ABSTRACT. This panel will explore the development, success, and challenges of industry self-regulation with a focus on marketing. Marketing has some of the most successful self-regulatory programs, including the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) and others. Self-regulation in marketing provides an opportunity to control and monitor marketplace behaviors and communications without legal or regulatory intervention. Successful self-regulation needs transparency in how it operates, independent verification of efficacy, subject matter experts with an understanding of the unique risk areas for a particular industry, and minimal costs to the legal and regulatory community. Government regulation is necessary as a back-up as not all members of an industry with a self-regulation program cooperate and not all industries provide self-regulation programs.

ABSTRACT. Online crowdfunding serves to collect financial resources for ventures by asking for small contributions from a large number of individuals through online platforms. As these platforms evolve, the role of visual elements in the images and videos of campaigns becomes increasingly critical to their success. Therefore, this study addresses three research questions: (1) How do facial expressions in images and videos influence crowdfunding success? (2) Which emotional expression most significantly impacts financial outcomes? (3) How does emotional congruency across both types of media affect crowdfunding success? Data from 1253 apparel-focused Kickstarter projects were analyzed using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) model to extract emotional facial cues from images and videos. Empirical results reveal that campaigns incorporating facial expressions financially outperform those without such elements. For images, happiness, surprise, and neutrality positively impact success, whereas anger, fear, and sadness negatively affect outcomes. In videos, happiness and neutrality results in positive financial results, while negative emotions such as anger and fear adversely impact success. This study offers practical implications for entrepreneurs on how to effectively design the visual elements of campaigns. Moreover, it extends the literature on signaling theory by identifying effective visual cues in the context of online crowdfunding.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the influence of image content attributes on eliciting customer engagement, considering the interplay between these attributes and other characteristics of a film. Initially, a dataset comprising 5543 movie posters was collected from IMDB, an online database of relevant information of movies, encompassing details about cast and production crew. Nineteen image attributes from four dimensions including color, composition, texture, and the presence of facial features, were extracted using Python and MATLAB. Subsequently, three supervised machine learning models were developed to construct an optimal model for categorizing all images based on valence, arousal, aesthetic, and novelty values.

ABSTRACT. The blockchain represents a seminal paradigm shift in the exchange of value and is likely to fundamentally transform marketing. While the paradigm associated with the World Wide Web and the Big Data movement is focused on the “sharing of information,” the paradigm associated with blockchain is focused on the “exchange of value.” Driven by a trust crisis in consumer-firm relationships due to the misuse or failure to adequately safeguard sensitive consumer data, blockchain is emerging as a key solution for the restoration of trust as well as security, privacy, authenticity and transparency in marketing. Despite the potential impact of blockchain in marketing thought and practice, relatively little academic research on blockchain currently exists in the marketing literature. To fill this gap, the authors present an initial theoretical framework, grounded in game theory, new institutional economics, and cryptographic science. They then describe the blockchain-centric logic that portends to be the foundation for the evolving blockchain marketplace, and the resulting paradigm shift for marketing academics and practitioners. Key foundational premises of this blockchain marketplace and directions for future research are finally suggested.

ABSTRACT. The impressive success of ChatGPT, which reached 100 million users in just two months, suggests a massive adoption of chatbots in the future, as well as an increasing use by consumers for a variety of services. This trend raises crucial questions about the privacy and control of personal data. We draw on the privacy calculus theory to investigate how individuals evaluate the benefits and costs of sharing personal information in exchange for personalized recommendations. Our research aims to answer the following research question: how do perceived well-being, self-disclosure, trust beliefs, risk beliefs, and personalization value influence intention to use a chatbot, and what role does consumer privacy control play in this context? Our between subject experiment (N = 151) demonstrate that subjective well-being and trust have a positive influence on the intention to use a chatbot. However, contrary to our expectations, self-disclosure has a negative impact on the intention to use the chatbot. We also highlight the importance of service personalization. Finally, the consumer privacy control, our manipulation, has no significant effect on either personalization value or risk beliefs. We thus contribute to the privacy calculus theory and we hope to enhance the comprehension of the personalization-privacy paradox.

ABSTRACT. Autonomous vehicle technology is currently gaining popularity in both business and academia. While autonomous passenger cars serve individual transportation needs, autonomous, self-driving shuttles (ASS) offer an efficient solution for shared mobility. To ensure successful ASS implementation, researchers and practitioners must comprehend the factors influencing behavioral intention to use. Although understanding pre-adoption antecedents of a new technology is crucial for adoption success, perceptions might change with user experience after adoption. The objective of this study is to investigate antecedents of adoption intention before and after experiencing ASS use. Drawing from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, we integrate less investigated constructs from trust-risk theories and transformative consumer research to assess the impact of performance expectancy, technology trust, and subjective well-being on adoption intention. To examine temporal changes, we conduct a within-subject longitudinal study involving 148 users of an ASS project at Bildungscampus Heilbronn, Germany, and employ an evolution model approach for panel data. Our results reveal that performance expectancy and technology trust remain stable antecedents, whereas the impact of subjective well-being diminishes with user experience. Additionally, our study sheds light on the factors influencing these direct antecedents of intention to use.

ABSTRACT. Consumers nowadays are shopping with multiple devices such as PCs and smartphones. Although judging the quality of products based on their prices (i.e., price-quality inference) is a common strategy used in our everyday lives, little is known about whether the strength of price-quality inference differs across PCs and smartphones. We propose that people are more likely to make quality judgments based on price when they shop using smartphones (vs. PCs). This occurs because smartphones are primarily used for recreational purposes. Therefore, when using smartphones, people are more inclined to experience heightened consummatory motives, leading to a greater reliance on heuristics. The results of four studies, employing various methods to measure the strength of price-quality inference, supported our propositions. We found that the strength of price-quality inference was stronger when smartphones (vs. PCs) were used. Additionally, the extent to which people use their devices for fun and the resulting consummatory motives serially mediated the effect of device type on the strength of price-quality inference. Our research contributes to both the device-mediated consumption literature and the price-quality inference literature. It also provides practical implications such as how to promote products’ perceived quality in targeted device campaigns.

ABSTRACT. The notion of access to products or lived experience has considerably attracted consumers’ attention, however, very little research has examined what affects subscriber renewal decisions. Previous literatures indicate that the reactions of a promotion (vs. prevention) focus vary depending on the given stimuli. Although both mental accounts and regulatory focus are often considered self-control devices, earlier studies have not yet examined the interaction effects between acquisition (vs. transaction) utility and regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) in subscription service contexts. This study therefore aims to account for the impact of subscribers’ perceived acquisition (vs. transaction) utility-framed persuasion attempts (e.g., subscription service mobile push notifications) on their use of mental accounts and, subsequently their behavioral intention to stay subscribed. More importantly, this study tests moderated mediation effects of self-regulatory focus on both the direct and the indirect effect of perceived acquisition (vs. transaction) utility on the willingness to use current budgets in their mental accounts via the (de)activation of persuasion knowledge. This study extends regulatory focus theory to the context of subscription renewal decision-making by highlighting the differences in subscribers’ mental accounting mechanisms, thereby predicting what consumer segments are more likely to show prolonged dedication to online subscription services.

ABSTRACT. Scalpers have changed the retail game for both consumers and businesses. A scalper is a person who buys high-demand products for the purpose of reselling them at a higher price once the product sells out (Chen 2022). While the existence of scalpers is not new, the growth of e-commerce and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platforms has intensified the effects of scalping behavior. While retailers cannot control resale prices, they are responsible for allowing scalpers to obtain large quantities of product. This may ultimately affect consumer trust on the retailer as well as products’ brand perceptions. While extant research has focused on the economic implications of scalping behaviors, the present research provides a more relational lens and focuses on consumer trust on retailer and reseller channels and the implications on perceived value and brand perceptions. Through an experimental approach, we explore how scalping behaviors affect retailers and product value perceptions.

ABSTRACT. Digital media consumption provides value to digital users by facilitating them to earn, learn, socialize, and shop. Conversely, no scale exists for measuring the digital users’ value derived from digital consumption. This paper aims to develop a scale for measuring the value derived from digital consumption. We label this scale as the Digital Consumption Value (DCV) scale. We used the theory of consumption values (TCV) to undertake six studies, starting with an exploratory qualitative study followed by five quantitative studies to establish this scale. The outcome of this research is a 29-item four-dimensional DCV scale. The four dimensions of the scale are functional, social, positive, and negative emotional values. The results suggest that digital overconsumption reduces digital consumption values. Further, digital users who draw more value from their digital consumption engage positively with work and experience higher self-reported productivity. This is the first scale that measures the value experienced by digital users from digital consumption. This research also demonstrates that overconsumption reduces value and could reduce engagement with work and productivity.

ABSTRACT. With the growing prevalence of digital platforms for online shopping, advertising, and marketing activities in general, it is imperative to better understand how designs of virtual elements on digital interfaces influence click behavior. Websites and online advertisements contain several virtual elements such as images, logos, and call-to-action buttons. This research examines how curved versus sharp angled shapes of virtual elements in online ads and on websites influence consumer click-through rates (CTR). The findings of a series of studies, including two field experiments and an eye tracking study, show that web and online ad elements in curved (vs. sharp angled) shapes generate higher CTR. Process evidence, suggests that curved (vs. sharp angled) digital elements enhance visual appeal, leading to approach motivation and greater CTR. On the practical side, the findings of this research have strong relevance for designing online ads and website interfaces and for digital marketing strategies in general. Specifically, digital marketers desiring higher click rates would benefit from having more curved (than sharp angled) virtual elements on websites and in online ads.

ABSTRACT. The integration of new AI tools in education holds significant importance, as it has the potential to transform and enhance the educational experience and to enhance students' capabilities to explore technology in a labor context. Although most studies have examined how students in general and medical students have employed ChatGPT, given the growing adoption of AI chatbots by firms, it is essential to explore the attitudes of future business employees/today's business and marketing students towards this technology. From chalkboard to Artificial intelligence (AI) use in education seem to be a small step, that raises many challenges to both teachers and students. This study aims to gain insight into how students perceive ChatGPT adoption and to appraise both its perceived usefulness and easiness. To this purpose a survey was conducted, and data was collected in Portugal and France. The results of structural equation modelling reveal that students who find ChatGPT easy to interact with tend to hold more favorable attitudes regarding its utility. This finding underscores the importance of user-friendliness in AI applications, particularly within educational contexts.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of a “Incubation for Professional Experience” as an example of providing experiential learning opportunities in an and marketing degree program. It presents an inclusive model for university–industry partnership in marketing education going beyond providing usual field practicum. It proposes an alternative type of stakeholder partnership model (ICPE) and a collective responsibility for overcoming the traditional WIL challenges for marketing students. The ICPE model is founded on a comprehensive analysis of industry engagement approaches, drawing inspiration from studies conducted by Rawlinson and Dewhurst (2013), Ylikoski & Kortelainen (2012), and Jackson and Meek (2020). By incorporating elements of incubation and business labs, ICPE offers a fresh and dynamic approach to foster collaborative partnerships between the university, industry partners, and students. This paper presents a comprehensive overview ICPE, highlighting its key components, stakeholder expectations, and the potential benefits it brings

ABSTRACT. This study applies services marketing theory to higher education through the exploration of humor as an effective pedagogical tool in increasing student engagement and retention. Integrating well-known theories such as Services Dominant Logic, the Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing Theory, and Social Learning Theory, this conceptual model posits that humor in the classroom may serve as a technique to positively impact these critical, desired higher ed outcomes. This topic is especially timely and relevant as higher education struggles to build rapport between Professor and the Gen Z student in a post-COVID19, impersonal and at times, isolated classroom environment. Finally, the paper closes with a discussion of pedagogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI), noting that while the use of AI has a plethora of opportunity and applications in the field of education, there are some tasks that AI cannot do… yet. In daily practice, humor in the classroom will aid professors in co-creating student engagement to ensure Gen Z students are learning, while higher education’s financial objectives, as measured by student retention, are being met.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines ethical climates in for-profit higher education institutions (FPHEIs), investigating how stakeholder pressures impact these climates. The paper stresses the need for ethical improvement, starting with a historical context and addressing decades of legal violations in the for-profit higher education industry.

The literature review discusses challenges in applying stakeholder theory, emphasizing the importance of clarity. Theoretical frameworks, including normative and instrumental stakeholder theories and address conflicts in interpretation (Philips, 2003; Donaldson & Preston, 1995). The emphasis is on thoroughly examining stakeholder theory's role in organizational ethics. The study highlights the conflict of interest between financial goals and ethics while investigating the impact of stakeholder pressure on ethical operations.

The hypotheses examine how ethical climates are influenced by internal and external stakeholders. The methodology involves empirical analysis through surveys administered to both current and former employees of FPHEIs. Various analyses are employed, and the paper acknowledges the limitations associated with assessing ethical climates solely from the employee perspective. In conclusion, the paper offers a comprehensive exploration of organizational ethical climates grounded in stakeholder theory.

ABSTRACT. As social media influencer endorsement gains significance in marketing communication, an increasing number of influencers have started to incorporate product information in their sponsored content. This study examines the effectiveness of product attribute description in the context of sponsored videos. Using a field dataset of 598 sponsored videos, we demonstrate that influencers’ use of product attribute description as an endorsement strategy has a negative impact on video engagement, and this effect is stronger for trial versus awareness campaigns. However, the negative impact is reversed to a positive one when product attribute description is employed for utilitarian products but not for hedonic products. These results reveal that the effectiveness of product attribute description depends on the nature of the product and the campaign objectives. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of influencer marketing effectiveness and sheds light on the nuances of endorsement strategies. Practical implications on how to optimize endorsement effectiveness and video performance are discussed.

ABSTRACT. A new category of influencers, virtual influencers, is emerging, driven by consumers increasingly turning to social media influencers as credible information sources, and companies allocating substantial budgets for influencer marketing and technological advancements. These developments are found to redefine consumer-brand interactions. This manuscript proposes a conceptual model of work-in-progress research exploring consumer engagement with AI virtual influencers (VI) and the engagement outcomes.

The research is grounded in the CASA model, treating VIs as social actors, and seeks to understand the factors that contribute to efficient consumer-VI engagement. Specifically, it focuses on social presence, social support, and action-oriented information as the key elements of successful VI engagement. The proposed conceptual model highlights the significance of trust in VIs, presenting how VIs with the right type of qualities can be perceived as trustworthy enhancing the consumer-VI engagement outcomes. Engagement with VIs is identified as a crucial factor influencing the perception of social presence and social support, which, in turn, affects trust and behavioral outcomes. The influence of VI characteristics is considered as the moderators affecting the relationship of engagement with social presence and social support. The proposed methodology and expected contributions to theory and practice are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Abstract Social media platforms have transformed with the rise of social media influencers (SMIs). In the past, celebrities served as primary brand ambassadors; however, SMIs have emerged as a more cost-effective choice for brands. Growing concerns regarding influencer authenticity have led to the implementation of account verification indicators, such as Twitter's blue badge, initially designed as a symbol of fame and authenticity. Nevertheless, a shift in platform policy now permits users to purchase this verification status, with major platforms imposing a charge for this privilege. Advocates contend that this change enhances the safety of the online environment, while opponents argue that it diminishes the original value of the verification badge. This research investigates the impact of purchasable verification status, specifically on follower engagement. Using performance metrics of influencers across three major social media platforms, the study offers managerial insights for both platforms and influencers.

ABSTRACT. Influencer marketing's power in shaping public opinion and driving commercial value for brands has garnered considerable attention. Yet, our understanding of its impact on public institutions and societal value remains limited.

This study delves into the influence of a unique category of influencers - "copfluencers," police officers actively engaging in social media content creation. The research explores whether copfluencers' online engagement can enhance public trust and perceptions of police. Drawing from influencer marketing literature, we evaluate copfluencers' credibility based on attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness. Additionally, we examine how content type and social media platform choice affect copfluencers' credibility, subsequently impacting public trust in law enforcement. Utilizing a mixed methodology approach, we show that positive interactions with copfluencers on social media can positively impact the public trust and perceptions of the police.

Our research contributes to the evolving influencer marketing literature, expanding its application to the public branding sector. We also expand this literature to underscore the social value of influencers beyond their commercial value and set the agenda for further research in this domain. We also offer valuable guidelines for police departments and government agencies on harnessing influencer marketing to build community trust and enhance the image of the police.

ABSTRACT. With the rise of E-commerce and social media, consumers can scout various sources and combine multiple discounts into one deal for a purchase. Using data scrapped from a deal-sharing site and six experiments, we identify the positive effect of stackable (vs. single discount of the same magnitude) discounts and demonstrate that a stacked deal is perceived as more unique, leading to smart shopper feelings, which in turn increases the likelihood of purchase. The effect is especially prominent for smaller discounts magnitude compared to larger ones. Our findings indicate that the effect of stackable discounts is not merely explained by computational error. The effect of the stackable discount is robust and is generalizable to different presentation formats, various sources of the compiler (consumer self or other customers), and different sources of the offer's providers (retailers or third-party providers).

ABSTRACT. Marketers employ different discount framing strategies, while also being mindful of consumers' perceptions of these strategies. This research suggests that when the sale price is presented along with the "after $XX off" message, it can decrease consumers' purchase intention and evaluation of the deal due to an increased perceived deceptiveness. This research is practically relevant to retailers as one of the largest wholesale retailers Costco has been using this promotion strategy for a long time. By investigating this unique promotion strategy, retailers will benefit from adjusting the current promotion strategy to increase revenue and sales while making consumers less susceptible to discounts.

ABSTRACT. Dynamic pricing is being implemented for the first time in many service sectors. For example, the use of dynamic pricing in European ski resorts has risen 1200% between 2017 and 2022. The reactions of price-disadvantaged customers to dynamic pricing in tourism have already been examined. However, research on pricing norms suggests that even price-advantaged customers will not react positively to dynamic pricing in service contexts where dynamic pricing has been recently implemented due to their expectations of what constitutes a typical price structure for a given service. In this study, we thus analyse the impact of dynamic pricing (non-norm) vs. simple differential pricing (pricing norm) on price confusion, trust, and repurchase intentions of price-advantaged customers. The results show how implementing dynamic pricing may be counterproductive to service providers as dynamic pricing leads to higher levels of price confusion, lower levels of trust in the company, and lower levels of repurchase intentions compared to customers confronted with a simple form of differential pricing. These results serve as a warning to service providers who wish to implement dynamic pricing in service contexts where it is not yet the norm and suggest that more research should be done on mitigating strategies.

ABSTRACT. In this paper we investigate the practice of asymmetric pricing in the small, or APIS - where small price increases dominate small price decreases, with such asymmetry disappearing for larger price changes. There are speculations that these practices are tools to turn the retailers’ dynamic pricing capabilities into profit – in particular, by strategically leveraging consumers’ rational inattention of price increases. We study these using two complementary datasets - a large scanner dataset with almost 79 billion weekly prices from 2006 to 2015, covering 527 products, and about 35,000 stores across 161 retailers in the US, and a matching consumer panel dataset of over 50,000 panelists during the same period. At the retailer level of aggregation, almost 55% of our sample exhibit APIS. At product level of aggregation, 53% exhibit APIS. Consistent with our predictions of strategic intent, we find APIS are more prevalent for categories with a smaller share of consumer basket. We also find that HILO retailers are more likely to engage in APIS relative to EDLP retailers and that larger retailers are more likely to engage in this pricing. Our findings are among the first empirical results explaining the cross-sectional variation of asymmetric pricing practices.

ABSTRACT. Counterfeit purchase has significant implications worldwide, negatively affecting the global economy, environment, societies, and consumer health in many countries. The exponential growth of e-commerce following the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an estimated $3 trillion in global counterfeit sales (Handfield, 2021). A 17-country survey (N = 13,53) was conducted to explore consumers’ counterfeit buying behavior on a global scale, focusing on factors associated with consumers’ intentions to purchase counterfeits and past deceptive (unknown) and non-deceptive (known) counterfeit buying. Applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), we measured cognitive and affective attitudes, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and social norms (injunctive and descriptive) associated with purchasing fake merchandise. We found that cognitive attitudes were the most significant predictor of counterfeit purchase intentions and behaviors, followed by personal injunctive norms, affective attitudes, descriptive norms within immediate family circles, societal injunctive norms, and descriptive norms among Internet users, extended family, and close friends. The study offers valuable insights to company owners, brand protection specialists, marketing strategists, non-profit organizations, and government agencies that seek to reduce the prevalence of counterfeit buying.

ABSTRACT. As the differences between digital and physical assets and their impact on consumer identity become increasingly blurred, this research explores consumption and transferability of utility across virtual and physical planes, using sport NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) as an example of ‘phygital’ assets. Based on a theoretical lens that combines affordance theory and the theory of extended self the study explores how NFTs can support the transferability of utility from the digital to the physical plane and vice-versa, how that affects the owners’ identity and self-perception, and how creators and marketers can develop more successful virtual assets based on the value they strive to create and their intended impact on consumer identity. Following a multi-study approach, that includes social media data analysis, qualitative interviews, fsQCA and an experimental design, our findings shed light on the drivers that enable this transferability of utility and explain the consequences this may have for the value of virtual assets and the extended self of the consumers. The study closes by offering specific combinations/recipes that can support the development of more effective phygital assets and demonstrates how the different utility offered by the NFTs can affect consumer preferences and purchasing intentions for these assets.

ABSTRACT. Gen Z is the first generation to effortlessly navigate an increasing lack of boundaries between physical and digital worlds, making them “phygital” pioneers in history. The coming of age of this generation, against a backdrop of volatile cultural, economic, and political forces presents a ripe opportunity for research. We aim to propose an integrative conceptual framework to systematically categorize future research work based on the intersection of the physical/digital distinction and the corresponding intersections with consumer behavior. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it aims to review the literature on Gen Z considering the physical/digital mindset distinction. Second, it aims to describe the distinction implications for consumer behavior studies. Third, it seeks to propose specific questions for future research. Our conceptual framework proposes further investigation of the nature of Gen Z as consumers with implications, what are their unique values, attitudes, and expectations in the phygital arena, and ultimately, extend recommendations to better target and engage Gen Zers.

ABSTRACT. The critical role played by sales managers in the deployment of digital transformation initiatives is a topic that has not received attention in the sales literature.Drawing on literature from the information technology (IT) domain as well as the Job Demands-Resource model, we develop a conceptual framework that identifies the stress experienced by sales managers owing to the demands placed on them to deploy digital transformation initiatives and its corresponding impact on the role stress experienced by these managers even as they go about their routine activities. We conclude with a discussion of what the future research direction would be for this research project.

ABSTRACT. Business to Business (B2B) markets are facing a significant set of challenges that involve the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, technological changes such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and economic and political uncertainty across major global markets (Field et al., 2021; Kalra, Lee and Dugan, 2023). These changes have forced organizations to modify their approach to continuously deliver superior value to customers and other stakeholders (Ameen, Cheah and Kumar, 2022; Osburg et al., 2022). Not surprisingly, firms have been asked to embrace agility that can be applied to different organizational functions. Viewed as the organizational capability to sense and respond to new situations in a timely manner (Christof et al., 2021; Field et al., 2021), agility focuses on reducing complexity and identifying potential opportunities. Specifically, agility indicates a firm’s willingness to sense and respond to external threats, adapt their marketing and sales strategies, and suggests a supportive organizational culture and climate (Eckstein et al., 2015; Roberts and Grover, 2012; Zhou, Mavondo, and Saunders, 2019). Thus, agility provides avenues for achieving superior competitive advantage through faster adaptation to the changing external environment.

ABSTRACT. Salespeople commit transgressions that can damage relationships with buyers, such as being deceptive, not fulfilling expectations, and selling products that are not in the buyer's best interest (Hansen et al., 2016). There is a misconception that these transgressions occur because salespeople have a natural inclination to behave unethically (Chaker et al., 2021). Often these transgressions transpire because of the emotional exhaustion that accompanies the high rates of failure and rejection associated with the salesperson’s role, which can lead to lapses in judgment or mistakes (Lussier et al., 2021). These transgressions can damage relationships at both the individual and firm levels (Basso & Pizzutti, 2016). This can necessitate a salesperson engaging in reparative actions to restore trust in damaged relationships (Nelson et al., 2021).

ABSTRACT. This research investigate whether sales team ethics training influences sales team knowledge sharing. In addition it explores the process through which this occurs, namely sales team ethical standard. In addition, the study explores whether sales manager rule bending (in an effort to solve complicated issues) actually undermines the efficacy of ethics training.

ABSTRACT. The prominence of environmental issues among consumers has incited the rapid development and launch of sustainable product innovations. Companies developing sustainable product innovations can experience better financial outcomes, but introducing these innovations requires major company investments without assuring the expected returns. The positive consumer perception of such innovations is imperative for their success, and prior research suggests that more innovative sustainable product innovations induce higher innovation adoption. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence on the impact of the degree of innovativeness of sustainable product innovations on consumer perceptions and on the underlying mechanisms that may lead to varying consumer perceptions. The current study approaches the examination of the topic through the lens of attribution theory. It posits that consumers tend to make internal or external attributions concerning a company’s motivations behind introducing sustainable product innovations. Following an experimental approach, our findings show that radical (vs. incremental) sustainable product innovations can result in better consumer outcomes due to the attribution of intrinsic motivations to the company’s innovation introduction. In contrast, the attributions to the company’s extrinsic motivations do not play a significant role. By doing so, our study contributes to the literature on sustainable product innovation perception.

ABSTRACT. Brand competitiveness as a brand’s outperformance of competing brands is receiving growing attention in the business literature. However, in-depth examinations of the construct remain missing, which limits attempts to establish generalised knowledge about the construct. This study introduces customer-based brand competitiveness (CBBC) as a customer-based conceptualisation and develops a scale to measure CBBC. It draws on signalling theory to provide a theoretical underpinning for the construct’s relevance and empirically investigates brand equity and purchase intentions as consequences of CBBC. The scale development process comprises three stages, with two qualitative and three quantitative studies. An initial pool of 36 items is generated from a literature review and qualitative interviews with 20 consumers in the scale construction stage. The scale refinement stage with 21 academic branding experts results in a reduced pool of seven items. The scale validation stage with a total of 1,157 consumers, resulting in 2,078 brand evaluations across five industries, confirms the reliability, validity, and unidimensionality of the seven-item CBBC scale. Structural equation modelling shows the superiority of the new scale, which represents a more powerful yet parsimonious tool to measure brand competitiveness, making it a validated, widely applicable instrument that can be efficiently utilised in academia and practice.

ABSTRACT. The authenticity of founders, in particular, has garnered substantial attention in recent years as consumers seek more meaningful connections with the brands they support. A founder's personal association with their products or services has long been considered a powerful tool in building authenticity. However, a fascinating paradox has emerged: instances where founders do not personally use or align with their own offerings. Using a three-condition experiment, the current research aims to examine the effect of a founder’s product usage on authenticity perceptions. The study also aims to examine whether a founder’s transparency regarding a lack of product consumption may mitigate the negative effect of nonusage on perceived authenticity. The proposed experiment allows for the study of true-to-self authenticity in a previously unexamined context. As well, the research aims to examine whether founders can successfully market a product without actually using the product in their everyday lives. Managers or founders of brands who do not belong to the target market or do not use their products can communicate their passion behind, as well as reason for creating, the offering.

ABSTRACT. Polarization is a reality for many brands, as they are simultaneously loved and hated by considerably large groups of consumers. Although considered risky by many, it is not uncommon that brands are polarizing by choice, as this allow them to take a stand, have a clear purpose, and move away from their worst enemy: indifference. Globally, air transport offers multiple benefits, like improved trade, booster of the tourism industry, health and humanitarian aid supply, mobilisation of freight, source of employment, and facilitator of global economic growth, have become quite polarizing, making them a good research context for this project. CFA was conducted to test the interactions between brand strength and brand uniqueness and brand polarization and the moderating role of product involvement in these relationships. Further, the interactions between brand polarization and complimenting/complaining and forgiveness/retaliation was also examined. Results show that for airlines brands, brand strength and brand uniqueness facilitate the development of brand polarization. This is independent of how involved consumers are with the product category. Brand polarization, in turn, motivates consumers to approach the airline brand through complimenting and complaining behaviours, and to act upon it through forgiveness and retaliation behaviours.

ABSTRACT. In a world where sociopolitical issues increasingly shape consumer behavior, marketers walk a fine line in balancing relationships with their customers and risking alienating others. This special session explores how consumers seek to reinforce their own perceptions and values in the complex world of social media cancel culture and the implications for branding efforts. Exploring a framework of how brands can react to this darker side of social media will include a discussion of brand boycotts, cancellation of influencers, and how cancel culture impacts integrated brand promotion strategies. The session will conclude with specific recommendations for brands and researchers to explore effective means of expressing the brand’s voice on social media to resonate with the target audience. This section will include a discussion of avenues to extend work on consumer power and pushback to companies and human brands in the social media space

ABSTRACT. Green marketing is currently one of the most prominent topics in today's world. Consequently, consumer behaviors regarding green products have gained significant importance for businesses. In their pursuit of eco-friendliness, businesses must also prioritize understanding customer perceptions. This study aims to provide a novel perspective on the "Theory of Planned Behavior" (TPB) by incorporating environmental concern, perceived environmental knowledge, and perceptions of greenwashing into the realm of green marketing.

This research investigates the influence of TPB components on consumers' intentions to purchase environmentally friendly products. Data was collected through an online survey, resulting in 530 valid and complete responses. The study's findings reveal that TPB components, including perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norms, positively impact consumers' intentions to purchase green products. Additionally, the supplementary factors examined in this study demonstrate significant effects. Specifically, environmental concern and environmental knowledge exert positive influences, while perceptions of greenwashing have a negative impact on green purchase intentions. In conclusion, this study offers practical recommendations for businesses striving to adopt green practices.

ABSTRACT. Frontline employees are pivotal in influencing customer perceptions, satisfaction, and the emergence of brand evangelists. In the contemporary digital landscape, their proficiency in digital tools, their proactive support, and their adeptness in forging relationships hold immense strategic importance for organizational success. This study examines the impact of frontline employees' digital competence, proactive assistance, and relationship-building on customer brand evangelism. The mediating role of brand image and the moderating role of perceived corporate social responsibility are also investigated. The study employs a quantitative research approach, utilizing a multistage random sampling technique to collect data from customers visiting five and four-star hotels. The study utilizes a time-lagged data collection method, with two data collection points separated by a four-week gap. The results indicate that frontline employees' digital competence, proactive assistance, and relationship building significantly create brand evangelists directly as well as via mediation of corporate image. In the realm of sales and marketing, more specifically in hospitality management, this study underscores the critical role of frontline employees in shaping customer perceptions and fostering brand evangelism, emphasizing the importance of investing in these areas to enhance corporate image and customer evangelism.

ABSTRACT. This paper introduces short mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) as a path to decrease social media usage urge among high school students. In a field study (N=115) conducted in high schools across the United States, we demonstrate that compared to control, a five-minute MBI decreases social media usage urge. As a result, we introduce The Mindful Student Initiative, a roadmap to implement short mindfulness-based interventions within the school environment designed for, and with the research partnership of school administrators. This work underscores short mindfulness-based interventions as a novel approach to alleviate the excessive use of social media among high school students. Further, school administrators and districts can consider implementing The Mindful Student Initiative within schools to help students reduce their dependence on social media and therefore contribute to improving their wellbeing.

ABSTRACT. The current research seeks to explore the intersection of political ideology, self- vs. other-benefit appeals, and the resulting attitudes surrounding sustainability. The authors propose a textual data analysis methodology to capture authentic responses to sustainable product messaging. Specifically, the research proposes analysis of political ideology to understand how and when attitudes align between consumers who are typically perceived as different from one another. A horseshoe pattern of results is expected, based on prior research suggesting the motivation and attitudes of those on opposite sides of the political spectrum might be wildly different, and yet the behavioral outcomes might be very similar. Implementing self- vs. other-benefit messaging is a simple way for marketers to increase buying intentions of sustainable products. In this sense, the authors provide marketers with realistic tactics to push consumers' preferences toward more sustainable options.

ABSTRACT. Service robotics has opened up new opportunities for the service domain. Service robots are complementing and replacing humans as service providers in innovative service ecosystems at an ever-increasing pace. However, it can also be observed that the extant literature on service robotics lacks an integral, systematic and comprehensive multidisciplinary review of the relevant extant literature. We develop a new approach based on text analytics to provide such a comprehensive and visual overview of the literature complementing existing literature synthesis approaches, such systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses.

ABSTRACT. Organizations are increasingly adopting AI-human team models whereby, AI conducts initial appraisals, and AI output is then used by human agents to make judgments. However, extant marketing research has mostly focused on the paradigm of “algorithms replacing humans”. We address this gap between practice and research by investigating the accountability judgments (blame/credit) contingent upon decision outcomes from the point of view of internal and external stakeholders (i.e., human team member and customers). Across four controlled experiments from the medical and tax filing domains, we find that in frontline employee-AI team scenarios, the human agent is assigned higher blame and credit when it overrides (vs. does not) AI assessments and when the outcomes are negative and positive, respectively. We further explore the moderating role of power perceptions on the accountability judgments for negative versus positive outcomes resulting from an AI-human team, such that consumers ascribe higher blame (credit) for negative (positive) outcomes to the human agent when it was perceived to have high (vs. low) power relative to the AI. Conversely, they ascribed lower blame (credit) for negative (positive) outcomes to the AI when the human was perceived to have high (vs. low) power relative to the AI.

ABSTRACT. Digital point-of-sale platforms disrupted the norm of privacy-while-tipping. Previous research indirectly suggests that firms can increase, or at least not reduce, tips by reducing tipping privacy. The effects of tipping privacy on non-tip responses remains unexamined. Related voluntary payments contexts (e.g., donations) suggest that consumers sometimes prefer to be seen making these prosocial payments, and other times prefer privacy. We examine how and why tipping privacy affects non-tip responses. A field study and four experiments find that diminished tipping privacy reduces non-tip responses because customers feel less generous and less in control. Allowing customers to change initial tip amounts mitigates these detrimental effects. Providing insight into the inconsistent effects of privacy on tip amounts, we find that diminished perceived control increases tip amounts, while diminished perceived generosity reduces tips. Managers considering reducing privacy as a means to increase tip revenue should also consider the damaging effects on non-tip responses.

ABSTRACT. Hospitality industry is dramatically influenced by innovative services. This research explored the reasons for the adoption of service robots in the hospitality industry. Surveyed data of 200 respondents were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that perceived enjoyment, perceived innovativeness, and perceived safety positively influence attitudes of travellers toward use of service robots. Furthermore, the findings shows that switch cost moderates the relationship between perceived enjoyment and attitude toward service robots.

ABSTRACT. The research field of inter-firm coopetition, which describes the simultaneous presence of both competition and cooperation in inter-firm relationships, has recently received rising attention from research scholars and practitioners. As most researchers have studied coopetition’s outcomes, scholars are calling for a deeper understanding of its drivers. Also, research has mainly focused on conceptual work and analyzing relationships in isolated industries. In this paper, we investigate how a firm’s market orientation, specifically its competitor and customer orientation, influence a firm’s engagement in coopetition. Analyzing a cross-sectional, cross-industrial dataset from 2000 to 2021 of 1193 alliances across 377 firms in the S&P 500 Index, we found that firstly, a firm’s competitor orientation negatively relates to the occurrence of coopetition. Secondly, a higher customer orientation suggests a lower cooperation intensity in coopetition, and thirdly, a higher customer orientation suggests a more balanced coopetition set-up. Enriching coopetition research with a perspective on a firm’s market orientation further advances the field. We additionally derive valuable implications for research and practice.

ABSTRACT. In the ever-changing world of business, marketing agility has emerged as a critical concept for organizational success, yet literature has fragmented definitions. This paper explores first a comprehensive marketing agility definition and then move into its drivers, processes, outcomes, and challenges. It emphasizes marketing's key role in achieving strategic objectives by harnessing knowledge, fostering resilience and innovation. The study introduces a process that includes sense-making, responsive decision-making, iteration, and speed of action. The outcomes of marketing agility include improved firm performance, competitive advantage, innovation adoption, and effective technology integration. However, challenges like external dependencies, organizational silos, and criteria for success need to be addressed. This paper sheds light on the theoretical framework and practical insights into capitalizing marketing agility to achieve overarching strategic objectives.

ABSTRACT. Transformative marketing (TM) has reached considerable attention of both academic and practitioner communities. However, holistic empirical TM studies remain scarce with regards to the consideration of B2B, and the investigation of mobility ecosystems as a uniquely disruptive context. This paper thus presents a comprehensive qualitative study comprising the perspective of 30 managers from 28 B2B mobility organizations. The methodological approach is based on in- depth, partly standardized expert interviews. Our key contribution lies in a novel typology of four foundational TM strategies evident in B2B mobility firms, namely reactive, evasive, dependent, and progressive approaches. The findings uncover, that the TM strategies are influenced by antecedents related to a firms’ business ecosystem (BES) and their so-called transformative resource gap (TRG) resulting in their transformation readiness. Further, we share new insights on how the foundational B2B TM strategy impacts the measurement of subsequent TM success. Through our study, we seek to advance the conceptualization of TM and pave the way for its rigorous application in both theory and practice.

ABSTRACT. This study focuses on how managers process decisions that involve ethical dilemmas in the context of cross-cultural environments. It utilizes primary data from a four-country comparative study contemplating both individualistic and collectivist cultural traits as the context of managers’ ethical decision making. The theoretical framework employed centers on the deontological and teleological explanations of how ethical dilemmas are processed and solved. The results demonstrate that managers can be examined utilizing a common ethical decision-making process in which ethical judgment and ethical intention, the main predicted outcomes, are deontologically and/or teleologically determined. Notwithstanding, when comparing the results obtained from managers in individualistic cultures with those from managers in collectivist cultures, both groups reveal substantial differences on how they form ethical judgment and draw ethical intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), such as ChatGPT, revolutionises Hospitality, Travel and Tourism (Carvalho and Ivanov, 2024, Dogru et al, 2023, Dwivedi, et al 2023b). GAI will be increasingly reengineering the service industries by empowering consumer experience, streamlining digital customer journeys, optimising operational management and improving overall working experience of staff members in the industry (Wong, Lian and Sun, 2023). Technology propels greater innovations in how tourism organizations conduct their operations and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) revolutionise travel (Buhalis, 2020, Bulchand-Gidumal, William, O’Connor, Buhalis, 2023). Increasingly Hospitality, Travel and Tourism companies, including Marriott and Hyatt Hotels, Airbnb, Expedia, Kayak, Marriott, Air France, Royal Caribbean, etc, rely more on GAI for their management and marketing. This is an conceptual research paper aiming to develop the research agenda for the future.

ABSTRACT. Collaboration between employees and service robots is becoming part of the routine workplace experience. However, whether working with these robotic assistants will lead to higher employee turnover intention and why remains unclear. We conducted three interconnected experiments to investigate how extrinsic and intrinsic factors can affect the dynamics of human-robot collaboration and consequently influence turnover intention. First, the extrinsic monetary incentive is found to significantly moderate the effect of intrinsic perceived control on turnover intention in both human-to-human and human-robot collaborations. Second, the external perceived pressure from the supervisor and colleague can weaken the effectiveness of monetary incentives to turnover intention, and this moderating effect is more pronounced in human-robot collaboration. Finally, we found that employees are not affected by the intrinsic perceived anxiety of disappointing their colleagues or supervisors when working with service robots. Yet, this intrinsic factor plays a critical role in human-to-human collaboration and affects turnover intention.

ABSTRACT. The recent surge of the gig economy, driven by advancements in information technology and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has had a profound influence on flexible employment. This impact is particularly noticeable among mobile food delivery app (MFDA) riders. However, the existing body of literature primarily emphasizes the customer's experiences and satisfaction, often neglecting the rider's perspective. This study, rooted in the Information System success model, delves into the influence of app quality on riders' app satisfaction, subsequently affecting their job satisfaction. This study also considers the potential moderating role of customer tipping. Preliminary findings highlight the significant effects of both system quality and service quality on user satisfaction, which indirectly impacts the job satisfaction of the riders. Notably, customer tipping strengthens the positive association between user satisfaction and job satisfaction. In essence, this research unravels the intricate dynamics of the gig economy, highlighting the vital roles of riders’ app usage experience and customer tipping as the gig economy continues to reshape the world of work.

ABSTRACT. Last quarter US retail sales were $ 1.798.2 billion, of which only 15.4% was e-commerce according the US census reports (2023). Consumers spend most of their money in stores and view a great many Point-of-Purchase (POP) signs when shopping. Marketing strategy suggests there is value in this expense although varying results have been documented. We examine the effectiveness of Point-of-Purchase (POP) brand signs on sales using a large-scale field study and a controlled biometric eye-tracking study. Boundary conditions of brand POP effectiveness on sales were investigated. Using research on assimilation and contrast, we propose that increasing the number of POP signage in a store increases attention paid to a familiar brand but not an unfamiliar brand’s POP signage. Conversely, in an uncluttered environment, attention is paid to the unfamiliar brands but not the familiar brand’s POP signage. The large-scale field study and eye tracking data provide support for our propositions and insights into when POP signs can or cannot be effective in influencing sales in the marketplace. Our findings extend marketing theory on in-store advertising, provide new strategy for POP placement in stores, and generate managerial implications for strategic use of marketing communication funds to increase sales.

ABSTRACT. The growing use of dynamic pricing by hedonic service providers to manage overcrowding is a notable trend. While previous academic research has primarily concentrated on examining dynamic pricing from the perspective of maximizing revenue, limited attention has been given to its potential role in enhancing the customer experience. This study attempts to address this research gap by exploring the intricate interplay between customer experience and revenue within the framework of dynamic pricing strategies. Through a combination of controlled experiments and an extensive longitudinal field study, this proposal seeks to quantitatively assess the effects of marketing initiatives aimed at mitigating overcrowding through dynamic pricing. The anticipated outcomes of this research have significant implications for marketing professionals and managers, offering insights into how dynamic pricing influences consumer responses. Furthermore, the proposal emphasizes the strategic importance of integrating measures to improve the customer experience when considering the adoption of dynamic pricing policies.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, influencer marketing has rapidly increased in popularity and has become a dominant means of connecting with consumers. Applying social influence theory, this study empirically investigates the effect of virtual influencers on consumers' behavioural engagement. Specifically, it examines how virtual influencers affect consumers' informational and normative social influence, which leads to behavioural engagement. The study proposes source credibility and perceived interactivity as boundary conditions on the relationships between virtual influencers and informational and normative social influence. Results from 443 hospitality consumers collected and analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) show virtual influencers positively associate with informational and normative social influence and behavioural engagement. Findings confirm that consumers' informational and normative social influence positively causes behavioural engagement. The study also validates the role of both boundary conditions. The findings provide insights into information management, engagement, trust and implications for online platforms in developing promotional strategies. Both theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Prosocial products and their messaging have been studied extensively in psychology, economics and marketing literatures. Despite prosocial products increasingly gaining importance (with the heightened focus on climate change and social fairness towards minority communities), the percentage of consumers who opt for such products are a fraction of those who say they would. In this paper, I leverage advance machine learning and deep learning tools to investigate the advantage of prosocial products over their non-prosocial peers and how image concreteness, text concreteness, and image-text information fit moderate the advantage, and the causality of the findings.

ABSTRACT. Images have always held a pivotal position in the realm of brand research. Despite the advanced development of computational power and the proliferation of image-centric digital platforms, marketing researchers have not yet fully exploited the potential of image data. Our research aims to fill this gap by conducting an integrative literature review that integrates computer vision techniques into branding studies. This article makes three key contributions: (1) integratively reviewing and merging disjoint literature streams under the CBBE framework to identify potential unexplored areas in branding study with computer vision; (2) introducing a methodological matrix to guide the data utilization and method selection process; (3) proposing a future agenda to advance branding research by incorporating computer vision techniques.

ABSTRACT. “A third of travelers say they would use ChatGPT to plan their vacation” (Shah, 2023). Travel planning tools allow users to converse with the AI in natural, human-like ways to explain what they want in a vacation, creating itineraries, arranging travel, and more (Statista, 2023). More specifically, AI can provide hyper-personalized recommendations based on interest, duration and budget (Shah, 2023). This research provides a first insight into this developing area in practice and research. Through use of qualitative interviews, the findings of our study support existing literature in finding trust and context to be significant contributors of AI recommender acceptance for travel planning. However, our findings also highlight emerging themes requiring further investigation. First, findings highlight that hedonic motivations are equally as important as utilitarian motivations, which is counter to some previous studies yet important in future app developments. Second, our findings show that trust in the AI tool is not as significant as needing trust in one’s own ability to use the app successfully. These findings draw on some important themes for further exploration in this vastly developing area.

ABSTRACT. At a time when companies are increasingly focusing on consumers’ brand-related views, feelings and behaviours, the online environment provides unique opportunities for deep and meaningful consumer engagement with brands and other consumers around the brand. Studies indicate that brand underperformance can make consumers engage negatively and have more intense participation in anti-brand communities, platforms that can help individuals express their negative brand-related thoughts and feelings to others. This work aims to explore how brand-related factors contribute to negative online brand engagement, leading to the intention to join or participate in anti-brand communities, which the existing literature largely overlooks. Based on an online consumer survey with data collected from two distinct sets of individuals with negative brand dispositions: members and non-members of anti-brand communities, this paper reveals the effects of brand failure severity, perceived brand quality and unacceptable brand behaviour on negative online brand engagement which can further enhance their intention to join or participate in anti-brand communities. This unique focus sheds light on and enhances our understanding of negative consumer engagement and its brand-related antecedents and anti-brand community outcomes.

ABSTRACT. Technology plays a pivotal role in consumer data privacy. As technologies continue to advance it is important that businesses implement stronger self-regulation strategies to minimize the harm and exposure of privacy risks to consumers. This research introduces the concept of Brand Privacy Reputation (BPR) and presents the development and validation of a measurement scale for this construct, with five empirical studies encompassing item creation, validity assessment, and reliability testing. This research contributes to marketing literature by conceptualizing and examining the novel concept of brand privacy reputation (BPR) and by developing a scale to measure this construct. In doing so we empirically show that the BPR scale is distinct from the established privacy and brand reputation scales. We assert that brands with proactive privacy-focused policies will have a competitive advantage over those that do not and conclude that the BPR scale satisfies all criteria for newly developed construct measures and has the potential to add a new perspective to marketing theory and application.

ABSTRACT. With the advent of fully autonomous cars (AC), where drivers are liberated from all driving tasks, there is a growing interest in understanding how consumers will utilize their newfound free time while in transit. Manufacturers aim to provide attractive non-driving related activities (NDRA) to enhance the customer experience and influence consumer purchase decisions. Our study seeks to address a critical research gap by investigating the influence of NDRA on the acceptance of autonomous cars. While previous research has explored the general acceptance of AC, there is limited understanding of the role NDRA play in influencing technology acceptance. This study employs an adapted version of the acceptance model of Nastjuk et al. (2020) to examine the impact of NDRA on acceptance drivers. The study conducted a standardized online survey in Germany, collecting 238 data records for analysis. Results reveal that the possibility of performing work-related activities during AC travel significantly increases motivation and perceived usefulness, positively impacting the intention to use AC. In contrast, activities such as relaxation, sports, and entertainment have minimal or even negative effects on perceived usefulness and motivation.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates the role of product customization on consumers’ brand relationship and brand attitude. The findings from two experiments demonstrate that consumers with high involvement (vs. low) will have more positive brand relationship and brand attitude. In addition, consumer’s privacy concern moderates this relationship such that the identified positive effect exists only for those with a low privacy concern.

ABSTRACT. Variable compensation – pay that is based on performance - is widely used to motivate both salespeople and sales managers alike. While researchers have explored the role of variable compensation and its impact on individuals, a key element of variable pay has been mostly void in the literature – the role of variable compensation goal interdependence between a salesperson's and a sales manager’s variable pay goals. We take a mixed methods approach to explore this phenomenon. First, we conduct a field study of 404 salespeople nested within 127 managers across 79 companies to better understand if conflicting variable pay goals impact salesperson outcomes. Our findings suggest variable pay goal conflict can be detrimental. To explore the mechanisms behind these findings we employ qualitative interviews of 20 salespeople and sales managers (10 dyads). The findings of Study 2 provide insights regarding the mechanisms that may be driving the results and motivated us to revisit the quantitative data from Study 1 to explore the role of sales manager empathy and influence as moderators. Our findings provide initial evidence that the most typical way to set variable pay (i.e., lower manger variable pay and higher salesperson variable pay) may be a suboptimal practice.

ABSTRACT. In the realm of sales, individuals embodying the traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism collectively known as the "dark triad", are notably prevalent. While existing research predominantly emphasizes positive personality attributes as drivers of sales performance, it is imperative to acknowledge the significant presence of these dark traits within the sales profession. Remarkably, sales professionals exhibit higher levels of these traits compared to most other occupations, rivaling only CEOs, lawyers, and celebrities.

Traditionally associated with negative outcomes such as manipulative and self-serving behaviors, the dark triad traits have intriguingly been linked to substantial professional success in specific contexts. Building on this emerging perspective, our research aims to further explore the effects of dark triad traits, delving into uncharted territory within the sales domain.

In this study, we pose two fundamental research questions: Firstly, how do dark traits influence salespeople's motivational strivings? Secondly, what strategies can managers employ to enhance or mitigate the positive or negative effects of these dark traits on motivational strivings? By addressing these questions, our research endeavors to shed light on the complex interplay between personality traits and motivation in the sales profession, offering valuable insights for both academics and practitioners alike.

ABSTRACT. Frontline service employees have become the first competitive advantage since they are the key performance of service companies: “harder for competitors to duplicate high-performance human assets than any other corporate resource” (Wirtz and al.,2008). This perspective brought a new marketing direction, that is Internal Marketing (IM). This abstract considers the IM as an alternative to the service performance and examines relationships among IM, Frontline service employees’ satisfaction and Perceived service quality. An attempt to conceptualize and develop a measurement scale of the “IM” concept is also developed. This research focuses on a dual perspective, that of Marketing and Human Resources, which is particularly interesting to allow to build a model reflecting the interaction between the service frontline employees. A dyadic analysis is applied to test relationships between constructs/variables from two different populations, having regular contact. Dyads include Bank advisors and their customers, considering three customers for one bank advisor. The objective is (1) to develop and validate a measurement scale of IM in the context of services. And (2) to study the mediating role of Frontline service employees’ satisfaction between Internal Marketing and Perceived Service Quality

ABSTRACT. Despite the increased need for and emphasis on a diverse talent pool within the sales domain, limited research has addressed the impact of diversity and inclusion efforts on salesperson performance. To address this gap, our research provides insights into the effects of workplace diversity and inclusion on salesperson engagement and performance and the emotional and mental health of salespersons, critical contributors to employee turnover and job dissatisfaction. Our findings reveal a positive impact of workplace diversity and inclusivity perceptions on sales team members' emotional well-being, mental health, and performance.