ABSTRACT. This paper contributes to current knowledge on the link between sales leadership and its outcomes by testing a theoretical framework of the intervening mechanism by which salespeople are likely to be influenced by sales manager’s ethical leadership. Specifically, drawing from emerging research on the construct of “worthiness of being followed,” the framework proposes that sales managers’ ethical leadership induces salespeople’s behavior, when salespeople perceive that their managers are worthy of being emulated. In addition, the framework demonstrates that ethical leadership enhances salespeople’s perceptions of their manager’s charisma as well as salespeople’s attribution of performance to their managers, which in turn, enhance a manager’s worthiness of being followed. Two aspects of the ethical climate prevailing in the organization – ethical responsibility and peers’ unethical behavior – are included as control variables. Based on the findings from the analysis of data from 290 business-to-business salespeople, implications are offered for theory and practice.

ABSTRACT. We use CEO biographies to identify CEOs with career backgrounds in sales or marketing. Motivated by the Upper Echelons framework and recent findings in corporate finance, we hypothesize and find that Sales CEOs exhibit superior outcomes relative to their non-Sales peers on sales and marketing metrics. From an operations perspective, we find that Sales CEOs are associated with larger market share in their industry. When Sales CEOs are hired at a firm, during their first year of tenure we observe an increase in market share and an increase in advertising expense to sales conversion at the hiring firm. Sales CEOs impact sales growth and valuation outcomes for their firm when their industry experiences a negative demand shock. During an industry sales crash, a Sales CEO-led firm experiences a smaller decrease in sales and better market valuations through the crash. We find that Sales CEOs have compensation that more heavily weights the performance of the firm. We examine how Sales CEOs manage investor perceptions of the firm. Their superior communication ability allows them to increase the number and magnitude of institutional investors, while others lose institutional investors, and to be likely to meet or beat analysts’ earnings expectations.

ABSTRACT. The United States is increasingly more diverse with regard to ethnic and religious background, as well as the percent of women in the workplace. Further, the unemployment rate in the U.S. has been consistently declining for nearly eight years. Despite the reduced unemployment rate overall, the employment of minority candidates does not match that of white males. Why? This study investigates whether gender, ethnic or religious bias exists in the hiring process when evaluating professional sales job candidates. Using an experimental design, we created resumes with identical skill sets and achievements, but a manipulation of sex and race/religious affiliation. An online survey provided the resumes in a between-subjects design, with each resume assessed on multiple dimensions.

ABSTRACT. Although the research on green marketing and advertising is growing, scant cross-national research has devoted much attention to examining millennials’ perceptions of green products. This study aims to examine the influence of attitudes toward green products, social influence, and perceived behavioral control on environmentally-oriented millennials’ behavioral intentions to purchase green products in a cross-cultural context. In this study, American (individualist) and South Korean (collectivist) consumers are selected for comparison because of their distinctive cultural differences in consumption values as well as their perceptions of green marketing practices. This study employs the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as the theoretical underpinning. The results explain that both attitude and social influence are important predictors of intention. Young consumers are more likely to be influenced by peer beliefs (external factors) before they purchase green products. The weak relationship between perceived behavioral control and intention suggests that both American and Korean millennials have complete volitional control of their green consumption.To the environmentally-oriented millennials, consuming green products is already part of their daily routine that they do not see any significant barriers to find and purchase these types of products.

ABSTRACT. Knowledge about pro-environmental initiatives is necessary, but insufficient for bringing about enduring change. Consumers need to accept responsibility and recognize when they can empower themselves to prevent environmental degradation. Building upon the concept of Internal Environmental Locus-Of-Control (INELOC)—a person’s belief in their responsibility for and ability to affect environmental outcomes—and its relationship to the performance of various pro-environmental behavior (PEBs), we examine the intervening role of subjective enabling and constraining factors. With two studies, we first examine the construct validity of our measures, and then test our theoretical framework. Consumers with higher levels of INELOC are more (less) apt to perceive enabling (constraining) factors. The effects of pro-environmental INELOC dispositions on behavior are partially mediated by situational constraints and enablers. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and avenues for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. This special session presents research which explores emerging themes around consumers and their interaction with automated technologies. Automated technology is fundamentally different to other technologies because consumers must delegate control over a behavior to a machine. This delegation presents a range of new benefits to consumers but also comes with its risks. Technologies such as autonomous vehicles, robotics and smart products have advanced significantly with developments in computing and have become more ubiquitous in everyday life; a trend that is set to continue rapidly. As such there is a need to understand how consumers interact with these technologies and the challenges and opportunities these interactions present to consumers, marketers and policy makers. How do such technologies influence consumer wellbeing? What benefits and risks do consumers perceive? How do consumers treat machines? How do segments differ in their evaluations of these technologies? The special session involves a range of presentations on various automated technologies to explore these issues, and others, using qualitative and quantitative methods. After the presentations the panel will convene a discussion around the challenges and opportunities highlighted in the session.

ABSTRACT. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), the present value of the stream of profits accruing to a firm over the whole period of its relationship with customer, has gained importance in marketing science and business practice. CLV contains the idea of differentiating customers according profitability enabling the firm management to choose the most appropriate marketing strategy for each individual customer. Customer retention rate, the probability that customer will continue its relation with a firm in the next period, is a key driver of CLV. Maintaining a good relationship with a customer allows firms to increase a customer retention rate; however it comes at cost. The CLV concept allows determining an optimal level of such retention expenditures. We study analytically an impact of a shape of the retention response curve on a solution of the maximization. We demonstrate that under reasonable assumptions customers with higher per-period gross profit margin may generate lower net profit margin due to the high level of optimal retention expenditures. We provide rational arguments why such “paradoxical” results may have a place and discuss challenges for implementation of the CLV concepts (and, in general, forward looking metrics) in real business.

ABSTRACT. This research introduces the concept of the Customer Compromise and proposes a new metric, the ComproScore, to assess customer satisfaction, buying process, and loyalty. We make and test a new theoretical proposition which states that the Customer Compromise explains customer loyalty and share of wallet when controlling for swithing costs, in a more comprehensive way than the traditional disconfirmation theory of customer satisfaction. Specifically, we argue that customers do not soley experience satisfaction toward a product, rather they experience satisfaction toward a compromise; yet the product is part of the compromise. Accordingly, we suggest that a customer buying process is affected by the Customer Compromise, and that loyalty derives from such a compromise rather than from satisfaction toward the product. We measure the Customer Compromise by developing a four-factor scale—The ComproScore—we pre-tested on a sample of 187 business customers. Subsequently, we assess the Customer Compromise nomological validity with a second study conducted through a multi-source, two-time period data collection process from 589 business customers. Results reveal good psychometric properties of the ComproScore, as well as its complementary explanatory power in regard to the customer satisfaction and loyalty concepts (e.g., net promoter score). Theoretical and managerial implications are derived from such interesting new findings which bring new pespectives on customer satisfaction, buying process, and loyalty measurement and management.

ABSTRACT. Loyalty programs (LPs) are considered as shams in the sense that they produce liabilities rather than assets. They can foster customers’ short-term loyalty to the program instead of developing long-term company loyalty. This research proposes that some behavioural patterns, based on LP members’ speed of earning loyalty points and redemption rate, will have an impact on the gap between program loyalty and company loyalty. While a high speed of earning (combined with low redemption) or a high redemption rate (combined with a low speed of earning) will reduce this gap, a high speed of earning combined with a high redemption rate will increase this gap. Our research adds to a richer understanding of the effects of customers’ behaviours on different types of attitudes (program loyalty and company loyalty).

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relative influences of the two types of point management strategy, namely the point expiration and point maintenance strategies, in the context of status demotion. We postulate that in managing a customer’s accrued reward points, the point expiration strategy, as opposed to the point maintenance strategy, significantly reduces customer’s perceived unfairness, firm avoidance, and patronage reduction. In examining these relationships, we also take customer’s individual characteristics into consideration. The level of self-interest and need to vent are examined as moderating variables in the relationships between the point management strategy and firm avoidance, and between the point management strategy and patronage reduction, through perceived unfairness. The current study employs a scenario-based experiment in the airline industry. This study will provide insights into how service organizations can better design status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs to aid managerial decision making.

ABSTRACT. We look at the current advertising and branding environment in Cuba. Drawing on the most recent academic and non-academic information, coupled with information gathered by the authors in three research studies conducted in Cuba in 2008, 2016, and 2017, we look at the difficult task ahead for Cuba's national brands as the market opens up to the US branding machine. Specifically, the Cuban desire for NEW and MODERN brands versus the US citizens' desire to experience nostalgia through "time warp" oriented branding styles.

ABSTRACT. Because highly skilled workers greatly improve the economic development of cities, they compete for this important target group. As a consequence, city brand managers face the challenge to identify factors that influence highly skilled workers’ decision for place of residence. Brand attitudes represent a strong predictor of consumer behavior and are mainly determined by brand benefits. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of city brand benefits (cost efficiency, job chances, social life, recreation, self–brand connection) on highly skilled, potential residents’ attitudes toward a city brand. This is the first study that identifies relevant and irrelevant city brand benefits for highly skilled, potential residents using an adequate method (structural equation modeling). Conducting an online survey, 354 evaluations of the six largest German cities obtained from 294 highly skilled, potential residents were collected. The results show that social life emerges as the most important city brand benefit. Self–brand connection also positively affects city brand attitudes. In contrast, the benefits cost efficiency, job chances, and recreation do not affect these attitudes. Based on these results, implications for city brand managers and researchers are derived.

ABSTRACT. City branding has become a widespread phenomenon throughout the world.The first step in a branding city campaign is the determination of its image.The majority of empirical studies of city image tested the overall city image among various stakeholders. However, much less attention was given in the literature to the role neighborhoods play in defining residents overall city image, resulting in their loyalty to the city. Therefore, the current study set as its goal the examination of the role of the neighborhood in the creation of city image. A survey was distributed to 150 residents of the city of Haifa, the third largest city in Israel. The results suggest that place involvement at the city scale enhances attachment to the neighborhood, which in turn improves the image of the neighborhood, leading to loyalty towards the neighborhood. Neighborhood loyalty is a predictor of city loyalty. Following preliminary results, it is suggested that municipalities and place marketers should take into account the neighborhood scale when planning a city branding campaign.

ABSTRACT. In this session, some key findings of the PrimeFish project will be presented. The research of PrimeFish aims to improve the competitiveness and economic performance of seafood companies by developing a market oriented prediction toolbox. This toolbox includes devices for a price development, supply chain relations, successful product innovation, success and failure stories, the growth risk and the competitive position analysers. Taking into account the importance of the European Union as the fifth largest producer of seafood in the world, the presentations of this session will focus on the analysis of the European consumers and companies’ capacity to fulfil their demands. Its work has been developed in some of the most relevant markets for seafood in Europe (Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany), highlighting the characteristics of the consumers, the drivers behind their choices, the willingness to pay for certain products and even the way to satisfy their demands with new seafood products. The presented studies will support the performance of companies, decision makers and, therefore, the economic sustainability of the market, helping firms in developing the preferred choice of the buyers and the eventual paths to spot the ever evolving consumer patterns.

ABSTRACT. Advertising represents a world that is constructed through the social processes. One of the main concerns of consumer research is to examine the production of advertising in order to understand socially accepted meanings and the designs, codes and symbols used to produce those meanings. Advertising depends on the property of memory which creates “nostalgia” through cultural symbols, icons, images triggering consumers’ intention to purchase. This research focuses on the motherhood as a construct and its production in mass media advertising context. While the research acknowledges different female roles explored in literature, it argues that less attention was given to the female as a mother icon and meanings hidden behind the production of those constructs in advertising. Mass media has a long history of promoting mother archetype. The suggested archetype has predominantly been linked with the ‘good mothering’ practice proposed over decades. The aim of this study is to understand the iconography of motherhood in contemporary magazine advertising, to what extend it presents multiple archetypal dispositions and how it impacts the consumption behaviour of mothers. This study attempts to analyse the images of motherhood by applying multimethod approach and to interpret the impact of visual consumption on consumption choices of mothers.

ABSTRACT. In response to Indian women consumer trend towards tattooing, brands are increasingly investing in introducing novel products and services to cater these needs of women; thus the authors consider the individual-level motives of women towards these endeavors. We propose that women anticipate a loss of psychological ownership (PO) of self with a transformational relationship event of marriage. To renegotiate their sense of self women seek compensatory consumption. Data were collected through in-depth interviews of married women and analyzed by a constant comparative method. The study along with a priori themes, identifies tattooing as a symbolic self-completion behavior to compensate the perceived loss of self-psychological ownership. Our research is expected to contribute to the theory of PO, possessions and identity aspects of consumer research in two ways. One, by shifting the foci of PO towards self. Second, loss of self-PO as an explanation for the compensatory consumption. Furthermore, we appeal to the practitioners to be aware of these anticipations of consumers, thereby innovate not to just enhance the customer engagement and lifetime value but also to cater to their efforts of self-identity reconstruction.

ABSTRACT. Designing supplemental retirement plans that encourage participants to save is critical to having a robust retirement system in the U.S. economy. In this paper, we combine insights from the marketing and finance literature to evaluate alternative methods of marketing and communicating supplemental retirement savings. We partner with the Oregon Savings Growth Plan (OSGP), which is a 457 plan available to Oregon’s public employees, and conduct laboratory and field studies to increase participation of prospective OSGP members. We conduct three experiments to explore the influence of message framing and perceived similarity (in terms of ethnicity, age, and gender) between the message sender and receiver on the likelihood that prospective members will sign up for supplemental savings. We find that descriptive messages, which describe how others behave, such as, “People who save at least $X can expect to retire with the same income they have now,” lead to more interest in enrolling in supplemental savings than injunctive messages, which describe how others should behave. We also find that when the message provider/peer is similar in gender to the message recipient, the impact of the descriptive message on enrollment is enhanced, while ethnic similarity does not impact the desire to increase supplemental savings.

ABSTRACT. Gender is a central part of self-concept. The concept of gender has evolved from biological sex (male and female) to gender identity that examines gender from multiple aspects, including biological sex, psychological gender, and sociological gender role. And recent studies further suggested gender identity is a changing concept, and it needs to be studied under different context and with dynamic groups. The current study reviews the historical development of gender identity concept and its impact on consumer behavior, and presents that gender identity has more impact on consumer behavior as it becomes increasingly explicit over the past 50 years. Through the review, the study also points to the future development of gender identity and its potential influence on consumer perceptions, cultures, and social marketing.

ABSTRACT. Emotional aspects of marketing have not received adequate consideration in academic research. One reason is that existing paradigms have focused primarily on behavior and cognition. The second reason is that we have thought of cognition and emotion as generally mutually exclusive. A third reason are constraints imposed by the methods we use. Fortunately, we have a new arsenal of methods including physiological “neuromarketing” measures of attention and involvement including brain waves such as EEG, eye tracking, and fMRIs that can be used in conjunction with cognitive measures to probe these questions. It is time to break free of traditional behaviorist models that either focus entirely on cognition or generally ignore emotion. We propose that to understand the consumer experience we need to understand that decision making is based on both cognition and emotion and we review how some physiological measures can be used to measure emotional response.

ABSTRACT. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has gained increasing attention in a variety of research disciplines, including hospitality management. One of the most important reasons for using PLS-SEM is its ability to estimate formatively specified measurement models. Their validation requires running a redundancy analysis, which tests whether the formatively measured construct is highly correlated with an alternative measure of the same construct. Researchers can opt for a global single item, or a reflectively measured multi-item, construct, as the criterion variable when running such an analysis. This paper examines the conditions favoring the use of each measure type when running a redundancy analysis. Our results illustrate that a convergent validity assessment of formatively measured constructs can be implemented without triggering a pronounced increase in survey length. Thereby, we provide an important guidance for marketing researchers when designing their studies and assessing the convergent validity of formatively measured constructs in PLS-SEM.

ABSTRACT. Up to the present day, there is a multitude of research concentrating on the contextual influences on consumer decision-making, especially focusing on the two most prominent ones: the Attraction and the Compromise effect. These effects provide conclusive evidence that specific choice set compositions may exert a fundamental influence on consumer decision making and, thus, question the effectiveness of choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis, which is grounded on the assumption of stable preferences. For this reason, researchers started to open up possibilities to integrate contextual influences in the CBC’s preference parameters’ modeling procedure in order to ameliorate the data quality. However, to date, no study tested whether context effects such as the Attraction and the Compromise effect indeed arise in CBC studies threatening its results. The present research addresses this void and, thus, provides beneficial implications for scientists just as market research practitioners. Each of three conducted conjoint studies on stereo headphones, frozen pizzas and bathroom scales combines a classical CBC approach with choice tasks provoking well studied context effects. Our results show that although subjects evince significant context effects in forced-choice CBC, those effects are not identifiable when a no-choice option is provided.

ABSTRACT. Product innovation strategy and the successful introduction of new products can contribute greatly to the performance of contemporary businesses. Creativity and innovation are particularly important for firms that transcend national boundaries, operate in a highly turbulent international business environment, and face diverse and volatile market conditions across different countries and regions. Surprisingly, limited research attention has been devoted on the drivers of product innovation strategy and new product performance in the context of export ventures. In an effort to fill this notable gap in the literature, the present study investigates the export innovation process and assesses the extent to which the interplay between relevant organizational, managerial, and strategic factors facilitate the development of an effective export product innovation strategy, which in turn strengthens a firm’s new product performance in export markets. Our findings indicate that participative decision-making, support and collaboration, and learning and development have a significant positive effect on organizational valuing of creativity, which in turn enhances export manager creativity and export innovation capabilities. We also find support for a positive impact of export manager creative on product innovation strategy, which in turn enhances an exporting firm’s new product performance.

ABSTRACT. An investigation of the early automobile industry reveals patterns of competition and economic forces that may be found in other industries spawned by new to the world innovations. These same patterns are observed in the personal computer industry decades later. The paper includes a discussion of the influx of competitors, the shakeout, and development of an industry standard, as well as endogenous and exogenous factors that influenced competition. It includes propositions and suggestions for future research to look for these patterns in other emerging industries spawned by such innovations.

ABSTRACT. The study sought to assess how service firms’ customer engagement capability assists in enhancing value creation advantages by analyzing how the development of customer engagement capability helps service firms to create innovation advantages and enhance firm performance. The study further evaluated the moderation effect of competitive intensity on the relationship between customer engagement capability and firm performance. Data was collected from the service sectors of an emerging economy, Ghana. The analysis first confirmed the validity of the constructs through a confirmatory factor analysis before running robust standard error regressions. The results show that developing and deploying customer engagement capability at the firm level produce positive effects on both innovation intensity and firm performance. It was also found that competitive intensity has a moderation effect on the relationship between customer engagement capability and firm performance. Inasmuch as service firms must encourage customer engagement and participation in the value creation process, they must also be mindful of their capacity to meet the engagement requirements demanded by customers.

ABSTRACT. Innovation is one of the fundamental concerns of companies and countries due to changing economic and social conditions of the world. A considerable number of innovation models have been applied and utilized in many sectors. Initially, companies focused on creating and protecting innovative ideas behind their boundaries. However, collaboration and co-creation are considered crucial aspects of innovation in competition. Therefore open innovation paradigm has been emerged that foster private, public and third sectors to create new ideas and innovate together. Companies seize the opportunity of collaborating with their stakeholder to harvest innovative ideas in different environments (online platforms, brand communities, social media). Living labs are one of the platforms to benefit user involvement in early stages of research and development process.

ABSTRACT. This research addresses new funding challenges in the British contemporary arts and crafts sector, including government funding cuts intertwined with a period of troubling political and economic developments. The UK has a strong culture of voluntary charitable donations, but this overarching public goodwill tends to be directed at essential welfare needs rather than the arts, particularly in areas outside London. Thus, the aim of this research is to explore regional, low-net-worth philanthropy and where contemporary arts and crafts organisations might sit in such a practice. This interpretive, qualitative study is framed by a practice theories lens, which affords alternative understandings of contextualised human action (Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 1997), such as philanthropy. Findings illustrate philanthropy performances, meanings and norms, and are structured around philanthropy as practice, where cause-based support is more normalised than supporting the arts. The research sheds new light on low-net-worth art philanthropy, including the ways in which the donation environment come into play in fostering certain types of philanthropic goals, meanings and actions and not others. While participants demonstrate engagement in diverse types of charitable giving, individual donations to the arts are still a challenge due to historical, political and normative factors.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, the effects of guilt on prosocial behaviors have been increasingly studied. Although charitable giving is often considered as a valid option to alleviate guilt, research has so far led to mixed results and our understanding of the variable remains limited. Then, although some studies have investigated the impact of guilt on generosity, no research has so far considered to what extent charitable donations help donors to reduce personal guilt. To address this gap, the goal of this paper is threefold. First, we identify the conditions under which guilt resulting from personal deeds drive people to donate. Then, we investigate to what extent past good deeds increase people’s propensity to adopt immoral behaviors and to be less generous. Finally, we consider the extent to which charitable donations help people to alleviate feelings of guilt. In a series of experiments manipulating guilt as originating from personal wrong deeds, we consider the moderating effect of personal variables to explain differences in generosity. This research contributes to both prosocial and charitable giving literature by investigating the role of individual specificities on the impact of guilt and by suggesting that guilt originating from personal deeds can also lead to generosity.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the relationship of market-oriented culture, internal marketing orientation, service climate and employees’ market-orientated behavior in the Food & Beverage industries in Taiwan, China and the United States. We employee the Hofstede’s national culture dimensions in 3 countries to see if the cultural dimensions will influence the relationships. This is one of few studies that bring together the related market orientation constructs within international culture dimensions.

ABSTRACT. This study presents an integrated conceptual framework that identifies how service companies can create customer value through a multichannel strategy. The authors synthesize extant knowledge to develop a framework that identifies the drivers, building blocks and moderating variables. Insights are drawn from the multichannel literature and combined with qualitative data from senior managers responsible for the development of the multichannel strategy for major players in the French insurance industry. The study arrives at the following conclusions. First, support and further clarification is provided for the drivers of multichannel strategy: company, customer, channel relationships and environment. Second, the building blocks of perceived customer value: customer effort, service quality multichannel integration quality and trust, are identified. Third, the relevance of the building blocks is found to vary according to the modifiers: complexity of the product and type of activity to be performed. Finally, the integral role of big data is acknowledged. This study responds to calls for strategic studies to explore how companies can address the challenges of the new multichannel environment.

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ABSTRACT. We live in an increasingly interconnected world where the power has shifted from organisations to individuals armed with smart phones and global access. Social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have become channels where individuals attempt to engage users by attracting followers, ‘likes’ and comments. A subgroup of users has emerged called micro-celebrities, characterized by their large number of devoted followers, which can range from several thousand, to hundreds of thousands. Micro-celebrities build strong and influential self-brands on social media by sharing photos and posts to engage with their followers. The strong online identity is built through promoting lifestyles, opinions and experiences congruent with their self-brand Micro-celebrities are effectively using advertising and marketing techniques (perhaps unknowingly) to successfully garner a substantial audience of followers. Given micro-celebrities’ digital influence through user-generated content on their social media profiles, the influence they yield on followers could potentially be used by organisations to endorse brands on social media, in a similar way to mainstream celebrities. Thus, this research seeks to understand how micro-celebrities may be used to endorse brands or products on social media through their user-generated content and examines the advertising and marketing techniques micro-celebrities use on Instagram to build their self-brand.

ABSTRACT. This article proposes that customers perceive an organization’s own market label by processing marketing positioning information, such as those found on websites. A market label is a metaphoric word or phrase that expresses an organization's identity and constructs relationships between the organization and other stakeholders. This paper examines whether the customer reviews and the sentiment within them corresponds to how an organization positions or presents itself in the marketplace. Specifically, we introduce the professional and amateur market labels and analyse the impact of the organization’s sales pitches.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, more brands have been interested in partnering with influencers over celebrities because of their expertise, relatability, and engagement potential with brands. Still unknown, though, is how best to use influencers to engage consumers. Therefore, in one experiment, this research demonstrates that user-generated social content leads to higher product liking and purchase intentions when the endorser is an influencer (vs. celebrity). Likewise, an influencer's message is more persuasive when user- (vs. marketer) created. The results provide several implications as well as direct future research.

ABSTRACT. Understanding how consumer ethical decision-making is formed and how ethical judgments and behaviors can be promoted are growing interest subjects in marketing research agenda. However, recent contributions claim for additional research focusing on developing more comprehensive theoretical platforms to improve the models’ explanatory and predictive capability. Thus, this research has two main objectives: first, measuring the influence of consumer emotions, moral intensity, moral philosophies, personal norms and intrinsic religiosity in consumer ethical decision-making process; and second, to assess the relative weight of each independent construct in consumer deliberation process involving ethical situations. Through a valid sample of 413 respondents and using three (3) different ethical scenarios, results show that emotions, moral intensity and personal norms positively influence consumer ethical decision-making process. Furthermore, emotions are the construct that most influence consumers’ ethical choices and actions, providing empirical evidence of their key role in predicting consumer ethics.

ABSTRACT. Ethical decision-making has received ongoing attention by marketers (Ferrell, Gresham and Fraedrich, 1989). Despite this, a clearer understanding of the factors at work in ethical judgements is necessary. A key element examined in this study is the degree to which worldview plays a role in the formation of ethical decisions. Worldviews reflect a set of beliefs about the nature of the world around us. Koltko-Rivera (2004) argued these frameworks exert a powerful effect on cognition and behavior, and have the potential to actively cue moral recognition (Jones, 1991) and shape judgements of an ethical issue’s acceptability. To answer whether worldviews influence moral recognition of ethical dilemmas the current study surveyed 1983 subjects, 520 of who were business professionals and 1463 participants were students. Respondents recorded how ethically acceptable 25 different business scenarios were and then completed classification questions that denoted whether their worldview operated as either an open or closed system. (Conroy and Emerson, 2004). Regression results found a small, significant, negative relationship between an open systems worldview and average level of ethical acceptability. Individuals with open systems were less likely to find certain business practices ethical. The implications of worldview distinctions for moral recognition of ethical dilemmas are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Present work provides support for the consideration of socially oriented anti-consumption (SOA) as particular manifestation of the wider phenomenon known as anti-consumption. Despite the potential of these behaviors and the existence of previous literature on different practices and lifestyles which can be considered part of SOA, it is still not clear what those phenomena are. The first step for developing the field is to define and delimit the concept of socially oriented anti-consumption. Once the term is established it will be easier to determine which behaviors can be part of socially oriented anti-consumption. The analysis of related pro-social literatures will allow uncovering how those practices have been studied in past literature. Present work also proposes research questions for advancing socially-oriented anti-consumption field. Since past work has only focused on antecedents of these kind of anti-consumption behaviors, it is necessary to shift attention to other elements of the socially-oriented anti-consumption framework.

ABSTRACT. Cheating is both a judgment and an act. Cheaters often recognize they are doing something wrong when they cheat, but they justify their acts as necessary, even good, for their purpose at hand. This multinational research on business student ethics, conducted at various universities in the American Continent and in Asia, probes decisions about cheating. Applying the theory of marketing ethics, a quasi-experimental design, and a sample of business students large enough to examine demographic and student-level differences, this research finds that business college students are fundamentally deontological (moral) in forming ethical judgments, but they are either deontological or teleological (consequential) when making decisions such as rewarding or punishing acts involving such ethical or unethical behavior as cheating or plagiarizing. Interestingly, a meaningful segment of all students chooses a purely teleological route when making decisions to cheat or plagiarize. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are drawn.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the collaboration between brands and high-end retailers to enter into the premium market focused. Since it may be important retail channels as a distribution of new products, the retailers may have a significant impact on the extended brand. Thus, this study aims to examine how a brand collaborating with a high-end retailer can successfully extend its products in a premium market. A total of 211 responses were collected from American consumers. The hypothesized model was tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that the perceived fit between a brand and retailer is significantly associated, and it is important to influence consumers’ evaluations of brand extensions. The findings of this study contribute to brand and retail management by supporting empirical evidence on how new products from extended brands can produce positive evaluations in the marketplace by collaborating with a retailer.

ABSTRACT. The on-going digital revolution spurs retailers to adopt digitalized enhancements in-store (Helbing, 2015; Catlin et al, 2015) which contribute to an improved customer experience and the integration of shopping channels (Rigby, 2011; Davis, 2014; Verhoef et al, 2015; Fujitsu, 2016). Fashion retailers in particular are increasingly adopting advanced technologies in their physical stores to enhance the in-store environment and shopping experience (Pantano, 2015). Moreover, consumer-facing in-store technologies (CFIT), such as digital signage and interactive screens, AR and VR, push communications, wi-fi provision, QR codes, i-beacons, magic mirrors and virtual fitting rooms etc. (Pantano, 2015; McCormick et al, 2014; Bonetti and Perry, 2017) are being implemented across the sector. However, while previous studies on consumer-facing technology adoption in fashion retailing have focused on the consumer as the end user of the technology (Olsson et al, 2013; Lee at al, 2012; Dacko, 2017), managerial perspectives surrounding the adoption, implementation and integration of consumer-facing in-store technology have been largely ignored. This study seeks to elucidate and critically evaluate the managerial processes involved in the adoption and implementation of CFIT within a fashion retailing context in order to propose ways in which contributions to retail operations and competitive strategy may be leveraged.

ABSTRACT. Many fashion brands employ growth strategies that involve collaborating with a retailer to offer exclusive partnership collections that vary in duration (ongoing vs. limited edition). Such opportunities for growth and publicity may be enticing, and pursuing them may change consumers’ evaluation of the brand. Utilizing commodity and categorization theory, three experimental studies test how a brand may successfully approach a retail collaboration. Specifically, this research tests the effect of collaboration duration (limited edition vs. ongoing) and degree of brand-retailer fit (high vs. low) on changes in consumers’ brand evaluations following a collaboration. Results reveal that consumers’ evaluations of brands become more favorable when: (a) brand-retailer collaborations make products available on a limited edition (vs. ongoing) basis (Study 1), (b) consumers perceive a high (vs. low) degree of brand-retailer fit (Study 2), and (c) both conditions are true (Study 3). Results from this study will be useful to assist brand managers to develop more effective brand-retailer collaboration strategies.

ABSTRACT. Do university social augmenters have brand equity? To answer this question, the study conceptualizes, develops, and empirically examines a model of university social augmenters brand equity (USABE).We define university social augmenter as any social platform offered by a university in which social interactions between students are facilitated such as volunteering, sporting and cultural activities, student models and clubs, students competitions and art exhibitions. Survey data from 401 undergraduate students enrolled in private universities in Egypt were used to empirically examine the proposed model. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings indicate that university social augmenters do have brand equity. More specifically, the results show that university social augmenters brand characteristics namely social augmenter reputation, coach-to-student interaction, student-to-student interaction have an influence on students’ satisfaction with social augmenter which in turn yields brand outcomes namely – brand identification, willingness to recommend and willingness to incur additional premium cost. The study provides implications for marketing professionals in higher education institutions (HEIs). University social augmenters are found to have strong brand equity manifestations and may hold potential to differentiate university brands in an industry dominated by experience and credence.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to develop an exclusively stakeholders based financial brand valuation. A semiotic model is used that distinguishes in brand three components: identity, object and response. It is noted that the financial valuation purpose,is to predict the influence of brand identiy signs - the protectable trademarks as property rights - on the economic benefits of their owners. These benefits depend on the response of the stakeholders generators of cash-ins and cash-outs. In order to separate the "trademark influence", stakeholders are confronted with the scenario of change to a trademark that is unknown to them, asking if this change alters their behavior towards the brand. The affective response is also evaluated to establish the "influence of risk" in realizing the future benefits. This approach makes it possible to transform a rigorous concept from a legal and financial point of view, but incomprehensible to the common stakeholder, in a scenario that he understands and can respond reliably. Grounding the brand's financial valuation in semiotics is relevant because it distinguishes the concerns of law, marketing and finance towards the same objective by framing them in common concerns of objectivity and intelligibility.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, Facebook and other social media have become key players in branding activities. However, empirical research on consumer–brand interactions on Facebook is still needed, in particular research on consumer motivations for engaging with brands on social media. One of the aims of this research is to address this gap and provide additional insights to brand managers on how to adapt their approaches to increase consumers’ interaction with brands on Facebook. Moreover, we intend to understand how brand gender influences consumer motivations to engage with brands on social media. Another aim of this research is to investigate how the two types of consumer-brand engagement on Facebook (consuming and contributing) influence consumer-based brand equity. Ultimately, we aim to study if biological sex has an influence on the motivations for consumers to engage with brands or on the relationship between consumer-brand engagement and consumer based brand equity. Our results should provide valuable and applicable insights for social media marketing activities, which will assist brand managers to develop strategies for effectively reaching and influencing the most desirable groups of consumers

ABSTRACT. In times of catastrophe, rapid responses must be made and assistance target marketed to those most in need and toward those least capable of helping themselves. This is because responders’ time and funds for relief and recovery, are never sufficient nor timely enough to simply respond ad hoc on a first come first call basis in manner that is economically efficient. Rapid Response Marketing (RRM) may require techniques not always used in traditional marketing.

ABSTRACT. Marketing is embracing new technological innovations to its benefits. This presentation will discuss the application of some of these techniques, machine learning, geospatial information analysis for marketing understanding and social media text mining. This will be accomplished through a discussion of an application to understanding damages from an extreme weather event. The information presented is applicable to any product/service with appropriate adaptations.

ABSTRACT. Government agencies play reverse roles as both clients and suppliers to each other at times. Just as with business to business marketing, government segments must also solicit funds from other government agencies (e.g., states soliciting federal funds from FEMA and HUD for disaster aid due to a catastrophes impacts their citizens). When the catastrophe spreads across several states, the states essentially compete to receive “their part” of federal funds. Governments can be in competition for market share just as for-profit industries and even social profit enterprises are.

ABSTRACT. Today, disaster and crisis communications must consider the different ISMC outlets and how they interface strategically and tactically. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Zello (the Louisiana Cajun Navy’s favorite), are a few of well-known examples of ISMC vehicles used by relief customers in disaster crisis. An understanding of any social media messaging from crisis social messaging integration (ISMC) and beyond is critical to effective targeting and messaging.

ABSTRACT. The influence of religious beliefs on human behavior and life-choices is both pervasive and profound. This study attempts to empirically establish a connection between peoples’ religiousness and the different aspects of financial behavior exhibited by them as well as explain the results. The study analyses secondary data from the 2010 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). Demographically, women were found to be more religious than men and white people were found to be more religious than non-white people. In addition, it was found that people with positive attitudes toward religion were more likely to over-estimate the quality of their present financial condition as well as also discuss their conditions with others. Since, past research has also hinted at the low financial well-being of religious individuals, we believe that the phenomenon calls for further investigation. With a considerable population of the world being religious, the study can be valuable to understand the effect of religion on financial behavior and thus, be a way to improve the financial well-being of religious individuals.

ABSTRACT. In this research, we explore connected consumption behaviors in the context of online gaming and seek to better understand the process for experiencing maladaptive consumption. Our focus is on the behavioral transition of moving between adaptive and maladaptive (overconsumption) behavior. Using netnographic methods, we examined blog posts about gamers’ behavioral habits and their involvement with an online multi-player game. Our analysis reveals based on different motivational structures, the gamer’s desire to increase and the lack of self-control to decrease such consumption behaviors can adversely affect his/her life through various types of harm. We found four consistent themes surrounding the construct of harm and how the realization of some or all of these types of harm (financial, physical, emotional, and social) provided the impetus needed to either quit gaming or to reduce one’s consumption of gaming to more adaptive levels. We also found common themes as to why consumers turn away from maladaptive consumption as well as strategies undertaken to form boundaries around gaming consumption in an attempt to instill a sense of control and reshape their lives.

ABSTRACT. The current research examined the relationship between implicit self-theories, creative control and effort heuristic on artwork evaluation. Evaluation of artworks is influenced by the interaction between creative control and effort heuristic, and this interaction is moderated by implicit self-theories. Incremental theorists showed a higher liking on artworks that required more efforts to create, whereas entity theorists perceived higher value, craftsmanship, and authenticity in artworks with higher creative control.

ABSTRACT. The concept of time horizon is here to apply in financial well-being. It is related to the field of financial decision making in macromarketing which to explains the quality of life in which individuals live financial decision system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine financial planning time horizon influenced the financial well-being, and to investigate the correlations between the amount of life insurance purchased, subjectively-reported financial planning time horizon, and numerous financial characteristics that suggests a direction forward in terms of consumer financial well-being as a macro-level goal. As financial counselor and policy maker, it is our mission that longer planning time horizon would be helpful to achieve quality of life for the financial well-being.

ABSTRACT. Research shows consumers moving from passive recipients of products and services to becoming a more integral part of supply chain operations and even strategies. As consumers are exposed to, and take interest in, more supply chain information, questions are arising concerning the impact this information has product-related attributes and evaluations. This study examines the extent to which messages about a company’s environmentally focused supply chain activities affect consumer attitudes towards the brand and evaluations of products sold by the company. Results indicate this “spillover effect” occurs predominantly when the message is negative and the brand is generic/unknown. Theoretically, this study contributes to the literature concerning the triple-bottom-line by demonstrating the importance of environmental issues even within the extended supply chain. However, it provides evidence that the effect may be mitigated by a strong brand name. The findings should inform managers of the potential damage negative supply chain information can cause for a product.

ABSTRACT. A concept referred to as sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO) combines supply chain management and sustainability and suggests that organizational orientations and specifically, organizational leaders’ perspectives, can be classified in terms of how strongly they adopt supply chain and sustainability orientations as well as the journeys they follow as they change. From a marketing perspective, the question remains as to the extent to which firms leverage these orientations as part of their identity in an effort to create differentiation in the marketplace. Corporate social responsibility research has long since addressed the concepts of whether or not firms do and should market their social and environmental initiatives, and if they do, how to extract the largest returns on that investment. This paper reports preliminary findings from a qualitative empirical study that explores how managers pull all of this together.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the work of the “founding fathers” of the marketing discipline writing during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The focus is on the thoughts these pioneering scholars had with regard to the role of distribution channels in society, and how and why distributive institutions emerge and evolve over time. The paper will show that the early literature of the marketing discipline examined distribution channel structure and structure explicitly and extensively. Distributive channels were portrayed in this early literature as the machinery or mechanism in society needed to perform a variety of distribution tasks or functions that would reduce maladjustments between production and consumption. Modern marketing scholars and practitioners can gain significant insights into modern distribution structure from the work of these early marketing scholars.

ABSTRACT. Firms proactively develop new sustainable supply chain practices and strategies. At the same time, research on supply chain sustainability has reached a point where new perspectives are needed to challenge and expand existing models. Research suggests closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) practices and models as a primary mechanism used to realize sustainable business operations. In part, the circular economy leverages recycling and remanufacturing existing products. If products are not feasibly recyclable, they are classified as waste. Waste is traditionally categorized with respect to its provenance: agricultural, industrial, animal and municipal (urban). In particular, urban bio-waste includes the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, excess sludge from urban wastewater treatment, garden and parks waste and waste from food-processing. Then, there has been little work on the demand side of CLSCs addressing the role of consumers to full utilization of bio-waste as a resource. Thus our research on going contributes to research and practice by identifying and testing factors that might affect consumer acceptance of products derived from bio-waste. The purpose is to overcome the gap in knowledge regarding the consumers’ role and perceptions in the CLSC practices using the prospect theory.

ABSTRACT. Past research on how universities have integrated sustainability shows a large involvement from change agents, which are usually academics themselves. These champions are usually at the forefront of new ideas for Education for Sustainability (EfS). As such, although the literature has explored the role of higher education in sustainability and how to shift to EfS, few studies have paid attention to the role of the individual. It is also only through the experiences of sustainability marketing academics that we can begin to understand what struggles and barriers may exist towards the integration of sustainability within marketing academia and how individuals might address these barriers.

ABSTRACT. Technology Innovativeness as a Brand Signaling Cue

BACKGROUND

The breadth of digital marketing technologies at a brand’s disposal is as wide as it has ever been. As the forms and functions of digital marketing technologies have increased, so has brands’ potential to reach consumers of varying demographics and adopter categories. Since brands make substantial investments in developing digital marketing strategies, it is important they recognize outcomes of brand technology adoption signaling effects. In this paper, we determine that communicating a brand’s adoption of technology platforms serves as a signaling cue to consumers. We propose three studies (in progress) to be completed with analyzed data by the time of the conference.

ABSTRACT. This article analyzes how adolescents behave on the Internet. Based on the concept of identity, applied to the digital world, we seek to highlight the existence of digital identity profiles. Our methodology combines a qualitative study (n = 19) and a quantitative study (n = 343). The content analysis reveals the existence of three main profiles (and five sub-profiles). Quantitative analysis reveals, using the dynamic cloud method and the hierarchical ascendant, that five profiles segment our sample. After comparing these studies, we show similarities and differences between the profiles on many points (as for example virtual réputation or narcissism). We put in place the profiles on a continuum that shows importance of reality and virtuality for each adolescent.

ABSTRACT. Merriam-Webster (2017), defines savvy as having or showing perception, comprehension, or shrewdness especially in practical matters. Therefore, one who is technologically savvy would show perception, comprehension or shrewdness in technological matters. Considered tech savvy are high schoolers, computer gurus, and geeks, because the assumption is each uses technology inordinately more than the general population. Many designated as “tech savvy” have more than just a cursory understanding of technology. Moreover, there are those within the generalizable public that comprehend technology very well. A focus on tech savvy individuals can lead marketers into understanding a variation of consumers who may not be innovators or early adopters, but have a working knowledge of technology-based products and are thought of as opinion leaders by other consumers. Being tech savvy may or may not lead to an affinity for the products; however, this research will give marketers an understanding of another aspect of consumer behavior. The purpose of this research is to investigate exactly what tech savvy really means in terms of the consumer and how firms can leverage marketing based on understanding this consumer.

ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to explore the underlying cognitive structure of online brand choice.

Building brand equity is a multi-step process that starts with creating brand awareness, developing cues to form a strong brand association among consumers, adding value to create better-perceived quality and ultimately making customers loyal to the brand. Building online brand equity follows a similar sequence of steps. In this regard, understanding the consumer behavior and underlying cognitive perceptions is crucial. A consumer may follow a different combination of simple rules while making a purchase or choosing specific brands.

In this paper, Multi-dimensional scaling approach is used to determine the underlying cognitive structure of any brand choice. Online retailer brands and travel website brands are taken into consideration. A survey has been conducted to capture the perception of online consumers and analyzed using SPSS.

The identified underlying dimensions for online retailers and travel websites are studied and their latent similarities and dissimilarities observed. An overarching consumer cognitive perception framework is then proposed.

ABSTRACT. Gray market goods are genuine goods sourced in an unauthorized manner from a distribution channel and sold at lower prices in different markets. Given that gray marketers use authorized firms’ reputable brand identities to make profits without investing the capital associated with establishing market demand and such identities, we explored how consumers judge the ethicality of a gray marketer’s sourcing practices and its purchase intention implications. Drawing on the Hunt-Vitell theory of ethics, we conceptualized a framework and tested with a 2x2 between-subject experimental design with 114 subjects. Results reveal that consumers’ ethical judgment of gray marketers is guided primarily by deontological evaluations, representing the inherent rightness and wrongness of a behavior and only secondarily by consequence-based (teleological) evaluations. That means, when consumers decide whether a gray marketer’s business conduct is ethical or not, they predominantly use deontological evaluations to form their judgment rather than whether they gain something positive in the exchange. Importantly, we also found that ethical judgment has a strong positive influence on purchase intention, but only through trust. In other words, authorized firms that are considered as ethical by consumers are perceived as more trustworthy, which is the reason consumers have higher purchase intention from them.

ABSTRACT. The current study proposes an empirical test of a more granular version of Wickert et al.’s (2016) model suggesting that from a cost perspective it is more advantageous for large firms to engage in CSR “talk” and for small firms to do the CSR “walk”. Instead, we test for a relationship between size and cheap talk vs. substantive talk. We construct a continuum from stand-alone CSR reports (cheap talk) through UN Global Compact engagement to GRI reporting (substantive talk). Testing the model within a sample of top international retailers, the results follow the overall logic of Wickert et al. (2016). If we focus on employee numbers, which are more tightly related to coordination and control costs, then we do observe a negative relationship between size and the likelihood of engagement in substantive talk. On the other hand, the very big companies do not appear to be more likely to engage in cheap talk either. Thus, the dichotomy of small vs. large companies’ “communication gap” does not seem to be applicable when we zoom in onto types of communications. In addition, retailer age appears to only affect the intermediate level of CSR talk – commitment to UNGC principles.

ABSTRACT. Conducting CSR activities has been recognized as an effective way for corporations to build positive brand associations, which can lead to sustainable competitive advantage. However, extant CSR research has primarily focused on the consumers’ perspectives and the shareholders’ values, limited research has examined CSR from the employees’ perspectives. Although previous research has examined the influences of CSR on employees, they mainly focused on how organizations’ external CSR activities affect employees’ subjective perceptions and behavioral responses. Exploring the relationship between CSR and employees’ outcomes from an internal marketing perspective has been generally overlooked. Therefore, this study aims to fill this research gap by exploring the effect of internal CSR initiatives on employees’ attitude and organization-beneficial behaviors. Drawing on social influence theory, this study develops and empirically tests a theoretical model that examines the impact of internal CSR initiatives (i.e., internal dissemination and management support of CSR) on employees’ identification and attachment toward an organization, which ultimately leads to employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors toward other employees and the organization. Data collected from 269 employees in companies actively involved in CSR initiatives was examined through structural equation modeling. Results and managerial implications were then discussed.