a) Aged Faces b) Financial Education c) Role Models and d) Future Visualization. Our research highlights the hidden dangers of the Aged Faces approach, which is currently in use by some financial organizations, and highlights the benefits of taking a more rounded approach such as Future Visualization.

ABSTRACT. Although well-being is the unit of analysis of marketing research streams such as the Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) movement (Davis et al., 2016), consumer well-being remains at the fringes of marketing research. Dominant marketing perspectives focus on behaviors fully associated with consumption and overlook societal outcomes of consumption. Streams of research associates consumer well-being: anti-consumption, ethical consumption, and the interface of human-machine at different levels of service. Bibliometric studies show that there is little research on the effects of technology on consumer well-being (Gomes Neto et al., 2021), and given that exchanges are mediated by technologies and frequently lack the taste of human interaction, aside from the call to understand the effect of product-related (digital vs tangible) and consumer-related variables (individual vs social activities). Concerns about well-being were amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which blurred the boundaries between work, leisure, and consumption and their impact on consumer well-being. Hence, this study analyzes the times and spaces in which consumers’ activities are associated with hedonic and eudaimonic types of well-being. Understanding where and when consumers experience positive and negative levels of well-being contributes to paving the way to pursue more nuanced research on the topic.

ABSTRACT. Choosing for others is regularly occurring in our daily lives for various reasons, such as gift-giving or caregiving. Prior research established significant differences in the processes and outcomes between choice for others and choice for self. Yet, there is a lack of research about the caregiving context and the subsequent decision-making process and choice. Moreover, the major challenge for the decision-maker when choosing for others, particularly in the caregiving context, is the absence of the recipient’s involvement in the process. However, Virtual Reality (VR) perspective-taking can help overcoming this challenge by bringing the recipient’s perspective to the decision-maker. Three studies including a large-scale survey and two VR experiments were conducted. Our survey results demonstrate that differences between self-other choice and self-choice (caregiving and self-indulgence) are reflected in customer equity drivers and intergroup brand relationships. Our experiment findings indicate that different levels and types of immersive and interactive perspective-taking have different effects on intergroup brand relationships, customer engagement and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, state empathy and affective commitment are mediating these relationships. In addition to its theorical contributions, our study can be beneficial to marketing practitioners and policymakers to enhance the decision-making for others by adopting VR perspective-taking and eliciting empathy.

ABSTRACT. Arguably one of the most notable and influential concepts to emerge from the sales literature is that of adaptive selling. The topic of adaptive selling is also popular in the practitioner space, where managers have identified adaptability as a critical success factor. Yet, despite the ongoing importance of adaptive selling in theory and practice, there has not been a systematic review of the literature on the topic. Toward that end, our research aims to bring together the many fragmented insights found in the literature to advance a comprehensive framework of adaptive selling grounded in past research. In addition, our work hopes to critically examine the state of the literature and identify fruitful areas for future inquiry. To do so, we utilize a systematic literature methodology that includes over 100 articles over 40 years and across multiple reputable journals. Furthermore, a novel quantitative technique in the field of marketing, main path analysis, is used to uncover the most influential contributions and map the evolution of the adaptive selling literature. By providing a thorough investigation into the vast body of research on adaptive selling, we offer a synthesis of the current scholarly understanding and identify any disagreements in the literature.

ABSTRACT. Driven by organizational practices, namely the implementation of a team approach in sales organizations, this stream of research sought to define the concept of team selling and subsequently identify constructs and processes related to team performance. Prior to the introduction of the Internet and social media, researchers identified that environmental change, increasing task complexity, and growing diversity in customer needs was increasing the complexity of the products and services being sold, creating an overwhelming challenge to sales organizations. This selling complexity evolved beyond the capabilities of an individual, demanding that selling organizations realign resources to address it in the form of selling teams. The purpose of this paper is to review the team selling literature across five research themes, propose future research, and review potential theories for future investigations.

ABSTRACT. Drawing on resource-based theory, competences/capabilities theory, and dynamic capabilities theory, sales scholars have conceptually investigated the dynamic managerial capabilities (DMCs) of sales managers. This research proposes a framework to assess how DMCs influence operational sales capabilities, and, in turn, firm performance. Specifically, we discuss how technology-enabled sales capability, an operational sales capability, mediates the three components of DMCs – managerial cognition, managerial social capital, and managerial human capital – and three types of firm performance – financial performance, growth, and customer relationship performance – under conditions of environmental turbulence. This research has the potential to provide a more holistic view of DMCs and provide scholars with future opportunities to investigate DMCs with other operational sales capabilities and/or other performance measures or measures of strategic change.

ABSTRACT. Today's sales organizations face uncertainties, new models, and technological developments, and as a consequence, high employee turnover. In the context of digitalization and/or virtualization of sales processes, this research: (i) identifies organizational, sales manager, and individual influences of salespeople turnover intentions and (ii) proposes “perceived organizational support (POS) to relationship quality” as a mediating mechanism. Overall, we offer a conceptual framework that provides insights into how organizations can sustain relationships with salespeople in the context of technology-charged sales processes. Specifically, we identify (i) open communication and technological investments as key organizational influences, (ii) skills, leadership style, support, and leadership worthiness as key managerial influences, and (iii) perceptions of the digitization and virtualization of sales, technology orientation, and adaptive self-efficacy as crucial individual influences of turnover intentions. We also identify “POS to relationship quality” as a mechanism that impacts turnover intentions. Given the high turnover of salespeople, we hope our research serves as a starting point for examining how salespeople's perceptions of organizational support stem from multilevel influences and how those perceptions affect relationship quality and turnover in the current, technology-charged sales era.

ABSTRACT. As part of a global trend, governments are increasingly implementing policies to help consumers make healthy food choices, such as traffic-light labels (TLLs). Although TLLs were initially used only on pre-packaged food products in retailing, they are now increasingly applied in the gastronomy sector. Therefore, one purpose of this article is to investigate the effects of a TLL on the selection of prepared food in a self-service canteen. We first conducted an online experiment (study 1) using a TLL in a fictitious self-service canteen scenario. The goal of study 1 was to investigate the mechanisms underlying TLLs’ effect on perceived healthiness, taste, and satiety and how these perceptions explain food choice. Following up on Study 1, we will conduct a Field Experiment (Study 2) in a large university canteen (research-in-progress) in November/December 2022. The aim of study 2 is to investigate the effect of a TLL on food choice in a real self-service canteen. In addition to the online and field experiment, we will conduct in-depth investigations using 1) eye-tracking and 2) video cued thought protocols during study 2 in order to get a deeper understanding of the visual perception and the underlying mechanism of a TLL on prepared dishes.

ABSTRACT. When aiming to change consumers' behavior, marketers and policy makers are increasingly looking to findings from behavioral economics, especially the nudging concept (Thaler and Sunstein 2008). The effectiveness of nudges is often limited to the situation in which the choice architecture is altered. However, the existence of spillover effects could have the potential to amplify the effectiveness of nudges. This study investigates whether nudges can alter behavior beyond one choice situation such that they affect a subsequent unnudged choice. To achieve this temporal spillover effect, we develop a social identity nudge by innovatively synthesizing the nudging concept and Oyserman’s identity-based motivation process model. We conducted a quasi-experimental field study and observed students’ walking behavior in a natural setting. In N = 13,186 observations, we observed the behavior-altering effects of a salience nudge and social identity nudge. The results show the expected temporal spillover effect for the social identity nudge. Although we did not expect it, results also show a temporal spillover effect for the salience nudge. These findings provide insights into the range of nudging effects and have potential implications for marketers and policy makers who use nudges as a cost-efficient tool to alter consumers' behavior.

ABSTRACT. Online review is one new form of customer engagement (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). With the growth of digital media and online communication, online consumer reviews have had an impact on different stages of consumer decision-making (Filieri et al., 2015). In the tourism industry, especially in hospitality, scholars have shown great concern for online reviews. Several researchers are now comparing the similarities and differences between traditional hotels and the sharing economy model from multiple perspectives(Bridges & Vásquez, 2016). Airbnb, is one of the world's most successful sharing platforms to date. According to the current studies of online reviews, Airbnb’s average rating shows stronger positive tendencies compared with traditional hotels (Zervas et al., 2021). However, from the perspective of customer engagement, the existing empirical research on the similarities and differences between user-generated text reviews in the tourism sharing economy (Airbnb) and traditional hotels is still in its infancy. Currently, researchers have separately summarized the shortcomings of the existing literature, for example, Chevalier & Mayzlin (2006) summarized their limitations in sample size, and did not consider differences in cultural background. Furthermore, the existing literature does not explain the reason for this phenomenon from a theoretical perspective (Zervas et al., 2021).

ABSTRACT. Facing increasingly dynamic market environments and continuous change, numerous companies are challenged to conduct a successful transformation. Reflecting this from a marketing perspective, the approach of transformative marketing (TM) recently emerged. While dynamics resulting in the need for TM adoption particularly occur in Business-to-Business (B2B) and especially mobility contexts, research on related, unique specifics is scarce. Therefore, this abstract outlines a four-step, mixed-method PhD-project contributing to systematic TM research and its enhancement onto B2B and the mobility market. From a methodological perspective, the PhD project employs two conceptual, a qualitative and a quantitative study. First, the author offers new insights into a conceptualization of business ecosystems as the analytical context of TM and share an enhancement onto B2B and mobility. The second paper provides a systematic literature review on TM to date, identifies extant research gaps and outlines possible future TM research angles. Within a third paper, TM success factors are systematically studied through a qualitative study. Building on these insights, the fourth paper employs large-sample, quantitative research resulting in a conceptual model on TM success. In sum, the PhD-project aims at closing major TM research gaps and paving the way for future studies.

ABSTRACT. The rise of the Body Positivity Movement has led some fashion and beauty brands to begin featuring diverse body types in brand media and retail spaces. However, scholars are just beginning to examine consumer reactions to these non-traditional models, particularly the mechanism underlying consumer perceptions and reactions to the brand. This study relies on a signaling theory to conceptualize how consumers, particularly stigmatized consumers, draw inferences about the brand from the brand’s messages and actions. From this frame of reference, this study defines and conceptualizes diversity and inclusion to make a case to expand the notion of the ideal, perfect body to include diversity of body types for a more authentic representation of the brand. As such, this study explores female consumers’ responses to diverse body types in brand messages. These findings may present contributions to the advertisement and body type literature as well as implications for practitioners.

ABSTRACT. Although prior research has shown how authentic and hubristic pride results from distinctive cognitive appraisals (McFerran, Aquino and Tracy 2014; Tracy and Robins 2007a; Yang and Zhang 2018), few studies have investigated what message features can interact with pride appeals to yield efficient, persuasive outcomes. Hong, Lim, and Atkinson (2021) showed that promotion-focused messages (prevention-focused messages) with a hubristic pride (authentic pride) appeal engendered favorable eco-friendly attitudes. Building on this work, our study examines how compatibility effects between type of pride appeal (authentic vs. hubristic) and temporal framing (proximal vs. distal) influence consumers’ attitudes behavioral intentions in the contest of green advertising.

ABSTRACT. Place branding demands appealing communication, a nostalgic quotient, and emotional bonds. Earlier place branding has seen miserable responses due to unaligned branding tendencies. However, recent observations entail possible changes. The advent of the internet and promising digital avenues have introduced us to digital stories. Digital stories promote brands through attribute communication and keep a long-lasting impact on viewers. Although affectionate digital stories have been productive in branding, the dearth of evidence remains in the place branding literature. However, the recent tourism reports significantly appreciated digital stories and internet-specific place branding tendencies. Our paper aspires to abridge the literature dearth through a qualitative study, which follows a grounded theory approach. Grounded in relevant academic acumen, we find that viewers of digital stories make strong connections with a place and develop nostalgic conation. Digital stories and places make relevant synergy, and fantastic videography creates experiential learning. Subsequently, we have relevant implications for academia and practice.

ABSTRACT. Mindfulness is being applied in marketing; however, the consumer benefits and psychological mechanisms of mindfulness remain underdeveloped in the marketing literature. This thesis contributes by exploring the influences of mindfulness on consumer evaluations and consumption decisions. With a focus on psychological mechanisms at play in mindfulness, the research questions consider how consumers evaluate information and how mindfulness may lead to different appraisals during consumption episodes.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on the age of artificial intelligence and its marketplace transformations and providing insights into the outcomes of extensive data collection of companies, this research brings up a new perspective on the exploration of consumer behavior in the digital age and contributes to the emerging research stream of consumer-technology interaction. Using multiple methods including surveys, experimental designs, scale development techniques, and big data tools, and incorporating related research in consumer behavior and psychology, I explore the consumer-related outcomes of data collection practices and their marketing implications. The main proposition is that consumers think that they are being observed (i.e., seen, watched, recorded, tracked) by other parties (i.e., companies, governments) without knowing it for sure, which shapes their behavior.

ABSTRACT. Both scientific and industry evidence suggests that the success and resilience of shared-interest communities may depend on external factors. For example, the adoption of digitization technologies has transformed the frequency and nature of community participation. External factors may also trigger collective action in online communities. Recently, real-world events triggered the coordinated engagement of millions of internet users in online communities { with repercussions on the global financial markets, financial policy-making, and even the stability of democratic institutions in the United States (Fletcher and Aliaj 2021, Heilweil and Ghaary 2021). The link between external factors { such as new technology, real-world events { and social community dynamics is evident. However, it is unclear how much, and under which circumstances these external factors impact the success and resilience of communities. This research investigates the success and resilience of shared-interest communities under the influence of digitization technologies and potentially disruptive external events.

ABSTRACT. At a time when companies are increasingly focusing on consumers’ brand-related views, feelings and behaviours and are concerned about brand negativity, online anti-brand communities increase in popularity providing consumers unique opportunities to express their unfavourable brand views and interact with other consumers around the brand on deep and meaningful levels. Studies indicate that consumers’ brand negativity seems to be commoner, potentially more impactful and detrimental to brands than the positive ones and can be expressed online or offline via various channels. This work aims to explore negative brand-related cognition and affection effects on consumers’ negative constructive and destructive online behaviours and intention to participate in anti-brand communities, which the existing literature largely overlooks. Based on an online consumer survey with data collected from anti-brand community members, this paper reveals the effects of consumers’ negative brand-related cognitions and affections on their online destructive behaviours which can further enhance their intention to participate in anti-brand communities. This unique focus shed light on and enhances our understanding of why consumers develop negative brand-related behaviours and intend to participate in anti-brand communities.

ABSTRACT. Previous research on consumer-brand relationships showed that the personality traits influence consumer attitudes, behaviors and purchasing decisions. This communication shows how, within a context of Brand Hate, consumers react to ideological incompatibility towards a brand, and how the social desirability moderates these effects. The results obtained with 204 participants in an online survey show that, when feeling Brand Hate, consumers with a lower desire for social acceptance tend to change more of brands and to complain more than those with a higher level of this desire.

ABSTRACT. The global brands have become increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions in recent times. This study aims to explore the impact of exogenous crises on brands (Grewal et al. 2007), that is, the damages that are not self-inflicted by brand actions rather through unrelated, external events (Whitler et al. 2021). Specifically, it analyses the changes in consumers’ purchase behavior. In the backdrop of external-environmental crisis events, consumer reactions and emotions are investigated using a qualitative research design. This study conducts consumer interviews using the repertory grid technique (RGT) to elicit and evaluate individual perceptions (Jankowicz 2005). The information from the interviews is analyzed using content analysis and key attributes are identified by applying the frequency and variability of constructs methods (Goffin et al. 2006). The study results establish the decline in consumer consumption and the subsequent challenges faced by brands. The study also guides brands to identify when and how to respond to the exogenous crises. Further highlights the significance of this research topic to the brand crisis and consumer behavior research.

ABSTRACT. This study examined the use and effectiveness of social media marketing activities by B2B firms operating in Australia. Content analysis and hypotheses testing was conducted across 4,885 social media posts, which were collected from the official Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles of ASX200 firms and their subsidiaries. The results demonstrated that B2B firms currently utilize social media in their marketing activities, engaging with multiple channels. Different branding themes have been deployed however there is a heavy emphasis on brand building messages, which was consistent across divergent industry sectors. There was also little diversity in content type applied by firms throughout the study. Some branding themes and content types were shown to be more effective in engaging users than others, which differed according to platform. Finally, industry analysis revealed that some sectors outperform others in terms of the effectiveness of their social media strategies. The findings contribute to the literature on the utilization of social media by B2B firms, and their success in engaging customers. Some results also support previous study undertaken by scholars. The results provide managers with evidence on the effectiveness of different branding themes and content types utilized when communicating via social media.

ABSTRACT. While research has taken great steps forward in investigating the online shopper experience, the lion's share of the research has treated the shoppers as a homogeneous group. Additionally, little research has focused on how consumers with different thinking modes perceive various website elements. Drawing from self-construal theory, the current research proposes that independent and interdependent self-construed shoppers pay different attention to the visual and written contents in online shopping, guided by analytical or holistic thinking mode. Shoppers who are presented the information and visual content in the format that align with their thinking mode tend be more satisfied with their content reading, hence are more likely to form purchase intentions. Hypotheses are developed and tested using a 2x2 between subjects experiment which tests the interaction of self-construal and website content combination on purchase intention. Contributions and implications are provided.

ABSTRACT. The current research proposes that consumers who achieve numerically-round subgoals will have higher superordinate accomplishment perceptions than those who achieve numerically non-round (but mathematically-equivalent) subgoals; further, we believe the effect is due to differences in motivations. We begin by reviewing relevant numerical-roundness and goal-pursuit literature, and we then describe the four studies. Our pilot study analyzes a large secondary dataset of runners’ times (round vs. non-round) in a large 10k race. Study 1 utilized a series of scenario-based experimental studies in a variety of contexts. Study 2 was conducted by changing the grading method (round vs. non-round) of student exam grades. Study 3 utilized a game where participants made guesses and earned round (or non-round) values. The results of all studies support our predictions about perceptions of roundness-elevated superordinate accomplishment and motivations. Our results may also help marketing practitioners when designing numerical product, service, price or promotional rewards and goals.

ABSTRACT. Humor can be useful in tense situations, helping agents to solve conflicts and mitigating confrontation in unpleasant situations, such as consumer complaints. However, interactions between companies using humor and consumers can be risky since companies are dealing with dissatisfied and impatient consumers. Two experiments investigated how humorous responses to complaints affect virtually present others. The main findings show that the humorous voice differs from the conversational human voice style in complaint handling. The use of humorous responses to complaints is associated with the perception of higher prices but lower levels of satisfaction with the response and attitude towards the company compared to the professional and conversational human voice. The effect of the humorous response to complaints on satisfaction with the response and attitude towards the company is explained by the company’s perceived empathy for the complaining customer.

ABSTRACT. Taking the lenses of approach/inhibition theory of power and equity theory, this research examines the impact of distinct unearned preferential treatments at the initial phase of service delivery on customer tolerance to subsequent services as well as amiability towards the treatment offering business. The convergent findings generated from three studies unveil an increased tolerance to subsequent services, attributing to unearned preferential treatment inversely influences adequate expectation but exerts insignificant effect on desired expectation. The observed effect, however, varies as a function of treatment status (status- vs. non-status-oriented) and value (high vs. low). Specifically, when unearned preferential treatment is non-status-oriented, treatment casts significant influence on customer tolerance. The mediational model reveals that the spontaneous emotions (customer delight and feeling of unease/inequity) represent the underlying mechanisms of the observed effect concerning non-status-oriented treatment. In contrast, for status-oriented unearned preferential treatment, although positive emotional responses also manifest, customers do not become more tolerant. Irrespective to its status and value, customer’s proximate amiability towards the treatment offering business, nevertheless, is significantly improved underpinned by resultant positive emotional reactions to unearned preferential treatment. High and low value treatments exhibit similar influence on customer tolerance. Practical implications are reported.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the consequences of AI-induced errors from a marketing perspective. Specifically, we explore consumer responses to different error types as the literature distinguishes between technical errors, resulting from a technical disruption of algorithmic processes, and social errors, representing task outcomes that may be mathematically correct but deemed inappropriate due to a social norm violation. We also investigate the impact of error severity. This distinction is crucial because prior research has shown different response patterns depending on error severity. Errors can sometimes even evoke positive reactions as described by the pratfall effect. Based on data gathered in four studies, we find that severe errors, regardless of error type, evoke negative responses from consumers. However, minor social errors lead to significantly fewer negative consumer responses than minor technical errors. Cognitive and affective trust mediate the relationship between error type and consumer responses, and incorporating explainable AI (XAI) mitigates negative effects on consumer responses. This study provides a granular perspective on consumer responses to erroneous AI and highlights the importance of AI’s adherence to social norms. Specifically, minor social errors could foster the stigmatization of minorities and suggest the necessity of implementing additional safeguards against social norm violations by AI.

ABSTRACT. Equipped with sophisticated, AI-based driver assistant systems, passenger cars are becoming increasingly smart. It seems to be a matter of a few years until fully autonomous vehicles will operate without any driver intervention. In this regard, researchers are addressing the question of how fully automated vehicles should make decisions in critical situations. Should they spare the driver, children jumping on the road or elderly standing on the sidewalk? Projects like MIT´s “moral machine” are investigating the preferences for ethical decision algorithms in different nations and cultures. The evaluation of these decisions impacting on consumer perception and well-being is still scarce. In our experimental study, participants are experiencing a simulator-based driving situation in a fully autonomous car followed by confrontation with alternative automated action scenarios of the car in a critical situation. We measure emotional status and well-being of our test-persons in those critical situations, using facial-recognition technology, EEG and standardized questions. Results show that there are detectable differences between the scenarios for 3 of the 7 emotions asked in the questionnaire. Regarding Subjective Wellbeing, Behavioral Intention and Facial Recognition, there are no significant differences. Regarding EEG, no differences could be shown due to the small sample.

ABSTRACT. Consumer autonomy is a central concept in marketing ethics: it is a pre-condition of informed decision making and, as such, a crucial principle which marketers must respect, safeguard and perhaps even promote. Traditional debate on consumer autonomy has focused on the extent to which persuasive advertising undermines the conditions of autonomous choice. Recently, technological advances as well as insights into the biological underpinnings of human choice and self-control have reignited interest into consumer autonomy. This article discusses the impact of social technology (particularly social media algorithms and the metaverse) on consumer autonomy. Based on a tripartite definition of autonomy, we demonstrate how social technology may have a positive impact on autonomy in general, but poses real challenges to one specific type of autonomy. We then discuss two contemporary problems – perceived versus actual autonomy, and genetic causation of consumer behaviour – and use the tripartite definition to explain why these apparent threats to consumer autonomy may not undermine autonomy after all.

ABSTRACT. The present study examines the formation and outcomes of the perceived ethics of consumer data use in the digital news media context. Although, tracking consumer browsing and collecting personal information are the key prerequisites for a successful news media business little is known about the consumers’ perceptions of the ethics of the data collection and data use. The study proposes that consumers behave as rational agents (privacy calculus), weighing the perceived benefits of sharing personal information against its perceived risks. Ethical perception of personal data use and perceived value of the news media service are proposed to interact and together positively impact trust toward the news media organization, data disclosure willingness, and subscription intentions. Furthermore, perceived price fairness is suggested to positively influence the constructs, while transaction convenience moderates the relationship. The present conceptual study proposes a conceptual model and propositions, which will be tested in the forthcoming experimentally designed study. The results contribute to the understanding of the role of ethical perception of personal data use in the digital news media context.

ABSTRACT. Online physician reviews serve as an important source of information for patients seeking a new primary care physician. Past research has identified different topics that are frequently mentioned by writers of physician reviews but there is a limited understanding of how the content of the reviews impact readers’ perception of trust in a physician. Building upon information diagnosticity, construal theory, and valence asymmetry, and through an online experiment we investigate whether ability-related or morality-related information about a physician leads to different evaluations for positive versus negative reviews. Within ability-related content, we focus on competency and communication, and within morality-related content, we specifically focus on fairness and fidelity. We found morality-related content (especially when positive) have stronger effects on reader’s trust in a primary care physician than ability-related content. When it comes to ability-related contents, communication matters more than competency for readers to trust. Our findings can inform healthcare providers and policy makers about the importance of different healthcare quality features on future patients’ trust in a physician.

ABSTRACT. In this research-in-progress paper, we argue that while security and privacy protection safeguards are very important, the actions that a firm takes to manage and attempt to repair its reputation following a breach is critical to maintain the longevity of the relationships and trust between the firm and their customers. The research objective that emerges from this context is to compare the effectiveness of relationship marketing strategies in mitigating the negative post-privacy breach behavior while considering the interplay between customer-firm relationship and customer’s social influence.

ABSTRACT. The present research examines the link between posting fake online reviews and personality traits and the possible mediating role of different motivations to post these fake online reviews. We will explore if certain personality traits are associated with increased prevalence of posting fake online reviews and how this relationship might be mediated by different motivations. Based on prior literature on Dark and Light Triads, we expect that people high on Dark Triad will report higher probability of posting fake online reviews and we expect the opposite for people high on Light Triad. Building on related previous studies that feature in-depth examinations of motivations behind posting online reviews and lying in a consumption setting, we focus on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Study 1 will examine potential intrinsic motivations: social, revenge, and enjoyment. Individuals might also be motivated to post fake online reviews to gain tangible rewards, and we will explore this possible extrinsic motivation in Study 2. Data will be collected through online questionnaire where participants will be exposed to a scenario. The findings of this research will help identifying the personality factors that contribute to the growth of fake online reviews and motivations individuals have for posting such reviews.

ABSTRACT. Video advertising has drawn much attention from marketers and researchers due to its remarkable performance in boosting traffic and communicating a clear picture of products. We study ad acceptance of Story ads, a unique form of social media video ads. As Story ads are popular among major online social platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat but understudied in academia, it is crucial and timely to understand their effectiveness. To that end, we collect a large-scale first-party dataset with 8,260,689 individual-level observations from a top-ranked American technology company. Using the Story preceding each ad as a natural prime, we investigate how two types of Story-ad congruence: media format (i.e., video or image) and content (17 types, e.g., sports and gaming), affect ad acceptance. After accounting for endogeneity issues using propensity score weighting, the results show that both Story-ad format and content congruence significantly generate additional ad viewing time. However, the format congruence between video Stories and video ads has an attenuating effect. Our research makes theoretical and managerial contributions. The findings offer insights to marketers and publishers and can be helpful for ad placement, ranking, and recommendation systems.

ABSTRACT. Due to the complex and dynamic nature of sales negotiation, firms are likely to benefit from capabilities that can effectively differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive sales environment. While there are many individual tactics and strategies to make a sales force effective in negotiation, there is no one size fits all approach. Further, the demand for sales-related capabilities has increased greatly, as a narrowing information asymmetry gap and an exponential rate of technological innovation shift power back to the buyer. Building on the capabilities literature, this research conceptualizes and argues for a capability view of sales force negotiation at the level of the organization, highlights key organizational antecedents, and examines the effect on firm performance.

ABSTRACT. One way for salespeople to have more effective communication, is through the language that they use. In this article we suggest that using absolute language (e.g., all, never, none) can have negative effects on on funding opportunity. Two studies, including a field study that analyzed 244 sales pitches, find that salespeople who use absolute language within their sales pitches are less likely to obtain funding. Our findings suggest that this occurs because salespeople seem less credible when they use absolute language and a customer's willingness to invest highly depends on salesperson credibility. Furthermore, these effects are amplified through a customer’s expertise in the subject area the salesperson is pitching, such that customers high in expertise perceive the salesperson to be less credible and are unlikely to make an investment. The findings from this research provide insight into how subtle linguistic changes can directly influence the effectiveness of sales communication.

ABSTRACT. The sales field is highly competitive, where the salesperson operates in a dynamic environment by encountering incredible challenges as the representative of the selling firm to buyers. Salespersons need to manage varied marketing relationships by dealing with customers and gatekeepers outside of their organization, coworkers in different business units, teammates, and sales managers who are insiders. This article suggests that effective time management is essential to sales professionals’ productivity and can help surpass performance challenges before they occur. This article uncovers the role of multitasking in sales, an under-researched topic in the marketing field. Using experimental research design, we try to find the effects of multitasking on salesperson response flexibility in different job scenarios. We also try to understand whether product complexity enhances or hinders salesperson response flexibility and adaptive selling behavior. The result showed that a flexible salesperson could perform adaptive selling in job situations demanding multitasking. This research emphasizes that individual choices of working and situational aspects can change the effect of multitasking on sales performance. The research can guide salespeople and sales managers in understanding the importance of effective time management practices.

ABSTRACT. To improve the conversion of sales opportunities, companies are investing heavily in sales content platforms—that is, software systems that aggregate collateral for salespeople. Yet, practitioners and academics remain unsure as to whether and when using a sales content platform improves opportunity conversion. The present study provides first empirical insights into the effects of sales content platform usage by examining the sales force of a technology company, while considering unobserved heterogeneity and potential endogeneity. The results show that sales content platform usage increases the likelihood salespeople convert sales opportunities. However, we find that this effect is heterogeneous and strongly depends on salesperson experience, such that more experienced salespeople can exploit sales content platforms particularly well in later stages of the sales funnel. A follow-up qualitative study with sales professionals suggests that this heterogeneity can be explained by experienced salespeople’s improved extraction of valuable information and subsequent adaptation of their behavior to this information. This is particularly the case when sales processes are characterized by high ambiguity. These results hold actionable recommendations for managers aiming to improve their return on investments in sales content platforms. Additionally, this study takes a much-needed first step toward building sales theory on sales content platforms.

ABSTRACT. Twitter is a popular social media for athletes and fans to engage with each other. While a great deal of reseearch has focused on the rate of interaction between consumers and athletes online, less has been conducted on fans and athletes with regard to specific defining events. The focus of this study was on three athletes: Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Sha'Carri Richardson. A sentiment analysis of Twitter posts was conducted over the length of their careers. All three athletes sat out of major competitive events in 2021. We assess the impact of the athletes not competing by first identifying four distinct groups of people who tweeted about Biles, Osaka and Richardson: ‘Fans’, ‘Haters’, ‘Onlookers’ and ‘Newcomers’. ‘Fans’ were any tweeters who tweeted about the athlete in positive ways and did so more frequently than the average tweeter. ‘Haters’ were any tweeters who tweeted about the athlete in negative ways and did so more frequently than the average tweeter. ‘Onlookers’ were tweeters that fell within the average rate of tweeting. Finally, ‘newcomers’ were tweeters who started to tweet about the athlete as a result of the athlete stepping out of the event.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to address the factors that promote pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of the customer and examines the role of perceived effectiveness towards PEB. Additionally, extant literature has found that gender plays an important role in PEB (Cuddy et al., 2015; McEvoy 1972; Deitz et al., 1998). Research has shown that males are more favorable toward pro-environmental attitudes than women. While women more actively show pro-environmental action respectively in the private sphere (i.e. buying organic products, cutting back on vehicle use, sorting recyclables), men more actively show in the public sphere (i.e. being a member of environmental groups and signing a petition) (Dietz et al., 1998). This study also investigates whether men and women have the same motivation towards environmentally friendly behavior. The results from our study found that the sense of obligation to take pro-environment actions and perceived effectiveness influenced pro-environmental customer behavior in both male and female groups. Also, that third-party certification and dessert café eco-friendly behavior impacted pro-environment customer behavior in the female group. Males showed stronger relationship between sense of obligation and pro-environment behavior while females showed stronger relationship between third-party certification and pro-environment actions. Implications of our findings are presented for managers.

ABSTRACT. This research contributes to the current state of the literature by giving new insights into the effect of sponsored content of social media influencers (SMI) in the leisure context. A 2x3 be-tween-subject experimental design was conducted based on the current state of the art of social media influencing, revealing that advertisement recognition and purchase intention have an inverse full serial mediation effect between sponsorship disclosure and purchase decision in a leisure context. These findings reveal numerous research gaps, serve as a reference point for future research efforts, and help marketers shape impactful SMI marketing campaigns that sup-port future sales and marketing practices and shape innovative business models in the sphere of SMI utilization. For the underlying context, this approach was one of the first attempts in the still relatively young SMI research field to successfully prove the effects of influencer categori-zations and sponsorship disclosure beyond classic operationalizations like brand attitude and purchase intention and strengthen the findings in connection with actual – not just intended – purchase behavior.

ABSTRACT. Building on consumer brand engagement theory, this research develops and tests a conceptual model that investigates the drivers and the outcomes of consumer brand engagement in the context of collaborative consumption. An online survey was administered with 311 customers who had ordered an accommodation through Airbnb. The results show that consumer brand engagement is enhanced by hedonic brand image, but not by functional brand image. Consumer brand engagement drives both perceived authenticity and brand trust which in turn determine perceived service quality. Finally, self-construal is also examined as a moderating factor of brand trust and perceived authenticity to service quality.

ABSTRACT. Rating scales are commonly used to measure constructs that are not directly observable such as attitudes. The extant research in the literature has informed us to have a good understanding of attitude measurement. Yet, what the optimal number of scale points is remains elusive. The current study aims to discuss this topic in an advertising research context. We conduct a comprehensive review of the literature on the effect of scale points from 1924 to 2021 and summarize empirical evidence as well as major arguments over time. We also perform an analysis of rating scales measuring attitude toward the ad that appeared in the Journal of Advertising from 2011 to 2020 and explore how and why researchers have used some rating scale points. We present the key issues and propose several practical recommendations for future research.

ABSTRACT. Creating engaging video content is an important but difficult task for marketing practitioners yet few guidelines for success exist. In the current study, we use computer vision tools to quantify aspects of video content and relate them to eye-tracking measures of attention over time. We show that low visual complexity is related to higher attentional focus from viewers, and that short scene durations help to maintain higher levels of attentional focus. Overall, this study is a proof of concept; quantitative audio-visual content features are systematically related to viewer responses. It shows that combining computer vision and neuromarketing methods provides a powerful approach for the study of audio-visual storytelling. Lastly, this research informs creative professionals by providing actionable insights. Our study suggests that video messages should be short and simple to get attention.

ABSTRACT. The study aims to develop and validate a universal scale to measure consumers’ Receptivity to Personalized Digital Advertisements (RPDA). To develop the RPDA scale, the authors conducted six studies – a qualitative study followed by five quantitative studies. The authors conducted five studies in the USA, and the sixth study was conducted in the UK to establish the generalizability of the scale. In total, 1,692 participants were reached to derive insights in various instances. This interaction and insights resulted in developing and validating a two-dimensional scale measuring consumers’ RPDA. The resulting scale is the first attempt to establish and validate a comprehensive and robust psychometric scale to measure consumers’ Receptivity to Personalized Digital Advertisements. Furthermore, the scale is timely, as technological advancement and the continued rise in the use of digital media have resulted in consumer experiences being co-created. Therefore, increasing the need for a tool to measure consumers’ Receptivity to Personalized Digital Advertisements. Hence, the resulting scale will be a handy tool for managers to measure consumers’ Receptivity to Personalized Digital Advertisements. Additionally, the scale will help managers identify appropriate target segments for personalized digital advertisements.

ABSTRACT. With the proliferation of social media use for promotions and widespread content consumption on digital platforms, there occurred a need to study attitude towards advertisements on these platforms. The current study aims at developing a unified, comprehensive, reliable and valid scale to measure irritation towards ads on digital platforms. The study follows an inductive approach to scale development which utilized qualitative process of item generation. Two separate studies were conducted with different set of respondent samples to perform the scale development and validation process. The result of the process was a three dimensional 25-item scale for Ad Irritation. The construct was operationalised into Ad Exhaustion, Ad Frustration and Ad Disturbance. The study claims to be a pioneer in developing a comprehensive multidimensional scale for Ad Irritation in the context of digital platforms of media consumption. The scale on ad irritation will act as an effective targeting tool for social media marketers to strategize their ad effectiveness and manage their ad spends rationally.

ABSTRACT. Over the past two decades, there is a sharp and constant rise in studies examining brand-centric groups. Advancing knowledge in brand-centric groups is among the top research priorities in brand management research, since they are linked with positive brand outcomes. The literature uses different terms such as brand communities, brand tribes and brand sub-cultures to label brand-centric social groups. However, these terms are used interchangeably and there is no consensus in the definition and differences, not allowing the development of research with high precision. This work aims to facilitate theorising, by interrogating the brand-centric social groups concepts brand community, brand tribe and brand sub-culture, and present their main differences, clarifying their meaning, and presenting good, clear concept definitions. Based on a systematic engagement with the literature on brand-centric groups this paper reveals unsettled differences in the conceptualization of the three terms based of their nature and provides comprehensive definitions. The analysis reveals that the use of these terms is not always appropriate in the existing research output.

ABSTRACT. Although brand experience is an important construct informed from many disciplines, its measurement has certain shortcomings. Following well established procedures for scale development, this study relied in a four steps process and collected five data sets to develop the brand experience scale. The new scale consists of three dimensions and has 9 items.

ABSTRACT. The embeddedness of intelligent robots within social spaces is disrupting social relation structures and causing user trust challenges in them (i.e., human-robot trust), which has not been addressed in previous research in an interpersonal or human-computer context. As an advanced form of Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent robots present a unique human-robot interaction environment to review and advance theories of trust. We adopted data mining and sentiment analysis (study 1A and 1B), and survey research (study 2, study 3) to examine user trust perception and adoption intention of intelligent robots. The results show that the degree of human-imitation and human-likeness influences user trust (functional trust vs. embedding trust) in intelligent robots. The results further reveal a moderating effect of robots’ social savvy. Taken together, our findings indicate that the willingness to adopt intelligent robots is determined by a reshaped trust perception containing the elements of functional trust and embedding trust, which is in turn affected by both the robots’ external features (human-imitate vs. human-like) and internal functions (social savvy). The findings shed light on the formation of user trust in intelligent robots, and contribute to a better understanding of user adoption of AI technologies.

ABSTRACT. The gamification of crowdsourcing campaigns has been the subject of several works in marketing. In this research paper, we empirically examine the effect of two different types of feedback delivered by the crowdsourcing platform's community manager on the perceived value of the participation experience and the commitment of contributors in a loss situation towards the platform and the co-creation activity. Using an experimental study (N=178), our research shows (1) that the task-motivational and learning feedback improve the perceived value of the participatory experience of individuals in a loss situation of a crowdsourcing campaign designed with strictly competitive gamification mechanics. (2) The positive perception of the experience participatory value enhance the intention of the participants' engagement in a loss situation towards the platform and the activity of co-creation.

ABSTRACT. Consumers of all ages quite often choose to consume play experiences that require skill, challenge, and competition. The present research investigates goal-based play comprised of mixed emotions and explores the premise that perceived effort is central to the fun and evaluation of such experiences. In this domain of play, we theorize that perceived effort carries weight and worth, adding to the growing literature that indicates that consumers do embrace perceived effort. Findings from two experiments illuminate the need to take play more seriously around perceived effort. Implications for theories on play, mixed emotions, and well-being are discussed.

ABSTRACT. More than 80 percent of Berliners live in apartments. With the help of so called Mieterstrom (tenants´s electricity) they may obtain solar energy that has been produced on their apartment´s roof. Unfortunately, participation rates are relatively low. So researchers from two of Berlin´s universities of applied science and partners from electric power producers, sustainability NPOs and real estate companies set out to investigate motives and constraints of renters in those buildings. A mixed-methods aproach was used. First, tenants were asked to participate in a combined online and telephone survey. 189 interviewees participated. Afterwards, in-depths interviews with 18 consumers followed. A first result was that most participants thought positively about this form of solar energy. Even the vast majority of non-customers could imagine to obtain electricity from their building´s roof. Another finding was that the critical moment for prospecting was the move-in date. Pricing was another significant factor for choosing energy suppliers. The qualitative study identified three major customer segments: the environmentally-conscious, price-sensitive consumers and transparency- /efficiency-oriented customers. To help speeding up the process of transition to renewable energy, the researchers have applied for funding to test their nudging suggestions in a real-life environment in the form of an A/B test.

ABSTRACT. To meet consumers' demands for ecological initiatives and align with regulations, producers of organic fruits and vegetables gradually replace plastic stickers and packaging with laser marking. This concurrent embedded mixed-method study examined motives and barriers toward this eco-innovation among 328 consumers. Applying the contextual text coding method, a qualitative analysis of an open-ended question in the survey uncovered consumers' thoughts about the organic laser-marking labeling. The most frequently stated motive is the social value meta-theme, represented by the ecological motive theme, followed by functional and emotional value meta-themes. Risk barrier and tradition barrier meta-themes are the most commonly reported barriers. Using the meta-themes categories combined with self-reported measures, the results of an SEM-PLS path modeling show that three identified consumers' motives positively influence their attitude toward the product, purchase intention, and well-being. However, the seven identified barriers do not all negatively impact these outcomes. Theoretical implications, managerial recommendations, and future research on laser-marking technology are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Current levels of meat consumption are unsustainable. This study focused on this issue by studying the perceptions of Portuguese consumers about meat alternatives. An exploratory study was carried out with an online survey for 8 days to which 384 Portuguese responded. Data analysis was performed with a mixed approach, quantitative and qualitative, using the NVivo 12 program and the SPSS program. The results indicate that men consume more meat and are more knowledgeable about meat alternatives. However, women consider them to be healthier. The most characteristics claimed to describe meat are: “flavor”, “protein”, “juiciness”, “satiating” and “texture”. The reasons for consuming meat are the "taste" for it as the main cause, its amount of "protein", a part of their "food" and the "habit" of consumption. Meat alternatives are described as “tasty”, “good”, “healthy”, but also as “expensive”. Regarding the limitations of this study, the sampling is non-probabilistic, for convenience, and does not allow inferences to be made for the population. Future studies should consist of on-site experiences with the tasting of meat alternatives. Entomophagy is a new reality in the western world with the appearance of products such as flour and others derived from insects’ production.

ABSTRACT. Sustainable consumption became an inalienable part of our life. Building on it, a large share of consumer behavior research is focused on green buying as a part of sustainable consumption. Most existing literature considers sustainable actions and green buying as conscious and planned processes. However, there is recent evidence that green buying may be at the same time impulsive. Although the interest of researchers in impulsive buying in sustainable settings grows dramatically nowadays, prior studies evaluate factors affecting impulsive buying of green products (i.e., buyer-seller personality similarity or corporate social responsibility practices) rather than the psychological mechanism behind it. Drawing on the Reflective-Impulsive Model, we address this gap and, using an experimental approach, investigate how the amount of product information shapes the impulsive and reflective decision-making process of green buying. The current paper is a research-in-progress, and it presents preliminary results of data collection and hypotheses testing.

ABSTRACT. Human subcutaneous implants are being made available as the new level of human-computer interaction as well as a convenient way to streamline everyday routines. The reception of this new idea is varied: in Sweden it is possible to pay train fares with implanted chip vs. in the USA some states are using legislation to ensure that residents cannot be implanted without their consent. Despite the resistance to this application of technology, the signs for major digital transformation are already evident. Industries like banking, health care and security should be closely monitoring the development opportunities implanted devices offer.

The microblogging site Twitter has been linked to the younger, more affluent, and pro-technology users. This makes Twitter feed an excellent opportunity to gauge population opinions regarding human subcutaneous chip implants. The KNIME software was used for unsupervised topic detection with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm to identify six key issues engaging tweeting public.

ABSTRACT. The global video game market, currently 2.96 billion active users, is a briskly growing industry that is forecasted to expand further and generate US$ 268.8 billion in 2025. In terms of revenue mechanisms, game developers have been pivoting from existing and popular subscription-based pay-to-play models due to the gamification of decentralized finance and the rising popularity of non-fungible token (NFT). This have given rise to the next revolution in the game developers' revenue composition and consumer behaviors as we are now moving from a free-to-play to play-to-earn/ own models (a.k.a. GameFi) which allows monetizing the consumers time and assets. While several GameFi games have been launched and have already proven their popularity we are still just at the beginning of this emerging trend and, partly as a result of that, research in this area is still nascent. That is why this research explores utilitarian and hedonistic factors driving consumer motivations and behavior, with a specific focus on the financial decision-making process, in NFT games. To achieve the research aim, this study employs in-depth interviews with players from one of the most popular NFT game in 2021, Axie Infinity (AXS).

ABSTRACT. Companies are getting an exponentially increasing number of data points regarding consumer preferences and are using that data to make recommendations to consumers. Simultaneously, a lot of consumers are moving their social interactions online and would therefore be receiving these recommendations. The extant literature covers algorithmic recommendations and joint consumption and joint decision-making extensively. This literature, however, does not study the interaction between the recommendation context of algorithmic recommendations and the joint-consumption context. In a Prolific-based experiment (n=205), we study 3 hypotheses and find out that consumers perceive algorithmic recommendation systems as less competent, which leads to a lower purchase likelihood. The paper closes with future directions and limitations for the research.

ABSTRACT. 2. Social networks have become part of people's daily lives and revolutionized how people communicate and interact. Through social networks, users can establish relationships, get social support, share ideas and information, and consume content produced by others. Since 2011, evidence has pointed to fatigue and disconnection as major enhancers of users' social network activity diminishing or even abandon, but there are other factors to add. Fatigue and disconnection, combined with the lower impact of firms' generated content compared to user-generated content, led firms to question their investments in social media. This research explores the roots of users' well-being on social media, considering as antecedents of well-being the social media users' fatigue, discontinuance intention, and sharing fake news. An online survey was carried out to unveil these dimensions. A path analysis of the relationship between relevant variables, stimulus variables, and the user's response showed that not all consumers could cope with fake news and social interaction overload. However, findings also show that some users can address it positively. Thus, firms must focus on those with higher capabilities of leading with these different pressure forces on social media and try enhancing their relationships based on validated and valued content.

ABSTRACT. Despite targeting adolescents for grooming, there is a lack of research in the marketing literature that addresses the problem of online predators and social media. This research analyzes Facebook messages from a law enforcement sting operation that resulted in the arrest of 14 individuals who communicated with a law enforcement officer who they thought was an underage victim. R was used for sentiment analysis of the messages between the 'victim' and the adult males. Insights will provide suggestions for policymakers and social media platforms to prevent future online abuse of minors.

ABSTRACT. This research examines how luxury motivations can influence charitable giving through the use of three luxury motivations scenarios (bandwagon, inconspicuous and snob) and their influence of consumers’ donations intentions. Furthermore, it explores whether the relationship between luxury motivation and donation intentions is mediated by Clary and Snyder’s (1999) functions of charitable behavior. Using a national sample of 309 respondents, we tested the data using the Process Macro to test the mediating effects. This study found that social motivations indirectly affected the relationship between those who are influenced by the bandwagon effect as well as those who prefer to be inconspicuous in their donation intentions. Similarly, protection motivations indirectly influence the snob effect on donation intentions and enhancement motivations affected those who preferred to remain inconspicuous in their intentions to donate. This research contributes to the literature by illustrating that Costly Signaling Theory can impact pro-social behaviors beyond sustainability in impacting charitable giving. We also found that all three types of charitable events (bandwagon, snob, and inconspicuous) can directly impact intention to donate.

ABSTRACT. Given the fundamental role of innovation, there is an increasing interest in the knowledge generated on innovation systems management and involving all the actors related to the institutional entrepreneurship, policy making and implementation. Despite the importance of this topic, most research has been carried out in developed countries, while in developing countries is scarce, and there is little innovation information for strategic decision-making and the characterization of innovation performance. To address these gaps, the present study will identify a typology of firms belonging to a Regional Innovation System (RIS) in a developing country relative to their innovation variables, based on data collected from a sample of 1006 randomly selected organizations from the RIS, through a state-university agreement. Clusters will shed light on the firm´s characteristics and the innovation variables more influential on innovation performance. Findings will contribute to innovation management literature, specifically product innovation management, marketing strategy and policy. Managerial and practical implications will also be considered, besides public policy contributions for the fostering of innovation systems from an institutional approach.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on the human capital development (Baran 2021) and the key concepts of human resources (Pocztowski 2018) became a priority since services’ employees are connecting the internal environment of an organization to the external world, while being responsible for these two parts (Agnihotri et al. 2014). These thoughts brought a new marketing orientation that is the Internal Marketing. Indeed, it seems important to study the bearer of the message and the image of the service company that is the service employees, having sometimes more focus on the frontline staff. Considering that the role of "frontline service personnel", has become a differentiating element, this abstract therefore considers the IM as an alternative to the service performance and examines the relationships among Internal Marketing, Frontline service employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. This study also, attempts to conceptualize and develop a measurement scale of the “Internal Marketing” concept.

ABSTRACT. While the volatile environment affected by factors, including the pandemic and lockdowns, has catalysed a shift from traditional service interfaces to novel online platforms, little is known about how frontline service employees cope with stressful customer encounters online. An intriguing question is whether the defining feature of frontline employee experience, i.e., engaging in emotional labour strategies, and their implications still apply to the novel online platforms. The current study is one of the first to look into the implications of online emotional labour and contrast it with emotional labour in the traditional call-centre context. We find that the service interface serves as a boundary condition for the relationships between acting strategies and adaptive cognitive regulation. Engaging in deep acting is more effective for employees who have direct voice-to-voice interactions with customers but is more difficult for online employees. At the same time, the results reveal that surface acting only hinders adaptive cognitive coping among call-centre employees but promotes adaptive sensemaking among online employees. The findings suggest that previous understandings of emotional labour may not be generalisable to the novel online context. These findings highlight the importance of considering online encounters as a unique context in future emotional labour research.

ABSTRACT. The services marketing literature has only recently begun to consider the impact of a frontline employee (FLE) disability type on consumers’ perceptions and service outcomes. As this becomes a more probable phenomenon, this research seeks to understand consumers’ perceptions and behaviors toward an employee with an intellectual or physical disability across different service industries using an experimental design. This research connects theories related to stigmatization, such as social identity theory, contextual cues, and Stone and Colella’s Model, to better understand how consumers perceive frontline employees with disabilities. Two experimental studies will be conducted to examine these perceptions and their perceptions in the event of a service failure and recovery effort. Practical implications are considered including how businesses can mitigate potential negative perceptions from customers towards FLEs with an intellectual disability.

ABSTRACT. Brands have long enlisted visual branding elements, including the brand’s visual logo, to identify and communicate the personality and values of the brand. This research examines how organizations are working to shape how consumers perceive their brand by creating a sonic brand. Sonic branding, also referred to as sound, audio or acoustic branding, is the process of designing an auditory equivalent of a graphic representation of a brand that embodies the brand’s essence and attributes. This research uses healthcare as a context to examine how sonic brands influence consumer emotional reactions, trust and perceptions of a healthcare provider. Results from two experiments indicate that sonic brands can reduce negative emotional experiences for consumers and foster trust in a healthcare provider. Sonic branding can also function as a peripheral cue and enhance how low-involvement consumers perceive the brand. Findings provide insight into how sonic brands can increase the effectiveness of branded communications.

ABSTRACT. The literature concerning brand equity is dense, especially from the firm’s and consumers' perspectives. Although recent studies demonstrate the vital contribution of employees to brand success, much is still unknown regarding their role in the brand equity development process. Therefore, this study aims to shed new light by proposing and empirically documenting an integrated model of the Employee-Based Brand Equity (EBBE) formation process. The study uses complexity theory and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in conceptualizing EBBE as a complex and dynamic causal process. The findings confirm the operationalization of the process providing significant theoretical and managerial implications as well as directions for future research.

ABSTRACT. The brand identity of ethnic brands is reinforced through cocreation by engaging stakeholders and customers in the process of brand building, which enables the brand presentation to enhance me-too feeling and the self-esteem of the consumers of upstream markets. This study contributes to explaining the significance of ethnic brand identity by theorizing the identity construction that involves the process of brand building and brand presentation. It also emphasizes the luxury brand-marketing approach in Mexico within the ethnic products segment, analyzing the social and cognitive reasoning among consumers for ethnic brands. Measuring the effects of social media and collective intelligence on consumption of ethnic brands has also been central to the objectives of the study. Consequently, this study makes an important contribution to the existing literature on ethnic consumer behavior and targeted marketing strategies. This research study has been conducted in Mexico City to evaluate the increasing trend of consumption of ethnic products and influx of ethnic fashion apparel and accessories of Latin American and Caribbean origin. The data has been collected from 814 respondents across A, B, and C socio-economic segments (INEGI – National Institute of Statistics and Geography) using snowballing technique.

ABSTRACT. Consumers’ perception of the impact of their consumption choices on the environment, health, and animal welfare leads them to change their habits. They adopt distinct dietarian identities, which influence their attitudes and behavior. Accordingly, companies seek to adapt their offerings to include vegetarian and vegan products. Nevertheless, their success depends upon their ability to target relevant consumer segments. This paper explores consumers’ different dietarian identities around the consumption of vegan and vegetarian products. Besides, it investigates the relationships between these distinct dietarian identities, purchase intention, and consumer trust. Currently, this paper presents the conceptual part of an in-progress study. Hence, it comprises a review of the literature on dietarian identity, consumer trust, and purchase intention. Besides, it presents the expected contributions and implications of the study. As a next step, we aim to apply the Dietarian Identity Questionnaire to an online consumer sample and segment them according to their distinct dietarian identities. Then, we shall assess their levels of consumer trust and purchase intention. Hopefully, our study contributes to understanding the distinct dietarian identities around vegan food. Besides, we hope that the study contributes to the creation of better-segmented communication and marketing strategies by companies and public authorities.

ABSTRACT. Color can communicate important marketing elements such as brand personality, healthiness, flavor, scent, and size. But can color communicate efficacy (i.e., how well the product works)? We explore this important question in this research through three experiments and find that color saturation positively impacts efficacy perceptions. In study 1, we find evidence for this phenomenon for a product’s package. In study 2, we expand these findings to the color of the actual product. Study 3 used a different product category, gummy vitamins, and also tests for serial mediation for perceived power to efficacy. Lastly, study 4 provides further evidence of the serial mediation from color to power to efficacy for both willingness to pay and purchase intent. Study 4 also provides ecological validity as participants were given actual products to try and rate.

ABSTRACT. Ambient color is an integral aspect of any retail environment, including at stores, restaurants, and cafeterias. This research examines the effects of ambient color on children’s healthy (vs. unhealthy) food choices. We focus on hue and compare red, the longest wavelength hue, to shorter wavelength hues (e.g., blue) as well as neutral shades (white/off-white). Building on research related to the psychological associations with red, as well as physiological responses to high wavelength colors, we predict that red (vs. non) red ambient colors will enhance arousal and increase unhealthy (vs. healthy) food choices. A series of field studies conducted at middle and high school cafeterias provide support for our hypotheses. Additionally, the results show that the effects of red ambient color are especially strong among individuals with high (vs. lower) health motivation. Our findings suggest that managers can use ambient color strategically to encourage purchase of specific food items. Our findings also have conceptual implications related to cross-modal effects of visual stimuli on gustatory outcomes as well as children’s purchase behavior.

ABSTRACT. Food sampling at retail stores and restaurants (e.g., amuse-bouche) is a widespread practice. These food samples vary considerably in healthfulness levels. Prior research has primarily focused on the effects of sampling on evaluations and sales of the sampled item. However, can there be unintended consequences of sampling a healthy versus an unhealthy item on subsequent purchases of other food items? The results of a series of experiments, including two field studies, show that sampling a healthy (vs. unhealthy) item paradoxically leads to greater subsequent purchase/choice of unhealthy foods. Also, this effect is attenuated and directionally reversed for imagined sampling. The findings of this research have meaningful practical implications for restaurant and retail managers as to how free food samples can influence purchase behavior.

ABSTRACT. Service encounters that have taken place face-to-face for a long time nowadays increasingly happen online in social networks. Through this communication shift that has become the “new normal”, more and more companies are present in social networks and need to know how to reply to consumer comments. This study examines the effects of three corporate response patterns in social networks (replies to all comments, replies to only negative comments, replies to selected positive and negative comments) on the brand attitudes and purchase intentions of social media users who are only observing other company-customer interactions. We draw on the accessibility-diagnosticity theory and argue that company replies represent a sort of information that is equally accessible for all social media users but might be more or less diagnostic depending on the response pattern used. Our findings show that observers react more positively when the company replies to all or selected comments than in the case of replies to only negative comments. Our findings provide social media managers with guidelines for a successful response strategy in social networks that triggers positive reactions not only of commenting consumers, but also of potential customers who have not been directly involved in company-customer interactions yet.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the subversive content on brand publics through the lens of brand hate. It looks into the question of how consumers express brand hate on brand publics and the role they undertake while expressing brand hate on brand publics. The nentnogrpahic study of Youtube posts and comments reveal that consumer express brand hate on brand publics, as a vehicle to gain publicity for their own heroes journey, and while doing so they take a role similar to that of activists to use brand hate to counter the culture of excessive consumption in the context of fast fashion brands.

ABSTRACT. This research addresses a research question concerning how CSR-related language used in influencers' sponsored posts impacts engagement with such content. To address this question, we analyzed a data set of 4,093 sponsored posts from 75 micro-influencers on Instagram. Text analysis was utilized to score each post on the type and quantity of CSR-related language incorporated. A linear regression was then employed to analyze the impact of the CSR-related language on the engagement rate. The findings suggest CSR-language that specifically focuses on the environment positively impacts the engagement rate of sponsored social media content posted by micro-influencers on behalf of brands.

ABSTRACT. INTRODUCTION

The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of organizational culture in the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing strategy and the SMEs’ performance in Bangladesh.

METHODOLOGY

This study employed a quantitative approach, and self-administered questionnaires were utilized to conduct a cross-sectional study. The proprietors of SMEs in Bangladesh were the study's intended audience. 386 SME owners were chosen at random from a cluster to participate in the survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the data with the SPSS-AMOS program, version 25.0.

RESULTS This research reveals that the performance of SMEs in Bangladesh is significantly impacted both directly and indirectly by entrepreneurial marketing strategy. Additionally, it was shown that the organizational culture of SMEs in Bangladesh significantly impacted their performance. The results of the mediation tests showed that the organizational culture had a partial mediating effect in the link between entrepreneurial marketing strategy and the SMEs’ performance.

CONCLUSION

The empirical findings of the present study provide the basis for recommendations for SMEs in enhancing their performance, and for policy-makers to design entrepreneurial support programs and initiatives for SMEs.

ABSTRACT. Universities all over the world are facing huge challenges in the post-pandemic phase rang-ing from a competition for funding to a race for the best staff members. One highly relevant factor in this context is reputation. Until now reputation models for universities are superfi-cial, fragmented approaches. They account for the reputation in an undifferentiated way. At best, they determine some of the symptoms but do not capture the relevant dimensions en-tirely nor account for the causes. Our work makes a major contribution to close this gap by proposing a comprehensive model based on the RepTrak Approach. The RepTrak model is the internationally leading approach for measuring reputation.

Equipped with this strong concept, we make the necessary adaptations for measuring the reputation of universities based on expert opinions. We test our concept with the example of Leibniz University of Hanover (LUH). Thereby we employ a data set including more than 1000 observations analyzed by means of structural equation modeling and variance analyses. The results are very promising and confirm the general applicability of the concept. Fur-thermore, we assess the reputation of the LUH from the perspective of different stakeholders and show were to apply leverage in order to enhance the reputation.

ABSTRACT. Media literacy refers to individuals’ ability to understand and use the information disseminated, it impacts the adoption of recommended health behaviors. Using the online multi-image elicitation method (N = 413), we’ve explored how individuals’ emotions have evolved during different stages of the pandemic. When the virus first appeared, women reacted emotionally while men's attention was more focused on the rational aspect reflected in the content disseminated by media. The indifference to the virus gave way to worry and doubt as the pandemic hit Europe. Dominant reactions linked to vaccine discovery are: doubt about the vaccine effectiveness which is more pronounced among men than women, hope and satisfaction regardless of gender. Our results put forward a typology of emotional reactions according to the gender of the respondents and the type of media literacy deployed.

ABSTRACT. Understanding the travel constraints faced by retired travelers in the context of ageing is highly relevant for tourism professionals who wish to tap this strategic segment which represents a third of world tourism today. The research objective is to identify these travel constraints and produce a scale for their measurement. Building upon the hierarchical leisure constraints theory, this study identifies eight categories of travel constraints and leads to the development of a travel constraints measurement scale. It also reveals the need to take the influence of aging into account when interpreting travel constraints at old age.

ABSTRACT. Despite the growing importance of commitment in virtual community, research on role of opinion leader in these platforms remains limited. To fill this research gap, this article proposes a scale to measure commitment to the opinion leader in virtual communities. This scale is developed and validated by performing a netnographic study and three online data collection. The scale shows reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. Further, the findings reveal that commitment to the opinion leader positively influence community commitment. From a managerial point of view, this article provides a framework to understand how to build long-term relationships with customers on online platforms.

ABSTRACT. Brands have become an integral part of consumers’ lives, who prefer brands which conform to certain relationship standards and feel disappointed or even deceived if brands fall short of these expectations. Despite the relevance of relational norms in a consumer-brand context, there is a lack of reliable operationalizations for empirical studies. To this end, we develop and validate a measure capturing consumer-brand relationship norms in a series of four studies (total N = 1869). In Study 1, we generated an initial pool of 22 items. We removed ambiguous and irrelevant items based on an expert coding task and retained 10 items. In Study 2, we conducted EFA to assess the factor structure and dimensionality of the 10 items, arriving at a single-factor solution. In Study 3, we performed CFA on a new sample to establish convergent and discriminant validity of the items, and to confirm the scale’s unidimensional structure. In Study 4, we examined the scale’s nomological validity by embedding it in a model that includes a antecedents and consequences of consumer-brand relationship norms. In addition, using samples from different countries (Germany and US), we offer evidence for configural as well as partial metric, scalar, and error variance invariance.

ABSTRACT. Live streaming is becoming a new channel for creating and disseminating travel experiences, selling products, or promoting destinations. Empirical studies on the motivations of live streamers' travel behavior on live streaming platforms are currently under-explored. This research aims to explore the phenomenon of live streaming in the tourism sector and examine its influence on the live streamer’s travel behavior. It follows a mixed-method research approach to achieve the following objectives: to explore the motivations and travel performance of live streamers in tourism; to develop a typology of live streamers based on their motivations to engage in tourism live streaming; to investigate the process of C2C real-time value co-creation of the live streamer with other stakeholders by drawing on the Porter-Lawler model; to examine its influence on the live streamer’s travel behavior; to examine the factors influencing live streamers' intention to engage in tourism live streaming. The three potential theoretical contributions are providing the meaning, types, and characteristics of live streamers in the tourism sector, demonstrating the process of C2C real-time value co-creation, and explaining the relationship between live streaming and live streamers' travel behavior by examining the factors influencing live streamers' intention to engage in tourism live streaming.

ABSTRACT. The main objective of this study is to investigate whether social media boycotts have a negative impact on tourist arrivals. We identified 17,905 tweets with negative valence concerning the British Museum between 2014 and 2019, which refer to two distinct social media boycotting campaigns. Using the local projection approach, we analyse the impact of these two distinct Twitter boycotts on the volume of tourist arrivals to the British Museum. Our findings indicate that social media boycotts elicit a limited magnitude of declining tourist numbers. Moreover, heterogeneity was observed in the impact of boycotting campaigns with different themes. The “Drop BP” boycott started having a marginally significant effect in decreasing tourist arrivals two months after a Twitter boycott. This study contributes to the tourism boycott literature by adding empirical evidence on the impact of social media boycotts on tourist arrivals. Implications are given to attraction managers on how to manage boycotts.

ABSTRACT. Senior tourists have their own travel behaviours and preferences, requiring specific resources from the tourism industry and broader society. This study explores how participating in tourism activities can support older people to co-create value, towards active ageing from the customer-dominant logic. Interviews were conducted with 31 senior citizens and 16 tourism and hospitality service providers. Six value themes emerged: enjoyment, connectedness, mental vitality, independence, sense of belonging and self-esteem, which can be categorised into functional, social and spiritual dimensions. A value co-creation nexus with continuum- and development-oriented active ageing as the two extremes, was developed, showing the differentiated efforts made by co-creators in different values. It also identified different value co-creation routines with various participants, corresponding values and their co-creation facilitators. The study firstly introduced the value co-creation activities into active ageing with tourism as the context. Results support the tourism service industry management, society inclusiveness and government policy.

ABSTRACT. Hospitality industry is dramatically influenced by electronic Word-of-Mouth. This research investigated the dimensions of hotel service quality which motivate hotel guests to publish negative electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Surveyed data of 200 respondents were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that tangibles, empathy, and reliability positively triggers visitors to spread negative e-WOM, motivated by their desire to help the other travellers and venting negative feelings. The findings emphasize the importance of e-WOM in hotel industry and provide practical implications for the marketers to manage online reviews.