ABSTRACT. While most research suggests that depending on passion intensity (high/low) and valence (positive/negative), individuals relate positively or negatively with a specific brand, latest evidence implies that consumer brand relationships can be dynamic and change over time. The findings of this study unfold the diverse reactions and the true dynamics experienced from consumers in positive brand relationships with different levels of passion and reveals how different transgressions trigger different types of brand hate (active and passive), contributing to the consumer-brand relationships, brand hate and brand transgressions literatures.

ABSTRACT. Consumers nowadays have more possibilities than ever to voice their opinions and are not afraid to let brands know if they feel they are being wronged. In certain instances, customers might even develop brand hate, which can lead to severe consequences for brands. These consequences might even be worse when companies fail to adequately respond in cases of value-based brand transgressions. However, the number of scientific publications addressing brand hate, corporate responses, or brand forgiveness is somewhat limited. Importantly, insights on the role of consumers' brand attachment and corporate response strategies for brand forgiveness remain scarce. We strive to close this gap by addressing the roles of consumers' brand attachment and companies' response strategies for consumers' willingness to forgive a brand in the case of a value-based brand transgression. Our preliminary results indicate that strong brand attachment is especially relevant for brand forgiveness in case of negative company response strategies. Importantly, our first results indicate that positive responses lead to levels of brand forgiveness that are unrelated to brand attachment.

ABSTRACT. When a brand moves from functional to symbolic branding, it hits the emotional chord of the consumers. The brand thus becomes an active partner in the relationship with the consumer. When such relationships end due to transgression or are forcefully terminated through withdrawals or deletions, feelings of grief may emerge. Brand grief is propositioned to be analogous to interpersonal grief. Marketers and researchers worldwide have viewed the relationship between a consumer and a brand as similar to the relationship among people. In this study, brand grief is posited as a complex negative emotion arising out of the end of an enduring consumer brand relationship. The nature of brand grief is conceptualized using interpretive techniques of netnography to support the characteristics identified from the psychology and consumer behavior literature. A ‘symbolic netnography’ was carried out on two prominent brands, Blackberry and Nike, for brand death and brand transgression, respectively, because of their omnipresence and recency effect of the said occurrences.

ABSTRACT. Purpose: An empirical study that proposes a consumer-centric measurement of brand morality using a blend of Western and Eastern theories and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Methodology: It draws on the guidelines proposed by Churchill (1979) and De Vellis (2016) to develop a consumer-centric measurement of brand morality, targeting mainly UK consumers.

Findings: The brand morality measurement consists of seven dimensions and twenty-six attributes. The dimensions are care, compliance, equality, fairness, reciprocity, decency and competence. They exhibit good construct, discriminant and predictive validity. Not only are the seven dimensions meaningful to explain brand morality, but they are also insightful in explaining other consumer-focused factors like brand honesty, brand trust, brand loyalty, likelihood to recommend and likelihood to pay more.

Originality and Value: It takes the first step to propose a brand-specialised, consumer-centric measurement of perceived morality. Previous studies have measured the concept via a self-concept instead of a branding lens. The measurement is unique as it blends Western and Eastern theories to reflect better today’s consumption culture and brands’ geolocalized activities.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the role of color in ads that attempt to convey the past. We have conducted two pilot studies to examine the ability of colors or color associations to convey and activate the past in an ad. The results show that respondents spontaneously mentioned black, white and/or gray as colors that could evoke the past in an ad. When we study the effect of ad color (with the 6 color ad versions) on the perception of the past, we found that the perception of the past was the highest when color of the advertisement was sepia (and black & white). We found the same pattern of results when participants had to choose one of the six color ad versions that most evoked the past. In contrast, the attitude toward the ad was more favorable when the ad was in color (i.e., full colors, yellowed colors, desaturated colors and highlighted colors conditions) even partially (i.e., color highlighted) compared to black & white or sepia conditions. Finally, the brand is perceived older when the ad color was sepia.

ABSTRACT. The question raised by this research is to know whether there are appropriate background colors according to the type of emojis used in the communication. Thus, we investigate in this research the interaction between sensory emojis (e.g., touch vs. hearing) and two different types of background colors (blue vs. red). Based on the construal level theory (Trope and Liberman 2010), our research suggests that touch emoji should be integrated in a red background, while hearing emoji should be integrated in a blue background. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two pilot studies and three experiments. The main results of our experiments reveal that hearing emoji offers better responses in terms of attitudes when it is embedded in a blue background rather than in a red one. However, we didn’t find any differences for touch emoji depending on whether it is inserted in red or blue background. Our results contribute to expanding knowledge on emojis literature by developing the concept of sensorial emojis and by showing that atmospheric variable such as color must be considered in order to enhance the persuasiveness of communication using emojis.

ABSTRACT. Existing studies have shown the specific effects of web site atmospheric cues on users' reactions. While a wide range of reactions have been identified in response to web site color and typography, the interaction effects between them have never been explored in the web atmosphere framework. We fill this gap by showing the interaction effects between hue (color) and font size (typography) through an explanatory study, then an experimentation. Specifically, we show that the combined effects of hue and font size can affect behavioral intentions either directly or through the pleasure and perceived usefulness they provide to web users.

ABSTRACT. When can blue logos communicate competence or sadness? When might red logos evoke impressions of liveliness or aggressiveness? This research establishes that a black background activates the negative meanings of the hue of a logo’s positive space and inactivates its positive meanings. Conversely, a white background activates the positive meanings of that hue and inactivates its negative meanings. Importantly, the valence of brand impressions conveyed by a logo is shaped by the specific color combination resulting from the articulation of the hue of its positive space with a black or white background; not the mere presence of a black or white background, as prior literature could suggest. Moreover, these effects do not materialize for logos that are representative (vs. abstract), framed (vs. unframed), or include a meaningful (vs. meaningless) brand name. Finally, black (white) background logos improve evaluations of brands that possess negatively (positively) valenced personality traits. With these novel findings, this article identifies factors that alter the valence of a logo hue’s meanings, shows when a black (white) background logo does not evoke negative (positive) brand impressions, and reveals that certain brands benefit from communicating negative impressions through their logos. It also yields practical guidelines for crafting effective logos.

ABSTRACT. There is a growing awareness of dysfunctional consumer behaviors and the detrimental consequences for society and consumer well-being. Self-esteem and materialism have been associated with various maladaptive shopping behaviors. however, previous research conducted on this topic has also shown mixed results. To date no study has compared the antecedents of different types of maladaptive shopping behaviors, and no research has examined the roles played by both individual and collective forms of self-esteem. Using various multivariate approaches (including SEM and PROCESS) to analyze data from 605 consumers, the present study evaluates the influence that individual and collective self-esteem, along with materialism, have on four distinct types of maladaptive consumer behaviors (conspicuous shopping, impulsive shopping, obsessive-compulsive shopping, and shopping addiction). As hypothesized, materialism mediates the role between individual self-esteem and the maladaptive shopping behaviors, although the strength of the relationships differed across the behavior types. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Customer deviance in stores (NCD) such as abusive behaviour, product misplacement and other types of harmful behaviour are rising. Directed against the shop, its employees and other customers, NCD represents a threat to the customer experience, as it causes customers' dissatisfaction and disrupts their shopping experience (Fombelle et al., 2020). Such behaviours lead to significant financial losses and create indirect damages, as customers may no longer be willing to shop in stores where NCD occurred. While the material damage to the business is repairable, a lost customer is forever a cost and difficult to regain (Clapp, 2019). This study, which surveyed 1008 consumers, therefore identifies NCD dimensions perceived by customers in shops including its consequences and its impact on customers' intention to switch retail channels. Building on reactance theory, the study reveals that NCD impacts customers'switching intentions directly as a consequence of affective and attitudinal reactance. Structural equation modelling displays several emotional and attitudinal mediating factors within the correspondence of NCD and customers' switching tendencies including trust in retailers, the perceived shopping effectiveness along with the perceived psychological distance as moderators. Based on these findings practical implications for retailers are suggested to reduce and control NCD-induced threats to customers.

ABSTRACT. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the emerging middle class – led by their desires, aspirations and increasing buying power – has shifted the luxury landscape significantly. This increasing middle-class segment is causing a paradigmatic change in how traditional luxury consumers ascribe value to luxury brands. Guided by the rarity principle, we develop three experiments where we show that the deployment of masstige strategy by a luxury brand will have a negative effect on the behavioral intentions of traditional luxury consumers. Further, we show that this negative effect, underpinned by the rarity principle, will differ in its strength depending on traditional luxury consumers’ self-brand connection with the luxury brand. Overall, this study significantly extends research on masstige and luxury branding and offers important implications. For instance, high self-brand connection leads to a greater likelihood of purchasing masstige brands among traditional luxury consumers.

ABSTRACT. Mindfulness means paying attention on present moment without judgment. It involves deep awareness of self and others. Mindful consumption is postulated as the application of mindfulness to consumer buying attitude. Compulsive buying involves obsessive buying of unnecessary products without much control. Hedonic buying includes buying for seeking pleasure. Existing literature shows positive correlation of mindfulness with mindful consumption and negative correlation of mindfulness with compulsive buying and hedonic buying. Literature calls for exploring mediator(s) that could explain the effects of mindfulness on compulsive buying and hedonic buying. We conduct this online study (n = 1880) and use structural equation modelling to ascertain that mindful consumption acts as the mediator in these effects. It explains the negative effect of mindfulness on compulsive buying and reverses the negative effect of mindfulness on hedonic buying. These results show importance of caring component of mindful consumption and emphasize some notable differences between mindfulness and mindful consumption. We discuss these mechanisms and implications of these results.

ABSTRACT. The proliferation of social media platforms has increasingly encouraged companies to invest on their social media strategies to enhance their user engagement. Increasing number of social media’s users means more users would engage through like, retweet, sharing posts and recommending a company to a family or friend. While user engagement assists companies to gain more profit and contribute to their social responsibility, it enables users to access to a company’s special offers, coupons, deals, etc. A careful investigation into the users’ engagement behavior is highly critical for social media managers for the establishment of an effective customer relationship. In this study, we focus on the effect of user’s engagement through comments on companies’ social media content strategies. While previous research demonstrates that engagement can be stimulated by companies’ social media strategies, we propose that there should be a more dynamic relationship through the exploration of how firm strategy can be driven by social media engagement, and more specifically user comments. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the dyadic relationship between firm social media strategy and social media engagement.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of social media brand communities (SMBC) in facilitating consumer engagement within the cosmetics communities on Facebook. While the literature acknowledges the SMBC environment influences consumer engagement, it fails to recognize the role of SMBC in facilitating consumer engagement. This study explores the role of SMBC development in the curation of consumer engagement. It was conducted through netnography. The data was collected from three cosmetics SMBCs between the period of 1st December 2019 and 31 January 2020 and was downloaded for analysis. Findings demonstrate that brand post categories can be an indicator of the development of SMBCs, which in turn facilitates consumer engagement. These findings have implications for marketing professionals in terms of supporting their effort in facilitating the development of SMBCs and consumer engagement. The findings also expand the knowledge of consumer engagement within SMBCs.

ABSTRACT. There is a growing number of organisations that using gaming techniques and rewards based on games in order to improve customer engagement. A recent consumer panel showed that consumers find gamification as one of the most exciting digital features offered by brands (Statista, 2021). Similarly, gamification is now considered as one of the most popular functionalities of loyalty programs offered worldwide. In this study, we propose that gamification can be utilised as one of the emerging drivers of consumers’ brand engagement, positive word of mouth, and ultimately increase the purchase intentions, in the presence of consumer trust, and consumer motivation. This study considers Social Identity Theory and Motivation Theory to investigate the potential impacts of online gamification adaption of brands on consumer trust, motivation, consumer engagement, and word of mouth. The researchers expect to conclude that there is a positive relationship between consumer trust and brand engagement, word of mouth and purchase intentions when brands utilise gamification for their online presence. We also expect consumer motivations will have a similar relationship between these outcome variables.

ABSTRACT. The importance gained by social media and influencers, such as YouTube and youtubers, in the consumer choice process has led scholars’ consideration to the phenomenon of influencer marketing. The literature has identified the personal characteristics of the influencer as the main factors influencing the intention of followers to purchase the brands recommended by the influencer. Recent studies, however, have verified that the characteristics of a YouTube channel also influence the satisfaction and loyalty of channel subscribers. Based on these insights, we performed an empirical investigation on a sample of 298 subscribers to various YouTube channels where the influencer makes recommendations of products or services. The study simultaneously considers how the characteristics of the YouTube channel (originality of content, quality of information, entertainment, interactivity) and the quality of the relationship with followers have a positive impact on channel loyalty and purchase intentions. The results indicate that relationship quality (i.e. satisfaction, trust and commitment) mediates the relationship between YouTube channel characteristics and followers’ behavioral intentions.

ABSTRACT. Managers launching VR marketing initiatives face budgetary constraints, and the cost of VR solutions depends on technical specifications. It is therefore important to understand which VR features should be used to achieve optimal marketing outcomes. Current project focuses on the effects of stereoscopic (vs. monoscopic) visuals in VR experiences. As producing and presenting 3D visuals in VR can be associated with more effort and higher production costs, it is important to understand the effects of stereopsis in VR on brand attitudes and behavioral intentions. This project develops a field and a lab experiment to establish the effects of stereopsis and their underlying mechanisms, informed by the literature on sense of realism, presence, and embodiment in VR.

ABSTRACT. This research examines the particular dimensions of the flow state during an experience under virtual reality devices. The notion of flow and more particularly that of VR (Virtual Reality) flow state suffers from a conceptualization deficit. Thus, this research attempts to remedy this lack by an interpretative approach based on two qualitative exploratory methods: case study and netnographic study. All data for these two studies were subject to thematic and lexicometric manual analysis using Alceste software. The analysis of the stories of the 12 interviewees and the posts written by the members of the Meta VR community highlight two dimensions characterizing the VR flow state: cognitive absorption and sensory illusion. The results also highlight the emergence of a new dimension characterizing the VR flow state: the artifactual ubiquitous illusion. All the dimensions identified contribute to a better conceptualization of the flow state under virtual reality device and to a better understanding of consumer behavior. They help create new immersive experiential offerings that provide competitive advantage for retailers.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to theorize imagination – as part of experiential consumption – and consumer mind in the context of AR technology. By employing a Diary-Method interviews and online reviews (n=1995 reviews), the findings show the role of (re) imagination in the lived consumer experiences as Human-assisted AR imagination where consumers play a key role in assisting AR imagination to match the reality. This process happens through a negotiation process where consumers constantly use their senses to compare between the (re)imagined a) object and reality, b) self, and c) alternative realities (e.g., virtuous brand, and sustainable ecosystem). During the comparison, consumers experience “double-multiple-minds” where there is a tension between consumer mind and AR mind in imagining the reality and self. In most cases, consumers resist AR imagination when distorting the reality and instead valorise their own imagination and desire to “enforce this reality” or accept an “approximation of reality”. The reality means a valanced balance between the fantasy world and the real world. These findings enhance our understanding of the complex phenomenon of imagination (extended-mind in particular) and show AR as a “supplemented-mind” and not extended per se. Theoretical and practical implications for consumer research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Firms approaching financial markets engage in various voluntary (e.g., press releases) and mandated corporate communications (e.g., financial statements) to achieve positive market outcomes. However, these firms often struggle to identify what communication appeals should be deployed to create persuasive corporate communications directed toward financial stakeholders. On the one hand, rational communication appeals – the objective presentation of factual information through logical arguments – might reassure financial stakeholders by lowering information asymmetry and reducing choice uncertainty. On the other hand, emotional communication appeals – emotionally-charged language and contextual cues – could operate as powerful indirect signals and increase financial stakeholders’ trust in the firm. It is, therefore, essential to examine how firms can deploy the appropriate mix of corporate communication appeals to persuade financial stakeholders and achieve the expected market outcomes.

ABSTRACT. An individual’s social comparison intensity is a critical determinant of their subsequent purchase behaviour. Though prior studies discovered the relationships between individual demographic and subjective wellbeing variables towards social comparison intensity and conspicuous consumption, the overview of the entire consumer consideration set was not addressed. This study employed a series of multiple regression to discover their collective influence across Europe. While marketers discovered that income has been a strong driver towards conspicuous consumption, this research disclosed that income is not a significant influence when considered with other subjective wellbeing variables. Interestingly, most subjective wellbeing variables are significant towards conspicuous consumption intentions. Marketers can utilise the results of this study and the subjective wellbeing values to refine their psychographic segmentation, which would enable them to identify customers with strong desires of enhancing their social statuses with time or cost constraints. Thus, to employ targeted marketing strategies.

ABSTRACT. The ubiquitous nature of the internet, coupled with the development of Web 2 capabilities and broad smartphone adoption has enabled the growth of online services such as online shopping, online banking, and online gambling. Despite the sector’s growing importance, business and marketing scholars have given it surprisingly little attention. This paper seeks to better understand customer decision making in an online betting context. This research looks at the effect of both perceived fairness and the hedonic aspect of navigational enjoyment on betting intention and proposes a mediation model where navigational enjoyment mediates the link of perceived fairness to online betting intention. The proposed relationships are investigated via a sample of 266 online gamblers. Results suggest that the effect of perceived fairness on betting intention is not only direct but partially mediated by navigational enjoyment which acts to increase betting intention, especially for those gamblers that play for fun rather than to beat the odds.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, more and more companies are seeking to expand into overseas markets. Alongside this comes the challenge of translating brand typeface into a cross-cultural context. There has also been a significant increase in the literature of branding typeface design. However, few scholars have investigated intercultural typeface design. Therefore, this paper aims to fill the gap in the literature of intercultural typeface design. We proposed a framework to measure and compare consumers’ perceptions. These studies begin with a semiotic analysis and then investigate the perception of several visually similar Latin and Kanji typeface designs by Word Association Task (WAT) in two dimensions: cultural connotation represented by typeface classification and aesthetic connotation represented by typeface weight. We note that typeface perception resulting from arbitrary signs such as historical, religious, and social events are difficult to interpret in the same way across cultures. Regarding the perception of typeface design produced by motivated signs such as visual features, they do not vary much from one language to another.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this work is to investigate the consumer's relationship to brands using stereotypical feminine representations in their advertising via the endorsement phenomenon. For that purpose, we will consider female fairy tales characters as being celebrity endorsers. Following the lead of Ambroise and Albert (2020) our approach places the consumer at the center of the celebrity-brand congruence by considering him/her the meaning and emotion creator. Fairy tales characters considered as endorsing celebrities are particularly suitable to study stereotypes and reactance (Åkestam 2017) because they bear both physical and role stereotypes (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz 2003). Linked to childhood, they carry positive emotions (Menaud 2010), supposedly beneficial to the brand, but through their stereotypical characteristics, they can convey a negative emotion of reactance. Considering the transfer of negative emotions from the consumer to the brand via the representation of the celebrity would lead to a change in McCracken's (1989) paradigm of unidirectional meaning transfer. We propose to consider reactance as a negative emotion that can have consequences on the attitude towards the brand: how does a negative feeling provoked in the consumer by a stereotyped feminine representation through a fairy tales character endorsement can affect the attitude towards the brand?

ABSTRACT. This study addresses innovation adoptions in the context of subsistence agriculture in rural Kenya. It examines the role of innovation in helping farmers achieve higher agricultural yields as a way to tackle food insecurity. Subsistence farming is the main source of livelihood for people living in rural settings. Women have been identified as critical in subsistence farming, on average, 50% are involved in agricultural workforce in most regions of sub-Saharan Africa. We examine the complex role of social interaction between women and men, and the concealed processes within the gender subtext in an organization such as a household (re)produces gender inequalities. Gender as a social practice and its implication on innovation adoption remains under researched within the marketing discipline. Using the social construction feminist theory, this study explores how gender is constructed through the notion of abstract worker, the role of cultural norms and hegemonic gender regulation, some of the key aspects of gender subtext. It integrates diffusion of innovation and social construction feminism theories to enhance the understanding of innovation adoption in the subsistence contexts. The outcome of this study is expected to contribute to existing literature on innovation adoption and gender within the marketing discipline.

ABSTRACT. Environmental changes, such as the globalization of business and the emergence of sophisticated, well-educated buyers, require sales managers to provide strong leadership to salespeople involved in increasingly more complex selling processes. What, then, are the sales management skills needed to support a high-performing salesforce in this environment? We posit that the quality of communication between the sales manager and salespeople plays an essential role. In our proposed model, the sales manager’s organization and time management skills impact communication quality directly by clearing the way for more effective conversations. Communication quality, in turn, impacts the sales manager’s satisfaction with sales. Finally, we propose that the sales manager’s ability to delegate responsibilities to sales representatives moderates the relationship between organization and time management, and communication quality.

ABSTRACT. OCRs research in B2C has gained considerable academic interest, and scholars have contributed to the influence of OCRs on customer decisions, brands, and sales. Nevertheless, it is surprising that the OCRs in the B2B domain has not received significant attention in academia. Hence, this research extends the current knowledge on B2B OCRs by undertaking a broad literature review in B2C OCRs and offering a comprehensive agenda for future research in B2B OCRs. Significantly, this paper extracts the themes, theories and methodologies from the peer-reviewed top marketing journals in the last decades from B2C OCRs to explain and shed light on B2B OCRs. Therefore, this study addresses three goals: First, it reviews top-ranked marketing journals to uncover the prominent themes that influence study in the B2C OCRs literature stream. Second, it assesses the use of theories and methodologies in grounding empirical examinations of B2B OCRs research. Third, the paper sets out a future avenue highlighting various research propositions related to B2B OCRs research by leveraging key themes, theories, and methodologies in B2C OCRs research. Furthermore, this research is a work in progress.

ABSTRACT. Games have been an established form of entertainment for centuries. Through internet applications, they have now become a central part of many people’s daily lives (Malaby 2007). In the U.S., more than half of the adult population plays some form of video game (ESA 2020). This heavy usage level may be especially true for employees from Generation Z and as well as Millennials (Nair and Sadasivan 2019).

The current exploratory study will examine the effects of a custom-designed gamification program on job satisfaction, motivation and performance of the sales team. The data came from a case study of a high-end business service organization. Using a mixed methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative data are examined to explore the impact of the new system on motivation and performance.

ABSTRACT. Our paper challenges several notions regarding emotion’s role and their influence on the customer experience (hereafter CX). Emotions play a distinguishing role in CX. This research deepens our understanding on the crucial role of service employees and how negative emotions can change to a positive outcome in CX. The role of emotions in CX is challenged through the testing of the research propositions proposed by Manthiou, Hickman and Klaus (2020): does the role of negative emotions change with an interaction with a service employee? Can this change in emotion lead to positive behavioural outcomes such as satisfaction, trust and word of mouth? We undertook two quantitative questionnaires to explore the role of negative emotions and the role of a service employee in two service contexts; retail banking (utilitarian) and travel (hedonic). Data was collected from 543 participants. This research focuses on negative emotions in a service context and provides a future research agenda to advance our knowledge. We therefore add to the knowledge of emotions in CX by emphasising that emotions are not purely intrapersonal, since social interactions can influence an emotional experience. These findings advance our knowledge and understanding whilst offering practical managerial implications.

ABSTRACT. This study proposes a new theory of behavioral relevance in sustainable consumer behavior. Academically, several theories and models have been used to explain sustainable consumer behaviors. However, each theory or model seems to over-and underestimate the importance of distinctive aspects or motives. By critically reviewing mainstream theories and empirical findings, this study conceptualizes the construct of behavioral relevance – the consumer tendency to behave in a way that enhances active goals– as the key determinant of SCBs. Behavioral relevance is a higher-order construct that integrates three dimensions—self, social, and environmental relevance—that are particularly relevant to sustainability. This study offers a fresh perspective on sustainable consumer behaviors in comparison with existing theories.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to understand the consumers' attitudes toward responsible tourism’s label. We study the literature about the responsible tourism and propose a research model explaining the consumer’s behaviour. We examine the willingness to pay for the responsible tourism label (WTP), 2) and explore the influence of factors like sociodemography, psychology and personal values over consumers' WTP for socially responsible tourism’s label. We build our research framework and use the conjoint analysis in order to measure the WTP.

ABSTRACT. Issue knowledge differs from other commonly used knowledge in the marketing literature in that it spans across products, product categories, and brands to encompass a larger context of knowledge. While the role of knowledge as critical in understanding decision making has been made clear, much of the consumer behavior literature has examined effects of category based or product specific knowledge. We predict and find support for issue knowledge of sustainability as a moderator in the relationship between construal level and cognitive elaboration such that higher (lower) levels of knowledge facilitate abstract (concrete) thinking, magnifying the effects of construal on elaboration. Additionally, cognitive elaboration mediates the interactive relationship between construal level and issue knowledge on attitudes toward the advertisement and brand. We add to the limited research outside of product category or brand focused knowledge by clarifying and emphasizing the impact of a broader type of knowledge: issue knowledge. This broadens our understanding of typical consumer knowledge, reflecting consumers’ understanding of a societal issue. The findings helps us understand how an issue like sustainability can contribute to attitudes and purchase intentions across product categories.

ABSTRACT. The development of new technologies and the prevalence of social media platforms fostered a new type of misbehavior called online consumer misbehavior. Therefore, during the last decades scholars and practitioners shed light on this phenomenon and researchers have investigated the concept under different angles. For example, we find studies about negative reviews and fake reviews. However, the development of the field of online consumer misbehavior is limited due to the fragmentation and the lack of integration regarding the different research streams. Thus, our ambition in this work is to provide an integrative framework of online consumer misbehavior and provide a comprehensive and synthesized analysis of what we know and what we need to know about online consumer misbehavior.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the interactions that occur when consumers challenge corporate virtue signalling (CVS). We define CVS as a brand’s (e.g. McDonalds) statement on its official social media channels (e.g. its Facebook brandpage) about a particular virtue that it claims to support/hold (e.g. Protecting the environment). Using a netnographic analysis of 15 Facebook brand communities over a 2-year period, we analyse the virtues that brands promote in their CVS statements, the ways in which consumers challenge these, the subsequent consumer-to-consumer interactions and brand response, and the outcome that these interactions result in. We conceptualise CVS as a process of five interrelated interaction events, and ground our findings in research from Accounting (accounts and counter-accounts) and Digital Marketing (consumer-to-consumer conflicts and brand response strategies). We further offer a managerial perspective on the effectiveness of current practice and recommendations for improving CVS as a strategic communications tool.

ABSTRACT. Privacy cookie notices (PCN) are widely used by website providers to request consumers' explicit consent on data collection and use. However, the great freedom granted by privacy regulations for PCNs conception has led to considerable design variations and thus, a considerable difference in consent rates between websites. This research particularly investigates the extent to which PCNs location on the website homepage (at the bottom, in the center, at the top) may influence consumer attention and consent. Through an eye-tracking experiment, we show that a centered location attracts more consumer attention, and increases consent rates in e-commerce websites. These results would help policymakers to better align the design of the PCNs among websites for requesting user consent in a reliable and ethical manner. Moreover, website operators may increase explicit consent and take advantage of consumers’ insights.

ABSTRACT. Sales promotions at the point of sale such as discounting have been studied as a way of driving foot traffic, increasing sales, encouraging product trial, switching brands, spreading positive word-of-mouth, and even as a tool for compensation after a service failure. Meanwhile, gamification of the point of sale using hybrid-reality games is gaining momentum on a global scale. Using a between subject experiment among 569 Pokémon Go players, where the presence of the exclusive discount is manipulated, our paper reveals the positive halo effect of a sales promotion when introduced in a gamification context: a special discount for players to use during a service experience in the physical reality increases players’ intention to play the hybrid reality game at the point-of-sale (secondary service), which then mediates players’ intention to buy at the point-of-sale (core service).

ABSTRACT. Amid the explosive development of technology, creating unique differentiators is difficult for businesses due to similarities in technology applications. The 'cool' concept has become a differentiator for new technology apps like mobile shopping apps. This study aims to investigate the effects of perceived coolness of mobile shopping apps on immersive experience, which in turn leads to customers' perceived values (utilitarian and hedonic) from mobile shopping apps (value-getting) and their contributed values (i.e., customer lifetime value, influencer value, and knowledge value) to mobile shopping apps (termed as value-giving). The study also looks into the contingent role of immersive experience in the relationship between perceived coolness and values for the customer (value-getting) and values from the customer (value-giving). This study uses data from 351 Vietnamese mobile shopping app users to test hypotheses using PLS-SEM. The findings showed that mobile shopping app coolness facilitates value-getting and value-giving. Besides, immersive experience mediates the relationship between app coolness and these values. The findings have managerial and theoretical implications for perceived coolness and customer value creation.

ABSTRACT. Immersive technologies are disrupting the retail landscape and playing a vital role in shaping consumers’ behaviours and lifestyles. Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising multi-sensory technology that has been used to enhance consumer behaviour. However, the use of VR in marketing is limited to certain usages and contexts. VR media affordances allow simulating other perspectives, which can be adopted in the choice for others, particularly in the caregiving context, to overcome its major challenge of the absence of the recipient’s involvement in the process. VR perspective-taking can bring the recipient’s perspective to the decision-maker at the point of purchase. Three studies including a large-scale survey and two VR experiments were conducted. Our survey results demonstrate that differences between self-other choice and self-choice (caregiving and self-indulgence) are reflected in customer equity drivers and intergroup brand relationships. Our experiment findings indicate that different levels and types of immersive and interactive perspective-taking have different effects on intergroup brand relationships, customer engagement and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, state empathy and affective commitment are mediating these relationships. In addition to its theoretical contributions, our study can be beneficial to marketing practitioners and policymakers to enhance the decision-making for others by adopting VR perspective-taking and eliciting empathy.

ABSTRACT. Much of the extant literature on influencer marketing presupposes its potential impact on consumer behavior based on perceptions of influencers as social standards. In this paper, we examine the link between exposure to influencers and consumer behavior, and the role of self-discrepancies in this association. We also examine the role of perceived homophily, authenticity, mindfulness and self-acceptance in enhancing or dampening such linkages. We collect survey-data from Indian adults aged 18-35 (N = 503), analyzed as a structural equation model. Given that the influencer-follower relationship is a unique form of social exchange where the individual may find solace in the source of the discrepancy itself, we offer four mechanisms which can reduce the negative impact of influencer marketing on an individual’s psychological well-being and provide support for inclusive and approaches to marketing that enable consumer decision-making through positive experiences and not out of feelings of shame, embarrassment, distress, or vulnerability.

ABSTRACT. Influencer marketing has recently received greater attention from researchers and professionals. While previous research has examined the impact of some attributes of influencers on consumer behavior, a few studies have included the role of audiences and the knowledge of factors driving successful influencer marketing is limited. The current research explores how the characteristics of influencers such as expertise, likability, and trustworthiness affect purchase intentions and uncovers the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Our findings reveal that influencer characteristics such as expertise, likability, and trustworthiness positively affect consumer engagement, thus increasing purchase intentions. Further, we demonstrate that consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence such as normative and informational influence enhances the relationship between influencer characteristics and purchase intentions via consumer engagement. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

ABSTRACT. Recent studies on Instagram have sought to investigate the movement known as fitspiration. The interactive nature of Instagram has led to ‘likes’ becoming a form of social reinforcement, causing users to treat them as feedback on their level of attractiveness and value as individuals. In this context of the growth of social media networks, the phenomenon of influencer marketing has been emerging in recent years. Considering the increase in the use of social media networks and the fact that they have become one of the main channels for brands to communicate with their audiences, it is also relevant to identify which type of persuasion route has a greater effect on the behaviour of users who follow influencers on platforms such as Instagram. For this reason and based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we propose to identify the level of interaction between the central and peripheral persuasion routes and the source of brand communication on Instagram, taking as conditions for this second factor, firstly, a fitfluencer and secondly, an everyday social media fitspiration enthusiast.

ABSTRACT. We examine how social media influence’s credibility, influencer-consumer similarity, and identification with influencers affect attitude toward brand-influencer collaboration and how the latter drives changes in the image of the collaborating brand. We collected data based on an online survey with 352 consumers. The study results reveal that while SMI credibility and influencer-consumer similarity have significant effects on identification with SMI, the latter's impact is stronger. Furthermore, influencer credibility affects the attitude toward brand-influencer collaboration more than the effect derived from identification with SMI. The results also indicate that when consumers positively perceive the collaboration between the brand and the influencer, they tend to form a positive image of the brand. This research contributes to the limited empirical research on how SMIs develop associations with followers, how such associations can influence the brands they collaborate with, and how employing influencers in marketing communications affects the collaborating brand’s image.

ABSTRACT. The impact of Christian beliefs and family values on young Hong Kong adults’ perceptions of advertisements for controversial products and advertisements with potentially offensive appeals was studied. A convenience sample of 212 (109 Christians and 103 non-Christians) completed an online questionnaire in which they evaluated the effectiveness as well as the offensiveness of seven print advertisements with potentially offensive elements. The Christian respondents were more likely to find the ads offensive than the non-Christians. Two advertisements video games and watches with sexist and violent appeals were found the most offensive and more offensive than an ad for condoms. Christians were more likely to perceive advertisements with homosexual imagery offensive than advertisements with heterosexual imagery. The respondents’ family values and the intensity of their religious beliefs did not contribute any additional explanatory power.

ABSTRACT. Research on deceptive marketing has evolved separately from research on deceptive communication in other contexts. This study provides a fresh look by extending truth-default theory (TDT) to advertising and marketing. Testing the Park-Levine model, a component of TDT, participants assess truthful and false marketing claims in different proportions. The results replicate and extend prior research testing Park-Levine in other settings. Consumers judge claims as honest 56.4% of the time achieving 58.9% accuracy, both values being significantly higher than chance. However, accuracy varies widely from 24.5% to 72.5% depending on condition. The study further showed that branding and perceived ability to do information search prior to purchase increase truth-bias and reduce detection accuracy when base rates are low and increase accuracy when most messages are honest. The findings suggest that relying on consumers to detect false claims is not a sound basis for regulating marketing communications.

ABSTRACT. Using processing fluency theory, this study explored the relationships between eco-label logo design format (eco-label visual complexity, conceptual complexity, text amount and colour background) and label attitude and consumers’ label adoption in their purchases. According to our results, visually complex eco-labels, but conceptually simple ones, with textual information and green colour are liked, trusted and perceived as more sustainable by consumers. Our findings can be useful for third-party label organizations, NGOs, public policy, companies and brand managers, as they give useful guidelines for designing effective eco-labels aimed at increasing future sustainable consumptions.

ABSTRACT. The generation of ideas alone does not automatically result in innovative products or processes, higher customer satisfaction, and higher revenues. Previous research suggest that the current challenge does not lie in generating ideas but in knowing which ones to select for implementation. Therefore, it is important to understand the process that leads to creative ideas and to develop a methodical way of successfully reviewing them. Accordingly, the present study aims at expanding the research field of creative idea selection by investigating factors inherent in the idea as well as individual characteristics that may influence creative idea selection performance. Using text mining techniques, objective characteristics of the ideator’s language are extracted (i.e., computerized linguistic features such as sentence length and parts of speech). We investigate to what extent these measures can predict the ratings of three different creativity dimensions (i.e., originality, feasibility, and effectiveness). We also look at the effect of individual differences, including the Big 5, the evaluator’s domain knowledge and some demographics on the relationship between linguistic features and perceived creativity. The results suggest that idea’s completeness positively impacts creativity ratings. Familiarity with the task and the personality traits of the evaluator seem to also influence the evaluation process.

ABSTRACT. Designers play a key role in the success of marketing strategies when creating new products. To this end, fostering collaboration between marketers and designers would create well differentiated and attractive products (Radford and Bloch, 2001). However, many researchers attest that designers and marketers experience rivalry and frustration when working together and often achieve poor results. To understand the struggles between designers and marketers while designing NHPs, we have opted for a qualitative approach based on sixteen semi-structured interviews with French Hi-Tech design experts on new communicating hybrid concepts. In this article we apply Ouchi (1979)’s framework to the analysis of relationships between individuals or between subunits within a corporation. We will study how control mechanisms can help understand marketers’ control on designers in companies. Due to the NHPs’ ambiguity, designers deserve to be listened to in order to assess their willing to create NHPs and move from an ego involvement - system where control mechanism create frustrations to an eco-system taking into account designers’ and consumers’ well-being.

ABSTRACT. Besides its numerous benefits for companies, crowdsourcing contests are also related to a risk of generating unfair perceptions among participants regarding the process or outcome of creative contests. Based on the fairness theory, we investigate how different crowdsourcing designs can generate distributive and selection unfairness perceptions due to counterfactual thinking. Moreover, we contribute by analyzing how unfairness perceptions are or can be shaped through the crowdsourcing design (e.g. mutual value proposition, effort investment or brand-participant contract). Using 2 experimental designs, results will contribute to the crowdsourcing literature by investigating how creative crowdsourcing practices shape the generation of (un)fairness perceptions and negative WOM for brands. The findings will help managers to identify how to ethically manage creative crowdsourcing practices that avoid unfairness perceptions and the side-effects on negative WOM and brand loyalty.

ABSTRACT. Despite fast-growing scholarly work on crowdfunding, few empirical studies have shed light on post-crowdfunding commercialization. Entrepreneurs who successfully develop their crowdfunded products are expected to launch those products – beyond backers – in the mainstream market. This research, built on the dual-market view in diffusion theory, examines the association between reward-based crowdfunding and post-crowdfunding commercialization. It is argued that backers at the crowdfunding stage and consumers at the commercialization stage represent two distinct markets. With longitudinal data from various sources, this research examines how crowdfunding performance affects post-crowdfunding short- and long-term commercial outcomes. It is found that the number of backers is positively related to product popularity but negatively related to customer satisfaction, and product popularity and customer satisfaction mediate the relationship between the number of backers and product survival. Moreover, it is found that time to market (i.e., days between crowdfunding and new product launch) worsens the negative relationship between the number of backers and customer satisfaction.

ABSTRACT. Effective interpersonal communication is vital to organizational success, whether these conversations are occurring between employees within the firm or between sales personnel and consumers in a retail environment. For many marketers, their most valued role within the organization is to be experts in communication. Interestingly, the majority of research in this area has either focused on (1.) employees avoiding negative states associated with interpersonal communications, or (2.) using interpersonal communication skills to help relieve consumers’ psychological discomfort. Here, we advocate for more research on promoting positive states (i.e., flow states) that improve interpersonal communications in marketing. No research to date has examined the flow state in interpersonal communication contexts in organizational life. Therefore, we initiate the application of flow to interpersonal communications in marketing. We discuss the flow state in detail and review what the extant research can teach us about how to excel in various marketing-related interpersonal communication tasks.

ABSTRACT. Self enhancement bias (SEB) is an interpersonal trait by which an individual perceives himself to be better than others. This illusive perception acts as a resource to improve performance and well-being. However, the available literature also suggests that sometimes the illusive positive view about self may have detrimental effects. By way of the present study we propose to find out as to how various levels/intensities of self-enhancing affect the performance of a salesperson. We also assume that the net resource inventory of a salesperson may intervene as a mediator in determining the performance of a salesperson especially in the event of his failure.

ABSTRACT. The global market for Software as a Service (SaaS) exhibited a substantial growth of 11,0% in 2020 (Fortune Business Insights 2022). Nowadays there are a growing amount of SaaS solutions in the market and traditional perpetual license sales are facing uncertainty rising from competition, customers’ expectations, and the business environment. SaaS is the equivalent of on-premise packaged solutions and offers similar functionality and benefits, but through a completely different business model (Raghavan et al. 2020). Unlike the product-feature approach of perpetual license sales, companies are looking to transform their way of working on a business model that forms partnerships with a focus on service.

ABSTRACT. Wearable self-trackers (WST) are positioned as tools that can promote and/or increase physical activity for health. However, WST abandonment is high and evidence of the health benefits of WST is scarce. We argue that understanding how long-term users interact with their WSTs can help us understand abandonment and inform the design of wearables to promote sustained use and better health. In this research, we explore long-term users' interaction with wearables for self-tracking, and what influences this. We investigate this phenomenon through the lens of practice theory (PT), focusing on ‘practices’ as the unit of analysis and espousing a post-humanist conceptual approach. This allows us to view WST as not just utilitarian tools but rather participating agents, without which practices cannot occur in the same way. Here we utilize visual probes made of participants' tracking data to conduct stimulus-driven semi-structured interviews with 30 UK-based long-term users of WSTs. Our findings provide novel theoretical, and empirical, insights into how the user-device interaction(s) take place, by suggesting that the device agency and centrality are instrumental in shaping usage practices. As such, we advance on extant PT models by being the first to suggest an active role of the device itself in modifying behaviour.

ABSTRACT. Population ageing presents a significant challenge for the healthcare sector and wider society. Many older Australians wish to ‘age in place.’ Specialised care and support are needed to support older people in maintaining their independence in later life. Assistive technologies maintain or improve an individual’s functioning and independence, thereby promoting wellbeing. This study focuses on the role of assistive technologies in supporting ageing in place by promoting independence in health monitoring, daily living tasks, and reducing the risks associated with living at home. Underpinned by the COM-B model, this paper reports the ‘Co-Create’ phase of research conducted as part of a larger partnered social marketing project working with a technology start up and aged care provider to develop an assistive technology (smart garment) to support ageing in place. Analysis of interview data provide insights into older adult’s capabilities, opportunities, and motivations surrounding the use of assistive technology, specifically smart garments. Insights from the ‘Co-Create’ phase of the project will inform the user-centered design (‘Build’) and delivery (‘Engage’) of a smart garment. Application of the CBE process is expected to enhance smart garment adoption, engagement, and adherence among older adults.

ABSTRACT. Interventions that have sought to increase physical activity and/or decrease sedentary behaviors in disadvantaged populations have had limited impacts over the mid- and long terms. In addition, according to predictions of compensation for physical activity/sedentary behaviors, people also compensate for their behaviors in certain contexts by increasing or decreasing their behaviors in others. However, we lack knowledge about the psychological mechanisms of this phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews with 14 adults, 18 to 60 years of age who reside in disadvantaged areas, provide the data for identifying conditions under which people would compensate their behaviors. Results show that people demonstrate varying intentions to compensate for these activities/behaviors, depending on their environments. These findings emphasize the need to classify physical activities and sedentary behaviors by disadvantaged populations according to their environments and motivations. People's intentions to compensate for their behaviors differ depending on the environments in which their behaviors occur.