ABSTRACT. Online flash sales (OFS) has emerged as a major phenomenon in the recent past where consumers are exposed to lucrative deals and discounts. However, the explanation of the behavioural dimensions that drive consumers to participate in flash sales remains unexplained. This study fills this gap and attempts to understand how consumers perceive the idea of participating in flash sale events. Analyzing data from 364 consumers who had participated in flash sales and drawing from theoretical tenants from theories of envy, commodity theory, uniqueness theory and theory of planned behaviour reveals that envy and perceived scarcity of products on sales leads to favourable brand evaluations and need for uniqueness. The two factors collectively affect intention to participate in flash sales.

ABSTRACT. The advent of Internet facilitated the emergence of sustainable consumption where consumers can easily buy second-hand products through websites or applications. As a cross-cultural study, this research aims to investigate under what circumstances customers buy second-hand products through online environment. A fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was used on a set of factors by seven marketing professors to rank the most important variables (based on literature review) associated with second-hand online shopping behavior from which price, brand nostalgia, eco-consciousness, need for uniqueness, and brand involvement were identified. Furthermore, to examine the customers’ perspective towards the extracted factors, this study used a survey approach from a sample of 261 Malaysian and 317 French online shoppers. Structural equation modelling was applied to assess the measurement and structural models. While price, eco-consciousness, and brand involvement are found as the main factors conducive to second-hand online shopping amongst Malaysians, the results of French sample indicate that price, need for uniqueness, and brand involvement are the most significant variables. The results also imply that the sense of nostalgia is not relevant to second-hand online shopping in both cultural settings.

ABSTRACT. Designing engaging innovation contests for consumers has become a key competitive advantage for companies. For that purpose, scholars have emphasized the opportunity to use gamification. However, despite the increasing popularity of such approach, understanding over factors making gamification effective is still limited. This research aims to address this important gap. Therefore, we examine the impact of uncertainty to win on the quality of consumers’ submissions and their intentions to further contributions. We also identify the mediating impact of consumer engagement toward innovation contests. Results from four studies provide strong empirical evidence on the benefits of uncertainty to win. We also point out that losing the contest reinforces these benefits by making the contests more uncertain. Conversely, we highlight that the prize value negatively moderates the positive impact of uncertainty by activating extrinsic motivations. Our findings move literature forward by providing better understanding on how gamification may enhance innovation contests through the management of uncertainty.

ABSTRACT. The importance of the video game atmospheric cues is critical for explaining consumer attitudes and behaviors towards the game developers. Therefore, understanding the psychological and cognitive-based aspects of gamer’s experiences in video game environment is important for devising strategies to gain gamers loyalty, purchase intentions and active interaction. By integrating Flow theoretical basis, this study contributes to the marketing and information systems literature by examining the impact of video gamer experiences such as concentration, interactivity, telepresence, collaboration, challenge, and goals on the development of flow experience and their subsequent impact on key behavioral response outcomes. Data was collected from 201 Chinese video gamers where we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze our data and demonstrates the determinants of a compelling gaming experience on video game environments as represented by flow experiences which drive positive customer engagement behaviors and game loyalty. The results validate flow modelled as a higher-order construct, which unlocks and positively influences perceptions of flow experiences in video gaming environment. Our results offer interesting insights for video game development strategy, especially video game developers to create closer player-game relationships, higher skills level games and collaborations amongst players to provide lasting enjoyment.

ABSTRACT. The abstract is in attached file.

ABSTRACT. The abstract is in attached file.

ABSTRACT. This study introduces the concept of psychological ownership into consumer happiness research. According to self-determination theory, the author suggests that psychological ownership has an impact on happiness, because the routes to psychological ownership satisfy the basic psychological needs including competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Through an experiment, the results show that experiential framing of advertising messages influence consumers’ psychological ownership positively towards the advertised product, which in turn generates greater anticipated happiness. This effect is moderated by the salience of smart features of a product in advertising.

ABSTRACT. Brand clutter has gradually extended from traditional advertising to less conventional marketing communication tools. Although brand co-appearance in media content is likely to continue to proliferate, little is known about the phenomenon and its effects. Building on research related to co-branding and comparative advertising, this study examined the moderating role of brand familiarity on the effectiveness of brand co-appearance on television programs. When two products coappear in a television program, the products can come from one of the following conditions: 1) two unfamiliar brands, 2) one unfamiliar and one familiar brand and 3) two familiar brands. This study predicts that brand familiarity moderates the recall/recognition of, and attitudes and purchase intention toward the co-appeared products. Two pre-tests and a quasi-experimental study of 204 television viewers were conducted. It was found that brand familiarity has a significant impact on the recall and recognition of the coappeared products. It also moderates the attitudes toward the coappeared products though the effect on purchase intention is insignificant. The empirical results have significant theoretical and practical implications for the field, which are discussed together with the research avenues.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the impact of shopping enjoyment (as a personality trait) on purchase intent for retail sponsors as mediated by event entertainment. Time pressure while shopping (an individual difference – Model 1) and the individualism level of international tourist’s country-of-origin (a cultural difference – Model 2) are examined as moderators of the role of shopping enjoyment on event entertainment. The results of a field study for a retail brand in a retail context (n=583) establish that time pressure while shopping and individualism each moderates the role of shopping enjoyment on event entertainment. The role of shopping enjoyment on event entertainment is attenuated when the consumer has a high level of time pressure while shopping. The role of shopping enjoyment on event entertainment is also affected when the international tourist is from a country that has low individualism.

ABSTRACT. Driven by the rapid development of augmented reality (AR) in retail and e-commerce along with the unique ability of AR to add virtual content in a highly contextual and controllable manner, academic research has recently grown rapidly. Although, the topic is still scattered between various literature streams focusing on different marketing phenomena, such as consumer decision-making, consumer experience, self-brand connection and negative effects. Hence, this study is a systematic literature review and proposes a holistic view on the current knowledge on AR in retail and e-commerce, including the current state of the research and the factors influencing consumers responses. Although, research usually highlights positive effects of AR, we also point out possible negative effects. Then, building on this holistic view, we propose future research directions.

ABSTRACT. The present study aims to examine the effect of recreational retailing on consumers’ emotions in a shopping mall, considering two principal dimensions- pleasure and arousal. The conceptual model is developed by considering a few obscure determinants such as perceived crowding, promotional events, and mall ambiance. The effects on consumer behavior has been studied in the context of patronage and positive word-of-mouth leading to consumer experience of arousal and pleasure. This study also examines the impact of growing congestion of shopping malls in urban areas on shopping conveniences and shopping behavior. Based on survey of urban shoppers, the study analyzes cognitive attributes of the shoppers towards attractiveness of shopping malls and intensity of shopping. Results of the study reveal that ambiance of shopping malls, assortment of stores, sales promotions, and comparative economic gains in the mall attract higher traffic to the malls.

ABSTRACT. Consumers are increasingly sharing their experiences both interpersonally and electronically. In response to this trend, brands have begun launching pop-up stores: an ephemeral, experiential retail format effective for generating traffic and word of mouth (WoM). Existing literature on experiential stores generally highlights the retail experience as a factor affecting WoM. However, this work proposes a detailed view for understanding the mechanism behind this relation in experiential stores, particularly pop-ups. Our results indicate that a favorable retail experience arouses awe, which is a strong predictor for WoM. This effect is especially powerful in the case of ephemerality – pop-ups’ distinguishing but largely overlooked feature. Beyond ephemerality, our study considers another oft-dismissed characteristic of pop-ups: they target consumers with a high need for uniqueness (NFU). Our findings demonstrate that high-NFU consumers experiencing awe are inclined to try to impress the public via eWoM. However, they fail to confirm our assumption that such consumers would simultaneously reduce interpersonal WoM due to a desire to maintain their distinction from friends. Our study thus indicates that brands designing pop-ups should emphasize their ephemerality and reconsider their target group. While eWoM is mainly spread by high-NFU consumers, low-NFU consumers also contribute to spreading interpersonal WoM.

ABSTRACT. In this research, we ask: what are the experiences of one group of stakeholders—women—as they navigate conversations around contentious and science-intensive issues? The contentious issue in question relates to nuclear sector developments. We are interested in women’s experiences because they perceive risks, including nuclear risks, differently (Barke, Jenkins-Smith, & Slovik, 1997; Berdahl, Bell, Bourassa, & Fried, 2014) and because they are under-represented in science sectors. Better understanding the nuances of science conversations for stakeholders engaged around contentious issues will lead to insight into factors that facilitate or impede engagement. This research looks at five coping strategies that women use when faced with interpersonal conflict in the form of difficult nuclear conversations. We found that the strategies ranged in a continuum from problem-focused coping and disengagement (1. avoiding, 2. placating, 3. qualifying) through to emotion-focused coping and engagement (4. rationalizing, 5. relating). These findings have implications for understanding multi-stakeholder networks, and marketing systems, as well as the role of engagement with women within science-based industries.

ABSTRACT. Despite efforts to address the lack of female representation in executive leadership roles, the number of women in leadership roles is still low in comparison to men. Data in the form of online interviews were collected for a sample of 69 CMOs from the World’s Most Influential CMO’s report by Forbes Magazine and analyzed using the automated text analysis software, LIWC, employing the dimensions of Analytic, Clout, Authentic and Tone. A series of ANOVAs was conducted to determine the impact of gender on these dimensions. Clout and Authentic were significantly impacted by the gender of the CMO. The paper considers two gender communications theories that could potentially explain these differences. The paper concludes by discussing managerial implications, acknowledging the limitations, and identifying avenues for future research.

ABSTRACT. Character archetypes, also known as universal symbols, are recurrent character patterns that exist in film. Character archetypes have strong importance in society and often carry with them ideals of value e.g. heroes will save the day and caregivers will take care of the sick. These values both reflect societal values and reimpose cultural expectations. While archetypes are not written as gendered patterns, overtime those patterns have become associated with specific genders. As, archetypes also imply societal value the connection between gender and archetypes can have effects on society outside of the film. These gender expectations can lead to expectations of groups in society outside of storylines. For example, heroes are associated with saving the day and so we ascribe importance in society who show heroic attributes. When archetypes are associated with gender it can follow that judgement in society can also be associated with gender groups. At the same time, archetypes are an effective writing tool in movies and so societal norms are both created by and reinforced through archetypal stories.

ABSTRACT. The ability of society to recognize the child as a consumer reveals the importance of this socialization process. The children's universe contemplates fantasies and activities that stimulate the creativity and cognitive development of children, in which toys, especially the line called make-believe, portray daily activities such as cooking, washing, drive and building. The toy industry generally chooses to reproduce societal stereotypes and enforce adult standards for children's products. Industries and stores promote a breakdown of toys by gender to reproduce society's stereotypes through packaging, colors, images, and advertisements that leave no doubt about the toy (for who the toy was developed: boy or a girl). Gender is a constitutive element of social relations based on perceived gender differences, which provides a means of decoding meaning and understanding the complex connections between various forms of human interaction. It is the social construction that a given culture establishes or elects in relation to men and women. This study aimed to analyze the presentation of gender in children's toys from catalogs of the Brazilian industry, taking into account the perception of parents in the choice of toys in the line labeled as make-believe.

ABSTRACT. El marketing digital es la principal estrategia, desde la última década, para la persuasión y relacionamiento con los consumidores en espacios de creación, interacción y formación permanente. No obstante, son escasos los estudios teóricos y empíricos de marketing relacionados con la educación virtual. Por ello, esta investigación propone un modelo de hipótesis que integra variables como la interactivity, el customer engagement, la value co-creation y el Electronic Word of Mouth o e-WOM, a fin de identificar cómo promover estrategias efectivas para mejorar la experiencia del aprendizaje online. El modelo ha sido probado a través de un análisis con ecuaciones estructurales a una muestra por conveniencia de 324 personas usuarias de plataformas educativas virtuales. Los resultados evidencian el ajuste del modelo y la relación positiva existente entre las dimensiones estudiadas en las plataformas de educación virtual. El estudio presenta las conclusiones del análisis, sus limitaciones y sugiere futuras líneas de investigación.

ABSTRACT. Undergraduate students, generally speaking, tend to be preoccupied with grades. Often these students prioritize performance on graded deliverables over the actual process and content of learning. Unfortunately, this preoccupation with graded deliverables and quantitative evaluation metrics can actually have a negative impact on both learning and student motivation. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate an experimental approach to course design that eliminates the opportunity for students to focus on discrete graded deliverables and leverages pedagogical theories of student engagement, self-regulated learning, active learning and active participation to reorient students to the learning process.

ABSTRACT. The importance of the evaluation for universities is fully recognized. Measuring students' satisfaction with their higher education institutions is not new. In several countries, some of those data are even mandatory and transversal to institutions for the accreditation of their courses. They contribute then as indicators to compare and validate their classifications. However, this validity is, for some time, challenged. In this study, we focus on the influence of the advocacy roles of the students on schools’ evaluations. As a starting hypothesis, we supposed that depending on the intent to promote his school, the perceived quality should differ significantly.

ABSTRACT. Higher education is in a transition period with a focus on diversity. This new scenario drives the University through a moment of organizational and pedagogical restructuring in their way of thinking and acting, driven by the new needs of the educational market, the social context and the labor market. In the classroom scenario, the use of active methodologies with the exchange of knowledge and experiences between professors and students is fundamental, factors that facilitate group engagement, resulting in their satisfaction. The present study aims to highlight the importance of the value co-creation for the educational market, more precisely for private higher education institutions, and it is possible to think of the classroom in a Business Master Administration as a space for reflection and exchange of experiences between professor and student, presenting the following question: How can the professor-student relationship co-create value in the teaching-learning process, in a Master program in a University in south of Brazil? The importance of this research for marketing management, focused on the educational market lies in different contexts related to value co-creation in the classroom, enabling multiple experiences and interactions between professor and students, which contribute to the processes of teaching and learning.

ABSTRACT. This paper contributes to the growing literature on pro-environmental (green) behaviors in the workplace. While many studies analyze employee engagement in pro-environmental behaviors, they do so by assuming all employees are similar in their orientations. We argue that a segmented approach is more effective in providing a deep understanding of the ‘different shades of green’ environmental behaviors of employees. Thus, our paper fills an important gap in the literature by conducting a segmentation analysis based on several personal and perceptual characteristics to create three clusters of employees. Our sample consists of 714 office employees from across different organizations and industries in the U.K. Using cluster analysis, we identify three clusters, with distinct values, beliefs, norms, perceptions of person-organization fit, perceptions of CSR, and different levels of engagement in environmental conserving behaviors. Practically, the segmentation helps those designing interventions to target the different groups of employees with customized motivational strategies, communication tactics, and engagement approaches.

ABSTRACT. Are consumer responses to corporate social responsibility(CSR) initiatives as important as those to corporate abilities (CA)? Furthermore, are consumer responses moderated by demographic variables, such as gender, or by the category of product? The purpose of this research is to expand previous analyses and advance our understanding of the difference in the impact on consumer purchasing behavior between pursuing CSR initiatives and improving CA. A Bayesian bootstrapping simulation is applied to selected consumer samples for 123 homogeneous choice-based conjoint (CBC) studies. We developed a simulation-based approach to estimate the empirical distributions under two Bayesian bootstrap resampling schemes. This allows us to evaluate the results for two predefined classifications: Foote-Cone-Belding (FCB) and gender. The results indicate that females exhibit higher concern for CSR initiatives. Furthermore, we found that managers can exploit the classification of their product in the FCB grid and obtain more efficient consumer responses by implementing strategies focused on certain attributes. The study has several practical implications: (1)consumers prioritize traditional utilitarian features, (2)environmental responsibility is a growing concern, (3)gender plays a role in consumer considerations of attributes and (4)certain attributes are valued by customers depending on the product strategy in the FCB grid.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the extent of CSR value co-creation from the employees’ perspective and further develops and tests hypotheses of CSR value co-creation antecedents and outcomes. The empirical study is predominantly quantitative. Data collection entailed an online questionnaire administered to employees of domestic and international companies operating in Portugal. Findings support the idea of CSR as a co-created experience between the company and the employees entailing 3 dimensions: dialogue, access and risk assessment (DAR). Findings further revealed that: (ii) there is a positive relationship between the employees’ perceptions as an antecedent of CSR value co-creation; (iii) there is a positive relationship between the CSR value co-creation experience and the participation of employees’ in CSR initiatives; (iv) there is a positive relationship between the CSR value co-creation experience and the participation enjoyment of employees in CSR initiatives.

ABSTRACT. Incivility among employees in the frontline encounters is prevalent, but little is known about its impact on customers’ ethics-related perceptions and behaviors. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm, this study examines how witnessing incivility among employees can serve as a social aspect of atmospherics cues to influence customers’ perceived ethicality of an organization and their subsequent behaviors. According to our results, in response to the witnessed employee-to-employee incivility during frontline encounters, customers perceive the organization to have a lower level of ethicality. In turn, customers engage less in customer citizenship behaviors (i.e., customer tolerance of employee-induced errors) and more in unethical behavior (i.e., opportunistic behavior). We further demonstrate that the negative effect of uncivil employee-to-employee interactions on customers’ perceived ethicality of an organization is strengthened when customers perceive the organization as competence. The findings offer theoretical and practical implications for the management of employee-to-employee incivility and unethical customer behavior during frontline encounters.

ABSTRACT. To compete with the availability of online information, stationary retailers may introduce new technologies, such as augmented reality, to provide additional information and product recommendations and thus improve consumers’ shopping convenience and experience. The present study analyzes the impact of such an augmented reality application on the cross-buying intention in stationary retailing. Based on an experimental scenario and the corresponding results from 301 questionnaires, the studies finds the impact of augmented reality to be significantly different for female and male consumers. Whereas the results hardly differ for men, women experience the augmented reality significantly differently. Specifically, the relationship between the attractiveness of cross-selling offers and the cross-buying intention significantly intensifies in a situation that includes augmented reality. Similarly, the effect of price attractiveness and shopping convenience is also higher with augmented reality, whereas the perceived product fit is significantly lower in this case. Thus, this study contributes to research on by addressing augmented reality and describes practical implications for its use.

ABSTRACT. The overabundance of new digital marketing media creates a challenge for marketing managers to identify effective options to differentiate and educate consumers about their offerings. Firms may use marketing tools to signal to consumers the quality of the offering. This study offers an explanation as to why the implementation of innovative marketing media may not always be successful in driving purchase intentions. The following research question is addressed: How do consumer perceptions of an innovative marketing medium influence product perceptions and purchase intentions? The proposed model tests the influence of product promotion with virtual reality tours, an industry-perceived innovative marketing medium, and still-photography, a non-innovative marketing medium as a means to signal a product’s quality to consumers. Results from two studies support that while industry-perceived innovative marketing media may not positively influence product quality perceptions, consumers’ perception of the innovativeness of marketing media can positively affect the product quality perceptions of the offering and increase purchase intentions. These studies contribute to the digital marketing and signaling theory literature by offering consumer-perceived marketing media innovativeness as a new theoretical lens to explore product quality perceptions and purchase intentions.

ABSTRACT. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) continues to evolve as new media emerge. To optimize digital marketing strategies, marketing managers need to understand the impact of integrating innovative, digital media into existing IMC strategies. Although prior literature investigates the incremental effect of multiple traditional offline media as well as the incremental impact of overlaying digital media, research investigating the effect of innovative digital media when added to existing digital media is lacking. As such, this paper examines the impact of virtual reality (VR) as a digital marketing medium and its role as part of IMC. Recent advances in technology have improved VR to the point where it is a viable marketing medium. Due to its novelty, the effect of VR in IMC has not been fully studied. Utilizing secondary market data, we test the effects of VR in residential real estate using a quasi-experiment. Results from this study support the strength of this innovative digital medium compared to existing digital media based on results of improved performance (i.e., increased financial performance and decreased cycle time). Unexpectedly, the results from this study also reveal a lack of an interaction-effect, or ‘cross-effect,’ when adding this innovative media. Limitations, theoretical, and managerial implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we develop a research model of users’ gratifications and continuance intention to use Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs). Drawing on Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), we develop a set of utilitarian and hedonic gratifications constructs and examine how they are affecting continuance intention, jointly with perceived privacy concerns cultivated by users during their initial IVAs experience of use. Perceived critical mass and subjective norms are also considered as direct and indirect (through gratifications) determinants of continuance intention. An empirical research study is conducted to validate the model. Our results show that privacy concerns are strongly and negatively affecting continuance intention. Which is also positively and directly determined by subjective norms, perceived critical mass, and gratifications: the utilitarian (social interactions and information seeking) more saliently than the hedonic (entertainment and fashion). Whereas only subjective norms could be considered as antecedent factors to all our gratifications constructs. Our study contributes to the literature on IVAs, UGT and privacy concerns. It also provides IVAs’ vendors with useful insights on how to retain their users.

ABSTRACT. Earlier research has shown that the idea of the consumer about his/her ‘self’ could assist to predict some behaviors related to materialism like purchase intention, seeking for uniqueness, service choices, brands, consumption motivation and advertising attitude (Grubb & Grathwohl, 1967; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Sirgy, Lee, Johar, & Tidwell, 2008; Song & Lee, 2013; Todd, 2001; Tsai, 2006), given that consumers try to gain acceptance into social groups through the products they purchase (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Sirgy (1982) shows that consumer attitudes match one´s self-image and plenty of research reaffirms this concept, showing people create and express their self-image through the products they choose to consume (Belk, 1988; Kleine, Kleine, & Allen, 1995; Richins, 1994b; Sirgy, 1982; Solomon, 1983; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1988). Using a framework that represents a sum of interrelated fields such as consumer psychology, sociology and marketing, the objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate how self-aspects (independent self and self-concept clarity) impact materialism; (2) how perceptions of the self impact attitudes toward luxury brands and (3) to examine how materialism influences attitudes toward luxury brands. The study uses Latin-American consumers as the context of the research.

ABSTRACT. O uso da cocriação de valor na perspectiva da Lógica Dominante do Serviço (LDS) apresentada por Vargo e Lusch (2004) tem proporcionado a interação entre consumidor e a firma e, com isso gerando valor para ambos. O fator resultante da interação é o feedback que é proporcionado pelo consumidor por meio do valor em uso, gerado pela experiência da utilização do produto ou serviço ofertado pela firma. “Quando o valor é percebido como valor-em-uso para o cliente, o foco não é mais predominantemente em um feixe personalizado de produtos ou serviços trocados por um preço” (Grönroos; Voima, 2012, p.3). O presente trabalho é uma pesquisa qualitativa com o emprego de estudo de casos múltiplos, com seis firmas, sendo: três no Amazonas, na cidade de Parintins e mais três no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, na cidade de Santa Cruz do Sul. Os segmentos de varejo pesquisados foram o da distribuição de bebidas, padarias e supermercados (duas empresas de cada), uma em cada Estado do Brasil. O objetivo foi demonstrar como a LDS por meio da cocriação resulta em serviços diferenciados no varejo. Da análise dos dados emergiu um conjunto de achados relevantes para o tema.

ABSTRACT. In the retailing industry, the strategic role of in-store merchandisers is to maintain a continuous product replenishment on the shelves and to enhance product visibility and in the point of sales to positively influence the consumer’s decisions. From this point of view the recruiting and retention of highly performing and motivated stockboys is one of the key challenges for retail suppliers. In this context, this study is focused in assessing the impact of the stockboys on product sales, in relation with their level of performance as a result of a better job compensation. To do that, an experiment with two conditions for the stockboy’s teams (improved job compensation package vs. the regular/traditional one) was carried out with a home category brand on a national level in Mexico, in a sample of 75 stores of grocery retailers. The results show that both the sales and the in-store visibility of the of the firm’s brands at the point of sale was enhanced, due to the improvement of the stockboys’ job compensation. We can argue that the firm´s strategy of developing a high performing stockboy's team will translate in better sales results for both the supplier and the retailers.

ABSTRACT. The relationship between store image and PL attitude could be curvilinear. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, the literature has assumed, explicitly or implicitly, a linear relationship between store image and PL attitude. Previous research has not evaluated the existence of a curvilinear relationship between store image and PL attitude. It should be noted that a linear relationship leads to consistent performance of store image on PL attitude so that any improvement in store image has the same effect on PL attitude. In contrast, for example, if it is a curvilinear relationship with an inverted U shape, an increase in store image would not necessarily increase PL attitude, but on the contrary, reduce it in cases of high store image levels. For this reason, in this study, linear and quadratic models that explore the relationship between store image and PL attitude are tested.

ABSTRACT. A can of Coca-Cola for $1.50 when the outside temperater is low but the price goes up to $3.00 on very hot days when people seek for a refreshment. Is that fair? Even after decades of research about price fairness the question remains whether and under which circumstances dynamic pricing can still be profitable for companies without causing customers’ outrage. In order to be able to answer the research question two vignette study in an online survey context we conducted. The results show that dynamic pricing is generally perceived as more unfair than fixed prices, since the same price leads to lower fairness when dynamic prices are communicated compared to fixed prices. This negative effect cannot be compensated by a price decrease. Although there is a positive effect by highlighting the benefits in the one-time transaction context it is not sufficient to compensate for decreasing fairness perception due to the use of dynamic pricing. This study provides first insights into customers’ perceived fairness of Dynamic Pricing in the case of constant prices, price increases and price reductions. Important implications for managers can be derived from the results of this study.

ABSTRACT. Customers hold an internal and external reference price, which gives them an idea about an appropriate price within a range of the actual price. Following this assumption, marketers are able to increase the price of a product within a specific zone of price indifference to their advantage when they accurately exploit customers’ price knowledge. The knowledge about prices is stored in the implicit memory of customers, and thus processed in the non-/sub-conscious areas of customers’ brain. Still, conventional research approaches on finding the “right” price mostly concentrate on customers’ explicit reflected thoughts and opinions about prices and not the unconscious price knowledge. Our research introduces an Implicit Price Meter (IPM); a new approach from neuromarketing that is capable to explore implicit price knowledge. The results of a first study indicate a superior performance of the IPM to find an optimal price in contrast to conventional price measures.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, touch points (= point of communication between an organization and an individual customer) are getting more and more important. Many retailer respond to this trend with an increased number of total communication channels. As a consequence, many of the communication channels remain rather basic with regard to content, usability, and individualization although sellers’ budgets for touch point management increase dramatically. Sellers may avoid such a principle of indiscriminate all-round communication by analyzing customer touch points first before deciding on which touch points to concentrate on. The results of this empirical touch point analysis indicate that customers’ touch points differ in terms of usage, satisfaction and relevance even for popular products in the same category such as laptop and TV which are perceived as being similar with regard to the required marketing mix.

ABSTRACT. Loyalty programs are commonly used in a number of industries ranging from hotels to airlines to entice consumers to repurchase. One commonly practiced loyalty program is the award of points. Though these points are valuable, current research indicates that only a small fraction of consumers redeem their points regularly. Consumers tend to stockpile reward points in loyalty programs, and the majority of the loyalty points are unredeemed. In this research, we show that not all customers stockpile the reward points. Instead, there is heterogeneity in consumers’ point redemption behavior. We specifically identify four segments 1. heavy purchasers with light point redemptions, 2. light purchasers with light point redemptions, 3. heavy purchasers with heavy point redemptions, and 4. light purchasers with heavy point redemptions. We are using a unique dataset where consumers can use points-plus-cash (PPC) when they purchase.

ABSTRACT. Some research organizations such as Pew research center and YouGov report that despite consumer skepticism toward online reviews, consumers still use online reviews in their purchase decisions. We investigated whether skepticism on online reviews influence the reliance on online reviews and review based product purchase decision or not. We also investigated the moderating role of self- efficacy and regulatory focus in the relationship between skepticism toward online reviews and reliance on online reviews. The result suggests that skepticism affects consumer decision to rely on online reviews, and reliance on online reviews mediates the relationship between skepticism and reviews-based purchase decision. It is also found that participants with high review efficacy will rely on online reviews despite their skepticism toward online reviews. Promotion focused people will rely more on online reviews than compared to prevention-focused people despite a similar level of skepticism toward online reviews. The findings thus contribute to the self- efficacy and regulatory focus theory.

ABSTRACT. Across three studies and three different product categories, we find that seemingly innocuous visual elements such as product reflections that may be added to advertising frames for aesthetic benefits can actually hurt brand trust perceptions. Our results reveal that the use of product reflections in brand advertisements not only lowers brand trust perceptions but also decreases consumer brand purchase likelihood. Furthermore, we show that this negative influence of product reflections on brand trust can be countered through positive brand signaling, such as through information stating higher ad spending by the focal brand signaling greater brand confidence in the advertised product to consumers. The current findings have significant implications for advertising design as well as for brand management.

ABSTRACT. According to the classical matchup hypothesis, congruence between an endorser and a product enhances consumers’ evaluations and behaviors. However, in a peer endorsement context, a matchup between an endorser and consumers (i.e. perceived similarity) is suggested to be more beneficial. The endorsement literature is abundant, yet a clear understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the persuasive effects is still lacking. Drawing from schema theory, the present research experimentally tests alternative matchup mechanisms in a peer endorsement context. It confirms the endorser-by-product matchup but find no evidence for an endorser-by-consumer matchup. Further, it reveals a novel persuasion process based on an endorser-by-schema matchup mechanism: consumers activate an “ordinary consumer” schema and scrutinize the endorser against this schema, which results in differential endorser’s authenticity perceptions. Attractiveness and expertise negatively influence these perceptions. An audience’s gender effect is also uncovered, so that women and men exposed to the same ad don’t adopt the same matchup mechanism of influence. Importantly, the endorser-by-product and endorser-by-schema mechanisms taken together compete, up to fully clear out the indirect effects on consumers’ responses. These results offer relevant insights to researchers and practitioners in the understanding of peer endorsement effectiveness factors and mechanisms underlying the effects.

ABSTRACT. Parodies and humoristic messages have been widely studied and used in advertising strategies being an effective type of communication. Although such messages were previously prerogative of advertisers, today internet and social media allow users to generate original contents (UGC), including advertising parodies. While several studies have analysed the effect of positive ad parodies developed by brand supporters, very few research have investigated the influence of consumer-created negative ad parodies, and still no studies, to our knowledge, have focused on consumers-created negative ad parodies of brand transgression. Thus, the present research aims to analyse UGC negative ad parodies by focusing on parodies that seek to entertain consumers while spoofing a brand irresponsible behaviour. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of such consumer-created contents in stimulating negative word-of-mouth, while examining the mediating role of users’ corporate social responsibility beliefs. Further, the paper analyses whether the display of a corporate/brand comment may mitigate this effect.

ABSTRACT. Consumers are currently expressing new expectations and looking for new modes of consumption (degrowth, local products and organic products) and distribution (short circuits). The inclusion of sustainable products has accelerated in recent years, and the retailers are now developing specialized stores dedicated to organic products. Integrating sustainable development (SD) into practices can have consequences both for the image of brands and companies and for the behavior of consumers, who will shop in stores that reflect their values. However, these practices by retailers are encountering increased skepticism among consumers, who question their sincerity. The present research thus proposes to analyze the perception that consumers have of retailers’ SD practices and the consequences of such suspicion on the retailers’ brand image and on their behavior (loyalty, word of mouth, etc.).

ABSTRACT. Two studies demonstrate the effect of promoting fashion items as both unique and sustainable in various market contexts. Specifically, study 1 employs an ethnically diverse European sample, and demonstrates that promoting fashion items based on both egoistically- and altruistically-appealing attributes (i.e., both uniqueness and sustainability) can produce detrimental results. Study 2 demonstrates that market context (i.e., mature vs. nascent market) serves as a boundary condition for this effect.

ABSTRACT. Firms are responding to the increasing importance that consumers and society have placed on environmentally sustainable business practices and products. Indeed, firms recognize that with this paradigm shift, the “green consumer” is no longer a niche market. As such, being “green” or environmentally sustainable has evolved from a buzzword or trend into today’s business reality.

Interestingly, while the literature on sustainability is vast, little research has explored the role of the brand. This research examines the differences in consumer evaluations of brands that highlight sustainable business practices and products. Across different types of initiatives, studies explore how brand dominance (high vs. low brand dominance) impacts both perceived legitimacy (“eco-legitimacy”) and purchase intent. Across 5 different product categories, findings suggest that high brand dominance leads to lower purchase intent of environmentally friendly or sustainable products compared to low brand dominance. This is due to the decreased perceptions of eco-legitimacy associated with high brand dominance (vs. low brand dominance). The results indicate that high dominant brands have unique challenges in the sustainability arena and suggest meaningful implications for brand managers and sustainability executives.

ABSTRACT. Authenticity and ethicality are recognized as essential elements influencing the consumption decision-making process. This research focuses on the effect of two established types of authenticity (indexical versus iconic) on consumers’ perceived ethicality. In three studies, we find that indexical authenticity leads to higher perceived brand ethicality compared to iconic authenticity and we identify the underlying mechanisms. That is, indexical authentic cues enhances perception that a product is made with more effort, which, in turn, increases the perception that a product is made with more love, which subsequently enhances perceived brand ethicality. This research contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it links authenticity with perceived brand ethics, something that has been ignored in past literature. Second, it is one of the few looking at the downstream consequences of both types of authenticity: indexical versus iconic. Third, it sheds a new light on consumer perceived ethicality by highlighting a new and intriguing underlying mechanism. That is, in comparison to iconic authenticity, using indexical authentic cues leads to a higher perception that a product has been “made with effort”, which in turns leads to a higher perception it was “made with love” and as a consequence that it is more ethical.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to shed light on differences in consumer attitudes towards the marketing function via a cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Dubai-based consumers. Based on our assessments of how much consumers in these markets are globalizing (i.e., acculturated to the global consumer culture), the aim is to also shed early insights, at this stage, on the impact of globalizing consumer habits on perceptions of marketing in two very different markets and to build future research aimed at offering a more comprehensive comparison across many countries/markets.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the important roles of network positions in international channel marketing, and intends to provide a social networks explanation for the purported relationship between firm’s network positions and its internationalization in the context of semiconductor industry. This study adopts the quantitative methodology to explore the research questions. The findings of this study implies weak ties play an important role at the early stage of the evolution of the supplier-distributor networks in semiconductor industry , while strong ties play an increasingly greater role at the maturity stage. This study adopts panel data regression to examine the effects of a firm’s network positions on its internationalization. The sample of this study is the 113 franchised semiconductor distributor firms in Taiwan of the WSTS’s (World Semiconductor Trade Statics) 63 member companies. WSTS’s member companies represent more than 75% of the world semiconductor market. Worldwide top 20 semiconductor suppliers are WSTS members. This virtually includes all major semiconductor manufacturers around the world.

ABSTRACT. The literature indicates that marketing adaptation is a crucial determinant of export performance variations across firms. Nonetheless, research has yet to answer the question of whether firms should vary the levels of marketing adaptation within their portfolio of ventures, in order to increase venture performance. To address this gap the authors develop and test a model of the link between marketing adaptation across ventures and venture performance. Using a sample of UK exporters the authors find that the varying marketing adaptation across ventures is beneficial for venture performance. Furthermore, firm-wide export market orientation (EMO) acts as a crucial supporting mechanism of marketing adaptation, as it increases the performance benefits of varying marketing adaptation levels across ventures. Carrying-out different marketing adaptation levels across ventures is also more useful for performance when the firm faces higher environmental differences across ventures.

ABSTRACT. The hotel sector has several modes of entry into international markets that ensure a high level of control over operations for only a minimal investment. This article analyses the entry modes used by Spain’s leading hotel chains and their relationship with financial performance. Spanish hotel operators’ international expansion has traditionally involved direct investment, mainly in new-build/greenfield hotels under their own ownership. This paper reveals that entry through new-build/greenfield hotels has led Spanish hotel chains to obtain better financial performance compared with other modes. Although ownership has generated very positive financial results, the Spanish hotel chains are now immersed in a change of model, moving from ownership to a hotel management model, which is leading to greater international expansion in terms of the number of both hotels and markets providing high control of management operations

ABSTRACT. The way in which consumers interact with their mobile devices on a daily basis has changed significantly in the last decade. Although these developments have provided increased opportunities for businesses and consumers, the rate of development and the technologies being implemented has developed a reputation as being radical and disruptive to the global marketplace. Therefore, despite the apparent advantages of new technological advancements, the recent emerging innovations are profoundly impacting on consumers, their behaviours and their experiences.Through considerations into Uses and Gratifications Theory and Flow Theory, this research examines utilitarian needs in the realm of “compatibility” and hedonic needs against “enjoyment” and “escapism”. Although literature has regularly considered the positive effects of compatibility, enjoyment and escapism of new technologies, literature remains in its infancy in considering the negative implications of escapism on consumers’ wellbeing and subsequent attitudes and behaviours towards a brand. This research has offered insight into how escapism, as a means of gratification, can generate a negative state of flow which subsequently leads to negative attitudes towards the brand, intention to reuse the branded app and loyalty towards the brand.

ABSTRACT. Understanding negative customer engagement is as important as positive customer engagement. This study aims to investigate determinants and process of negative customer engagement behaviors. Negative service quality disconfirmation and justice are proposed to be determinants of negative customer engagement behaviors that are examined in a process, including complaining, negatively engaged complaining, disengaged behavior, switching and negative word-of-mouth. Survey data collected from 404 respondents experiencing negative critical incidents in a service context was used to test the conceptual model. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Bootstrapping approach in SPSS Macro PROCESS was employed to test the process of negative customer engagement behaviors. The results show that negative disconfirmation positively affects complaining while perceived injustice does not result in complaining. The findings support two processes of negative customer engagement behaviors: (1) Complaining → Negatively Engaged Complaining → Switching → Negative word-of-mouth; and (2) Complaining → Disengaged behavior → Switching → Negative word-of-mouth. This result provides empirical evidence of the dynamic nature of customer engagement. Understanding how negative customer engagement behaviors occur enables management to have appropriate strategies to prevent the development of negative customer engagement behaviors.

ABSTRACT. Although various consumption episodes, types of products, and dimensions of guilt have been examined in previous studies, the existing literature has not addressed whether guilt could arise differently depending on the purchase channel (online versus in-store). This research thus investigates the effect of the purchase channel on consumer’s guilt and the consequences of that guilt on consumer’s anticipated satisfaction. Two experiments conducted in different contexts show that perceived value moderates the relationship between the purchase channel and guilt. Further, we demonstrate that perceived value is also a moderator of the mediating effect of guilt in the influence of the purchase channel on anticipated satisfaction.

ABSTRACT. Visually superior design provides a competitive edge in the marketplace by attracting consumers and increasing perceived value of product quality and functionality. The positive halo effect of visual design on product evaluation is called ‘beauty premium’, although the effects of beauty premium are not clear when the product has a quality issue after consumption. We investigate the beauty premium before and after product recalls and examine how beauty premium continues after product recalls and when beauty premium may turn into beauty penalty after product recalls. Using multi-methods including an experiment and empirical tests in the context of the U.S. automobile market, the results suggest that beauty premium continues after product recalls among the consumers who respond to visual design emotionally, while the beauty premium is attenuated or turns into beauty penalty when consumers respond to cognitively or when the product recalls are involved in serious concerns. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

ABSTRACT. Online advertisements are a promising option for both advertisers and host websites. The advanced development of technology allows advertisers to design high-personalized advertisement in order to capture consumers’ attention online. This study investigates the effects of the product and the brand ad personalization on attention, according to four experimental conditions: full personalization (same product and same brand); product personalization (same product and different brand); brand personalization (different product and same brand), and the control condition (different product and different brand). Results show that the ad personalized according to the product capture more attention (time to first fixation, fixation duration, number of fixations and number of entries) than the full-personalized ad. That is, consumers would be more attracted by the product personalization as only the product was relevant to their needs.

ABSTRACT. As long as the text on commercial websites is omnipresent, managers are brought to make decisions concerning the typography in terms of typeface characteristics, spacing and layout. This research is particularly interested in the effect of text’s interline spacing of commercial websites. The results of an experimental study, conducted on 122 buyers, show that Internet users who visited a site with a wide spacing experience felt a stronger sensation of well-being than those who visited it with narrowed spacing. The wide interline spacing also allows to arouse better perceived aesthetics of the website. However, the effect of interline spacing on behavioral intentions is not direct. These intentions depend, on the one hand, on the simple mediation of well-being and, on the other hand, on the multiple mediation of the perceived aesthetics and then on the perceived ease of use of the website.

ABSTRACT. This research answer calls for research on the complementarity linkages of direct channels and the influence of moderators. The extraordinary growth in sales of non-digital products via direct channels, especially through online shopping modes, points to a need for academic researchers and practitioners to come up with a better grasp of this topic. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, it aims to shed light on the effects of shopping for non-digital products through print catalogs and online shopping modes. For this part, it tries to clear up disagreements about the usefulness of print catalogs and whether catalogs carry out any advertising functions for online shopping. Second, it aims to clarify the influence of two variables as possible moderators: affiliation with local brick-and-mortar stores and need for cognition. In a setting of consumer shopping for non-digital products, this research uses an experimental design to examine the effects. The findings indicate that consumers rely more on signals of quality in online shopping than in catalog shopping and that differences in need for cognition play pivotal roles in the ways that consumers’ process signals and direct channels. Other findings reveal that catalogs perform important advertising functions and help drive online sales.

ABSTRACT. Consumers' regulatory foci and construal levels have been investigated extensively in contemporary consumer research; yet a dearth of studies examine their interaction, especially in the context of internet-enabled markets. With more research conducted in this stream, sellers can acquire more updated knowledge about their consumers. More importantly, they can more effectively allocate their limited resources by developing appropriate marketing messages that enhance consumer engagement, which could eventually contribute to the profitability and sustainability of their companies.

This paper contributes to the research of advertising effectiveness and extends the research on consumer’s regulatory focus. It specifically addresses how consumer’s regulatory focus would impact their preferences towards domestic and foreign sellers as well as the underlying decision process. Moreover, it provides important marketing implications for business practitioners in a global market by discussing how marketing information of different construal levels, such as feasibility and desirability, could help prevention-focused consumers overcome their perceived risk of associating with foreign sellers.

ABSTRACT. There are numerous design principles that can guide strategic decisions and determine good product design. One principle that has received considerable attention in the literature is the Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable (MAYA) principle, which suggests that consumers seek a balance of typicality and novelty in products. Thus, the overall purpose of this research was to examine the effects of aesthetic properties in apparel related to this principle. Based on the framework of consumer response to product form (Bloch, 1995), the focus was on the effects of typicality and novelty on aesthetic preference and positive emotions, as well as on the moderating role of usage situation and the mediating role of aesthetic preference. Findings offer theoretical and practical contributions to academics as well as fashion industry marketers and designers to better understand typicality and novelty, two of the most important aesthetic properties related to apparel, and ultimately, ensure successful adoption of apparel products and fashion trends among consumers.

ABSTRACT. How are new product development (NPD) best practices implemented with emerging blockchain software architectures? We investigated this question by initiating six case studies with executives of organisations involved in the development of new technologies on blockchain. Our initial findings confirm that the classic NPD processes identified in the literature are also useful and relevant to blockchain-oriented NPD. We also discovered that NPD processes with blockchains raise new issues such as intellectual property, the use of offshore teams, the use of minimum viable demos with initial customers, the requirement for examples of success, and educating customers so they understand the opportunities of blockchain technology. We contribute to academic literature by unpacking NPD processes upon a blockchain architecture, and make contributions to the understanding of emerging ecosystems, and to new product development on blockchain architectures

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

ABSTRACT. Marketers often depend on third parties to do work for them, such as advertising or research agencies and distributors of goods and services. Agency theory provides an appropriate conceptual framework for understanding and explaining these B2B relationships in which a party, called the principal, assigns work to another party, called the agent, who then does the work. Past literature reviews of agency theory, such as in the supply chain management stream, do exist. However, an updated bibliometric analysis on agency theory in the marketing literature is needed. We conduct a bibliographic analysis using the Web of Science and VOSViewer.

ABSTRACT. This research seeks to measure the perceived quality of the Academy Awards for millennials. The Academy Awards, also more casually known as the Oscars, is the gold standard for artistic success and recognition in the motion picture industry. However, in recent years the Oscars have experienced some turbulent times receiving numerous public criticisms and scrutiny for various issues and incidents. Furthermore, ratings for the Oscars broadcast have been experiencing a steady decline year after year. Given that the motion picture industry also uses Oscar nominations and awards a marketing tool to promote films and the industry as whole; insights regarding the perception of the Academy Awards among young people are extremely important, since they will be the ones to determine the industry's fate in the future. Therefore, a study examining millennials' perceptions of quality of the Academy Awards should be very useful for marketers in the entertainment industry. This paper reviews relevant literature on movie marketing and describes an upcoming study on millennials’ perceived quality of the Academy Awards, which utilizes frameworks from services marketing, electronic word-of-mouth, and other streams of literature as theoretical lenses by which to conduct our investigation.  

ABSTRACT. Retailing field is increasingly a competitive one. Brand differentiation through offering unique physical products and services is becoming more challenging in such a fierce competitive environment. Retailing field is going through the most radical shifts (Kahn, Inman and Verhoef, 2018). Competition is based primarily on price/convenience or experience in this field. Yet, for brick and mortar stores, the entertainment value that is based on unique, authentic, and relatable experiences has become a dominant theme in differentiation (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Kozinets et al. 2002).

This research focuses on a specific form on retailing, pop-up retailing, to investigate what retailers can do to offer entertainment value to consumers, and the implications of such value. More specifically, it analyzes the social media buzz created and supported by consumers to understand the consumer discourses of the entertainment value consumers drive from them.

ABSTRACT. As consumers are facing an increasing level of commercialization in sports, more and more criticism and resistance among fans arises. The consequences can reach from the formation of a negative attitude towards the involved businesses to a complete boycott of the sport. So far, existing studies have looked at individual drivers or consequences of commercialization but no other study has analyzed commercialization from a consumer's perspective. In order to comprehensively provide a holistic view on consumers’ commercialization perceptions, conducted consumer interviews are analyzed to derive a consumer-based conceptualization of commercialization by extracting positive and negative phenomena as well as consumers’ responses to the increasing levels of commercialization in sports. The analysis shows that consumers translate their cognitive and emotional responses of the perceived commercialization into either an opposition, resignation or acceptance of the commercial activities which influences their subsequent behavior. The findings of this study help to generate implications for sponsors, clubs, players and sports organizations.

ABSTRACT. Investment on sports team sponsorship is often motivated by the expectation of affect transfer from the team to the brand. Recently, it has been suggested that visual congruence between sponsor’s and team’s colors has a positive effect on attitudes toward the sponsorship and the brand. However, because fans derive meaning from the partnership between the brand and the team, possible connections with rival teams can lead to negative outcomes for the sponsoring brand. Our work examines sponsorship effects within the context of sponsors of rival teams in terms of either semantic association (wording) or semiotic association (color). Results of two experimental studies suggest that both semantic and semiotic associations between sponsor brand and rival team influence perceived brand-team congruence for highly identified fans. The perception of an appropriate match between brand and team when there is no semantic nor semiotic association with the rival leads to a more favorable brand evaluation. In addition, greater match between brand and team resulted in greater perceptions of brand quality.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to develop a model of food waste behavior to provide a better understanding of determinants of food waste behavior and generate directions for consumer policy. The study examines both direct and indirect effects of consumers’ moral attitudes, knowledge of food conservation, eating habits, and shopping habits on food waste behavior. Structural equation modeling is employed to survey data that is gathered from 328 participants. The results of the study reveal that moral attitudes have a direct effect on food waste behavior, eating habits, shopping habits and knowledge of food conservation. Furthermore it is demonstrated that shopping habits has a significant effect on food waste behavior. The analysis also provide evidence that the relationship between moral attitudes and shopping habits along with the relationship between moral attitudes and food waste behavior are mediated by knowledge of food conservation and shopping habits, respectively.

ABSTRACT. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of specific drivers -gamification and social support- in the engagement process toward healthy eating behaviors when using a mobile app. This paper reports findings from a first exploratory phase showing that social and emotional dimensions play an important role in the attempt to engage individuals toward healthy eating behaviors. Challenges as a gamification mechanism and social support were highlighted as potential facilitators to reinforce those dimensions in the experience and to support the engagement process. Then, the results from an experimental study confirm the positive effect of challenges as a gamification mechanism on the engagement process. Surprisingly, the use of social support within an app does not show a significant positive effect on the engagement process or on the experience. This paper contributes, step by step, to a better theoretical understanding of the use of apps on sustained eating behavior change and opens future research to add relevant insights. Finally, concrete implications are suggested for public authorities and non-for-profit organizations to develop supportive interventions to counter the obesity epidemic. Last, but not least, this research may contribute to individuals strives in keeping his or her healthy decisions.

ABSTRACT. The federal government spends a large amount of money on food assistance programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Medicaid to address the food insecurity issue. However, there is little understanding of how these programs interplay with each other and little research has been conducted from the marketing and consumer behavior perspective. By analyzing the profiles and shopping transaction records of over 59,000 WIC participants in Virginia, this study empirically examined how WIC participants’ Medicaid and SNAP program participation influences their redemption behavior in terms of WIC benefits. Specifically, we first identified a curvilinear redemption pattern during the participants’ redemption cycle. Further, such a curvilinear relationship of WIC redemption pattern was significantly influenced by Medicaid participation but not by SNAP participation. Family structure change was found to significantly influence this relationship. The implications for policymakers and researchers were further provided.

ABSTRACT. Research has inadequately examined how increasing a consumer’s sense of power may positively influence healthy choice. With the global obesity epidemic becoming worse each year, now is an essential time for marketers and policy makers to identify ways to encourage healthy choice. Thus, our research addresses this need and accompanying gap in the literature. Through five studies (including a field study) with varying participant samples, findings reveal that priming a high (vs. low) sense of power increases consumers’ purchase intent for healthy foods. In addition, results expose that this effect occurs because consumers having a high sense of power have greater health goal salience, resulting in heightened preference for healthy foods. Healthy choice is explored in consumer response to both corporate advertising and public service announcements. Most relevant for policy makers, findings show that consumers with lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES) are more vulnerable to unhealthy eating behaviors but are most responsive to power primes, suggesting healthy eating campaigns incorporating sense of power primes should be targeted toward these consumers.

ABSTRACT. The longer-is-better effect is a psychological theory showing that longevity means quality. This paper investigates this effect and its boundary conditions in the context of brands longevity claims such as the mention of the founding date. While there is enough evidence to show a clear relation between perceptions of longevity and quality, current research does not say how long is longer? Neither does it suggest when and in which context managers should start or stop signaling longevity? The present paper investigates these questions through one large N survey and three follow-up experiments. Results show that (1) the perception of brand heritage mediates the positive effect of longevity on quality; (2) people evaluate longevity against a reference in the product category, with most gains in terms of heritage and quality happening before the brand reaches the average longevity of the category; and (3) the effect is stronger in categories perceived to be more innovative because the perception of survival is reinforced.

ABSTRACT. In a visual society, logos, colors and shapes are often the most used communication types. It is evident, however, that the market faces saturation of this type of strategy. Get the attention of people has become a goal reached by few companies. The current consumer lives a situation of information overload, making it difficult to communicate an unmistakable brand identity in the consumer's mind. In this context, address the consumer only by traditional signals (such as optical stimuli) is no longer considered enough. The consumer has to ignore information and use their selective attention to give focus to brands that offer more emotional connections, valorous, engagement and content. The acoustic stimuli recently gained importance in the context of changes (in the communication of a brand). Whereas a brand should at least be recognizable and evoke perceptions by the consumer, the question emerges: Customers are actually able to recognize the logo sound of a brand as a message mediator as traditionally occurs in the case of visual logos? This research adopts causal approach. It seeks, through an experiment, to evaluate the potential that just sound variable has in the recognition of a brand.

ABSTRACT. When consumers buy experience goods, product uncertainty is high; therefore, they rely heavily on information provided by other consumers. These days’ online rating websites are a source of useful information about products. In this paper, beer rating data from beeradvocate.com is utilized to understand the impact of the number of products sold by a brand (product depth) on the overall impression of the product. The number of products belonging to a brand is expected to influence the overall impressions of a product belonging to the brand. Because of the inferences, people make using the number of products sold by a brand as a measure of authenticity. A simple hierarchical linear model with a single level-1 predictor (sensory property) and a single level-2 predictor (product depth size) is used to test the prediction. The results show a positive relationship between the product depth size of a brand and the overall impression of a product. The influence of sensory property on overall impression depended upon the levels of the size of the product depth of a brand.

ABSTRACT. Stories are perhaps one of the most influential tools brands have in engaging with the consumer. Some researchers even suggest that a brand itself is a story (Twitchell, 2004). Companies tell stories over their websites, social media, and some even have them posted in their retail establishments (Hollenbeck, Peters, and Zinkhan, 2008). However, little research has been done regarding relaying a brand story through product packaging. While research suggests that the inclusion of a brand story on product packaging may result in a myriad of positive brand associations (Solja, Liljander, and Soderlund, 2018), the process through which this occurs, and the relationships between the variables impacted, remains to be discovered. Therefore, the following study uses narrative transportation theory to examine how brand stories included on product packaging impact perceptions of a brand, such as brand uniqueness and brand sincerity, and how it ultimately leads to consumer word of mouth intentions.

ABSTRACT. The research aims to understand the sudden impulse to buy on group-buying websites guided by the Stimulus - Organism - Response (S-O-R) framework. This study provides new insights from a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 403 online group shopping websites consumers.

ABSTRACT. In this research authors prove how Millenials in developing countries are a very active and exigent social group demanding a correct companies’ behaviour and fighting against economic and political corruption; this young people can be considered as social change agents. Their higher educational level in front of their parents and the hard situations lived in their life put them in a resilient situation. A mixed method using secondary data, documentary analysis and quantitative approach has been done. Specifically, a survey on the perception and attitudes towards CSR companies’ commitment has been applied to a Peruvian sample of Millenials.

ABSTRACT. The use of ephemeral content has become an important marketing resource for companies, but its effects are a rarely addressed topic in the academic literature. Through the Theory of Uses and Gratifications, the effects of ephemeral content are explored, the impact of the use of Snapchat and the purchase motivation in the Millennials generation. Through an electronic survey of 454 millennial generation participants and analyzed through PLS-SEM, theoretical contributions are presented in identifying Modality-based Gratifications and Interactivity-Based Gratifications as two new sources of gratification that generate the modality of Snapchat's ephemeral content. The study theoretically reflects how much interaction and identification with the medium generates a positive involvement in the needs of the audience thus explaining its reasons for use.

ABSTRACT. The academic literature establish the new communication strategies show that companies are using the social media properly because they benefit with a better image, positioning and reputation Today, it could be said that social media impacts the customer relationship effectively and efficiently.The focus of this quantitative research studies how the priming effect within the communication strategies create attitudes with the stimulus and the data processing impacting the behavior of purchases and repurchases of products and services. Second, it analyzes how the customer satisfaction active the knowledge and linkage of the consumer having a higher impact to the repurchase of products and services. Through the theoretical framework researchers present hypothesis using a quantitative method and analyzing the results of 444 participants using the PLS-SEM the results contribuing that priming increase the way that the information is interpreted through activate attributes thus affecting the overall impact of the communication strategy.

ABSTRACT. Due to consumers shifting their attention from traditional media to digital, marketers have had to turn their attention to viral advertising in order to reach their market. Once viewed, consumers can share the advertisement with their social network. One way to increase the likelihood of sharing is to include humorous elements in the advertisements. However, what individuals find humorous depends on the individual's need for humor (NFH). This paper tests the moderating role that internal NFH and external NFH have on the relationship between how humorous an advertisement is and the online sharing of that advertisement. Though further studies will be conducted, thus far the findings point towards an external NFH moderating effect. This study is not only the first to show that the effect of humor on sharing can be moderated by the consumer’s personality, specifically the trait of need for humor, but also the first that separately examines the two dimensions of the NFH scale.

ABSTRACT. For many Western consumers, the consumption of insects is often associated with a primitive and disgusting behavior. Despite all its nutritional, economic and ecological benefits, the exploratory studies conducted on adult European consumers, reveal many obstacles for this type of consumption. In this paper, we tried to understand children’s perception through a qualitative study conducted on 50 French children aged between 6 and 12. The aim of our study is to understand kids' psychological barriers and motivations for insect consumption in order to highlight the discourse that the public authorities must emphasize in their persuasive communication for promoting this food practice to them. The results show that, even if children spontaneously manifest negative feelings about eating insects, they declare themselves ready to try at least once as soon as they become aware that this mode of feeding can be positive for the protection of the planet.

ABSTRACT. Humor is a recurrent tool in effective advertising campaigns from mid-twentieth century in numerous countries (Eisend 2009; Gulas and Weinberger 2006). The proportion of international advertisements using humorous appeals shows a tendency of growth from year to year and reached up to 56 % in advertising campaigns in 2018. Considering the huge and growing global advertising spending which represented US$589.5 billion in 2018 (Global Carat), it appears essential to understand the stimulus of humor in ads tendency with a cross cultural comparison.

The peculiarity of humor in advertising is that it targets a very heterogeneous audience simultaneously on the local and national even international scale. While humor is universally practiced, its use in advertising may require adaptation when communicating in different cultural contexts (Alden et al 1993) and the standardization of its usage across national borders (Weinberger & Spotts 1989, Cheng & Duo, 2003, Eisend 2009) is still question of debate. The objective of this research is to understand the cultural differences in terms of humor in ads, the influence of culture in the consumer perception and behavior aiming at analyzing if a standardized humorous ad could be possible.

ABSTRACT. Creativity is seen as an important component in advertising effectiveness, particularly in enhancing attention and facilitating recall. However, little research has investigated the boundary conditions of creativity’s influence. This paper investigates the role of competitive and external interference upon creativity and recall. In two controlled experiments utilizing both commercial and digitally manipulated print advertisements, we find that under conditions of little interference creativity facilitates recall, but under conditions of high interference, this effect is diminished. Managerial and academic implications are highlighted.

ABSTRACT. Cause-related marketing (CRM) promotions involve increasing sales by contributing to the objectives of one or more social causes. Marketers have used it to increase market share, appeal to a new market segment, differentiate, and build brand image (Singh & Duque 2019). Despite its popularity in the US, CRM is not a familiar marketing and branding strategy in other countries, which is reflected in research studies. Whereas there is ample evidence from research conducted in the US, there is a paucity of research in non-US countries (with some exceptions) and even when non-US markets are examined, it is in developed economies (Singh et al 2009; Singh & Duque 2019). Many emerging economies are plagued by social problems which go unattended because of either governmental inefficiency or too much focus on popular social causes. We use research on value perception formation and entrepreneurial orientation theory to propose that new entrant brands can align themselves with overlooked yet relevant social causes to build brand value and an entrepreneurial image, consequently gaining an edge over existing market leader brands.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on “Translation” as a means of information transmission from Japanese headquarters to their overseas subsidiaries, an attempt to minimize the gap in understanding between senders and receivers was examined by clarifying the cognitive mechanism in transferring information from Japanese to English. First, qualitative research was performed to clarify the problems of communication in the light of previous studies Explicit Knowledge and Tacit Knowledge, Relevance Theory, Communities of Practice, Internal Marketing. Next, quantitative research was carried out on the basis of indexes of the previous studies and factors confirmed in the investigation, and recognition gap between Japan and overseas was analyzed by covariance structure analysis. From the results of the qualitative and quantitative researches, the important perspectives of organizational decision making were proposed, such as the positioning of the translation business in the organization, and effective information transfer method.

ABSTRACT. Peer learning, a pedagogical approach whereby students are partnered together for the purpose of having one student actively help another student to learn predetermined content or skills, has long been utilized as an effective complement to more traditional instructional methods across a wide-range of educational disciplines. This approach has been evidenced to reduce the stress of learning, increase student engagement, and yield benefits to both the tutor and the tutee to a roughly equal degree. Yet, pedagogical research to this point has failed to explore the usefulness of this approach to sales education. In the present research, we introduce a peer learning role-play exercise that can serve as a great complement to other experiential learning activities in both introductory and advanced sales courses. Further, we provide empirical evidence that the peer learning exercise is both enjoyed by students and can result in objective sales performance improvement for both introductory and advanced sales students. An overview of how to adapt and implement the exercise in University-level sales courses is provided.

ABSTRACT. As automotive industry and automobiles are subject to incremental changes due to new market players, new innovative drive technologies and increasing implementation of vehicle electrics and electronics, customer’s evaluation of passenger vehicles also changes. Specifically, additional technical systems and features such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) gain in importance. Although ADAS market penetration is still low, a growing number of elaborated ADAS is available, particularly considering the additional usage of real-time traffic information and augmented reality features. Against this backdrop, the current work focusses on the comprehensive evaluation of the technology acceptance of a so-called head-up display (HUD) as emerging and efficient system “that presents data without requiring the user to look away from the usual field of view” (Wheeler, 2016).

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

ABSTRACT. Technological advances make products increasingly smart. Such smart innovations seem to have certain characteristics. In this paper, we present different traits and take into account that these types of innovations differ in their future development stage from the current accessible form. In the case of autonomous vehicles, consumers already imagine the completely intelligent innovation whereby the car drives autonomously whilst the passenger is not involved in driving. However, this distinctive type is supposed to be available in the future, since at present only partially automated driving functions are developed. In general, it is expected that in the future development stage of smart innovations that include a high degree of autonomy, human interaction with the innovation itself will be reduced or even obsolete. These special characteristics of smart innovations led researchers to question the suitability of available acceptance models. With regard to the special future characteristics of smart innovations, we review previously used variables for the investigation of innovation acceptance and other related concepts to examine their suitability. The result is a conceptual model to be utilized for the investigation of Smart Product acceptance. This model will be tested and applied within a user experience study for fully autonomous cars.

ABSTRACT. Although governments and manufacturers are pushing the e-mobility branch, there are still large numbers of considerable reservations on the consumer side. Studies try to explain drivers’ motivators and barriers for using electric vehicles (EV). However, there is a lack of knowledge on how different factors are influencing the acceptance and adoption intention of those cars. In order to develop segment-specific marketing strategies, companies still have to learn about the potential relationship between acceptance antecedents and the personal EV experience of individual drivers. In this paper, we analyse the technology acceptance of e-mobility in two groups. We draw on the Customer Acceptance of Technology model (CAT). Conducting a field-study with standardized questionnaires, our sample contains 127 drivers owning an EV and 354 drivers owning a “classical” combustion car. Our findings reveal that there are differences in the antecedents and their effects on Adoption Intention between the groups. The total effect of Perceived Ease of Use on Adoption Intention is stronger for the non-driver group. Image benefits also contribute stronger to Relative Advantage of EVs for non-drivers. These key differences could have important implications for the acceptance of this, with respect to climate change and air pollution, potentially crucial technology.

ABSTRACT. Seven studies demonstrate the “healthy=light” heuristic by showing that people infer food containing healthier ingredients to weigh less than food containing normal/unhealthy ingredients. At the same time, people also use weight as a cue to infer a product’s healthiness: lighter products are perceived as more likely to contain healthier ingredients compared to heavier products. Furthermore, we demonstrate this heuristic has downstream effects on consumers’ product choices, purchase intention, WTP, health claim beliefs, and actual consumption. In the first study, we establish that the “healthy=light” heuristic is based on an implicit association. In studies 2 and 3, we show that people use food healthiness to infer food weight, using both actual food items and brand healthiness perception to manipulate the food healthiness. In studies 4 to 7, we turn to the other side of the heuristic and show that people use food weight to infer the food healthiness. Furthermore, in study 4, we reveal that the calories estimate underlies this relationship between weight and healthiness perception, while ruling out food density/fillingness as alternative explanations. In studies 5, 6 & 7, we show that physical weight influences healthiness perception, health claim beliefs and subsequent effects on purchase intention, WTP, and actual consumption.

ABSTRACT. Health appeals to promote wellness and healthful choices can be framed individually or socially (benefit to self/others). Across three studies, the authors identify the influence of self-construal and cultural-identity on health appeals and find that Hispanic consumers display identity incongruent attitudes toward healthy eating appeals. Specifically, the authors show that Hispanics exhibit more positive responses to self-framed versus social-framed healthy eating appeals. Cultural perceptions of healthy eating are highlighted as the underlying mechanism and message framing as moderator of these effects. The findings of this research integrate message framing, cultural-identity and self-construal theory as part of the conceptual model to explain the process behind these contradictory yet novel effects.

ABSTRACT. Planning is widely assumed to enhance goal pursuit by translating abstract goals into specific, organized, concrete actions so that people can follow regimens and resist temptations. Indeed, planning is effective for many goal pursuits such as dieting, exercise, finance, and academic performance (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006; Gollwitzer and Oettingen, 2007). Planning, however, is not always beneficial and its benefits depend on factors such as goal distance, goal specificity, number of goals, and mental construal (Dalton and Spiller, 2012; Townsend and Liu, 2012). This research suggests another factor to consider: the individual circadian rhythms (i.e., chronotypes) that govern internal biological clocks and examines how chronotypes, morning-types (MTs) or evening-types (ETs), determine whether planning for healthful eating is beneficial.

ABSTRACT. The color red widely appears on food packages. However, understanding of the effects of this color on consumers remains limited. In particular, the literature stresses the need for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that can explain the effects of this color for food packages. Building on the psychological literature on colors and emotions, this research examines the cognitive and emotional effects of the color red and proposes it as an antecedent of the negative emotion of guilt. Specifically, this research argues that because the color red carries negative meanings related to transgression, it may prompt consumers to feel some guilt about their consumption. A first study using chip packages as stimuli demonstrates the indirect effect of the color red (vs. green) on guilt through the mediating role of negative cognitive associations. Then, two additional studies using candies and cereal bar packages, respectively, replicate these effects and also demonstrate the role of the vice versus virtue product type. The results highlight the moderating role of perception of the product as a vice product, with the color red leading to stronger negative associations and guilt for such products. Implications for further research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Significant efforts have gone into investigating the factors that affect buyer-seller negotiation. However, these studies have overlooked how ethnic identity influences the buyer-seller negotiation process and outcomes. Using language as a proxy for ethnic identity, we investigate how the similarities and differences in the languages of buyers and sellers influence the negotiation process and outcome in an emerging economy context. We anchored the study on Social Identity theory. We purposefully select five informal retail outlets where there is a high prevalence of price negotiation. Data were collected via four primary sources, namely semi-structured interviews, participant and non-participant observations and analytical memos. Our result contributes to the literature on buyer-seller negotiation, informal retailing, and shopper marketing via the examination language dynamics in sales negotiation process and outcomes.

ABSTRACT. Prospecting for potential customers is crucial for sales performance and a firm's success. Despite the importance of prospecting, salespeople fail to capitalize on prospecting activities. Sales research recognizes the benefit of intuition in selling activities, such as prospecting. However, more research examining the relationship between intuition and prospecting is warranted. The current research adopts a control theory approach to examine such relationship using a sample of B2B salespeople in the United States. The findings reveal that intuition can be leveraged to identify valuable prospects effectively, which in turn improves sales performance. Furthermore, the effects of intuition on sales performance are attenuated when salespeople experience role conflict. This investigation contributes to the intersection of intuition and sales research by demonstrating that role conflict can inhibit the advantages of relying on intuition during prospecting. Additionally, support is given to accentuate the importance of salespeople’s intuition at a time when marketing practitioners are moving aggressively toward automated techniques of prospecting and lead generation.

ABSTRACT. Sales executives along with other C-suite executives must be able to justify their value to their firm and often Wall Street. However, due to the difficulty of isolating the impact of a senior sales executive on the firm, outcomes cannot be easily attributed directly to the sales executive. Since the senior sales executive operates as part of a larger top management team (TMT) and organization, it’s unlikely that their solely responsible for the firm’s performance. Thus, event study methodology is implemented to examine abnormal stock returns due to announcements of sales executive appointments, examining the empirical effect of the sales executive on firm performance in isolation. Furthermore, the impact of a sales executive announcement is examined under conditions in which the executive will be leading both the sales and marketing functions, has firm-specific experience, has power and influence within the top management team, and whether or not the firm’s recent financial performance was strong or poor.

ABSTRACT. Customer satisfaction depends on how well the salesperson interaction matches customer expectations. While factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and income also shape many of these expectations (Gagliano and Hathcote 1994), salesperson attributes such as helpfulness, friendliness, responsiveness, expertise, knowledge of the firm’s products, and ability to answer questions may also come into play when determining customer satisfaction. This paper presents a mixed-method analysis of how salesperson attributes impact customer expectations, satisfaction, and just as importantly, dissatisfaction can be beneficial in expanding the connection between salespeople and consumer behavior. A qualitative analysis of 1,900 online reviews was conducted. The attributes identified were further explored in a three-round Delphi study of a national sample of consumers. Overall, this paper evaluates how consumers prioritize salesperson attributes in the evaluations of their shopping experience in the context of different shopping settings and needs. We analyze differences in consumer expectations regarding salesperson behavior and show how they affect consumer satisfaction.

ABSTRACT. Study examined the effects of three aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (i.e., quality, Awareness, Attributions) and the main factor in marketing concept (Trust) on organizational long-term orientations in oil and petrochemical industry. Based on survey data collected from suppliers working with SABIC in Saudi Arabia, the relationships were examined using confirmatory factor analysis, second-order factor analysis, and structural equation modelling. The results indicate that the quality of CSR Activities is related to organizational long-term orientations in oil and petrochemical industry with the trust as a mediating variable, suggesting that adding CSR programs is likely to improve desirable suppliers to build a strong relation with SABIC, which in turn contributes to increasing the length of the relationships. This study contributes to the literature by conceptually and empirically evaluating the quality of CSR activities and trust dimensions simultaneously in oil and petrochemical industry

ABSTRACT. Expletives and derogatory terminology are increasingly being used in the naming structure for companies, products and brands as a marketing strategy we refer to as Brand Vulgarity. As a growing practice across numerous industries, it is intended to garner attention of the target audience, break through the proverbial clutter and create distinction within the competitive landscape. However, the impact of brand vulgarity on a company’s reputation (CR) corporate image (CI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are yet to be fully explored. This study introduces the concept of brand vulgarity, explores the practice across several industries and examines its impact on CR, CI and CSR. A conceptual model is offered through which to further explore the effect of brand vulgarity on consumer and organizational outcomes.

ABSTRACT. Political parties in the US have become very divisive in last few years. Reports show most religious groups, especially mainline Protestant becoming more Republicans Hence, studies on how citizen’s affiliation with political parties influence their perception and behaviors are needed. Using Pew Research data, the purpose of this study is to compare and contrast between individuals affiliated with or without political parties on: (1) decision making process when purchasing everyday products; (2) relationship with God; (3) ethical and sustainable behaviors. The study shows interesting insights on differences and similarities between individuals affiliated with different political parties. In general, most Republicans are more religious and focusing more on religious activities. Consequently, they are less likely to focus on social and environmental issues such as protecting the environment compared to Democrats. The paper will make several contributions and debunk myths about stigma toward a particular political party and finally, the study will provide insights for religious leaders and political leaders on how their followers behave.

ABSTRACT. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2017 demonstrate that the tourism industry has a strong initiative in conducting environmental sustainable business. Hotels can support this initiative is by being Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or Green certified. In this study, we aim to understand how such certifications influence consumer’s decision to stay at a sustainable hotel. We used a revised version of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour and expect consumers knowledgeable of the LEED or Green certifications to perceive sustainable hotel practices as more important, therefore more willing to trade-off non-environmental factors to stay at a sustainable hotel. A survey was administered in the field, resulting in 324 responses, mostly consisting of American tourists. Chi-squares and t-tests were conducted to test the relationship between knowledge and outcome variables. Additionally, a mediation model was tested to explain the relationship between knowledge and willingness to stay at a sustainable hotel. We found that knowledgeable guests weigh non-sustainable related factors as less important compared to guests without knowledge. Knowledgeable guests are also more willing to trade-off these factors to stay at a sustainable hotel, emphasizing the importance of creating awareness about certification.

ABSTRACT. There is abundant literature over the new product development process - NPDP but mainly focused on large firms in developed countries. The impact of cultural and specific influences of a country have been rarely been examined (Brem and Wolfram, 2017) and research findings in Perú, with its own traits regarding entrepreneurship, informality, frugality, vertical hierarchy and limited academic groundwork, could be interesting.

The object of the present study is the NPDP activities followed by medium-sized manufacturing firms located in Lima and Callao, Perú. We will determine if there is enough evidence to connect the quality level with which each of the activities is executed, with the level of success of the new product, as perceived by the firm (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1986). We will remark the importance of marketing activities. Our main question is which are the activities that must always be carried out with high quality as they evidence relationship with product success?

ABSTRACT. Information technology (IT) plays an important role in improving innovation in organizations. Despite the high number of empirical studies testing the adoption of IT via the technology acceptance model (TAM), there are still research gaps that need to be addressed, specifically in new business contexts beyond the United States. The current study proposes to examine the user acceptance of new IT in the fashion industry in Colombia (South America) in relation to the firm’s innovation performance. Findings may be useful for managers aiming to increase innovation via the usage of newly implemented technology, as well as generating theoretical implications related to the proposed extension of TAM.

ABSTRACT. In applying a teleological framework, in relationships between ERP sellers and ERP buyers, the research objective is to frame static and dynamic time-frames in the implementation process of ERP.The aim is to shed light on the consideration of time-periods (i.e. past, present and future) as either sequential (i.e. static) or continuous (i.e. dynamic) in the implementation process of ERP. This study is conducted with respect to Spanish companies focusing on implementation process of ERP software solutions. This study embraces a multi-method design. This study indicates that more than half of the ERP buyers were not entirely satisfied, after finalizing the ERP implementation process. Subsequently, less than half of them received only a software solution and the rest considered they had received merely a somewhat adapted software solution. Furthermore, only one out of ten confirmed that the software solution obtained was a fully adapted solution beyond the ERP buyers’ expectations and truly taking into account their needs. The main research implication is the combination of static and dynamic considerations of time with formative, rationalist and transformative teleological lenses outline and distinguish between various strategies for handling the ERP pre-implementation process, the ERP implementation process and the ERP post-implementation process.

ABSTRACT. Em 2016, as notícias sobre a crise na economia brasileira não foram poucas. Juntamente com crise política, a turbulência econômica não deixou de causar recessão e desemprego. Apesar das expectativas de recuperação da economia do país, o início de 2017 não sinalizou para o fim da crise. Analistas esperaram que 2017 fosse mais de estabilização do que de recuperação do mercado de trabalho, com a geração de empregos ainda insuficiente para derrubar a taxa de desemprego, que, segundo o Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), ficou em 11,9% no final do ano de 2016, com cerca de 12,1 milhões de desempregados (IBGE, 2017). Nesse cenário de incertezas econômicas, as Instituições de Ensino Superior enfrentam grandes desafios. Desta forma, para que seja possível atrair os alunos, é preciso estudá-los na tentativa de compreender o seu comportamento, seus desejos e necessidades diante da possibilidade de escolha da formação profissional. Assim, diante da recessão que o Brasil está passando e das incertezas enfrentadas pelas Instituições de Ensino Superior, o estudo realizado objetivou analisar as necessidades e os desejos dos estudantes concluintes do Ensino Médio, quanto à escolha da formação profissional.

ABSTRACT. Authenticity is a complex characteristic that is valued in both brands and individuals. Service provider person-brands (SPPBs), who both embody a brand representative role and their own individual self, have the unique opportunity to enact personal and brand authenticity to their clients. However, little is known regarding what behaviors SPPBs use to enact authenticity, how consumers perceive these behaviors, or the effectiveness of different strategies for enacting authenticity as an SPPB. Using a mixed-methods approach, the authors use qualitative interviews with 35 providers and customers to identify themes of authenticity enactment, create a typology of SPPB authenticity enactment, and test the effectiveness of these strategies using a survey of 372 financial planners. SPPBs enact authenticity to consumers through three combinations of displaying client-centricity, positive emotions, transparency, and disclosing personal information. Survey results indicate that SPPBs who engage in extra-role behaviors tend to earn more than those who enact authenticity through role-centric behaviors alone. Overall, our findings increase the field’s understanding of how authenticity can be effectively used in marketing, contribute to the nascent literature on marketing strategies for person-brands, and give managerial insights to SPPBs regarding how to effectively enact authenticity to their clients.

ABSTRACT. Frontline employees (FLEs) often complain to customers – about coworkers, disliked management practices and even other customers – as a mechanism for relieving frustrations associated with the job. Given that FLE complaining inserts negativity into frontline encounters, such behaviors are discouraged by management and generally assumed to have a detrimental effect on customer outcomes (e.g., interaction quality). However, script theory affords another perspective: it suggests that because FLE complaining represents a clear departure from prescribed management behaviors, it also serves as a signal to the customer that the FLE is authentic, thus promoting rapport and other beneficial outcomes. We evaluate these competing viewpoints across a series of lab and field experiments and find that (1) FLE complaining has countervailing effects on customer interaction outcomes and (2) the net effect of complaining on these outcomes is generally positive or non-significant. Counter to common wisdom, these findings imply that managerial efforts to curb FLE complaining (e.g., via disciplinary action) may be counterproductive because doing so denies FLEs the emotional catharsis associated with complaining behaviors while infrequently improving customer interaction outcomes.

ABSTRACT. In the present article, we show that people have a general anti-fat bias working under both implicit and explicit levels of cognition. Specifically, the results suggest that people hold less favorable implicit and explicit attitudes toward overweight (vs. thin) individuals. However, participants’ age is an important boundary condition for this effect, as it modulates people’s implicit and explicit attitudes toward targets of varying weights in an intriguing way. Specifically, older (vs. younger) people are implicitly more prejudiced toward overweight individuals, but still display more favorable explicit attitudes toward such individuals in service settings.

ABSTRACT. Our study builds on Becker, Bradley, and Zantow’s (2012) model to help understand the tipping behavior of inbound travelers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Specifically, our survey research explores why some tourists engage in tipping practices at all-inclusive Mexican resorts while other tourists do not—even after accounting for the cultural norms around tipping in the participants’ home country and prior work experience in the hospitality industry. We conclude with the theoretical implications of our results for hospitality researchers who study tipping behavior as well as the practical utility for Mexican National hospitality workers who work at all-inclusive resorts.

ABSTRACT. The rise of social media has provided firms with ample new opportunities to communicate their brands (Carlson et al. 2019; Zhang, et al.,2018). Additionally, because textual and audio-visual data on social media platforms can be preserved, the medium has become a valuable tool for providing insights and informing strategic brand management (Kim et al., 2019; Greco & Polli, 2019). Within the overall social media communication environment, brand communities specifically provide unique insights, as they can enhance understanding regarding changes in consumer’s opinions and feeling and how they perceive and talk to each other about a brand (Hollenbeck & Kaikati, 2012; Balaji et al., 2016; Kim & Lee, 2019). Using automated text analysis and Berthon and his colleagues’ (2009) framework to classify the user generated brand content, the purpose of this study is to investigate consumer attitudes towards different luxury brands based on the online communication within a Facebook brand community. The result reveals that for expert luxury brands, transient mode predicted high level of analytic thinking and tone compare to enduring mode. However, for novice luxury brands, enduring mode predicted high level of analytic thinking than transient mode.

ABSTRACT. Social media influencers (SMIs), which represent a “new type of independent third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media," have increased exponentially over recent years. We now see individuals go from a regular person to a social media influencer overnight. Followers routinely became invested in SMI's story and maintain interest throughout their subsequent rise to becoming a human brand. These stories captivate onlookers, draw in followers, and form a cult-like interest in people found on the internet. However, not all humble SMI storylines are created equal. SMIs have been caught lying to their audiences, but the repercussions of portraying this false sense of authenticity is mostly unknown. Thus, this manuscript attempts to address the following questions, do influencer "stories,” which attempt to showcase authentic behavior, positively affect viewer attitudes? Further, what if the stories portrayed by SMIs are not true? Do the lies actually matter? This conceptual manuscript examines the relationship of SMI storytelling, authenticity, and attitudes towards the SMIs. The main facet of is this study are stories, lying, and the repercussions lying have on SMI's career when the story SMIs tell for so long become broken.

ABSTRACT. Consumers engage in online curation using branded items (e.g., product images) on social shopping sites (i.e., sites that combine commerce and social media activities) in ways that can have important implications for brands. Rather than simply being passive recipients of a brand’s image dictated by the firm, consumers are now active participants in co-creating the brand’s image by combining brands and presenting them to others. We use data collected from two groups on a popular social shopping site (Polyvore.com) and employ a clustering technique to demonstrate that curating consumers are assembling different brands together, thus creating implicit brand associations. By looking at consumer curation behavior on social shopping sites, brand managers can better understand the ways in which their brands’ images are being co-created by consumers, and the associations that exist between brands.

ABSTRACT. Ethical consumption is on the rise across the board. Consumers are increasingly considering ethical issues such as justice for others (White et al., 2012), fair animal treatment (Carrigan et al., 2013), and impacts on the environment (Athwal et al., 2019) when making purchase decisions. The academic literature has not been able to clearly identify these kinds of trends in luxury markets with existing reports implying that ethics is not a part of the decision making process for luxury consumers (Klerk et al, 2019). Given the importance of ethics for consumers in general and the recent moves of some luxury brands to embrace ethical behavior in their practices, investigation is needed to discover the existence and nature of ethical considerations in luxury brand experience consumers. A multi-method qualitative approach was used in order to discover various outcomes that luxury consumers may have with ethical luxury. This qualitative inquiry discovered that luxury consumers consider ethics in their luxury brand experience usage which result in affective, and behavioral outcomes. These findings suggest that there are numerous benefits to engaging in and advertising ethical action for luxury brand experience providers and that consumers’ do not see an in-congruency between luxury and ethics.

ABSTRACT. As digital technologies in education has grown significantly, understanding application integration and student motivation of such technologies is necessary. Study 1 focuses on virtual reality adoption in the classroom setting. A paired samples t-test is used to compare participants’ performance between two presentations which has been completed on a virtual reality presentation application. A “Total Score” metric is computed through an algorithm consisting of five metrics (Audience Distribution, Audience Stare, Words per Minute, Filler Words, and Hand Gestures). By using an adaptation of the Technology Acceptance Model, Study two proposes attitudes toward adopting new technologies. Researchers look to understand the motivations underlying technology adoption in business courses. The contributions of this study demonstrate the potential VR technologies has in improving a student’s learning outcomes in business courses. This study also contributes to understanding students’ attitudes toward technology, their perceived learning, and their intention to continue using this technology in future business classes.

ABSTRACT. The authors describe an experiment with robotics carried out in EAFIT’s marketing program in its course of innovation and new product development. This experiment was carried out with the design-based research methodology (Bakker, 2018), which has an iterative character allowing an initial design refined through successive prototypes. The robotic experiment has been carried out through three iterations since 2017 that have enabled us to deploy a significant learning challenge in terms of the course while implying a serious and fun introduction to the field of robotics and computational thinking.

The importance of incorporating educational robotics as a starting point for the introduction of new technologies in the undergraduate marketing curriculum was validated. Likewise, the authors proved that the robotic system framed in a narrative and a serious game is valuable for innovation and NPD course; This pilot was a relevant, valuable, fun, and creativity enhancer. Besides, the design-based research methodology was used to design this development, which encourages continuous iterations, and each of them represented improvements in the following design. Finally, it allowed the validating of the use of this methodology for the design of new educational projects.

ABSTRACT. Published banks of multiple-choice examination questions accompanying basic marketing and other business texts are ubiquitous. Despite this, those questions have been subjected to little published independent assessment. This study assesses three fundamental properties of questions from a long-standing international marketing textbook.

ABSTRACT. Private universities have become the institutions of choice for many African students. So far, our knowledge of their marketing strategies to influence prospective students’ choice remains weak. In this chapter, we have attempted to understand better students’ recruitment in the context of a young North African university. First, we explored rational and emotional issues that influence students’ choice for a higher education institution. We distinguished student’s self-centric criteria referring to social and self-esteem motivations, and university centric issues related to the perceived value of the university offer. Then, we identified three “informational cognitive dissonance” situations where university messages mismatch with prospective students’ representations: a space and time dissonance related to divergent visions of the job market’s future; a program content and teaching methodology dissonance that highlights differing representations of learning; a program purpose dissonance that reflects students search for assurance on the ROI of their studies. Finaly, we made a set of strategic and operational marketing recommendations, highlighting two perspectives. On the one hand, universities should provide a universal, forward-looking and globally oriented strategic vision. On the other hand, operational marketing actions should be locally oriented toward students' expectations and ability to assess innovative messages.

ABSTRACT. The drive to a circular economy has focused on maximizing production processes and efficiencies rather than personal and societal well-being. This paper extends prior research to suggest how circular consumption provides a complementary route to the circular economy that increases personal and communal well-being. This paper presents a new model that shows how perceived contamination can influence, and be influenced by, empathy, sharing and reacquisition. Sharing and shared self are shown to be both antecedents and consequences of circular consumption.

ABSTRACT. There is scant knowledge about how firms manufacturing counterfeit products establish and maintain partnerships with channel members, due to limited availability of supply-side data. I use the lens of practice theory to unravel how manufacturers and retailers cooperate in markets for counterfeit products. I examine how manufacturers and retailers of counterfeit products overcome social, economic and market pressures to stabilize channel partnerships. The data comes from an ethnography of 23 manufacturers and 19 retailers of counterfeit products in Central India. I find that channel partnerships are stabilized through dynamic strain management in two phases: market-making phase and market-shaping phase. Practices in the market-making phase pertain to efforts of channel members to gather resources, establish an illegal enterprise and form channel partnerships. In the market-shaping phase, channel partnerships are stabilized by overcoming or circumventing restraining forces in the marketplace. In total, seven market practices are identified in the two phases, which help explain how illegal markets continue to grow despite regulatory and market pressures. This research contributes to the literature on market channel cooperation, and to the conceptualization of markets as socially embedded networks. Practical implications of this research emerge from a deeper understanding of counterfeit markets.

ABSTRACT. Our goal is to suggest a perspective from which marketers may (1) identify and ponder alternative futures and their consequences, and (2) effectuate a desirable future for all stakeholders (i.e., circumscribed by a fair distribution of costs and benefits). In essence, marketing futurology should inform decisions that create a future reflective of humanity’s sustainable preferences. Given its synergies with other social sciences and tech-related disciplines, marketing is the ideal field of scholarship to orchestrate humanity’s future. We suggest structuring marketing futurology around an aspirational definition of marketing and a set of related higher-order questions.

ABSTRACT. The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is a growing trend worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 65 to 80 percent of the health care services are classified as CAM. The 2012 National Health Interview Survey reveals that 30 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use nonconventional medical care; with Americans spending 30.2 billion U.S. dollars for adults and 1.9 billion U.S. dollars for children on complementary health care services. Despite growing trends in CAM consumption, the extant marketing literature in the area is limited and narrowly focused on health claims, information processing, or consumer values. The goal of the current research is to explore practitioner-based CAM offerings and their use by consumers from a provider’s perspective. What benefits and value do CAM providers believe they are offering, compared to conventional medical services? What types of consumers do they target and how do they go about it? What insights can they provide about these consumers? Exploratory expert interviews with prominent CAM providers in a mid-sized East Coast U.S. city offer preliminary answers to these questions, along with implications to consumer well-being and future marketing research in the area.

ABSTRACT. The uncertainty of outcomes with respect to the uncertain inputs is usually explored in sensitivity analysis. In particular, we address in this work the sensitivity assessment in artificial neural networks (ANNs) in terms of the investigation of black box models. ANNs have already proven their high predictive ability in various research domains. However, few studies have examined the explanatory potential of ANNs. This information reveals the relative importance of inputs, in other words, the relative influence of the input perturbation on the final output. This explanatory perspective comprises both the ability to estimate the ranked importance of input variables and additionally, the robustness against changes in ANNs’ structure, as proposed in this study. The second aspect is barely concerned in such explanatory research. Moreover, we compare different sensitivity criteria and exhibit their relationship. Furthermore, a new approach is introduced to analyze the sensitivity – the norm approach, which shows the best overall performance in the empirical tests. Those findings provide researchers a framework to select the appropriate method to conduct the sensitivity analysis in ANNs.

ABSTRACT. Extant research in the financial services and banking domains has produced little in the way of managerial tactics for executives who oversee credit unions. Even less literature can be found regarding credit union service organizations (CUSOs). We propose a theoretical model that explores the relationship between CUSO investment, deposits, and earnings as predictors of delinquency. We analyzed publicly available data from the National Credit Union Administration’s Credit Union and Corporate Call Report Data (n = 14,267). Although our model produced meager explanatory results for deposits (R2 = .009) and earnings (R2 = .012), our model explained nearly 75% of the variance observed in delinquency (R2 = .748). The empirically tested model supports three of five hypotheses that we proposed. CUSO investment is significantly associated with deposits (B = .097, t = 3.557) and earnings (B = .111, t = 2.074) but not delinquency. Deposits are significantly associated with delinquency (B = .922, t = 5.266). Earnings demonstrated no significant impact on delinquency. Credit union executives will be able to influence delinquency at their respective branches by focusing their attention on deposits and, to a lesser degree, on CUSO investment as a minor but still significant antecedent of deposits.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to seek some insight from the operationalizing of Self-Determination Theory by answering the research question, “Which SDT motivation types describe reasoning provided by expert panelists in a formal Delphi study for their constructive participation?” To this end, the study collected and analyzed qualitative e-mail responses from individuals with established expertise in the professional field of brand management who had recently contributed their time and attention to participating in another study as a Delphi study panelist. The responses reveal six emergent themes for self-reported motivation factors with varying frequencies of respondents citing each: Collegiality among peers (identified regulation), Contribution to Knowledge (integrated regulation), Advancing on knowledge, Appeal of Delphi technique, Consistency validation, Recognition of expertise (intrinsic motivation).

ABSTRACT. We argue that measurement in consumer research should extend its error-centric framework by considering uncertainty as an integral part of measurement. Adapting the uncertainty-centric framework of the physical sciences promises benefits including helping to address the replication crisis facing the social sciences.

ABSTRACT. Companies develop personalized websites with the aim of improving online customer experience and purchase intentions. However, personalization relies on data collection, which can lead customers to feel unaware and vulnerable about the way companies collect and use their data. In this context, companies expect that information transparency will reduce unawareness and vulnerability. Nevertheless, information transparency may negatively influence customer responses when companies collect data implicitly. Customers still feel concerned about this type of data collection despite the presence of signaling cues, which could indicate that the signal isn’t provided properly to customers. No prior studies have investigated in what cases signaling cues about implicit data collection may improve or worsen customer responses. Therefore, this research aims at investigating what characteristics of these signaling cues improve or worsen online customer experience and purchase intensions on personalized websites. Building on the signaling theory, a first experiment shows that personalized contents generate higher purchase intentions than non-personalized contents and that information transparency about implicit data collection and use may decrease purchase intentions. A second experiment further investigates the role of information transparency and shows that longer signaling messages generate less purchase intentions than shorter ones because they are perceived as less limpid.

ABSTRACT. The rise of social media has significantly changed the communication environment for businesses, heavily impacting consumer-brand relationships (Carlson et al. 2019) and consumers’ decision-making processes (Wang & Yu, 2017). Therefore, marketing needs to advert by developing new practices, such as influencer marketing. Influencer Marketing utilizes influential online opinion leaders to disseminate brand related user-generated content and shape audience attitudes through social networking sites (Lim, Cheah & Wong, 2017), is currently widely adopted by brands to effectively reach their target audiences (Evans et al., 2017). Despite many benefits of influencer marketing for brands, public policy concerns regarding the covert nature of paid brand endorsements that are masqueraded as unadulterated opinions have risen in the past years (Johnson, Potocki & Veldhuis, 2019). Recent guidelines and (self-)regulatory initiatives (e.g., ASA, 2018; FTC, 2017; IAB, 2016) prescribe the disclosure of any commercial relationship between the influencer and the brand in their social media posts. Using automated text analysis on audio-visual branded content, this study finds evidence that sponsorship disclosure and medium complexity influence consumers’ responses.

ABSTRACT. On social media, many users generate content and share opinions on brands. Some have managed to develop a strong influence on their followers and become “social media influencers” (SMI). They differ from traditional endorsers thanks to the special relationship they develop with their followers. This relationship is related to the concept of Parasocial Interaction (PSI). PSI refers to an illusion of friendship, particularly present among SMI due to their openness and interactivity. It has also been proposed that motivations for making recommendations were another essential factor explaining consumers response to SMI’s recommendations We contribute to a better understanding of the persuasion process induced by PSI and perceived motivations. First, this papers studies followers’ responses to different levels of PSI. Second, it analyses the mediating role of followers’ attributions of SMIs perceived motivations. An experiment provides evidence of the positive impact of PSI on attitude towards SMI and purchase intentions for the recommended product. Results reveal altruistic perceived motivations positively mediate the relation between PSI and positive attitude towards the SMI and purchase intentions for the recommended product. Above theoretical contributions, evidence from this research offer companies and SMI implications for inferring level of influence, showing the relevant impact of PSI.

ABSTRACT. AI-based voice assistants (VAs) are Internet-enabled devices which provide daily technical, administrative and social assistance to their users, including providing weather forecasts, reading news, playing music, and ordering products from online stores. Despite the increasing adoption’s rate of such AI-based technologies, yet very few research have explored the factors that influence the usage of VAs in daily life, and yet the factors affecting users’ trust with VAs interactions remain unexplored. Focusing on voice interactions, this research integrates the Human-Computer Interaction literature on the functional and hedonic attributes of the system and the Para-Social Relationship Theory approach (PSR) to gain a clearer understanding on the VAs' attributes that affect perceived users’ trust. Further, it examines the moderating role played by users' perceived privacy risk. Preliminary results from a pilot-based study show how social-emotional elements, functional elements and hedonic elements influence users' trust and usage.

ABSTRACT. Sales organizations are constantly developing ways to effectively deliver value offerings to B2B customers and to attract these customers closer to the firm. In accord, such organizations often focus on the salesforce and are in constant need to understand how they can leverage the salesforce in these pursuits. Further, modern workforce relays high value to workplace spirituality. Workplace spirituality is even more relevant in sales organizations because of inherent high levels of stress and workload. The results from a unique dyadic dataset of 162 B2B salesperson-customer matched responses show that workplace spirituality positively enhances salespersons’ diligence and customer engagement and these relationships are strengthened when salespeople perform under high innovation climate than under low innovation climate.

ABSTRACT. The effects of digital proliferation and the social comparisons it drives are prevalent in consumer settings. However, similar topics have not been studied in sales settings where “social sales management” practices that employ digital media (e.g., Salesforce’s Chatter, Slack, or GroupMe) to drive competitive comparisons are becoming increasingly common. A recognized outcome of social comparison- envy- has been the subject of growing interest in management and psychology, yet has received scant attention in the sales and marketing literature. Our research addresses this gap by conducting a qualitative study with sales professionals. Findings reveal that both healthy and unhealthy envy exist in sales contexts. Further, envy has differing effects on sales outcomes based on the type of envy. Lastly, findings suggest that managers play in important role in compounding the drivers of envy, while salespeople actions can impact the influence of envy on job outcomes. Our research offers profound implications for both scholars and managers.

ABSTRACT. The sales manager sets the tone for the salesforce operations. An intellectually stimulating sales manager can create a ripple effect of innovation down the line of salespeople in an organization. Salespeople then interact with individual customers to drive revenues by identifying and finding solutions to customer needs. To successfully execute this role, salespeople must acquire information external to the firm, including market trends, changing customer tastes, preferences, and customer perception of competition. Salespeople then use this knowledge and work with other units within their firm to develop innovative solutions for individual customers. The motivation received from intellectually stimulating sales managers, and external knowledge salespeople acquire in conjunction with the network position they hold within their firm, suggest the salesforce may have great value in facilitating firm innovation. In this paper, the concept of sales manager intellectual stimulation and sales-firm collaborative integration are introduced and proposed to drive firm innovation and, ultimately, performance. Survey data were collected from a cross-industry sample (n=264) of companies. Results support the notion that sales manager intellectual stimulation leads to firm innovation, which, in turn, enhances firm performance. However, intellectual stimulation is needed through the whole sales process to prevent the “dark sides” of over-innovative firms.

ABSTRACT. We study how salesforce control systems influence the adoption of new products by salespeople and, consequently, how they impact the success of salespeople in selling the new products. Our findings show that job resources provided by the firm (i.e., supervisor support, new product training, and selling resources) will facilitate the adoption of new products by salespeople. However, the positive impact of supervisor support on a salesperson’s new product adoption will dilute if sales managers apply a knowledge-based sales control system.we conclude that knowledge-based control is more effective in the early stages of the new product launch when salespeople are being introduced to and trained about the new product. Our findings show that output-based control and behavior-based control are both effective tools in turning a salesperson’s new product adoption to salesperson’s new product sales performance.

ABSTRACT. Information on attitudes, purchase intentions and other relevant marketing variables is often collected through surveys with items that can be questions or statements. The current paper shows that items in a statement format yield lower agreement compared to items in a question format because statements are processed more skeptically. Skepticism increases the threshold to agree, which in turn results in fewer affirmative responses. The findings are relevant as the lower mean scores with statements also impact subsequent decision making (i.e., lower willingness to pay, buying behavior, more negative reviews…).

ABSTRACT. Customer experience (CX) has been impacted by the evolving nature of the customer/company relationship. The complexity of this relationship has increased along with the growing number of touchpoints where customer/company interactions can occur along the customer journey. As a consequence of this fragmentation, the degree of control that organizations have over the experience they offer has decreased in specific touchpoints, while in other cases, the touchpoint is now entirely controlled by the consumer. Touchpoints can be divided into internal and external factors. This study departs from the traditional CX models where POM and PTP are typically treated as separate antecedents of CX and examines if POM can moderate the relation between PTP and CX. Besides, since the type of consumption –utilitarian or hedonic- may generate different levels of CX, the moderating effect of this variable between POM and CX was examined. Our results show that POM has a significant effect on the relationship between PTP and CX providing a unique perspective to the role of POM that differs from the traditional manner in which it has been treated by the CX literature so far.

ABSTRACT. This study is carried out in Mexico with an objective to analyse empirically the role of education in a transforming services marketing strategies of the firms. The study is carried on in Mexico through pragmatic investigation among the consumers subscribing to the communication and entertainment services. The analysis of primary data is developed around the theory of action that demonstrates the skills and confidence of individuals or groups towards making decision in acquiring or hiring services to improve their quality of life. The results of the study reveal that knowledge acquired on the services and value perceived by the consumers play key role in determining the intentions to purchases services. This study meticulously rows several arguments on how consumers with high level of education scrutinize the benefits offered by the firms marketing their communication and entertainment services, and build their value propositions on the services bought or contracted.

ABSTRACT. Given the assumption that brands also have personalities, consumers are likely to choose brands with personalities that match their own. In this case, the focus was on the automotive brand Volkswagen. In a representative study, potential consumers (n=800) from four different countries (Germany, Austria, UK, USA) were questioned about brand personality, self-congruity, buying intention, culture and personality. With the support of cultural dimensions according to Hofstede (1980, 2011) and the NEO-FFI according to Costa and McCrae (1992), culture and personality profiles were measured. The main objective of the study was to investigate relationships among brand personality, self-congruity and the automotive buying intention. Brand self-congruity was tested as a mediator of the relationship between brand personality and the car purchase intention. It was further analyzed whether culture and personality had moderating effects. The findings suggest that self-congruity should be seen as a differentiator in the context of automotive marketing because (almost) every considered brand personality brings a complete mediation. Furthermore, the study shows some significant moderation effects of culture and personality. In addition, a post-hoc analysis yielded detailed insights into how culture influences the relationships between brand personality, brand self-congruity and consumer behavior.

ABSTRACT. El objetivo de la investigación es analizar aquellas variables que influyen en la intención de compra de la maca y lúcuma del Perú. En particular, se analizó la asociación de las siguientes variables: imagen país Perú, familiaridad país Perú, imagen producto maca, imagen producto lúcuma, familiaridad producto maca y familiaridad producto lúcuma, con la intención de compra de la maca y lúcuma del Perú, correspondientemente. Se encuestó a dos muestras en dos países cuyos consumidores poseen diferentes niveles de familiaridad con el Perú, siendo estos Francia y Estados Unidos. Los resultados indican que las variables analizadas pueden fomentar la intención de compra de los productos estudiados dependiendo del nivel de familiaridad que posee el consumidor con el Perú. Asimismo, una de las principales implicaciones gerenciales es que tanto los exportadores de maca del Perú y lúcuma del Perú pueden utilizar la imagen país Perú para promocionar beneficiosamente dichos productos, de manera que fomente su intención de compra, respectivamente. La originalidad del estudio se basa en el estudio de la intención de productos agrícolas procedentes de un país en vías de desarrollo como el Perú, así como el estudio de la variable familiaridad producto, la cual ha sido poco investigada.

ABSTRACT. Esta investigación de corte cuantitativo tuvo como objetivo principal el analices del networking y el mercadeo colaborativo como estrategias organizacionales utilizadas por las pequeñas y medianas empresas para activar el desarrollo de la innovación dentro de la cadena de suministros. El marco de muestreo utilizado en esta investigación consiste en una muestra por conveniencia de 350 pequeñas y medianas empresas en Puerto Rico categorizadas por la Compañía de Comercio y Exportaciones de Puerto Rico (2014) como Pymes. La investigación utilizó como unidad de estudio un cuestionario de 54 preguntas utilizando una escala Likert de 5 elementos. Esta investigación tiene la intención de contribuir en la creación de una conciencia estratégica hacia el sector Pymes, para que estas pequeñas y medianas empresas logren reconocer la importancia de incluir procesos de networking y planes de mercadeo colaborativo dentro de sus estrategias organizacionales.

ABSTRACT. Este documento aborda la función de marketing desde la perspectiva de las Capacidades Dinámicas, específicamente los microfundamentos. Asimismo, se hace la comparación entre estos y la constelación de valor. Teece (1997), propuso como microfundamentos “Detectar”, “Aprovechar”, “Reconfigurar”, en este documento se muestra que son solo dos, es decir, “Detectar” y “Reconfigurar”. Se parte de la revisión de la literatura relacionada con el concepto de marketing y la evolución que se ha generado en los estudios que buscan explicar el quehacer de las organizaciones en su afán por encontrar métodos que incrementen la lealtad de sus clientes. En la discusión, apoyada en las Capacidades Dinámicas, se encuentra que “Detectar” se refiere a las oportunidades que brinda el mercado o eludir las amenazas presentes en el mismo. “Reconfigurar” es adecuar la base de activos en función de las oportunidades detectadas o de las amenazas percibidas. En cuanto a la constelación de valor es una estrategia que utiliza los actores del mercado a fin de aglutinarlos en torno a la búsqueda de soluciones a sus necesidades, lo cual los convierte en co-creadores de valor, es decir, se integran como parte de la organización, haciendo más eficientes y menos costosos los procesos de intercambio.

ABSTRACT. Este estudio recomienda mejorar el diseño de encuestas relacionadas con la efectividad en la calidad de la información que proviene de la analítica de datos; dado que se prevé que existe sesgo común en la literatura donde el entrevistado no es el usuario final de la información. Los datos utilizados para esta investigación provienen de 91 empresas de España, lo que equivale a 182 casos; en cada empresa se encuestó a un par de directivos (tecnologías de información y de marketing); el análisis permitió encontrar diferencias estadísticas significativas entre los grupos analizados. Logramos detectar sobrevalorizaciones en uno de los grupos encuestados, como también ausencia de correlación entre los ítems equivalentes de cada grupo. Se determinó que ambos grupos perciben la calidad de la información en forma distinta. Los resultados de este estudio revelan la existencia de sesgo común en encuestas que utilizan informantes distintos al usuario final de la información, y se logra identificar que los grupos no entienden lo mismo por calidad de información. Finalmente, se proponen medidas en el diseño del instrumento, acciones en el alineamiento estratégico, y se pone en valor la cultura de marketing de la organización.

ABSTRACT. Animosity is an important factor in understanding consumers’ buying decisions as well as brand preference and discrimination (Russell and Russell, 2010). Consumer animosity has been shown to create brand animosity as consumers’ negative feelings culminated in brand discrimination and boycotts (Leong et. al., 2008). Animosity was originally proposed as an international marketing concept; however, it has been recently extended to help explain product choice in an intra-country context (Little et al. 2014). In the current literature intra-country animosity is largely viewed as an extension of international animosity and little theoretical support is provided for consumer animosity within one country (Shimp et al. 2004).

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, drawing on the social identity theory (Tajfel 1981; Hornsey 2008) this paper seeks to offer the theoretical backing for intra-country animosity as a distinct concept that has significant differences compared to its inter-country counterpart. Second, by bridging the gap between consumer animosity theory, anti-consumption literature, brand management research, and relevant in-group/out-group psychological research, this paper provides a more holistic view of consumer animosity. Finally, this paper opens a lucrative area for future research to help further establish and refine the concept of intra-country consumer animosity.

ABSTRACT. In the branding literature, there is a growing stream of research that explores brand hate, an affect-laden response to negative brand engagements. Much of the brand hate literature is in the context of corporate brands, yet little research exists that examines brand hate in the context of human brands. Increasingly, firms turn to human brands to foster consumer-brand relationships due to their ability to form closer relational bonds and communicate greater cultural relevance than corporate brands. However, research suggests that negative reactions to violations from human brands is also stronger than with corporate brands. Given this potential for greater consumer backlash, it is important to understand the differences in how brand hate is manifested toward corporate and human brands. To study this phenomenon, a qualitative-based critical incident technique (CIT) survey was administered, yielding 124 usable responses for corporate brands and 86 usable responses for human brands. Results find support for an exit-voice-retaliation response model to brand hate with respondents to the human brand survey more willing to voice their hate while corporate brands were more likely to quietly exit the relationship. Authors present a conceptual model based on these findings and discuss future research and implications for theory and practice.

ABSTRACT. The emergence of hate in a consumption context stems from the mistrust of marketing in general. Indeed, brand hate is a form of response to the faulty management practices of certain brands (Zarantonello et al., 2016), and a way of resistance to global brands and multinational corporations. Consequently, consumer-brand relationships researchers are manifesting an increased interest in investigating the concept of brand hate. In line with this research mainstream, this paper aims to further discern the mechanism of brand hate by studying the trajectories of brand hate across generations. More specifically, we test a model integrating brand hate antecedents and consequences and investigate the moderating role of consumer narcissism on the relationships between brand hate and its consequences. Furthermore, we determine the similarities and differences in brand hate activation and regulation processes between generation Y and generation Z.

ABSTRACT. Brand polarization, an affective phenomenon that involves simultaneous and extreme positive and negative emotions, is not clearly operationalised and there is no identification of its dimensionality. Following a multi-stage procedure, this study offers a novel conceptualisation and operationalisation of brand polarization as a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional construct. Results indicate that the developed brand polarization scale seems a reliable and valid instrument. The study enhances the knowledge of the brand polarization phenomenon, helping managers to understand antecedents and outcomes of the way polarizing brands are perceived.

ABSTRACT. In the globalised world, both global and local brands are available in emerging markets. Consumers are left with the choice of purchasing from global or local brands. In turn, these brands compete with each other. Recently South Africa, an emerging market, has seen an influx of global retail brands (e.g. H&M) taking over a substantial share of the local market. While global retail brands enter emerging markets for growth, they do so at the cost of the local brands. This quantitative study compares consumer perceptions of global brand (H&M) versus a local retail brand (Mr Price) in the South African emerging market. Signaling theory and Lee et. al's (2008) brand analysis model are applied.

ABSTRACT. Over the past few decades, there has been a growth in entrepreneurs moving to other countries to start up new businesses. Approximately 60% of the workers moving to other countries (the globally mobile workforce) is currently made up of entrepreneurs, and this segment has been growing. In fact, 1-2% of American entrepreneurs are leaving the country to startup, and the rate of entrepreneur expatriation is growing (Brewster, 2016). Recent government statistics data in Germany reveals that over 36,000 American entrepreneurs are currently active in Germany. This study is an abductive analysis that provides early indicators as to how and why American entrepreneurs attempt to start-up in Germany. Why is Germany trying to attract American startups, and can those efforts affect socio-cultural change in those countries? The analysis concludes that American expatriate entrepreneurs have different motivations in startup than domestic American entrepreneurs. Also, the study finds that larger German business is taking the lead over government in helping expedite import of expatpreneurs to assist in disruptive change through entrepreneurial marketing.

ABSTRACT. A consumer in the US is just as likely to buy a product from China or India as a consumer from India or China is to buy a product from the US. Because of these global sales, firms must consider how to communicate with their international consumers. In order to design the best advertisement for those targeted international consumer groups, marketers may need to adapt the types of models used in the ads, such as using models from the targeted country’s predominant ethnic group. However, firms may do well to use ethnic models from their home county’s ethnic group in order to show “fit” between the country of origin (COO) of the brand and the advertisement, such as using Indian models in advertisements for Indian brands. We question how firms should design advertisements using ethnic models when entering counties with different predominant ethnic groups. The purpose of the study is to determine whether firms should fit the model used in advertisements with the targeted ethnic group or instead create congruence by fitting the model with the country of origin predominant ethnic group.

ABSTRACT. Globally, brand love is a widely analyzed concept that recently attracts attention of many branding scholars. Previous research has focused on the antecedents, outcomes, and dimensions of brand love. Findings of these studies are scattered, and there is still much to learn about brand love. One topic that is yet to be explored is how self-identified brand lovers talk about their love for brands; and to explore whether there is a difference between the love for services brands as opposed to the love for physical product brands. With the significant research on the outcomes of brand love, there is still more room to research how consumers declare and talk about their brand love on social media. Managers of global brands should have an understanding of how brand ambassadors communicate and express brand love in order to patriciate in the conversations. This is necessary to effectively communicate and control the online narrative with brand ambassadors. Therefore, this study focuses on understanding what brand love means for consumers of services and physical products, by analyzing the visual and verbal posts of consumers about the brands that they say they love for both product categories.

ABSTRACT. Mindfulness research has received increased attention in the health care and education area, however it has not gained enough attention by marketing researchers. This paper aims to advance mindfulness intervention as a tool to improve consumer satisfaction and positive word of mouth during waiting time in a service context. Three studies were realized to support the main model that waiting time satisfaction mediates the relationship between mindfulness and positive word of mouth. The findings of the three experiments that used different methodologies of mindfulness interventions supported the proposed model showing that mindfulness improves consumer’s waiting time satisfaction and mediates the relationship between waiting time and willingness to spread positive word of mouth. Further research is needed to apply the model in a real world context.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research is to fill the gap involved with consumer purchasing intentions and the impact of a consumer's stress levels with the use of menu labeling. With the increasing requirement of menu labeling in restaurants, this research will not only test the productivity of menu labels but it will also test if a consumer's stress plays a role in this impact. Individuals are often stressed in their every-day lives, but how does this stress level change the way one purchases food items is yet to be studied. This research provides important insights as of today with increasing stress levels and use of social media, thus helping restaurant businesses to sell healthier and better to such individuals. Not only their buying behaviors with menu labeling, but also in what they gravitate towards has been studied. This information will allow companies to improve on their advertising.

ABSTRACT. Customer participation (CP) is a major research area in services marketing. The focus remains on outcomes of CP mainly in want-based services. The existing literature is limited to answer what is meaning of CP in need-based services like health care? how CP itself is being affected? and what is role of psychological forces on CP. The mix method research is used to answer these questions. 75 semi structured interviews were conducted with doctors, patients and paramedics to conceptualize patient participation and patient education as major constructs besides identifying certain psychological factors in building a conceptual model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the model by analyzing survey data of 690 patients of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Findings show that patient education has a significant positive impact on participation, patient perceived control and satisfaction. Conceptual fluency mediates relationship between patient education and participation. Doctor’s psychological considerations strengthen positive relationship between patient education and conceptual fluency. The study concludes with research directions and policy implications for professionals.

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