Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in A Changing Global Marketplace

Developments in Marketing Science:
Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
Shuang Wu
Felipe Pantoja
Nina Krey Editors
Marketing
Opportunities and
Challenges in a
Changing Global
Marketplace
Proceedings of the 2019 Academy
of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference
Developments in Marketing Science:
Proceedings of the Academy
of Marketing Science
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13409

Shuang Wu • Felipe Pantoja • Nina Krey
Editors
Marketing Opportunities
and Challenges in a
Changing Global
Marketplace
Proceedings of the 2019
Academy of Marketing Science (AMS)
Annual Conference
Editors
Shuang Wu Felipe Pantoja
Rohrer College of Business IÉSEG School of Management
Rowan University Paris, France
Glassboro, NJ, USA
Nina Krey
Rohrer College of Business
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ, USA
ISSN 2363-6165 ISSN 2363-6173 (electronic)

Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
ISBN 978-3-030-39164-5 ISBN 978-3-030-39165-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39165-2
© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020

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2019 Academy of Marketing Science®
Annual Conference
Marketing Opportunities and

Challenges in a
Changing Global Marketplace
May 29–31, 2019
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

Vancouver, Canada
v
AMS Officers (2018–2020)
President Vice President for

O.C. Ferrell, Auburn University, USA Membership-International
Patricia Rossi, IÉSEG School of
Executive Vice President/Director
Management, France
Harold W. Berkman, University of
Miami, USA Vice President for Development
Janna Parker, James Madison
President-Elect
University, USA
Julie Guidry Moulard, Louisiana Tech
University, USA Secretary/Treasurer
Nina Krey, Rowan University, USA
Immediate Past-President
Adilson Borges, Carrefour & NEOMA Co-Chair, Board of Governors
Business School, France Barry J. Babin, Louisiana Tech
University, USA
Vice President for Publications
Joseph F. Hair, Jr., University of South
James S. Boles, University of North
Alabama, USA
Carolina at Greensboro, USA
Co-Director of International
Vice President for Programs
Programs
Brad D. Carlson, St. Louis
Jay D. Lindquist, Western Michigan
University, USA
University, USA
Vice President for Membership- Barry J. Babin, Louisiana Tech
North America University, USA
Mark Peterson, University of John B. Ford, Old Dominion
Wyoming, USA University, USA
vii
AMS Board of Governors
Barry J. Babin David J. Ortinau

Louisiana Tech University, USA University of South Florida, USA
Co-Chair (2016–2022) (2016–2022)
Joseph F. Hair, Jr. Nicholas Paparoidamis
University of South Alabama, USA Leonard De Vinci Business School,
Co-Chair (2018–2024) France (2018–2024)
Adel El-Ansary Leyland Pitt
University of North Florida, USA Simon Fraser University, Canada
(2014–2020) (2016–2022)
Linda Ferrell Linda Price
Auburn University, USA (2018–2024) University of Arizona, USA
(2014–2020)
Linda Golden
University of Texas, USA (2018–2024) Bodo Schlegelmilch
Vienna University of Economics and
Jean-Luc Herrmann
Business Administration, Austria
University of Lorraine, France
(2014–2020)
(2016–2022)
Eli Jones
Texas A&M University, USA
(2014–2020)
ix
2019 AMS Annual Conference Co-Chairs
Altaf Merchant, University of Washington Tacoma, USA

Jeannette A. Mena, University of South Florida, USA
xi
2 019 AMS Annual Conference Tracks
and Track Chairs
Advertising & IMC

Douglas West, King’s College London, UK
Gerard Prendergast, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
B2B Marketing & Supply Chain Management
Jennifer A. Espinosa, Rowan University, USA
Robert E. Hooker, University of South Florida, USA
Iana Lukina, University of South Florida, USA
Big Data and Marketing Analytics
Prokriti Mukherji, King’s College London, UK
Sergio Davalos, University of Washington, Tacoma, USA
Brand Management
Cleopatra Veloutsou, University of Glasgow, UK
Fabien Pecot, University of York, UK
Consumer Behavior
Jean-Luc Herrmann, University of Lorraine, France
Claas Christian Germelmann, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Digital Marketing & Social Media
Janna Parker, James Madison University, USA
Debra Zahay, St. Edward’s University, USA
Kirk Plangger, King’s College London, UK
Ethics, Sustainability, & Corporate Social Responsibility
Pinar Kekec, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA
Yanhui Zhao, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA
Innovation & New Product Development
Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl, Brock University, Canada
Adam Mills, Loyola University New Orleans, USA
xiii
xiv 2019 AMS Annual Conference: Tracks and Track Chairs
International Marketing
Tarek Mady, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
Arne Baruca, Texas A&M San Antonio, USA
Marketing Pedagogy & Education
Varsha Jain, MICA, India
Subhadip Roy, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
Marketing Strategy
H. Erkan Ozkaya, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, USA
Martin Heinberg, University of Leeds, UK
Non-Profit Marketing & Public Policy
Christopher Hopkins, Auburn University, USA
Karen Hopkins, Auburn University, USA
Personal Selling & Sales Management
Blake A. Runnalls, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA
Wyatt Schrock, Michigan State University, USA
Research Methods
M. Billur Akdeniz, University of New Hampshire, USA
Ashwin Malshe, University of Texas San Antonio, USA
Retailing & Pricing
K. Sivakumar, Lehigh University, USA
S.P. Raj, Syracuse University, USA
Sensory Marketing
Lauren M. Brewer, University of Texas Arlington, USA
Services Marketing
Nicholas Paparoidamis, Leonard De Vinci Business School, France
Achilleas Boukis, University of Sussex, UK
Sports and Entertainment Marketing
Gregory Rose, University of Washington, Tacoma, USA
Vassilis Dalakas, California State University San Marcos, USA
Wine and Tourism Marketing
Drew Martin, University of South Carolina, USA
Ulrich Orth, Kiel University, Germany
Doctoral Colloquium
John B. Ford, Old Dominion University, USA
Mathieu Kacha, University of Lorraine, France
Mary Kay Inc. Doctoral Dissertation Competition
Rajshekar Agnihotri, Iowa State University, USA
Ritesh Saini, University of Texas Arlington, USA
2019 AMS Annual Conference: Tracks and Track Chairs xv
Special Session Submissions

Altaf Merchant, University of Washington Tacoma, USA
Jeannette A. Mena, University of South Florida, USA
Proceedings Editors
Shuang Wu, Rowan University, USA
Felipe Pantoja, IÉSEG School of Management, France
2019 AMS Annual Conference Reviewers
Thank you to all those who reviewed papers for the 2019 AMS Annual Conference.
These people include:
Zahid Abdul Joshua Beck Victor Chernetsky

Annika Abell Jonathan Beck Yoon-Na Cho
Claire-Lise Ackermann Colleen Bee Raeesah Chohan
Ravi Agarwal Gerald-Alexander Beese Tilottama Chowdhury
Praveen Aggarwal Lydie Belaud Gonzalez Christine
Carl-Philip Ahlbom Ilgim Dara Benoit Anis Chtourou
Faheem Ahmed Margo Bergman Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu
Andreas Aigner Laurent Bertrandias Maggie Chu
Damon Aiken Jannick Bettels Chih-Ning Chu
Mohamed Akli Achabou Nora Bezaz John Cicala
Pia A. Albinsson Pelin Bicen Samuel Clarke
Thomas Allard Martin Bieler Joe Cobbs
Suzanne Amaro Dipayan Biswas Corine Cohen
Mohammad Amin Hulda Black Anatoli Colicev
Paolo Antonetti Charles Blankson Benedetta Crisafulli
Chiraz Aouina-Mejri Willy Bolander Ryan Cruz
Aaisha Arbab Khan Laura Boman Charles Cui
Anahit Armenakyan Raghu Bommaraju Peggy Cunnningham
Aaron Arndt Phil Boutin Steve Dahlquist
S Arunachalam Branko Bozic Steven Dahlquist
Samreen Ashraf S Brasel Abhinita Daiya
Salim Azar John Bredican Hannes Datta
Christian Baccarella Joël Brée Gwarlann de Kerviler
Hajer Bachouche Mathilde Briffa Anouk de Regt
Todd Bacile Terrence Brown Dawn Deeter-Schmelz
Shilpa Bagdare Mario Burghausen Yashar Dehdashti
Ramin Bagherzadeh Marine Cambefort Sihem Dekhili
Tom Baker Fanny Cambier Marjorie Delbaere
Marat Bakpayev Sonia Capelli Deborah DeLong
xvii
xviii 2019 AMS Annual Conference Reviewers
Laurie Balbo Jeffrey Carlson Catherine Demangeot

Snehasish Banerjee Albert Caruana Qian Claire Deng
Kevin Bao Mark Case Timothy Dewhirst
Christian Barney Nawar Chaker Mbaye Diallo
Robert Barnwell Eugene Chan Christian Dianoux
Paul Barretta Elisa Chan Mohamed Didi Alaoui
Debra Basil Kimmy Chan Larissa Diekmann
Michael Basil Joseph W. Chang Cassie Ditt
Sofia Batsila Ian Chaplin Andrea Dixon
Brittney Bauer Danli Chen Souad Djelassi
Carlos Bauer Mei-Fang Chen Sara Dommer
Enrique Becerra Rocky Peng Chen Xinyu Dong
Meichen Dong Ashley Goreczny Nouman Inamullah Khan
Beibei Dong Phillip Grant Mathew Isaac
Olivier Droulers Richard Gretz Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq
Shuili Du David Griffith Chiharu Ishida
Sherese Duncan Maximilian Groh Daisuke Ishida
Lea Dunn Lin Guo Omar Itani
Sujay Dutta Aditya Gupta Mazen Jaber
Jackie Eastman Patricia Gurviez Varsha Jain
Ceren Ekebas-Turedi Young Ha A.K. Jaiswal
Dhouha El Amri Nick Hajli Kevin James
Leila El Kamel Zach Hall Melissa James
Yasmine El-Alami Linda Hamdi-Kidar Narayanan Janakiraman
Theresa Eriksson Kyuhong Han Maria Susana Jaramillo Echeverri
Carol Esmark-Jones Tyler Hancock Jonathan Jensen
Alice Falchi Sara Hanson Vincent Jeseo
Xi Fang Carissa Harris Yuwei Jiang
Jillian Farquhar Nathaniel Hartmann Jinfeng Jiao
Mana Farshid Courtney Hatch Clark Johnson
Fernando Fastoso Xin He Katy Johnson
Ivan Fedorenko Heping He Jeff Johnson
Cong Feng Jayne Heaford Joseph Jones
Caitlin Ferreira Kerstin Heilgenberg Julien Jouny
Malte Fiedler Sasawan Heingraj Elodie Jouny-Rivier
Marc Filser Raficka Hellal-Guendouzi Andrew Kaikati
Nathalie Fleck Aurélie Hemonnet-Goujot Daniel Kaimann
Jason Flores Cathy Hessick Prateek Kalia
Andrew Flostrand Ali Heydari Ashish Kalra
John Ford Anna-Laura Himmelreich Kostas Kaminakis
Renaud Frazer Chris Hinsch Harish Kapoor
Ryan Freling Benedikt Hirschfelder Evmorfia Karampournioti
Scott Friend Candy Ho Ilke Kardes
Nobuyuki Fukawa Arvid Hoffmann Diego Alvarado Karste
Colin Gabler Earl Honeycutt Saim Kashmiri
Dinesh Gauri David Houghton Rajiv Kashyap
2019 AMS Annual Conference Reviewers xix
Susi Geiger Chuck Howard Iliana Katsaridou

Sonja Gensler Ming-Hsiung Hsiao Eva Katsikea
Tilo Ghosh Richard Huaman-Ramirez Brett Kazandjian
Alex Gillett Rong Huang Astrid Keel
Apostolos Giovanis Jian Huang Aurelie Kessous
John Gironda Marius Huber Mansur Khamitov
Delphine Godefroit-Winkel Gary Hunter Muhammad Ali Khan
Bruno Godey Elodie Huré Moein Khanlari
Claudia Gonzalez Jiyoung Hwang Adwait Khare
Eva María González Antonio Hyder Jan Kietzmann
Hector Gonzalez-Jimenez Marco Ieva Mark Kilgour
Sunah Kim Subin Im Adam Mills
Taewan Kim Niko Lipiäinen Tajvidi Mina
Minjeong Kim Luke Liska Chieko Minami
Saejoon Kim Jennifer Locander Aditya Mishra
Jungkeun Kim Carmen Lopez Alexander Mitchell
Kyeongheui Kim Nadina Luca Natalie Mitchell
Jesse King Marcel Lukas Robert Mittelman
Eva Kipnis Renaud Lunardo Satheesh Monash
Theresa Kirchner Donald Lund Sonia Monga
Kirsi Kokkonen Minghui Ma Matteo Montecchi
Tara Konya Han Ma Zachary Moore
Melika Kordrostami Nada Maaninou Gerardo Moreira
Elika Kordrostami Peter Maas Oscar Moreno
Ioannis Kostopoulos Sreedhar Madhavaram Todd Morgan
Alena Kostyk Bob Madrigal Prokriti Mukherji
Prabakar Kothandaraman Sarah Mady Shantanu Mullick
Nevena Koukova Fanny Magnoni Ryan Mullins
Joy Kozar Solon Magrizos Pauline Munten
Nina Krey Lukas Maier Feisal Murshed
Anjala Krishen Moutusi Maity Lubna Nafees
Kirk Kristofferson Keven Malkewitz Zhaleh Najafi-Tavani
Marc Kuhn Suresh Malodia Kelly Naletelich
Monika Kukar-Kinney Stephanie Mangus Aidin Namin
Atul Kumar Sudha Mani Jean-Philippe Nau
Dr.Poonam Kumar Racat Margot Chris Nelson
Amogh Kumbargeri Viola Marquardt Magda Nenycz-Thiel
Zhou Kun Hannah Marriott Raine Ng
Ho Yan Kwan José Marti Thi Le Huyen Nguyen
Ohjin Kwon Noemí Martínez-Caraballo Bridget Nichols
Sophie Lacoste-Badie Nikita Matta Cameron Nicol
Candy Lai Frank May Xiaodong Nie
Matt Lastner Boris Maynadier Marzena Nieroda
Justin Lawrence Mieszko Mazur Charles Noble
Thomas Leclercq Ian McCarthy Edward Nowlin
Ju-Yeon Lee Shannon McCarthy Michael Obal
xx 2019 AMS Annual Conference Reviewers
Ada Lee Jane McKay-Nesbitt Obinna Obilo

Hyeryeon Lee Zanele Mdlekeza Christina O’Connor
Chris Lee Joanna Melancon Jessica Ogilvie
Sheena Leek Choukri Menidjel Hannah Oh
Kevin Lehnert Katrin Merfeld Benjamin Österle
Jean-François Lemoine Sayma Messelmani Sergio Osuna
James Leonhardt Melisa Mete Carmen Otero-Neira
Connie Li Nina Michaelidou Yi-Chun Ou
Xingbo Li Geraldine Michel Elif Ozkaya
Hsin-Yi Liao Jan Andre Millemann Carmen Padin Fabeiro
Marcel Lichters Karen Miller Margherita Pagani
Nikolaos Panagopoulos Paul Mills Kim Sheehan
Swati Panda Karen Robson Fanjuan Shi
Jyoti Pandey Paula Rodrigues Hyunju Shin
Gaelle Pantin-Sohier Clarinda Rodrigues Hamid Shirdastian
Felipe Pantoja Rocio Rodriguez Herrera Ream Shoreibah
Jimi Park Claire Roederer Béatrice Siadou-Martin
Ulrich Paschen Jose I. Rojas-Mendez Nikoletta-Theofania Siamagka
Jeannette Paschen Gregory Rose Rafay Siddiqui
Munten Pauline Spencer Ross Debika Sihi
Michael Peasley Patricia Rossi Cláudia Simões
Fabien Pecot Lori Rothenberg Françoise Simon
Mark Peterson Don Roy Bonnie Simpson
Maria Petrescu Carla Ruiz Mafe Ramendra Singh
Dan Petrovici Claudia-Roxana Rusu Tanya Singh
Luca Petruzzellis Jose Saavedra Priyanka Singh
Bruce Pfeiffer William Sabadie Rakesh Singh
Heather Philip Ouidade Sabri Romain Sohier
Megan Phillips Aarti Saini Stefanie Sohn
Karine Picot-Coupey Ritesh Saini Hyunsang Son
Rico Piehler Sajeesh Sajeesh Juan Carlos Sosa Varela
Deepa Pillai Tina Saksida Robin Soster
Valentina Pitardi Nestor U. Salcedo Rajesh Srivastava
Kirk Plangger Roberto Saldivar Marla Stafford
Daria Plotkina Mohammad Amin Saleh Kristin Stewart
Nadia Pomirleanu Leila Samii Jennifer Stoner
Ingrid Poncin Doreen Sams Qiuli Su
Veronika Ponomarenko Minita Sanghvi Sijie Sun
Lucia Porcu Shamindra Sanyal Gokhan Surmeli
Claudio Pousa Panagiotis Sarantopoulos Shanu Sushmita
Paolo Prado Soumya Sarkar Goran Svensson
Katerina Pramatari Sudipto Sarkar Holly Syrdal
Teresa Preston Marko Sarstedt Courtney Szocs
Amanda Pruski-Yamim Huma Sarwar Takumi Tagashira
Margot Racat Sarah Schaefer Berk Talay
Mohammad Rahman Tobias Schaefers Felix Tang
2019 AMS Annual Conference Reviewers xxi
Vahid Rahmani Angeline Scheinbaum Chuanyi Tang

Ananya Rajagopal Kristen Schiele Yang Tang
Rajagopal Rajagopal Steffen Schmidt Jennifer Tatara
Praneet Randhawa Monika Schuhmacher David Taylor
Adam Rapp Christopher Schumacher Serdar Temiz
Cata Ratiu Noel Scott Shawn Thelen
Monika Rawal Samuel Sekar Robert Thomas
Mignon Reyneke Asim Shabir Meredith Thomas
Alyssa Reynolds G Shainesh Anastasia Thyroff
Parichehr Riahi Pour Hamid Shaker Sebastian Timmer
Arnaud Rivière Kevin Shanahan Kenneth C. C. Yang
Carri Tolmie Jyoti Sharma Jun Ye
Alastair Tombs Björn Walliser Frederick Hong-Kit Yim
Giulio Toscani Hao Wang Shjin Yoo
Jean-François Toti Kai-Yu Wang Chebli Youness
Magali Trelohan Dian Wang Zhihao Yu
Sanjeev Tripathi Sabinah Wanjugu Debra Zahay-Blatz
Julien Troiville Alison Watkins Zoila Zambrano
Alex Tsang Renee Watson Cesar Zamudio
Aybars Tuncdogan Ruiqi Wei Jim Zboja
Ceren Turedi Klaus-Peter Wiedmann Xiaohua Zeng
Serdar Turedi Ria Wild Luna Zhang
David Tyler J’Den Williams Junzhou Zhang
Zeeshan Ullah David Woisetschlaeger Haisu Zhang
Ebru Ulusoy Jiajun Wu Xiaoyun Zheng
Cyrielle Vellera Shuang Wu Xia Zhu
Nanda Viswanathan Jessica Wyllie Weiling Zhuang
Kai-Ingo Voigt Lan Xia Peter Zubcsek
Sergej von Janda Yazhen Xiao
Jessica Vredenburg Ge Xiao
Travis Walkowiak Hangjun Xu
Norah Xu
Preface
The Academy of Marketing Science was founded in 1971, held its first Annual
Conference in 1977, and has grown and prospered ever since. The relevancy of the
Academy’s mission and activities to our chosen target market of the marketing pro-
fessoriate has been a key factor in attracting the discipline’s best and brightest from
all over the world.
The revised Articles of Association of the Academy, approved by the Board of
Governors in the spring of 1984 and by the general membership in the fall of that
year, define the mission of the Academy as follows:
1. Provide leadership in exploring the normative boundaries of marketing, while
simultaneously seeking new ways of bringing theory and practice into practi-
cable conjunction.
2. Further the science of marketing throughout the world by promoting the con-
duct of research and the dissemination of research results.
3. Provide a forum for the study and improvement of marketing as an economic,
ethical, social, and political force and process.
4. Furnish, as appropriate and available, material and other resources for the solu-
tion of marketing problems, which confront particular firms and industries, on
the one hand, and society at large on the other.
5. Provide publishing media and facilities for fellows of the Academy and reviewer
assistance on the fellow’s scholarly activities.
6. Sponsor one or more annual conferences to enable the fellows of the Academy
to present research results; to learn by listening to other presentations and
through interaction with other fellows and guests; to avail themselves of the
placements process; to conduct discussion with book editors; and to exchange
other relevant information.
7. Assist fellows in the better utilization of their professional marketing talents
through redirection, reassignment, and relocation.
8. Provide educator fellows with insights and suck resources as may be available
to aid them in the development of improved teaching methods, materials,
devices, and directions.
xxiii
xxiv Preface
9. Seek means for establishing student scholarships and professional university

chairs in the field of marketing.
10. Offer fellows of the Academy status to business and institutional executives and
organizations.
11. Modify the Academy’s purpose and direction as the influence of time and
appropriate constructive forces may dictate.
Glassboro, NJ Shuang Wu

Paris, France Felipe Pantoja
Glassboro, NJ Nina Krey
Acknowledgments
This book contains the full proceedings of the 2019 Academy of Marketing Science
Annual Conference held in Vancouver, Canada. Appreciation and gratitude are
extended to the organization committee for completing and handling a variety of
tasks associated with an event of this scale particularly well.
Under the theme “Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing Global
Marketplace,” this volume provides insights into topics related to today’s global
marketplace that is truly fast changing. Research from marketing scholars from
around the world covers opportunities and challenges including the rising middle
class in emerging markets, disruptive technological breakthroughs, new real-time
consumer insights facilitated by big data analytics, changing consumer habits and
preferences, growth in the international commerce, the relevant concerns over
national trade policies, renewed ethical concerns about consumer privacy, and the
tools through which companies operate, market, connect with, and build relation-
ships with their customers. In addition, the rate of change drives companies to con-
tinually evaluate and adapt their marketing strategies and structures to remain
competitive. Taking into account these current affairs, this conference focuses on
exploring the marketing opportunities and challenges that exist in this fast-changing
landscape.
The Academy of Marketing Science would like to acknowledge the individuals
who have made the conference a success. Special recognition goes to the conference
co-chairs, Altaf Merchant and Jeannette Mena. An incredible commitment is neces-
sary to coordinate and organize a conference of this measure. Further, track chairs
were essential in encouraging submissions, managing the review process, and orga-
nizing session details. Gratitude is also extended to the AMS home office as well as
all the volunteers who diligently worked behind the scenes to ensure the success of
the event.
xxv
xxvi Acknowledgments
Lastly, the Academy of Marketing Science extends sincere appreciation to all

authors who submitted and presented their research, contributed as reviewers and
discussion leaders, and all others who volunteered to ensure the success of the meet-
ing. Thank you to all attendees from around the world who made this conference
another special AMS event. The 2019 Academy of Marketing Science Annual
Conference would not have been possible without the support of all of these
individuals.
Glassboro, USA Shuang Wu

Paris, France Felipe Pantoja
Glassboro, USA Nina Krey
Contents
xploring Customer Engagement and Sharing Behavior

E
in Social Media Brand Communities: Curvilinear Effects
and the Moderating Roles of Perceived Innovativeness and Perceived
Interactivity: An Abstract �� 1
Jamie Carlson, Yi-Chuan Liao, and Mohammad M. Rahman
etween a Banker and a Barbie: The Illusions of Social Media:
B
An Abstract�� 3
Samreen Ashraf
Longitudinal Review of Models in Marketing Research:
A
An Abstract�� 5
Mark Bender, Veronika Ponomarenko, Hao Wang, Khalia Jenkins, and
Donna Davis
hat would we Hear if we Really Listened? Using I-poems in Qualitative
W
Marketing Research: An Abstract�� 7
Julie Robson and Caroline Burr
ffects of Environmental and Social Sustainability Perceptions
E
on Willingness to Co-Create from Consumer Perspective: An Abstract�� 9
Gözde Erdogan
ecision-Making and Interruptions: An Abstract�� 11
D
Regina Schreder
uying Authentic Luxury Products or Counterfeits:
B
The Role of Benign and Malicious Envy: An Abstract �� 13
Murong Miao
xcitement or Fear? The Effect of a Personalized In-Store Experience
E
on Consumers: An Abstract�� 15
Anne-Sophie Riegger
xxvii
xxviii Contents
ll Hands on Deck Special Session: Cultivating Socially Responsible

A
Consumers and Corporations: An Abstract�� 17
Elisa Chan, Felix Tang, and Maggie Y. Chu
ll Hands on Deck Special Session: Motivating or De-motivating
A
Responsible Consumption? The Divergent Influences
of Moral Emotions: An Abstract�� 19
Maggie Y. Chu and Lisa C. Wan
ll Hands on Deck Special Session: Personifying Socially Responsible
A
Corporations: Scale Development and Validation: An Abstract �� 21
Vane I. Tian, Felix Tang, and Alan C. B. Tse
ll Hands on Deck Special Session: How CSR
A
and Servant Leadership Climate Affect Employee Cynicism
and Work Meaning? An Abstract�� 23
Elisa Chan and Frederick Yim
Non-Compliance Is a Double-Edged Sword: An Abstract �� 25
Amanda Yamim and Adilson Borges
A Critical Review of Institutional Theory in Marketing: An Abstract �� 27
Jeannette A. Mena and Veronika Ponomarenko
oes the Environmentally Friendliness of a Service Invite
D
Customer Loyalty? The Role of Positive Emotions: An Abstract�� 29
Birgit Leisen Pollack
xtended Service Plans and Buyer Perceptions and Behaviors
E
in Automobile Industry: An Abstract�� 31
Chiharu Ishida, Nat Pope, and Peter Kaufman
pecial Session: “The World Needs Storytellers”: New Research
S
Avenues for Storytelling in Marketing: An Abstract�� 33
Edward L. Nowlin, Claas Christian Germelmann, Sahar Karimi, Nawar
N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, Doug Walker, and Klaus-Peter
Wiedmann
pecial Session: Measuring Salesperson Storytelling: An Abstract�� 35
S
Edward L. Nowlin, Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, and
Doug Walker
ow do International Co-branding Alliances Affect Host Country
H
Consumers’ Purchase Intention? An Abstract�� 37
Murong Miao
oes Model Ethnicity Matter in International Advertising? A Literature
D
Review on Model Ethnicity and Related Topics: An Abstract �� 39
Kristina Harrison
Contents xxix
roduct Innovation Determinants and Export Performance

P
in French and Ukrainian SMEs�� 41
Oksana Kantaruk Pierre
pecial Session: The (Co-)creation of Brand Heritage: An Abstract�� 53
S
Fabien Pecot, Mario Burghausen, Joshua Butcher, Bradford Hudson, and
George Wyner
pecial Session: Dehumanization of Robotic Assistants
S
and Subsequent Unethical and Abusive Customer Behavior
in Frontline Encounters: An Abstract�� 55
Yu-Shan (Sandy) Huang and Nobuyuki Fukawa
pecial Session: Rise of the Service Robots:
S
Exploring Consumer Acceptance: An Abstract�� 57
Stefanie Paluch, Thorsten Gruber, Werner Kunz, Jochen Wirtz, Vinh Nhat
Lu, Paul Patterson, and Antje Martins
xploration of the Role of Packaging Design
E
for Multi-tier Private Brands: An Abstract �� 59
Jiyoung Hwang
nderstanding Risk Statements Within Drug Injury Advertising:
U
An Abstract�� 61
Jesse King and Elizabeth Tippett
he Effect of Social Distance on Donations to Care Versus Cure:
T
Laura Boman and Xin He
ustomer Reactions to Voluntary Use
C
of Automated Service Interactions: An Abstract�� 65
Hyunju Shin and Bo Dai
hallenges in Usage of Unstructured Data
C
in Marketing Decision Making: An Abstract�� 67
Valeriia Chernikova and Johanna Frösén
n Investigation of the Effect of Retargeting
A
on Willingness-to-Pay in Online Environments: An Abstract�� 69
Hamid Shaker and Sylvain Sénécal
I nfluence of Web Design Features on Attitudes and Intentions
in Travel Decision Making�� 71
Zahra Pourabedin and Vahid Biglari
irtual Reality (VR) Content Is the New Reality
V
for Destination Marketing Organizations:
Investigating the Role of VR as a Destination Branding Tactic: An
Abstract�� 83
Kerry T. Manis
xxx Contents
xplaining Sustainable Consumption: A Theoretical

E
and Empirical Analysis: An Abstract�� 85
Naz Onel
pecial Session: Digital Data, Security, and Platform Design:
S
Is Marketing the Problem or Solution? An Abstract�� 87
Martin Key, Debra Zahay, Rich Hanna, Jan Kietzmann, and Kirk
Plangger
I t Looks Good so Let’s Show it off: A Psychoraphic Segmentation
of Instagrammers: An Abstract�� 89
Takumi Tagashira, Victoria Andrade, and Shintaro Okazaki
I Hate This Brand! A Classification of Brand Haters Based
on their Motivations and Reactions: An Abstract�� 91
Oula Bayarassou, Imène Becheur, and Pierre Valette-Florence
ompetitive Teamwork: Developing a Team-Based Selling Competition
C
in an Undergraduate Professional Selling Class: An Abstract�� 93
William H. Bergman and Jeffrey R. Carlson
pecial Session on Research Opportunities in Direct Selling:
S
Robert A. Peterson, O. C. Ferrell, Linda Ferrell, Victoria Crittenden, and
Linda L. Golden
pecial Session: An International Perspective
S
of Overcoming Difficulties and Challenges in Doctoral
and Early Career Years: An Abstract�� 97
Nina Krey, Shuang Wu, and Sabinah Wanjugu
oes Training Teachers in Financial Education Improve
D
Students’ Financial Well-Being? An Abstract �� 99
Tina Harrison, Caroline Marchant, Jake Ansell, and Robyn
Vernon-Harcourt
he Logo Life Cycle: An Abstract�� 101
T
Keven Malkewitz and Nicholas Ketcham
eyond Hedonic Consumption: The Role of
B
Eudaimonic Value in Consumer–Brand Relationships: An Abstract �� 103
Khaled Aboulnasr and Gina Tran
Disentangling the Meanings of Brand Authenticity: An Abstract �� 105
Julie Guidry Moulard, Randle D. Raggio, and Judith Anne
Garretson Folse
xploring Facets of Spokesperson Effectiveness in B2B Advertising:
E
What Works and What doesn’t? An Abstract �� 107
Subhadip Roy, Soumya Sarkar, and Prashant Mishra
Contents xxxi
eturn on Investment of Effective Complaint Management:

R
Synthesis and Research Directions: An Abstract�� 109
Christine Armstrong, Jamie Carlson, Tania Sourdin, and Martin Watts
istance is Worth! Impacts of Spatial Distance Between Model
D
and Product on Product Evaluation: An Abstract�� 111
Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, Chun-Tuan Chang, and Dickson Tok
he Study of Different Factors Affecting Salesperson Deviance:
T
Douglas Amyx, Bruce Alford, Louis J. Zmich, Jennifer Amyx, Breanne
Mertz, and Cameron Sumlin
hy Narcissists Prefer Genuine to High-Quality Counterfeit Luxury:
W
The Role of Authentic and Hubristic Pride: An Abstract�� 115
Fernando Fastoso, Boris Bartikowski, and Siqi Froehlich-Wang
ime-Based Deals: How Non-Monetary Discounts Can Reduce
T
the Post-Promotion Dip: An Abstract�� 117
Myungjin Chung and Ritesh Saini
rom Psychological Myopia to Food Myopia:
F
A Consumer Perspective: An Abstract�� 119
Asim Qazi and Véronique Cova
o-creators Endorsing their Winning Product Idea
C
in Ads: Dealing with Brand Audiences’ Skepticism: An Abstract�� 121
Fanny Cambier and Ingrid Poncin
ight Digit Effect and Subjective Relative Income: An Abstract�� 123
R
Mazen Jaber and Kylie Jaber
ig Data Analytics, New Product Ideas, and Decision Making:
B
Matteo Montecchi, Kirk Plangger, Colin Campbell, and Jessica Graves
alesperson Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Revisited:
S
A Combinatory Perspective: An Abstract �� 127
Rushana Khusainova, Ad de Jong, Nick Lee, Greg W. Marshall, and
John M. Rudd
on-conscious Effect of Moral Identity Prime
N
on Perceived Reasonableness and Affective Account on Customer
Satisfaction: An Abstract�� 129
Nobuyuki Fukawa and David W. Stewart
Winning Formula for Maximizing Sales Performance through
A
Multi-Dimensional Effort: An Abstract �� 131
Michael Peasley, Willy Bolander, and Riley Dugan
Digital Advocacy Among Industrial Employees: An Abstract �� 133
Mana Farshid, Albert Caruana, and Esmail Salehi-Sangari
xxxii Contents
When my Brand does Something Morally Wrong: An Abstract�� 135

Hua Chang and Lingling Zhang
he Evolution of Influencer–Follower Relationships:
T
A Life-Cycle Approach: An Abstract �� 137
Sören Köcher, Sarah Köcher, and Linda Alkire (née Nasr)
ow and When does Functional Diversity Impact
H
Sales Team Effectiveness: An Abstract�� 139
Edward L. Nowlin, Doug Walker, Dawn Deeter-Schmelz, and Nawar
N. Chaker
ove Consumption at the Digital Age: Online Consumer Review
L
and Romantic Gift Giving: An Abstract�� 141
Lilly Ye, Lili Gai, Eyad Youssef, and Tao Jiang
utcomes of Dialogic Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility
O
(CSR): Strengthening Brand Loyalty Through Online Brand Community
Engagement, Brand Trust and CSR Authenticity: An Abstract�� 143
Joon Soo Lim and Hua Jiang
igital Customer Empowerment Tools for Marketers: An Abstract�� 145
D
Mujde Yuksel, George R. Milne, and Lauren I. Labrecque
Longitudinal Study of Sustainability Attitudes, Intentions,
A
and Behaviors: An Abstract�� 147
Galen Trail and Brian McCullough
he Impact of Culture on Humorous Ads: An Abstract�� 149
T
Dragana Medic and Jean-Marc Decaudin
ELQUAL-determinants on Satisfaction in Buyer–Supplier
R
Relationship of Puerto Rican SMEs: An Abstract�� 151
Juan Carlos Sosa Varela, Enid Miranda Ramírez, and Göran Svensson
ustomer Experience of Value: Some Insights
C
into the Satisfaction–Loyalty Link and Customer Loyalty Retention:
Shu-Ching Chen
pecial Session: How the Desire for Unique Products Strengthens
S
the Link between Luxury Attitudes and Sustainability Behaviors:
Sihem Dekhili, Jacqueline K. Eastman, and Rajesh Iyer
nderstanding Information Bias: The Perspective of Online Review
U
Component: An Abstract�� 157
Qiong Jia, Yue Guo, and Stuart Barnes
actors Affecting Consumer Responses to Brand Advertising
F
on Social Media: An Abstract �� 159
Nina Michaelidou, Milena Micevski, and Georgios Halkias
Contents xxxiii
ow Many Likes are Good Enough? An Evaluation of Social Media

H
Performance: An Abstract�� 161
Caitlin C. Ferreira and Jeandri Robertson
o Kneel or Not to Kneel? Just Do It! Assessing Consumer Responses
T
to Organizational Engagement in Political Discourse: An Abstract �� 163
Jason Flores, Marisa Flores, Roberto Saldivar, and Arne Baruca
I nferences about Target Marketing from Languages on Website
and its Implications: An Abstract�� 165
Kristina Harrison, Mahesh Gopinath, and Myron Glassman
onsumer Response to Sport Sponsor’s Message Articulation
C
and Activation on Twitter: An Abstract �� 167
Abhishek Mishra and Kapil Kaushik
xploring Usage Motives for Corporate Multimodal Mobility Services:
E
A Hierarchical Means-End Chain Analysis: An Abstract�� 169
Sebastian Timmer, Katrin Merfeld, and Sven Henkel
The Effect of Emoji Incongruency in Social Media: An Abstract �� 171
Laura Boman, Ganga Urumutta Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford
e, Myself and my Smartphone: Antecedents of Smartphone
M
Attachment: An Abstract�� 173
Stefanie Sohn, Evmorfia Karampournioti, Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, and
Wolfgang Fritz
o Death Thoughts Influence the Choice of Brand Loyalty Program?
D
A Case of Lebanon: An Abstract�� 175
Rayan Fawaz and Shintaro Okazaki
I nvolvement and Brand Engagement Outcomes in Facebook Brand Posts:
A Gender Twist: An Abstract�� 177
Ryan E. Cruz, James M. Leonhardt, and Nina Krey
I mplications of the Developments in Metaphors Research
for Marketing Communications: A Review and Research Agenda:
Sreedhar Madhavaram, Dorcia Bolton, and Vishag Badrinarayanan
he Joint Impact of Goal Type and Goal Completion Magnitude
T
on Consumer’ Post-Goal-Completion Behavior: An Abstract�� 181
Junzhou Zhang and Yuping Liu-Thompkins
Moment of Influence: Understanding the Customer Experience after
A
Receiving a Penalty: An Abstract �� 183
Mary P. Harrison and Sharon Beatty
trategic Tripod in Internet-Enabled Market: Consumer Self-Construal
S
Level, Consumer Involvement, and Firm Resources: An Abstract �� 185
Yunmei Kuang
xxxiv Contents
Preliminary Tests of the Consumer Normalcy Scale: An Abstract �� 187

Alex H. Cohen, Jorge E. Fresneda, and Rolph E. Anderson
he Impact of Advertising Appeals on Consumers’ Perception
T
of an Advertisement for a Technical Product and the Moderating Roles
of Endorser Type and Endorser Age�� 189
Karina Skupin, Ardion Beldad, and Mark Tempelman
nline Versus Face-to-Face: How Customer-to-Customer Interactions
O
Impact Customer Experience Behaviors: An Abstract�� 201
Hulda G. Black and Matt Lastner
he Effect of Fear, Threat, and Trust Among Voters in the 2016
T
U.S. Presidential Election: An Abstract �� 203
Boonghee Yoo, Shawn T. Thelen, and Jessica Feinstein
Towards a Model of Inclusive Ethnic Advertising: An Abstract �� 205
Tana Cristina Licsandru and Charles Chi Cui
ustomer Engagement with Augmented Reality Mobile Apps:
C
Graeme McLean and Alan Wilson
ow Organizations can Capitalize on Customer-Caused Failures:
H
Vincent Jeseo, Matthew M. Lastner, Patrick Fennell, and Judith Anne
Garretson Folse
elf-Gift, Luxury Consumption, and Materialism:
S
The Way to Happiness! An Abstract�� 211
Chiraz Aouina-Mejri, Judith Partouche, and Tingting Mo
hy do Consumers Procrastinate and What Happens Next?
W
Shabnam Zanjani, George Milne, and Deepa Pillai
ood Acculturation of Professional Expatriates:
F
A Cross-Cultural Study: An Abstract�� 215
Raficka Hellal-Guendouzi and Sihem Dekhili
erroir and its Evocation: What a Wine Terroir of Origin Evokes?
T
An Exploratory Qualitative Study of the Meaning of Terroir Product
Consumption�� 217
Julien Couder and Pierre Valette-Florence
ocial Media Sentiment, Customer Satisfaction, and Stock Returns:
S
Amanda Strydom, Dimitri Kapelianis, and Itayi Mutsonziwa
Contents xxxv
ither Bandwagon Effect or Need for Uniqueness?

E
Motivational Factors Driving Young Adult Consumers’ Luxury Brand
Purchases: An Abstract �� 233
Eunjoo Cho, Ui-Jeen Yu, and Jihyun Kim
leasure versus Healthiness in Multi-Ingredient Sustainable Foods:
P
How Centrality Influences Performance: An Abstract�� 235
G. Balaji and Anandakuttan B. Unnithan
The Impact of Sonic Logos on Brand Perceptions: An Abstract�� 237
Shawn P. Scott, Daniel Sheinin, and Lauren I. Labrecque
Gifting Practices: Is it Really the Thought that Counts? An Abstract �� 239
Pia A. Albinsson and Bidisha Burman
pecial Session: How does Marketing Fit in the World? Questions
S
of Discipline Expertise, Scope, and Insight: An Abstract�� 241
Martin Key, Terry Clark, O. C. Ferrell, Mark Peterson, Leyland Pitt, and
David Stewart
ocial Listening: Adapting Customer and Competitive Intelligence
S
to the Digital Era: An Abstract �� 243
Erik Mehl and Joël Le Bon
ualitative Insights into Organic Food: Perceptions
Q
of Indian and U.S. Consumers: An Abstract �� 245
Lubna Nafees, Neel Das, Eva Hyatt, and Lawrence Garber Jr
ow Women Respond to Female Empowerment Songs:
H
Melika Kordrostami and Elika Kordrostami
hy I Will Not Use You for My Campaign:
W
The Relationship Between Brand Managers and Sportswomen:
Emmanuel Mogaji, Foluké Abi Badejo, Simon Charles, and Jacqueline
Millisits
andidates as Experiential Brands in U.S. Presidential Elections:
C
Eric Van Steenburg and Francisco Guzman
ffects of Mindset on International Marketing Decisions:
E
The Moderating Role of Psychic Distance: An Abstract�� 253
Christina Papadopoulou, Magnus Hultman, and Aristeidis Theotokis
n Exploratory Study of Globalizing Consumers’ Materialism
A
Tendencies in a Multicultural “Global” Marketplace: An Abstract �� 255
Tarek Mady and Sarah Mady
xxxvi Contents
umerical Framing and Emotional Arousal as Moderators

N
of Review Valence and Consumer Choices: An Abstract �� 257
Anh Dang
Men and the Food Leftovers of Attractive Others: An Abstract �� 259
Larissa Diekmann, Claas Christian Germelmann, and Jannika Ehrenfried
oes Technological Self-Efficacy Decrease New Salesperson
D
Job Insecurity: An Abstract�� 261
John Cicala and Zhoufan Zhang
pecial Session: Marketing and Consumer Wellbeing
S
in Digital Environment: An Abstract �� 263
Shintaro Okazaki, Ko de Ruyter, Prokriti Mukherji, Chieko Minami,
Kenichi Nishioka, and Liu Boyi
Modelling for Mobile: Developing the mUTAUT Model: An Abstract �� 265
Hannah Marriott and Graeme McLean
pening the Innovation Process: The Interrelationship of Firm
O
Reputation and Strategic Innovation Change �� 267
Todd Morgan, Michael Obal, and Robert D. Jewell
Value Destruction in Multichannel Services: An Abstract�� 281
Ilaria Dalla Pozza, Julie Robson, and Jillian Farquhar
omen Leaders and Firm Performance: Unpacking the Effect
W
of Gender and Trust: An Abstract�� 283
Carri Reisdorf Tolmie, Kevin Lehnert, and Carol M. Sánchez
nline Sensory Marketing: The Crossmodal Effect
O
of Background Music and the Look and Feel of a Webshop on
Consumer Reactions�� 285
Carmen Adams and Lieve Doucé
o Salespeople Trust their Customers? Toward an Understanding
D
of Trust in B2B Relationships under Uncertainty: An Abstract�� 297
Maria Rouziou, Itzhak Gilboa, Dominique Rouziès, and Riley Dugan
roposing a Framework of Observe–Hypothesize–Challenge–Resolve
P
(OHCR) Teaching Moves for Knowledge Construction in Marketing
Pedagogy: An Abstract�� 299
R. Ranjit Raj and Ashutosh Dutt
he Effect of the User Experience Cycle on the Adoption of Smart
T
Technologies for Innovative Consumers: The Case of Mass-fashion
and Luxury Wearables: An Abstract �� 301
Marzena Nieroda, Mona Mrad, Michael Solomon, and Charles Cui
Contents xxxvii
o Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds? Examining the Role of a Product’s

D
Packaging Functionality on Consumer Behavior: An Abstract�� 303
Christian V. Baccarella, Lukas Maier, Anna-Laura Himmelreich, and
Kai-Ingo Voigt
n Abstract on Evaluating the Use of Curated Digital Magazines
A
in Marketing Courses: A Comparative Analysis�� 305
Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez and Enda McGovern
pecial Session: Looking for a New Research Partner: Find your Perfect
S
“Researcher Match”: An Abstract �� 307
Janna Parker and Hyunju Shin
evising the Concept and Effectiveness of the Customer Orientation
R
of Salespeople: An Abstract�� 309
Desirée Jost and Alexander Haas
alue from Experiences and Customer Happiness: Implications
V
for Customer Experience Management: An Abstract�� 311
J. Joško Brakus, Yi-Chun Ou, and Lia Zarantonello
ow do Customers Respond to the Use of Self-Service Technologies?
H
An Empirical Study from China: An Abstract�� 313
Qian Xiao, Weiling Zhuang, and Zhongpeng Cao
he Brand Identity of a Football Manager: The Case of Arsène Wenger:
T
Adele Berndt
irtual Trade Show (VTS): A Systematic Literature Review:
V
Mohammad Osman Gani, Yoshi Takahashi, and Anisur R. Faroque
onfronting the Customer–Engagement Paradox
C
in Sales–Leader Succession: An Abstract�� 319
Russell Lemken and Jason Rowe
onsumers’ Non-Participation in Creative Crowdsourcing:
C
Exploration Through the Lenses of Meaning of Work: An Abstract�� 321
Souad Djelassi, Fanny Cambier, and Ingrid Poncin
xploring the Role of Authentic Assessment on the Development
E
of Future Marketers: An Abstract�� 323
Christina O’Connor, Gillian Moran, and Denise Luethge
ow Cultural and Institutional Dimensions Shape Consumer–Brand
H
Relationships’ Effects on Brand Loyalty: An Abstract�� 325
Mansur Khamitov, Matthew Thomson, and Xin (Shane) Wang
xxxviii Contents
ynthesizing Negative Critical Incidents: Integration

S
of Service Failure–Recovery and Brand Transgression Streams:
Mansur Khamitov, Yany Grégoire, and Anshu Suri
andwagon Consumption among the Black Middle Class�� 329
B
Zanele Mdlekeza and Mignon Reyneke
he Issues and Impacts of Programmatic Advertising
T
in the Financial Sector: An Abstract�� 343
Weilan Tang and Renato Hubner Barcelos
arketing When Insiders are Locked in: An Abstract�� 345
M
Minghui Ma and Jian Huang
ariability of Brands: Perspectives of Perceived Entitativity:
V
Joseph W. Chang, Kai-Yu Wang, and Yung-Chien Lou
n Affinity for Variety: Umbrella Brands and Buyer Behavior:
A
Claudia-Roxana Rusu, Jean-François Trinquecoste, and Dale F. Duhan
hink versus Feel: Two Dimensions of Brand Anthropomorphism:
T
Xinyue Zhou, Siyuan Guo, Rong Huang, and Weiling Ye
oes Brand Origin Really Matter in the Luxury Sector?
D
The Impact of Consumer Origin and Consumer Ethnocentrism on
Consumers’ Responses: An Abstract �� 353
Marie-Cécile Cervellon
he Paradigm of Sharing: A Unifying Conceptualization:
T
Beibei Dong and K. Sivakumar
rom Third Place to Third Space: How Social Networking Sites
F
Shape the Perception of our Social Spaces: An Abstract �� 357
Jan H. Kietzmann, Kerstin Heilgenberg, Jeannette Paschen, and Maryam
Ficociello
he Interaction of Consumer, Endorser, and Brand Personality
T
in Social Influencer Marketing: An Abstract�� 359
Klaus-Peter Wiedmann and Walter von Mettenheim
venues to Optimize Strategic Decision Making
A
to Drive Firm Performance and Market Success: An Abstract �� 361
Theresa Eriksson
Contents xxxix
ow can Targeted Price Promotion Create Value for Firms in B2C

H
Relationships? A Systematic Review and Research Agenda:
Sreedhar Madhavaram and Dorcia Bolton
nowledge is Power: The Moderating Effect of Product Knowledge:
K
James J. Zboja, Susan Brudvig, and Mary Dana Laird
vercorrection in Mixed Racial Purchasing: An Abstract�� 367
O
Katharina Dinhof, Janet Kleber, Bodo Schlegelmilch, and Nilüfer Aydin
he Effects of Person-Team Fit on Learning Goal Orientation and
T
Salesperson Performance: An Abstract �� 369
Yuerong Liu, Wyatt Schrock, and Yanhui Zhao
hen Crowdsourcing Proposition Rejection Reinforces
W
Brand Relationship: An Abstract �� 371
Cyrielle Vellera, Elodie Jouny-Rivier, and Mathilde Briffa
o-creation for Customer Engagement Management:
C
When do they Want to Talk? An Abstract �� 373
Linda Hamdi-Kidar and Tomoko Kawakami
hat Frugal Products are and Why they Matter:
W
Sergej von Janda, Sabine Kuester, Monika C. Schuhmacher, and
G. Shainesh
onetary and Nonmonetary Cost Factors in the Cycle of Unhealth�� 377
M
Alyssa J. Reynolds-Pearson
I n-Game Advertising and Gamers’ Behavior in App Environment:
Naser Valaei, Gregory Bressolles, S. R. Nikhashemi, and Hina Khan
Predicting the Future of Advertising Creative Research: An Abstract�� 389
Douglas C. West
I nvestigating the Effect of Mobile In-store Promotions
on Purchase Intention: Is WhatsApp More Effective? An Abstract �� 391
Valentina Pitardi, Giulia Miniero, and Francesco Ricotta
I nfluential Language, Imagery, and Claims in Print Advertising:
David Gilliam, Justin Munoz, Fernando R. Jiménez, and
Christopher Kyle
ustainable Promises? The Evolution of Business Models Founded
S
on the Promise of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Abstract�� 395
Marjorie Delbaere, Vince Bruni-Bossio, and Adam Slobodzian
xl Contents
oint of Sale Donations from a Managerial Perspective:

P
Debra Z. Basil, Bola Fowosere, Jared Hubbard, and Viktor Kashirin
hen Extremely Good is not Enough for Sustainability Disclosures:
W
Yoon-Na Cho and Christopher Berry
etermining Factors of the Sustainability Orientation:
D
An Examination from the Past to the Present: An Abstract�� 401
Rocio Rodríguez, Göran Svensson, David Eriksson, and Carmen Padin
Proposed Moderated Mediation Model
A
of Customer Loyalty Outcomes: An Abstract �� 403
J. Joseph Cronin Jr, Brian Bourdeau, Duane M. Nagel, and
Christopher Hopkins
atron Sentiment of Employee–Customer Interaction:
P
Exploring Hotel Customer Reviews through Machine Learning: An
Abstract�� 405
Stuart J. Barnes, Richard Rutter, Jan Mattsson, and Flemming Sørensen
he Effectiveness of Sponsor-Linked Marketing within
T
a Rivalry Context: The Effect of Team Sponsorship on Implicit
and Explicit Brand Associations: An Abstract�� 407
Matthias Limbach, Steffen Schmidt, Philipp Reiter, and Sascha Langner
xposing Underage Consumers to Alcohol Branding
E
in Sport Sponsorship: An Abstract�� 409
Angeline Close Scheinbaum, Hyunsang Son, Yongwoog Jeon, Gary
Wilcox, and Seung Chul Yoo
hen does Creativity Matter? The Impact
W
of Consumption Motive and Claim Set-Size: An Abstract�� 411
Ilgım Dara Benoit and Elizabeth G. Miller
n Investigation of Slacktivism in Online Donation Campaigns:
A
Yashar Dehdashti, Lawrence B. Chonko, Aidin Namin, and Brian
T. Ratchford
n Abstract on the Effects of Psychological Distance
A
on Nostalgic Cultural Brands and Consumers’ Purchase Intentions:
A Construal Level Theory Perspective�� 415
Gerardo J. Moreira and Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez
tilitarian versus Hedonic Brands: Cognitive
U
and Affective Country Image Components: An Abstract�� 417
Carmen Lopez and George Balabanis
Contents xli
onsumer Acculturation as a Process: A Propensity

C
to Acculturate Index and an Adapted Acculturation Scale:
Kristina Harrison and John B. Ford
I nvestigating the Effect of Social Comparison on Helping Behavior:
The Moderating Role of Self-Construal Level and the Mediating Role
of Emotion: An Abstract�� 421
Kun Zhou and Jun Ye
ow does Providing Financial Information Impact Retirement
H
Intentions? An Abstract�� 423
Arvid O. I. Hoffmann and Daria Plotkina
he Power of Collective Brand Defending in Mitigating Negative
T
eWOM: An Abstract�� 425
Koblarp Chandrasapth, Natalia Yannopoulou, Klaus Schoefer, and
Darren Kelsey
he Usefulness of Brand Polarization to Various Parties:
T
Sergio Andrés Osuna Ramírez, Cleopatra Veloutsou, and Anna
Morgan-Thomas
he Picture of Luxury: Millennials’ Relationship with Luxury Brands:
T
Jacqueline K. Eastman, Hyunju Shin, and Kristen Ruhland
he Influence of Brand Acquisition on Perceived Authenticity:
T
Sabinah Wanjugu, Juliann Allen, and Julie Guidry Moulard
Comparison of the Determinants of Online Shopping Cart Usage
A
in the US and China: An Abstract�� 433
Jeffrey R. Carlson, Monika Kukar-Kinney, and Heping He
n Empirical Study on the Relationship between
A
Cross-Channel Integration and Offline Store Patronage Behavior:
Takumi Tagashira and Chieko Minami
rom the Store to the Kitchen: The Effects of an Ambient Situated
F
Health Food Scent on Healthy Food Choices: An Abstract�� 437
Megan Phillips, Sommer Kapitan, and Elaine Rush
se of Surveytainment Elements in Knowledge-Assessment Tests:
U
Alena Kostyk, Wenkai Zhou, and Michael R. Hyman
oft Skills as an Assessed Course Component: An Abstract�� 441
S
Hulda G. Black, Rebecca Dingus, and Alex Milovic
xlii Contents
he Need for Franchising Curriculum to Deliver Value

T
to Underrepresented Groups: An Abstract�� 443
Rebecca Rast, Aaron Gleiberman, and Juliana White
I Pay, therefore I Am (An A): Co-Creation of Value in Higher
Education: An Abstract �� 445
Ebru Ulusoy and Arne Baruca
he Future of Terroir: An Abstract�� 447
T
Guy Leedon, Patrick L’Espoir Decosta, Gary Buttriss, and Vinh N. Lu
esidents’ Support for Sustainable Tourism Development:
R
The Mediating Role of Life Satisfaction: An Abstract �� 449
Lanlung Chiang and Thi Le Huyen Nguyen
Study of Camino de Santiago Hikers: An Abstract�� 451
A
Michael D. Basil
he Effect of Big Data on Small Firm Marketing Capabilities:
T
Grace Carson, Christina O’Connor, and Geoff Simmons
rontiers of Internal Marketing: How Cultures
F
of Procrastination and Improvisation Drive Project Performance:
Chris Hinsch, Anton Fenik, and Kevin Lehnert
he Empirical Link Between Export Diversification and Export
T
Performance: Strategic and Resource Contingencies: An Abstract�� 457
João S. Oliveira and John W. Cadogan
earning Orientation and Market Orientation:
L
The Mediating Role of Employees’ Absorptive Capabilities:
Zeeshan Ullah, Fahad Mushtaq, Vesa Puhakka, and Naveed Iqbal
he Effect of Fake News on the Relationship between Brand Equity
T
and Consumer Responses to Premium Brands: An Abstract�� 461
Oluwafunmilayo Bankole and Mignon Reyneke
ake News and the Top High-Tech Brands: A Delphi Study of Familiarity,
F
Vulnerability and Effectiveness: An Abstract�� 463
Andrew Flostrand, Åsa Wallstrom, Esmail Salehi-Sangari, Leyland Pitt,
and Jan Kietzmann
he Dominant and Underexamined Role of Brand’s Moral Character
T
in Determining Brand Perception and Evaluation: An Abstract�� 465
Mansur Khamitov and Rod Duclos
o U.S. Consumers Want More Power over their Personal Data? A
D
Preliminary Study on Consumer Data Right Preferences: An Abstract�� 467
Brooke Willis and Tunmin (Catherine) Jai
Contents xliii
Review and Weight Analysis of Factors Affecting Helpfulness

A
of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Communications �� 469
Elvira Ismagilova, Nripendra Rana, Emma Slade, and Yogesh Dwivedi
eadership Effectiveness and Marketing Successful Stories
L
in Latin America: An Abstract�� 481
Luis E. Torres and Carlos Ruiz
Cross-Cultural Comparison of Gender Choice
A
of Celebrities Endorsing Beauty Brands: An Abstract�� 483
Shuang Wu and Li (Jenny) Ji
hould I Care for the Environment or Myself? Ads for Green Products:
S
Ceren Ekebas-Turedi, Elika Kordrostami, and Ilgim Dara Benoit
xamination of the Preference of French Consumers
E
in the Fashion Sector: How Important is Ethical Attribute?
Mohamed Akli Achabou
he Marketing of International Humanitarian Aid
T
in a Changing Global Marketplace: An Abstract �� 489
Robert Mittelman and José I. Rojas-Méndez
he Value of Psychological Capital for Customer
T
Participation Management: An Abstract�� 491
Sara Leroi-Werelds and Sandra Streukens
n Abstract: Burdens of Health Service Access: Examining Prospective
A
Customers Perceptions of Clinical Help-Seeking�� 493
Jessica Wyllie, Jamie Carlson, and Mohammad M. Rahman
emystifying Perceived Psychological Proximity for Hedonic Product
D
Choices: An Abstract �� 495
Faheem Ahmed and Pierre Valette-Florence
hort or Long? The Right Combination of Time Duration, Cause Type,
S
and Product Type in Cause-Related Marketing: An Abstract�� 497
Chun-Tuan Chang, Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, I-Ting Tsai, and Ming-
Tsung Kung
irtual Reality Branding Campaigns, Impact and Public Perception:
V
Anouk de Regt, Stuart J. Barnes, and Kirk Plangger
onsumer Response to Product Safety Recall:
C
An Empirical Research from China: An Abstract�� 501
Weiling Zhuang, Yinping Mu, and Barry J. Babin
xliv Contents
hen the Star Beckons: Celebrity-Branded Products and Retailer

W
Resonance: An Abstract�� 503
Vishag Badrinarayanan and Enrique Becerra
onsumers’ Quality Perception of Food Shape Abnormality: Effects on
C
Customer Perceived Value and Consumer Behavior: An Abstract �� 505
Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Levke Albertsen, and Evmorfia Karampournioti
xamining Primacy and Recency Effects in Hypocritical CSR News:
E
Michael Peasley, Parker Woodroof, and Joshua T. Coleman
igh Growth Private Companies: Values-Led and Profitable: An
H
Abstract�� 509
Peggy H. Cunningham
hinese Consumers’ Attitudes of Chinese Versus Western Fashion
C
Brands: An Exploration of Possible Predictor Variables Related
to Individual and Cultural Values: An Abstract �� 511
Joy M. Kozar
Using the Online Search Volume to Predict Performance: An Abstract�� 513
Ran Liu
eappraising Effects of Word-of-Mouth Communication on
R
the Innovation Diffusion Process: An Abstract �� 515
Ran Liu
pecial Session: New Directions in B2B Sales and Marketing
S
Research AMS 2019 Annual Conference, Vancouver: An Abstract�� 517
Carolyn F. Curasi, James S. Boles, Rob Mayberry, Nwamaka A. Anaza,
and Avinash Malshe
pecial Session: Brand Heritage: Cross Cultural Perceptions: An
S
Abstract�� 519
Fabien Pecot, Sunmee Choi, Varsha Jain, Gregory Rose, and Mei Rose
ffective Pricing Strategies: Investigating the Contrast Between Theory
E
and Practice: An Abstract �� 521
Vahid Rahmani, Elika Kordrostami, and John B. Ford
rice Priming Effects in Online Display Ads: An Abstract�� 523
P
Hamid Shaker, Sylvain Sénécal, Sihem Taboubi, and Yany Grégoire
xamining Country Image in Expert Electronic Word-of-Mouth:
E
Zixuan (Mia) Cheng, Chatdanai Pongpatipat, Kirk Plangger, and
Leyland Pitt
Contents xlv
Value-Based Model of Consumer Smartphone Usage for Online

A
Transactions: The Role of Consumer Characteristics and Purchasing
Situation: An Abstract �� 527
Stefanie Sohn, Malte Fiedler, and Wolfgang Fritz
ffects of Double Language Labeling in the Context of FMCG-Products:
E
A Mixed-Methods Approach: An Abstract�� 529
Sabrina Heix and Hartmut Holzmüller
hat Makes the Difference? Employee Social Media Brand
W
Engagement: An Abstract �� 531
Sherese Y. Duncan, Christine Pitt, Sarah Lord Ferguson, and Phillip Grant
hy the Shortened ADAPTS Scale Should Not Be Used for Sales
W
Students: An Abstract�� 533
Aaron D. Arndt
hite Coats, Mild Manners, and Good Doctors? When Red Decreases
W
Perception of Dominance: An Abstract�� 535
Bruna Jochims and Adilson Borges
alue Co-Creation and Behavioral Consequences: Evidence
V
from Brazilian Consumers: An Abstract �� 537
Eduardo Roque Mangini, Cláudia Simões, and André Torres Urdan
ubjective Financial Deprivation and Budget Allocation Preferences:
S
Laurent Bertrandias and Alexandre Lapeyre
I s There a Self Beyond Identity: An Abstract�� 541
Nanda K. Viswanathan
ow Common or Scientific Name Works? The Influence
H
of Food Type and Regulatory Focus on the Choice of Ingredient Name:
Dickson Tok and Chun-Tuan Chang
he Spill-Over Effect of the Emotional Reaction to the Use of Internet
T
on the Intention to Use Internet of Things (IoT) Services: An Abstract �� 545
Yang Lu, Savvas Papagiannidis, and Eleftherios Alamanos
nline Environment–Product Congruence: The Role of Experience
O
and Product Consumption Type on Product Liking: An Abstract�� 547
Luke Liska
How Peer-to-Peer Sharing Promotes Product Purchase: An Abstract �� 549
Jan F. Klein, Mark-Philipp Wilhelms, Katrin Merfeld, Sven Henkel, and
Tomas Falk
atalog and Online Retailing: Effects of Signals of Quality
C
and Need for Cognition: An Abstract�� 551
Joseph Jones
xlvi Contents
erceptions of Power in the Digital Era: An Investigation of Idea

P
Crowdsourcing versus Crowdvoting: An Abstract �� 553
Matthew Wilson, Obinna Obilo, and Karen Robson
amification Research in View of Bibliometrics: A Literature Trend,
G
Bibliographic Coupling, and Co-citation Analysis: An Abstract�� 555
Gunwoo Yoon
he Conceptualization and Measurement of Perceived Value
T
in Social Media: The Case of Facebook Brand Pages�� 557
Georgios Tsimonis and Sergios Dimitriadis
I nteracting and Learning through Cross-Functional Product
Development Teams: Driving New Product Creativity, Design Value, and
Product Advantage: An Abstract�� 569
Subin Im, Charles H. Noble, Daisuke Ishida, and Naoto Onzo
roduct’s Digital Transformation Effect on Perceived Luxury
P
Level and Brand Authenticity: The Watch Industry Case: An Abstract�� 571
Sayma Messelmani and Virginie de Barnier
ew Product Advantage Infused by Marketing and Technical
N
Resources: Does Modularity Design Matter? An Abstract�� 573
Yazhen Xiao and Haisu Zhang
Responses to Female Sexual Power Portrayals in Ads: An Abstract�� 575
Melika Kordrostami and Russell N. Laczniak
sychological Effects of Social Exclusion on Stereotyping
P
and Consumer Behavior: An Abstract �� 577
Felipe Pantoja, Patricia Rossi, Marat Bakpayev, and Sukki Yoon
Authentic Ethnic Advertisements Perception: An Abstract �� 579
Nora Alomar, Natalia Yannopoulou, and Klaus Schoefer
ersonalized Online Recommendations and the Effect of Trust
P
and Valence: An Abstract�� 581
Mazen Jaber and Chatdanai Pongpatipat
he Influence of Luxury Brands’ Firm Engagement on Customer
T
Engagement on Social Media: An Abstract �� 583
Xia Liu, Hyunju Shin, and Alvin C. Burns
upply Chain Resilience on Business Continuity Programs: The Role
S
of Anticipated, Inherent, and Adaptive Resilience: An Abstract�� 585
Samuel Sekar and Robert Hooker
orporate Social Responsibility Beyond Borders:
C
US Consumer Boycotts of a Global Company over Sweatshop Issues in
Supplier Factories Overseas: An Abstract�� 587
Joon Soo Lim and KyuJin Shim
Contents xlvii
very Coin has Two Sides: The Negative Effects of Brand Social Power,
E
the Dual Character of Face, and Counterfeit Luxury Consumption:
Jiang Ling and Shan Juan
ssessing Strategic Customer Behavior under Bounded Rationality:
A
Jihoon Cho, Anocha Aribarg, and Puneet Manchanda
ole of Task Difficulty in Brand Image Measurements: An Abstract�� 593
R
Melisa Mete and Gary Davies
“ What-are-you-looking-at?”: Implicit Behavioural Measurement
Indicating Technology Acceptance in the Field of Automated Driving�� 595
Marc Kuhn and Viola Marquardt
he Effect of Consumers’ Asset Specificity Sensitivity on Mobile
T
Payment Service Adoption: The Role of Switching Cost and Product
Compatibility: An Abstract�� 607
Jyh-Shen Chiou, Chiayang Chang, and Chih-Wei Lin
ersonalization Perceptions in Retail Technology Adoption:
P
The Mediating Role of Dependency and Intrusiveness: An Abstract �� 609
Tyler Hancock, Brett Kazandjian, Christian Barney, and Kavitha
Nambisan
omparing Product Policy’s Effectiveness for E-Commerce
C
Companies: An Abstract�� 611
Maximilian Groh and Cláudia Simões
op Management Emphasis and Silo-Spanning Communication
T
for Marketing Knowledge Integration: An Empirical Examination:
Sreedhar Madhavaram, Vishag Badrinarayanan, and Robert E. McDonald
rand Architecture Challenges in the Digital Age in the Context
B
of a Broad Brand: An Abstract�� 615
Claudia Gonzalez, Frank Alpert, and Josephine Previte
re All Customer Empowerment Strategies Equally Beneficial?
A
A Relative Efficacy and Issue of the Campaign Accounts: An Abstract�� 617
Hajer Bachouche and Ouidade Sabri
everaging User-Generated Content for Demand-Side Strategy:
L
Terrence E. Brown and Mana Farshid
ense and Sensibility: What are Customers Looking for in Online
S
Product Reviews? An Abstract �� 621
Fang Wang and Sahar Karimi
xlviii Contents
olice Brutality and Running Shoes: Authentic Brand Activism or

P
Woke Washing: An Abstract �� 623
Jessica Vredenburg, Sommer Kapitan, Amanda Spry, and Joya Kemper
he Lazarus Touch of Heritage: Place Branding,
T
a Multi Stakeholder Study: An Abstract �� 625
Varsha Jain, Preeti Shroff, Altaf Merchant, and Subhalakshmi Bezbaruah
he Influence of Retail Return Policies on Brand Image:
T
Jennifer A. Espinosa and Lisa Monahan
ridging Islands: Boundary Resources in Solution Networks:
B
Ruiqi Wei, Susi Geiger, and Róisín Vize
alue Proposition with the Relevant Business Ecosystem:
V
The Moderating Role of Customer’s Business Change�� 631
Niko Lipiäinen and Kirsi Kokkonen
ow can Supervisors Help Frontline Employees Deal with Customer
H
Mistreatment? An Abstract�� 645
Achilleas Boukis, Christos Koritos, Kate Daunt, and Avraam
Papastathopoulos
earing Expertise on your Sleeve: Increasing Customer
W
Service Expectations through Employee Apparel: An Abstract�� 647
Christian Barney, Carol Esmark-Jones, Adam Farmer, and
Haley Hardman
I ntegrating Social and Activity Utilities to Explain Consumption: An
Abstract�� 649
José-Domingo Mora
oes Sampling Order Moderate the Effect of Autotelic Need for Touch
D
on Product Evaluation: An Abstract�� 651
Nino Ruusunen and Tommi Laukkanen
hopping Mall Values, Customer Satisfaction, and Loyalty:
S
The Moderation of Education Level in Morocco: An Abstract �� 653
Delphine Godefroit-Winkel, Mbaye Fall Diallo, and Souad Djelassi
sability of Automated Driving Functions:
U
A User Experience Study�� 655
Sarah Selinka, Benjamin Österle, and Marc Kuhn
ocial Media Usage, Status Consumption, and Online Public
S
Consumption: An Abstract�� 665
Ali Heydari and Michel Laroche
Contents xlix
SR: The Best of Both Worlds: Driving Returns to the Business and its
C
Employees: An Abstract�� 667
Sarah Desirée Schaefer, Peggy Cunningham, Sandra Diehl, and Ralf
Terlutter
he Public Healthcare System as a Service Network:
T
An Assessment through the Time: An Abstract�� 669
Rocio Rodríguez, Göran Svensson, Carmen Otero-Neira, and
Carmen Padin
elative Effectiveness of Direct and Indirect Comparative Advertising:
R
The Role of Message Framing and Gender on Believability and Attitude
Certainty: An Abstract�� 671
Dan Petrovici, Linda L. Golden, and Dariya Orazbek
pecial Session: Blockchain Technology and How It Will Change
S
Marketing: An Abstract�� 673
Haya Ajjan, Dana E. Harrison, Joe Green, Nikilesh Subramoniapillai
Ajeetha, and Harry Wang
Exploring Customer Engagement
and Sharing Behavior in Social Media
Brand Communities: Curvilinear Effects
and the Moderating Roles of Perceived
Innovativeness and Perceived Interactivity:
An Abstract
Jamie Carlson, Yi-Chuan Liao, and Mohammad M. Rahman
Abstract Given the increasing attention to building customer–brand relationships

within online brand communities (OBC) in social media, this study examines the
link between customer engagement (CE) and customer sharing behaviours across
the USA and China. This study draws upon the perspective of CE to investigate how
the customer–brand relationship within the OBC affects sharing behavioural inten-
tions under different levels of perceived OBC interactivity and innovativeness
intensity.
Based on a sample of 1259 OBC followers (595 US and 664 Chinese) respon-
dents in two different social media platforms (Facebook and Weibo), hierarchical
moderated regression analyses reveal that while the relationship seems straightfor-
ward, its impact is more nuanced across country markets and platforms. Our results
indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between CE and sharing behaviours,
indicating there is a limit to the beneficial effect of CE. However, we consider two
moderators that may influence the nonlinear relationship between CE and sharing
behaviours which show that these moderating effects vary across countries. Within
the US context (OBC in Facebook social media platform), the results show that
perceived OBC innovativeness mitigates the U-shape effect and becomes a linear
relationship. Further, considering perceived OBC interactivity, there still exists an
J. Carlson
University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
e-mail: jamie.carlson@newcastle.edu.au
Y.-C. Liao
Shandong University, Jinan, China
e-mail: obz703@sdu.edu.cn
M. M. Rahman (*)
Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA, USA
e-mail: mmrahman@ship.edu
© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020 1

S. Wu et al. (eds.), Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing
Global Marketplace, Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the
Academy of Marketing Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39165-2_1
2 J. Carlson et al.
inverted U-shaped effect although the nonlinear effect becomes lessened. Within the
China context (OBC in Weibo social media platform), the moderators also impact
the inverted U-shape effect, but when considering the increasing effect of perceived
OBC innovativeness or perceived OBC interactivity, the inverted U-shape between
CE and sharing behaviours becomes more pronounced.
These results suggest that social media brand managers in the USA can increase
perceived OBC interactivity and perceived OBC innovativeness in order to reduce
the negative impact of CE on sharing behaviours, whereas in China, social media
brand managers should be mindful of heightened perceived OBC interactivity and
perceived OBC innovativeness levels to strengthen the negative impact of CE on
sharing behaviours. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords Customer engagement · Sharing behaviours · Social media · Brand

community · China · U.S.
References Available Upon Request

Between a Banker and a Barbie:
The Illusions of Social Media: An Abstract
Samreen Ashraf
Abstract Within social media, projections of identities can be deceiving and differ
markedly from reality. Without realising the impact of social media on their future
career, students regularly project their current student identities on various social
platforms. Despite the rapid increase, potential impact of social media and high
tendency of younger people to use social media, this area lacks in empirically driven
theory (Benson et al. 2014).
This study therefore aims to address the research gap stated in the studies con-
ducted by Casatander and Camacho (2012) and Jackson and Wilton (2016) by
exploring the impact of social media on students’ digital identities in a higher edu-
cation context. The author conducted 33 “talk and draw” interviews which lasted
45 min on average with final year students. This visual research technique provided
the respondents with an alternative way to express and communicate their views
around their digital identities which might be difficult to articulate in words (Theron
et al. 2011).
In line with the past studies (Linn et al. 2017; Woodley and Silversti 2013) there
were major discrepancies between students’ digital identities and their future career
aspirations. This was attributed to parents’ involvement in picking the professions
for their children on the basis of high income. Students were aware of their digital
prints on some occasions; however, this awareness did not create any positive impact
on shaping their digital identities in contrast to Camacaho et al. (2012) study.
Further, social media was identified as an overwhelming tool which can give rise to
various uncertainties in relation to students’ future careers. For example, they dem-
onstrated cognitive dissonance by portraying themselves as tech savvy without con-
sidering the bigger picture of creating their own digital prints which can be
potentially looked at by their future employers.
This study contributes to the identity formation literature through social media
and has implications for Higher Education sector. The discussion concludes that
universities must confront social media challenges as part of the educational experi-
S. Ashraf (*)
Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
e-mail: sashraf@bournemouth.ac.uk

4 S. Ashraf
ence for the development of a responsible and professional ethical digital citizenry.
Future research is needed to assess the ways which can positively influence students
to shape their digital identities to increase their employability opportunities.
Keywords Digital identity · Social media · Students · Higher education ·

Qualitative · Visual method

A Longitudinal Review of Models
in Marketing Research: An Abstract
Mark Bender, Veronika Ponomarenko, Hao Wang, Khalia Jenkins,

and Donna Davis
Abstract This research offers a dynamic perspective on the evolution and use of
marketing models through a content analysis of articles published in the top five
marketing journals from 1990 to 2017: Journal of Marketing (JM), Journal of
Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of Consumer Research (JCR), Marketing
Science (MS), and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Research (JAMS). Three
independent researchers classified articles by their content (conceptual, quantita-
tive, qualitative, and mixed), type of data source (experiment, survey, and observa-
tion), type of model (choice, hazard, panel data, nonlinear, theoretic, etc.), and
subject (consumer behavior, research methodology, channels of distribution, etc.).
The results of the analysis show that the number of studies per article has been
steadily increasing in JCR (from 1 in 1990 to 5 in 2017), JM and JMR (from 1 in
1990 to 2 in 2017), less so in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (from
1 in 1990 to 1.5 in 2017), and no change taking place in Marketing Science. In
methodological terms, conceptual and survey research exhibit a declining trend
whereas experimental and observational research is increasing. This study looks at
changes in the adoption of model types. Our findings reveal that researchers have
been using simple linear models less with the ratio of linear regression models/more
complex models being 50/50 in 1990 and 30/70 in 2017. The top five frequently
used modeling methods in marketing (by percent of studies) include linear regres-
sion, choice, theoretical, multivariate, and structural equation models. However, the
use of theoretical, multivariate, and structural equation models has been declining,
while the use of hierarchical linear, dynamic, panel data models has been increas-
ing. We believe that the rise of the latter models can be attributed to the increased
availability of time-series cross-sectional data. We also find some journal-specific
M. Bender · V. Ponomarenko · H. Wang · K. Jenkins (*) · D. Davis

University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
e-mail: bender@usf.edu; vponomarenko@usf.edu; haowang1@usf.edu; jenkins16@usf.edu;
donnadavis@usf.edu

6 M. Bender et al.
preferences for particular models. Our research sheds light on the interplay of
research methods and the trends in model types in the top five marketing journals as
well as provides direction for future research.
Keywords Marketing research · Marketing models · Longitudinal review ·

Research methodology

What would we Hear if we Really
Listened? Using I-poems in Qualitative
Marketing Research: An Abstract
Julie Robson and Caroline Burr
Abstract Qualitative methods of analysis are concerned with transforming and

interpreting data to capture and understand the complexities of the social world
(Edwards and Weller 2012). However, the question that has preoccupied many qual-
itative researchers is how can we know, and how can we come to know, others who
are a part of this social world (Doucet and Mauthner 2008).
The Listening Guide (LG) is a feminist, qualitative method developed by Brown et al.
(1989) to enable researchers to hear how respondents uniquely make meaning of their
social world (Woodcock 2005). It focuses on reconstructing the holistic meaning of the
stories that people tell about themselves (Edwards and Weller 2012). I-poems are a funda-
mental component of the Listening Guide and centre on the relationship between the pro-
cess of “selfing” (i.e., the activity of being a self) identified primarily through the use of “I”
and knowing (Debold 1990). In I-poems, the collection of personal pronouns and the
verbs/actions that go with them are presented in a format similar to that of a contemporary
poem. I-poems have been recognised as an emergent method in social research (Hesse-
Biber and Leavy 2006), and although the method has been extensively used by researchers
in the field of psychology and sociology, only a small number of marketers have adopted
this method (see for example Woodruffe-Burton and Brown 2015).
In this paper we provide an introduction to this innovative method and detail its
application in a study conducted on the attitude young girls have to money. At con-
ference we will share our findings and reflect on the contribution and insights that
the use of I-poems can make in marketing by comparing and contrasting the find-
ings from a thematic analysis with that using LG and I-poems. We will argue for the
wider adoption of I-poems by fellow marketing academics.
Keywords Qualitative research · I-poems · Teenage girls · Money
J. Robson (*) · C. Burr

Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
e-mail: jrobson@bournemouth.ac.uk; cburr@bournemouth.ac.uk

Effects of Environmental and Social
Sustainability Perceptions on Willingness
to Co-Create from Consumer Perspective:
An Abstract
Gözde Erdogan
Abstract In today’s business environment, companies face more challenges and

competitions since the consumers have a voice in the business environment, and
companies have to find out new ways to reach consumers, whereas consumers, in
the current environment, could serve as collaborators, communicators, or competi-
tors according to their interests (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2009). Therefore, cus-
tomer value co-creation concept is adopted because it is a path to collaborate with
consumers as well as to meet companies’ economic benefits (Vargo and Lusch
2004). In order to collaborate with customers, they listen to their brand communi-
ties and ask questions to customers in order to test their offerings (Füller et al. 2008;
Gouillart 2014; Kozinets 2010; Kozinets et al. 2008). However, the customer’s will-
ingness to co-create may have different reasons, such as social, hedonic, and ethical
reasons (Carù and Cova 2015; Schau et al. 2009). In this connection, the co-creation
process here is understood as a means to emphasize the social and ethical aspects,
with consumers embracing the need to fulfil a social and ethical function in society.
It means that consumers are increasingly seeking solutions to their own concerns
and they are interested in creating a better world, guided by their moral values when
making buying decisions (e.g., Hollenbeck and Zinkhan 2010). However, there is a
lack of study on ethical motives such as environmental and social sustainability.
Hence, this paper aims to find out whether consumer’s willingness to co-create may
be affected by companies’ social and environmental practices. In this study, the
social and exchange theory was applied (Thibaut and Kelley 1959). In order to
measure cause-end-effect relationship between sustainability practices and willing-
ness to co-create (Thomas 2011), a survey was conducted (n = 454) and respon-
dents assessed environmental and social sustainability perceptions, and their
G. Erdogan (*)
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: gozde.erdogan@e-campus.uab.cat

10 G. Erdogan
willingness to co-create. Findings show that both environmental and social sustain-
ability practices of companies have positive effects on consumers’ willingness to
co-create.
Keywords Willingness to co-create · Social sustainability · Environmental

sustainability · Consumer behavior

Decision-Making and Interruptions:
An Abstract
Regina Schreder
Abstract We are interrupted constantly in everyday life. These interruptions are

usually considered a nuisance. For example, being interrupted during work nor-
mally lowers performance (Katidioti et al. 2016). But when it comes to decision-
making, interruptions sometimes have counter-intuitive effects. After an interruption,
for example, consumers may make better decisions (Dijksterhuis 2004). While pre-
vious research on interruptions focuses on alternative selection, this paper looks at
downstream variables and examines the effect of interruptions on consumers’ sub-
jective perceptions. When making a purchase decision, in reality, there is often no
right or wrong. Especially when it comes to complex decisions like buying a car or
choosing a holiday, consumers are usually confronted with many alternatives and
various characteristics. The quality of such decisions cannot be judged from a nor-
mative perspective. Consequently, we test whether unconscious thinking can
increase the quality of a decision from a subjective point of view. Accordingly, we
investigate whether an interruption in the decision-making process can increase
decision satisfaction and also affect more behavioral outcomes like willingness to
pay for the chosen alternative and purchase intention for an add-on that is related to
the product.
In line with Dijksterhuis (2004), we assume that during an interruption, partici-
pants think unconsciously about their choice. We hypothesize that a more organized
integration of information, which occurs when people engage in unconscious think-
ing, leads to a more correct weighting of the given information and thus enhances
decision satisfaction. The specific type of information processing could reinforce
this effect. We hypothesize that an instruction to form an overall impression
increases the integration of information, compared to an instruction to focus on
details. Accordingly, we expect an interaction between unconscious thinking that
occurs during an interruption and an instruction to form an overall impression.
To test our hypotheses, we conducted a 2 (instruction: “form an overall impres-
sion” vs. “focus on details”) × 3 (interruption: interruption, thinking, immediate
decision) experiment using a between-subject design. In an online experiment,
R. Schreder (*)
University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
e-mail: regina.schreder@uni-bayreuth.de

12 R. Schreder
p articipants had to choose between two package holidays. The alternatives differed
slightly in various characteristics but were very similar overall, taking into account
all information available. In this manner, we created a realistic situation without a
preset correct choice.
We did not find the hypothesized effects in our data. Thus, our results are not
consistent with the findings of Dijksterhuis (2004). Further research is underway to
find potential moderators which may have influenced the findings.
Keywords Interruptions · Decision-making · Unconscious thinking · Integration

of information

Buying Authentic Luxury Products
or Counterfeits: The Role of Benign
and Malicious Envy: An Abstract
Murong Miao
Abstract Counterfeited luxury goods have increasingly become an economic and

social problem worldwide. Buying counterfeits is a common act for many consum-
ers, and the consumption of counterfeited luxury goods has shown an increasing
trend. Considering negative effects associated with counterfeiting, how to encour-
age consumers to buy authentic products has increasingly become an important but
challenging issue. Given the significance of the topic, we can find two things. The
first thing is that except for Wilcox et al. (2009), socio-psychological motivation
associated with counterfeit consumption is under-researched. The second thing is
that most of previous studies overlook the importance of theory in explaining the
motive behind purchasing counterfeits. To address the above gap, this paper employs
Social Comparison Theory to examine the influence of envy (categorized as mali-
cious envy and benign envy), which is a social-psychological aspect, on consumers’
counterfeit/genuine brand buying behaviors. Envy emanates from an upward social
comparison, which is a basic constituent of human cognition (Lange and Crusius
2015). Malicious envy and benign envy can be distinguished based on the consum-
ers’ feelings, thoughts, behavior, and motivations. Benign envy induces a moving-
up motivation designed to improve one’s current position, whereas malicious envy
leads to a pulling-down motivation designed to damage the position of the superior
other. In this paper, we adopt this conceptualization of envy and then we make sev-
eral novel contributions. First, ours is the first empirical effort in terms of employing
envy as a socio-psychological driver to explain the reason why a group of consum-
ers turn to purchase counterfeited luxury products instead of authentic luxury prod-
ucts to fulfill their needs. We found that the two dimensions of envy work differently
to affect people’s consumption behavior in terms of choosing either genuine luxury
products or counterfeit luxury products. Specifically, while benign envy drives gen-
uine luxury product purchase, malicious envy drives counterfeited luxury product
purchase. We suggest that the type of envy can also moderate the relationship
between luxury product consumption behavior and personal well-being. What we
M. Miao (*)
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
e-mail: mmiao001@odu.edu

14 M. Miao
found is that the well-being of people who are benignly envious is more likely to be
affected by their choice of genuine luxury products or counterfeit luxury products
in comparison with that of maliciously envious people. Second, this paper makes
theoretical contributions by employing Social Comparison Theory to illustrate the
motivation behind counterfeit consumption behavior. Third, previous researchers
are largely focused on what antecedents can contribute to counterfeit purchase
intention. They treat counterfeit consumption as a dependent variable. However, in
this paper, we also regard counterfeit consumption as an independent variable that
can affect personal well-being. Because personal well-being is an important indica-
tor to gauge consumer satisfaction toward the good, this study can provide luxury
brand companies with more insights.
Keywords Counterfeit luxury good · Authentic luxury good · Envy · Benign envy
· Malicious envy · Well-being

Excitement or Fear? The Effect
of a Personalized In-Store Experience
on Consumers: An Abstract
Anne-Sophie Riegger
Abstract In fear of the online competition and increasingly demanding customers,

retailers strive for their competitive edge through a great retail experience. Opposed
to the consequent anonymity and interchangeability in retail stands the consumer
need for individualization as an expression of personal appreciation and a unique
self. While consumers are already used to a personalized shopping experience in
online environments, a personalization in brick-and-mortar retail is still in its
infancy. Supported by recent technological advancements, it is not surprising that
retailers put great efforts into equipping their stores with smart technology that
enables personalization. In contrast to personalization online (Aguirre et al. 2015)
and traditional personalization in brick-and-mortar retail through face-to-face
encounters with store employees (Gwinner et al. 2005), in-store personalization
enabled and conducted by technology is an unexplored phenomenon.
As research points out that shopper-facing in-store technology should answer to
actual consumers’ expectations and preferences (Pantano and Viassone 2014), this
paper aims to elicit implication-relevant consumer concerns and expectations
regarding personalization in brick-and-mortar retail. Identifying consumers’ expec-
tations and concerns is essential to meet their future preferences, proactively address
anxieties, and thereby overcome innovation rejection. This study is further guided
by the question of whether the type of technology by which the personalization is
conducted impacts consumers’ reactions.
First results based on an exploratory qualitative study indicate that consumers
expect technology-mediated personalization (TMP) to have a positive impact on
their future shopping experiences by offering greater convenience and depending on
the shopping mission, inspiration, or efficiency. In particular, the majority of partici-
pants expect the content to be context-specific, thus being based on their actual in-
store behavior. While most respondents would prefer discreet messages on
retailer-owned devices, only a few would favor receiving messages on their own
smartphone. The main concern raised by the respondents is the fear of being watched
A.-S. Riegger (*)

EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Wiesbaden, Germany
e-mail: anne-sophie.riegger@ebs.edu

16 A.-S. Riegger
by others. Privacy concerns towards other customers seem to surpass privacy con-
cerns towards the retailer. We plan on empirically testing the proposed relationships
in a lab as well as a field experiment. Further, we intend to extend the knowledge on
personalization in offline retail by taking novel technological opportunities into
account. Specifically, we take a consumer perspective and identify expectations and
concerns in regard to the content of the personalized message as well as the medium
over which it is transmitted. In addition, we contribute to retailing literature by
identifying novel ways to address consumers’ in-store with innovative and interac-
tive shopper-facing technology. Implications to theory as well as practice are
discussed.
Keywords Personalization · Technology · Brick-and-mortar retail · Consumer

behavior · Expectations and concerns

All Hands on Deck Special Session:
Cultivating Socially Responsible
Consumers and Corporations: An Abstract
Elisa Chan, Felix Tang, and Maggie Y. Chu
Abstract In this consumption-driven economy, consumers and companies, and by

extension employees, must collaborate to ensure that consumption activities would
contribute to societal well-being. Social responsibility is defined as stakeholders’
values, expectations, and practices that emphasize the responsibility of individuals
as a member in society (Aguinis and Glavas 2011; Pigor and Rockenbach 2016).
Corporate social responsibility refers to “obligations to take action to protect and
improve both the welfare of society as a whole and the interest of organizations”
(Davis and Blomstrom 1975: 6). By the same token, consumer social responsibility
refers to consumer decisions which are driven by socially responsible motives rather
than the individual’s own self-interest (Devinney et al. 2010; Öberseder et al. 2011).
While the goal of social responsibility is to improve societal well-being, extant
socially responsibility research has identified positive consequences of such actions
for both consumers and companies as well. On the one hand, companies would be
perceived as more trustworthy and in turn enhance evaluation of their product qual-
ity and brand image (Dacin and Brown 1997; Klein and Dawar 2004; Smith et al
1994). On the other hand, consumers would gain a better sense of self and improve
self-image through moral licensing (Khan and Dhar 2006; Mazar and Zhong 2010).
In this special session, the speakers examine social responsibility through the
consumer, employee, and management lens. In doing so, we hope to extend our
understanding of social responsibility with respect to its theoretical conceptualiza-
tion and underpinnings as well as social and managerial implications. Moreover, we
E. Chan (*)
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western
Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland
e-mail: elisa.chan@ehl.ch
F. Tang
Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: felixtang@hsu.edu.hk
M. Y. Chu
The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: myychu@ouhk.edu.hk

18 E. Chan et al.
address some of the unanswered questions in this field of research. We first examine
how consumers’ moral emotions (i.e., guilt and shame) may influence consumers’
decision towards socially responsible consumption choices. In this regard, it illumi-
nates an affective mechanism through which consumers decide on whether or not to
make socially responsible consumption. While both guilt and shame are negative
affects, our study found that they have divergent effects on socially responsible
consumption. Next, we propose a double mediation model that delineates how com-
pany’s corporate social responsibility climate may attenuate employee cynicism and
enhance work meaning which would turn employees into brand ambassadors. As
such, it extends extant corporate social responsibility research, which looked at
employees’ affective commitment to and identification with the organization, to
show that corporate social responsibility can enhance work experience for individu-
als. Finally, we consider the philosophical roots of corporate social responsibility
though Confucianism, a Chinese philosophy that has been widely adopted in cul-
tural and management research. Building on brand personality literature, this paper
suggests that a socially responsible corporation can be personified as an individual
who possesses virtuous qualities and puts others’ interest in front of self-interest.
Keywords Corporate social responsibility · Consumer social responsibility ·

Consumption · Workplace

Motivating or De-motivating Responsible
Consumption? The Divergent Influences
of Moral Emotions: An Abstract
Maggie Y. Chu and Lisa C. Wan
Abstract Human activities are undeniably the cause of the abnormal climate
change that has occurred in recent decades. Many of our daily habits cause serious
harm to the environment (e.g., overuse of disposable products). Even though con-
sumers understand that such a lifestyle is essentially in violation of our societal
standards, very few will take the actions to correct it. We speculate that consumer
decisions to correct their existing life habits depend on the emotions they experi-
ence in relation to an irresponsible lifestyle. Psychology research suggests that
when people commit wrongdoing (i.e., behaviors that are in violation of moral or
societal standards), they will feel guilty. There is a high tendency for a guilt-laden
person to make amends and correct the wrongdoing. Therefore, guilt is commonly
referred to as a moral emotion. Interestingly, another moral emotion, shame, coex-
ists with guilt in most situations but can lead to divergent behavioral consequences
by making the person more inclined to escape from the problem. We speculate that
the divergence is rooted in a critical difference between the experience of guilt and
shame. Guilt involves a negative evaluation of a specific behavior (i.e., “What I did
is not environmentally friendly”), while shame tends to result from a negative evalu-
ation of the global self (i.e., “I’m such a non-environmentally friendly person”).
Therefore, shame has negative implications about the self. If this is the case, we
predict that in situations where shame predominates, consumers will perceive it to
be more difficult to improve the problem as it involves changing a defective self. As
a result, consumers are less likely to correct their existing lifestyle. In our experi-
ment, we induced feelings of guilt and shame by using bogus feedback about the
environmental impact of one’s existing lifestyle (e.g., very high resource demand).
M. Y. Chu (*)
e-mail: myychu@ouhk.edu.hk
L. C. Wan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: lisawan@baf.cuhk.edu.hk

20 M. Y. Chu and L. C. Wan
The results show that a negative self-evaluation associated with shame leads to a
lower intention to correct one’s existing lifestyle. The effect is mediated by the per-
ceived difficulty in improving the problem.
Keywords Moral emotions · Guilt · Shame · Responsible consumption

Personifying Socially Responsible
Corporations: Scale Development
and Validation: An Abstract
Vane I. Tian, Felix Tang, and Alan C. B. Tse
Abstract This paper aims to develop an alternative model based on traditional

Chinese Confucius ideologies and normative ethics that is different from existing
strategic orientations. The philosophy of Confucius emphasizes the wholehearted
social responsibility of a “Junzi,” the ideal image of a holy man in Confucianism,
who always undertakes to behave righteously in all situations. Analogous to the
popular marketing concept and the associated strategic marketing orientation con-
cept, we define our Junzi concept as a business philosophy and Junzi orientation as
the organizational behavior involved in the implementation of the guiding
philosophy.
Based on in-depth interviews with experienced Chinese business managers
together with a comprehensive review of the existing literature, Junzi orientation is
defined as a multidimensional behavioral construct made up of five dimensions: (1)
Ren—benevolence or humaneness: Ren is the extent to which the company attempts
to care about and satisfy the needs of its stakeholders; (2) Yi—appropriateness or
righteousness: Yi is the extent to which the company acts in a righteousness manner
and undertakes to do so at all costs; (3) Li—propriety or harmonious differentiation:
Li is the extent to which the company strives to look for a harmonious relationship
with its stakeholders and keeps the balance between conflicting needs of stakehold-
ers to achieve a win-win outcome for all stakeholders; (4) Zhi—wisdom or knowl-
edge management: Zhi is the extent to which the company recognizes the importance
of learning and long-term vision, and the ability to see things as they truly are; (5)
V. I. Tian
e-mail: vitian@ouhk.edu.hk
F. Tang (*)
The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: felixtang@hsu.edu.hk
A. C. B. Tse
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: cbtse@cuhk.edu.hk

22 V. I. Tian et al.
Xin—integrity or trustworthiness: Xin is the extent to which the company acts in an

honest and trustworthy manner.
A 30-item scale was developed based on the expert panel and a pilot study with
MBA and MSc students in Hong Kong. The scale and other outcome measurements
were mailed to 2760 firms in different industries in Hong Kong. The sample frame
was obtained from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the oldest and
largest nonprofit association representing all firms in Hong Kong. Four hundred and
twenty-three questionnaires were collected (after two waves of mail and one wave
of telephone reminder), representing a response rate of 15.3%. Confirmatory factor
analyses were conducted, and the scale was found to be reliable and valid. The data
also support that Junzi orientation has a positive influence on company
performance.
Keywords Business ethics · Confucianism · Junzi · Virtue ethics · Scale

development · CFA

All Hands on Deck Special Session: How
CSR and Servant Leadership Climate
Affect Employee Cynicism and Work
Meaning? An Abstract
Elisa Chan and Frederick Yim
Abstract Recent marketing management research, such as internal marketing

(e.g., Berry et al. 1976), the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2008), and
the service-profit chain (e.g., Homburg et al. 2009), has acknowledged the value
employees have to a company either as an operant resource (Constanin and Lusch
1994) or even as an internal customer (Wieseke et al. 2009). This suggests that con-
sumers are not the only target for company’s marketing efforts and that more atten-
tion should be paid to understanding employees in order to achieve desirable
outcomes.
Cynicism is often examined as consumer resistance against company’s initiatives
and actions out of the mistrust for its motives (Kanter 1988). Cynical consumers
may become angry and bitter at companies (Helm 2004), and these negative affects
may escalate to the detrimental actions such as spreading negative word of mouth
and boycotts (DeCarlo 2005; Laczniak et al. 2001). In any case, consumer cynicism
would have undesirable impacts on the company and its brand image (Odou and de
Pechpeyrou 2011). Consequently, the impacts of employee cynicism towards the
company cannot be overlooked. For this reason, the current research examines
employee cynicism, in particular, how specific organizational climates (i.e., corpo-
rate social responsibility and servant leadership) can help reduce cynicism towards
the company.
Extant consumer research has long established that consumer make purchases
not just based on functionality and utility, products are also purchased for more
personal reasons such as symbolic meaning of status and achievement as well as a
E. Chan (*)
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western
Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland
e-mail: elisa.chan@ehl.ch
F. Yim
Baptist University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: fredyim@hkbu.edu.hk

24 E. Chan and F. Yim
sense of social belonging (e.g., Ferraro et al. 2011). By the same token, employees
view their work as a means to earn a living, but it also gives individuals a sense of
achievement and a sense of communitas through exchanges with their supervisors,
peers, and colleagues. That is to say, work would also serve as a means to earn
respect and to demonstrate self-worth to others (Fineman 1983). Work meaning is
conceptualized as the individuals’ understanding of the purpose of their work or
what they believe is achieved in their work (Wrzesniewski and Dutton 2001). The
current research proposes that work meaning can be cultivated via specific organi-
zational climates (i.e., corporate social responsibility and servant leadership) and
can increase perceived work meaning.
Taken together, this study will investigate the chain effects of CSR climate, ser-
vant leadership climate, employee cynicism, and work meaning on an important
marketing outcome—brand citizenship behaviors (i.e., extra-role behaviors congru-
ent with the company’s brand values to strengthen brand identity; Burmann and
Zeplin 2005; Burmann et al. 2008). In order to test the proposed theoretical model,
a multilevel research design is deployed. CSR climate and servant leadership
climate are team-level constructs, and work meaning and employee cynicism are
individual-level constructs.
Keywords CSR · Servant leadership · Work meaning · Cynicism · Team

Non-Compliance Is a Double-Edged
Sword: An Abstract
Amanda Yamim and Adilson Borges
Abstract One of the most important premises in the field of marketing is the satis-
faction of consumer needs and desires (Kotler and Armstrong 2010). While an
employee’s capacity to attend to customer desires has always been critical to orga-
nization’s competitiveness, consumers of today expect companies to meet their cus-
tomized requests like never before (Chandler and Lusch 2015). Considering this
premise, over the last decade a body of literature has focused on understanding how
to increase employee capacity to attend consumers’ desires (Kearney et al. 2017).
This research explores the consequences to managers’ willful non-compliance with
consumers’ desires. We propose that if consumers judge the producer as having
high (low) expertise, the non-compliance will increase (decrease) consumers’ per-
ception of how much effort was dedicated to product creation, thus increasing
(decreasing) product evaluation and willingness to pay. We test the proposed intu-
ition with three studies.
In Study 1 participants (N = 107; Mage = 35.33, 48.6% female) were randomly
assigned to two scenarios following their modification of a dish component request:
“She tells you that the change can affect the dish integrity because all dishes are
extensively and carefully though by the chef. She apologizes and tells you that the
restaurant can’t do the changes [She tells you that if you want she will manage to do
it].” Participants who read the non-compliance scenario judged the food as tastier
(Mnon-compliance = 7.57 vs. Mcompliance = 6.98, F(1,105) = 9.458, p < 0.01) and were will-
ing to pay more for the same (Mnon-compliance = 35.91 vs. Mcompliance = 27.00,
F(1,105) = 5.866, p < 0.05) in comparison to consumers who read the compliance
scenario.
Study 2 replicates our findings but also shows that the effect of non-compliance
is dependent on producer expertise. Specifically, when the producer had low exper-
tise, the non-compliance decreased taste inferences (Mnon-compliance = 6.73 vs.
A. Yamim (*)
Grenoble Ecole de Management, Grenoble, France
e-mail: amanda.pruskiyamim@grenoble-em.com
A. Borges
NEOMA Business School, Reims, France
e-mail: adilson.borges@neoma-bs.fr

26 A. Yamim and A. Borges
Mcompliance = 7.35, F(1,175) = 4.61, p < 0.05) and did not influence willingness to pay
(Mnon-compliance = 24.02 vs. Mcompliance = 21.71, F(1,166) = 0.56, p > 0.1). However,
when the chef had high expertise, non-compliance increased taste inferences
(Mnon-compliance = 8.13 vs. Mcompliance = 7.52, F(1,175) = 4.55, p < 0.05) and willingness
to pay (Mnon-compliance = 32.42 vs. Mcompliance = 27.32, F(1,166) = 4.14, p < 0.05). Study
3 shows the same pattern on effect from non-compliance in a different context,
fashion industry.
This research has several contributions. First, we show that employees’ ability to
translate the production process is important beyond attending consumer requests.
We discuss the practical implications for adopting a no-substitution policy. Managers
should consider adopting the no-substitution policy if they believe substitution
could compromise the value of their product.
Keywords Non-compliance · Expertise · Food taste · No-substitution policy ·

Consumer request

A Critical Review of Institutional Theory
in Marketing: An Abstract
Jeannette A. Mena and Veronika Ponomarenko
Abstract It has long been established that marketing science benefits from borrow-
ing theories from other disciplines (Alderson 1957). One such organization theory
that can inform marketing studies is institutional theory (Hult 2011). This study
provides a critical review of marketing articles that draw on institutional theory as a
theoretical lens and are published in top marketing journals. Specifically, it assesses
the state of institutional theory in marketing to identify gaps and directions for
future research.
The findings of the critical review indicate that many marketing articles in the
strategy area apply institutional theory to understand corporate behavior with a
social dimension—for example, adoption of sustainable innovations orientation
(Varadarajan 2017), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Nikolaeva and Bicho 2011),
and voluntary green initiatives (VGIs) (Clemens and Douglas 2006). This applica-
tion of the theory has benefited from the theory’s assertion that legitimacy consti-
tutes one of the main motivations to participate in such activities.
The second biggest research stream to use institutional theory is supply chain
management (SCM). Given that institutional theory is a management theory, this
finding is not surprising. Relative to other streams, SCM is closer to the theory’s
roots. In SCM, researchers have looked at stages of institutional environment devel-
opment and the influence of institutional pressures on supply chain constituents
(Grewal and Dharwadkar 2002). In addition, mimetic pressures have been found to
lead to “supply chain contagion” (McFarland et al. 2008).
Consumer behavior researchers are increasingly using institutional theory, but it
still remains underexplored. In this area, the theory has been used to study how
media shapes legitimacy perceptions of consumption practices (Humphreys 2010)
and industrial crises (Humphreys and Thompson 2014) as well as how consumers
become institutional actors (Moorman 2002; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013).
Institutional theory has been used several times to complement other theories—
for example, service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2016) and transaction-cost
economics (Gatignon and Gatignon 2010). However, the list of theories is not
J. A. Mena · V. Ponomarenko (*)

e-mail: mena@usf.edu; vponomarenko@usf.edu

28 J. A. Mena and V. Ponomarenko
exhausted yet. Theories such as stakeholder theory and resource dependence theory
can be integrated with institutional theory to explore firm and industry dynamics.
Lastly, little research has investigated deinstitutionalization and institutional change,
both in terms of companies and consumers. Future studies should use institutional
theory to examine these issues as they have become important processes in an era of
disruptive innovations and more turbulent markets.
Keywords Institutional theory · Marketing strategy · Critical review · Theory

borrowing

Does the Environmentally Friendliness
of a Service Invite Customer Loyalty?
The Role of Positive Emotions:
An Abstract
Birgit Leisen Pollack
Abstract This research evaluates consumers’ responses to the environmental

friendliness of service organizations. It expands on the emerging literature connect-
ing environmentally safe practices to customer loyalty (Chen 2013; Hur et al. 2013;
Kwon et al. 2016; Koller et al. 2011). More specifically, this research investigates
the mediating effects of positive emotions on the relationship between environmen-
tal friendliness and service loyalty. The positive emotions investigated include level
of inspiration provided by the service, feelings of belonging instilled by the service,
and the moral identity of a consumer. Repurchase intentions and word of mouth are
investigated as the two primary behavioral manifestations of loyalty. The relation-
ships are evaluated for three service industries.
A total of six hypotheses were advanced. The data for empirically addressing
these research hypotheses were collected from a convenience sample of 183 respon-
dents. Each participant was asked to report on the consumption behaviors related to
an educational service, a coffee shop chain, and a large retail chain. The study par-
ticipants were familiar with each service. Existing scales were used. The hypotheses
were tested using mediated regression models. The Hayes (2013) procedure was
used. The results confirm inspiration and sense of belonging as mediator variables.
The more enduring moral identity of the consumer could not be confirmed as a
mediator.
The findings of this study allow for two general conclusions. First, the results
provide evidence for the existence of positive emotions as mediating variables
affecting the relationship between environmental friendliness of a service and two
service loyalty behaviors. Second, the findings suggest that the mediators are s ervice
Birgit Leisen Pollack acknowledges the financial assistance provided by the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh in the form a Faculty Development research grant.
B. L. Pollack (*)
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA
e-mail: leisen@uwosh.edu

30 B. L. Pollack
specific. While sense of belonging was significant across the three services, the level
of inspiration was service specific and only significant for the educational service.
The findings from this study imply that for green efforts to result in customer
loyalty, they first must instill positive emotions. If green-inspired loyalty is desired,
service organizations may want to focus their green initiative on items most likely
to evoke positive emotions.
Keywords Environmentally friendly · Positive emotions · Loyalty · Mediator

Extended Service Plans and Buyer
Perceptions and Behaviors in Automobile
Industry: An Abstract
Chiharu Ishida, Nat Pope, and Peter Kaufman
Abstract Sometimes called an “aftermarket car warranty,” “vehicle service con-

tract,” or “extended auto warranty,” extended service plan (ESP) market is signifi-
cant, exceeding $16 billion (Warranty Week 2018). ESPs are typically purchased at
the original equipment manufacturer (OEM, such as Toyota and Ford) dealership at
the time the vehicle is purchased, but one may often also buy an ESP through a
third-party warranty provider at a later time. Unlike other, the so-called manufac-
turer’s warranties, which are included in the price of the product, ESPs are really
vehicle service contracts (or safeguards) against expensive, unforeseen repairs. The
term “extended” is also sometimes used because ESPs usually extend the length of
the coverage and allotted mileage (and sometimes a few other extra coverages such
as roadside assistance) set by the OEM warranty.
The purchasing decision of ESPs is complex, considering the fact that multiple par-
ties from the seller’s side are involved: the salesperson, Finance and Insurance (F&I)
personnel, dealership, the manufacturer (auto brand), and sometimes a third-party
underwriter. The purpose of this research is to better understand the dynamics of the
decision (not) to buy ESPs, given the buyer characteristics and their interactions with
the selling parties. The research was conducted by surveying 341 new car owners.
Among several findings, our results indicated that the decision to buy an ESP shares no
relationship to the degree to which the respondent felt positively toward the F&I person.
In line with previous research, attitude and loyalty had significant effects: specifically,
consumer’s dealership loyalty (but not automaker loyalty) and attitude toward ESPs.
C. Ishida (*) · P. Kaufman

Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
e-mail: cishida@ilstu.edu; pkaufma@ilstu.edu
N. Pope
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
e-mail: nat.pope@unt.edu

32 C. Ishida et al.
Keywords Extended service plan · Extended warranty · Extended auto warranty ·

Insurance · Frontline employees

Special Session: “The World Needs
Storytellers”: New Research Avenues
for Storytelling in Marketing: An Abstract
Edward L. Nowlin, Claas Christian Germelmann, Sahar Karimi,

Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, Doug Walker,
and Klaus-Peter Wiedmann
Abstract In summer 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for
“storytellers” to address the problem that he said was top priority for him these
days: “the intransigence, polarization, unwillingness to listen to diverse points of
view, and tribalism-run-amuck that afflicts society” (Alan Murray, Fortune CEO
Daily 2018-09-11). Given such great expectations of storytelling in transformative
and public policy marketing, this special session tries to take a look at what the
future holds for storytelling research in a marketing context. Expanding on the AMS
special sessions “Unveiling the Magic of Storytelling in Marketing” (AMS 2016)
and “The Values of Storytelling: From Tactics to Transformative Action” (AMS
2017), we set out to investigate and discuss potential future avenues for this
research stream.
E. L. Nowlin · D. Walker
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
e-mail: elnowlin@ksu.edu; dmwalker@ksu.edu
C. C. Germelmann (*)
e-mail: c.c.germelmann@uni-bayreuth.de
S. Karimi
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
e-mail: sahar.karimi@liverpool.ac.uk
N. N. Chaker
Elon University, Elon, NC, USA
e-mail: nchaker@elon.edu
D. M. Houghton
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, USA
e-mail: houghtond@xavier.edu
K.-P. Wiedmann
Leibnitz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany
e-mail: wiedmann@m2.uni-hannover.de

34 E. L. Nowlin et al.
Chaired by Edward L. Nowlin and Claas Christian Germelmann, this session’s

objective is to spark fruitful research discussions on the topic and hopefully to con-
tribute to shaping the future of storytelling research in marketing.
The three papers in the session show potential mechanisms, measurements, and
uses of storytelling in marketing. Various contexts are covered that range from con-
sumers as recipients (and co-creators, Huber and Germelmann 2016) to B2B
Applications and Sales. The look at mechanisms of storytelling is accompanied by
a proposed scale measuring storytelling activities by salespersons. This duality
highlights the contention that storytelling is a co-creative activity (Huber and
Germelmann 2016), which links the session with the previous ones. The first paper
by Sahar Karimi, “Storytelling: How Do We Process Consumer Stories?” investi-
gates storytelling from an information processing perspective. It proposes the idea
that that consumers process and value stories differently, depending on their indi-
vidual characteristics and the story format. The second paper, “Measuring
Salesperson Storytelling: Theoretical Construct Development and Empirical
Validation,” by Edward L. Nowlin, Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, and
Doug Walker, suggests a careful and rigorous scale development process and test
the nomological net of salesperson storytelling. Beyond providing a comprehensive
definition of salesperson storytelling, and developing and validating a scale this
purpose, this paper shows that salesperson storytelling has an effect on job-related
outcomes in the sales context. In the third paper, “Overcoming Barriers to the
Acceptance and Commissioning of Projects as a Challenge to Storytelling in the
B2B Sector,” Klaus-Peter Wiedmann considers whether the potential for storytell-
ing can be used to persuade Buying Center (BC) members to accept project offer-
ings related to the implementation of high-tech systems or sophisticated business
consulting projects. This final paper opens the discussion and the search for new
research opportunities and potential research cooperations.
Keywords Storytelling · Sales · Salespersons · Scale development · B2B · Projects

· Acceptance

Special Session: Measuring Salesperson
Storytelling: An Abstract
Edward L. Nowlin, Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, and Doug Walker
Abstract In general, people find stories far more compelling than presentations.
The importance of storytelling in business has even caught the recent attention of
practitioners and scholars. For example, a recent article in Forbes suggests that
effective storytelling could lead to increased profitability by enabling a firm to
deftly and emotively express its capabilities as well as clearly differentiating itself
from competitors. For organizations, salespeople, acting as boundary spanners, are
the primary storytellers of the firm. In the literature, salesperson storytelling is cur-
rently defined as a “discourse dealing with interrelated actions and consequences in
a chronological order” in order to drive sales. While past research has recognized
the importance and produced meaningful insights on this phenomenon, it is too
general to effectively provide guidance to researchers and practitioners. That is, it is
likely that the notion of storytelling is a much more complex and multifaceted phe-
nomenon than we currently understand it to be. Furthermore, much remains to be
known about how to empirically capture and operationalize storytelling. As such,
further research is needed in order to identify and offer a way to empirically mea-
sure storytelling. Toward this end, this study attempts to take a much-needed step
towards unveiling the nature of salesperson storytelling and to offer a usable instru-
ment that can be used to measure it. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is
to employ a careful and rigorous scale development process and test the nomologi-
cal net, consisting of a multi-study approach to generating items, scale purification,
and testing predictive validity. This research contributes to the marketing literature
by (1) conceptualizing a comprehensive definition of salesperson storytelling, (2)
E. L. Nowlin (*) · D. Walker

e-mail: elnowlin@ksu.edu; dmwalker@ksu.edu
N. N. Chaker
D. M. Houghton
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, USA
e-mail: houghtond@xavier.edu

developing and validating a scale for salesperson storytelling, and (3) empirically
showing that salesperson storytelling has an effect on job-related outcomes.
Keywords Storytelling · Salesperson sales · Scale development · Job-related

outcomes

How do International Co-branding
Alliances Affect Host Country Consumers’
Purchase Intention? An Abstract
Murong Miao
Abstract As markets are increasingly dynamic with a rising variety from which
customers can choose (Murray et al. 2011), brand-building activities have become
top priority of management (Fischer et al. 2010). Strategic alliances have been
receiving attention in the international market since the beginning of the twentieth
century (e.g., Harrigan 1986; Lorange and Roos 1992; Faulkner 1995; Mackay
2007). The frequency of using strategic alliance has increased steadily over the past
centuries. Companies have to input considerable effort to ensure a successful alli-
ance. Brand alliance has an extensive popularity among various types of strategic
alliance options. It is defined as a strategy in which: “two brands are deliberately
paired with one another in a marketing context such as in advertisements, products,
product placements, and distribution outlets” (Grossman 1997: 191). Previous lit-
erature has mainly focused on how companies like to use the co-branding strategy
(e.g., Cooke and Ryan 2000; Ueltschy and Laroche 2004), on the motives behind
using co-branding strategy (e.g., Mowery 1988; Hagedoorn 1993; Khanna 1996)
and on the advantages of using co-branding strategy (e.g., Bernard and Ruth 1998;
Rao et al. 1999; Washburn and Richard 2002). However, the role that the host coun-
try plays on the consumers has been overlooked despite the fact that previous
research has shown that host country environments have a major influence on con-
sumer buying intention (Bian and Forsythe 2012). The “global market” is made up
of about 200 countries. Each country has its own consumer behavior, customs, life-
style, and economy (Mooij and Hofstede 2010). Lin and Chen (2006) claimed that
the Country of Origin (COO) is one of the factors that could significantly affect the
consumers’ purchase intentions. Research has shown that differences in national
culture can disrupt consumers’ attitudes towards the brand (Moon et al. 2008;
Raymond and McClure 2001). By considering the moderating influence of host
country context, this article expects to refine and extend our current understanding
of the effect co-branding alliances have on consumer intention. These findings can
M. Miao (*)
e-mail: mmiao001@odu.edu

38 M. Miao
potentially benefit MNEs, especially for luxury MNEs, in terms of providing

strategic guidelines for them when they choose to use co-branding alliance in
the future.
Keywords Co-branding alliances · Multinational enterprise (MNE) · Cultural

difference · Luxury · Commodity

Does Model Ethnicity Matter
in International Advertising? A Literature
Review on Model Ethnicity and Related
Topics: An Abstract
Kristina Harrison
Abstract A literature review was conducted surrounding model ethnicity in the

context of international advertising. Related literature and research are additionally
reviewed in order to understand the diverse views and evaluations of model ethnic-
ity in the international context. Varying factors can affect a viewer’s interpretation
of ethnic model image, such as the level and strength of consumer ethnic identifica-
tion, perceived or real threats to identity motives, or an individual’s culturally influ-
enced self-concept. The literature was divided into four predominant research
topics, and they are as follows: ethnic minorities in a majority region; a Western vs.
Eastern context; beauty ideals and roles; and model ethnicity effects on product
evaluations. Each of the four main topics is divided into subtopics and a decision
tree is presented in order to organize and categorize the extant research. Determining
the effectiveness of model ethnicity in advertising practice is a complex problem as
many factors contribute to the viewer’s perception and subsequent evaluation of the
advertisement.
In addition to the contributions to scholarship, many practical implications can
be used for marketing managers, such as advice for when to standardize with a par-
ticular type of model and when to adapt with a local ethnic model. For instance, in
places where a minority group has low ethnic identification or is highly acculturated
to the majority group, standardized marketing with the use of an ethnic model that
is a member of the majority ethnicity might be the most effective model to use in
advertisements. The same can be said about targeted marketing practices. Those
who have high ethnic identification or those who felt their distinctiveness was under
threat, such as found by Cano and Ortinau (2012) in the study of Hispanics’ response
to multicultural advertising, may respond better to targeted marketing practices.
Additionally, consumers in countries that have high power distance or strong verti-
cal independent self-concepts, such as inferred about those is Japan, may respond
K. Harrison (*)
e-mail: kstuhler@odu.edu

40 K. Harrison
best to Western models used in status appeal advertisements. In both individualistic

and collectivist cultures, appeals to individualism will be effective for advertising
personal use products. Appeals to individualism in Eastern countries can often be
created through the use of Western models in “individualistic” portrayals. Marketing
managers can benefit from the use of this information in choosing what type of
model to use in advertisements.
Keywords Ethnic segmentation · Ethnic models · Advertising · Ethnic appeals

Product Innovation Determinants
and Export Performance in French
and Ukrainian SMEs
Oksana Kantaruk Pierre
Abstract Based on an exploration of the innovation practices in 20 French and

Ukrainian exporting SMEs, our research highlights the role played by collaborative
innovation and the domestic institutional environment in product innovation. Our
research is based on the conceptual foundations of resource dependence theory
(RTD) and the institutional profile approach. On the one hand, the collaborative
practices mobilized (outside-in innovation and joint innovation) by the exporting
SMEs aim to fill gaps in internal resources in order to propose new products or
improve existing ones. On the other hand, the regulatory, normative, and cognitive
dimensions of the domestic institutional environment guide the behavior of the
exporters in terms of the development of innovative and exporting.
Keywords Product innovation · Open innovation · Exporting SMEs ·

Collaborations
Introduction
Innovation and exporting are among key factors impacting economic growth and
value-added activities because they contribute to enhance firms’ competitive advan-
tages on globalized markets (Love and Roper 2015). The academic literature sug-
gests that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are keen on developing innovations
despite the lack of financial and technological resources (Kuivalainen et al. 2010).
Also empirical evidence advances the mutual interactions between innovation and
exporting (Filipescu et al. 2013) and positive links with organizational performance
(Love and Roper 2015). But the reasons of this innovation–exporting–performance
reinforcement stay unclear (Love and Roper 2015). The academic literature on
O. K. Pierre (*)
University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
e-mail: oksana.pierre@univ-lorraine.fr

42 O. K. Pierre
exporting SMEs suggests that privileged relationships with foreign partners (clients,
suppliers, distributors) could be, at least partly, the answer (Obadia 2013). On the
one hand, foreign clients are a major source of information about foreign markets
(Li et al. 2017). On the other hand, importers contribute to innovation developments
within exporting SMEs (Silva et al. 2018). Hence, the quality of relationships with
foreign clients and importers can be considered as a key factor of SME export per-
formance (Obadia et al. 2015).
Despite a rich literature on the links between innovation and SME export perfor-
mance (Love and Roper 2015), the determinants of product innovation in exporting
SMEs are underexplored (Griffith and Lee 2016; Lewandowska et al. 2016). These
authors analyze the role of end consumers and various partners in product innovation.
However, they do not systematically distinguish between the B-to-C and B-to-B sec-
tors (Griffith and Lee 2016) or between the different types of partners (Lewandowska
et al. 2016). Our research aims to fill this gap in the literature and highlight the deter-
minants of product innovation resulting from collaborations in exporting SMEs.
The resource dependence theory (RTD) (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) and the
institutional profile approach (Kostova 1997; Ngo et al. 2016) provide a relevant
framework to better understand the impact of internal (resources) and external (pub-
lic support mechanisms, collaboration, etc.) determinants that impact both innova-
tion and export (Love and Roper 2015). RTD makes it possible to analyze
collaborative practices by integrating the dependence on external resources and the
interdependence between actors (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) that characterize the
situation of exporters and importers.
The institutional profile approach takes into account the values and regulatory and
cultural norms of the external environment (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Kostova
1997). These elements have an influence both on the state of mind of managers and on
the procedures necessary for setting up the export activity and risk and cost assess-
ment (Ngo et al. 2016). Moreover, the institutional distance and diversity can have an
impact on innovation activity (Wu 2013; Wu et al. 2016). Finally, the role of institu-
tional assistance mechanisms in innovation–exporting interaction and in partnerships
developments is also an important issue (Love and Roper 2015). Thus, our research
objective is to explore the role of exporting partners in new product development in
the case of indirect exporting activities within SMEs in different institutional contexts.
Literature Review
Theoretical Framework
The concept of collaborative innovation is based on empirical observations and is

not a theoretical approach in itself (Lichtanhaler 2011). Transaction cost theory,
dynamic capabilities approach, and RTD are often used to explain the phenomenon
(Chesbrough et al. 2014). In order to better understand collaborative innovation in
exporting SMEs, we combine the RDT and the institutional profile approach
(Kostova 1997).
Product Innovation Determinants and Export Performance in French and Ukrainian SMEs 43
Organizations search for critical resources in their environment and are depen-
dent on these resources as well as on the organizations that hold them (Pfeffer and
Salancik 1978). In addition, access to these resources and to the external knowledge
allows companies to create a competitive advantage (Chesbrough et al. 2014).
Exporting companies interact with various commercial partners (importers, direct
customers, etc.). The academic literature on exporter–importer relationships high-
lights the contributions of RTD in analyzing the different types of performance
(export performance, relationship performance, and quality) (Aykol and Leonidou
2018). The importer understands the value of exporter’s product line for his portfo-
lio; the exporter needs the distribution channels controlled by the importer (Ahmed
2009). In addition, importers can be considered as exporters’ first clients and thus
can be considered as the first sources of knowledge on exporting markets (Li et al.
2017). By mobilizing importers’ resources and export market knowledge, exporting
companies can reduce environmental uncertainty.
Exporting SMEs are exposed to different environments more or less close to the
national institutional environment (Kostova 1997). The influence of these environ-
ments (Ngo et al. 2016; Manolopoulos et al. 2018) should be considered to the same
degree as internal resources available within a company (Sambharya and Musteen
2014). Including different institutional environment characteristics into exporting
and innovation activities analysis provides a better understanding of the effective-
ness of research and resources allocation (Manolopoulos et al. 2018). Kostova
(1997, p. 180) defines institutional profiles as “the set of all relevant institutions,
established in a country, and transmitted to organizations by individuals.”
In our research, we refer to the conceptualization of institutional profiles specifi-
cally adapted to exporting SMEs (Mogos Descotes et al. 2011). According to this
approach, the regulatory dimension is based on institutional support and assistance
offered to exporting SMEs. The cognitive dimension refers to the acquisition of
knowledge and the management of export activities (such as product adaptation).
Finally, the normative dimension captures the values and social perceptions related
to export and international entrepreneurship (Mogos Descotes et al. 2011).
Cooperation with External Actors: Focus on Clients
Collaborations can be defined as interorganizational relationships, characterized by

a high level of integration, transparency, synergy, and partners commitment (Emden
et al. 2006). Collaborations with different actors are considered as major determi-
nants of product innovation (Keizer et al. 2002; Chesbrough et al. 2008). Clients,
suppliers, knowledge centers, and institutions play an important role in new product
developments (Keizer et al. 2002). Client orientation (Salavou 2005) and respon-
siveness (Atuahene-Gima et al. 2005) have an impact on product innovativeness and
product innovation performance respectively. Moreover, close relationships with
clients make firms to put more efforts in innovation (Krolikowski and Yuan 2017).
In addition, interaction orientation (customer involvement in product development)
influences the degree of product novelty (Chen et al. 2017).
44 O. K. Pierre
Despite little empirical evidence on collaborative innovations within exporting

firms (Griffith and Lee 2016), some benefits can be stressed: driving product inno-
vation (Silva et al. 2018), greater export intensity of new products (Lewandowska
et al. 2016), an innovation-based differentiation strategy implementation (Lisboa
et al. 2011) and ultimately the creation of a competitive advantage (Obadia et al.
2015). The authors analyze two forms of integration of export partners: importers as
a source of knowledge (importer’s feedback) and as co-developers (Silva et al.
2018). In the latter case, customer integration improves the product advantage in the
context of international collaborations (Griffith and Lee 2016). It should be noticed,
though, that integration of external actors into innovation processes can have nega-
tive effects. Risks related to knowledge redundancy and opportunistic behaviors of
industrial clients can hinder the development of new products (Noordhof et al. 2011).
I nstitutional Profiles: The Role of Domestic

and Foreign Environments
Exporting SMEs deal with different institutional environments (Kostova 1997). In

order to explore these environments, we mobilize the institutional profiles approach
developed by Kostova (1997). Three pillars are distinguished: regulatory (written
rules and laws), cognitive (social and client knowledge), and normative (social
norms, values, and shared beliefs) (Mogos Descotes et al. 2011). The differences
between domestic and foreign institutional environments can have an impact on
innovation and exporting activities.
On the one hand, domestic institutional characteristics may enhance or constrain
exporting-related activities through the perceived level of risk and uncertainty (Ngo
et al. 2016). The stability and specificity of domestic institutions (e.g., protection of
private property) and the rule of law can improve the export performance of compa-
nies (Ngo et al. 2016). On the other hand, high bureaucracy is a barrier for exporting
SMEs (Manolopoulos et al. 2018). However, in the case of Greek SMEs, the level
of perceived corruption reinforces the export intensity to avoid a high dependence
on the domestic market (Manolopoulos et al. 2018). Finally, aspects related to the
positive perception of entrepreneurial activities in a country are likely to motivate
companies to engage in commercial and innovative activities in domestic and for-
eign markets (Mogos Descotes et al. 2011).
Academic research has also focused on the institutional environments of host
countries. Institutional diversity and institutional distance (between home and host
markets) can have a positive impact on innovation performance (Wu 2013). In addi-
tion, the level of institutions’ development in host countries also positively influ-
ences the innovation performance of exporters from emergent countries (Wu et al.
2016). Thus, our research aims to explore the role of institutional profiles in new
product development.
Methodology
Research Context
Our research question concerns the new product introduction by exporting SMEs,
taking into account their external collaborations and different institutional environ-
ments. To answer this question, we used a semi-directive interview approach, which
allowed us to access the vision of the actors involved in these practices (Creswell
2003). All interviews were conducted face-to-face (between October and December
2016). In line with the previous work on innovation and internationalization
(Filipescu et al. 2013; Catanzaro 2014), we used the following selection criteria:
size, sector, export commitment, and entry mode.
Since the motivations for internationalization vary according to the level of
development of domestic institutions (Manolopoulos et al. 2018), it is therefore
appropriate to study the role of the institutional environment in international devel-
opment by comparing different environments (Cuervo-Cazurra et al. 2018). Thus, it
seemed relevant to us to compare the impact of national institutional environments
on collaborative innovation in two quite contrasting countries, France and Ukraine.
Ukraine is considered as a country with transition economy characterized by low
employment rates, inequality in wealth distributions, and lack of access to financing
resources (EBRD Transition Report 2015, 2016). Moreover, the rate of businesses
creation is lower in post-communist countries than that in western countries; also
commercial development is mostly based on CEO’s relational network and his rela-
tional capability (Aidis et al. 2008).
We refer to the definition of European Union and, in our sample, we consider
firms under 250 employees with annual sales not exceeding EUR 50 million1
(Official Journal 124, 20/05/2003, p. 0036–0041). We met 20 CEOs or export man-
agers: 10 in France and 10 in Ukraine. Firms vary in terms of industry, export expe-
rience, size, and entry modes. The number of interviews was considered as suitable:
the saturation point was reached (Saunders et al. 2009).
We met ten exporters in France and ten in Ukraine to study the extent to which
the role of collaborations in exporting and innovative activities varies. A bilingual
and bicultural interviewer, familiar with the contexts of the two countries, con-
ducted the interviews. French exporting SMEs, like their Ukrainian counterparts
(see Tables 1 and 2), vary according to size (between 10 and 200 employees), export
experience (between 3 and 45 years for French SMEs and between 2 and 25 years
for Ukrainian SMEs) and the percentage of export turnover (between 5% and 90%
in France versus 100% in Ukraine), as well as presence patterns (direct and indirect
sales). We met three types of interlocutors: company managers, export managers,
and administrative and export managers.
1
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2003.124.01.0036.01.
ENG&toc=OJ:L:2003:124:TOC
46 O. K. Pierre
Table 1 Ukrainian SME characteristics

Respondent Position Size Industry % Export sales
UR1 CEO 40 Wood 100%
UR2 Sales and production director 130 Chemical 15%
UR3 CEO 30–40 Equipment manufacturing 40%
UR4 Export manager, cofounder 40 Textile 90%
UR5 Export manager 250 PVC 5%
UR6 CEO 150 Food Less than 30%
UR7 CEO 10 Wood 50%
UR8 CEO 20 Wood 90%
UR9 Export manager, cofounder 20 Textile 50%
UR10 Sales manager, cofounder 46 Textile 100%
Table 2 French SME characteristics

% Export
Respondent Position Size Industry sales
RF1 CEO 10 Food 5%
RF2 Export manager 25 PVC 7%
RF3 Manager’s assistant 10 Industrial design 40%
RF4 Export manager 170 Space 25–35%
Aeronautic
RF5 CEO 73 Industrial air conditioning 20%
RF6 Export manager, 10 Food 8%
Cofounder
RFF7 Export manager 50 Space 20–25%
Aeronautic
RF8 CEO 109 Industrial chemical analysis 7%
RF9 Export manager 200 Temperature sensor 15–20%
manufacturer
RF10 CEO 55 Hydraulic energy 90%
Interview Guide Design
Innovation. Following Fernandez-Mesa and Alegre (2014), we refer to the OECD

definition of innovation (Oslo Manuel 2005) and consider new products or modified
products. Thus we asked our respondents about new products development; product
modifications; product adaptations to export markets (Lefebvre et al. 1998; Filipescu
et al. 2013).
Collaborative innovation or open innovation. The concept is defined as the pro-
cess of creating innovation beyond the firm’s borders and through the sharing of
ideas, knowledge, expertise and opportunities (Demil and Lecocq 2012). In order to
determine whether product innovation is collaborative in nature, we asked about the
role of external actors in the development of new products: collaborations with cli-
ents and suppliers, as well as collaborations with public and private knowledge
centers (Demil and Lecocq 2012; Chesbrough et al. 2008).
Institutional profiles. In order to capture all three dimensions of institutional pro-

file, we refer to the operationalization proposed by Mogos Descotes et al. (2011).
Thus we asked respondents to describe institutional policies for export and the
image of entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship. We also included
questions about client knowledge and about foreign markets knowledge.
All interviews were transcribed and coded with Nvivo software, which is specifi-
cally designed for qualitative data.
Results and Discussion
Our results are structured around two aspects: collaborative practices and institu-
tional profiles. The companies mobilize different collaborative practices during
product development or modification process. On the one hand, these practices can
be analyzed in terms of access to resources. On the other hand, the institutional
environment can structure these practices around the cognitive, regulatory, and nor-
mative pillars. A summary of practices is presented in Table 3.
Cognitive Pillar: Outside-In and Joint Innovation
Clients appear as a major partner for innovation development. Three scenarios are
observed. First, independently of industry, clients are the dominant source of infor-
mation. “Every day, we talk to dozen clients on a phone. So we try to discuss the
Table 3 Institutional pillars and collaborative practices

Pillars Collaborative practices
Cognitive – Client knowledge – Client and supplier monitoring
– Market knowledge – Direct clients and importers implication in
– Relationship with clients product development/adaptation
– Partner implication in production
development/adaptation (suppliers, experts)
Regulatory – Laws, regulation knowledge – Regulation monitoring in foreign markets
– Institutional support for – Regulation monitoring in domestic market
exporting/innovation – Cooperation with institutional partners for
exporting/innovation (French respondents)
Normative – Entrepreneurship image and – Willingness to transmit the entrepreneurship
identity vision to younger generations (French
respondents)
– Engagement to the community: socially
responsible activities (Ukrainian respondents)
48 O. K. Pierre
market and what is going on the market” (FR22). When it comes to decide or pro-
pose new solutions, firms can ask their clients directly: “We have our relational
database […], we ask clients” (UR4). Second, monitoring clients’ needs allows
French and Ukrainian exporters to propose modifications or new products.
Innovation can be an answer to an identified client need, as explained by one of our
respondents: “Because ultimately it comes from client need. We responded to a cli-
ent demand” (FR2). Another respondent explains how clients motivate and chal-
lenge his firm: “[clients] in terms of innovation, our clients push us upwards,
challenge us. […] They raise new issues, new concepts” (FR9). Also, firms can
develop products “personalized” for an industry as described by one of our respon-
dents: “[Do clients ask to develop a product for them?] Yes, they do. We are working
on a new polishing product [for construction industry]” (UR4). Third, collabora-
tions and partnerships with clients seem to be an important source of innovation,
especially in French space and energy industries. “We build a partnership strategy
with our clients” (FR4). Respondents confirm that clients’ teams work with their
teams in product developments. Trust and transparency are key factors of successful
cooperation. Regarding this type of collaborations, on Ukrainian market, industry
differences are less discernible.
Suppliers and research centers (public and private) are also involved in collab-
orative innovation. French and Ukrainian respondents stress the access to the vari-
ous tests during design phase. “They [foreign suppliers] have laboratories of a very
high level, we can test our products” (UR2). In addition, new developments in raw
materials and ecological materials can be at the origin of new products. “There is
research in new gas, new fluids. We are attentive to this. When there is a new gas, we
test it” (FR5). Finally, cooperation with knowledge centers ensures the complemen-
tarity of skills through the co-development: technical expertise or cooperation on a
contractual basis that involves the co-development of a product. “We created all the
electronic equipment together [with the research center], we tested it. […] We
signed a contract with them” (UR3).
To conclude, monitoring clients’ needs and cooperating with clients are identi-
fied as major sources of innovation. These results are consistent with previous
empirical evidence on client implication in product development (Cui and Wu 2016;
Krolikowski and Yuan 2017; Lewandowska et al. 2016). Also implication of exter-
nal actors in innovation process is a major characteristic of open innovation
(Chesbrough et al. 2008). Respondents use outside-in practices (Demil and Lecocq
2012) in order to enhance innovation developments.
2
FR: French respondent; UR: Ukrainian respondent
egulatory Pillar: Regulation Monitoring

R
and Institutional Support
Exporting activity requires following different regulatory frames in different coun-

tries. All respondents acknowledge the need to monitor these regulatory mecha-
nisms in order to adapt their activity and products: “Every country is a specific case”
(FR6). It appears as a learning process: “As we went along, we learned about certi-
fication norms” (UR5). Also in the food industry, the direct impact of regulation can
be observed: “Palm oil is prohibited in Europe, […] so we try to use only the autho-
rized ingredients in both markets [local and foreign]” (UR6).
Technical regulations can become a barrier: technological adaptation is some-
times difficult to implement. Companies may stop their commercial development in
a particular market, because of a lack of technical skills to adapt the product. “Some
technical regulations can be blocking […] it would take too long to adapt to these
regulations” (FR10).
Institutional policies for export and innovation can be included in a regulatory
frame. French respondents seem to use different institutional mechanisms (pro-
grams proposed by Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Business France).
French exporters have mostly positive evaluation of these programs: “We are satis-
fied. All assistance we had, we met efficient people” (FR3). On the contrary,
Ukrainian institutions appear to be weak. The Ukrainian respondents report the lack
of transparent assistance mechanisms and the corruption: “Customs require some
documents, different certifications. OK. No problem. But it is impossible to get all
this without connections” (UR4).
Normative Pillar: Entrepreneurship Image and Identity
The entrepreneur’s identity construction is an important normative pillar dimension.

It is linked to the image and relationships that the entrepreneur can have with the
environment (Scott and Lane 2000). The entrepreneurship image–related questions
were asked. There are some differences between Ukrainian and French respondents.
French respondents compare the perception of the entrepreneur in French society
with other countries and regret a rather negative image in France. “There is some
jealousy in France” (FR4). However, most respondents think that the image is
changing. “There is a small revolution going on, the entrepreneur has less negative
image” (FR10). French exporters refer to job creation as a strong mark of entrepre-
neurship. Also, they stress the need to encourage entrepreneurship: “There are a lot
of young people that create their own firms […] we need to promote these initiatives
[business creation]” (FR5).
Within Ukrainian society, the entrepreneur image is mostly positive, “very cool”
(UR1, UR9) even if some regional differences can be noticed. “I think that people
have some respect for those who produce something” (UR7). Though, Ukrainian
50 O. K. Pierre
respondents refer more to the term “respect” and action for the community.
Ukrainian respondents are engaged in different social projects (summer camps and
local team sponsorship, common space renovations). “A firm can not be closed on
itself” (UR3).
To sum up, all the three pillars appear to be important in developing exporting
and innovation activities. Consistent with previous empirical evidence (Wu 2013;
Wu et al. 2016), institutional diversity can have an impact on innovation develop-
ments. Comparing two different domestic institutional environments allowed us to
observe results close to the previous work of Cuervo-Cazurra and Ramamurti
(2017): innovation-based internationalization (French exporters) versus escape-
based internationalization (Ukrainian exporters).
Conclusions and Implications for Theory and Practice
This explorative research allows us to confront the product innovation determinants

identified by the literature with the vision of export managers in different institutional
contexts. More precisely, we explored the role of client implication in new product
developments and product adaptation. Thus, clients appear as major source and deter-
minant of innovation in exporting SMEs. Monitoring clients’ needs and collaborating
with clients are most current mechanisms used by exporters in order to develop or
adapt products. These results contribute to enrich the existent literature on customer
orientation (Salavou 2005; Boso et al. 2012) and on open innovation (Chesbrough
et al. 2008). Institutional profile approach allowed us to explore the impact of domes-
tic and foreign institutional environments on exporting and innovation activities.
Institutional diversity and distance do have an influence on product adaptation. These
results confirm the need to analyze the interaction between exporting and innovation
beyond cultural differences and to include regulatory and cognitive pillars (Kostova
et al. 2008). Our managerial contributions are aimed at both managers and public
decision makers. Exporting firms could develop closer relationships with clients in
order to better and faster understand their needs. Institutional assistance favors
exporting and innovation activities. Sustaining and adapting regulatory instruments
contribute to enhance industries’ competitive advantages.
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Special Session: The (Co-)creation
of Brand Heritage: An Abstract
Fabien Pecot, Mario Burghausen, Joshua Butcher, Bradford Hudson,

and George Wyner
Abstract In the last 15 years, marketing research has significantly advanced the
definition, the measurement and the operationalization of brand heritage. Originally
developed at a corporate brand level in a Northern European context (Urde et al.
2007), this concept has been adapted to many other contexts since. Conceptually,
brand heritage has been adapted for the study of product brands (Hudson 2011;
Merchant and Rose 2013; Pecot and de Barnier 2017). Methodologically, it has
generated both qualitative (Hakala et al. 2011; Rindell et al. 2015) and quantitative
works (Pecot et al. 2018; Rose et al. 2016).
The aim of this special session is to present the most recent advancements
on the fabrication of brand heritage and its related tensions. Mario Burghausen
focuses on a cultural institution as a corporate heritage brand, whose heritage is co-
created by multiple stakeholders. He introduces the role of hybrid stakeholders to
designate the membership department and its members as partners and value cre-
ators. Brad Hudson and George Wyner explore an in-depth case study of Lionel
model trains, and the way the current management combines the brand’s heritage
with cutting- edge innovations. Joshua Butcher and Fabien Pecot look at how
Champagne brands and Champagne consumers make the brands’ heritage visible
on Instagram.
The three papers address a different kind of tension related to the fabrication or
operationalization of brand heritage: the role of hybrid stakeholders, the articulation
of brand heritage and innovation, and the visualization of brand heritage on social
F. Pecot (*) · J. Butcher

University of York, York, UK
e-mail: fabien.pecot@york.ac.uk; jb2145@york.ac.uk
M. Burghausen
University of Essex, Colchester, UK
e-mail: mburgh@essex.ac.uk
B. Hudson · G. Wyner
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
e-mail: bradford.hudson@bc.edu; george.wyner@bc.edu

54 F. Pecot et al.
media. Altogether, this session will significantly advance research on the internal
management of brand heritage, at both the corporate and product level.
Keywords Brand heritage · Corporate heritage · Innovation · Social media

· Museums

Special Session: Dehumanization
of Robotic Assistants and Subsequent
Unethical and Abusive Customer Behavior
in Frontline Encounters: An Abstract
Yu-Shan (Sandy) Huang and Nobuyuki Fukawa
Abstract The rapid technological advancements have revolutionized service

encounters (Huang and Rust 2017) and provided an opportunity for companies to
improve customer experiences through automatic service interactions (van Doorn
et al. 2017). As an increasing number of companies begin to incorporate robotic
assistants into their service designs, such as LoweBot adopted by Lowe’s as a shop-
ping assistant (King 2014) and Pepper adopted by Pizza Hut as a waiter (Santos
2018), some of these companies have observed abusive customer behavior directed
towards robotic assistants. For example, the co-founder of Starship Technologies,
Ahti Heinla, indicated that it is not uncommon to find its food-delivery robots being
kicked by people (Hamilton 2018). This type of abusive customer behavior may
negatively influence not only organizations through the financial loss associated
with the damage of robotic assistants but also other customers through the spread of
such behavior. Given the importance of this issue, this research aims to examine
why and when customers engage in abusive customer behavior directed towards
robotic assistants, a behavior that is both dysfunctional and unethical because it
violates the commonly accepted norm of morally appropriate conduct.
Drawing upon moral disengagement theory (Bandura 1986), we propose that
customers may abuse robotic assistants in service encounters due to psychological
freedom derived from a lack of moral self-regulation that would refrain them from
unethical and dysfunctional behavior. Specially, we expect that customers are more
likely to morally disengage and abuse a robotic assistant if the assistant’s style is
non-humanoid as opposed to humanoid. The non-humanoid style allows customers
to view the assistant as a machine without human characteristics and to abuse it
Y.-S. Huang (*)

Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
e-mail: yhuang@nmu.edu
N. Fukawa
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA
e-mail: fukawan@mst.edu

56 Y. Huang and N. Fukawa
without experiencing self-condemnation. The negative influence of humanoid style

on moral disengagement and abusive behavior is expected to be strengthened when
the assistant’s features are hedonic as opposed to utilitarian. Hedonic experiences
tend to involve people-focused service delivery, whereas utilitarian experiences
tend to involve equipment-focused service delivery (Ng et al. 2005). Thus, we sug-
gest that customers are more likely to attend to a humanoid cue of a robotic assistant
when its features are hedonic than when they are utilitarian. The study results pro-
vided support for the proposed interactive effect of robotic assistants’ style (human-
oid vs. nonhumanoid) and feature (hedonic vs. utilitarian) on customer abusive
behavior. This paper offers managerial and theoretical implications regarding how
to manage customers’ unethical and abusive behavior toward robotic assistants.
Keywords Robotic assistants · Moral disengagement · Dysfunctional customer

behavior · Unethical customer behavior · Bridged silsesquioxanes · Water glass

Special Session: Rise of the Service Robots:
Exploring Consumer Acceptance:
An Abstract
Stefanie Paluch, Thorsten Gruber, Werner Kunz, Jochen Wirtz,

Vinh Nhat Lu, Paul Patterson, and Antje Martins
Abstract Due to rapid developments of service robots, artificial intelligence and

other new technologies (including big data, analytics, speech recognition, biomet-
rics, mobile and cloud technologies, and geo-tagging) the service sector is facing
a new wave of digitalization, including at the customer interface. Service robots,
defined as system-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact, com-
municate and deliver service to an organization’s customers (Wirtz et al. 2018),
will bring opportunities for a wide range of service innovations that will dramati-
cally impact the customer experience, service quality, and productivity all at the
same time (e.g., many hotel, restaurant and hair stylist services are likely to be
S. Paluch (*)
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
e-mail: paluch@time.rwth-aachen.de
T. Gruber
Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
e-mail: t.gruber@lboro.ac.uk
W. Kunz
University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA
e-mail: werner.kunz@umb.edu
J. Wirtz
National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
e-mail: jochen@nus.edu.sg
V. N. Lu
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
e-mail: vinh.lu@anu.edu.au
P. Patterson
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
e-mail: p.patterson@unsw.edu.au
A. Martins
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: a.martins@business.uq.edu.au

58 S. Paluch et al.
robot-delivered in the future), lower cost will make high-end services available to
the broad consumer base (e.g., personal concierge services, image consulting, and
high-end personal tuition), while potentially offering new services we have not
thought of yet (Wirtz and Lovelock 2016).
This study explores how consumers perceive and respond to service robots.
Based on conceptual and empirical data, we fine-tune and further develop an inte-
grated framework: the service robot acceptance model (sRAM) and present a future
research agenda (Wirtz et al. 2018). In the second part, we highlight that as service
robotics are likely to impact all strata of society, important ethical and societal
implications have to be considered. The purpose of ethics is the improvement of the
general well-being of all participants in society. It especially focuses on protecting
and improving personal integrity and human dignity, makes sure that the rights of
the weakest in society are protected and aims at limiting possible inequalities caused
by the advancement of service robotics. Our presentation will discuss crucial chal-
lenges at the micro (customers), meso (markets and organizations), and macro
(society) level of analysis. Seeing the pervasiveness of service robots in the future,
we also draw a number of potential approaches for these challenges from the litera-
ture and apply them to the service robotics context to provide several thought-
provoking recommendations for the way forward.
Keywords Service robots · Artificial intelligence · Acceptance model · sRAM

Exploration of the Role of Packaging
Design for Multi-tier Private Brands:
An Abstract
Jiyoung Hwang
Abstract Retailers have increasingly implemented multi-tier private brands (PBs

hereafter), making them one of the hottest trends in the retail industry. However,
multi-tier PBs are surprisingly under-researched, and specifically, few researchers
have investigated the role of visual cues such as packaging design. Thus, this paper
investigates how packaging design employed in multi-tier PBs drive differing con-
sumers’ perceptions, evaluation, and responses.
Study 1 tested the differing impact of packaging design. The data with US con-
sumers recruited Amazon M-Turk was used to test the proposed model. The results
supported that packaging design of PBs serves as an important evaluation cue for
perceived quality and brand equity of multi-tier PBs even when controlling for
price consciousness. Specifically, aesthetic and luxury designs evoked signifi-
cantly higher quality perception and brand equity than did value design. In addi-
tion, quality perception enhanced brand equity and purchase intention but brand
equity positively affected purchase intention only in the aesthetic packaging design
condition.
Study 2 investigated whether individual traits (i.e., visual processing) may inter-
play driving differential responses to the same PBs. Visual processing is chosen as
they are pertinent to extrinsic, visual cues such as packaging design. The results
showed that the impact of packaging design on consumer responses is greater for
those with a high level of visual processing than for those with a low level of visual
processing. Also, quality perception and brand equity positively affected consum-
ers’ choice of PBs over NBs offered in the same product category.
Comprehensively, the findings of this research contribute to the PB literature that
primarily has focused on price and quality perception. As an initial attempt in this
context, we show that aesthetic appeal of PBs’ packaging design can be a major
differentiating attribute for consumers’ inferences about the product and purchase
intention for multi-tier PBs. Also, we address a boundary condition of such effects
J. Hwang (*)
University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA
e-mail: j_hwang3@uncg.edu

60 J. Hwang
by integrating an individual trait, visual processing. Future research is guided to test

the same model with national brands or with more PBs to enhance the generaliz-
ability of the findings.
Keywords Private brands · Packaging design · Quality · Brand equity · Visual

processing

Understanding Risk Statements Within
Drug Injury Advertising: An Abstract
Jesse King and Elizabeth Tippett
Abstract Televised drug injury ads, sponsored by law firms or legal referral net-
works, identify injured consumers for lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.
They generally consist of warnings to the public about dangerous side effects asso-
ciated with a particular drug and conclude with a phone number for consumers to
call if they have experienced the side effect. Because the drugs discussed in the ads
remain available on the market, drug injury ads have the potential to influence the
prospective medical decisions of viewers. This research considers how differences
in the content of drug injury ads affect consumer perceptions and intentions toward
the featured medications. We report the results of two experiments using modified
versions of actual drug injury ads.
The first study tested which elements of drug injury ads most strongly affect
consumer evaluations and intentions. The results of Study 1 suggested that ads
which begin with warnings reduce the likelihood of correct sponsor identification
and reduce the likelihood that participants will (re)fill a prescription. Further, ele-
ments which made it more obvious that the ad was sponsored by a lawyer increased
the likelihood of correct sponsor identification.
In Study 2 we manipulated Sponsor Identification (obvious sponsor vs. non-
obvious sponsor) and the vividness of the Risk Statement (more-vivid risk vs. less-
vivid risk) in a between-subject design. Our results indicate that when the persuasive
intent of the advertisement is less clear (e.g., the sponsor is less obvious), vivid Risk
Statements seem especially impactful and can affect intentions toward discontinu-
ing the medications featured in the ads.
An effective remedy for addressing the misleading character of some ads may be
to require attorneys to prominently disclose the sponsor, preferably at the start of the
ad. Prominent early disclosures about advertising sponsorship would be especially
J. King (*)
Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA
e-mail: jesseking@weber.edu
E. Tippett
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
e-mail: tippett@uoregon.edu

62 J. King and E. Tippett
important where the side effects are severe, when the ad includes vivid graphic
imagery of medical harms (e.g., an image of a person clutching their chest, or lying
in a hospital bed), or where the ad contains strong cautionary language (“warning”).
Keywords Drug injury advertising · Risk · Deception · Legal advertising

The Effect of Social Distance on Donations
to Care Versus Cure: An Abstract
Laura Boman and Xin He
Abstract Consumers are giving at record levels (Giving USA 2018) to charities
providing a variety of different services. While prior work has examined donation
likelihood (Lee et al. 2014), research on allocation in a donation context is tenuous.
Donation allocation is particularly applicable in medical charities where consumers
often face the task of allocating their contributions to either care for patients or
research for a cure. We study allocation decisions in this research. In particular, we
examine whether social distance between a donor and a patient may influence allo-
cation between care and cure.
We define care as providing patients with resources such as equipment, medica-
tion, and financial aid (In Your Community 2018). Cure represents funding to
researchers to advance the search for a permanent remedy (Lopez 2018). Prior
research supports the influence of social distance on donations (Winterich et al.
2009). We extend this stream, showing that donors who are socially close to a
patient are more likely to allocate donations to cure than those who are socially
distant from a patient. Furthermore, we argue that this effect is driven by a need for
hope (Vergaeghe et al. 2005).
Three studies were conducted. To rule out potential confounds, donations were
destined for the charity in general and would not directly benefit any specific patient.
We measured social distance in Study 1 and showed that, as predicted, closer social
distance significantly increased preference for cure. In Study 2, we replicated the
results with a manipulation of social distance, again showing a significant effect of
social distance on donation allocation, such that participants in the close condition
showed greater preference for cure than those in the distant condition. Study 3
tested the proposed underlying mechanism and showed that need for hope mediated
the effect of social distance on donation allocations.
The results of these studies show that, consistent with predictions, closer social
distance increases preference for cure over care. Our research helps to develop a
better understanding of donation allocation decisions. In particular, we introduce a
new perspective to the donation literature by examining how donors choose to
L. Boman (*) · X. He
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
e-mail: laura.boman@ucf.edu; xin.he@ucf.edu

64 L. Boman and X. He
a llocate their dollars between care and cure. Furthermore, the current research deep-
ens the theoretical understanding by examining the underlying processes and iden-
tifying a mediating construct (i.e., need for hope) which has not been examined in
prior consumer behavior literature. Together, this research provides guidance
regarding how charitable organizations may implement effective marketing strate-
gies to increase donations to their causes.
Keywords Donation behavior · Social distance · Hope · Care · Cure · Allocation

Customer Reactions to Voluntary Use
of Automated Service Interactions:
An Abstract
Hyunju Shin and Bo Dai
Abstract An increasing number of service providers offer automated service inter-

actions (ASI) in an effort to improve service effectiveness and efficacy. However,
there has been little academic research investigating ways to encourage customers
to choose automated customer-to-machine service interactions over traditional
customer-to-employee service interactions. From the service organization’s per-
spective, the main draw for offering ASI is to “do more with less” by enabling cus-
tomers to more accurately, quickly, and efficiently perform tasks that were previously
undertaken by service employees. Customer satisfaction from an increased level of
customization and convenience and from giving customers more control over their
own experiences are added benefits. However, there is evidence of customers’ resis-
tance to adopting SST as a service option, as nearly 80% of respondents to a poll
conducted by MSN claimed that they would be less inclined to go to a restaurant
that uses ASI for ordering. Drawing on self-determination theory and prior research,
this paper explores how promoting customer’s voluntary use of ASI drives positive
customer service experiences. A dual study approach is taken to test the hypotheses.
In Study 1, respondents’ personal experiences of voluntarily using ASI in field con-
texts are measured by surveying customers. In Study 2, survey findings are repli-
cated in an experimental setting to enhance the robustness of the findings. The
analysis reveals perceived control as a mechanism through which a customer’s vol-
untary use of ASI results in positive customer service experiences. In addition, cus-
tomers are more willing to use ASI when their observation of other customers using
it shows that it is hassle-free. This study focuses on understanding the benefits of
encouraging a customer’s voluntary use of ASI in service delivery and identifies the
boundary condition that enhances the intentions to use ASI. The findings demon-
strate that promoting a customer’s voluntary use of ASI enhances the customer’s
H. Shin (*) · B. Dai

Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA
e-mail: hshin@georgiasouthern.edu; bdai@georgiasouthern.edu

66 H. Shin and B. Dai
perceived control over completing the service task, which in turn leads to positive
customer service experiences. Furthermore, ease of use amplifies the intentions to
use ASI.
Keywords Automated service interactions · Service design · Self-determination

theory · Customer experience

Challenges in Usage of Unstructured Data
in Marketing Decision Making:
An Abstract
Valeriia Chernikova and Johanna Frösén
Abstract Marketing analytics has become an important tool for business practice,
enabling companies to improve their marketing decisions and thereby business per-
formance. While marketers are actively using structured data (SD) to support their
decisions, usage of unstructured data (UD) remains overlooked by most organiza-
tions. Yet over 80% of available data is unstructured, meaning that companies can-
not afford ignoring its potential in multiple areas of marketing decision making.
Previous studies on usage of UD in marketing decision making are mainly
focused on development of tools and approaches that can be used to work with such
type of data (e.g., Büschken and Allenby 2016) or address opportunities of using
UD in marketing decision making, suggesting instances when different types of
such data can be used (e.g., Decker and Trusov 2010; Malthouse et al. 2013). This
study generates deeper insights into the practice of using UD in marketing decision
making by analyzing key challenges associated with usage of UD. More specifi-
cally, this study addresses the following research questions: What challenges do
marketing managers face when using (or attempting to use) UD to support decision
making? What are the main stumbling blocks related to the usage of analytics (and
UD in particular) in marketing decision making?
The study relies on in-depth qualitative interviews with marketing professionals
representing international FMCG companies in Northern Europe. As a result, it
develops a categorization of challenges related to the usage of UD, which are pri-
mary causes of hesitance towards usage of such data in marketing decision making.
Mainly, the challenges are related to volumes and quality of data; limited ability of
tools to work with different types of UD; skills of marketing managers; as well as
outdated organizational routines. For managers, the present study points to diverse
challenges related to the use of UD, both within and outside the power of their influ-
ence. The study analyzes common challenges related to data and tools; to manage-
rial skills; and to aspects of organizational culture hindering the adoption of
V. Chernikova (*) · J. Frösén

Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: valeriia.chernikova@hanken.fi; johanna.frosen@hanken.fi

68 V. Chernikova and J. Frösén
analytics. Furthermore, it highlights the need to simplify sharing of data between

different parties that need it and to introduce centralized data management functions
supporting this process.
Keywords Unstructured data · Managerial challenges · Marketing analytics ·

Marketing decisions

An Investigation of the Effect
of Retargeting on Willingness-to-Pay
in Online Environments: An Abstract
Hamid Shaker and Sylvain Sénécal
Abstract Thanks to the Internet and its affordable retargeting tools, nowadays
marketers have an unprecedented ability to target consumers using their previous
browsing history to display them their ads (Goldfarb 2014; Goldfarb and Tucker
2011). Contrary to the early enthusiasm among practitioners for retargeting adver-
tisement, several insights signal that retargeting might not always worth its higher
costs (Lambrecht and Tucker 2013). To the best of our knowledge, there are few
scientific studies about the effectiveness of retargeting advertisement on consumers’
behavior, in particular on their price perceptions.
In this study, we try to address the abovementioned gap by investigating the
effect of retargeting advertisement on consumers’ willingness-to-pay. Particularly,
in Experiment 1, we compare the effect of price stimuli in the ads which consumers
are exposed to at either the early or late stages of decision-making. On the basis
construal level theory (Trope et al. 2007), we suggest that exposing to an ad at the
early stages of decision making (vs. late stages) have a bigger effect on consumers’
willingness-to-pay. In Experiment 2, on the basis of assimilation-contrast theory
(Sherif and Hovland 1961), our goal is to compare the moderating effects of the
overlap between the advertised product and consumers’ preferences at early and late
search on the effects of price stimuli on willingness-to-pay. We suggest that the
effect of the price in the ads on consumers’ willingness-to-pay is directly related to
the extent to which the advertised product fits consumers’ preferences. This rela-
tionship is more profound in the later stages of decision-making than the early stages.
Keywords Retargeting · Online display ads · Behavioral pricing · Construal level

theory · Assimilation-contrast theory
Reference Available Upon Request
H. Shaker (*) · S. Sénécal

HEC Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
e-mail: hamid.shaker@hec.ca; sylvain.senecal@hec.ca

Influence of Web Design Features
on Attitudes and Intentions in Travel
Decision Making
Zahra Pourabedin and Vahid Biglari
Abstract This research examines how persuasive design of destination websites

affects users’ intention to travel. Sixteen experiment sessions were conducted to
evaluate eight real-existing tourism destination websites. Using structural equation
modeling analysis, this study examined the relationships between hygiene design
features, motivation design features, attitudes toward the website, intention to search
for information, and intention to travel. The results showed significant relationship
between both hygiene and motivation design factors and attitude toward the web-
site. Information quality determined a large portion of attitude toward the website.
This study contributes to previous technology acceptance model research by intro-
ducing the hygiene and motivation design features and empirically validates the
model with regard to destination websites. Finally, this paper provides implications
for destination marketers to increase the effectiveness of destination websites as a
promotional channel.
Keywords Destination marketing · Website design · Behavioral intentions ·

Website evaluation · Destination website
Introduction
Destination websites are recognized as major tools for promoting tourism destina-
tions (Baloglu and Pekcan 2006; Han and Mills 2006; Kim and Fesenmaier 2008).
However, most destination websites are still in the early stages of using website
Z. Pourabedin (*)
University of Reading Malaysia, Educity, Malaysia
e-mail: z.pourabedin@henley.edu.my
V. Biglari
University of Newcastle Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
e-mail: vahid.biglari@newcastle.edu.au

72 Z. Pourabedin and V. Biglari
capabilities for promoting destinations. Design of the destination website has been
identified as one of the important factors influencing travelers’ intention to travel to
the destination (Pallud and Strub 2014). According to Kim and Fesenmaier (2008),
persuasive design of destination website provides higher level of attitude toward
destination website, converting web users as potential tourists to actual travelers.
However, there is a lack of research on how travelers’ beliefs and attitudes toward
the destination website design influence travelers’ interest in visiting a destination
(Chung et al. 2015). This study builds upon the work by Kim and Fesenmaier (2008)
and TAM model, and investigates the persuasive dimensions of destination websites
and their influence on travelers’ attitude toward the website and consequently their
intention to travel to a destination.
Literature Review
Technology Acceptance Model
The technology acceptance model (TAM), developed by Davis (1989), has been
used frequently in research on online behavior, indicating the direct and positive
relationship between consumer attitude and behavioral intention, including pur-
chase intention (Chen and Wells 1999; Hausman and Siekpe 2009; Kim et al. 2009)
This study added persuasive website design features as external variables to the
TAM, as they have capability to generate lasting attitude toward the website. The
next section will focus on persuasive web design, starting with a description of
Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory.
erzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Persuasive Dimensions

H
of Websites
Zhang et al. (1999) used Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory as a guide to identify and
distinguish features that may be considered hygiene features from those that could
be considered motivators in a web environment. Within destination websites,
hygiene factors are basic factors that trip planners perceive as essential in tourism
websites, while persuasive factors increase the power of changing/reinforcing atti-
tudes toward the site. Kim and Fesenmaier (2008), by applying Herzberg’s Two
Factor Theory, identified six dimensions for measuring website persuasiveness:
information quality and usability as hygiene factors; and credibility, inspiration,
involvement, and reciprocity as motivation factors within the context of destination
websites which influence users’ first impression.
Influence of Web Design Features on Attitudes and Intentions in Travel Decision Making 73
Hypothesis
The primary motivation for visiting websites is the need for information (Huang
2005; YeongHyeon et al. 2006). It is one of the most important factors for predicting
subsequent behavior (Jeong and Lambert 2001). Common criteria for evaluating
information quality are currency, complexity, variety, currency, helpfulness, and
usefulness (Auster and Choo 1993; Jeong and Lambert 2001; Kim and Fesenmaier
2008). Previous studies acknowledged the relationship between information quality
and attitude toward the website (Chen and Wells 1999).
Website usability includes the ease with which a website visitor is able to use the
website (Loiacono et al. 2002). There is coincidence between usability and ease of
use usability is used more frequently than ease of use in e-commerce literature. It is
widely acknowledged that perceived ease of use/usability is one of the predictors of
attitude toward the website.
Credibility refers to a web page’s trustworthiness (i.e., perceived as good, trust-
worthy, unbiased, etc.) and expertise (i.e. its perceived knowledge and skill).
Recently, many destination marketing websites add cues like “official” to convey
credibility. Previous research recognized credibility features of websites as impor-
tant predictors of attitude toward the website (Elliott and Speck 2005).
Inspiration is defined as the condition of being stimulated to a high level of feel-
ing (Thrash and Elliot 2003). Previous research has recognized inspiration as a
motivation design factor in destination websites (Kim and Fesenmaier 2008) and
hotel websites (Díaz and Koutra 2012). Visually appealing web design is used by
almost every designer to inspire searchers to visit or stay longer on their websites
and influence users’ attitude toward interactive systems (Tractinsky et al. 2006).
Within the online environment, involvement is defined as the degree to which a
web page is of personal relevance to a website visitor. In general, the more relevant
a website is perceived to be, the more a website visitor is involved in the use of the
site. High site-involved users are more interested to try interactive features (Yoo and
Stout 2001) which increase their familiarity with the website and consequently their
attitudes toward the website (Mazaheri et al. 2011). Hence highly involved users
have a more positive attitude toward using the website for travel planning (McMillan
and Hwang 2002).
In websites, reciprocity refers to the perceived level of providing or supporting a
two-way information exchange between the websites and visitors (Srinivasan 2004).
By using reciprocity features, DMOs try to gather personal profiles of web visitors
to expand their potential market and provide a customized experience and services
(Park and Gretzel 2007). Previous research found the positive effect of reciprocity
on attitude toward the website (Hsu and Lin 2008) (Shiau and Luo 2012).
Scholars indicated that consumers’ attitude toward the website had a direct, posi-
tive effect on their intentions to search for information at those websites and inten-
tion (Kim et al. 2009; Kim and Fesenmaier 2008; Morosan and Jeong 2008). The
effect of attitude on intention has also been validated within the context of tourism
such as hotel reservation websites (Morosan and Jeong 2008) and airline websites
(Kim et al. 2009).
Shim et al. (2001) proposed an online purchase intention model and suggested
intention to use the internet for information search affects the intention to purchase.
Because the quality of goods/services cannot be determined before the actual pur-
chase, the information provided by the website is likely to influence purchase inten-
tion (Scharlr et al. 2003). The decision to “purchase” the destination, that is, to visit
it, is based on the information made available to the tourist (Rita 2000).
Thus, the hypotheses of this study are as follows:
H1: The information quality of a tourism destination website positively affects the
attitude toward that website.
H2: The usability of a tourism destination website positively affects the attitude
toward that website.
H3: The credibility of a tourism destination website positively affects the attitude
toward the website.
H4: Inspiration in a tourism destination website positively affects attitude toward
such websites.
H5: The involvement of a tourism destination website positively affects the attitude
toward the website.
H6: The reciprocity of a tourism destination website positively affects the attitude
toward the website.
H7: The consumers’ attitude toward a tourism destination website is positively
related to their intention to search for information via the website.
H8: The consumers’ intention to search for information via a tourism destination
website is positively related to their intention to travel.
Methodology
Sample and Instrument
Studies in online marketing contexts have used experiments to measure the users’
perception of websites’ characteristics and examined web design effectiveness (e.g.
buying) (Dabholkar and Bagozzi 2002; Kim and Fesenmaier 2008; Morosan and
Jeong 2008; SCHARLR et al. 2003). In this study, experimental websites (Table 2)
selected through existing official tourism websites of top tourism destinations in
Malaysia. Choosing websites with different designs enabled the researcher to exam-
ine whether changes in independent variables (website design features) lead to
changes in dependent variables. Four hundred international students of University

Teknologi Malaysia were selected as a sample. Student samples can be a good start-
ing point in an exploratory study setting, and the characteristics of student subjects
in terms of computer skill/Internet experience fit well with studies regarding Internet
usage (Seock and Northon 2007).
Data were collected through questionnaire and measures of key constructs were
developed based on prior research (Table 1). All items were measured using a
7-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
Data Collection Procedure
This study used natural experiment to collect data. The computer lab in which the
experiment was conducted had a capacity of 25, and there were 250 of respondents,
so the experiment was conducted in 16 sessions (25 students per session). In each
session, students were randomly assigned to one of ten experimental websites. The
average exposure time for experiments was about 15 min (Loda et al. 2009). Then,
the participants were given the questionnaire.
Data Analysis
The structural equation modeling via Lisrel was used to analyze the data. The abso-
lute goodness-of-fit measure for the measurement models is displayed in Table 2.
The standardized factor loading for each item plus composite reliability (CR)
and average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct can also be seen in Table 3.
Table 1 Experimental No. Destination Website address

websites of this study 1 Sarawak www.sarawaktourism.com
2 Langkawi www.naturallylangkawi.my
3 Penang www.visitpenang.gov.my
4 Cameron highland www.cameronhighlandsinfo.com
5 Malacca www.malacca.ws
6 Sabah www.sabahtourism.com
7 Taman Negara www.mutiaratamannegara.com
8 Tioman www.tioman.org
Table 2 Goodness-of-fit results for measurement model

Goodness-of-fit results
Model X2 X2/df P CFI NFI NNFI RMSEA
CFAI 1966.87 2.54 0.000 0.97 0.96 0.97 0.079
Table 3 Standard factor loadings, composite reliability, and average variance extracted
Composite
Factor reliability
Variable loading (CR) AVE
Information quality (Kim and Fesenmaier 2008; Kaplanidou 0.94 0.63
and Vogt 2006)
This website offers clear information 0.74
This website offers up-to-date information 0.76
This website offers sufficient travel information that satisfies 0.74
my traveling needs
This website provides interesting information about the 0.82
destination
This website provides useful information about the destination 0.77
This website represents information about events and festivals, 0.84
news, and unique activities of destination
This website provides cultural information (cuisine, unusual 0.83
ways of life, and customs)
This website provides natural information (fauna and flora, 0.84
spectacular landscape)
This website represents historical information 0.80
Usability (Casaló et al. 2008) 0.86 0.60
This website is easy to understand 0.68
This website is easy to use 0.80
I have ability to control what I am doing, and where I am at 0.84
any given moment
This website is easy to navigate in terms of time required in 0.78
order to obtain desired results
Credibility (Kim and Fesenmaier 2008) 0.92 0.73
This website is trustworthy 0.79
This website provides visitor testimonials and guest books 0.86
This website represents stories with reliable references 0.90
This website represents a tourism information provider I can 0.87
trust
Inspiration (Kim and Fesenmaier 2008) 0.89 0.67
This website represents destination in an appealing way 0.81
through sound effects
This website represents destination in an appealing way 0.87
through attractive
Images/video clips 0.79
This website represents the destination in an appealing way
through virtual tours
This website helps me to imagine the destination 0.80
Involvement 0.85 0.65
This website is highly interactive. 0.82
This website helps me become involved in planning my trip. 0.80
This website is enjoyable/fun to navigate. 0.80
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Composite
Factor reliability
Variable loading (CR) AVE
Reciprocity (Kim and Fesenmaier 2008) 0.83 0.56
This website offers travel brochures I like to request 0.66
This website enables me directly to contact the tourism office 0.72
This website provides helpful customer service 0.82
This website enables me to register for special offers, 0.78
newsletters, personalization, and so on
Attitude toward the website Lubbe (2007) 0.88 0.65
In my opinion, surfing this website is very desirable 0.80
I like to use this website 0.82
I have a positive evaluation of this website 0.90
I found it easy to obtain information from this website 0.70
Intention to search for information 0.90 0.75
I intend to search for travel/destination information on this 0.85
website before traveling
I will probably search for travel/destination information on this 0.88
website before traveling
I will definitely (have decided to) search travel/destination 0.87
information from this website in the near future
Intention to travel (Hausman and Siekpe 2009) 0.95 0.86
I intend to travel to this destination in the near future 0.92
It is likely that I will travel to this destination 0.94
This website represents the destination in an appealing way 0.93
through attractive video clips
Information quality appeared to have the greatest impact (β = 0.61) on attitude

toward the website. The results of this study (β = 0.19, p < 0.05) also support that
usability has the lowest effect on attitude toward the website. The next hypothesis
predicted a positive relationship between credibility and attitude toward the website
and was supported by findings (β = 0.35, p < 0.01). Among motivation features,
involvement (β = 0.35) was the most important factor affecting attitude toward the
website. Based on findings (β = 0.13, p > 0.05) the relationship between inspiration
and attitude toward the website was not significant. Credibility and reciprocity both
influenced the attitude toward the website. Moreover, the relationship predicted
between consumers’ attitude toward the website and intention to search for informa-
tion through the website (β = 0.79, p < 0.01) was supported. The relationship pre-
dicted between consumers’ intention to search for information and intention to
travel was supported (β = 0.76, p < 0.01). The results of the SEM analysis on the
proposed model are illustrated in Fig. 1.
Information
quality
0.61**
Usability
0.19*
Credibility 0.35** Attitude Intention to

Intention
toward search for
to travel
0.13 website Info.
Inspiration 0.79** 0.76**
0.36**
Involvement
0.24**
Reciprocity
Fig. 1 Results of SEM analysis
Discussion and Conclusion
This study was designed to provide a better understanding of the role of persuasive
destination website design in travelers’ online information search and travel
decision-making. This study used Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and TAM to
understanding this issue within tourism destination websites. In this study the
researcher tested a structural model of the relationships among factors of hygiene
design factors (information quality and usability), motivation design factors (credi-
bility, inspiration, involvement, and reciprocity), attitude toward the website, inten-
tion to search for information, and intention to travel.
The results showed significant relationship between both hygiene design factors
and attitude toward the website. Information quality determined a large portion of
attitude toward the website indicating that users use destination websites as an
information source, besides trip planning. First, to convert Web browsers to real
travelers, it is important that the destination website accommodate information
needs. Usability was recognized as the least important predictor of attitude toward
the website. Previous research has widely acknowledged the significant role of
usability in attitude formation toward websites. However, as web technology evolves
usability may become less important (Elliott and Speck 2005).
Except one motivation design dimension (inspiration), the other motivation
dimensions have significant influence on attitude toward the website. Credibility
was the most important motivation dimension affecting attitude toward the website.
The results are similar to other research (e.g., Long and Chiagouris 2006) which
indicated that credibility of non-profit websites has a positive and direct effect on
users’ attitude toward the website. The relationship between inspiration and attitude
toward the website was not significant. This suggests that the degree of inspiration
offered by a website through visual appealing design, whether creating feeling of

destination image and seductive experience, may not significantly influence users’
attitude toward the destination website. Similarly Kim and Stoel (2004), studying
the relationship between website quality dimensions and customer satisfaction did
not find visual appeal of website as a predictor of attitude toward the website. The
results of this study supported the idea that web design guidelines should be devel-
oped based on the users’ needs and that research about website design and website
evaluation should be specific. There is no unique combination of site characteristics
which can perfectly satisfy all users (Elliott and Speck 2005). Sightseeing is an
integral component of every travel, but the primary motivation for travel is learning,
and for users visiting the website the priority is recognizing historical and scientific
value. This result supports the functional rules of web design which emphasizes on
content and usability rather than aesthetics and visual design for the website’s suc-
cess (O’Conner 2005).
Moreover, findings support earlier studies which found that involvement is per-
ceived as a motivational force directly related to extensiveness of information search
(Beatty and Smith 1987; Petty and Cacioppo 1996) and attitude (Bloch and Richins
1983; McMillan et al. 2003; Mitchell 1979). Positive effect of reciprocity on atti-
tudes toward the website is supported by a study in which users who received mutual
benefits through information sharing online reported feeling positive about their
mutual exchanges, encouraging these users to use an online system (Hsu and Lin
2008). The results suggest that forming positive attitude toward destination websites
should take place before the website is accepted for searching information.
According to results the decomposition of attitudes reveals that five web design fac-
tors (two hygiene and three motivation design factors) significantly affect attitude.
Greater awareness of these factors should facilitate the formation of positive attitude
about the website, consequently leading to higher intention to search for informa-
tion through the website. Finally, the findings of this study supported the idea that
consumers’ intention to search for information through a website is a significant
predictor of their purchase intention. The result shows that in the context of destina-
tion websites, an intention to search the website for travel information leads to an
intention to travel. To succeed, destination websites should pay heed to persuasive
dimensions of website design to provide an attractive and alternative channel to
meet travelers’ needs. Persuasive website design is important in building customer
relationships; it facilitates customer support and can change a visitor into a con-
sumer in the online environment. Such a destination website then becomes another
channel for increasing tourists to the destination.
Implications
Supporting the TAM, however, a theoretical implication of this research is that

hygiene and motivation design factors based on Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory act
as indicators of attitude formation within the TAM. The model developed by this
study establishes relationships between attitude toward the website and consumers’
behavioral intention with hygiene and motivation design factors as determinants of
attitude toward the website, thus contributing to the original TAM model. This study
is the first to examine the role of website design factors in travel decision-making
using the two-factor theory. It incorporates the conceptual findings of previous
TAM research with the introduction of hygiene and motivation design features. It
also empirically validates the model with regard to destination websites.
It important to improve the persuasive factors of destination websites, as they
constitute an important determinant of attitude toward the website, thus influencing
future vacation choices. The finding indicated that although motivation features
have a significant relationship with the tourists’ overall attitude, information quality
as a hygiene factor was a more important factor that influenced tourists’ overall
attitude than motivation features. The need for information is a primary reason for
visiting destination websites. Thus, destination websites should fulfil their primary
role as an information provider and provide one-stop service through up-to-date
destination information. In addition, destination websites should present informa-
tion so that users would find desired information easily. Destination marketers can
use the full potential of destination websites as a cost-effective marketing channel.
By better understanding how tourists value the website, destination marketers could
develop effective destination marketing strategies and satisfy travelers’ needs.
Limitations of Study and Directions for Future Study
This study evaluated six underlying hygiene and motivation design dimensions of
destination websites. Therefore, future research should look into specific web ele-
ments that have a strong correlation with the particular nature of destination web-
sites. Destination images were not controlled in this study, so it remains unclear
whether or not information searchers’ responses to destination websites were
informed solely by website design. Controlling for preexisting mental image of the
destination would be critical for exploring the influence of destination website
design on travel information searchers’ responses. Thus, future research should con-
trol for latent influence of destination images or measure the differences between
destination images as they are perceived before and after subjects are exposed to
destination websites.
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Virtual Reality (VR) Content Is the New
Reality for Destination Marketing
Organizations: Investigating the Role
of VR as a Destination Branding Tactic:
An Abstract
Kerry T. Manis
Abstract Destination marketing organizations spend millions of dollars annually

to entice consumers to visit the destination represented. Due to increased competi-
tion and market globalization, marketers are adopting innovative branding strategies
and tactics to emphasize unique qualities of a destination. One such innovative
branding tactic is the use of virtual reality as a marketing communication medium
(MCM). Scholars and marketing managers have yet to examine the role of this
MCM despite destination leaders believing VR is impacting “all aspects of the des-
tination organization.” As such, this research implements a two-phase pretest–post-
test experimental design tested via multi-group structural equation modelling to
examine the impact of VR on visit intention and the formation of (a) destination
image (DI), (b) destination personality (DP), and (c) attitude.
The digital age has transformed the way consumers connect with brands.
Therefore, branding strategies and tactics must adapt accordingly (Edelmann 2010).
Firms and destinations that proactively innovate are positioned to achieve a com-
petitive advantage in the marketplace (Hunt and Duhan 2002). While innovative
branding strategies and tactics may be beneficial in differentiating a destination
among competing destinations, little is known regarding consumer perceptions of
destinations when destination marketers employ an innovative branding strategy or
tactic. Additionally, extant research investigating branding in general and destina-
tion branding in particular has yet to understand the impact of an innovative
MCM. However, one such innovative MCM is VR.
A two-phase pretest–posttest experimental design (Maris 1998) was imple-
mented to examine the impact of VR when used as an MCM. This design has two
important advantages over the posttest-only design: (a) it permits error variance
caused by consistent individual differences to be removed, thereby increasing
K. T. Manis (*)
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
e-mail: kt.manis@ttu.edu

84 K. T. Manis
power; and (b) it permits the groups to be equated for baseline differences, thereby
increasing the internal validity of the design. The pre-treatment model revealed
positive, significant relationships between the constructs of interests. Additionally,
the post-treatment model revealed stronger relationships between (1) DP and atti-
tude and (2) attitude and visit intention; however, the post-treatment resulted in a
non-significant relationship between DI and attitude and a weaker relationship
between DP and DI. Moreover, due to measurement invariance being established
(Steenkamp and Baumgartner 1998), the latent mean comparison using the pretest
as the baseline shows a significant positive difference for DI and DP. These results
indicate VR provides a significant benefit to destination marketers attempting to
influence the formation of both DI and DP. Future research should explore the spe-
cific mechanism(s) (e.g., telepresence or narrative transportation) associated with
VR that are driving these positive benefits and compare VR to other MCMs for a
deeper understanding of the impact of innovative MCMs to more common MCMs.
Keywords Destination branding · VR · Innovation · Branding · Digital marketing

Explaining Sustainable Consumption:
A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis:
An Abstract
Naz Onel
Abstract International communities are in general agreement that fulfilling envi-

ronmental goals for a sustainable future is only possible with the reduction of con-
sumptions’ detrimental effects. This, however, requires a deep understanding of the
factors affecting environmentally significant consumer behaviors, such as buying
ecologically friendly products, recycling, using household energy vigilantly, or
driving less frequently. In recent years, we see an increasing number of studies in
behavioral research looking at environmental attitudes, values, and behavior that try
to understand relationships with different variables from different theoretical per-
spectives. These studies, however, largely lack an overarching perspective that con-
siders variety of theories and behaviors with a comparative approach. As such, this
study tries to fill this gap by exploring the functioning of consumer behavior in the
environmental domain with a comparative approach, which is needed to uncover
every aspect of the forces behind environmentally significant behaviors of consum-
ers. Mainly, this study examines the explanatory power of the three theories, Theory
of Planned Behavior (TPB), Value-Belief-Norm (VBN), and Theory on Affect (TA),
which focus on gain motives, moral concerns, and hedonic motives, respectively,
and compares with each other for three different stages of consumption, namely,
purchase, usage, and post-use behaviors.
The analysis of primary data collected through the online survey using Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM) indicate that the three theories, TPB, VBN, and TA were
all important frameworks in explaining the environmentally friendly purchase,
usage, and post-use behaviors of consumers. In order to understand the best theory
that explains each type of behavior, we performed a model comparison among the
three frameworks, that is, VBN, TPB, and TA. This analysis gave us insights into
how each framework explained consumers’ different types of environmentally sig-
nificant behaviors. Overall, the results of the model comparisons indicated that con-
sumer eco-friendly purchase and transportation behaviors can be better explained
N. Onel (*)
Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, USA
e-mail: naz.onel@stockton.edu

86 N. Onel
by TPB, eco-friendly household energy use can be better explained by TA, and
consumer recycling behavior can be better explained by VBN theory.
In conclusion, results obtained from this study are important in developing better
intervention strategies in order to alter the relevant environmentally harmful con-
sumer behaviors. Such information will be critical to the development of necessary
strategies and expansion of environmentally significant purchase, usage, and post-
use behaviors.
Keywords Sustainable consumption · Pro-environmental behavior · Theory of

planned behavior · Value-belief-norm · Theory on affect

Special Session: Digital Data, Security,
and Platform Design: Is Marketing
the Problem or Solution? An Abstract
Martin Key, Debra Zahay, Rich Hanna, Jan Kietzmann, and Kirk Plangger
Abstract Increasing awareness about the best practice concerning how a firm
should handle customer data, security, and privacy, and the risks of too much time
spent on social media are increasingly showing up in the popular press (e.g., Johnson
2018; Ward 2018). Companies are beginning to realize that consumers are more
informed about the data economy and the tacit transactions we have all entered into
that involve the exchange of our data for free services. There is also an increased
realization that companies must do more to protect consumer data and oblige
explicit permissions for transmission, use, and sharing of consumer data. There is
also notable work within scholarship exploring the landscape of consumer data,
privacy, and platform issues (e.g., Martin 2016; Ferrell 2017; Baccarella et al. 2018).
However, these conversations are just now being explored in various streams of
research and application. There is sense in which the marketing academy needs to
have more timely and relevant discussions on these issues and how they are and will
impact our discipline.
M. Key (*)
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
e-mail: tkey@uccs.edu
D. Zahay
St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX, USA
e-mail: dblatz@stedwards.edu
R. Hanna
Babson College, Wellesley, MA, USA
e-mail: rhanna@babson.edu
J. Kietzmann
University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
e-mail: jkietzma@uvic.ca
K. Plangger
King’s College London, London, UK
e-mail: kirk.plangger@kcl.ac.uk

88 M. Key et al.
The purpose of this special session is to explore the impact of this quickly chang-
ing environment and how marketing scholars can and should address these changes
in the context of research streams, classroom and pedagogy, and interaction and
impact with business partners.
Keywords Cybersecurity · Consumer data · Privacy · Risk

It Looks Good so Let’s Show it off:
A Psychoraphic Segmentation
of Instagrammers: An Abstract
Takumi Tagashira, Victoria Andrade, and Shintaro Okazaki
Abstract Instagram is a primarily visual social media platform that allows for
enhanced intimacy, self-promotion and egocasting images (Hum et al. 2011;
Winston 2013; Zhao et al. 2008). Due to the strong control users have over their
self-images, Instagram is an attractive platform for narcissistic individuals, who
want to showcase themselves in manners that benefit their own psychological needs
(Moon et al. 2016). Also, the interactivity, online social-connection and ubiquitous
characteristics of Instagram could entice compulsive social media users, who pres-
ent uncontrollable needs to engage with social media platforms (Andreassen 2015).
Furthermore, the perceived speed (Bridges and Florsheim 2008), the ease of the
purchasing process and one-click settings could create a greater appeal for compul-
sive buyers than any other platform. As a result, Instagram could be an alluring
platform for individuals with a great variety of psychological traits. The present
study aimed to classify British Instagram users through their psychological traits
and characteristics. The data was collected through the use of an online survey of a
general consumer sample in the UK. It included Instagram usage questions, and
questionnaires on narcissism, technostress, compulsive use and compulsive buying
behaviors. We conducted a k-means cluster analysis, which yielded five distinct
clusters: influencers, narcissists, muted, casual and pragmatists. Influencers pre-
sented no narcissistic tendencies but higher levels of technostress and compulsive
traits; they had highest follower numbers and account checking frequency.
Narcissists revealed strong narcissistic traits, compulsive tendencies and moderate
technostress; however, they did not present higher posting or account checking
behaviors. Muted are the largest group, they had the lowest followership, posting
This research is supported by King’s Business School’s Research Incubator Fund, 2018–2019.
T. Tagashira
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: takumi.tagashira@r.hit-u.ac.jp
V. Andrade · S. Okazaki (*)
e-mail: maria.andrade_guimaraes@kcl.ac.uk; shintaro.okazaki@kcl.ac.uk

90 T. Tagashira et al.
and account checking frequency; also, they presented the lowest levels of compul-
sive and narcissistic tendencies. Casual presented compulsive tendencies, and mod-
erate technostress levels; their Instagram use was lower than other clusters. Finally,
pragmatists had a weekly account checking and a medium number of followers but
showed narcissistic traits and medium compulsive tendencies.
Keywords Compulsive behavior · Instagram · Narcissism · Social media

I Hate This Brand! A Classification
of Brand Haters Based on their
Motivations and Reactions: An Abstract
Oula Bayarassou, Imène Becheur, and Pierre Valette-Florence
Abstract In the last decade, the widespread access to the Internet has favored the
emergence of anti-brand communities that allow customers to express their hate
feelings towards companies, their employees and their brands (Kucuk 2016).
According to Kucuk (2007), brand hate affects the brand’s identity and image, and
consequently has an impact on consumer decisions. It explains some of the con-
sumer non-compliant behaviors such as brand rejection, resistance to the brand,
brand boycott and negative word of mouth (Perrin-Martinenq and Hussant-
Zébian 2008).
Brand hate conceptualizations presented in the existing brand hate literature
show that brand hate is associated with specific negative emotions and engenders
particular emotional and behavioral consequences. Yet, despite the extensive work
investigating the nature of brand hate, its antecedents and its outcomes, the litera-
ture fails to provide a clear classification of brand haters based on their motivations
and reactions.
The current study aims at drawing profiles of consumers exhibiting hate feelings
towards brands, by specifying the consumption situations, the hate motives, as well
as the emotional and behavioral reactions that are associated with each profile. With
this aim in view, we conducted a series of qualitative and quantitative studies. Using
the online multi-image elicitation (OMIE) protocol, we determined five types of
brand hate motives as follows: physical threats, mental threats, conventional
motives, emotional motives, and ideological motives. Moreover, three categories of
brand hate reactions were identified including behavioral, passive, and aggressive
O. Bayarassou (*)
CERAG, Grenoble, France
e-mail: oula.bayarassou@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
I. Becheur
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
e-mail: imene.becheur@qu.edu.qa
P. Valette-Florence
Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
e-mail: pvalette@grenoble-iae.fr

92 O. Bayarassou et al.
reactions. In a third quantitative study, we discerned three groups of brand haters:

rational haters, threatened haters, and hostile haters.
By combining the results of the OMIE with the classification results of brand
haters generated from the Correspondence Factor Analysis (CFA), we demonstrate
that “threatened haters” associate their feelings of rage and anger with perceptions
of physical and mental threats, which results in the boycott of the brand. However,
“hostile haters” have emotional and ideological motives, engendering aggressive
behavioral reactions (i.e. revenge), whereas “rational haters” report conventional
reasons for brand hate such as price–quality ratio. This raises feelings of sadness
and disappointment among them and may prevent brand repurchase.
This study has important managerial implications. Indeed, understanding the dif-
ferent profiles of haters helps the firms to prevent and deal with hate feelings among
their customers and restore good relationships with them.
Keywords Brand hate · Classification · Motivations · Consequences · OMIE

Competitive Teamwork: Developing
a Team-Based Selling Competition
in an Undergraduate Professional Selling
Class: An Abstract
William H. Bergman and Jeffrey R. Carlson
Abstract The purpose of this work is to discuss how to develop, refine, and improve
team-based role-playing competitions that could be used as a pedagogical tool in
undergraduate selling courses. Specifically, we explore and test three factors—
external competition rewards, student role-play and feedback involvement, and uti-
lizing cases written by industry professional—that increase competiveness among
undergraduate students, and consequently how those factors influence role-play
performance and post-graduation job placement. Since there is an increasing
demand for sales professionals across multiple industries and there is a trend toward
more marketing students starting careers in jobs focused on sales, we explore how
to improve upon known best practices in sales education. Bringing realism to the
classroom required implementing techniques learned at intercollegiate sales compe-
tition and from sales professionals in the field.
The context for our study is at a small, private liberal art university located on the
east coast of the United States. Although the class utilizes a multitude of traditional
methods including a standard text with lectures, we focus on the use of a team-based
role-play case competition. The competition involves student teams, school wide
faculty judges, and support from corporate sponsors who are involved in writing the
cases. Overall, we found that adding competition to traditional classroom selling
role-play improved student performance and learning. When student peers judged
the competition along with alumni who had taken the class in a previous semester,
our students were more open to criticism than only comments from the instructor.
Careful selection of cases used in these sales competitions is also imperative to suc-
cessful student outcomes. Practical cases written with input from sales profession-
als that reduces the emphasis on analytics and focuses more on sales techniques
result in more vibrant class competitions. Bringing the selling experience to life in
the classroom requires moving from a more traditional pedagogical process to a
W. H. Bergman (*) · J. R. Carlson

University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA
e-mail: bbergman@richmond.edu; jcarlso2@richmond.edu

94 W. H. Bergman and J. R. Carlson
very practical and interactive class experience. Overall, we discuss how our findings
can be applied and implemented in undergraduate courses related to professional
selling.
Keywords Sales education · Sales competition · Peer learning · Team selling

Special Session on Research Opportunities
in Direct Selling: An Abstract
Robert A. Peterson, O. C. Ferrell, Linda Ferrell, Victoria Crittenden,

and Linda L. Golden
Abstract Direct selling is a vibrant component of the economic fabric of the

United States, as well as globally. As such, it merits serious research attention from
both a macro perspective (for example, a channel of distribution) and a micro per-
spective (for example, individual entrepreneurship). Moreover, the personal nature
of direct selling, being based on a strong person-to-person interactive process,
enables a variety of research endeavors that use direct selling to provide a vehicle or
venue for data collection and testing hypotheses. Indeed, more than 150 peer-
reviewed articles have been published on direct selling topics or have used direct
selling data in research.
The Academy of Marketing Science has a long history of interacting with direct
selling companies. For example, direct selling companies CUTCO/Vector and Mary
Kay have funded endowments used in AMS recognition activities and have “opened
their doors” to marketing professors desiring research, databases, consulting, and
internship opportunities. This history amplifies possibilities for pragmatic and theo-
retical research.
This direct selling research special session features a panel of professors who are
not only involved in direct selling research activities but also represent current and
former leaders of AMS. Through this special session, conference participants are
exposed to present, past, and potential research in the direct selling arena and to
relevant topics across direct selling structures (Robert A. Peterson), ethics
(O.C. Ferrell), technology (Linda Ferrell), case studies (Victoria Crittenden), and
R. A. Peterson · L. L. Golden (*)

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
e-mail: rap@austin.utexas.edu; linda.golden@mccombs.utexas.edu
O. C. Ferrell · L. Ferrell
Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
e-mail: ocf0003@auburn.edu; lkf0009@auburn.edu
V. Crittenden
Babson College, Babson Park, MD, USA
e-mail: vcrittenden@babson.edu

96 R. A. Peterson et al.
social issues (Linda L. Golden). Direct selling, as a highly relevant business and
entrepreneurial topic, offers abundant research opportunities relevant to business
broadly, direct selling companies specifically, academics, and government
policy makers.
Keywords Direct selling structure · Research · Ethics · Technology · Case studies

· Social issues

Special Session: An International
Perspective of Overcoming Difficulties
and Challenges in Doctoral and Early
Career Years: An Abstract
Nina Krey, Shuang Wu, and Sabinah Wanjugu
Abstract Doctoral students and young academics face a vast array of challenges,
especially during the early years of their career. However, international scholars
experience even more difficulties beyond academic challenges, such as cultural
ambiguities and uncertainties. A common behavior expressed by these future and
young academics is staying within social and cultural zones of comfort shaped by
home countries. However, this innate tendency could diminish integration efforts
and job market performance due to limited awareness of American cultural and
academic norms. This special session addresses international doctoral students and
young academics acclimation efforts in the USA by exploring topics such as adap-
tation to course demands within the doctoral program, cultural differences related
to relationship building, research collaboration demands, instructional delivery
difficulties, and job-related hurdles. The international perspective fostered in this
session allows for a unique opportunity for doctoral students around the global to
compare experiences and provide guidance on how to become a successful interna-
tional scholar within the USA. In addition, junior faculty members are encouraged
to share their experiences and concerns related to adjusting to a new institution,
work environment, and work requirements such as service and mentoring while
N. Krey (*) · S. Wu
Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA
e-mail: krey@rowan.edu; wus@rowan.edu
S. Wanjugu
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, USA
e-mail: swa026@latech.edu

98 N. Krey et al.
adapting to a new cultural surrounding. The ultimate goal of the panel is to leave
the audience with insights on how to overcome difficulties and challenges associ-
ated with being an international doctoral student, researcher, author, and junior
faculty member in the USA.
Keywords Doctoral students · Junior faculty · International scholars · Challenges

· Difficulties

Does Training Teachers in Financial
Education Improve Students’ Financial
Well-Being? An Abstract
Tina Harrison, Caroline Marchant, Jake Ansell, and Robyn Vernon-Harcourt
Abstract Financial education has been recognised as a transformative service. It

aims to increase individuals’ capability as financial consumers, thereby improving
their financial well-being. Whilst many countries have developed financial educa-
tion programmes for schools, the impact of such interventions is mixed (Hoffmann
and Otteby 2018). A parliamentary report on financial education in schools in the
UK (APPG 2016) concludes that much more support is needed to strengthen the
delivery of financial education in schools, in particular through improving teacher
confidence and skill set.
To address this, we explore whether training teachers to teach financial education
has a transformative impact on both the confidence and skill set of teachers and the
financial well-being of the students they teach. The research design comprised a
randomised controlled trial among teachers teaching financial education to young
people aged 16–18 years: 60 schools were randomly assigned to the treatment group
and 60 to the control group. The treatment comprised professional training in finan-
cial education delivered by Young Money, the UK’s leading financial education
charity, before the start of the school year. In total, 87 schools fully participated in
the study; 46 Treatment and 41 Control, including 101 teachers and 1215 students.
Overall, the study confirms the transformative impact of financial education on
the financial well-being of young people in this context, and provides evidence of
the value of targeted professional training for teachers in financial education. As a
result of the training, teachers felt more confident teaching financial education and
their students were better able to manage their money, protect themselves from
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided from Young Money and the Money
Advice Service What Works Fund.
T. Harrison (*) · C. Marchant · J. Ansell

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
e-mail: tina.harrison@ed.ac.uk; caroline.marchant@ed.ac.uk; j.ansell@ed.ac.uk
R. Vernon-Harcourt
Young Money, London, UK
e-mail: robyn.vernon-harcourt@y-e.org.uk

100 T. Harrison et al.
fraud and identity theft, think and plan about the future through using financial
advice and choose financial products. Governments should consider the wider roll-
out of teacher training in financial education according to a set, consistent curricu-
lum. This could be embedded in Initial Teacher Education programmes for newly
qualifying teachers and provided as CPD for existing teachers, supported by access
to high-quality resources.
Keywords Financial education · Young adults · Teachers · Wellbeing · Planning ·

Literacy · Capability

The Logo Life Cycle: An Abstract
Keven Malkewitz and Nicholas Ketcham
Abstract Logos are an integral part of a firm’s corporate identity and serve as the
visual “face” of a firm. Because of their importance, virtually all firms have a logo,
and logos have received extensive attention from researchers in marketing and
related disciplines (e.g., Management, Graphic Design, Psychology, and Art).
Logo-related research has examined such topics as logo selection and modification
(Henderson and Cote 1993), the influence of logo design on logo visual processing
fluency (Janiszewski and Meyvis 2001), and which of the many components uti-
lized in logo design are most likely to increase brand strength (Henderson et al.
2003). Although extant research has provided important and essential insight into
logo design, the approaches taken have utilized individual logos at a single point
in time. An unfortunate consequence of this “snapshot in time” approach is that it
does not provide insight into perhaps the most common problems managers face,
which is the modification of their firms’ logos over time (e.g., how frequently
should logos be updated, and to what degree redesigned logos should be similar/
different to firms’ previous logos). This research addresses this shortcoming by
examining logo life cycles. We first identify industries with firms that have had a
significant number of logo changes over multiple decades (e.g., automotive, air-
line, and Major League Baseball). We begin with descriptive research identifying
basic logo life cycle metrics (how long are logos utilized before they are changed,
industry averages for logo change, etc.). We then evaluate the degree of logos’
perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency change over the logo life cycle, and the
effect fluency has on the amount of time logos are utilized by a firm (“logo life”).
We accomplish this by identifying the degree of change in the logos’ perceptual
fluency of alpha-numeric and image design elements (e.g., if a design element in a
logo is made larger or more clear, it increases the perceptual fluency of the ele-
ment), and by identifying the degree of change in the conceptual fluency of the
K. Malkewitz (*) · N. Ketcham

Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR, USA
e-mail: malkewik@wou.edu; nketcham16@wou.edu

102 K. Malkewitz and N. Ketcham
alphanumeric, image, and color design elements of logos. The managerial

implications and the limitations of the research are then addressed, followed by
suggestions for future research.
Keywords Logos · Design · Logo life cycle · Perceptual fluency ·

Conceptual fluency

Beyond Hedonic Consumption: The Role
of Eudaimonic Value in Consumer–Brand
Relationships: An Abstract
Khaled Aboulnasr and Gina Tran
Abstract Marketing academics and practitioners have traditionally associated a

product’s hedonic value with experiential consumption. However, there is a growing
stream of research in the area of positive psychology that suggests that the scope of
experiential consumption goes beyond merely hedonic value. The objective of this
study is to expand the conceptualization of brand value to not only include hedonic
(enjoyment) benefits but also to incorporate the crucial dimension of eudaimonic
(meaningfulness) brand value. Furthermore, this study also aims to examine the
dual role of both hedonic and eudemonic brand benefits in developing key con-
sumer–brand relationship constructs. We hypothesize that both hedonic and eudai-
monic brand value are positively related to brand experience. We also hypothesize
that brand experience is positively related to the outcome variables of brand love
and brand trust. We thus argue that brand experience mediates the relationship
between brand value (hedonic and eudaimonic) on the one hand and brand trust and
brand love on the other.
A survey instrument was developed to measure the theoretical constructs in the
study. Two-hundred and thirty-five undergraduate students from a Southeastern
public university participated in the study by attempting to complete the self-
administered survey in return for extra course credit. The survey instrument utilized
measures and scales whose reliability and validity were established in prior litera-
ture and were used in prior branding and happiness research. A sequence of statis
tical tests were performed to evaluate the characteristics of the measurement
scales and to test for unidimensionality, reliability, and discriminant validity. A
measurement model (CFA) and a structural model were developed and assessed
using SPSS AMOS 23.0. The results of the structural model lent support to our
hypotheses indicating that importance of brand value in the form of both hedonic
K. Aboulnasr (*) · G. Tran

Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA
e-mail: kaboulna@fgcu.edu; gtran@fgcu.edu

104 K. Aboulnasr and G. Tran
and eudaimonic benefits lead in the creation of a positive brand experience.

Furthermore, the results show that brand experience is positively related to both
brand love and brand trust.
Keywords Hedonic consumption · Eudaimonic value · Brand experience · Brand

love · Brand trust

Disentangling the Meanings of Brand
Authenticity: An Abstract
Julie Guidry Moulard, Randle D. Raggio, and Judith Anne Garretson Folse
Abstract Consumer demand for authenticity is a foundation of modern-day mar-

keting (Brown et al. 2003). Marketers increasingly tout their brand’s authenticity to
tap this underlying consumer need: Manatee County, Florida, claims it is “Real.
Authentic. Florida.” (Salmon 2012), and Sargento cheese asks consumers to “Taste
the Real Difference.” The importance of brand authenticity is also reflected within
the marketing literature, as a significant amount of research has been dedicated to
the topic (e.g., Beverland and Luxton 2005; Leigh et al. 2006; Morhart et al. 2015;
Napoli et al. 2014; Spiggle et al. 2012).
Nonetheless, in the marketing literature the meanings of authenticity and brand
authenticity are still highly debated. Researchers agree that authenticity and brand
authenticity contain various meanings, but little consensus exists concerning the
number of meanings and what those meanings entail (Beverland and Farrelly 2010).
In an attempt to address this lack of clarity in the literature, this conceptual
research has two main objectives. First, this research introduces the Entity–Referent
Correspondence Framework of Authenticity. The ERC Framework offers an over-
arching definition of authenticity. The ERC Framework proposes that, in the most
general sense, authenticity is the degree to which an entity in one’s environment
(e.g., object, person, performance) is true to or matches up with something else. We
label this “something else” a referent—the point of reference to which the entity is
compared. Thus, we assert that authenticity is the extent to which an entity corre-
sponds to a referent. Further, the ERC Framework presents three general types of
authenticity: true-to-ideal, true-to-fact, and true-to-self. True-to-ideal authenticity
is defined as the extent to which an entity’s attributes correspond with a socially
J. G. Moulard (*)
e-mail: jmoulard@latech.edu
R. D. Raggio
e-mail: rraggio@richmond.edu
J. A. G. Folse
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
e-mail: folse@lsu.edu

106 J. G. Moulard et al.
determined standard or exemplar. True-to-fact authenticity is defined as the extent

to which information stated or implied about an entity corresponds with the actual
state of affairs. True-to-self authenticity is defined as the extent to which an entity’s
behavior corresponds with its intrinsic motivations as opposed to its extrinsic moti-
vations. While the three types are similar in that they all involve entity–referent
correspondence, they are distinguished by their unique referents: an ideal, a fact,
and another’s self.
Second, this research classifies 49 prior definitions of authenticity and brand
authenticity and/or its types or dimensions (based on a systematic review) into one
of our three authenticity types. Overall, all but two concepts fit within the proposed
typology, offering strong evidence of the typology’s conceptual robustness. The
ERC Framework of Authenticity contributes to the brand authenticity literature
within marketing by organizing previous definitions into one of the three types. This
paper also illustrates that these three different authenticity types may manifest at
different levels of abstraction.
Keywords Authenticity · Brand authenticity · Truth · Real · Genuine

Exploring Facets of Spokesperson
Effectiveness in B2B Advertising: What
Works and What doesn’t? An Abstract
Subhadip Roy, Soumya Sarkar, and Prashant Mishra
Abstract In a world of information-laden and feature-based marketing communi-

cations in business-to-business (B2B) marketing (Baack et al. 2016; Brown et al.
2011), some firms have resorted to the use of celebrities with the expectation that
the endorsement coming from such public figures would help in catching the atten-
tion of the purchasers away from the competition (Canning and West 2006). The
success of the branding campaign carried out by Accenture, with Tiger Woods, has
brought celebrity endorsement in the spotlight. The situation is similar in develop-
ing nations like India, where actors Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakraborty
endorse the cement brand Binani and GoDaddy, respectively. Based on this premise,
the present study investigates the following question: whether having a spokesper-
son would be a better advertising strategy than a generic ad? If yes, would it be
better to have a celebrity spokesperson or a company employee? In addition, the
present study also explores the conditions that may govern the choice of the spokes-
person. To this end, three controlled experiments were conducted using fictitious
advertisements (with a combined sample size of around 500) with industry execu-
tives in charge of purchases. In the three studies, we tried to investigate the relative
effectiveness of a celebrity spokesperson vis-à-vis an employee spokesperson under
different buying situations (study 1); with different levels of buyer attitudes (study
2) and at different levels of buyer empowerment (study 3). The data were analysed
This study was partially funded by a grant from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,
Ahmedabad, India.
S. Roy (*)
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India
e-mail: subhadipr@iima.ac.in
S. Sarkar
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, Ranchi, India
e-mail: soumya.s@iimranchi.ac.in
P. Mishra
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, India
e-mail: prashant@iimcal.ac.in

108 S. Roy et al.
using MANOVA and ANOVA. Major findings indicate that a spokesperson would
be a better choice than a generic ad. However, we find a celebrity spokesperson to
be more effective in the following cases: (a) a low involvement product; (b) when
buyer scepticism towards advertisements is low; and (c) when perceived empower-
ment of the buyer is high. The findings emphasize on the role of the spokesperson
in B2B advertising and add a novel contribution to theory. This study opens up
henceforth unexplored avenues for B2B marketing managers.
Keywords B2B advertising · Celebrity spokesperson · Employee spokesperson ·

Experimental design · India

Return on Investment of Effective
Complaint Management: Synthesis
and Research Directions: An Abstract
Christine Armstrong, Jamie Carlson, Tania Sourdin, and Martin Watts
Abstract Customer complaints are inevitable given the complexity of products

(service) and the inherent need for human involvement in aspects of service deliv-
ery. In today’s competitive, socially networked environment, customers are empow-
ered by technology, their expectations increasing, with the magnitude of complaint
effects having increased with the digital age. Complainants now regularly take to
social media, review sites, blogs and YouTube to vent their frustration, spreading
negative word of mouth (Tronvoll 2007, 2012) which can have damaging effects for
an organisation’s brand equity and profitability. Managers know that customer com-
plaints are important. For instance, effective complaint management has confirmed
positive links between increased satisfaction, increased loyalty, repurchase inten-
tion and subsequent higher company returns in the literature (Casado-Díaz et al.
2009; Fornell 1992; Homburg and Furst 2005) and positive consumer experiences
shown to be related to increased loyalty (Moliner et al. 2010; Johnston 2001).
However, the return on investment (ROI) or complaint management profitability
(CMP) of increasing satisfaction through “good” complaints handling has only
received scant research attention.
A critical reason for the lack of literature on ROI and CMP is difficulty attaining
data relating to the complaint management function. Organisations do not measure
all costs and benefits of complaint handling (Stauss and Schoeler 2004; Stone 2011).
Nor can organisations or researchers agree on what constitutes the costs and benefits
of complaints and their handling. Unfortunately, given the difficulty attributing a
financial value to the benefits, costs are more usually measured, leading to com-
plaints handling departments often being regarded as “cost centres” rather than pro-
viding opportunities for increased benefits to the firm (Sandelands 1994).
The purpose of this paper is to explore the literature relating to ROI of customer
complaints management to the organisation, identify the potential development on
the subject in academia and direct future research with the goal of enhance c omplaint
C. Armstrong · J. Carlson (*) · T. Sourdin · M. Watts

University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
e-mail: christine.armstrong@newcastle.edu.au; jamie.carlson@newcastle.edu.au; tania.
sourdin@newcastle.edu.au; martin.watts@newcastle.edu.au

110 C. Armstrong et al.
handling management practices for organisations. This paper reviews the literature
on defining “good” complaints handling before reviewing the literature on ROI and
profitability of complaints handling. Second, the drivers of ROI and profitability of
complaints handling from the literature are highlighted. Finally, the paper concludes
by synthesising the findings of the literature and proposes specific research ques-
tions to guide future research.
Keywords Complaints · Complaint management · Return on investment ·

Complaint handling

Distance is Worth! Impacts of Spatial
Distance Between Model and Product
on Product Evaluation: An Abstract
Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, Chun-Tuan Chang, and Dickson Tok
Abstract Drawing on the conceptual metaphor theory, researchers have discovered

that the location of product image (Chae et al. 2013; Elder and Krishna 2012) or in
packaging design (Sundar and Noseworthy 2014) matters in influencing product
attitudes. The metaphor of “distance is worth” is theorized from the perspective of
cognitive linguistics and further developed based on the sense of power and prestige
evoked by the distance.
Researchers have suggested that spatial distance presents a visual cue that influ-
ences consumer perceptions of power (Giessner and Schubert 2007; Huang et al.
2013), and power has profound effects on status or prestige consumption (Charles
et al. 2009; Dubois et al. 2011). We propose that a greater spatial distance between
the model and the product (SDMP) in an ad will make it easy for consumers to
attribute greater sense of power and prestige to the advertised product, which leads
to a price premium. We further examine whether the product’s brand power (high
vs. low) and consumers’ individual differences in power distance belief (PDB)
(high vs. low) serve as boundary conditions.
Four experiments show that far SDMP increases product evaluation than close
SDMP. Furthermore, for the high power brand, individuals with high PDB show a
stronger willingness to pay for a price premium (WPPP) when the distance is far
than when the distance is close. On the other hand, for the low power brand, indi-
viduals with low PDB show a stronger WPPP when the distance is close than when
the distance was far. This research further demonstrates that the sequential mecha-
nisms underlying the above phenomenon: perceived power and then perceived
prestige.
Our findings make several theoretical and managerial contributions. First, this
research extends the study on conceptual metaphor theory and contributes to the
X.-Y. (. Chu (*) · D. Tok

Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
e-mail: marcoschu@nju.edu.cn; dg1802505@smail.nju.edu.cn
C.-T. Chang
National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
e-mail: ctchang@faculty.nsysu.edu.tw

112 X. (. Chu et al.
literature on power in consumer research. Second, we empirically validate the

underlying mechanisms by testing two sequential mediators. Third, marketers may
benefit from using a far SDMP in ads to increase consumer associations with power
and prestige. Finally, consumer differences in PDB will assist marketers to deter-
mine which SDMP (either far or close) should be used in advertising. Marketers
should be judicious when implementing SDMP as their advertising strategy.
Keywords Spatial distance between model and product (SDMP) · Conceptual

metaphor theory · Brand power · Power distance belief

The Study of Different Factors Affecting
Salesperson Deviance: An Abstract
Douglas Amyx, Bruce Alford, Louis J. Zmich, Jennifer Amyx,

Breanne Mertz, and Cameron Sumlin
Abstract The impact of workplace deviance reaches 95% of all companies that
reported some deviance-related activities within their company (Henle et al. 2005).
Specifically, salesperson deviance is multidimensional. Deviant behavior may
include lack of effort in the work completed, exaggerating the number of hours
worked, and intentionally depleting company resources (Darrat et al. 2010). Deviant
behavior, however, is not restricted to an isolated event and has extraordinary impli-
cations for both the organization and society (Bennett 2003). This study aims to
reveal the causes for workplace deviance through a sample of 329 online survey
respondents of B2B salespeople. We believe that outside factors such as burnout,
emotional labor (EL), and family workplace conflict (FWC) contribute to the under-
lying deviant root factor-depression. We utilize the Conservation of Resources
(COR) Theory (Hobfull 2001) to predict loss of resources due to salesperson stress-
ors. When a salesperson encounters a stressor (e.g., burnout, emotional labor, or
family–work conflict), the individual may cope with the stressor by diminishing his/
her sales/work performance (i.e., conserving work-based resources). Further, stress-
ors may create negative emotions (e.g., dissatisfaction and depression). As a result,
the individual may ultimately reduce work-related outcomes (e.g., sales perfor-
mance) and employ negative coping techniques, such as workplace deviance.
The data collected were analyzed using LISREL 8.54 confirmatory factor analy-
sis. Results showed support overall for burnout, EL, and FWC all influencing the
negative effects of depression in salespeople. Salesperson depression was found to
be a significant influencer of organizational deviance. Thus, our study points to both
depression and sales performance influencing organizational deviance. Individuals
who experience job burnout have a depletion in physical and emotional well-being
(emotional labor), and/or experience extraneous family workplace conflicts, are sig-
nificantly more likely to form some level of depression. Workers’ depression, com-
bined with a decrease in sales performance (feeling unsatisfied due to burnout and/
or choosing family conflict resolution over work performance), contribute to an
D. Amyx · B. Alford · L. J. Zmich (*) · J. Amyx · B. Mertz · C. Sumlin

e-mail: damyx@latech.edu; balford@latech.edu; ljz001@latech.edu; jamyx@latech.edu;
baw030@latech.edu; csu006@latech.edu

114 D. Amyx et al.
increased level of deviant behavior. We suggest implementing annual managerial

training sessions to address absenteeism, company policies, and identification tech-
niques for deviant behavior in employees. Overall, reduction in workplace deviance
can be achieved by enacting policies such as the Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) or training managers to follow progressive discipline and treatment mea-
sures, which will help mitigate the contributing factors leading to depression, nega-
tive sales performance, and ultimately, deviant workplace behavior.
Keywords Salespeople · Deviance · Depression · Performance

Why Narcissists Prefer Genuine to High-
Quality Counterfeit Luxury: The Role
of Authentic and Hubristic Pride:
An Abstract
Fernando Fastoso, Boris Bartikowski, and Siqi Froehlich-Wang
Abstract Narcissism, the individual tendency towards an objectively unjustified

conceit, is a well-known determinant of luxury consumption. Research suggests
that narcissists should shun counterfeit luxury for its inability to match the grandi-
osity of the narcissistic self. However, the same may not hold true for high-quality
counterfeit (HQCF) luxury, that is, imitation products of established luxury brands
that can be almost indistinguishable from genuine originals, thus offering status-
signaling benefits. We offer new insights into luxury brand consumption by explor-
ing the mechanisms behind narcissistic preference for genuine vs. HQCF luxury.
First, we expected narcissism to be associated with intentions to purchase genu-
ine luxury for self-expressive reasons, that is, only genuine luxury reflects the gran-
diosity of the narcissistic self. Further, we expected narcissism to be associated with
intentions to purchase HQCF for self-presentational reasons, that is, also HQCF
luxury can deliver status-signaling benefits. Second, we considered two forms of
consumer pride, authentic (i.e., pride in one’s achievements) and hubristic pride (i.e.
pride in one’s global self), as psychological processes explaining each relationship.
Following licensing effects associated with the achievements that elicit authentic
pride, we expected authentic pride to mediate the effect of narcissism on intentions
to purchase genuine luxury. We developed competing explanations on hubristic
pride as a mediator of our main relationships. We argued that hubristic pride might
mediate the narcissism effect on intentions to purchase HQCF luxury because that
F. Fastoso (*)
e-mail: fernando.fastoso@york.ac.uk
B. Bartikowski
KEDGE Business School, Marseille, France
e-mail: boris.bartikowski@kedgebs.com
S. Froehlich-Wang
Bettzeit GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
e-mail: siqi.froehlich-wang@bettzeit.com

116 F. Fastoso et al.
luxury can satisfy self-aggrandizement needs at a lower cost. Alternatively, we

argued that hubristic pride might mediate the effect of narcissism on intentions to
purchase genuine luxury because only genuine luxury offers the self-affirmational
benefits that people experiencing hubristic pride might seek to address their
insecurity.
Empirically, our study of luxury consumers in China shows that narcissism is
associated with intentions to purchase genuine luxury and that authentic pride medi-
ates that relationship. However, findings do not show an association between narcis-
sism and intentions to purchase HQCF, thus failing to support our alternative
mediation effects. However, we do find that hubristic pride is associated with prefer-
ence for HQCF. Taken together, our findings suggest that narcissistic consumers
prioritize the self-expressive over the self-presentational benefits of luxury, thus
choosing genuine over HQCF luxury—perhaps also due to the reputational risk of
being exposed as a user of “fake” products in a context characterized by high face-
consciousness. Further, the lack of support for a relationship between narcissism
and hubristic pride may relate to the narcissism subtype we studied, grandiose nar-
cissism. Vulnerable narcissists, that is, narcissists with lower self-esteem and higher
shame-proneness, may experience higher hubristic pride and thus be at a higher risk
of purchasing HQCF luxury. We discuss implications for luxury research and luxury
brand managers.
Keywords Luxury brands · Counterfeits · Narcissism · Authentic pride ·

Hubristic pride

Time-Based Deals: How Non-Monetary
Discounts Can Reduce the Post-Promotion
Dip: An Abstract
Myungjin Chung and Ritesh Saini
Abstract Oftentimes, marketers and retailers offer promotions to attract custom-

ers. While offering such deals may increase revenue temporarily, it often also causes
undesirable effects subsequent to the withdrawal of such deals. Once having seen
the product go on sale at a lower price, customers may not be willing to buy it at the
regular price anymore.
Foregone options that cannot be recouped should not influence present decisions.
However, previous research has demonstrated that missing a superior opportunity
affects consumers’ present decisions by creating a psychological cost. For example,
when we have previously missed a great deal (e.g., 50% off retail price), buying the
product at just 30% off may not seem attractive anymore, causing inaction inertia.
This contributes to the pervasive “post-promotion dip,” where sales of a product
decreases after it has been on a promotion.
One way to attenuate this effect would be to offer deals which do not arouse a
strong negative comparison. However offering such weaker deals may not attract
customers during the off-season. This begs the question: What kind of deals can
attract customers during off-season but not cause a strong inaction inertia once it is
withdrawn?
In this paper, we demonstrate an innovative solution to this widespread problem
of the post-promotion dip. Instead of offering conventional price-based discounts,
equivalent time-based deals could be offered (e.g., lower wait times, faster shipping).
Most of the inaction inertia literature has demonstrated the effect of foregone
superior monetary opportunities (Tykocinski and Pittman 1998, 2001). However,
missed opportunities may have been superior to current options not in terms of
money but time. Consumers think about temporal costs differently than similar
monetary costs (Okada and Hoch 2004). When people account for time, they show
less economic sophistication and accountability than when they deal with money
(Soman 2001). This lower accountability of time is likely a result of its malleable
M. Chung · R. Saini (*)

University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
e-mail: myungjin.chung@mavs.uta.edu; saini@uta.edu

118 M. Chung and R. Saini
value and reduced fungibility (Saini and Monga 2008; Okada and Hoch 2004). This
results in temporal payments being associated with lower “pain of payment” than
similar monetary payments. We posit that people will experience lower inaction
inertia when they have missed attractive temporal (vs. monetary) opportunities in
the past.
Across three controlled experiments, we demonstrate that such non-monetary
deals elicit lower “pain-of-payment,” thereby causing reduced inaction inertia. In
Studies 1 and 2 we demonstrate that inaction inertia is lower for time. In Study 3 we
provide confirmatory evidence for our proposed underlying mechanism by demon-
strating that when accountability for time is reinforced, consumers start exhibiting
inaction inertia even for time.
Keywords Price promotions · Time-money · Inaction inertia · Post-Promotion Dip

From Psychological Myopia to Food
Myopia: A Consumer Perspective:
An Abstract
Asim Qazi and Véronique Cova
Abstract This qualitative research has provided new insight into consumers’
decision-making mechanism from a food-related context. Forty respondents
recruited for participation via convenience sampling technique. The data was col-
lected by using in-depth interviewing and photo elicitation technique and was scru-
tinized with the help of thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that consumers have
a narrow-sighted approach towards food as they process fewer cues less well and
take into consideration the most immediate gains of their food choices while ignor-
ing the resulting consequences. The product attributes such as price, quantity, and
taste become more salient, whereas the resulting consumption consequences such
as health, well-being, and food waste become least prominent. We call this short-
sighted tendency towards food as food myopia.
The concept of food myopia is supported by psychological myopia which refers
to the individual tendency to emphasis more on information proximately linked to
their judgment and overlook the less striking fragments of information (Hsee et al.
2003). Consumers consider food as part of a low involvement decision despite mak-
ing over 200 food-related decisions a day (Wansink and Sobal 2007). Hence, con-
sumers focus on information which is immediately related to them.
The consumers experience food myopia both in food choice and consumption
quantity decisions. The food marketers are specialists at making consumers desire
for the food they endorse, which is often higher in fat and sugar, tastier, more con-
venient, and lesser expensive simultaneously. Marketers capitalize on consumer’s
use of heuristics for product judgment and prompt decision making. Hence, these
food attributes are made to appear more salient in the retail environment, and con-
sumers start paying more attention to them, whereas they become short-sighted
A. Qazi (*) · V. Cova

IAE Aix Marseille Graduate School of Management, Aix en Provence, France
e-mail: asim.shabir@iae-aix.com; veronique.cova@iae-aix.com

120 A. Qazi and V. Cova
about the long-term post-consumption consequences of their choice (i.e., overcon-

sumption, obesity, diabetes). This paper also discusses the theoretical and manage-
rial implications of food myopia along with future research directions and
suggestions to overcome this problem.
Keywords Food myopia · Psychological myopia · Narrow sightedness · Product

attributes · Consequences

Co-creators Endorsing their Winning
Product Idea in Ads: Dealing with Brand
Audiences’ Skepticism: An Abstract
Fanny Cambier and Ingrid Poncin
Abstract Brand communication practices relying on ordinary consumers—that is,

peer endorsers—is getting increasingly popular (Kapitan and Silvera 2016).
Advertising campaigns for new products resulting from consumer empowerment
strategies (CES) often include the CES winner’s endorsement. For instance, the
winning consumer-creator of new Oreo “Cherry Cola” was pictured in the product
launch campaign, including additional descriptions and stories about her. Little is
known about the effectiveness factors of peer endorsement though and more
research is needed. Attractiveness is acknowledged to be influential in a celebrity
endorsement context (e.g., Knoll and Matthes 2017). Instead, in a CES context, it
might be reasonable to think that consumers expect to see peer endorsers looking
“like themselves,” by virtue of their social user identity (Dahl et al. 2014). This
research examines whether attractiveness also prevails in a peer endorsement con-
text, that is, CES-related advertisements.
First, relying on Strauss and Corbin’s procedures (1998), this research analyzes
29 informants’ (20–68 years old; various backgrounds) reactions towards peer
endorsers in a CES context. Interviews, based on semi-directive guides, were either
individual (32–120 min) or in groups (5, 6 and 9 informants, 120 min). It emerges
that informants spontaneously perceive the winner’s presence in advertising as a
CES credibility enhancer, that is, it makes CES more real and consumers’ voices
more effectively listened. But doubts about the winner’s authenticity simultane-
ously arise for three reasons: perceptions of too much attractiveness, too much con-
gruence with the ideal brand audience and difficulties to understand the motives
justifying the winner’s participation in CES. Drawing on the schema theory
(Mandler 1982), we assume that the incongruities between the endorser and the
F. Cambier (*)
Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
e-mail: fanny.cambier@uclouvain.be
I. Poncin
Université catholique de Louvain, Mons, Belgium
e-mail: ingrid.poncin@uclouvain.be

122 F. Cambier and I. Poncin
mental representation the informants store about a “consumer-like-themselves”

generate too high cognitive efforts, hence doubts about endorser’s authenticity.
Two between-subjects experiments confirm that endorser’s attractiveness and
congruence prime skepticism toward the CES process. Besides, we find that skepti-
cism attenuates when cueing brand process transparency. This is because audiences
may attribute public-serving motives, that is, the brand listening of participants’
voices in their greater diversity. Then, describing a winner as highly creative pro-
vides audiences with valid, disposition-based motives, in line with the attribution
theory (Kelley 1973) and also helps to decrease skepticism. The perceived manipu-
lative intent is discounted to innovativeness for the greatest number’s sake. Finally,
the negative skepticism effect we describe is found to mediate purchase intentions.
This research contributes to the endorsement literature by showing that attrac-
tiveness and congruence are no effectiveness factors in a peer endorsement context.
It also answers innovation scholars’ call for research (Nishikawa et al. 2017) by
showing the effects of giving additional details about the CES-winner. Alerting mar-
keters about potential negative effects of peer endorsement and identifying remedies
to attenuate them are also of high practical relevance.
Keywords Peer endorsement · Attractiveness · Congruence · Skepticism ·

Persuasion

Right Digit Effect and Subjective Relative
Income: An Abstract
Mazen Jaber and Kylie Jaber
Abstract The manipulation of the rightmost digits in prices has been an effective
tactic utilized by retailers for decades. A long stream of research studies how the
manipulation of price endings plays a role in influencing consumer behavior inten-
tions and perceived value of a certain item. While a lot of research focuses on the
effectiveness of those tactics or the different form of them, very little research is
available on what might moderate those effects, specifically, whether factors like
subjective relative income will moderate the effect of this price frame on offer
attractiveness or even behavioral intentions. This paper explores that very question.
We begin by reviewing literature on the effectiveness of 99 ending pricing strategies
and then explore the variances in those tactics’ effectiveness in low vs. high subjec-
tive relative income conditions. Next, we conduct an experiment to test our
propositions.
To explore our effects an online experiment was conducted. Respondents were
presented with one of the four offers that are manipulated in a 2 × 2 between-
subjects design. The first factor is the price ending where a Blu-ray disc player was
presented with either a 99-ending price or no right digit ending ($49.99 vs. $50).
The second factor is the income manipulation (Haisley et al. 2008) (high relative
income vs. low relative income). To manipulate relative income we followed the
procedure utilized by Haisley et al. (2008), where respondents were told they just
won some money (money to burn) and were later asked about their income level;
however half of the respondents were induced to feel that their income was low and
the other half were induced to feel their income was in the middle income range.
After seeing one of the offers, respondents were asked, “How attractive (or an
attractive) was the offer?” and responded on a 9-point scale with “Very Unattractive”
at one and “Very Attractive” at nine as anchors. A three-item scale was also utilized
to measure the respondents purchase likelihood/purchase intentions.
Our results extend previous research by exploring the moderating effect of sub-
jective relative income on the effectiveness of 99-ending pricing tactic. Additional
process measures are being explored, by the authors, with the hope of building a
M. Jaber (*) · K. Jaber

Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI, USA
e-mail: mjaber@svsu.edu; kmjaber@svsu.edu

124 M. Jaber and K. Jaber
better understanding of how subjective relative income will impact pricing tactics.
Once completed, the authors believe that the paper will have a great impact on the
right digit effect research in pricing.
Keywords 99-ending · Pricing · Right-digit effect · Wealth

Big Data Analytics, New Product Ideas,
and Decision Making: An Abstract
Matteo Montecchi, Kirk Plangger, Colin Campbell, and Jessica Graves
Abstract As customers, operations, and supply chains produce ever more volumes
of data, firms must explore new ways of extracting valuable insights to improve
efficiency and efficacy of decision-making processes at the same time as reducing
noise and abnormalities in data streams (Sivarajah et al. 2017). Machine learning
and artificial intelligence techniques can aid the creation and design of new products
and services by producing highly sensitive analytics. These analytics can increase
the speed of idea generation or “creative intensity” (Erevelles et al. 2016) by provid-
ing real-time assessments of multiple offering variations and predictions of their
potential market success (Lehrer et al. 2018). Furthermore, these analytics can be a
source of competitive advantage in highly competitive markets that require a con-
tinuous degree of product newness. Although several studies show that various
organizational processes can be optimized and automated to some degree (Bradlow
et al. 2017), relatively little is understood about the value that advanced data manip-
ulation systems bring to the decision-making process at individual, cognitive, level,
in particular when choices and judgments of product creativity or innovativeness are
involved. Understanding how to capitalize on augmented and data-driven decision-
making processes in relation to different creative alternatives becomes essential to
generate competitive advantage in this area. Individual decision makers, with their
limited mental capacities, are still required to frame problems, select which data to
collect, assess the robustness of the data and their sources, and decide on analytical
frameworks. Most importantly, decision makers must interpret the findings within
the business context in which they operate and use insights to support strategic,
tactical, and operational decisions leading to the development of new market
M. Montecchi (*) · K. Plangger

e-mail: matteo.montecchi@kcl.ac.uk; kirk.plangger@kcl.ac.uk
C. Campbell
University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
e-mail: colincampbell@sandiego.edu
J. Graves
Sefleuria, London, UK
e-mail: jessica@sefleuria.com

126 M. Montecchi et al.
o fferings. Within this context, this study seeks to understand how managers use
analytics to stimulate new product and service innovations and aid creativity deci-
sions. In particular, the study seeks to contribute to the field of marketing decision-
making by providing an assessment of how machine learning and artificial
intelligence affects the generation and selection of new product ideas. It also con-
tributes to the growing multidisciplinary literature on data analytics by assessing its
value from a decision-making perspective.
Keywords Big data · Analytics · Artificial intelligence · Machine learning ·

Creativity · Creative intensity · New product development · Decision Making

Salesperson Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Motivation Revisited: A Combinatory
Perspective: An Abstract
Rushana Khusainova, Ad de Jong, Nick Lee, Greg W. Marshall,

and John M. Rudd
Abstract Salesperson motivation has long been one of the most important areas
of sales research and one of the most important challenges for sales managers
(Doyle and Shapiro 1980; Jaramillo et al. 2005). Historically, sales managers and
researchers emphasized extrinsic over intrinsic motivation assuming that in com-
bination they cannot coexist (DeCharms 1968; Deci 1971; Deci and Ryan 1985;
Lepper et al. 1973). However, research in psychology (e.g. Amabile et al. 1994;
Amabile 1993) suggests that certain types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can
be used in combination to enhance work outcomes. So far, however, there is little
evidence for Amabile’s assumption that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be
used simultaneously, and the results of previous research have been inconclusive
(Kanfer et al. 2017; Khusainova et al. 2018). Drawing on self-determination theory
(Deci 1975; Deci and Ryan 1980, 1985), we empirically examine the relationship
between the combinations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations and
three key performance outcomes: output performance, behavioral performance, and
work engagement.
R. Khusainova (*)
Aston University, Birmingham, UK
e-mail: r.khusainova@aston.ac.uk
A. de Jong
Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
e-mail: adj.marktg@cbs.dk
N. Lee · J. M. Rudd
The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
e-mail: nick.lee@wbs.ac.uk; john.rudd@wbs.ac.uk
G. W. Marshall
Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA
e-mail: gmarshall@rollins.edu

128 R. Khusainova et al.
We collect data from a cross-sectional sample of (196) industrial salespeople. To

test the proposed hypothesis we use the advanced technique of polynomial r egression
with response surface analysis (Shanock et al. 2010; Ahearne et al. 2013). The study
findings reveal that salesperson intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations
have a positive combined effect on output performance and work engagement.
Congruence was shown to be important in most combinations of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivational orientations as they relate to output performance and work
engagement. Finally, results indicate that the combinations of intrinsic with extrin-
sic motivational orientations lead to higher levels of output performance and work
engagement as opposed to the combinations of only intrinsic or only extrinsic moti-
vational orientations.
This study offers several vital managerial implications. Sales managers are
advised to carefully utilize both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to increase sales-
person performance and work engagement. It is important that sales managers
attempt to utilize a more balanced approach without overemphasizing any one sin-
gle type of motivation.
Keywords Sales motivation · Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation · Cognitive and

affective motivation · Polynomial regression with response surface analysis · (In)
congruence analysis

Non-conscious Effect of Moral Identity
Prime on Perceived Reasonableness
and Affective Account on Customer
Satisfaction: An Abstract
Nobuyuki Fukawa and David W. Stewart
Abstract A service provider may manage its service personnel through service
regulations and policies. Alternatively, a service provider may empower them and
delegate more authority by relying on morals of service personnel. The latter
approach may enable service providers to accommodate degree of latitude in meet-
ing service specifications and allow them to better prepare themselves for service
recovery in the event of unexpected service failure. Such discretion in service
encounters has been the object of study employing the construct of “reasonable-
ness” (Fukawa and Erevelles 2014). In allowing for a certain amount of discretion
in service encounters, a service provider must rely on the judgment and moral val-
ues of service personnel and customers instead of immutable standardized service
specifications. During service recovery, a customer assesses the reasonableness of
the recovery experience. In this process, a “reasonable” customer would consider
not only his/her own welfare but the welfare of others (e.g., the service provider,
others customers and society) (Lydenberg 2014).
In this study, first, we investigate whether the moral identity prime affects per-
ceived reasonableness in service encounters and if so, how this effect is moderated
by an environmental factor (i.e., cognitive load) and a motivational factor (i.e., work
experience in services). Second, we investigate whether affect (vs. cognition) medi-
ates the effect of perceived reasonableness on customer satisfaction. Third, through
a set of in-depth interviews, we further investigate the role of work experience in
services and affective responses in relation to perceived reasonableness. Our study
reveals the effect of moral identity prime on perceived reasonableness among those
without work experience in services under a cognitive load. Additionally, our study
N. Fukawa (*)
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA
e-mail: fukawan@mst.edu
D. W. Stewart
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA
e-mail: david.stewart@lmu.edu

130 N. Fukawa and D. W. Stewart
shows that the effect of perceived reasonableness on customer satisfaction is

mediated through affect regardless of a cognitive load. Finally, the set of in-depth
interviews imply that those customers with work experience in services form
specific service expectations; thus, their assessment of reasonableness in service
encounters might be affected more by conscious thoughts than non-conscious
thoughts.
Keywords Non-conscious processing · Priming · Perceived reasonableness ·

Moral identity · Affect · Customer satisfaction

A Winning Formula for Maximizing Sales
Performance through Multi-Dimensional
Effort: An Abstract
Michael Peasley, Willy Bolander, and Riley Dugan
Abstract Sales performance is not a static event but rather a dynamic process that
unfolds over time with significant investments from the salesperson into key stages
of the selling process. Because of this, salespeople continue to be critical producers
within their organization, leading revenue generation and retention activities
(Raynor and Ahmed 2013). Managers, as organizational leaders, are faced with the
dilemma of ensuring their sales force delivers on revenue goals. As a result, U.S. com-
panies spend approximately $20 billion annually on sales training with the goal of
improving performance through increasing salespersons skills and abilities
(Association for Talent Development 2013). Yet approximately 50% of salespeople
fail to reach their annual quotas (Ahearne et al. 2012, p. 39), and managers often
feel helpless in increasing these target percentages.
These challenges lead to several questions. Why do salespeople miss their per-
formance targets, what can managers do to help their salespeople, and what traits
and activities should managers value most during the hiring process? The present
research answers these questions by identifying where in the sales process should
the greatest amount of effort be applied to increase sales performance and drive firm
revenue. The authors look at the following stages: prospecting, new customer acqui-
sition, cross-selling current customers on new products and services, and the reten-
tion activity of post-sales service. Subsequently, they identify salesperson traits that
inherently produce effort in the most beneficial selling stages. Finally, they identify
M. Peasley (*)
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
e-mail: michael.peasley@mtsu.edu
W. Bolander
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
e-mail: wbolander@business.fsu.edu
R. Dugan
University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: rdugan1@udayton.edu

132 M. Peasley et al.
manager behaviors that can be implemented to increase the impact of salesperson

traits on effort in those particular sales processes. In doing so, the authors make
contributions to the body of research on salespeople and provide hiring and sales
managers with useful insights for implementation.
Keywords Sales effort · Sales performance · Sales process · Sales training ·

Salesperson traits

Digital Advocacy Among Industrial
Employees: An Abstract
Mana Farshid, Albert Caruana, and Esmail Salehi-Sangari
Abstract Digital advocacy by employees can provide the firm with reach and
desirable outcomes. Increased reach and visibility can impact an organization’s
brand awareness and employer branding (Sivertzen et al. 2013; Tsimonis and
Dimitriadis 2014). In addition, increased brand awareness among stakeholders can
help strengthen positive associations with the corporate brand that will make it eas-
ier to attract and retain employees (Backhaus and Tikoo 2004; Kohli et al. 2015;
Sivertzen et al. 2013). Digital advocacy on social media is very much a double-
edged sword, and it is therefore increasingly important for organizations to develop
strategies for how best to manage it (Kietzmann et al. 2011; Kohli et al. 2015). The
purpose of this research is to investigate and analyse the impact of internal branding
and organizational commitment on the willingness of industrial employees to
undertake advocacy. Five dimensions of employer branding have been labelled:
Work Life Balance, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), Training
and Development, Healthy Work Atmosphere, Compensation and Benefits (Tanwar
and Prasad 2017; Ambler and Barrow 1996; Berthon et al. 2006). This research
proposes a second-order hierarchical latent variable model whereby employer
branding acts both directly and indirectly through organizational commitment to
impact employee advocacy.
Data was collected via a self-completing online questionnaire from among
employees of a Swedish industrial organization that has a global presence. A total
of 306 complete responses were collected with 51.7% response rate. Respondents
come from a diverse group of individuals, 66% male; 61%, were aged between 35
and 54 years; 28% were between 18 and 34 years; and 11% were older than 5 years.
The structural model was assessed in order to determine how well the empirical data
fit with theory (Hair et al. 2014; Sarstedt et al. 2014).
M. Farshid (*) · E. Salehi-Sangari

KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
e-mail: mfarshid@kth.se; ess@indek.kth.se
A. Caruana
University of Malta, Malta, Malta
e-mail: albert.caruana@um.edu.mt

134 M. Farshid et al.
Findings indicate that training and development and healthy work atmosphere
are the most influential dimensions, followed by a healthy work atmosphere, ethics
and CSR. This implicates that industrial organizations who seeks to strengthen their
employer brand could focus on these two dimensions primarily. According to Anitha
(2014), it is important that employees are engaged in their organization and that can
be obtained with the help of a pleasant work environment and good relationships
with colleagues. Regarding testing the mediation effect, all the effect that employer
branding has on digital employee advocacy is mediated by organizational commit-
ment. This means that even though the employer brand is strong, an employee will
not become a digital advocate if he or she is not committed to the organization. A
strong employer brand does, however, increase the possibility that a committed
employee will become a digital advocate.
Keywords Digital advocacy · Employer branding · Industrial organizations ·

Social media

When my Brand does Something Morally
Wrong: An Abstract
Hua Chang and Lingling Zhang
Abstract Despite the recent findings that connected consumers’ reactions to brand
transgression are more negative when brand’s wrongdoings are of an ethical nature
(Trump 2014), little research has examined the mechanism underlying the negative
effect of consumer–brand relationships on consumer brand evaluations in the con-
text of brand failures. This research examines the role of brand ownership in con-
sumers’ reactions to brand failures.
Brand ownership is defined as a psychological state in which individuals have
possessive feelings towards a brand. In other words, consumers consider the brand
as “theirs” through incorporating it into their self-concept and considering it as an
extended self (Belk 1988). We propose that a brand’s moral failure negatively influ-
ences self-concept for consumers with high brand ownership. A moral misconduct
projects an unfavorable image to consumers, thus making them think that they
themselves are doing something morally wrong. One’s self-view can influence
“self-conscious” moral emotions (Aaker and Williams 1998), and shame is consid-
ered as moral emotions evoked from reflection on one’s own actions (Haidt 2003).
When consumers see themselves as the one who brings socially undesirable out-
comes (Tracy and Robins 2004), they would experience feelings of shame and
blame themselves for negative events (Van Vliet 2009), which in turn affects their
reactions to brand failures. Thus, it is hypothesized that consumers with high brand
ownership will have more negative brand evaluation and feelings of shame will
mediate the relationship.
In Study 1, using moderated mediation analysis (Hayes and Preacher 2014), we
show that consumers who have a strong brand ownership develop more negative
brand evaluations towards brand moral failures but not towards product failures.
The index of moderated mediation was significant at 95% CI [0.07, 0.75], indicating
that the indirect effect of brand ownership on brand evaluation via feelings of shame
was moderated by brand failure types. In Study 2, we further show that interdepen-
dent (vs. independent) consumers are more prone to experience feelings of shame
towards a brand’s moral transgression.
H. Chang (*) · L. Zhang

Towson University, Towson, MD, USA
e-mail: chang@towson.edu; lizhang@towson.edu

136 H. Chang and L. Zhang
This research has theoretical and managerial implications. First, it contributes to

the consumer–brand relationship research by proposing brand ownership to capture
a specific form of relationship between consumers and brands. Second, we uncover
feelings of shame as the mechanism underlying the negative effect of brand owner-
ship in brand moral failures. Our findings suggest that companies need to take
greater efforts to avoid moral transgressions and engage in recovery efforts to ensure
consumers of high brand ownership continue to advocate the brand.
Keywords Brand failures · Brand ownership · Shame · Interdependents ·

Independents

The Evolution of Influencer–Follower
Relationships: A Life-Cycle Approach:
An Abstract
Sören Köcher, Sarah Köcher, and Linda Alkire (née Nasr)
Abstract Companies’ spending on influencer marketing campaigns is growing

exponentially. In 2016, firms invested more than $80 billion on influential social
media users (ANA 2018). These users are considered “influential” as they contrib-
ute to the formation of attitudes toward products and services of a large number of
other social media users. The basic idea underlying this novel marketing communi-
cation technique is that influencers build a relationship over time with those who
follow their social media pages and thereby gain their trust and confidence. However,
despite its massive growth and promising advantages, influencer marketing is still a
considerably underexplored technique. Prior research has focused on influencer
authenticity (Audrezet et al. 2018), likeability (De Veirman et al. 2017), the credi-
bility of influencer posts (Boerman et al. 2017), and success metrics of influencer
campaigns (Gräfe and Greff 2018), while the dynamics of influencer-follower rela-
tionships remain unexplored. In this paper, we develop and empirically test a life-
cycle model of such influencer–follower relationships.
Our results indicate that several properties of the influencer–follower relation-
ship reflecting relevance-related aspects (e.g., interest in the influencer) and fol-
lower engagement (e.g., liking and sharing influencer posts), as well as relationship
(e.g., commitment and trust) and consumption-related (e.g., purchase intentions)
variables display an inverted U-shaped pattern over four consecutive relationship
stages, namely, the phases of analysis, affection, attenuation, and alienation. By
establishing a model that describes the dynamic evolution of influencer–follower
relationships and by testing it through a variety of relational variables, we contribute
to a better understanding of the development of the relationship between influencers
and their followers. From a practical perspective, our findings suggest that not the
number of followers per se but the number of followers in the peak stage of the
S. Köcher (*) · S. Köcher

TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
e-mail: soeren.koecher@tu-dortmund.de; sarah.koecher@tu-dortmund.de
L. Alkire (née Nasr)
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
e-mail: linda.alkire@txstate.edu

138 S. Köcher et al.
influencer–follower relationship (referred to as affection phase) should be consid-

ered a key figure when planning campaigns. In addition, organizations can monitor
the relationship development over time and offer insights to influencers in order to
keep them relevant to their followers. Furthermore, our stage classification scheme
may help influencers to analyze their follower base and manage their follower port-
folio. In order to remain attractive to marketers in the long run, our results suggest
that influencers should aim at having an ample number of followers situated in
earlier relationship stages, indicating that popular influencers should not rest on a
large number of followers and stop acquiring new followers.
Keywords Influencer marketing · Influencer-follower relationship · Life-cycle

model · Social media · Trust

How and When does Functional Diversity
Impact Sales Team Effectiveness:
An Abstract
Edward L. Nowlin, Doug Walker, Dawn Deeter-Schmelz,

and Nawar N. Chaker
Abstract Traditionally, companies have managed salespeople differently than

other members of the firm, emphasizing the importance of individual performance.
However, practitioner research notes a change in the relationship between individ-
ual performance and unit profitability. Specifically, between 2002 and 2012, the
impact of individual performance on firm profitability decreased more than 20%;
whereas the impact of “employee network” performance increased by more than
20%. As such, firms now rely increasingly on sales teams as opposed to individual
sales performance, and an important aspect of the sales team is the composition of
the team itself. Yet, our understanding of team composition remains quite limited
due to the fact that research on team selling, in general, and sales team composition,
in specific, is quite scarce. The focus of this study is therefore to investigate the
potential effects of a team’s functional diversity on its effectiveness, the conditional
nature of any effects, and the process by which the effects occur. In particular, we
examine diversity as a functional capabilities difference and, consistent with the
work group diversity literature, expect functional diversity to yield within sales
teams both advantages (e.g., better task solving skills due to differences in experi-
ence and knowledge) and disadvantages (e.g., decreased team flexibility). The find-
ings suggest that functional diversity positively impacts team effectiveness by
building task interdependence among team members, which enhances team effec-
tiveness through both higher levels of team stability and cohesion. However, func-
tional diversity actually reduces team effectiveness by hampering team flexibility,
another positive driver of team stability and cohesiveness. The key takeaway rests
with the role of team complexity, on which both of these effects depend. Overall, the
competing effects of greater task interdependence but lesser team flexibility
E. L. Nowlin (*) · D. Walker · D. Deeter-Schmelz

e-mail: elnowlin@ksu.edu; dmwalker@ksu.edu; ddeeter@ksu.edu
N. N. Chaker

e ssentially net each other out when the task is simple (i.e., functional diversity has
no net effect on team effectiveness at low levels of task complexity). Under these
circumstances, sales managers can make decisions about team composition based
on other considerations, such as costs and the complexity of tasks rather than func-
tional diversity. However, when the task is complex, the enhanced value of func-
tional diversity on task interdependence, coupled with the diminished impact of
team flexibility, calls for assembling a functionally diverse team.
Keywords Functional diversity · Task interdependence · Team flexibility · Task

complexity · Team stability · Team cohesion · Team effectiveness

Love Consumption at the Digital Age:
Online Consumer Review and Romantic
Gift Giving: An Abstract
Lilly Ye, Lili Gai, Eyad Youssef, and Tao Jiang
Abstract China is the biggest e-commerce market and a trend leader in the global
marketplace. This study focuses on understanding romantic gift-giving and online
consumer reviews and how they impact consumers purchase intentions. Specifically,
the study examined how different types of online consumer reviews (OCRs) and
types of romantic gift-giving might affect Chinese consumers’ online purchase
intention. The study further introduces product involvement as a mediator between
online review types and purchase intension. To provide a holistic view of the roman-
tic gift shopping online, the study further examined how need for uniqueness affects
the relationship between OCRs type and product involvement, and how gender
plays a role in influencing consumers’ product involvement with regard to OCR
types and romantic gift types.
Through an experiment design, the study suggested that informational online
consumer reviews lead to more product involvement than transformational reviews;
and consumers shopping romantic gifts for their significant other are more likely to
have a higher product involvement level than those shopping for a romantic gift for
the relationship. The study also found that product involvement serves as a full
mediator, leading to consumers’ purchase intention. In addition, consumers with a
higher need for uniqueness are more likely to use informational reviews for roman-
tic gift shopping. Women showed more product involvement when they were
exposed to informational reviews, while men had more involvement in transforma-
tional reviews.
L. Ye (*) · E. Youssef
Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, USA
e-mail: lye@frostburg.edu; eyoussef@frostburg.edu
L. Gai
University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, TX, USA
e-mail: gai_l@utpb.edu
T. Jiang
Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
e-mail: 1111704016@zjut.edu.cn

142 L. Ye et al.
The findings also provide strategic guidelines for international marketers. Given
that informational reviews with product attributes and features are salient in China,
firms should devote their efforts to an online review system as a primary source for
product information. Since Chinese consumers might use others’ perspectives for
romantic gift shopping, a firm should have the target audience as gift recipients and
encourage consumers to write reviews for gift recipients. And because men and
women differ in processing consumer reviews to select romantic gifts, it might be
beneficial to create a female forum with more informational reviews and a male
forum with more transformational information.
Keywords Online review · Romantic gift-giving · Product involvement · Need

for uniqueness

Outcomes of Dialogic Communication
of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
Strengthening Brand Loyalty Through
Online Brand Community Engagement,
Brand Trust and CSR Authenticity:
An Abstract
Joon Soo Lim and Hua Jiang
Abstract Grounded in Morgan and Hunt’s Commitment-Trust Theory of

Relationship Marketing, the current research examines the effects of dialogic com-
munication (DC) of CSR through digital media on brand loyalty (LOYT) mediated
by customers’ online brand community engagement (OBCE) and brand trust
(TRUST). To test the proposed mediation model, we conducted a national survey
with a representative sample (N = 1022), randomly drawn from Qualtrics’ U.S. panel.
After ensuring the validity, reliability and model fit of the measurement model, we
tested the postulated model using a structural equation modeling procedure. All
proposed hypotheses were supported showing (1) the direct effects of dialogic
communication on CSR authenticity and OBCE; (2) the direct effects of OBCE on
brand trust and brand loyalty; (3) indirect effects of dialogic communication on
brand loyalty through OBCE and brand trust; and (4) the indirect effects of CSR
authenticity on brand loyalty through OBCE and brand trust.
In accordance with the theory of customer brand engagement, this study found
that OBCE had the largest effect on brand loyalty. A notable contribution of the cur-
rent research is that OBCE was driven by customers’ perceptions of a firm’s dia-
logic communication in CSR communication through digital media, which was
partially mediated by perceived CSR authenticity. The results provide brand manag-
ers with practical implications—that is, a brand can build an online brand commu-
nity and foster customer engagement when its communication is dialogic rather
than monologic or purely promotional. Another noteworthy finding is that both dia-
logic communication and CSR authenticity has no significant direct effect on loy-
alty. The effect from DC to LOYT was fully mediated via OBCE. The effect of CSR
J. S. Lim (*) · H. Jiang

Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
e-mail: jlim01@syr.edu; hjiang07@syr.edu

144 J. S. Lim and H. Jiang
authenticity on LOYT was fully mediated through OBCE and TRUST. The results
of mediation analysis indicate that the specific mediation through TRUST was
larger than the specific mediation through OBCE, although both were significant.
Another notable finding is the effect of OBCE on loyalty. The results of mediation
analysis show that the direct effect is stronger than the indirect effect via trust. The
results give practitioners significant implications and justification to nurture an
online brand community through communicating the company’s CSR activities.
Keywords Brand loyalty · CSR authenticity · Brand community · Consumer

engagement · Dialogic communication · Brand trust

Digital Customer Empowerment Tools
for Marketers: An Abstract
Mujde Yuksel, George R. Milne, and Lauren I. Labrecque
Abstract This work offers a conceptual typology for digital customer empower-
ment (DCE; informative, productive, and experiential), which results from offering
customers digital tools that expand the freedom of and control over the choice and
action to shape their consumption experiences.
There are various marketing opportunities and challenges that exist in today’s
fast-changing digital landscape. Especially, marketing scholars acknowledge the
digital age’s unique capacity for empowering customers (Erdem et al. 2016;
Labrecque et al. 2013). Traditionally, customer empowerment has been defined as a
challenge with an antagonistic power struggle between customers and marketers
focusing on the power shift, from marketers to customers, as a consequence of
widespread communication among customers (Deighton and Kornfeld 2009). Yet,
more recently, the marketing opportunities associated with empowering customers
have been acknowledged in the field with a view of customer empowerment as
complementary to marketer power (Erdem et al. 2016). One such opportunity is the
increased customer engagement resulting from the feelings of empowerment that
strengthens customer–brand relationships (Kull and Heath 2016). Given the ever-
growing interest in customer engagement, both scholarly and managerially, and that
empowered customers engage more with brands, the advantages of appropriately
empowering customers are invaluable.
This work represents a conceptual categorization of customer empowerment in
digital platforms, with the purpose of pushing marketing scholars to think more
clearly and broadly about the construct in this fast-changing digital landscape.
Accordingly, digital customer empowerment (DCE) tools are described as digital
M. Yuksel (*)
Suffolk University, Boston, MA, USA
e-mail: myuksel@suffolk.edu
G. R. Milne
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
e-mail: milne@isenberg.umass.edu
L. I. Labrecque
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
e-mail: lauren33@uri.edu

146 M. Yuksel et al.
products, services, and practices that expand the freedom of and control over the
choice and action to shape consumption experiences (Yuksel et al. 2016). Accounting
for a wide spectrum of such digital tools, this work presents a typology of DCE
(informative, productive, and experiential) and our future goal for this conceptual
work is to explore how the use of such tools results in enhanced customer engage-
ment with illustrative examples. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating
how empowerment differentiates across different digital tools, as this differentiation
may make it easier to compare findings across papers and help identify novel
insights (see MacInnis 2011).
Keywords Conceptual paper · Customer empowerment · Customer engagement ·

Digital marketing

A Longitudinal Study of Sustainability
Attitudes, Intentions, and Behaviors:
An Abstract
Galen Trail and Brian McCullough
Abstract Sport organizations are attempting to reduce their environmental impact

but have difficulty in managing stakeholders’ behaviors. To combat this challenge,
sport organizations have increased the sophistication of their environmental sustain-
ability initiatives to include stakeholder engagement campaigns. Until recently, no
guidelines have been provided to sport organizations on how to evaluate the effec-
tiveness of current communication strategies to convey the organization’s prioritiza-
tion of sustainability initiatives. This research extends and evaluates the sport
sustainability campaign evaluation model (SSCEM; Trail and McCullough 2019),
using a sport organization’s (the Games’) sustainability initiative across multiple
campaigns (waste diversion, transportation, energy conservation, and water conser-
vation) and across time. The SSCEM depicts that needs and values influence atti-
tudes toward sustainability campaigns. Furthermore, internal constraints have a
negative effect on attitudes, while points of attachment have a positive one. An
increase in positive attitudes toward the sustainability campaign increases inten-
tions to act in a sustainable way; however, the intentions may be negatively impacted
by external constraints. Trail and McCullough (2019) tested the SSCEM and found
some support for the hypothesized relationships. We are extending the SSCEM to
test sustainable behaviors and post-behavior evaluations and reactions to the sus-
tainability initiative. From the SSCEM, we propose that needs, values, and internal
constraints influence attitudes about the campaigns and intentions to modify behav-
ior to actively participate in the campaigns. We extend the SSCEM by proposing
that sustainability intentions prior to the event will predict actual sustainable behav-
iors during the event. These sustainable behaviors will be reduced by external and
internal constraints. These constraints and the behaviors themselves will impact
satisfaction with the organization’s communications and campaigns. Furthermore,
satisfaction level will influence post-event change in attitude toward sustainability,
which in turn influences advocacy of sustainability and the intention of taking sus-
G. Trail (*) · B. McCullough

Seattle University, Seattle, WA, USA
e-mail: trailg@seattleu.edu; mccullob@seattleu.edu

148 G. Trail and B. McCullough
tainability behaviors back to the stakeholders’ hometowns. Data was gathered (both
pre- and post-Games) from caregivers (N = 182) of intellectually disabled athletes
who attended the Games. The structural model fit adequately well (RMSEA = 0.071;
χ2/df = 1.79). Personal needs and values, along with internal constraints (lack of
knowledge and lack of worth) explained 51.3% of the variance in pre-Games atti-
tudes toward sustainability, which in turn explained 48.1% of the variance in inten-
tions to act sustainably during the games. Intentions, combined with external
constraints during the games, predicted 38.3% of actual behaviors. Behaviors and
constraints predicted 47.9% of post-Games’ satisfaction with communications from
the organization. Behaviors and constraints also predicted post-Games’ satisfaction
with the campaigns (71.1%). Satisfaction with communications and with the cam-
paigns explained 48.4% of the variance in improved sustainability attitudes, which
in turn explained 52.7% of advocacy behavior and 97.3% of intentions to improve
sustainable behaviors in their hometown.
Keywords Sustainability · Attitudes · Intentions · Behaviors · Sport

The Impact of Culture on Humorous Ads:
An Abstract
Dragana Medic and Jean-Marc Decaudin
Abstract Humor in advertising targets a very heterogeneous audience simultane-

ously on the local and national even international scale. While it is universally prac-
ticed, practices of humor are, nevertheless, extremely varied, and its use in
advertising may require adaptation when communicating in different contexts
(Alden et al. 1993).
As advertising is strongly based on the culture of the country (Ozdemir and
Hewett 2010), on tradition and on a specific mode of communication (Newman
2004; Tungate 2007), it can register strongly in this context which will impact the
understanding and perception of the message it wants to convey and influence con-
sumer behavior and purchasing decisions (Palmatier et al. 2006). Considering this,
some advertising campaigns would be totally impossible to export (De Wulf et al.
2001), while others might require some adaptation to suit different cultural contexts
(Alden et al. 1993).
The question of standardization and adaptation of advertising campaigns on the
international scale has been the subject of extensive research (Schmid and Kotulla
2011). However, reviews of existing literature show doubt on the results of the pre-
vious research (Birnik and Bowman 2007). In the case of humorous ads, companies
are advised to “standardize” in their international communication (Alden et al.
1993) and at the same time to “adapt” their strategies even locally on their national
markets (Rutigliano 1986).
Considering that the proportion of international advertisements using humorous
appeals can reach up to 50% of TV advertising campaigns in the USA, while similar
statistics can be observed in other countries and other types of communication
(Millward Brown Brand report), and the huge and growing global advertising
spending which represented $550 billion dollars in 2016 (McKinsey, Wilkofsky
Gruen Associate: © Statista 2017), it appears essential to understand the stimulus of
D. Medic (*) · J.-M. Decaudin

TSM—Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse, France
e-mail: dragana.medic@tsm-education.fr; jean-marc.decaudin@tsm-education.fr

150 D. Medic and J.-M. Decaudin
humor in ads tendency with a cross-cultural comparison. The objective of this

research is to understand the cultural differences in terms of humor in ads and the
influence of culture in the consumer perception and behavior.
Keywords Humor · Advertising · Culture · Standardization

RELQUAL-determinants on Satisfaction
in Buyer–Supplier Relationship of Puerto
Rican SMEs: An Abstract
Juan Carlos Sosa Varela, Enid Miranda Ramírez, and Göran Svensson
Abstract Previous research has investigated the effect of several determinants on

relationship satisfaction, each one considering different factors and testing them in
different settings (e.g., Anderson and Narus 1990; Heide 1994). However, the con-
cern that arises is whether those determinants have the same effect in buyer–sup-
plier relationships in other countries and different industry sectors. Although many
researchers have investigated buyer–supplier relationships, there is still no consen-
sus on the components of a relationship quality model (Huntley 2006; Skarmeas
et al. 2008). The research objective is therefore to examine the RELQUAL determi-
nants on satisfaction in buyer–supplier relationships in small and medium-size
enterprises (SMEs) in Puerto Rico.
The sampling frame consisted of a sample of 400 SMEs in Puerto Rico. A total
of 133 usable questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 33.2%. A
five-point Likert-type scale was used for all items. As suggested by Norusis (1994)
and Hair et al. (2006), an exploratory factor analysis was used to identify relevant
factors to be used as determinants of satisfaction in business relationships between
SMEs. The reliability of the RELQUAL constructs was tested using the coefficient
of Cronbach’s Alpha (Cronbach 1951), fluctuating from 0.79 to 0.94.
A multiple regression analysis was run to determine the determinants that influ-
ence the satisfaction in buyer–supplier relationships. The regression model con-
sisted of satisfaction as the dependent variable and eleven independent RELQUAL
constructs: continuity, specific assets, dependence, opportunism, coordination,
trust, cooperation, commitment, formalization, competitive intensity, and market
turbulence. The results from the regression showed that seven out of ten indepen-
dent RELQUAL constructs turned out to be significant. The following constructs
indicate a significant influence on satisfaction in the studied buyer–supplier
J. C. S. Varela (*) · E. M. Ramírez

Universidad Ana G. Méndez, San Juan, Puerto Rico
e-mail: jsosa4@suagm.edu; emiranda33@suagm.edu
G. Svensson
Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway
e-mail: goran.svensson@kristiania.no

152 J. C. S. Varela et al.
relationships: cooperation, continuity, specific assets, opportunism, formalization,

competitive intensity, and market turbulence. However, the following ones do not
indicate a significant influence on satisfaction: dependence, coordination, trust, and
commitment.
The contributions obtained from this study can be summarized in three state-
ments. First, RELQUAL constructs, with its measurement properties, are available
for future studies. Second, the determinants that influence buyer’s satisfaction of
relationships with suppliers in Puerto Rican SMEs were identified. Third, findings
from this research will benefit owners of SMEs in Puerto Rico by providing a guide
of the key determinants they need to consider to develop and maintain a satisfactory
business relationship with their suppliers.
Keywords Commitment · Continuity · Cooperation · Coordination · Satisfaction ·

Trust · Relationship quality

Customer Experience of Value: Some
Insights into the Satisfaction–Loyalty Link
and Customer Loyalty Retention:
An Abstract
Shu-Ching Chen
Abstract This study responds to the call for more conceptual and theoretical work
for the knowledge development in the field of marketing. This study aims at provid-
ing insights into customer experience from the aspect of value and its link to the
relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, as well as its link
to customer loyalty retention.
This study reviews past studies of customer experience and customer value, cus-
tomer loyalty and customer retention, and the relation between customer satisfac-
tion and customer loyalty. Accordingly, this study proposes a conceptual framework
that depicts the possible influential factors for employing customer experience of
value in the processes of strengthening the relationship between customer satisfac-
tion and customer loyalty, and in retaining the loyalty of loyal customers. In addi-
tion, the conceptual framework depicts the possible effects of customer experience
of value on the pre-existing causal relationship between customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty, and on customer loyalty retention.
This study contributes to relevant research areas by providing the theoretical
background for the possible answers regarding defining the formation process to
convert satisfied customers into loyal ones through customer experience of value,
and which aspect is important to retain customer loyalty after the success of trans-
formation through customer experience of value. This study advances the research
on customer experience and customer value regarding the consequences of con-
sumer experience by providing insights into the impact of customer experience of
value on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and
on the retention of customer loyalty; and regarding the effect of customer e xperience
management on business performance by exploring the issue from the aspect of
managing customer experience of value for building and retaining customer l oyalty.
S.-C. Chen (*)

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan
e-mail: schen@apu.ac.jp

154 S.-C. Chen
In addition to research implications for service researchers, this study provides

practical implications for managers in the service outlets and frontline service
employees.
Keywords Consumer experience · Customer value · Customer loyalty · Customer

satisfaction

Special Session: How the Desire for Unique
Products Strengthens the Link between
Luxury Attitudes and Sustainability
Behaviors: An Abstract
Sihem Dekhili, Jacqueline K. Eastman, and Rajesh Iyer
Abstract The literature is mixed on the role of luxury influencing consumers’ sus-
tainability behaviors. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of value-
expressive and social-adjustive attitudes on sustainable behaviors, both ecologically
consciousness consumer behavior (ECCB) and socially responsible consumer
behavior (SRCB). The study also looks at whether the desire for unique products
mediates the relationship between value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes
and sustainable behaviors, and if culture and brand self-congruence moderate these
relationships. The study utilizes survey research collected in the United States with
a Qualtrics panel of 359 respondents. The research finds that the desire for unique
products mediates the relationship between the value-expressive luxury attitudes
and both ECCB and SRCB sustainable behaviors for U.S. consumers. The link
between the desire for unique products and ECCB is strengthened by the moderat-
ing factors of brand self-congruence and collectivism. The results provide reasoning
for the mixed literature on luxury and sustainability and offer a means for how busi-
nesses and policy makers can increase the sustainability behaviors of consumers in
the United States. The results illustrate that consumers who hold positive luxury
social attitudes, particularly in terms of utilizing luxury as a means of self-expression
of who they are, whether or not they behave sustainably is mediated by the desire
for unique products. These results build on costly signaling theory by explaining
how luxury can impact sustainability through value-expressive luxury attitudes and
S. Dekhili
University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
e-mail: sihem.dekhili@unistra.fr
J. K. Eastman (*)
e-mail: jeastman@georgiasouthern.edu
R. Iyer
Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA
e-mail: riyer@bradley.edu

156 S. Dekhili et al.
the need for unique products and that sustainability can serve as a signal for luxury
consumers. Furthermore, the results help explain the gap between luxury attitudes
and sustainable behaviors by demonstrating the importance of the desire for unique
products mediating the relationship between value-expressive luxury attitudes and
sustainable behaviors. Thus, this research demonstrates that sustainable behaviors,
both ecological and socially-responsible, can be encouraged by American luxury
consumers through meeting these luxury consumers’ need to express their self-
identity through their desire for unique products. Finally, this relationship is
strengthened by emphasizing the importance of impacting the group and how lux-
ury and sustainability are compatible in terms of brand self-congruence.
Keywords Luxury · Sustainability · Culture · Desire for unique products

Understanding Information Bias:
The Perspective of Online Review
Component: An Abstract
Qiong Jia, Yue Guo, and Stuart Barnes
Abstract Due to the existence of multiple bias sources, the scores in online sys-
tems cannot reflect products or services unbiasedly. Regardless of the bias, the new
consumer may be misled to make a wrong purchase decision, resulting in lower
satisfaction. Therefore, research on the bias and distortion of online commentary
information is an important issue of the current marketing and information sys-
tem area.
However, the scarce online review bias literature currently focuses on the source
of bias and the extent of impact. A holistic framework for studying the relations of
online review components and bias is still necessary. Based on the Elaboration
Likelihood Model (ELM), we attempt to find the evidence of biases from the online
components, verify how the different online review components lead to biases with
the central route and peripheral route, and how to calibrate the biases. We attempt to
use eye tracking to study the persuasion process to verify whether users who tend to
consider both feedback components and auxiliary components use central route
have less biases than the users consider auxiliary components with peripheral route.
Besides, we use the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) unsupervised learning method
to find and calibrate the bias among the topics from online review text component.
We hope to provide a valuable supplement to traditional research methods that
struggle to correctly and effectively identify the degree of information bias of online
review contents by applying the topic model, which is an emerging data mining
technology for large-scale text data. Topics and review valence will be automati-
cally extracted based on online reviews.
Q. Jia
Hohai University, Nanjing, China
e-mail: roseherb@hhu.edu.cn
Y. Guo (*) · S. Barnes
King College London, London, UK
e-mail: yueg.guo@kcl.ac.uk; stuart.barnes@kcl.ac.uk

158 Q. Jia et al.
Our research findings not only help companies to deeply understand the relative
importance of each online review component but also to know how to design and
develop an effective online review system to reduce the bias. As a result, companies
will benefit from facilitating successful transactions, inhibiting false comments and
increasing reputation.
Keywords Bias · Online review components · Elaboration Likelihood Model ·

Latent Dirichlet Allocation
Acknowledgements Generous financial support was provided by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China [grant numbers 71872061, 71702045], the Humanities and Social Sciences
Foundation of the Ministry of Education in China [grant numbers 16YJC630028, 17YJC630047],
the Consumer and Organizational Digital Analytics (CODA) Research Centre at King’s College
London, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant numbers
2018B20614, 2017B14414].
Factors Affecting Consumer Responses
to Brand Advertising on Social Media:
An Abstract
Nina Michaelidou, Milena Micevski, and Georgios Halkias
Abstract Given the increasing spend on social media brand advertising (eMarketer
2017) as well as the consumer tendency to avoid advertising on social media plat-
forms (Eckler and Bolls 2011; Seyedghorban et al. 2016), understanding the factors
that influence consumers to respond differently towards brand advertising across
social media sites is important and managerially relevant. Current research points to
disparities in usage motives across social media platforms (Gao and Feng 2016;
Haridakis and Hanson 2009; Johnson and Yang 2009), thus helps to forward the idea
of a ‘dominant motive’, driving brand advertising responses differently on social
media. Building on prior research, this study examines differences in motivational
and perceptual factors affecting consumer response to brand advertising on social
media. We focus on Facebook and YouTube as they reflect the most commercial
platforms to-date in terms of advertising spend (e-Marketer 2016), with similar
media presence or richness but different in terms of functionality i.e. self-presentation
and disclosure (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). We collect data from 185 respondents
recruited in a within-subject, web-based study using an online questionnaire.
Analysis via repeated-measures ANOVA yields interesting results about differences
in dominant motives driving usage of Facebook and YouTube. Additionally, we find
that the underlying mechanism of motives linking to brand advertising responses
differs between the two social media sites, thus extending current limited knowl-
edge. Specifically, our findings show that on Facebook the dominant motive is the
one that influences advertising response via perceived advertising informativeness
and interest, while on YouTube the less dominant motive is the one that shapes
advertising responses. The results of the study contribute to the provision of guide-
lines to practitioners on how to shape consumers’ usage motives of Facebook and
N. Michaelidou (*)
e-mail: n.michaelidou@lboro.ac.uk
M. Micevski · G. Halkias
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
e-mail: milena.micevski@univie.ac.at; georgios.halkias@univie.ac.at

160 N. Michaelidou et al.
YouTube, and also in terms of communicated values of advertising (e.g. advertising

informativeness and interest), in order to influence responses to brand advertising
on social media.
Keywords Brand advertising · Social media · Motives · Advertising responses

How Many Likes are Good Enough?
An Evaluation of Social Media
Performance: An Abstract
Caitlin C. Ferreira and Jeandri Robertson
Abstract The rapid acceptance of social media across consumers of all age groups
has prompted researchers to examine the social and psychological effects that social
media usage may have on its users (Cabral 2011; Vogel et al. 2014). The content that
users choose to post is often selectively chosen to project a particular image
(Rosenberg and Egbert 2011), while associations with specific brands, where a
user’s online community can view this interaction, aid the expression of self-identity
(Mensel and Petersen 2011). User-generated content is often self-evaluated based
on the ‘performance’ of the content. Odden (2012) acknowledges that individuals
often evaluate the performance of their online content based on the presence or lack
of an immediate reaction from their online community. This evaluation becomes
particularly important when the user-generated content is brand-related. This paper
is the first attempt to conceptually delineate the parameters of ‘social media perfor-
mance’ (hereinafter referred to as SMP) and formalize this evaluation.
This paper suggests that SMP may follow an Expectation Confirmation Theory
(ECT) framework (Elkhani and Bakri 2012; Oliver 1980). Much the same as a con-
sumer holds expectations of the performance of a particular product, so too do they
hold expectations of the performance of their online content. The expectations of
the ‘performance’ that a post could achieve would be in terms of the potential popu-
larity that is expected (De Vries et al. 2012), according to the number of responses
received. In line with the ECT, the user would experience satisfaction or dissatisfac-
tion dependent on whether the post met initial expectations (Elkhani and Bakri
2012). We propose that when social media users willingly post brand-related user-
generated content, they express particular concern for the performance of such con-
tent amongst their online network. The following proposition is suggested:
P1: The SMP of brand-related user-generated content can influence the user’s
attitude towards the stated brand.
C. C. Ferreira (*) · J. Robertson

Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
Red & Yellow Creative School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa
e-mail: caitlin.ferreira@ltu.se; jeandri.robertson@ltu.se

162 C. C. Ferreira and J. Robertson
The formalization of SMP explains how the personal evaluation of performance

influences brand relationship. This relationship bears significance for practitioners
implementing social media strategies. The proposed relationship stresses the impor-
tance of active engagement with consumers, which has been shown to play a funda-
mental role in enhancing consumer–brand relationships (Van Iwaarden et al. 2002).
Future researchers could create an empirical measurement of SMP to evaluate sub-
dimensions of perceived performance further. Further, empirical assessment could
quantify SMP and examine the influence that performance bears on acts of con-
spicuous online consumption and brand interaction.
Keywords Social media · Expectation confirmation theory · User-generated

content · Perceived performance

To Kneel or Not to Kneel? Just Do It!
Assessing Consumer Responses
to Organizational Engagement in Political
Discourse: An Abstract
Jason Flores, Marisa Flores, Roberto Saldivar, and Arne Baruca
Abstract Over the course of the past four decades, the conceptualization of what is
encompassed by social and environmental sustainability has evolved in depth and
scope. This evolution now arguably includes organizational engagement in dis-
course pertaining to divisive social–political issues or politically divisive discourse
engagement (PDDE). In addition to the increase in PDDE, the 2018 Edelman
Earned Brand Study found that the large majority of consumers (64%) now buy or
boycott brands due to a brand’s stance on a social or political issue. Far fewer (39%)
than the majority of consumers were influenced in this way only 4 years prior to the
2018 findings. While increasingly more organizations are partaking in PDDE and
more consumers are influenced by an organization’s PDDE, there remains relatively
scant literature-based guidance for organizations in this context and for understand-
ing consumer reactions to an organization’s PDDE. Accordingly, this study seeks to
contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of organizational PDDE on
consumer perceptions of the following: legitimacy, courageousness, integrity, and
empathy. Impacts on consumer behavioral intentions in relation to said phenome-
non are also investigated.
Political corporate social responsibility (P-CSR) encompasses the area of CSR
within which PDDE arguably best fits. P-CSR is an emerging area of CSR in which
J. Flores
Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
e-mail: njflores@okcu.edu
M. Flores
University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
e-mail: marisa.saavedraflores@ou.edu
R. Saldivar
University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX, USA
e-mail: rosaldiv@uiwtx.edu
A. Baruca (*)
Texas A&M University-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
e-mail: arne.baruca@tamusa.edu

164 J. Flores et al.
one of its multiple domains pertains to organizational behavior that illustrates a

firm’s view of its social responsibility. In the case of this P-CSR domain, organiza-
tional behavior may impact government regulation even if this is not necessarily the
intended aim. This behavior occurs due at least in part to existing gaps in global
governance and national public relations. PDDE is argued to fit within this domain.
Legitimacy theory posits that organizations operate within the bounds of societal
expectations. It is expected that PDDE will impact consumer perceptions of legiti-
macy. Courage, integrity, and empathy are each component of virtue ethics, which
have been found to impact consumer behavior depending on perceptions of organi-
zational activities. Finally, the relationships among the aforementioned factors to
behavioral intentions are investigated. Political ideology and social–political ideol-
ogy are included as factors to help better understand consumer responses in relation
to each relationship of interest. A between-subjects experimental design is utilized
to study the phenomenon of interest.
Keywords Brands · Social issues · Corporate social responsibility · Political

discourse

Inferences about Target Marketing
from Languages on Website and its
Implications: An Abstract
Kristina Harrison, Mahesh Gopinath, and Myron Glassman
Abstract A study was conducted to determine whether subjects will infer that a
non-Hispanic dentist is making a special effort to target Hispanic consumers (ITM)
when the home page of the dentist’s website says, “Hablamos Español.” Subjects
did make this inference. In addition, subjects seeing this website rated the dentist
less favorably and were less likely to intend to make an appointment with the dentist
versus subjects seeing the same home page without “Hablamos Español.” Neither
the perceived risk of the procedure (dental examination and X-rays costing $50 vs.
a root canal and crown costing $2000) nor ethnocentrism-impacted responses.
This study examines situations where two groups are targeted in the same mes-
sage, for example, when a marketing communication contains both English and
Spanish. We posit that the stereotypes the groups have of each other can impact how
each group evaluates the product or service. Although general stereotypes can
impact evaluation, a stereotype involving characteristics relevant to the purchase
likely plays a greater role. For example, Groups A and B are targeted in the same
message. Group B is stereotyped as buying only the highest quality product. When
Group A sees that Group B is also targeted by the message, the positive stereotype
of Group B’s purchase habits is likely to enhance Group A’s evaluation of the
product.
We posit that the inclusion of Spanish in the message causes non-Hispanics to
infer that the firm is making a conscious effort to target Hispanics. Because of nega-
tive stereotypes of Hispanics, the inference of a Hispanic target market can result in
a less favorable evaluation of the product or service for non-Hispanic consumers.
This effect happens when (1) the consumer infers that another market is also being
targeted in the same message and (2) as a result of this inference positive or negative
stereotypes are evoked that impact the evaluation of the product or service. We call
this the inferred target market (ITM) effect. There is some support for the ITM
effect in the literature. For example, Gopinath, Glassman, and Nyer (2013) found
K. Harrison (*) · M. Gopinath · M. Glassman

e-mail: kstuhler@odu.edu; mgopinat@odu.edu; mglassma@odu.edu

166 K. Harrison et al.
that when bilingual (English/Spanish) packaging is used, consumers infer that the
firm is actively targeting Hispanics living in the United States, and prejudice and
negative stereotypes of Hispanics cause the product to be evaluated less favorably.
Our purpose here is to extend the literature by providing a model of the ITM effect
and explore the ITM effect in a service situation, namely when choosing a dentist.
Keywords Bilingual marketing · Target marketing · Risk · Ethnocentrism ·

Inference making

Consumer Response to Sport Sponsor’s
Message Articulation and Activation
on Twitter: An Abstract
Abhishek Mishra and Kapil Kaushik
Abstract Although traditional media remains the primary value driver for spon-
sors, when all media platforms are considered, social media accounts for 5–20% of
the total value generated for sponsors. Because it has redefined consumer–brand
interaction, social media is considered an important customer activation tool by
businesses across the globe. Social media has recently become an effective tool that
can be utilized by marketers for tapping shared interests of their customers and
stimulating engagement to create positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes,
especially in the sponsorship domain. This is because social media is extremely
popular with sports fans and acts as a great outlet for discussions related to sport and
sport-related issues, which sometimes spill over to conversations about associated
brands. Although there is a scholarly focus on consumer engagement in online plat-
forms, there are scant studies on the use of social media by sponsors, and on how
social media can act as a tool for achieving marketing objectives. This work offers
two dimensions related to sponsor messages that enable effective communication
by a brand about its association with an event on social media platform Twitter:
articulation (focus of the message: product/event) and activation (trigger for user
interaction with the message: promotional/interactive). Effect of these two dimen-
sions are proposed to create positive user behavioral outcomes in form of positive
sentiment (in related user tweets) and e-WOM respectively. The study makes four
key theoretical contributions to extant literature. First, authors offer a novel way of
defining and measuring message articulation on a social media platform. To date,
extant literature discussed broadly commercial and noncommercial aspects of artic-
ulation, with little application to digital media. Second, this study empirically vali-
dates the usage of activation tactics, and provides insights into the individual effects
of interactive and promotional messages on e-WOM, which has its contributions to
A. Mishra (*)
Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore, India
e-mail: abhishek@iimidr.ac.in
K. Kaushik
Indian Institute of Management Nagpur, Nagpur, India
e-mail: kapilk@iimnagpur.ac.in

168 A. Mishra and K. Kaushik
the consumer engagement literature from the context of sponsorship in social media.
Third, using incongruity and unexpectedness theories, analysis of functional and
image fit as moderators highlights their important role for sponsors and explains
how unexpectedness can act as a boon for low-fit sponsors on the social media plat-
form. Finally, from a methodological perspective, this research suggests a unique
way to capture Twitter data that can help sponsors to track the performance of their
sponsorship-related messages. Authors used the Twitter–LDA algorithm, clubbed
with topic modeling and NRC lexicon, to capture user sentiment.
Keywords Sponsorship · Twitter-LDA · Message articulation · Message activation

Exploring Usage Motives for Corporate
Multimodal Mobility Services:
A Hierarchical Means-End Chain
Analysis: An Abstract
Sebastian Timmer, Katrin Merfeld, and Sven Henkel
Abstract A variety of mobility challenges burdens cities globally. Driven by

urbanization and a growing number of private vehicles, negative externalities such
as traffic congestions, parking shortages, air pollution, and noise are intensifying.
Along with producing greenhouse gases and other detrimental emissions, private
car ownership is characterized by crucial inefficiency. For example, single-occupant
vehicles in the United States prevail with an average operation time of 4%, resulting
in high idling capacities and overcrowded highways in rush hours (U.S. Department
of Transportation 2018). However, these challenges are counteracted by trends,
such as access-based consumption, sustainable mobility, and millennials’ unwill-
ingness to embrace car-oriented lifestyles, which further encourage an academic
focus on alternative mobility solutions.
Multimodal mobility behavior is a central element to cope with these challenges
that instrumentalize the aforementioned trends. Among the strengths of multimo-
dality are increasing flexibility, promoting health, and reducing mobility costs.
Multimodality has found particular interest in commuting to the workplace. Nearly
half of the total car mileage originates from business activities or work commutes,
out of which 67% are covered by motorized private transport (Mobilität in
Deutschland 2018). Thus, companies have the ability and consequent responsibility
to encourage desired mobility behavior by promoting multimodal commuting
behavior. However, there is a twofold lack of research insights for advancing the
needed change in commuting behavior. First, existing research falls short of provid-
ing insights into motivational patterns being essential for the change of a commut-
er’s mobility behavior. Second, insights into consumers’ perceived attractiveness of
multimodality in the commuting context are lacking.
This study takes an exploratory approach to enrich the nascent research stream
on multimodality with a particular focus on consumer motivation. It employs a
S. Timmer (*) · K. Merfeld · S. Henkel

EBS University, Wiesbaden, Germany
e-mail: sebastian.timmer@ebs.edu; katrin.merfeld@ebs.edu; sven.henkel@ebs.edu

170 S. Timmer et al.
qualitative means-end chain analysis to uncover important findings on phenomena

that are not directly observable. The qualitative approach further enables us to
obtain insights without previously committing to a theoretical model. We analyze
the overall motivations underlying a commuter’s switch from monomodal to multi-
modal mobility behavior, as well as consumer motives for multimodal commuting.
In a range of laddering interviews with employees of a large German insurance
company and a governmental institution, the underlying hierarchical motive struc-
ture is unveiled.
Preliminary findings suggest the relevance of aspects related to sustainability,
fitness, status, and economic interest. Especially the significance of status and fit-
ness enriches the portfolio of consumer motivations in the current discourse.
However, economic interest, which found high levels of attention in traditional
mobility research, was only of minor importance. Finally, implications for further
research as well as applications to incentivize employees’ shift to multimodal com-
muting are deduced.
Keywords Multimodal mobility · Commuting · Mode switch · Motives ·

Means-end chain

The Effect of Emoji Incongruency in Social
Media: An Abstract
Laura Boman, Ganga Urumutta Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford
Abstract Political ideology reflects one’s views about ethical ideals, principals,
politics, and the role of government (Kim et al. 2018) and is generally categorized
as liberal or conservative (Jost 2017). Conservative ideology is associated with in-
group conformity (Kidwell et al. 2013) and the racial majority (Craig and Richeson
2014). Although extant literature advocates for the use of congruence between
aspects of persuasive messaging and a brand’s overall image (Kamins and Gupta
1994; Gwinner and Eaton 1999; Krishna et al. 2010), the current research proposes
that persuasive appeals, which are incongruent with a brand’s perceived political
ideology may, in fact, have a positive influence on consumer preferences and out-
comes (e.g., purchase intentions). Specifically, we propose that an emoji in a dark-
brown skin tone can enhance consumer attitudes and intentions for brands that are
perceived to be conservative. Prior literature from political psychology supports the
influence of stereotype-incongruent messaging on creating favorable attitudes
(Redlawks 2002; Redlawsk et al. 2010). We extend this stream by showing the
effects of incongruent messaging cues on consumer preferences for conservative
brands and uncover the process, which underlies such effects, namely perceived
inclusiveness.
Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 showed that, as predicted, a dark-
brown emoji significantly increased the likelihood to visit a conservative store but
had no effect on a neutral store. In study 2, we replicated the effects of study 1 and
tested the proposed underlying mechanism, showing that a conservative brand’s use
of a dark-toned emoji was perceived to be more inclusive than control brand, which
ultimately increased consumer outcomes for the conservative brand. In study 3, we
L. Boman (*)
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
e-mail: laura.boman@ucf.edu
G. U. Hewage
Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, USA
e-mail: gangah@bryant.edu
J. Hasford
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
e-mail: jhasford@utk.edu

172 L. Boman et al.
examined a boundary condition, demonstrating that promotion of an incongruent

cue reverses the effects of studies 1 and 2, thus lowering attitudes toward a brand.
The results of these studies show that, consistent with predictions, incongruent
messaging cues increase consumer outcomes for conservative brands. The current
research contributes to the nascent literature on political ideology in consumer
behavior, showing that incongruent cues increase consumer perceptions of conser-
vative brands’ inclusiveness, thus enhancing brand attitudes and purchase inten-
tions. In addition, we contribute to the limited literature on the use of emojis in
social media communications, showing that they can be used to affect consumer
perceptions. In addition, we provide consequential managerial implications, show-
ing that conservative brands should integrate diversity in persuasive messaging and
provide guidelines regarding the use of such messaging.
Keywords Social media · Incongruence · Inclusiveness · Persuasion ·

Political ideology

Me, Myself and my Smartphone:
Antecedents of Smartphone Attachment:
An Abstract
Stefanie Sohn, Evmorfia Karampournioti, Klaus-Peter Wiedmann,

and Wolfgang Fritz
Abstract Smartphones have become globally famous and change since their intro-
duction to everyday life. The rapid rise in the use of smartphones, for instance, has
significantly influenced consumer behavior. The resulting increase of smartphone
usage in purchase-related situations, however, also yields negative consequences
(e.g., consumer distress, decreasing attention). Hence, more still ever marketers are
challenged to develop a deeper understanding of these novel objects of consumer
behavior. Extant research provides limited insights on the relationship between con-
sumers and their smartphones. Inspired by the ideas of attachment theory, we hence
seek to fill this gap by investigating antecedents of consumers’ smartphone attach-
ment. Extant research reveals that attachment to nonhuman objects like brands,
places, and popular objects/products equals patterns of interpersonal attachment.
Smartphones are considered as one of the most prevalent objects of modern society,
which are constantly kept close to the human body. Thus, this study hypothesizes
that consumers’ relationship to a smartphone reflects a form of attachment. In sum-
mary, this research broadens research on product attachment, brand attachment, and
smartphone attachment by elucidating the drivers of smartphone attachment. In par-
ticular, this research provides, among others, novel insights into research on con-
sumer–object relationships and develops a model of smartphone attachment
considering the self-concept of consumers (i.e., an aggregate of beliefs about one-
self). In particular, this research shows that smartphone attachment has an emo-
tional and behavioral character, while the emotional attachment represents a crucial
predictor of attachment behavior. As hypothesized, the greater consumer material-
ism tendency, the greater is the smartphone attachment. Sociability needs, in turn,
positively influence only emotional attachment and thus shape attachment behaviors
S. Sohn · W. Fritz
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Brunswick, Germany
e-mail: s.sohn@tu-bs.de; w.fritz@tu-braunschweig.de
E. Karampournioti (*) · K.-P. Wiedmann
Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany
e-mail: karampournioti@m2.uni-hannover.de; wiedmann@m2.uni-hannover.de

174 S. Sohn et al.
in an indirect way. Interestingly, internal locus of control attenuates consumers’

emotional attachment to the smartphone. By integrating different consumer self-
perceptions, this research advances the work of Thomson et al. (2005) who reflect
on the role of emotional attachment for attachment behaviors in a consumer research
context. In addition, this study advances research on information systems and more
specifically on smartphone attachment by introducing the emotional attachment
construct and by elucidating major determinants of smartphone attachment.
Keywords Smartphone · Attachment · Emotional attachment · Self-concept ·

Personality

Do Death Thoughts Influence the Choice
of Brand Loyalty Program? A Case
of Lebanon: An Abstract
Rayan Fawaz and Shintaro Okazaki
Abstract Terror management theory (TMT) underlines the repercussions of death-

related thoughts on consumers’ decisions in everyday life. More specifically, TMT
suggests that a reminder of one’s own death or mortality salience (MS) is likely to
make people defend their cultural worldview and boost their self-esteem by favour-
ing materialism. Indeed, prior research corroborates that individuals consume more
in their defence against MS, which also amplifies their materialistic tendencies.
However, an empirical exploration on the relationship between TMT and material-
ism, especially in a Middle Eastern context, seems almost non-existent. To fulfil this
research gap, we conducted research in Lebanon with a mixed approach. First,
focus groups were conducted. Perhaps due to its critical geopolitical location and
history in the region, our findings suggest that there is a preference for experiential
rather than materialistic consumption under MS in the short term. Research on
experiential consumption shows that people prefer experiences to material pur-
chases in the distant future, and that the social context of the experience shapes its
attractiveness. Second, we carried out an experiment, positing that MS may induce
more experiential consumption, rather than materialistic consumption, particularly
in the near future, in a brand loyalty setting. Results show that individuals under MS
choose to redeem accumulated loyalty points for experiential rather than materialis-
tic rewards in the near future, and particularly when these experiences are solitary.
Marketers and advertisers could capitalize on our findings by tailoring their brand’s
loyalty programs and rewards to appeal to such underlying individual motives.
Keywords Experiential consumption · Lebanon · Mortality salience · Terror

management theory
R. Fawaz · S. Okazaki (*)

e-mail: rayan.fawaz@kcl.ac.uk; shintaro.okazaki@kcl.ac.uk

176 R. Fawaz and S. Okazaki
Acknowledgement This research is supported by the Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation

Research Grant 2017-2019.
Involvement and Brand Engagement
Outcomes in Facebook Brand Posts:
A Gender Twist: An Abstract
Ryan E. Cruz, James M. Leonhardt, and Nina Krey
Abstract Over several decades, marketing researchers have worked to understand

the nature of brand and consumer relationships (Aaker 1997; Fournier 1998). As
Hollebeek (2014) notes, consumer “involvement” or “level of interest and personal
relevance with a brand” plays a role in fostering brand communities, relationships,
and brand loyalty in interactive or online environments. Using a conceptual frame-
work based on the FCB grid and consumer involvement, the present research works
to link salient brand/product characteristics to social media engagement using field
data and a laboratory experiment.
The preliminary results of our field study suggest that social media engagement
is affected by involvement and consumer motives (Study 1). In addition, the results
of our controlled experiment suggest that a social media user’s sex may impact
engagement intentions (Study 2). Male consumers’ engagement intentions are
found to be higher for low-involvement products, while female consumers’ engage-
ment intentions are found to be higher for high involvement products. In addition,
this gender effect is found to be mediated by consumer involvement.
Our mixed-methods approach provides preliminary evidence for the effect of
involvement on consumer engagement with brand communications on social net-
working sites. Doing so helps to bridge research on brand and product messaging
(Ratchford 1987; Rossiter et al. 1991; Vaughn 1980, 1986) information processing
(Meyers-Levy 1985; Darley and Smith 1995; Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran 1991;
Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1991), consumer involvement (Zaichkowsky 1985), and
consumer engagement (Brodie et al. 2011; Hollebeek 2011).
R. E. Cruz (*)
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
e-mail: ryan.cruz@jefferson.edu
J. M. Leonhardt
University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
e-mail: jleonhardt@unr.edu
N. Krey
Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA
e-mail: krey@rowan.edu

178 R. E. Cruz et al.
Notably, our research is limited in its treatment of gender as a moderating

v ariable of consumer involvement, and there is an opportunity to expand on the
present research using midrange gender theories. For example, the selectivity model
may prove useful in identifying specific features of social media communications,
which are most influential in shaping consumer involvement online.
Keywords Involvement · Consumer engagement · FCB Grid · Information

processing · Digital marketing · Social media

Implications of the Developments
in Metaphors Research for Marketing
Communications: A Review and Research
Agenda: An Abstract
Sreedhar Madhavaram, Dorcia Bolton, and Vishag Badrinarayanan
Abstract Metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not only in language but also in
thought and action. In addition to increasing the effectiveness of communication,
metaphors have also contributed toward theory development in social science.
Specifically, in the marketing discipline, there is a rich tradition of research based
on metaphors. However, a systematic review of advancements in research on meta-
phors and, correspondingly, research in marketing communication regarding and
employing metaphors, reveals that the potential of metaphors and metaphoric trans-
fer for marketing communication remains under-realized. Given that metaphors
research has been developed in disparate fields, such as linguistics, psychology, and
social sciences, understandably, research on metaphors is fraught with non-
conciliatory issues with regard to conceptualization, different types of metaphors,
uses, and metaphoric theory. Therefore, on the foundations of the significant devel-
opments in metaphors research that can be useful for marketing communications
scholarship, we undertake a systematic overview as to the status of research on
metaphors in order to develop an appropriate framework for reviewing metaphors
and explore implications for the domain of marketing communications. Specifically,
we develop a brief review of metaphor conceptualizations, various typologies in
metaphors, uses of metaphors, models of metaphor, and potential issues with and
pitfalls of metaphors. To demonstrate that marketing research can be significantly
advanced by focusing on metaphors as linguistic tools and as well as research tools
S. Madhavaram (*)
e-mail: s.madhavaram@ttu.edu
D. Bolton
Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, AL, USA
e-mail: dbolton@aum.edu
V. Badrinarayanan
e-mail: vb16@txstate.edu

180 S. Madhavaram et al.
that can spark inquiry, the objectives of this research are to: (i) provide an up-to-date
review of metaphors research in terms of conceptualization, types of metaphors,
uses of metaphors, models of metaphor, and issues and pitfalls of metaphors; (ii)
identify several communication and theoretical metaphors that are relevant to mar-
keting communication; and (iii) develop a research agenda on the different roles of
metaphors for the domain of marketing communications. Consequently, the contri-
butions and implications of this research for marketing communication scholarship
are discussed.
Keywords Marketing communications · Metaphors · Theory development ·

Linguistic metaphors · Theoretical metaphors

The Joint Impact of Goal Type and Goal
Completion Magnitude on Consumer’
Post-Goal-Completion Behavior:
An Abstract
Junzhou Zhang and Yuping Liu-Thompkins
Abstract Goal pursuit represents an important psychological mechanism under loyalty

programs (Bagchi and Li 2010; Fishbach and Dhar 2005; Lee and Ariely 2006).
Although academic research on loyalty programs has examined the extent to which
consumers succeed or fail in reward–goal pursuit, insufficient attention has been paid to
the consequences of such successes or failures. Addressing this gap, we draw upon
research on goal pursuit and counterfactual thinking to examine the effect of goal com-
pletion magnitude on individuals’ effort toward achieving subsequent goals, and how
maintenance versus attainment goal types moderate this relationship. Analyzing flight
activities from 5719 members of a major airline’s frequent flyer program, we found that
(1) individuals who failed (vs. succeeded) at achieving an attainment goal will put more
(vs. less) effort into subsequent goal pursuit than individuals who failed (vs. succeeded)
at fulfilling a maintenance goal; (2) a linear effect of goal achievement magnitude on
future goal pursuit effort under the maintenance goal, such that the more one completed
his/her previous goal, the more effort he/she will invest in the subsequent goal cycle; and
(3) a reverse U-shaped effect of goal achievement magnitude under the attainment goal,
such that substantial goal achievement in the previous goal cycle creates a surprising
hampering effect (i.e., close-but-no-cigar effect) on subsequent goal pursuit. Instead,
moderate achievement of the previous goal leads to the most effort invested in subse-
quent goal pursuit. These results and the proposed underlying processes are further
explored in a lab experiment. Our research provides new insights for marketing scholars
and managers with regard to goal pursuit and loyalty programs.
Keywords Loyalty program · Goal pursuit · Counterfactual thinking · Goal ladder ·

Travel
J. Zhang (*) · Y. Liu-Thompkins

e-mail: jzhan001@odu.edu; yxxliu@odu.edu

A Moment of Influence: Understanding
the Customer Experience after Receiving
a Penalty: An Abstract
Mary P. Harrison and Sharon Beatty
Abstract The focus on building a superior experience throughout a customer’s

journey has become a top goal for service providers (Lemon and Verhoef 2016). It
is important to understand the customer experience over numerous touch points and
across multiple interactions. On the research agenda from the authors’ Journal of
Marketing article is to “identify anomalies in customer journeys—whereby custom-
ers deviate from habit or predictions—and identify potential moments of influence”
(p. 87).
One such anomaly explored here is the case of a customer making a mistake dur-
ing the service experience resulting in a penalty or fine. All services require some
customer participation (Bitner et al. 1997), and providers are asking more from cus-
tomers during the service experience than ever before (Dong and Sivakumar 2017).
Customers are frequently error-prone (Chase and Stewart 1994) and cause one-third
of all service problems (Tax et al. 2006).
In order to understand the customer experience after a penalty, a critical incident
technique study with a content analysis was conducted. There were 126 critical
incidents after cleaning the data. Participants were asked “Can you think of a time
when you made a mistake that led to a penalty? (Or you almost got a penalty but the
company waived it?).” Participants were asked a series of questions, depending on
whether they were charged a penalty or the company waived the penalty.
Fifty-nine percent of the sample asked for a waiver after receiving a penalty due
to a mistake. In terms of retention, 43% of the individuals who asked for a waiver
and did not receive it left the company. None of the participants who asked for a
waiver and received the waiver left the company.
M. P. Harrison (*)
Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL, USA
e-mail: mharriso@bsc.edu
S. Beatty
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
e-mail: sbeatty@cba.ua.edu

184 M. P. Harrison and S. Beatty
Forty-one percent of the participants did not ask for a penalty waiver. Twenty-
one percent of these individuals left the company. Service providers must carefully
consider the outcomes of denying penalty waivers, and how the refusal to grant the
waiver affects the customer’s overall experience with the firm. Firms should be as
flexible as possible, considering each customer’s individual situation. These find-
ings set the framework for a series of scenario-based experiments.
Keywords Penalty · Penalties · Mistakes · Customer mistakes · Penalty waiver ·

Customer requests

Strategic Tripod in Internet-Enabled
Market: Consumer Self-Construal Level,
Consumer Involvement, and Firm
Resources: An Abstract
Yunmei Kuang
Abstract The construal level theory and the idea of consumer involvement are two
important topics in contemporary consumer research, yet few studies have previ-
ously examined their interaction, especially in the online context. Current trends
indicate that internet-enabled markets play a pivotal role in a firm’s revenue genera-
tion. The alignment of the customer’s perceived value (i.e., value to customers) and
firm value (i.e., value from customers) is also of extreme importance in creating
consumer value, consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and a firm’s ultimate profitability
(Kumar and Reinartz 2016). Thus, it is time to investigate the interaction among
consumer self-construal level, consumer involvement, and firm resources in the
context of internet-enabled markets.
Extant research suggests that the proliferation of online markets where millions
of sellers and buyers exchange with each other is mainly supported by websites run
by third-party companies (such as Singh and Kundu 2002). It is through websites
that, regardless of actual resources owned (limited or adequate), individual sellers
(i.e., one-person seller) compete with their firm counterparts, and unknown sellers
(i.e., entrepreneurs, small brands) compete with well-known sellers (i.e., famous
brands) or even with big companies.
All firms have limited resources; only those that can effectively allocate these
resources will achieve profitability and sustainability. To this end, firms must adopt
appropriate strategies and develop the corresponding marketing tools in order to
enhance consumer engagement. It is our interest to study the strategic implication
stemming from the dynamics among consumer self-construal level, consumer
involvement with a website, and firm resources of sellers on the website. Notably,
our initial assumptions that drive this paper are (1) that consumer self-construal
level affects consumers’ information processing of sellers and products; (2) that
consumer involvement with a website does not indicate consumer involvement with
Y. Kuang (*)
Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA
e-mail: yunmei.kuang@slu.edu

186 Y. Kuang
any sellers on the website, given there are millions of substitutes; and (3) that
outperforming firms/individuals compete with their counterparts by successful

manipulation of marketing strategies that are contingent on their products, resources,
and consumer characteristics.
We develop our propositions by drawing on the construal-level theory, literature
on consumer involvement, and the resource-based perspective. Enabled by contem-
porary technology and marketing analytics, we argue that hypotheses could be fur-
ther developed from our propositions and could be tested using real-time behavioral
data pulled from third-party platforms (such as amazon.com), data from comple-
mentary surveys, and interviews of sellers on these platforms.
Keywords Self-construal · Consumer involvement · Firm resources ·

Internet-enabled market · Marketing strategy

Preliminary Tests of the Consumer
Normalcy Scale: An Abstract
Alex H. Cohen, Jorge E. Fresneda, and Rolph E. Anderson
Abstract This study develops a scale based on the concept of “consumer nor-
malcy,” which is composed of four dimensions: (1) ability to participate in the mar-
ketplace, (2) demonstrating competence and control, (3) achieving distinction, and
(4) being perceived as an equal. This important new construct can be used as a tool
to more fully understand the experience of an individual who feels he or she has
been discriminated against in the marketplace based on demographic characteristics
such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation/preference, or disability. The scale is
tested in two large random samples using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, where one
sample shows how consumer normalcy is directly connected to avoidance of the
offending retailer and how this effect along with the scale’s measurement capabili-
ties are stronger in the demographic-based service failure condition. The Consumer
Normalcy Scale may provide a valuable tool for other scholars who may be inter-
ested in conducting research in areas of marketplace diversity and discrimination as
well. The diversity of the marketplace requires investigation of differential treat-
ment of consumers, along with the ramifications for firms who do not implement
appropriate policies to prevent the occurrence of such service failures. This scale
provides a view into the psychological mechanisms of how and why consumers feel
as though they have been discriminated against along with a prediction of subse-
quent anti-firm behaviors. Following the proven processes for scale development
has led to the achievement of favorable results in both validity and reliability con-
A. H. Cohen
West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA
e-mail: acohen2@wcupa.edu
J. E. Fresneda (*)
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
e-mail: fresneda@njit.edu
R. E. Anderson
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
e-mail: rolph.e.anderson@drexel.edu

188 A. H. Cohen et al.
siderations. This scale measures what it purports to measure and should be relied on
to provide valid and consistent results. These were preliminary tests, and further
exploration into the scale’s behavior in different populations is anticipated.
Keywords Discrimination · Service failures · Marketplace · Scale development

The Impact of Advertising Appeals
on Consumers’ Perception
of an Advertisement for a Technical
Product and the Moderating Roles
of Endorser Type and Endorser Age
Karina Skupin, Ardion Beldad, and Mark Tempelman
Abstract Companies market their products by employing various elements in their

advertisements. Previous studies have shown that the use of different types of endors-
ers (e.g., product experts, consumers) can result in different effects. At the same time,
the use of certain appeals (rational vs. emotional) in product advertisements also mat-
ters for customer outcomes. While the extent to which the effects of message appeal
depend on endorser type has received some research attention, the interaction between
message appeal and endorser’s age is not yet known. A 2 (message appeal: rational vs.
emotional) × 2 (endorser type: product expert vs. consumer) × 2 (endorser’s age: an
endorser in his 20s vs. an endorser in his 50s) experimental study with 270 German
consumers was implemented. MANOVA results indicate that only the message appeal
matters for consumer outcomes such as message credibility, product attitude, and pur-
chase intention. The hypothesized main effects for endorser type on the dependent
variables are not empirically supported. Furthermore, the interaction effects for mes-
sage appeal and endorser types are also not statistically significant.
Keywords Product endorsement · Endorser type · Message appeal · Endorser’s

age · Endorser–message congruence · Message credibility · Advertisement attitude
Introduction
A common way for a brand to stand out of a crowded and competitive market and
to connect with consumers is to use endorsements in advertisements. The use of
testimonials and endorsers as part of an advertising strategy gained popularity in
K. Skupin · A. Beldad (*) · M. Tempelman

University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
e-mail: k.skupin@student.utwente.nl; a.d.beldad@utwente.nl; m.h.tempelman@utwente.nl

190 K. Skupin et al.
an era when people are highly connected with one another through various social
media channels. Depending on the type of product being endorsed, a typical
endorser could be an individual with specialized or expert knowledge about a
product or a celebrity strongly affiliated with the endorsed product and with a
wide sphere of influence (Biswas et al. 2006). Using consumers as product
endorsers, however, are also becoming commonplace, especially now that con-
sumers have easy access to online platforms, which allow them to publicize their
feelings about and experiences with a product. A consumer endorsement, often in
the form of reviews, is crucial for other consumers’ purchase decisions (Chen and
Xie 2008).
The impact of various endorsers’ types on outcomes such as brand attitude
depends on various factors such as the attractiveness and the expertise of an endorser
(Till and Busler 1998). Congruence between the type of product being endorsed and
the type of endorser is also reported to be critical for perceptions of endorser cred-
ibility, which subsequently impact brand and advertisement attitude (Siemens et al.
2008). How a message is framed and how it sounds could also amplify or reduce the
impact of an endorser type, as prior assumptions about the characteristics of an
endorser shape expectations of how that endorser must convey his message. For
instance, as Beldad et al. (2017) noted, endorsers regarded as experts and knowl-
edgeable about a product are expected to relay messages with objective and factual
information.
Nonetheless, what remains understudied are the potential effects of endorsers’
demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender; Huber et al. 2013) on relevant cus-
tomers’ outcomes. The role of an endorser’s age is especially interesting in relation
to expertise, as knowledge and competence are often linked to a person’s age
(Bristol 1996). Furthermore, the literature on endorser effects remains silent on how
an endorser from a certain age category should frame his message, specifically in
terms of its tone. The study described in this paper, then, aims at addressing the fol-
lowing research questions:
1. To what extent do the effects of advertising appeal (rational vs. emotional) on (a)
message credibility, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d), word-of-
mouth intention, and (e) purchase intention depends on the type of the product
endorser (expert vs. consumer)?
2. To what extent do the effects of advertising appeal (rational vs. emotional) (a)
message credibility, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d), word-of-
mouth intention, and (e) purchase intention depend on the product endors-
er’s age?
To address the proposed research questions and to test the hypotheses that
emerged from those questions, a 2 × 2 × 2 full factorial between-subjects experi-
mental design was implemented with 270 German consumers.
The Impact of Advertising Appeals on Consumers’ Perception of an Advertisement… 191
Theoretical Framework
The Impact of Advertisement Message Appeal
Research into message appeals clearly distinguished a rational message appeal from
an emotional message appeal. When advertisers design an advertisement that aims
at informing consumers about the product by presenting product-related facts and
information, a rational appeal is used (Rosselli et al. 1995). Rational appeal in prod-
uct advertising could emphasize product features, practical details, and verifiable
and factually relevant cues that could be useful for a message recipient when evalu-
ating the advertised product (Littlejohn and Foss 2010).
Advertisers can also make use of the emotional appeal, which, in contrast to the
rational appeal, focuses more on evoking affective responses such as positive emo-
tions about the product from consumers (Edwards 1990) than inciting receivers to
think about the product’s objective attributes (Littlejohn and Foss 2010). These
positive emotional appeals can include love, humor, pride or joy (Kotler and
Armstrong 1994). By using an emotional appeal in an advertisement, the message
is supposed to arouse a positive feeling about the product (Albers-Miller and
Stafford 1999).
Empirical evidence about the effectiveness of message appeals shows that, in
general, advertising messages are perceived as more credible when a sincere and
rational argumentation about the advantages of the product is presented (Chandy
et al. 2001). With its emphasis on objective product-related information, a rational
appeal can increase consumers’ attention and lead to a more favorable attitude
towards the product and the advertisement (Aaker and Norris 1982). Furthermore,
results of a research into appeals in advertisements show that a rational appeal
results in a more positive attitude towards an advertisement than an emotional
appeal (Stafford and Day 1995). Based on these points, the first research hypothesis
is proposed:
Hypothesis 1 An advertisement with a rational message results in higher levels of

(a) message credibility, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d) word-of-
mouth intention, and (e) purchase intention when compared to an advertisement
with an emotional message.
The Impact of Advertisement Endorser Type
Endorsers are used to draw attention to the advertisement or product and they are
able to increase a consumer’s interest in the product based on their recommendation
(Feick and Higie 1992; Erdogan 1999; Pornpitakpan 2004). The effectiveness of
endorsement marketing depends on two factors, namely the type of endorser
(Freiden 1984) and the type of product (Friedman and Friedman 1979). Giving the
context for this experiment—the endorsement of a technical product (a mobile

phone)—the use of a specific endorser type is crucial, given that a match between
the type of endorser and the type of product being endorsed is known to result in
positive outcomes (Kamins and Gupta 1994).
While the impact of using celebrities as endorsers is widely studied, the com-
parative effects of noncelebrities—product experts and product consumers—are not
fully understood. Insights into the effects of these two types of noncelebrity endors-
ers matter since companies are increasingly using both to endorse their products.
Consumer endorsements in advertisements are deemed an efficient way of advertis-
ing, especially if the endorsements are based on product use testimonial and product
experiences (Lee et al. 2006).
Nonetheless, endorsements that use product experts are deemed to be more persua-
sive compared to endorsements with nonexperts, as experts are regarded more reliable
than nonexperts (Clark et al. 2012). Moreover, Maddux and Rogers (1980) underscore
that the level of advertisement believability increases when expert endorsers are
employed due to their perceived credibility. Given the nature of the product used for
the experiment, an expert endorser might, indeed, result in more positive outcomes
than a nonexpert endorser. Hence, the second research hypothesis is proposed.
Hypothesis 2 An advertisement with an expert endorser results in higher levels of

(a) message credibility, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d) word-of-
mouth intention, and (e) purchase intention when compared to an advertisement
with a nonexpert endorser.
I nteraction Between Advertisement Endorser Type

and Advertisement Message Appeal
The impact of a specific frame on consumers’ attitude and behavioral intention

might also depend on the characteristics of the individual employing a frame. For
instance, Beldad et al. (2017) posit that a person who has in-depth knowledge about
a specific product and its attributes might be predisposed to use an objective tone,
hence rational, when talking about the product; whereas, somebody who has limited
knowledge of a product and its functionalities might be less inclined to resort to a
rational frame when describing a product.
The assertions above, hence, suggest that when designing a product advertise-
ment that capitalizes on endorsements, it is not only the frame of endorsement that
matters but also the type of endorsement. An endorser could be an expert who
underscores the technical features of a product or a nonexpert or a consumer who
has previously used a product, and, hence, has some insights into the potential mer-
its and flaws of the product (De Pelsmacker et al. 2007).
Previous studies have shown that consumer-written reviews tend be perceived a
lot better than those provided by experts, as consumer reviews are regarded more
useful than expert reviews (Li et al. 2013). However, it has been noted that con-
sumer endorsements are only effective when the receiver of the endorsement can
identify with the endorser (Feick and Higie 1992). The two sets of research hypoth-
eses are predicated on the points highlighted in the discussion above.
Hypothesis 3 Congruence between advertisement endorser type and advertise-

ment message appeal matters, specifically as the use of a rational message by a
product expert (as an endorser) results in higher levels of (a) message credibility, (b)
advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d) word-of-mouth intention, and (e)
purchase intention when compared to the use of a rational message by a product
consumer (as an endorser).
Hypotheses 4 Congruence between advertisement endorser type and advertise-

ment message appeal matters, specifically as the use of an emotional message by a
product consumer (as an endorser) results in in higher levels of (a) message credibil-
ity, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d) word-of-mouth intention,
and (e) purchase intention when compared to the use of an emotional message by a
product expert (as an endorser).
The Moderating Role of Advertisement Endorser’s Age
When endorsers are perceived to have sufficient expertise and knowledge about a
product, they are perceived as credible (Belch and Belch 1995). According to Bristol
(1996), experience and knowledge are usually linked to age. Therefore, the more
advanced the age of a person is, the higher the levels of experience and knowledge
are expected from this person. This assumption is supported by Milliman and
Erffmeyer (1989–1990) who found that respondents evaluated older and middle-
aged endorsers to be more credible than younger endorsers. Another study also
reported than younger endorsers are perceived as less credible than their middle-
aged counterparts, just as advertisements with older endorsers were liked less than
their middle-aged counterparts (Bristol 1996).
However, in relation to smartphones, or IT related tasks, older people are pre-
judged to be slower in performance than younger people, because they usually have
less experience with the subject matter and less knowledge about technical products
(Czaja and Sharit 1993). When looking at the effect of an endorser’s expertise with
the product, therefore, the hypothesized impact might be moderated by the age of
the endorser, in such a way that a consumer endorser, despite not being an expert,
might still be perceived as a credible source just because that endorser belongs to an
age category that is stereotyped to have affinity with (and, hence, sufficient knowl-
edge about) a modern gadget. More importantly, the question on whether the effects
of a specific message appeal on relevant customers’ outcomes depend on the age of
the endorser has not yet sufficiently addressed. Hence, the research question below
is proposed.
Endorser Type
(Product Expert
vs Customer)
Message Credibility
Advertisement Attitude
Advertisement Message
Appeal Product Attitude
(Rational vs Emotional)
Word-of-Mouth Intention
Purchase Intention
Endorser’s Age
Fig. 1 Proposed relationship among the research variables and research constructs
Research question To what extent do the effects of advertisement endorser type

(expert vs. nonexpert) and message appeal (rational vs. emotional) on (a) message
credibility, (b) advertisement attitude, (c) product attitude, (d) word-of-mouth inten-
tion, and (e) purchase intention depend on the age of the endorser?
Figure 1 presents the hypothesized relationships among the variables and the
constructs for the study.
Methodology
For this study, a 2 × 2 × 2 full factorial between-subjects experimental design was

implemented to test the research hypotheses and the research question pertaining to
the interaction between message appeal and endorser’s age. To measure the five
dependent variables a questionnaire was designed. The dependent variables for this
study included message credibility, advertisement attitude, product attitude, pur-
chase intention, and word-of-mouth intention.
The independent variables of this study were message appeal (rational vs. emo-
tional), endorser type (expert vs. nonexpert), and endorser age (an endorser in his
20s vs. an endorser in his 50s). To test the effects of the independent variables on the
dependent variables, eight versions of an advertisement for a gadget were created.
A preliminary study was conducted to identify the most appropriate technical
product for the main study. This was done by listing 10 technical products, which
were presented to the participants who subsequently ranked them according to
their technical features. The participants were asked to rank the products on a
7-point Likert-type scale from (1) nontechnical to (7) technical. Results of this
study indicated that a smart phone was considered the most technical (compared to
a printer and a headphone, for instance) and was, therefore, selected as the product
that should be endorsed in the experimental material. The use of a technical prod-
uct as an experimental context is based on the finding that endorser type–message
appeal congruence is relevant for the aforementioned product type (Beldad
et al. 2017).
A second preliminary study was implemented to choose a profession for the
hypothetical expert endorser in the study. The aim of this preliminary test was to
identify a profession, which was associated with being knowledgeable about and
experienced with smartphones. In this preliminary test, participants were instructed
to rank a list of professions (e.g., software developer, IT support service employee,
consultant in a consumer electronics center) from (1) having the highest level of
expertise in relation to smartphones to (8) having the lowest level of expertise in
relation to smartphones.
A software developer was considered to have the highest level of expertise and
was selected as the profession for the expert endorser for the main study. After
determining the profession suitable for advertising a smartphone as an expert, a suit,
a button-down shirt, and a tie were chosen as the clothing for the person represent-
ing the software developer to further emphasize the status of being an expert. In the
advertisement, the endorser was clearly indicated as either a software developer or
a consumer.
Afterward, images of two male individuals from two age groups—one in the
20–35 age group and the other in the 45–60 age group—were selected to manipulate
the age variable.
For the rational appeal condition, the following line was used: “The CTE Neo
Plus with: 4.7” AMOLED Display, 18-megapixel camera, 4 K videography, 72 h
battery service life.” For the emotional appeal condition, these points were empha-
sized: “I recommend the CTE Neo Plus to everyone! It is way ahead of every other
smartphone. It’s the best on the market!”
Manipulation checks indicated that the three independent variables (appeal,
endorser type, and endorser age) were successfully manipulated.
A total of 270 German participants took part in the study. However, data from
seven respondents were excluded due to incomplete responses. Thus, data from 263
respondents were used for analysis. Approximately, 69% of the participants were
female and 31% were male. Respondents’ age ranged from 18 to 28 (M = 21.09,
SD = 2.56).
Results
A factorial MANOVA was conducted to compare the main effects of message

appeal, endorser type, and endorser age on message credibility, ad attitude, product
attitude, purchase intention, and word-of-mouth intention. Additionally, a
MANCOVA was conducted to examine whether or not the covariate product knowl-
edge has an effect on the results of message appeal.
Results show that message appeal has statistically significant effects (F(5,
250) = 35.29, p = 0.000, Wilk’s λ = 0.59) on all the dependent variables, with the
mean scores being higher for the rational appeal compared to the emotional appeal:
message credibility (Mrational = 2.85; Memotional = 1.61), advertisement attitude
(Mrational = 2.08; Memotional = 1.59), product attitude (Mrational = 2.78; Memotional = 1.94),
word-of-mouth intention (Mrational = 2.25; Memotional = 1.46), and purchase intention
(Mrational = 2.02; Memotional = 1.50). Hence, hypotheses 1a–1e are supported.
However, when looking at the main effect of endorser type, analysis reveals that
the variable has no statistically significant main effects (F(5, 250) = 1.39, p = 0.23,
Wilk’s λ = 0.97) on all dependent variables. Therefore, hypotheses 2a–2e are not
supported.
Interaction effects for message appeal and endorser type on the dependent vari-
ables are also statistically insignificant (F(5, 250) = 0.93, p = 0.47, Wilk’s λ = 0.98).
Therefore, the last two sets of research hypotheses (3a–3e, 4a–4e) are also not sup-
ported. MANOVA results also show that the effects of message appeal on the five
dependent variables are not moderated by an endorser’s age, as the proposed inter-
action effects between the two variables are not statistically significant (F(5,
250) = 0.43, p = 0.83, Wilk’s λ = 0.99).
Despite not having a set of hypotheses for the interaction between endorser type
and endorser’s age, we also checked for possible moderation effects for either of the
two variables. Analyses show that such an interaction does not exist (F(5,
250) = 0.48, p = 0.79, Wilk’s λ = 0.99). Moreover, despite not having any hypothesis
for the main effect of endorser’s age, we also tested whether such an effect exists.
Results show that an endorser’s age does not statistically (F(5, 250) = 0.99, p = 0.42,
Wilk’s λ = 0.98) influence the previously mentioned consumers outcomes.
Implications
Although, the findings of this study do not suggest distinct differences for the effects
of endorser type and endorser age, it can still provide insights into the effects of
message appeal. An interesting but possibly unsurprising finding of this study is that
a rational message appeal is more effective in influencing consumers’ attitudes and

behavioral intentions than an emotional message appeal, especially when used to
endorse a technical product.
A practical implication for advertisers, then, is that a rational message is essen-
tial when marketing a technical product. Facts and technical information about the
product are needed for consumers to evaluate the product. Moreover, a message
concerning a technical product that is intended to be perceived as credible, needs to
be rational. A subjective statement from an endorser, therefore, is not the right
choice when promoting a technical product.
Given the absence of statistical significance for the interaction effects between
endorser type and message appeal, advertisers do not have to worry that much about
achieving a certain degree of congruence between endorser type and message
appeal. Although this particular result counters findings of previous studies (e.g.,
Beldad et al. 2017), it is highly likely that the (German) respondents’ individualist
mindset might have triggered them to treat the endorser and the endorsement as two
distinct pieces of information and this individualistic worldview might have also
caused them to be less sensitive to endorser–message fit considerations (Kwon et al.
2015). It should be noted that experimental participants in the study by Beldad et al.
(2017) belonged to a highly collectivistic group (Indonesians), and those partici-
pants regard the congruence between endorser type–message appeal important.
Furthermore, the choice of a younger or older endorser, as well as an expert or
nonexpert endorser, may not be essential when reaching customers. For advertisers,
it is most important to choose the right framing of the message, instead of focusing
on an endorser’s demographic characteristics. As long as the message is rational,
advertisers can apparently use any endorser, regardless of their level of product
expertise and age.
Results of the study described in this paper also have interesting research-related
implications. First, the study’s focus on a technical product makes it impossible to
compare the effects of two message appeals, especially when they are used for
endorsing a nontechnical product. Future research, hence, should consider using
two types of products (e.g., hedonic vs. utilitarian) to have a more nuance view on
the appropriateness of a specific message appeal when product type is considered as
a condition.
Second, as the data used for analyses were collected from individuals coming
from a culture (German) that is described as highly individualistic and relatively
low in power distance (Hofstede 2001), the research results might be partly explain-
able by the characteristics of research respondents. For instance, the age of the
endorser did not matter at all could be due to respondents’ cultural orientations. An
endorser’s age might have a prominent role among respondents from cultures in
which the power distance index is relatively high.
Third, the straightforward nature of the research model might have overlooked
underlying processes undergirding the effects (or the lack thereof) of variables such
as endorser type. One can only assume whether consumers’ level of identification
with a specific endorser might intensify the impact of endorser type on customer
outcomes such as message credibility and advertisement attitude.
Fourth, as the endorsers used for the experimental materials were both men, the
potential role of an endorser’s gender in the relationship between level of product
expertise, message appeal, and customer outcomes (e.g., message credibility, pro-
duce attitude) could not be discerned. One can only speculate that the impact of a
specific message appeal might depend on the gender of the messenger. Does a ratio-
nal appeal work better when used by a male endorser? Are female endorsers
expected to resort to an emotional appeal when endorsing a product? Or perhaps the
impact of a message appeal is not entirely predicated on an endorser’s gender?
These questions still merit adequate answers.
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Online Versus Face-to-Face: How
Customer-to-Customer Interactions
Impact Customer Experience Behaviors:
An Abstract
Hulda G. Black and Matt Lastner
Abstract Service dominant logic (SDL; e.g., Vargo and Lusch 2004, 2008) and
customer engagement research (e.g., Hollebeek et al. 2016) over the past two
decades have led to an increased focus on the customer experience journey and its
subsequent challenges (e.g., Lemon and Verhoef). Given the increasingly connected
world, organizations must now try to manage multiple touchpoints in the customer
experience journey; one of these touchpoints being customers interactions with
other customers. While customer-to-customer interactions can present a challenge
to organizations, this research seeks to find the opportunity in these connections.
Specifically, this research will examine how both online and face-to-face customer-
to-customer interactions impact customer engagement behaviors, as well as objec-
tive organizational outcomes (e.g., actual purchases in a retail establishment). The
present research seeks to examine how different levels/types of customer-to-
customer interactions impact the customer experience (customer engagement
behaviors (CEBs; Hollebeek et al 2016)) as well as organizational outcomes.
Specifically, this research will look at two different partner-owned customer touch-
points and their impact on the customer experience. These include: (1) Online
customer-to-customer connections (e.g., F.B. group tied to the retail establishment,
partner-owned touchpoint) and (2) Face-to-face customer-to-customer connections
(e.g., group of customers formed by the establishment, partner-owned touchpoint).
Keywords Customer engagement · Service dominant logic · Customer-to-

customer · Customer experience
H. G. Black (*) · M. Lastner

e-mail: hblack@ilstu.edu; mmlastn@ilstu.edu

The Effect of Fear, Threat, and Trust
Among Voters in the 2016 U.S. Presidential
Election: An Abstract
Boonghee Yoo, Shawn T. Thelen, and Jessica Feinstein
Abstract The 2016 United States’ presidential election has been deemed “An
Election like No Other” and could be characterized as the ultimate insider, Clinton,
versus the ultimate outsider, Trump. This research, utilizing data (n = 375 likely
voters) collected one week prior to the presidential election, finds that the brand
image of a presidential candidate is formed through the dynamics of threat/fear and
political trust. Trump tapped into a general belief that people do not trust the gov-
ernment, and the government is not working for them. He stated that government
was broken and that he was the person who could fix it. The lack of a relationship
between trust in the government and evaluation of Clinton as a candidate means that
she was unable to establish a relationship between all the good government does for
people and support for her candidacy. Trump avoided any negative feelings of polit-
ical cynicism, which can be attributed to his “outsider” status in the minds of voters.
He also understood the level of political cynicism in the country would be directed
toward an experienced politician. It was found that voters’ levels of nostalgia, belief
in equal rights for immigrants, free-trade resentment, and concerns over their finan-
cial future impacted their view of the political system. While voters’ trust in govern-
ment and political cynicism impacted their perception of the image of the candidates,
the opinion that immigration harms/benefits the country proved to be a significant
and direct factor in evaluating the candidates.
The 2020 presidential election of the United States is approaching. Based on our
research findings, we predict whether Trump, incumbent president, will be reelected
depending on three factors. First, how much of the 2016 election issues remains
intact toward the election? If still intact, they could be recycled for the incoming
election. Second, how do voters view Trump? Is he a Washington insider or yet an
outsider after serving one term? Surprisingly, Trump is still called a president like
no other previous president. Third, have new issues appeared since Trump took the
B. Yoo · S. T. Thelen (*) · J. Feinstein

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA
e-mail: mktbzy@hofstra.edu; mktstt@hofstra.edu; Jfeinstein1@pride.hofstra.edu

204 B. Yoo et al.
White House? Especially, the trade tensions with China and nuclear threats from
North Korea have recently intensified—what is their impact on the 2020 election.
Future studies need to expand this research by examining the added issues facing
presidential candidates in the upcoming election.
Keywords Political marketing · Immigration · Political cynicism · Trump ·

Clinton · 2016 Presidential election · Nostalgia

Towards a Model of Inclusive Ethnic
Advertising: An Abstract
Tana Cristina Licsandru and Charles Chi Cui
Abstract Recent years have seen an unpreceded development in ethnic marketing

communications, with global and local brands attempting to reach the ethnic con-
sumer segments with tailored messages. Research shows that ethnic marketing
communications may act as a double-edged sword – they may enhance individuals’
positive feelings towards the brand (Appiah and Liu 2009) or, on the contrary, may
trigger feelings of exclusion and exoticization (Schroeder and Borgerson 2005).
The current study aims to address this inconsistency in the extant literature by inves-
tigating the impact of mono- and multi-ethnic advertising on ethnic consumers’ felt
social inclusion in the broader society. Studying this is important because inclusive
ethnic marketing campaigns contribute to ‘the increased visibility, social reality,
and normative ethic of multicultural integration’ (Peñaloza 2017, p. 277) and are
47% more likely to be effective and to generate positive engagement (Campaign
2018). This abstract presents the results of a 2 × 2 experiment, which examines the
effect of mono- and multi-ethnic advertisements with ethnically congruent or neu-
tral products on targeted ethnic consumers’ ad-triggered social inclusion, attitudes
towards the ad and purchase intentions. We define ethnic consumers’ ad-triggered
social inclusion (hereinafter referred to as SIad) as an ethnic individual’s momentary
feeling of acceptance, equality, empowerment and respect in the host society, trig-
gered by his/her exposure to ethnic advertising. This definition is rooted in the con-
ceptualization of subjective social inclusion (SSI) proposed in the extant literature
(Licsandru and Cui 2018), and our original qualitative research conducted with a
sample of 23 ethnic individuals. Drawing on the common in-group identity model
(Gaertner et al. 1993) and the intergroup contact hypothesis (Allport 1954), this
study shows that multi-ethnic advertisements arouse higher level of ad-triggered
social inclusion than mono-ethnic advertisements (F(1,103) = 6.40, p < 0.05,
ηp2 = 0.059). Results show that ad-triggered social inclusion leads to more positive
T. C. Licsandru
Newcastle University, London, UK
e-mail: tana.licsandru@newcastle.ac.uk
C. C. Cui (*)
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
e-mail: charles.cui@northumbria.ac.uk

206 T. C. Licsandru and C. C. Cui
attitudes towards the ad, supporting SIad’s important role in the ethnic advertising
effectiveness. Moreover, ad-triggered social inclusion impacts ethnic consumers’
intentions to purchase the advertised product via their positive attitudes towards the
ad (full mediation). The results challenge the self-congruity theory (McGuire et al.
1978) in that higher levels of ethnic congruence (either through ethnically congru-
ent products or mono-ethnically targeted ads) does not trigger more positive
response by ethnic consumers. On the contrary, higher levels of diversity are better
received. Overall, this research makes an important practical and theoretical contri-
bution, by clarifying the difference between mono- and multi-ethnic marketing
communications and the mechanisms through which they impact the targeted ethnic
consumers’ response, advancing previous findings focused on inclusive market-
places (Thomas 2013) and inclusive spaces (Saatcioglu and Ozanne 2013), towards
a model of inclusive ethnic advertising.
Keywords Inclusive marketing · Ethnic marketing · Ethnic advertising ·

Social inclusion

Customer Engagement with Augmented
Reality Mobile Apps: An Abstract
Graeme McLean and Alan Wilson
Abstract Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a new technology available to

retailers to engage with customers in a novel and vivid way (Yim et al. 2017). While
AR is in its infancy in terms of its application in consumer markets, spending on the
technology is expected to reach $60 billion by 2020 (Porter and Heppelmann 2017).
Augmented reality aims to link the real world with the virtual world (Rauschnabel
et al. 2015). Azuma (1997) asserts that augmented reality integrates computer-
generated objects with the real world and provides individuals with real-time inter-
actions. For a long time, AR has been hindered by large and cumbersome devices
(Rese et al. 2017). However, with the adoption of the ubiquitous smartphone, devel-
opers, retailers and consumers’ interest in augmented reality has significantly
grown, as many retailers are now implementing augmented reality features into
their mobile applications (Dacko 2017).
Pantano (2014) highlights the potential of augmented reality in engaging cus-
tomers and influencing their purchase intentions. AR’s ability to overlay the physi-
cal environment with virtual elements, including information and images, which
can interact with the physical environment during real-time, offers firms new pos-
sibilities in delivering content to consumers. In turn, the functions available through
augmented reality have the potential to change a number of consumer activities,
including product trials, virtual try on and information search and acquisition
(Javornik 2016).
Drawing upon Javornik’s (2016) augmented reality research agenda, as well as
Rese et al. (2017), Kim and Hyun (2016) and Yim et al. (2017) research on the adop-
tion of AR mobile apps, the aim of this research is twofold. First, to explore the
variables that influence customer engagement with augmented reality features on
mobile applications, and second, to assess the influence of such augmented reality
brand engagement on satisfaction with the customer experience and brand
usage intent.
G. McLean (*) · A. Wilson

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
e-mail: graeme.mclean@strath.ac.uk; alan.wilson@strath.ac.uk

208 G. McLean and A. Wilson
In the form of an online questionnaire, data were gathered from 474 consumers
who had used the augmented reality features on the IKEA Place app, which is
downloadable from the Play Store on the android platform and the App Store on the
IOS platform. Respondents had downloaded and retained the app for at least one
month and used the augmented reality feature more than once. A model of hypoth-
esised relationships was examined with the use of structural equation modelling to
identify the influence of AR and technology attributes on consumer brand engage-
ment and subsequent outcomes of satisfaction with the experience and brand usage
intention.
Keywords Augmented reality · Mobile apps · Brand engagement ·

Customer experience

How Organizations can Capitalize
on Customer-Caused Failures: An Abstract
Vincent Jeseo, Matthew M. Lastner, Patrick Fennell,

and Judith Anne Garretson Folse
Abstract Prior research has shown that attributional judgments about the cause of
a service failure are linked to post-consumption activities and intentions (Richins
1983). Specifically, these judgments are related to opinions about redress. Consumers
feel more deserving of compensation when a failure is attributed to an external (vs.
internal) cause (Folkes 1984). This phenomenon has been fairly well established in
the literature, yet several unanswered questions remain. First, how do service recov-
ery outcomes differ when a firm steps up and corrects a service failure that was
caused by the customer versus failures perpetrated by service providers? Does this
change the mindset of the consumer? Can goodwill and future value be obtained by
the service organization if it amends an issue it did not cause? Ample research has
been conducted regarding service recovery strategies for firm-based failures (exter-
nal attributions), but little has been done to answer questions relating to customer’s
self-failures (internal attributions).
Our first study illustrates that consumers respond more negatively to failures
attributed to external versus internal (self-inflicted) causes. Our second study shows
that while customers tend to react in a more positive manner (i.e., higher repatron-
age intentions) to self-caused failures, these reactions can be further amplified. The
results demonstrate that accommodating guests who showed up to a concert on the
wrong day led to higher distributive justice perceptions and repatronage intentions
(RPI) compared to those who were not accommodated. Moreover, the amount of
effort exerted during the service recovery process was found to be an important fac-
tor when the service provider was not able to offer a sufficient resolution to the
problem. Findings indicate that when not accommodated, consumers who felt a
V. Jeseo (*) · J. A. G. Folse

e-mail: vjeseo1@lsu.edu; folse@lsu.edu
M. M. Lastner
e-mail: mmlastn@illinoisState.edu
P. Fennell
Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, USA
e-mail: pbfennell@salisbury.edu

210 V. Jeseo et al.
high level of effort was provided during service recovery had greater distributive
justice perceptions and were more likely to repatronize in the future compared to
when minimal effort was exerted. Thus, practitioners should note that even when an
organization cannot resolve a customer-caused failure, a high amount of perceived
effort significantly enhances customer retention.
Keywords Service failure · Service recovery · Customer-caused failure ·

Attribution theory · Equity theory · Expectancy theory · Repatronage intention

Self-Gift, Luxury Consumption,
and Materialism: The Way to Happiness!
An Abstract
Chiraz Aouina-Mejri, Judith Partouche, and Tingting Mo
Abstract As an “object of desire,” luxury brands provide their own “prominence”

to signal conspicuousness and status (Han et al. 2010). Lipovetsky (2007) has
described postmodern luxury as “emotional luxury,” which suggests that, besides
the traditional desire of social distinction, postmodern luxury consumption also
involves significant personal and experiential elements and self-directed motives
such as materialistic motive and self-gifting intention (Wiedmann et al. 2007).
Materialism is considered to be associated with luxury consumption and has been
identified as an individual driver of luxury consumption in previous research
(Wiedmann et al. 2009).
Self-gift giving is regarded as a means of personal self-communication and
indulgence (Mick and Demoss 1990). Consumers can buy luxury goods as a gift to
themselves for self-serving purpose; therefore, self-gift giving is conceptualized as
an antecedent of personal orientation toward luxury brand consumption (Tsai 2005)
and has been empirically identified as an individual motive of luxury consumption
(Wiedmann et al. 2009). This research suggests testing a model that allows under-
standing links between materialism, self-gift, and luxury consumption.
A quantitative study has been conducted among 303 French volunteers. The
macro process (Hayes 2012) has been used in order to test the mediation role of
self-gift giving on the effect of materialism on luxury product purchase intention.
Results show that materialistic “success” has a direct significant positive effect
on luxury purchase intention and an indirect positive one through self-gift mood
reinforcement and through self-gift reward (p < 0.05). Success related to materialis-
tic goods is a determinant of luxury purchase intention mainly because it arouses a
self-gift motivation oriented to the enhancement of positive emotions. Moreover,
centrality has a direct significant positive effect on luxury purchase intention and an
C. Aouina-Mejri (*) · J. Partouche

PSB Paris School of Business, Paris, France
e-mail: c.aouinamejri@psbedu.paris; j.partouche@psbedu.paris
T. Mo
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China
e-mail: tingting.mo@zuel.edu.cn

212 C. Aouina-Mejri et al.
indirect positive one through self-gift mood reinforcement and through self-gift
reward (p < 0.05). The more materialistic goods are central for an individual, the
more luxury purchase intention is high, mainly because it arouses a self-gift motiva-
tion oriented toward the enhancement of positive emotions. Hence, happiness is a
determinant of luxury purchase intention only when it arouses a self-gift motivation
oriented toward the enhancement of positive emotions. These results may help
advertiser to better communicate on luxury products, mainly when putting these
products in a self-gift context.
Keywords Luxury consumption · Materialism · Self-gift · Happiness

Why do Consumers Procrastinate
and What Happens Next? An Abstract
Shabnam Zanjani, George Milne, and Deepa Pillai
Abstract In an intensely competitive environment, a high level of price uncertainty

can challenge and confuse consumers. This paper focuses on an important phenom-
enon resulting from frequent deep price changes—consumer procrastination, which
is defined as the decision to wait rather than make an actual purchase when one
recognizes a need for purchase. Consumer procrastination has received little atten-
tion among marketing scholars, resulting in a lack of understanding of its anteced-
ents and consequences. Through two empirical studies, we extend findings from
psychology and decision making to examine the market versus personality-related
factors that lead to consumer procrastination and post-decision cognitions, emo-
tions, and behaviors that result from consumer procrastination.
The purpose of Study 1 is to create a psychological theory of procrastination to
explain why consumers procrastinate under uncertain shopping decision conditions.
We used a scenario-based experiment with a 2 (price uncertainty: low vs. high) × 2
(time limit: 2 weeks vs. 6 months) between-subjects factorial design. Established
scales were used to measure potential dispositional predictors of consumer procras-
tination as covariates: trait procrastination, price consciousness, sale proneness, and
prestige seeking. The results showed that time limit, price uncertainty, price con-
sciousness, sale proneness, and prestige seeking positively influence consumer
delay in making purchase decisions, and the positive impact of uncertainty is only
salient when people have short time limits rather than long ones.
Study 2 focuses on the negative outcomes of consumer decisions when retail
prices change. This study compares consumers’ cognitive, emotional, and behav-
ioral reactions to their undesirable actions versus undesirable inactions in retail sale
S. Zanjani (*)
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
e-mail: szanjani@luc.edu
G. Milne
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
e-mail: milne@isenberg.umass.edu
D. Pillai
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL, USA
e-mail: d-pillai@neiu.edu

214 S. Zanjani et al.
context. The hypotheses were tested using an experiment in a 2 (outcome knowl-

edge: larger future sale vs. no future sale) × 2 (decision: purchase vs. not purchase)
between-subjects factorial design. To control for a potential effect of price and type
of product, a hedonic low-price product (i.e., a shirt) versus a utilitarian high-price
product (i.e., a laptop) was used as an additional between-subjects factor. The
dependent variables of regret, anger, and complaint intention were measured using
established scales. This study extends and challenges past research regarding the
emotional outcomes of action versus inaction. Although past research has found that
negative outcomes resulting from actions are stronger than the outcomes resulting
from inactions, we found the opposite to be true for the effects on regret and found
no significant difference for anger.
Keywords Consumer procrastination · Decision delay · Price uncertainty ·

Post-purchase behavior

Food Acculturation of Professional
Expatriates: A Cross-Cultural Study:
An Abstract
Raficka Hellal-Guendouzi and Sihem Dekhili
Abstract Globalization, technological advances, and transport development have

largely contributed to the increase in the flow of goods and services but also of
people (Appadurai 1990). This leads to the inevitable consequence that millions of
consumers are exposed to multiple cultural environments and contacts. Among
those consumers, we can mention the category of high-skilled professional expatri-
ates with high purchasing power (HSBC Expat Explorer Survey 2008). When peo-
ple of different cultures come into contact, we observe the phenomenon of
“acculturation.” In this context of increased mobility, it seems to us very interesting
to study the process of food acculturation and consumption of very mobile consum-
ers like the professional expatriates.
The aim of our study is to explore the food acculturation among expatriates
under a dynamic lens. First, by analyzing the influence of transnational cultures
competing in the food acculturation process of expatriates settled in a new cultural
environment beyond the dualistic home versus host culture’ influences; second, by
studying the accumulative effects of previous acculturation experiences and cultural
contacts over time on food consumption behavior of expatriates; and third, by
exploring the food acculturation process with the different stages of food accultura-
tion experienced by expatriates in their new cultural environment. We conducted a
qualitative exploratory approach with the life narrative method. We interviewed 16
households (spouses and teenagers included) of American, British, and German
expatriates settled in the East area of France (Alsace) characterized by an important
international community of expatriates working in international companies. A con-
tent analysis was carried out identifying the most recurring and common themes
based on food acculturation process. We used the software NVivo10 to identify and
sort the different themes based on our research objectives.
Our study extended the existing acculturation models by adding different catego-
ries of transnational cultures competing in the acculturation process of expatriates.
We highlighted the influence of transnational cultures from previous acculturation
R. Hellal-Guendouzi (*) · S. Dekhili

University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
e-mail: raficka.guendouzi@unistra.fr; sihem.dekhili@unistra.fr

216 R. Hellal-Guendouzi and S. Dekhili
experiences and intensive travels abroad and from “proxy” acculturation experi-
ences. We also identified the influence of two foreign host subcultures in the host
country (Arabic and Turkish) in the process of food acculturation of expatriates
settled in France. Finally, we identified five different stages of food acculturation
among expatriates: the “honeymoon,” the “crisis,” the “resistance,” the “gradual
adaptation,” and the “in-depth adaptation” stages. Those stages vary from one cul-
tural group to the other based on the cultural distance, the length of stay in the host
country, and the family status.
Keywords Expatriates · Food consumption · Cultures · Acculturation ·

Acculturation stages

Terroir and its Evocation: What a Wine
Terroir of Origin Evokes? An Exploratory
Qualitative Study of the Meaning
of Terroir Product Consumption
Julien Couder and Pierre Valette-Florence
Abstract Wine perception and consumption are drastically changing in France,

before considered “as food,” wine is now considered “pleasure.” A wine choice is
strongly driven by the perception of its terroir of origin. Terroir has the ability to
carry symbolic meaning, expertise, authenticity, etc., which will infer on the wine’s
perception. Nevertheless, to market a product with its terroir of origin, practitioners
have to stay close to the image a customer has of this place. Otherwise, it could lead
to cognitive dissonance and strongly distort the way their product is perceived.
As wine consumption and consideration are evolving, it became important to
investigate how customers perceive a wine’s terroir of origin? To answer this ques-
tion, an innovative projective qualitative methodology, the album online, was used.
This research highlights the dimensions of wine’s terroir of origin perception, par-
ticularly, an enchantment dimension. It also confirms and details the structure of
wine terroir of origin image.
Keywords Wine · Terroir of origin · Consumption meaning · Regional product ·

Qualitative methodology
Introduction
Production location of product could have a significant impact on its evaluation by

consumers (Verlegh and Steenkamp 1999). Terroir, a subdivision of a country, rep-
resents a highly pertinent concept that combines a set of unique features, creates an
authenticity, and constitutes a strong differentiation asset, which is nearly impossi-
ble for the competitors to emulate (Iversen and Hem 2008). Currently, the terroir of
J. Couder (*) · P. Valette-Florence

C.E.R.A.G., Grenoble, France
e-mail: julien.couder@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr; pierre.valette-florence@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

218 J. Couder and P. Valette-Florence
origin (ToO) is not only fashionable but it also represents a wonderful opportunity
to market products (Charters and Spielmann 2014).
Nevertheless, branding a ToO is not an easy thing to do. Its success appears to rely
more on the imagination, the experience, and the tie between the place and the con-
summer they could create than on their actual performance (Charters et al. 2017). If
the marketing plan is to be innovative or to be pregnant, the authenticity link to the
ToO will be decreased by cognitive dissonance mechanisms (Fort and Fort 2006). The
solution is then to design marketing campaigns that stay consistent with the image the
customer has of the ToO to stimulate the perception of the ToO. Indeed, “the chal-
lenge for marketers is how to stimulate such a tie, or to encourage the possibility of a
flow experience with a product” (Charters et al. 2017: 30).
Wine consumption is drastically changing in France. For example, yearly con-
sumption diminished from 77.9 l per year per habitant to 52.7 l between 1995 and
2014 (OIV 2019). The consumption collapse comes with a change in the perception
related to wine. For ages, wine was considered “as food,” nowadays, wine is per-
ceived as “pleasure” (Lunardo and Guerinet 2007). This perception switch is illus-
trated by a decrease in volume sales but an increase in value (FranceAgriMer 2018).
Wine is rooted in its terroir, protected by its bottle. So the consumers don’t have
the opportunity to see it or taste it, and most of its intrinsic cues remain inaccessible.
ToO is one of the most important cue used to choose wine, according to Perrouty
et al. (2006). Consequently, customer choice is strongly driven by the wine’s place
of origin. Since a customer infers place of origin trait to the product, and imagina-
tion seems to be more pregnant than performance for terroir products, it becomes a
strong interest to understand precisely how French customer perceives a terroir and
its wine, especially when wine perception is evolving. Hence, this study investigates
how customers perceive a wine’s terroir of origin.
Rooted in the utilization of an innovative qualitative projective method, the
album online (A.O.L, Vernette 2007), this study investigates how the customer per-
ceives ToO related to wine. This brand new method allows researchers to investigate
representations associated with a given consumption experience. It combines the
advantages of individual in-depth approaches with the social interactions stemming
from the focus groups. The technique comprises using photographs available on
search engines, and the participants’ comments on these photos, which are then
submitted for evaluation by the rest of the group.
Understanding the ToO image will represent a strong theoretical and managerial
interest. First, most research directed to understand place of origin impact investi-
gate CoO, and fewer efforts have been made to investigate ToO and its particularity
(Charters et al. 2017). Moreover, the ToO image is still rather unclear. The dimen-
sions and their associations put in evidence could help practitioners to design in a
better way their wine perception, giving strong insight into market in a more effec-
tive way. At the same time, it offers reserchers a strong insight for future research,
investigating the impact of this different dimension on consumers’ behavior or con-
sumption. Finally, this study affines our knowledge of ToO image, especially it
shows an enchantment dimension, nondescribed in the literature. Thus, it represents
an advancement of theory.
Terroir and its Evocation… 219
Literature Review
Consumer Behavior and Wine
Wine purchasing is a very complex process for an average buyer. Indeed, 70% of
French customers find that choosing a wine is a difficult task (Korchia and Lacœuilhe
2006). Generally, the customer is overwhelmed by the diversity and the number of
references available. Indeed, the number of references of beer or whiskey does not
exceed 10 or 15 in a department store; it is usual in France to find hundreds of wine
references (Lecocq and Visser 2006). According to Heslop et al. (2010), wine com-
bines different characteristics that makes it a very special product:
–– There are huge intrabrand and interyear variations in wine (terroir product seems
to operate within a collective/territorial brand; Charters et al. 2017).
–– Wine is a highly experiential product.
–– There is an inability to access intrinsic characteristic during the preconsumption
phase (wine is sealed in a tinted bottle).
–– There is an uncertainty about the customer’s own capacity to evaluate the prod-
uct and its quality.
–– All the extrinsic quality cues are being communicated through the labels
(Lockshin and Corsi 2012).
As an experiential product, wine’s quality evaluation happens during consump-
tion (Charters and Pettigrew 2006). So its quality cannot be consistently predicted.
Thus, wine shopping could be considered as a “high information need—low infor-
mation provision” (Heslop et al. 2010: 288.). These different characteristics make
wine a very tricky product to purchase.
Under those conditions, it is known that consumers tend to surrogate measures of
quality with concepts such as price or place of production (Heslop et al. 2010). They
use accessible cues to infer nonobservable characteristic of the product (Huber and
McCann 1982). To do so, customers could use two kinds of informational cues:
intrinsic and extrinsic cues (Olson and Jacoby 1972). As an experiencial product,
consumers mostly use extrinsic cues to infer a wine’s quality (Bruwer and Johnson
2010). ToO is an extrinsic cue (Spielmann 2015).
Terroir as a Quality Cue
Wine appears as an archetype of ToO products. Indeed, wine generally fulfills the
three Fort and Fort (2006) criterion. As a terroir product, wine may have as its main
characteristics, a specific geographical place of grounding, and “specific representa-
tions in consumers’ minds related to history, culture, and know-how” (Lacoeuilhe
et al. 2017: 44).
Research linked to wine’s origin represents the most prolific research streams
linked to wine (Lockshin and Corsi 2012). Results of these research tend to show
that the region of origin is one of the most important, or the most important, cue
used by customers to make an opinion about wine (e.g., price and award, Perrouty
et al. 2006). Heslop et al. (2010): 291 go even further, “it is believed by many that
Terroir is an absolute […] determinant of wine taste and quality characteristics.” So
wine consumers infer their terroir perception on wine.
The Terroir of Origin
The definition of terroir used in this article is drawn from reference papers on the
topic; authors including Elaydi and McLaughlin (2012) and Charters et al. (2017)
consider terroir as a unique combination of a limited geographic space, defined by
a unicity in its biophysical composition and associated with a particular culture and
know-how. A terroir is also a symbol of a history, a particular culture associated
with the people who live there and what they craft, the philosophical terroir as
defined by Charters et al. (2017). So terroir could convey an iconicity related to
heritage and typicity to the product (Charters et al. 2017). Terroir also differs from
most places of origin used to market a product. Indeed, according to Fort and Fort
(2006), to be anchored in a terroir, a good must fulfill three criteria: Its raw material
must come from the specific terroir (required in the PDO); the recipe or the know-
how must be derived from the place; and the producer must have a history, a reputa-
tion of local figure. So a terroir product appears to be strongly associated with its
origin, its traditions, and its traditionnal know-how compared to “made-in” prod-
ucts (Charters et al. 2017). Through inferential mechanisms, customer uses ToO
image as a cue to determine inaccessible product features (Iversen and Hem 2008).
In this way, ToO image could impact customer product evaluation. As a produc-
tion place, and as “a combination of material and symbolic resources” (Lévy and
Lussault 2013: 910), ToO image is bidimensional (Iversen and Hem 2008) and
hence structures around two main orientations:
–– A cognitive one, rooted in the geographical location of the production. It repre-
sents the expertise of inhabitants, how climates fit with the production, etc. It is
possible to segment this dimension into two subdimensions. One represents how
many inhabitants are expert in the crafting of the product (Van Ittersum et al.
2003); another one “represents the natural and climatic suitability of a region for
making a product” (Van Ittersum et al. 2003: 218).
–– An affective one, referring to “the appraisal of the affective quality of feelings
towards the attributes and the surrounding environments” (Iversen and Hem
2008, p. 609). All this association could be the result of direct experience or an
indirect one (Verlegh and Steenkamp 1999).
Thus, ToO has the ability to carry symbolic meaning, crafting abilities, part of
history, and so on, which infer to the perception of the product. These inferences
will change the perception of the product, giving insights about its quality. For
example, Kupiec and Revell (1998) show that terroir product can transmit an arti-
sanal quality of the product, associated with a higher quality than an industrial prod-
uct. So a wine’s terroir of origin has a strong impact on consumer perception.
Nowadays, terroir evocations seem rather unclear. Thus, understanding the ToO
image is primordial to market products strongly rooted in ToO, especially when the
consumer perception of wine is changing.
Methodologies
A.O.L Method and Sample
Album online (A.O.L.) is a projective qualitative methodology first proposed by

Vernette (2007). It is based on an image selection and interpretation by respondents
combining the advantages of the Delphi method (Dalkey and Brown 1972), the
ZMET method (Zaltman 1997), and the work of Heisley and Levy (1991) on the
interpretation of images.
This methodology relies on four principles: “thoughts are primarily based on
images, most communications are non-verbal; metaphors are the base of thoughts
and metaphors are the key to access ‘hidden knowledge’” (Vernette 2007: 38). It
allows studying respondents’ mind map (Christensen and Olson 2002). Globally,
this method allows researchers to access the “hidden sense of consumption experi-
ence” Vernette (2007): 53. Indeed, it combines the advantages of in-depth semi-
directed interview and those linked to social interaction via its focus group. The
literature review indicated that ToO image is composed of an affective and a cogni-
tive dimension; hence, the methodology will be articulated around two conditions:
an affective one and a cognitive one.
Composed of three stages (Vernette 2007), this methodology is carried out as
follows: In the first stage, the respondent freely chooses a particular wine for him. It
could be a wine he is used to drinking or a wine that evokes particular feelings.
Then, he is primed according to the assigned condition (affective or cognitive).
Afterward, they were asked to remember or imagine an experience linked to this
particular wine. The respondents described this experience through five key words
and then chose images corresponding to these concepts on the web.
The second stage consists of the creation of a collective album, constituted of all
the images chosen in a single condition. Respondents are offered the opportunity to
adjust their image choice by selecting the images issued from the collective album
if they justify this change.
In the third and last step, researchers paired an image with the concepts described
in verbatim. Respondents are then asked to rate the accuracy of this matching, via a
6-point Likert-type scale. According to the improvements regarding the third step
recently proposed by Kessous et al. (2017), the overall ratings have been analyzed
by INDSCAL in order to get a orthogonal graphical representation of the associa-

tions between the images and the selected verbatim.
A 12-respondent sample chosen by convenience has been used (in accordance
with Vernette 2007). Aged between 21 and 55 years old, five participants are men,
seven women, and all are French citizens. They were directed through one of our
condition aleatory: six to the affective condition and six to the cognitive.
The resulting interpretations of the different conditions are displayed in Appendices

1 and 2. The results have been interpreted in line with Kessous et al. (2017). They
confirm the framework indicated by the literature review, with associations anchored
in the environment or inhabitant. It also confirms that these associations could be
directed through direct experience and symbolic one. The interpretations of the
affective conditions are displayed in Appendix 1 and Table 1. The RSQ value is the
squared correlation coefficient between the derived distances and the original data,
and it represents the variance accounted for in the solution. RSQ above 0.60 is con-
sidered as indicator of a good solution. The affective analysis explains 89% of the
total variance. These show a good analysis quality and legitimate a finer interpreta-
tion. The affective mapping is structured as follows:
–– A vertical axis, which delineates an opposition between association anchored in
the ToO and association anchored in self;
–– A horizontal axis, which delineates an opposition between symbolic significa-
tion and personal ones. This structure is coherent with Iversen and Hem
(2008) work.
These results show that wine evocations can be linked to direct experience (per-
sonal signification) or indirect ones (symbolic meaning). They are hence related to
wine’s ToO or more directly associated with wine consumption experience. A finer
analysis revealed five association clusters. Four of them are consistent with the lit-
erature. All of them show some particular interest.
–– Symbolic traditions anchored in ToO: This cluster anchored in the terroir is con-
stituted of symbols (in opposition to memories). It is characterized by references
to the landscape of French vineyards. This landscape is described as shaped by
traditions and the hard work of winemakers. This cluster brings together tradi-
tions (chocolate and typical houses) and the ToO environment (sun and lavender).
–– Wine culture, anchored in the ToO: This refers to a more personal signification.
The main difference between this cluster and symbolic tradition is the pregnancy
of personal memories related in the verbatim. However, these verbatims strongly
described the landscape of the ToO, shaped by local culture. As all verbatims
described personal memories of landscape shaped by human culture, this cluster
was designated as wine culture.
Table 1 Dimensions of ToO perception extracted from the affective condition

Main concepts
Association extracted from
clusters verbatim Selected examples of verbatim
Symbolic – Cultural traditions – Wine tradition: “wine evoked landscape, regions
traditions – Wine traditions characterized by vines […] This photo reminds us
anchored in – ToO memories that wine is a product of the land, that man has
ToO (association of worked, cultivated to create the taste, to share it, a
symbolic certain kind of traditions”
representations, – ToO memories: “I like Rhône valley wine, when I
thoughts) think about their terroir, I think about greens
landscape, provencal houses, lavender, apricots,
Valrhona chocolate, and sun”
Wine culture, -Landscape – Culture: “I went to Alsace when I was a child, I
-Producers
anchored in the -Culture Related to
personal
mostly remember typical houses […]. So when I
ToO memories drink Gewurztraminer […] I see this architecture,
storks, and pretzels that we cross everywhere in
Alsace. The wine contains a certain evocative
power in relation to its geographical origin and
becomes a vector of a certain imaginary
concerning a place”
Social – Friendliness – Friendliness: “Wine is, above all, a vector of
symbolic – Sharing friendship conviviality. A good bottle shared with friends or
dimension – Family family sacralize an occasion. […] From the sweet
transmission drunkenness of the family to the nasty New Year’s
– Family Eve, wine binds people and often reveals them.”
– Etc. – Family transmission: “The wine I chose, I
discovered with my father who offers me regularly
some. […] These associations with family make
my relationship with wine very personal”
Memories – Walks – Walks: “In this photo, I find the background of my
dimension – Shared childhood walks”
drunkenness – Nostalgia: “My wines moments […] remain good
– Nostalgia memories. […], I do not really know when will be
– Recklessness the last one that will look this way, but I hope she
– Etc. is less close than I think. in short, I would soon be
nostalgic”
Enchantment – Utopian place – Timelessness: “if the world changed permanently
dimension – Timelessness […] somethings never change […] wine go
– Art de vivre through the years”
– Etc. – Utopian place: “this photo symbolizes for me the
little paradise […] out of the world, out of time”
– Travel: “Wine transport us, make us travel, like
this car at the seaside”
–– A social symbolic dimension directed to the consumer self. It brings together

concepts such as friendliness, family, happiness, or sharing. It describes good
time spent drinking wine with relatives, the special sharing time it creates.
–– Memories. This cluster is related both to the terroir and to the consumer self. It is
strongly anchored in personal significance. Concepts evoked here range from
shared drunkenness (strongly anchored in customer self, describing their wine
experiment) to memories of childhood walk in the vineyards: “In this photo I find
the background of my childhood walks,” strongly anchored in the ToO.
–– The fifth cluster is not, as far as we know, described in the literature. It brings
together concept as art de Vivre, timelessness (“if the world changed perma-
nently […] somethings never change […] wine sustains through the years”),
utopian place (“this photo symbolizes for me the little paradise […] out of the
world, out of time”), travel (“Wine transports us, makes us travel, like this car at
the seaside”), etc. It seems hard to give a definitive interpretation of this cluster
based uniquely on this methodology, but it strongly resembles enchantment as
described by Aune (2002). Rather than being described as a rational concept, it
revealed a magic side of wine, a fairy side in wine consumption, a utopic dimen-
sion. Enchantment, as put forward by Moore (1996), led people to consider
imagination before information; it brings people an escape from reality.
Analysis of the cognitive conditions is displayed in Appendix 2 and Table 2. The
cognitive analysis explains 87% of the total variance, hence showing a good analy-
sis quality and legitimating a finer interpretation. The cognitive mapping is struc-
tured as follows:
–– A vertical axis, which delineates an opposition between association anchored in
the ToO and association tied to humans;
–– A horizontal axis, which delineates an opposition between symbolic significance
and personal ones. Once again, this structure is coherent with our literature
review but gives a new, more precise description of these associations.
A finer analysis revealed four association clusters: two of them are strongly
anchored in the ToO, memories of the ToO, and ToO knowledge; two other are
strongly anchored with individual dimensions: the human dimension and product
evocation.
–– ToO knowledge gathers concepts like tradition, authenticity, flavor diversity, or
taste authenticity, which symbolize the terroir in their opinion. Anchored in the
ToO environment, this cluster reassembles the different symbolic archetypes
inspired by the tangible dimension of the terroir.
–– ToO memories: This cluster gathers memories of terroir. The concepts evoked
here are mostly memories of what respondents felt when they were in the terroir
(serenity, peacefulness) or description of terroir countryside, a landscape shaped
by wine-making expertise or by the longtime history.
–– The human dimension refers to the human dimension of the terroir. In this clus-
ter, respondents refer to crafting expertise, courage and the beauty of work (“dif-
ficult work,” “terroir expertise,” and “beauty”). They also refer to more general
thoughts about terroir inhabitants and wine, with concepts like inequity or
heroism.
–– Product evocations: This cluster evoked mostly wine and did not seem highly
related to terroir. Here people described memories of wine experiences. It could
be sensory memories, like perfume or serenity, but also memories of the human
dimension of terroir with references to wine pairing, or sommelier’s work.
Table 2 Dimensions of ToO perception extracted from the cognitive dimension

Main concepts
Association extracted from
clusters verbatim Selected examples of verbatim
ToO – Tradition – Tradition: “imagine blond winegrowers wearing
knowledge – Authenticity traditional dress, dancing around barrels with vine
dimension – Flavor diversity leaves in the hair”
– Taste – Authenticity: “my idea of the history of this wine with
authenticity a village festive atmosphere dating from the Middle
Ages”
– Flavor diversity, cited by two respondents “full of joy
but for my part, I see the strength of a terroir ever more
greedy from year to year. It is powerful, it is true. No
artifice.” And “it reminds me of these beautiful
landscapes that can be found in many places in France,
and which symbolizes our culture of wine”
Memories of – ToO – ToO: “It makes me think of Solutrée rock and I
the ToO – Serenity imagine this kind of landscape when I drink this wine”
dimension – Winemaking – Serenity: “Green expanses. A calm country and
expertise vineyards as far as the eye can see”
– History – Prestige: “the upmarket but sober image that evoked to
– Countryside me by this wine”
– Prestige
– Peacefulness
Product – Perfume – Tasting: “the work of the sommelier when he tastes his
evocation – Wine wines to better sell”
dimension – Nature – Serenity: “Corresponds to serenity. […]. More a
– Tasting feeling than a real logic attach to wine. Perhaps this
– Serenity moment of calm and serenity comes at the moment of
– Wine pairing tasting”
– Wine pairing: “evoke what one can have as an
accompaniment (of wine)”
Human – Warmth – Difficult work: “Evokes the difficult work of these men
dimension – Difficult work who have confronted the climates and the diseases of
dimension – Beauty the vines”
– Heroism – Inequity: “Taken during the WW2, the wine flows
– ToO expertise afloat. The privilege of some, distress of others”
– Inequity – Warmth: “warmth, sharing moment”
These results display affectives concepts such as “feelings” in the cognitive

apping and cognitive concepts in the affective mapping. This may be due to an
m
interplay between affective and cognitive effect of place of origin (Verlegh and
Steenkamp 1999).
Conclusion
Based on an innovative qualitative exploratory method, this study increases our

knowledge about ToO perceptions, more particularly about the image the French
wine customer has about ToO related to wine. Achieved by the utilization of the
A.O.L. methodology, it contributes to show how rich and diverse are the associa-
tions aroused by this product. Customers perceive ToO in a cognitive and affective
way. These perceptions could be symbolic or more personal. A wine’s ToO also
inspires memories, tradition, and socialization.
By increasing our understanding of the affective image of ToO, this paper repre-
sents a strong theoretical interest. Studies related to CoO show that the effect of
place of production is not merely cognitive (Verlegh and Steenkamp 1999). Through
a strong affective, symbolic connotation, it shows an expressive function (Verlegh
and Steenkamp 1999), allowing individuals to express their self and social identity.
The affective impact of ToO image seems to bypass the cognitive one (Van Ittersum
et al. 2003); at least, it allows a customer to have better mental representations
(Verlegh and Steenkamp 1999). Finally, by highlighting the different associations
inspired by terroir, this study offers researchers the opportunity to investigate terroir
product consumption in a more accurate way. For example, a study based on these
results shows that the human dimension of terroir perception is strongly impacted
by the respondents’ wine involvement, while the environmental dimension seems
insensitive to the respondents’ involvement (Couder and Valette-Florence 2019).
This study highlights an enchantment dimension of ToO. Theorized by Aune
(2002), it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time this dimension is shown
empirically. This dimension could result from many factors; ToO, wine itself via its
experiential nature (Bruwer and Johnson 2010), or memories of wine consumption.
Further work is required to investigate it deeper. This study also contributes to a
better understanding of the affective dimension of ToO image. Moreover, this work
confirms the structure of ToO image. The results will help practitioners better under-
stand the perception of their product and design their campaign in a most coherent
way. By highlighting the associations linked to wine and its terroir of origin, it
provides strong insight to practitioners to advertise their wine in a way that increases
authenticity.
Only based on a qualitative methodology, this study presents some limitations. A
quantitative study is required to validate and rank these different dimensions.
Furthermore, a large part of associations put in evidence in this work are linked to
symbols. So, it would be interesting to duplicate this study in a different cultural
context. Finally, future research could be dedicated to adapt existing theory to ToO
particularity, like the service brand relationship quality (BRQ) model (Nyffenegger
et al. 2015), especially regarding its affective (Hot BRQ) and cognitive (Cold BRQ)
dimensions.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Affective Condition
Affective condition mapping
Appendix 2: Cognitive Condition
Cognitive condition mapping

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Social Media Sentiment, Customer
Satisfaction, and Stock Returns:
An Abstract
Amanda Strydom, Dimitri Kapelianis, and Itayi Mutsonziwa
Abstract Social media has become a popular platform for conversations about,
and with, companies and their brands. Increasingly, customers are using social
media platforms to express their experiences and emotions with an organization’s
products or services. Recently there has been interest in the role that social media
sentiment can play in predicting stock returns.
Social media sentiment data can, for example, reveal customer preferences, cus-
tomer satisfaction, and customer feedback on product ratings. In some cases, cus-
tomer satisfaction can lead to increased investor returns. Added to this, strong links
can be found in the literature between customer satisfaction levels and subsequent
stock price returns. Therefore, our study explores the predictive power of social
media sentiment on stock returns, using a logic where social media sentiment acts
as an early indicator of customer satisfaction.
We draw upon publically available data to test our hypotheses. We source our
customer satisfaction measure from the American Customer Satisfaction Index
(ACSI) for a 2-year window. The data for social media sentiment were scraped from
Twitter. Due to the qualitative nature of tweets, the data were transformed to quan-
titative data for analysis using sentiment dictionaries. Finally, for each of the firms
in our data set, we calculated daily stock returns for the 2-year observational window.
We find that global social media sentiment is positively associated with stock
returns. While financial sentiment performs even better than global sentiment in
predicting returns, customer sentiment does not predict returns. Further, we find no
relationship between social media sentiment and customer satisfaction. Finally, we
find no relationship between customer satisfaction and stock returns.
A. Strydom · I. Mutsonziwa
University of Pretoria, Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail: astrydom2@aspenpharma.com; itayim@plus94.co.za
D. Kapelianis (*)
University of Pretoria, Johannesburg, South Africa
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
e-mail: dkapeli@unm.edu

232 A. Strydom et al.
We conclude that, while social media sentiment does indeed predict stock returns,
this effect occurs wholly through financial, rather than consumer, channels.
Keywords Social media sentiment · Customer satisfaction · Stock returns

· Twitter

Either Bandwagon Effect or Need
for Uniqueness? Motivational Factors
Driving Young Adult Consumers’ Luxury
Brand Purchases: An Abstract
Eunjoo Cho, Ui-Jeen Yu, and Jihyun Kim
Abstract As young adult consumers have driven much of the growth in the luxury
goods market, they become an important target group for luxury brand managers.
As more young adult consumers gain access to luxury, it is imperative to understand
key determinants that impact their luxury brand purchases. Based on the “Functional
Theories of Attitudes,” this study aims to examine the impact of both need for
uniqueness and bandwagon effect on multi-motivational functions of attitudes and
purchase intentions toward luxury brands with a focus on young adult consumers in
order to expand the general understanding of this emerging market and develop
appropriate marketing strategies to enhance business success. A total of 711 college
students at a Midwestern and a Southern university in the United States participated
in the online survey. Respondents who had purchased at least one luxury good
(n = 540) were used for this study. Using structural equation modeling, this study
finds that both young adult consumers’ need for uniqueness and bandwagon effect
of luxury brands positively influenced their functions of attitudes and purchase
intentions toward luxury brands. Bandwagon effect can be explained through the
conspicuous consumption behavior. In the case of luxury brands with high band-
wagon effect, consumers would consume more conspicuous luxury fashion goods
to communicate their conformity toward the noticeable branded goods. The need
for uniqueness concept in luxury fashion goods consumption reflects one’s self-
directed hedonic pleasure attained from using of the luxury goods. This hedonic
experience would be heightened through expressing one’s individuality through
E. Cho (*)
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA
e-mail: ejcho@uark.edu
U.-J. Yu
e-mail: uyu@ilstu.edu
J. Kim
Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
e-mail: jkim55@kent.edu

234 E. Cho et al.
unique and different luxury goods than others. Interestingly, compared to the direct
effect of need for uniqueness, bandwagon effect had much stronger impact on both
attitudes and purchase intentions toward luxury brands. This means that young adult
consumers tend to have a stronger drive to conform to others by following trends or
imitating popular styles and brand choices. Adopting luxury goods allows them to
stand out from others by expressing their individualistic or unique style when they
shop for luxury brands. This result does not reject the importance of need for
uniqueness, yet highlights the greater importance of bandwagon effect in the luxury
brand consumption context. These findings offer marketing insights that highlight
the greater importance of bandwagon effect in the luxury brand consumption when
focusing on young adult segment of luxury consumers.
Keywords Need for uniqueness · Bandwagon effect · Functional attitudes ·

Purchase intentions

Pleasure versus Healthiness
in Multi-Ingredient Sustainable Foods:
How Centrality Influences Performance:
An Abstract
G. Balaji and Anandakuttan B. Unnithan
Abstract This study is particularly relevant in understating consumer’s evaluation

of multi-ingredient sustainable food products. Firms are in a constant need to intro-
duce sustainable products; thus, the authors consider product type (vice/virtue)
implications on the perceived performance of the product. In examining this rela-
tionship, they draw from compensatory inference and attribute centrality (the degree
to which the ingredients are integral in defining the food product) theories.
Compensatory assumptions in food and beverages segment identify a product to be
healthy and good for consumers in long term or can be a source of immediate fun
and excitement but not both (Kivetz and Simonson 2002). Therefore, a wholesome-
ness claim might lead consumers to suspect reduced enjoyment and pleasure in a
vice product category (Raghunathan et al. 2006) such that consumers might recog-
nize the product to be less superior in vice rather than in virtue category. This propo-
sition is also supported by an empirical confirmation, which shows that consumers
are less reactive to the advertisement (Bezawada and Pauwels 2013) and willingness
to pay for organic products in the vice category (Van Droon and Verhoef 2011).
Thus, findings of the study 1 show that the consumers perceive a sustainable prod-
uct to be superior in case of virtue product category (e.g., Yogurt) and inferior in
case of the vice product category (e.g., Chocolate).
In study 2, the authors show that the perceived performance inferiority of
product can be avoided by linking sustainability to peripheral rather than central
ingredients of the food product. The presented studies support the hypotheses and
explore the effect of ingredient centrality on product type-perceived performance
G. Balaji (*) · A. B. Unnithan

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kozhikode, India
e-mail: gb08fpm@iimk.ac.in; anandunnithan@iimk.ac.in

236 G. Balaji and A. B. Unnithan
relationship in sustainable foods. The authors conclude the paper with both
managerial and theoretical implications. It helps the firms to mediate the efforts of
sustainability effectively.
Keywords Sustainable product · Ingredient centrality · Vice · Virtue · Perceived

performance

The Impact of Sonic Logos on Brand
Perceptions: An Abstract
Shawn P. Scott, Daniel Sheinin, and Lauren I. Labrecque
Abstract Sonic logos have been around since the original NBC chimes, which was
the first sound to receive an audio trademark. Even now, Sonic Logos are utilized as
a strategic branding element across a variety of mediums. Despite the importance of
sonic logos, surprisingly little research has examined their usage and impact on
consumer perceptions of brands. Significant work has investigated other forms of
music and marketing such as background music (Park and Young 1986), creating
the impression of social presence (Sayin et al. 2015), persuasion in marketing
(Bruner 1990; Kellaris and Cox 1989; Park 2003), and through the use of sounds
and music in retail or public environments (Beverland et al. 2006; Mattila and Wirtz
2001; Morrison and Beverland 2003; Spangenberg et al. 2005).
In our study, we expand on the previous sonic logo research conducted by
Krishnan et al. (2012). In their study, they looked at how the number of tones
affected consumers’ willingness to pay and processing fluency. In our pretest and
experiment, we use the baseline results from Krishnan et al. (2012), which showed
an optimal six sonic tones and explore how other characteristics of sonic logos, such
as timbre, modality, tempo, and key (Bruner 1990), have an effect on consumer
perceptions of brands.
In our pretest, we manipulate the characteristics of timbre, modality, tempo, and
key that shape consumer evaluations of happiness and sadness in order to create two
short (e.g., 4 s) composite orthogonal musical stimuli to use in the remainder of our
research. In our experiment, we show that these two separate sonic logos can affect
consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s customer service and attitude toward an adver-
tisement by the mere presence of the sonic logo. In our further experiments, we will
continue to tease out various effects that short sonic logos have on consumer senti-
ment, advertising, and brand perceptions.
Keywords Sonic logos · Sonic branding · Sogos · Branding · Music · Advertising
S. P. Scott (*) · D. Sheinin · L. I. Labrecque

University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
e-mail: sscott@uri.edu; dsheinin@uri.edu; lauren33@uri.edu

Gifting Practices: Is it Really the Thought
that Counts? An Abstract
Pia A. Albinsson and Bidisha Burman
Abstract Gift giving is prevalent in most cultures as it is a symbolistic ritual of

love, care, and often help build social relations (Anton et al. 2014; Areni 1998; Belk
1976). In the United States, consumers give gifts to friends and loved ones on mul-
tiple occasions every year. In 2016, it was estimated that Americans spent $929 on
average per person on holiday gifts (American Research Group cited in Backman
2016). Gift giving, hereafter gifting, is such an important aspect of life, that 56% of
U.S. consumers planned to accumulate debt in order to give gifts during the 2016
holiday season (Backman 2016).
The aim of this research is to examine if there are differences in gifting practices
across demographic factors among U.S. consumers. From a marketing viewpoint,
generational differences in consumers focus on values, attitudes, and consumption
preferences (Urbain et al. 2013). Drawing on Davies et al.’s definition of “the gift,”
we define gifting practices to include the planning, searching, shopping, and the act
of giving something without the expectation of immediate compensation. The cur-
rent study examines gifting practices in general and did not focus on a specific holi-
day or event. As recent gifting research has called for more quantitative approaches
in gifting research (Davies et al. 2010), we contribute to the literature by doing an
empirical analysis of current gifting practices.
After informal interviews with 33 informants, we designed a questionnaire
focusing on different aspects of gifting. The questionnaire included sections on
emotions involving gifting, closeness of relationship to the recipient, reasons for
gifting, among other factors. We examined the difference of gifting behavior across
gender, across two combined age group categories—Gen Z and Millennials
(younger) and Gen X and Baby boomers (older), as well as across income levels.
We further examined shopping environment preferences (e.g., online vs. in-store).
Our study shows an interaction effect with deal proneness and age group on gifting
P. A. Albinsson (*)
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA
e-mail: albinssonpa@appstate.edu
B. Burman
University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA
e-mail: bburman@pacific.edu

240 P. A. Albinsson and B. Burman
behavior. Results reveal significant interaction effects of deal proneness and age, on
the enjoyment of gifting and involvement with the gifting process. Additionally, we
examined how to deal proneness in gift shopping affects consumer acquisition of
gifts in terms of in-store versus online purchases.
Keywords Gift giving · Gifting · Generational cohorts · Consumer behavior

Special Session: How does Marketing Fit
in the World? Questions of Discipline
Expertise, Scope, and Insight: An Abstract
Martin Key, Terry Clark, O. C. Ferrell, Mark Peterson, Leyland Pitt,

and David Stewart
Abstract There has been much discussion within the marketing literature about
marketing’s influence both within the firm and within the family of academic busi-
ness disciplines (e.g., Clark Key et al. 2014; Eisend 2015; Homburg et al. 2015).
This begs the question of whether or not marketing provides the relevant answers
and knowledge base needed in areas of theoretical and conceptual innovations that
reflect the changing social, technological, and global growth-oriented realities of
the twenty-first century (Webster and Lusch 2013; Ferrell and Ferrell 2016). These
issues signal the significant change to business models, growth strategies, marketing
channels, customer relationship management, as well as the domain of mainstream
marketing research, its methodology and relevance. Inquiries into the adequacies of
marketing’s extant knowledge base for continued development may uncover intel-
lectual, methodological, and conceptual ruts that further distance marketing
M. Key (*)
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
e-mail: tkey@uccs.edu
T. Clark
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
e-mail: tclark@business.siu.edu
O. C. Ferrell
e-mail: ocf0003@auburn.edum
M. Peterson
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
e-mail: markpete@uwyo.edu
L. Pitt
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
e-mail: lpitt@sfu.ca
D. Stewart
Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, CA, USA
e-mail: david.stewart@lmu.edu

242 M. Key et al.
s cholarship from its proper place in knowledge creation at every level of the firm
and academic scholarship.
The purpose of this Special Session is to stimulate critical, forward-looking con-
versation on the nature of marketing insight, its place in the firm, and in the family
of business disciplines. Questions of marketing’s ability to create relevant under-
standing within various contexts: in the marketplace; in the lives of consumers, in
society, will be taken up, with a view to addressing marketing’s ability to answer,
“how does marketing fit in today’s world?”
Keywords Marketing’s influence · Strategic marketing · Marketing theory ·

Firm impact

Social Listening: Adapting Customer
and Competitive Intelligence to the Digital
Era: An Abstract
Erik Mehl and Joël Le Bon
Abstract Customers have increased their power toward the seller in B2B sales.
One reason is that the buyer has access to more information. Moreover, it has been
argued that customer collects, and makes decisions based on, this information
before contacting a salesperson. The traditional listening model, relying on a physi-
cal meeting between the seller and the buyer, does not offer a solution in this new
buying situation, where the customers collect information through digital media,
and knows much more about the seller’s solution before any contact. Therefore, to
continue to add value to the customer, the seller needs to listen to the customer
through digital channels to understand which customers are looking for information
about the seller’s solution and to collect information about the customer’s business.
The objective of this research is to present a theoretical framework of “Digital
Sales Listening and Learning” (DSLL) and related research propositions. By look-
ing at, among others, the salespeople’s digital exposure and the strength of their
network, and how they are using their network to sense what potential customers are
asking about their products, we argue that this will have an effect on selling-related
knowledge.
DSLL proceeds the traditional sales listening model. Based on listening- and
Connectivism learning theories, the model argues that sales listening can be used to
collect information about prospects before the initial contact, making it possible for
the salesperson to more fully understand the needs of the customers and thereby
offer additional value propositions when in contact with prospects. It also makes it
possible for salespeople, in an early phase, to detect prospects that are looking for
information regarding possible solutions offered by the seller.
E. Mehl (*)
e-mail: erik.mehl@kristiania.no
J. Le Bon
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
e-mail: jlebon@jhu.edu

244 E. Mehl and J. Le Bon
Our main contribution is a proposed extension of salesperson listening, by

including how salespeople listen to their customers online, including proposed ante-
cedents, consequences, and moderators of the DSLL model.
Keywords Digital selling · Listening · B2B selling · Knowledge · Learning ·

Connectivism

Qualitative Insights into Organic Food:
Perceptions of Indian and U.S. Consumers:
An Abstract
Lubna Nafees, Neel Das, Eva Hyatt, and Lawrence Garber Jr
Abstract The organic movement has gained a lot of momentum in the last two
decades and currently underlies a huge global market. Hand-in-hand with the
growth in consumption of organic food around the world, academic research on
organics has also made great strides. However, there seems to be a dearth of studies
focusing on organic food consumption in emerging economies (Hughner et al.
2007). Specifically, it becomes important to understand and identify consumer per-
ceptions regarding consumer behavior surrounding the concept of “organic” in
emerging markets vis-à-vis developed economies. This paper takes a qualitative
approach in order to better understand how people in India and the United States
perceive organic products, along with the consumer behavior processes surrounding
them. Four focus groups in total were conducted—two with American respondents
separated into low and high involvement consumers; and, two with Indian respon-
dents separated into low and high involvement consumers.
Results show that high involvement consumers in both the United States and
India were confident about the meaning of organic, and felt that organic food con-
sumption focused on being healthy, eating better-tasting food, and feeling lighter.
While organics were perceived to be more of a lifestyle in the United States, Indian
consumers felt that a lack of availability and awareness, along with high prices,
restricted consumption. Furthermore, in the United States, information acquisition
regarding organics emanates primarily from word of mouth, social media, and label
reading; while in India information acquisition primarily emanates from parents.
High involvement Indian organics consumers’ favorable views toward organic
foods were pragmatic and centered around matters such as superior taste, health,
safety, and trust, while low involvement but aspirational Indian organics consumers
favored organics for altruistic and spiritual reasons, considering them to offer
L. Nafees (*) · N. Das · E. Hyatt

e-mail: nafeesl@appstate.edu; dasn@appstate.edu; hyattem@appstate.edu
L. Garber Jr
e-mail: lgarber@elon.edu

246 L. Nafees et al.
s piritual benefits and to be environmentally friendly. The low involvement U.S. group,
on the other hand, was skeptical of the benefits of organic foods, found them to be
expensive, to taste no better than nonorganic foods, and viewed the lifestyle of those
they perceived to be organic food consumers unfavorably. This group was the only
one of the four groups that held a negative view of organic foods and the organics
movement in general.
Keywords Perception of organic · India and the United States · Emerging markets ·
Organic consumer

How Women Respond to Female
Empowerment Songs: An Abstract
Melika Kordrostami and Elika Kordrostami
Abstract This research project aims to investigate the impact of music on female
empowerment. Previous research established the link between listening to music
and affective, attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes (e.g., Anderson and Eubanks
2003; Hansen and Hansen 1990). However, there is a dearth of research on the
impact of music on female empowerment. Songs that encourage and promote
female power have been part of the pop culture for a long time. Some examples of
such songs are “Hit me with your best shot” by Pat Benatar, which was released in
1980, and “Sit still, look pretty” by Daya, which was released in 2016. The influ-
ence of these songs on pop culture and women, especially at younger ages, makes it
important to study their impact on the female audience. Understanding such effects
is critical to practitioners as well. To keep up with their target markets, firms con-
tinuously monitor the trends in the pop culture and try to adapt those in their promo-
tional campaigns.
The purpose of this research is to study the impact of music with female-
empowering lyrics on audiences’ feel of power, specifically, in terms of, their
reported level of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and positive thoughts (hope). Spreading
activation theory suggests that receiving a new piece of information triggers the
related node of information in the brain (Collins and Loftus 1975). Therefore, hear-
ing a female-empowering song should make the information about power more
accessible. The audience would demonstrate higher levels of self-esteem, self-
efficacy, and hope, at least momentarily.
Female empowerment has been a recurring theme in the pop culture. Therefore,
it is essential to understand how these songs impact the emotions, cognition, and
M. Kordrostami (*)
California State University San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA
e-mail: melika.kordrostami@csusb.edu
E. Kordrostami
e-mail: kordrostami@rowan.edu

248 M. Kordrostami and E. Kordrostami
behavior of the audience. The current research plan aims to understand the
psychological implications of such songs and examine the effects of adapting
female-empowering trends into the marketing campaigns.
Keywords Music · Female power · Self-esteem · Feminism

Why I Will Not Use You for My Campaign:
The Relationship Between Brand
Managers and Sportswomen: An Abstract
Emmanuel Mogaji, Foluké Abi Badejo, Simon Charles,

and Jacqueline Millisits
Abstract Brands choose to sponsor a sportsperson as a way to reach out to their

consumers. Sports personalities are considered as vehicles for advertisements or
product endorsements, and athletes who carry symbolic messages can attract com-
panies seeking effective endorsers. Athletes carry powerful images, have a mass
international audience, and appeal to all classes. For the first time, Forbes’ list of the
100 top-earning athletes of 2018 contains no women. This list is an annual rich list
of athletes around the world and consists of their earnings from endorsements, prize
money, salaries and bonuses, and appearance fees.
This study acknowledges the role of brand managers and qualitatively explores
their business decision with regard to selecting sportswomen as their brand ambas-
sadors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted across the United Kingdom
with 15 brand managers. Results indicated that brand managers are considering
sportswomen for their media campaigns, they acknowledge that the demand for
women sports is increasing; however, and there are still some challenges that need
to be addressed. Brand managers acknowledge that there are prospects for sports-
women, but they are making a business decision based on the limited coverage and
their appeal to their targeted audience.
Theoretically, this provides additional insight, albeit from the brand managers
point to view to understand the challenges of sportswomen as brand ambassadors, it
E. Mogaji (*)
University of Greenwich, London, UK
e-mail: e.o.mogaji@greenwich.ac.uk
F. A. Badejo
Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: a.badejo@griffith.edu.au
S. Charles
SWBA Project, London, UK
J. Millisits
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
e-mail: jacqueline.millisits@uconn.edu

250 E. Mogaji et al.
further adds to the discussion around the financial prospects of sportswomen and
their ability to align with a brand’s value and cocreate a sense of meaning and
attachment. Likewise, this study offers practical implications for brand managers
and sportswomen managers. The awareness about women sports is rising, and it is
vital for brands to join the movement and be a part of it. Brand managers are
expected to take more creative risks as Nike was able to support Serena Williams
after the French Opens raise concerns about her cloth; brands can do more by break-
ing the mold and engage with something unique and different, which sportswomen
can offer.
Sportswomen do have a unique fan base, and they are seldom seen to cause any
scandal, which could be an advantage to the brand. Besides, having a sportswoman
as a brand ambassador seems to be a cheaper and economical option to have an
endorsement. Moreover, given that consumers have demonstrated a positive attitude
toward brands that sponsor a less conventionally popular sportsperson/team, there is
an opportunity for more brands to sponsor sportswomen and their teams.
Additionally, sportswomen offer brands a chance to reach new audiences, which, in
turn, can lead to an increase in sales.
Keywords Brand managers · Sportswomen · Endorsement · Advertisement ·

Ambassadors

Candidates as Experiential Brands
in U.S. Presidential Elections: An Abstract
Eric Van Steenburg and Francisco Guzman
Abstract Investigating political candidates as brands is a relatively new field in the

area of political marketing research (French and Smith 2010; Phipps et al. 2010;
Smith 2009). As such, there are few, if any, empirical studies demonstrating that
candidates do function as brands (e.g., Guzmán et al. 2015), and none relating to
elections in the United States. To fill this void, data were collected over the last two
U.S. presidential election cycles. Results show that not only did candidates function
as brands in both the 2012 and 2016 elections, the experiential brand of a candidate
is a significant predictor of voting intention. However, it was the candidate who lost
the election whose experiential brand proved to be the most significant.
In the 2012 election, it appears Mitt Romney’s brand experience was more of a
factor than the Barack Obama brand experience when it came to voting intention.
Voters considered both candidates’ as brand experiences when considering them-
selves (self-assessed brand image) in relation to the two candidates. That is, voters
used a cognitive short cut to assess which candidate in an election appeals to them
most based on which one is most like themselves. In other words, as voters consid-
ered voting for Romney, they considered how in sync they were to the candidate’s
experiential brand. There was no such effect for the Obama brand, nor was there any
significance for voters’ self-brand image on the voting intention for that candidate.
The primary differences between the 2012 and 2016 elections appear in
Democratic voters, who did not consider the brand of the candidate from the
Republican party in 2016, but did so 4 years earlier, and Republican voters who did
not consider the Obama brand when evaluating the relationship between themselves
and for whom they would vote, but did consider Hillary Clinton’s experiential
brand. Because Republican voters did not weigh Donald Trump’s experiential brand
and their self-brand image at the same time when considering voting for that candi-
date, this seems to be in line with the previous researchers (e.g., Dahl et al. 2017;
E. Van Steenburg (*)

Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
e-mail: eric.vansteenburg@montana.edu
F. Guzman
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
e-mail: francisco.guzman@unt.edu

252 E. Van Steenburg and F. Guzman
Kidwell et al. 2014) who argue that voters focus on the things on which they want
to focus and ignore what does not align with their previous political beliefs and
ideology.
It is possible that, in each election, one candidate was able to negatively affect
the brand of the other by attacking the candidate’s brand early in the election cycle.
And the candidate whose brand was damaged first ultimately lost.
Keywords Candidate brand · Experiential brand · Voting intention ·

Presidential election

Effects of Mindset on International
Marketing Decisions: The Moderating
Role of Psychic Distance: An Abstract
Christina Papadopoulou, Magnus Hultman, and Aristeidis Theotokis
Abstract The current study examines the conditions under which a fixed and
growth mindset affects managers’ decisions regarding the level of adaptation and
involvement in cross-border strategies. Grounded in the implicit theory from psy-
chology, we developed a model that includes psychic distance as the boundary con-
dition of this effect. To test our hypotheses, a 2 (fixed vs. growth mindset) by 2 (low
vs. high psychic distance) between-subjects experimental design was employed.
Two hundred and fifty-two international marketing managers from firms based in
Greece were recruited to take part in the study and were randomly assigned to one
of the four experimental conditions. Results revealed that mindset had a significant
effect on adaptation intentions. Furthermore, psychic distance moderated the above
effect; more specifically, in the low psychic distance condition, growth mindset
managers demonstrated higher adaptation intentions than fixed mindset managers,
whereas, in the high psychic distance condition, both growth and fixed mindsets
opted for similar levels of adaptation. In addition, the effect of mindset on entry
mode was strengthened for low psychic distance as growth mindset managers tend
to select higher involvement business arrangements than their fixed mindset coun-
terparts. The current study offered insights into the international marketing and con-
sumer psychology literatures by introducing mindset as a new antecedent of
adaptation and entry mode decisions, and showed under which conditions managers
take internationalization decisions. Moreover, the proven effect of mindset on inter-
national marketing decisions has equally important implications for organizations.
We support the view that managers are boundedly rational, therefore neglecting
their cognitive orientation and perception would generate flawed results. Therefore,
chief stakeholders should not take for granted that their international marketing
managers’ way of thinking will be aligned the firm’s idiosyncrasy and follow the
C. Papadopoulou (*)
Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
e-mail: c.papadopoulou@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
M. Hultman · A. Theotokis
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
e-mail: m.hultman@leeds.ac.uk; a.theotokis@leeds.ac.uk

254 C. Papadopoulou et al.
intended cross-border strategies. In order to cultivate or acquire a desirable mindset,

relevant and carefully designed internal and external training sessions are deemed
necessary for senior and international marketing managers.
Keywords Entry mode choice · Adaptation/standardization · Psychic distance ·

Implicit theory · Experimental design

An Exploratory Study of Globalizing
Consumers’ Materialism Tendencies
in a Multicultural “Global” Marketplace:
An Abstract
Tarek Mady and Sarah Mady
Abstract Recent evidence suggests that materialism is a learned personal value

incorporated or rejected through consumer socialization processes (Dettmar et al.
2014). That is, a consumer’s materialistic tendencies are developed based on the
environment he or she interacts with regularly. Therefore, it is no surprise that mate-
rialism has been studied extensively within an international context, especially
given the significant differences in marketing environments across national markets.
Indeed, a considerable amount of research notes that materialism levels vary signifi-
cantly across different countries (Felix et al. 2000; Cleveland et al. 2018). Most
studies have attributed the extent of materialistic tendencies to various demograph-
ics, national culture, ethnic identity, or other structural changes specific to sample
markets (Ger and Belk 1996). However, most of these international studies have
often assumed culturally homogeneous national markets (Nakata 2009). Therefore,
while these studies have offered understandings of the characteristics of specific
markets, they fall short of providing insights into multicultural “global” market-
places where consumers are embracing globalization and markets are opening to
global corporate powers and international brands (Tung 2008).
Despite the often-implied relationship between globalizing consumer habits and
materialism, a review of the literature suggests that there is relatively little empirical
research that supports (or refutes) such assertions, especially in the case of multicul-
tural global markets. This study represents an early attempt to shed light on global-
izing consumers’ materialism tendencies in a multicultural “global” marketplace.
Using Dubai as a proxy for such markets, the study proposes that there is a signifi-
cant link between consumer tendencies to merge into the global consumer culture
T. Mady (*)
University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada
e-mail: tmady@upei.ca
S. Mady
American University, Washington, DC, USA
e-mail: mady@american.edu

256 T. Mady and S. Mady
and materialism. Indeed, we ask a simple question: Are globalizing consumers in

multicultural markets actually more materialistic?
The authors developed a questionnaire based on the original Cleveland and
Larouche (2007) seven-construct Acculturation toward the Global Consumer
Culture (AGCC) scale (57 items) and the 18-item, three-construct materialism scale
developed by Richins and Dawson (1992). A mall-intercept survey was conducted
at one of Dubai’s busiest malls and a total of 496 usable responses were obtained.
Preliminary findings suggest that various aspects of AGCC and materialism levels
are significantly higher in Dubai. However, not all dimensions of ACCC were found
to be relevant factors with regard to materialism tendencies.
Keywords Materialism · Global consumer culture · Multicultural

marketplace · Dubai

Numerical Framing and Emotional
Arousal as Moderators of Review Valence
and Consumer Choices: An Abstract
Anh Dang
Abstract Review valence refers to consumers’ positive or negative evaluations of

products (Mudambi and Schuff 2010). It can be reflected by star ratings or dichoto-
mous choices such as recommendation rates and thumbs up or down rates. The
effects of valence reported in previous studies have been equivocal (King et al.
2014). Therefore, this dissertation aims to identify factors that help reconcile these
inconclusive findings through two essays. Specifically, the first essay investigates
the role of numerical framing with five experiments, including an eye-tracking
study. It shows that the effect of review volume (vs. review valence) on purchase
likelihood will be lower when valence is presented as absolute numbers (160 of 200
customers recommend) than when it is in percentages (80% of 200 customers rec-
ommend). This is because consumers adopt two distinct approaches (piecemeal vs.
holistic) when processing the two aforementioned numerical formats. In addition,
the ability of an absolute number format to weaken the impact of volume on pur-
chase likelihood will be lower when valence and volume are shown in two different
colors than when they are in the same color.
Through two lab experiments and one field study, the second essay examines the
moderating effect of emotional arousal on review valence and consumer decisions.
It shows that consumers consider extreme reviews with high emotional arousal as
being less informative about the product performance. Therefore, the presence of
high arousal emotions dilutes the extremely negative reviews’ ability to discourage
consumer purchases as well as the extremely positive reviews’ ability to boost con-
sumer purchases through consumers’ perceived informativeness. However, con-
sumers’ decision strategy varies depending on the purchase stage they belong to.
A. Dang (*)
Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY, USA
e-mail: danga1@nku.edu

258 A. Dang
Whereas, consumers discount those extreme reviews with high arousal during their
search stage, negativity bias causes them to rely more on the extremely negative
reviews accompanied by high emotional arousal.
Keywords Online reviews · Valence · Emotional arousal · Purchase stages

Men and the Food Leftovers of Attractive
Others: An Abstract
Larissa Diekmann, Claas Christian Germelmann, and Jannika Ehrenfried
Abstract In order to find ways to reduce wastage of food leftovers, it is necessary

to understand the factors that influence such wastage. Using the extreme example of
reusing food leftovers from unknown consumers, we consider the extent to which
consumer contamination of food leftovers influences the probability of choosing
these food leftovers, through the emotion disgust, taking into account the gender of
the participant. Additionally, we investigate how the level of attractiveness of the
consumer who left the food influences this relationship. Here, we assume a cross-
gender effect for the attractiveness manipulation. These assumptions are in line with
the recent literature that investigates consumer contamination in another context
(Argo et al. 2006, 2008).
We tested our hypotheses with data from two online experiments that were based
on a 2 (level of contamination: low vs. high) × 3 (level of attractiveness of the con-
sumer who left the food: less attractive woman (man) vs. attractive woman (man)
vs. no woman (man) visible) between-subjects design with a control group (female
study: N = 248, 49.6% women, Mage = 23.3 years; male study: N = 311; 46.6%
women, Mage = 22.4 years; both online studies were based on pure student samples).
In all experimental conditions, participants were asked to imagine that there is a
new offer in their university canteen aimed at reducing food waste. They can now
choose returned leftovers, in addition to the fresh dishes. The level of contamination
was manipulated by showing either a photo of leftovers rearranged on a new plate
by a canteen employee in the low-contamination condition or a photo of leftovers
just as they were returned by the consumer, who left the food, in the high-
contamination condition. In the control group, a fresh dish was shown, and no con-
sumer was mentioned.
We found that consumer contamination leads to disgust, which decreases the
probability of choosing food leftovers. This mediation is gender independent. We
found no significant effect for female participants regarding the effect of attractive-
ness in both studies. Nevertheless, we found a significant direct effect of the level of
L. Diekmann (*) · C. C. Germelmann · J. Ehrenfried

e-mail: larissa.diekmann@uni-bayreuth.de; c.c.germelmann@uni-bayreuth.de;
s3jaehre@uni-bayreuth.de

260 L. Diekmann et al.
attractiveness on the probability of choosing food leftovers for male participants in

the female study, and a significant first-stage moderated mediation for male partici-
pants in the male study. Further research, which should enhance our understanding
of the gender effect and yield more insights into food leftovers itself, is underway.
Keywords Leftovers · Consumer contamination · Attractiveness · Disgust ·

Gender differences · Food marketing

Does Technological Self-Efficacy Decrease
New Salesperson Job Insecurity:
An Abstract
John Cicala and Zhoufan Zhang
Abstract A well-established influencer of salesperson job performance that has

not received as much attention over the years is job insecurity. Given the technologi-
cal revolution that has been occurring in the field of professional selling for several
decades, requiring salespeople to become more technologically proficient than their
predecessors ever had to be, job insecurity regarding this unique aspect of profes-
sional selling is exceedingly overdue for academic inquiry. Job insecurity as an
influencer of job performance has not received as much academic research attention
as its counterparts. Chaker et al. (2016: 344) unambiguously declare that “salesper-
son insecurity has been largely neglected in the literature.” Ahearne et al.’s (2004)
study on the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) technology on
sales performance showed technology has an observable “disabling effect” on sales
performance. Recognizing that the relationship between technology and sales per-
formance is dependent on the salesperson’s level of ability, their study calls for
further research “into the differing relationships between different expertise classes
of users,” and into technological proficiency’s moderating effect on sales perfor-
mance, yet not on the its possible effect on salesperson job insecurity. Johnson and
Bharadwaj (2005) reported that firms were developing, “web sites designed to pro-
vide information and conduct transactions with customers, replacing many routine
sales force activities…heightening job insecurity concerns” (p. 3). More than a
decade later, their portentous observation demands further investigation. This study
will investigate if technological self-efficacy creates a less insecure salesperson
among newer salespeople compared to more experienced and established salespeo-
ple who learned how to sell without digital supplementation. This current study
strives to help remedy this overlooked enigmatic gap in the existing literature of
professional sales. It will not only contribute to the body of theoretical scholarship
J. Cicala (*) · Z. Zhang

Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, TX, USA
e-mail: john.cicala@tamuk.edu; zhoufan.zhang@tamuk.edu

262 J. Cicala and Z. Zhang
in this field but will additionally provide sales managers and practitioners with new
and relevant information, which can aid in improving the performances of both new
and established sales force members.
Keywords Technology · Sales · Self-efficacy · Insecurity · Performance

Special Session: Marketing and Consumer
Wellbeing in Digital Environment:
An Abstract
Shintaro Okazaki, Ko de Ruyter, Prokriti Mukherji, Chieko Minami,

Kenichi Nishioka, and Liu Boyi
Abstract The objective of this special session is to explore the intersections among
marketing, consumer well-being, and digital environment. The proposed research
presentations will address a wide range of cutting-edge topics—digital unengage-
ment, access economy, smart interactive services, social media spokesperson char-
acter, influencer, and compulsive media use. These topics are timely, novel, and
important and thus are expected to stimulate active discussions at the AMS
conference.
This special session attends to consumer well-being in digital environment in
two ways: physical well-being and psychological well-being. As for the former, we
attempt to explore the impact of interactive health applications and smart services.
As for the latter, we focus on a social media environment and access economy,
where issues related to world-of-mouth from and proper product/service representa-
tion are increasingly important.
We strongly believe that this special session will effectively deliver one of the
key AMS missions—“promoting high standards and excellence in the creation and
dissemination of marketing knowledge and the furtherance of marketing practice
through a role of leadership within the discipline of marketing around the world.”
This session unites scholars from the United Kingdom and Japan, two of the G20
members that represent an important portion of world digital economy. The United
Kingdom along with Germany account for 25% of the top 100 digital multinational
enterprises, including Internet platforms, e-commerce, and digital content firms
S. Okazaki (*) · K. de Ruyter · P. Mukherji

e-mail: shintaro.okazaki@kcl.ac.uk; ko.de_ruyter@kcl.ac.uk; prokriti.mukherji@kcl.ac.uk
C. Minami · L. Boyi
Kobe University, Kobe, Japan
e-mail: cminami@kobe-u.ac.jp; 172b121b@stu.kobe-u.ac.jp
K. Nishioka
Kansai University, Osaka, Japan
e-mail: nishioka@kansai-u.ac.jp

264 S. Okazaki et al.
(UNCTAD 2017). Likewise, Japan is considered as the innovation hubs of automa-

tion, sensory technologies, and artificial intelligence (LSE Consulting 2018).
Therefore, our research presentations may reflect important organizational and
technological transformations in the business environment.
Keywords Access economy · Digital unengagement · Opinion leader · Smart

interactive services · Spokesperson

Modelling for Mobile: Developing
the mUTAUT Model: An Abstract
Hannah Marriott and Graeme McLean
Abstract M-commerce has been defined in a variety of ways over the years and
essentially encompasses all online-based transactional activities conducted through
wireless handheld mobile devices (e.g., Hillman and Neustaedter 2017). As such, it
has been considered an umbrella term for more specific types of commerce activi-
ties; Marriott et al. (2017) suggest that m-commerce can be divided into three main
subcategories: mobile banking (m-banking), mobile payments (m-payments), and
mobile shopping (m-shopping). M-shopping is defined as the online searching,
browsing, comparing, and purchasing of goods and services by consumers through
wireless handheld mobile devices, in particular, smartphones and tablets (Marriott
et al. 2017).
Three fundamental observations arise within the m-shopping literature. First, the
role of m-shopping within the global marketplace is apparent with the surge of lit-
erature since 2015 (Marriott et al. 2017) and academic response to emerging retail-
ing trends. Second, the incorporation of risk and trust within m-shopping literature
remains in its infancy; although discussions surrounding risk and trust have
increased in the recent years, more research is required to examine their specific
roles within m-shopping adoption. Finally, most m-shopping literature adopt a
technology-based acceptance model as a theoretical grounding; although this is
commonplace and has given rise to an interesting array of findings, it becomes ques-
tionable as to validity of using a technology-based model to predict a service-based
activity. Therefore, this research aims to develop understanding into consumer’s
m-shopping adoption intention through incorporating risk and trust into a contem-
porary theoretically grounded technology adoption model to explore their future
roles within this area. The theoretical foundation for this study was UTAUT2
(Venkatesh et al. 2012) due to its contemporary nature and suitability to a voluntary
or service setting.
H. Marriott (*)
University of Winchester, Winchester, UK
e-mail: hannah.marriott@winchester.ac.uk
G. McLean
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
e-mail: graeme.mclean@strath.ac.uk

266 H. Marriott and G. McLean
In the form of online and face-to-face questionnaires, data were gathered from
435 consumers who are UK residents over the age of 18 and who have had at least
some experience in the m-shopping process. Covariance-based Structural Equation
Modelling, using AMOS software, was used to test the hypothesized relationships
to identity the influence of utilitarian, hedonic, trust, and risk factors on consumer
m-shopping adoption intention.
Keywords Mobile commerce · Mobile shopping · UTAUT · Risk · Trust

Opening the Innovation Process:
The Interrelationship of Firm Reputation
and Strategic Innovation Change
Todd Morgan, Michael Obal, and Robert D. Jewell
Abstract A key question facing firms today is should they integrate customers into
their innovation processes and cocreate new products. This research examines how
strategic change (e.g., closed to open innovation) impacts the attitudes of the periph-
ery of customers and how a firm’s current innovation reputation impacts strategic
change. The results show that firms will benefit by moving from closed to open
innovation. This relationship is contingent on a firm’s current innovation reputation.
When a firm has a high reputation for building innovative products, it should con-
tinue with its current strategy for innovation (i.e., regardless of open or closed).
Conversely, having a low innovation reputation suggests that any change in strategy
is good in order to overcome previous negative perceptions of the firm’s reputation.
Keywords Innovation process · Open innovation · Firm reputation ·

Strategic change
Introduction
How new products are effectively generated and adopted is an issue that scholars
and practitioners alike deem to be an issue of high relevance (Schulze and Hoegl
2008). Should firms develop new products internally and resort to their innovation
reputations as the key to building brand equity? Should they rely on customers to a
T. Morgan
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
e-mail: todd.morgan@wmich.edu
M. Obal (*)
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA
e-mail: michael_obal@uml.edu
R. D. Jewell
Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
e-mail: rjewell1@kent.edu

268 T. Morgan et al.
great extent? Or should they combine both knowledge sources? Changing techno-
logical and competitive environments have given way to greater engagement
between consumers and firms (Hoyer et al. 2010), but a primary concern for firms
should be how changing innovation strategies to accommodate the desire of cus-
tomers affects the periphery (i.e., customers who do not participate in co-creation)
of consumers’ perceptions of the firm.
Extant literature has uncovered a plethora of examples of how firms are design-
ing and implementing programs to accommodate external knowledge sources to
become more competitive in continually changing dynamic environments
(Ramaswamy 2008). Firms such as Nike and Frito-Lay, among others, have imple-
mented programs that allow customers to cocreate value and/or product offerings.
Research suggests that joint production of products and services may lead to greater
levels of adoption (Coviello and Joseph 2012). Furthermore, research has suggested
that customers wish to be more engaged by firms and will reward firms with loyalty
when programs are implemented that utilize customer ideas and suggestions
(Schreier et al. 2012; Hoyer et al. 2010). While the majority of studies have uncov-
ered advantages of customer participation and open innovation programs, research
has failed to examine the process of strategic change by firms.
Strategic change is defined as an “attempt to change current modes of action to
take advantage of important opportunities or to cope with consequential environ-
mental threats” (Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991, p. 433). In this regard, strategic change
is considered to be fundamental to modern organizations to keep up with evolving
demands and to stay competitive (Ye et al. 2007). With the growing trend of build-
ing brand equity by integrating users into firm processes or solely relying on users
for NPD, firms should be concerned about how strategic change impacts consumer
attitudes. As such, a primary contribution of this paper addresses how strategic
change impacts consumer attitudes toward the firm. This research suggests that
undergoing strategic change may be beneficial when the innovation process is
opened up to customers due to firms building relationships with customers through
coproduction activities, developing products that more closely meet the wants and
needs of the market segments, and opening up firm activities to signal that firms
value customer input.
While strategic change may be beneficial to enhancing consumer attitudes toward
the brand, it may not always be the case. Firms need to be cautious of how changing
their current innovation strategy may be misaligned with their current innovation
reputation, given ingrained consumer perceptions (Henard and Dacin 2010). A
firm’s innovation reputation is considered an intangible asset that involves the equity
a brand accumulates with consumers and provides sustained competitive advantage
(Barone and Jewell 2013; Fombrun and Shanley 1990). The reputation of the firm is
rooted in its historical behavior, and if a change of behavior is misaligned, there may
be negative repercussions if the change is extreme (Lange et al. 2011).
In this regard, firms that have built a high reputation may benefit by staying the
status quo in terms of its innovation strategy or at most making moderate changes to
how it develops new products. By developing continuity, consumers know what to
Opening the Innovation Process: The Interrelationship of Firm Reputation and Strategic… 269
expect from the firm’s offerings, thus reducing uncertainty that may adversely
impact attitudes toward the firm. Moreover, recent research on innovation reputa-
tion suggests that leaders of organizations may receive a credit to deviate from
group norms (Barone and Jewell 2013), but here it is suggested that too much devia-
tion will have penalty. In contrast, the benefits or disbenefits of strategic change for
lowly reputable firms may lie within how the firm built its innovation reputation.
First, for firms that have built a low reputation using a closed innovation strategy,
opening up the innovation process to customers will be beneficial regardless of the
degree of change (i.e., moderate or extreme). Second, firms that have built a low
reputation using a customer participation strategy may not see any penalty or benefit
by undergoing strategic change.
Substantively, this is among the first studies to empirically test the notion that
strategic change to open up the innovation process to customers may be beneficial
in affecting attitudes toward the firm. Attitudes are a key component in building
brand equity and are considered to be an antecedent of purchase intent and loyalty
(Ha 1998). Second, this research suggests that strategic change and integrating cus-
tomers into the innovation process may be contingent upon a firm’s innovation repu-
tation. For firms that have a high reputation, staying the current course or enacting
moderate change may be advisable, as extreme change can lead to end-user uncer-
tainty. Alternatively, low reputation, closed innovation firms may benefit by intro-
ducing customers into their NPD efforts, whereas low reputation, open innovation
firms will not be able to realize new rewards by making further strategic changes.
Next, we discuss the relevant literature.
Theory and Hypotheses Development
Research suggests that firms that adopt the closed innovation strategy may sub-
scribe to the belief that customers do not always know what they want, and they are
not the source of innovative ideas that can assist in developing sustained competi-
tive advantage (Berthon et al. 1999). As such, closed innovation paradigms use a
technology push strategy to shape and develop product markets and displace com-
petitors (Bennett and Cooper 1981) rather than relying on customer insight. On the
other end of the customer involvement in NPD spectrum is open innovation. Purely
open innovation concerns outsourcing NPD to user communities on a permanent
basis (Schreier et al. 2012). Customer participation is a moderate form of open
innovation, a collaborative NPD activity in which customers actively contribute to
idea generation, selecting attributes, and acting as a codeveloper of new products
and services (Morgan et al. 2018). Customer participation is concerned with inte-
grating the customer into the firm’s NPD processes to cocreate new offerings
(Coviello and Joseph 2012).
Research suggests that ideas generated through customer participation programs
will more closely mirror consumer needs and lead to greater levels of adoption by
customers (Gruner and Homburg 2000). Customer participation is beneficial as it

combines firm capabilities and resources with customer knowledge to enhance the
value propositions. While previous research on closed innovation has shown bene-
fits such as erecting barriers to imitation and being the first to develop product mar-
kets (Almirall and Casadesus-Masanell 2010), recent research suggests that
customer participation and open innovation strategies enhance consumers’ attitudes
(Franke et al. 2009) and purchase intent (Schreier et al. 2012). It is deemed that
customer-designed products provide a benefit in regard to product–preference fit
and may align with customer needs more than if a firm focuses solely on internal
R&D. While all three types of innovation strategies have shown to be advantageous,
a greater number of firms are undergoing strategic change to placate customers and
uncover latent needs to develop products to meet those needs.
In this regard, it is suggested that strategic change to opening up the innovation
process will benefit firms in terms of consumer perceptions toward the brand.
Customer co-creation and fully open innovation strategies are adept at developing
new products that reflect the customers’ point of view and their needs and wants
(Lusch and Vargo 2006). Moreover, integrating customers into the NPD process
may enhance the relational aspect of the firm—customer dyad due to customers
seeking more engagement and involvement with firms (Hoyer et al. 2010).
Conversely, firms that currently involve customers in the innovation process may be
punished by way of consumer perceptions when firms close off customer involve-
ment in NPD. Closing the innovation process to customers may be a signal that
firms do not value the customer’s opinion, and products may potentially not mirror
end users’ wants and needs.
While opening up the innovation process to customers may prove to be beneficial
for firms, they should be cautious of how strategic change may be misaligned with
their innovation reputation. Reputation theory posits that stakeholders construct
opinions from available information about firms’ activities originating from per-
sonal experience, the firms themselves, from the media, and from other sources
(Fombrun and Shanley 1990). A firm’s reputation is rooted in its historical behavior,
but can be abruptly changed if new information comes into view or if the most
recent behaviors of the firm are somewhat inconsistent with its past behavior (Lange
et al. 2011). In this regard, if a firm possesses a high reputation, strategic change
may not reflect consumer expectations from the firm leading to decreased consumer
attitudes.
Conversely, firms that begin with a closed innovation strategy may benefit by
increasing customer involvement in the innovation process regardless of the degree
of change (i.e., moderate or extreme). Having developed a poor reputation through
strictly internal NPD, the firm signals a willingness to work more closely with cus-
tomers. It is also suggested that lowly reputable firms with a customer participation
innovation strategy will not benefit by moving to a closed strategy or open strategy.
Given that the firm has developed a poor reputation by utilizing internal capabilities
coupled with external knowledge sources, firms may have shown that they lack the
ability to utilize customers in NPD and develop products that meet the needs of
customers.
Strategic Change on Consumer Attitudes
Previous research on customer involvement in the NPD process suggests that cus-
tomers have higher evaluations and are more accepting of products if they are
involved in the coproduction of new products (Fuchs et al. 2010). Due to customers
not falling into competency traps or incumbent inertia (Chandy and Tellis 2000),
undergoing strategic change to integrate customers into the innovation process will
help improve product innovativeness to meet the needs of the marketplace and
enhance consumer perceptions (Henard and Dacin 2010). It appears NPD has
evolved into a joint problem-solving process between firms and external stakehold-
ers (Coviello and Joseph 2012), where customers reward firms with loyalty when
firms value the opinion and involvement of customers (Schreier et al. 2012). By
opening up the innovation process, firms are better able to build relationships with
customers, enhance loyalty, and build products that better resemble current demands
of consumers. Moreover, with a greater number of firms implementing customer
participation programs, firms that forego developing and implementing such pro-
grams may be penalized. Due to the desire to be more engaged and involved, cus-
tomers may deem firms that do not open up the innovation process as lacking the
motivation to value what they want in terms of new products. More formally, we
hypothesize:
H1: Change of innovation strategy has a positive effect on consumer attitudes toward the
brand when the firm integrates customers into the innovation process such that (a) firms
beginning with a closed innovation strategy will benefit by changing to a customer partici-
pation strategy, whereas (b) firms beginning with a customer participation strategy will be
penalized for changing to a closed innovation strategy.
Low Innovation Reputation’s Impact on Strategic Change
A firm’s reputation is rooted in historical behavior, which serves as a signal of qual-

ity to the marketplace (Nayyar 1990). By signaling quality (or lack thereof) to the
marketplace, a firm can improve consumer perceptions by enhancing buyer confi-
dence (Rindova et al. 2007). Any potential information asymmetries stakeholders
face are reduced by reputation when firms make choices that represent their true
attributes, and those choices serve as a signal to the market; this enables buyers to
determine if the firm truly offers high- or low-quality goods (Fombrun and Shanley
1990). As such, when firms are faced with a low reputation, they must implement
change to improve customer perceptions. Firms that initially start with a closed
innovation program can signal to the market that they are seeking to enhance their
value by integrating customers into the NPD process. Alternatively, low-reputation
firms that begin with a customer participation strategy may not receive any benefits
by undergoing strategic change, either by closing the innovation process to custom-
ers or by relegating all NPD to customers. Lowly reputable firms that have
developed their poor reputations using the combination of customer knowledge and
internal R&D will be deemed unable to provide valuable offerings to the market,
regardless of what future changes they make. Thus, we hypothesize:
H2a: When firms possess a low reputation, firms that begin with a closed innovation strat-
egy will benefit by changing to a customer participation or fully open innovation strategy,
whereas firms beginning with a customer participation strategy will not benefit nor be
penalized for changing innovation strategy.
High Innovation Reputation’s Impact on Strategic Change
Firms with a highly innovative reputation are perceived as creative with regard to
products they have previously developed; thus, consumers will expect similar qual-
ity products in the future (Henard and Dacin 2010). Consumers develop the expec-
tation that firms will continue to provide similar products that meet their needs, thus
reducing uncertainty and enhancing loyalty. Furthermore, previous research sug-
gests that innovative firms may be able to deviate from norms without penalty
(Barone and Jewell 2013). In this regard, it is suggested that moderate change is
acceptable if it involves opening up the innovation process to integrate customer
knowledge sources. Based on the firm’s past actions, consumers will not discredit
the firm’s moderate changes and will accept them as being innovators that develop
valuable products. In contrast, a firm that undergoes too extreme of a change (e.g.,
closed strategy to an open strategy) may harm the firm’s efforts to build brand
equity. The license to innovate (Barone and Jewell 2013) may have its limits. While
customer involvement in the NPD process may positively impact several consumer-
level outcomes (Franke et al. 2006), deviating too far from a firm’s core identity
may have negative repercussions. Consumers may associate extreme NPD change
with uncertainty and riskiness (Lawton and Parasuraman 1980). Thus, we
hypothesize:
H2b: When firms possess a high reputation, they will benefit by continuing their current
innovation strategy or not be penalized for moderately opening up the innovation process
to customers (i.e., closed strategy to customer participation and customer participation
strategy to fully open), whereas firms that close the innovation process to customers (i.e.,
customer participation to closed) or undergo extreme change will be penalized.
Method
Study 1
A total of 702 Amazon M-Turk workers were randomly assigned to one of eight
conditions of a 2 (current strategy: closed/customer participation) × 2 (innovation
reputation: low/high) × 2 (ending strategy: closed/customer participation)
between-subjects factorial design (62% male, Mage = 34 years). We utilized three

categories of goods: search (i.e., microwaves), experience (i.e., perfumes and
colognes), and credence goods (i.e., vitamins). All participants first read background
information about the fictitious company of interest, “Genesis.” After reading the
background information on Genesis, participants were randomly assigned to the
group-specific treatment of how Genesis approaches innovation activities. For the
closed innovation group, participants were told that Genesis has built new products
“strictly internally,” and “Genesis does not use customers in its new product devel-
opment efforts.” For the customer participation group, participants were told that
“Genesis works closely with customers” and “Genesis has used customers for new
product ideas, concept testing, product design, and co-development of prototypes.”
As a manipulation check, participants were required to fill in the radio button that
completes the sentence “Genesis uses customers in the new product development
process…,” where 1 = “never” and 9 = “always.” The manipulation check showed
that the mean differences across strategies are significant (Mclosed = 1.45,
MParticipation = 7.32, p < .001).
Participants then received the group-specific treatment of the company’s innova-
tion reputation; they were provided with recent results of a fictitious research study,
where 1000 consumers evaluated Genesis on multiple aspects of innovation percep-
tions. In particular, the low-reputation treatment group saw that the average innova-
tion reputation score of Genesis is 1.92/9.00. In contrast, the high-reputation group
saw that the average innovation reputation score of Genesis is 8.2/9.00. Respondents
were then asked: “In regard to Genesis’s innovation reputation, I believe it to
have…,” where 1 = “a bad reputation” and 9 = “an excellent reputation.” The manip-
ulation check showed that mean differences are significant as to how participants
perceive Genesis’s innovation reputation (Mlow = 2.61, Mhigh = 7.70, p < .001).
Next, participants received the group-specific treatment of Genesis’s change in
innovation strategy. For the no change group, participants were told that after the
company’s annual meeting, no changes were taking place to the company’s current
strategy in regard to how customers are used in the innovation process. For the treat-
ment groups that received a change in strategy, they were informed that Genesis
conducted its annual new product development review and have decided to make
changes to how they use customers in the innovation process: (1) Genesis would
change to a customer participation strategy, where Genesis will now “develop new
products by having customers participate in the generation of new product ideas,
concept testing, product design and engineering, and co-development of proto-
types,” or (2) Genesis would change to a closed innovation strategy where Genesis
will now “develop new products strictly from an internal perspective, without help
or feedback from customers.”
Participants in all treatments were then asked to complete the sentence “Compared
to Genesis’s previous innovation strategy, their new innovation strategy is…,” where
1 = “the same” and 9 = “completely different.” The manipulation check showed that
mean differences are significant as to how participants perceive no change in
strategy compared to a change in strategy (Mno change = 1.93, Mchange = 8.00, p < .001).
The dependent variable for this study is consumers’ attitude toward the brand (Ab).
It was measured using six items that have been consistently used in consumer
behavior literature. A factor analysis found all six items loaded onto one factor;
thus, the six items were averaged and used to measure attitude. The means and stan-
dard deviations of the dependent variable for each group can be seen in Table 1
(Appendix).
Study 1 Results
To test the hypotheses, a three-way between subjects ANOVA was utilized. The
results of the analysis show that strategic change (beginning strategy × ending strat-
egy) is a significant predictor of consumer attitudes (F(1, 700) = 3.997, p < .01). To
determine the nature of the interaction, a two-way ANOVA was conducted to exam-
ine mean differences between ending strategy based on beginning strategy. Within
the closed innovation beginning strategy, there was a significant difference (p < .001)
between no change (Mno change = 5.506) and change to customer participation (Mcustomer
participation = 5.694; F(1, 690) = 15.24, p < .001). Within the customer participation begin-
ning strategy, there was a significant difference (p < .001) between no change (Mno
change = 5.895) and change to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 5.311). As such, Hypothesis
1 is supported by showing that firms benefit by changing their innovation strategy to
integrating customers into the NPD process, whereas they are penalized for closing
the process to customers.
Hypothesis 2a suggests that low-reputation firms that begin with a closed innova-
tion strategy will benefit by changing to a customer participation or open innovation
strategy, whereas firms beginning with a customer participation strategy will not
benefit nor be penalized for changing innovation strategy. A two-way ANOVA test
was conducted to examine mean differences of ending strategy based on levels of
reputation and beginning strategy. Within the low-reputation and closed innovation
beginning strategy group, there was a significant difference (p < .001) between no
change (Mno change = 4.65) and change to customer participation (Mcustomer
Table 1 Study 1 means and standard deviations for dependent measure for each level
Attitude towards the brand
Reputation Begin strategy End strategy N Mean Std. dev.
Low Closed Closed 89 3.50 1.86
CP 86 4.86 1.90
CP Closed 88 4.26 1.78
CP 94 4.52 2.03
High Closed Closed 84 6.84 1.57
CP 92 7.14 1.34
CP Closed 83 6.38 1.54
CP 86 7.50 1.21
CP = customer participation
a
participation = 5.36). Within the low reputation and customer participation beginning
strategy, there were marginally significant differences between no change
(Mno change = 5.22) and change to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 4.91). As such, H2a is
supported.
Hypothesis 2b suggests when firms possess a high reputation, they will benefit
by continuing their current innovation strategy or not receive penalty for moderately
opening up the innovation process to customers, whereas firms that close the inno-
vation process to customers will be penalized. Within the high reputation and closed
innovation beginning group, there was no significant difference between no change
(Mno change = 6.24) and change to customer participation (Mcustomer participation = 6.18).
Within the high reputation and customer participation beginning strategy, there was
a significant difference (p < .001) between no change (Mno change = 6.67) and change
to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 5.70). As such, H2b is partially supported.
Study 2
A second study was conducted in order to examine an additional level of open inno-
vation that relates to outsourcing NPD activities to customers on an ongoing basis.
In order to test the appropriateness of the product category chosen for the Study 2,
a pilot study with 60 Amazon M-Turk workers was conducted to assess consumer
perceptions of closed innovation, customer participation, and fully open innovation
outsourcing strategies for five product categories—consumer electronics, computer
software, computer hardware, consumer packaged goods, and clothing. Based on
these results, the computer software category was chosen for inclusion in the study.
A total of 558 Amazon M-Turk workers were randomly assigned to 1 of the 12
conditions of a 2 (current strategy: closed/customer participation) × 2 (innovation
reputation: low/high) × 3 (ending strategy: closed/customer participation/fully
open) between-subjects factorial design (61% male, Mage = 32 years). All partici-
pants first read background information about the fictitious company of interest,
“Genesis Software,” than were randomly assigned to the group-specific treatment of
how Genesis currently uses customers in the innovation process; that is, the com-
pany’s beginning strategy. For the closed innovation group, participants were told
that Genesis has built new products “strictly internally” and “Genesis does not use
customers in its new product development efforts.” For the customer participation
group, participants were told that “Genesis works closely with customers” and
“Genesis Software has used customers for new product ideas, concept testing, prod-
uct design, and co-development of prototypes.” As a manipulation check, partici-
pants were required to complete the sentence “Genesis Software uses customers in
the new product development process…,” where 1 = “never” and 9 = “always.” The
mean differences are significant as to how participants perceive customer involve-
ment in the innovation process (Mclosed = 1.44, MParticipation = 7.56, p < .001).
Participants then received the group-specific treatment of the company’s innova-
tion reputation; they were provided with recent results of a fictitious research study
where 1000 consumers evaluated Genesis Software on innovation perceptions. The

low-reputation treatment group saw that the average innovation reputation score of
Genesis Software is 1.49/7.00. In contrast, the high-reputation group saw that the
average innovation reputation score of Genesis Software is 6.46/7.00. Respondents
were then asked: “In regard to Genesis Software’s innovation reputation, I believe it
to have…,” where 1 = “a bad reputation” and 9 = “an excellent reputation.” The
manipulation check showed that mean differences are significant as to how partici-
pants perceive Genesis’s innovation reputation (Mlow = 1.88, Mhigh = 7.83, p < .001).
Next, participants received the group-specific treatment of Genesis Software’s
change in innovation strategy. For the no change group, participants were told that
no changes were taking place to the company’s current strategy in regard to how
customers are used in the innovation process. For the treatment groups that received
a change in strategy, they were informed that Genesis has decided to make changes
to how they use customers in the innovation process: (1) Genesis would change to a
customer participation strategy, where Genesis will now “develop new products by
having customers participate in the generation of new product ideas, concept test-
ing, product design and engineering, and co-development of prototypes”; (2)
Genesis would change to a fully open innovation strategy, where “new product
development is outsourced to user communities on a permanent basis. Customers
will now, and in the future, design new products without any assistance from
Genesis”; or (3) Genesis would change to a closed innovation strategy where
Genesis will now “develop new products strictly from an internal perspective, with-
out help or feedback from customers.” Participants in all treatments were then asked
to complete the sentence “Compared to Genesis Software’s previous innovation
strategy, their new innovation strategy is…,” where 1 = “the same” and 9 = “com-
pletely different.” The manipulation check showed that mean differences are signifi-
cant as to how participants perceive no change in strategy compared to a change in
strategy (Mno change = 2.25, Mchange = 7.75, p < .001).
Similar to Study 1, the dependent variable for this study is consumers’ attitude
toward the brand (Ab). It was measured using six items that have been consistently
used in consumer behavior literature. A factor analysis found all six items loaded
onto one factor, thus the six items were averaged and used as one measure of atti-
tude. The means and standard deviations of the dependent variable for each treat-
ment group can be seen in Table 2 (Appendix).
Study 2 Results
To test the hypotheses, a three-way between-subjects ANOVA was utilized.

Hypothesis 1 suggests that firms beginning with a closed innovation strategy will
benefit by changing to a customer participation or fully open innovation strategy,
whereas firms beginning with a customer participation strategy will be penalized for
changing to a closed innovation strategy and receive no penalty or benefit for chang-
ing to a fully open innovation strategy. The results of the analysis show that strategic
Table 2 Study 2 means and standard deviations for dependent measure for each level
Attitude towards the brand
Reputation Begin strategy End strategy N Mean Std. dev.
Low Closed Closed 45 3.14 1.12
CP 47 4.86 1.35
Open 47 4.06 1.36
CP Closed 44 4.11 1.04
CP 49 4.17 1.34
Open 50 4.13 1.38
High Closed Closed 42 6.58 0.91
CP 47 6.75 0.90
Open 50 6.21 1.13
CP Closed 43 5.74 1.16
CP 50 6.75 0.72
Open 44 6.59 0.74
change (beginning strategy × ending strategy) is a significant predictor of consumer

attitudes (F(2, 555) = 3.26, p < .05). To determine the nature of the interaction, a two-
way ANOVA was conducted. Within the closed innovation beginning strategy, there
was a significant difference (p < .001) between no change (Mno change = 4.86) and
change to customer participation (Mcustomer participation = 5.80) and a marginally signifi-
cant difference (p < .10) between no change and change to open innovation
(Mopen = 5.14; F(2, 275) = 16.37, p < .001). Within the customer participation beginning
strategy, there was a significant difference (p < .01) between no change (Mno
change = 5.46) and change to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 4.93) and no significant dif-
ference between no change and change to open innovation (Mopen = 5.36; F(2,
277) = 6.03, p < .01). As such, Hypothesis 1 is supported.
Hypothesis 2a suggests when firms possess a low reputation, firms that begin
with a closed innovation strategy will benefit by changing to a customer participa-
tion or open innovation strategy, whereas firms beginning with a customer participa-
tion strategy will not benefit nor be penalized for changing innovation strategy. To
determine the nature of the interaction, a two-way ANOVA test was conducted.
Within the low-reputation and closed innovation beginning strategy group, there
was a significant difference (p < .001) between no change (Mno change = 3.14) and
change to customer participation (Mcustomer participation = 4.86) and a significant differ-
ence (p < .01) between no change and change to open innovation (Mopen = 4.06; F(2,
136) = 20.63, p < .001). Within the low reputation and customer participation begin-
ning strategy, there were no significant differences between no change (Mno
change = 4.11), change to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 4.13), and change to open innova-
tion (Mopen = 4.17; F(2, 140) = 0.03, p > .05). As such, Hypothesis 2a is supported.
Hypothesis 2b suggests when firms possess a high reputation, they will benefit
by continuing their current innovation strategy or not receive penalty for moderately
opening up the innovation process to customers, whereas firms that close the inno-
vation process to customers will be penalized. Within the high-reputation and closed
innovation beginning strategy group, there was no significant difference between no

change (Mno change = 6.58), change to customer participation (Mcustomer participation = 6.75),
and change to open innovation (Mopen = 6.21; F(2, 136) = 3.74, p < .05). However, the
difference between customer participation and open innovation is significant
(p < .05), providing partial support that moderately opening the process with cus-
tomer participation provides greater benefits than moving toward an open innova-
tion strategy from a closed position. Within the high reputation and customer
participation beginning strategy, there was a significant difference (p < .001)
between no change (Mno change = 6.75) and change to a closed strategy (Mclosed = 5.74).
As such, Hypothesis 2b is supported.
Discussion
In this study, it was suggested that when firms change their innovation strategies, it
might be beneficial to open up the innovation process to customers. The results of
the analysis show that when firms start with a closed innovation strategy and open
the innovation process to customers, consumers may perceive the brand as more
attractive, more so when the firm undergoes moderate change to a customer partici-
pation strategy. The results also show that changing from a closed innovation strat-
egy to an open innovation strategy may provide benefit, albeit the differences were
marginally significant. In contrast, when firms start with a customer participation
strategy and close the innovation process to develop products strictly internally, it
decreases consumer attitudes toward the brand. The results show that the firm
receives no benefit in regard to consumer attitudes when it changes from a customer
participation strategy to an open innovation strategy, suggesting that the voice of the
customer is satisfied when firms have a mixed strategy of internal R&D and cus-
tomer integration.
Additional results show that innovation reputation moderates the strategic change
relationship and consumer attitudes. Firms that have a low reputation and begin
with a closed innovation strategy may benefit by undergoing either moderate or
extreme change to integrate customers into the NPD process. The results also show
that a customer participation strategy is preferred when a firm has a low reputation
and has built that reputation using closed innovation processes. In regard to having
a low reputation and having built that reputation on a customer participation strat-
egy, strategy changes do not influence how the brand is perceived. Consumers may
believe that the firm has already used its own resources and capabilities coupled
with external knowledge sources, so regardless of which direction the firm takes
after developing a low reputation with a customer participation strategy, strategic
change does not matter. Finally, highly reputable firms that begin with a closed
strategy are not penalized or rewarded for undergoing strategic change. These firms
may continue with their closed strategy.
Substantively, the results show that opening the innovation process can benefit
firms by way of increasing consumer attitudes. Moreover, firms with a low
reputation that currently adopt a closed innovation strategy have much to benefit by
opening up the innovation process to customers, either at moderate or extreme lev-
els of change. Firms with a low reputation that currently use customers in the inno-
vation process may not benefit from strategic change, but they still ascertain higher
consumer attitudes than firms that built their low innovation reputation using a
closed innovation strategy and not changing their course of action.
Appendix
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Value Destruction in Multichannel
Services: An Abstract
Ilaria Dalla Pozza, Julie Robson, and Jillian Farquhar
Abstract Research into the delivery of services through multiple channels has
revealed the importance of channel integration, the design of the service experience
(Patrício et al. 2008) and service/integration quality (Sousa and Voss 2006). At the
same time, instances of misalignment between customer expectations and service
failures have equally been noted (Banerjee 2014). Multichannel services are con-
cerned with the creation of value (Payne and Frow 2004), where customers and
firms integrate their resources (Pinho et al. 2014; Vargo and Lusch 2004). There is
extensive research on value creation but considerably less on how value might be
destroyed (Echeverri and Skålén 2011; Plé and Cáceres 2010). In value co-creation,
customers are producers (Ramaswamy and Ozcan 2018) who define their roles in
accordance with other actors within a service system (Akaka et al. 2013; Brodie
et al. 2006), such as a multichannel service system (MSS). If the elements of co-
creation are not well understood by all the actors within the system, then value may
be destroyed rather than created (Plé and Cáceres 2010). Value destruction has been
described as the misuse of resources by an actor within the system (Plé and Cáceres
2010), which may be accidental or intentional but arises owing to an asymmetry
embedded in the interactions (Edvardsson et al. 2011). The misalignments referred
to above may be examples of such asymmetries. The purpose of this investigation is
therefore to empirically explore how these misalignments or asymmetries might
destroy value in MSS.
To address the purpose of the study, qualitative data were generated through 26
in-depth interviews with life, general and health insurance managers in France.
Using a semi-structured guide, interviews were conducted in French, face-to-face,
I. D. Pozza
IPAG, Paris, France
e-mail: ilaria.dallapozza@ipag.fr
J. Robson
Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
e-mail: jrobson@bournemouth.ac.uk
J. Farquhar (*)
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
e-mail: farquharj@gibs.co.za

282 I. D. Pozza et al.
lasting up to 90 min. The analysis of the interview transcriptions followed familiar

protocols of coding, categorising and identifying themes (Miles and Huberman
1994; Patton 2002), which were enfolded with the literature (Eisenhardt 1989).
During this iterative process, a framework of value destruction in multichannel ser-
vices emerged that consisted of an interrelated set of misalignments including lack
of trust, product complexity and the customer path (an in vivo category).
While the focus on multichannel management lies understandably on how value
can be co-created with actors (Payne and Frow 2004), understanding how value can
be destroyed through misalignments in the systems also advances theory in this
domain. This preliminary framework of value destruction points to three areas of
misalignment in MSS: lack of trust, product complexity and the customer path, all
of which resonate with theoretical contributions in related areas.
Keywords Co-creation · Value destruction · Multi-channel · Insurance

Women Leaders and Firm Performance:
Unpacking the Effect of Gender and Trust:
An Abstract
Carri Reisdorf Tolmie, Kevin Lehnert, and Carol M. Sánchez
Abstract This paper explores the role of gender and its influence on the
relationship between trust and organizational performance as well as on the per-
ception of women as managers. As we recognize the barriers implicit in gender
roles, this research helps to highlight the need to build greater trust in leadership
and organizations. Understanding how differently men perceive women, compared
to how women perceive women, is key to achieving the levels of trust, confidence,
and support for the organization’s strategic initiatives. We argue that the more pos-
itive the perception of women as managers, the stronger the relationship between
trust and organizational performance and that this relationship is moderated
by gender.
Utilizing a sample of 321 business managers and executives from Mexico and
Peru, results indicate that organizational trust does lead to stronger perceived per-
formance, and this relationship is mediated by the employee’s perception of women
as mangers. Interestingly, this mediation only holds for male employees, with
female employees having a direct relationship between trust and performance. As
such when men have a lower perception of women as managers, this has a negative
mediating effect upon their perception of firm performance. The perception of
women as managers by women neither strengthens nor weakens the relationship
between trust and performance.
The results of this study offer valuable insight for managers in both emerging
markets and developed countries, as they work toward increasing and utilizing
C. R. Tolmie (*)
e-mail: ctolmie2@elon.edu
K. Lehnert · C. M. Sánchez
Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
e-mail: lehnertk@gvsu.edu; sanchezc@gvsu.edu

284 C. R. Tolmie et al.
rm-
fi level trust, expanding on the role of women as leaders, and the overall
performance of their firm to create a sound and ethical environment for all employ-
ees to contribute and prosper.
Keywords Gender · Trust · Women as managers · Firm performance

Online Sensory Marketing:
The Crossmodal Effect of Background
Music and the Look and Feel of a Webshop
on Consumer Reactions
Carmen Adams and Lieve Doucé
Abstract When consumers shop online, it is primarily their visual sense that is being trig-
gered. With technology under development to also provide an experience in the olfactory,
taste, and haptic sense, this paper investigates the added value of background music in the
online store environment. In particular, a study is conducted with three conditions: a no
music condition, a condition with music which is crossmodally incongruent with the
online store environment, and a condition with music crossmodally congruent with the
online store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the crossmodal correspon-
dences (i.e., the tendency of one sensory attribute to be associated with an attribute in
another sense) that are shared between the music and the online store environment.
Although both musical pieces used were considered as pleasant, consumer reactions were
not more positive when compared to the no music condition. Interestingly, the value of the
money spent in the no music condition was significantly higher than in both musical condi-
tions. The incongruent music condition, however, did lead to significantly lower consumer
reactions for the other variables measured (i.e., pleasure, arousal, and store environment
evaluation) when compared to the no music and congruent music condition.
Keywords Music · Cross-modal correspondences · Cross-modal congruency ·

Online store
Introduction
In 2015, Overmars and Poels stated that in the current retailing landscape, the ques-
tion is no longer whether a company should be online or not, but how a retailer can
optimally market their offerings online. This specific branch of marketing, online
C. Adams (*) · L. Doucé

Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
e-mail: carmen.adams@uhasselt.be; lieve.douce@uhasselt.be

286 C. Adams and L. Doucé
retailing, can be defined as “adopting digital technology and the Internet to enable
the buying and selling process and transactions” (Okonkwo 2010, p. 20).
In a traditional online environment, the retailer can (only) make use of two sen-
sory channels to offer his customer an optimal experience: the visual sense and the
auditory sense. Eroglu et al. (2001) developed a conceptual model, based on the
stimulus–organism–response paradigm, where the function of various site stimuli in
the online shopping environment is described. According to their model and sup-
ported by more recent research (e.g., Ha and Lennon 2011), online stimuli primarily
targeting the visual sense (e.g., color, images, …) can influence consumers’ affec-
tive and cognitive response, which in turn influences their approach behavior.
A major concern and barrier for online shoppers is, however, the fact that the
properties of a product cannot be inspected by the olfactory sense, the haptic sense,
and the taste sense (Van Kerrebroeck et al. 2017). This issue is particularly present
for products that are characterized by experience attributes (Weathers et al. 2007).
According to various researchers (e.g., Rosa and Malter 2003; Ha and Lennon 2011;
Van Kerrebroeck et al. 2017), this shortage of sensory input when shopping online
results in a less complete mental image of the product and consequently a higher
perceived risk associated with the purchase which in turn results in a lower intention
to purchase.
To compensate for this shortage of sensory input, an online retailer has two
options: (1) optimally engaging the available senses (i.e., the visual and the auditory
sense) or (2) making use of technological advances to offer an experience in the
olfactory sense, the haptic sense, or the taste sense. An example of such a techno-
logical advancement is the haptic tablet, which makes use of ultrasonic waves and
on-skin actuators (i.e., usage of electric forces) to simulate weight, texture, or shape
(Van Kerrebroeck et al. 2017). The current state of these technological advances,
however, is still underdeveloped and not yet widespread or common practice.
In this paper, we therefore aim to further examine if and how the available senses
can be employed more optimally. In particular, we will explore the possibility to
include an auditory cue in the online store environment to enhance consumer reac-
tions (e.g., increase the degree of pleasure experienced while shopping in this online
store environment). If consumers are indeed pleased by online atmospheric cues,
they evaluate online shopping more favorable and perceive less risk (Ha and
Lennon 2011).
As auditory cue to be added to the online store environment, background music
was chosen. Several studies have already shown that background music affects con-
sumer behavior in a physical store environment (e.g., Jacob et al. 2009; Krishna
2012). With respect to an online environment, the limited research available indi-
cates a positive effect on consumer reactions may be expected when adding music,
which is pleasant and fits the theme of the online store environment (Cheng
et al. 2009).
To elaborate our understanding of adding background music to an online
environment, the research presented in this paper investigates whether the positive
Online Sensory Marketing 287
effect of background music is, besides pleasantness and fit with the theme of the
online store environment, also dependent on a third principle: the degree in
which the background music is crossmodally congruent with the online store
environment.
Crossmodal congruency, as defined by Adams and Doucé (2017), refers to the
degree in which two stimuli share a set of crossmodal correspondences (i.e., the
tendency of one sensory modality to be matched with another sensory modality). In
other words, a certain sensorial stimulus (e.g., background music) might elicit an
expectation in the other senses. For example, a specific musical piece might trigger
the expectation of sweetness due to its soft notes and tempo. If the online store
environment also triggers this expectation of sweetness, due to for example the
colors or font used in the online store environment, then both stimuli share this
crossmodal correspondence and are thus crossmodally congruent for this particular
correspondence.
Adams and Doucé (2017) presented in their work a set of 11 sensorial properties
(e.g., cold vs. hot, soft vs. hard, loud vs. quiet, …), which are part of the crossmodal
congruency index (i.e., CMCI). The index was used to measure the elicited cross-
modal correspondences for an actual store environment as well as a set of scents.
Next, two scents were selected that were equal in perceived pleasantness and fit
with the theme of the store but opposite in their crossmodal congruency with the
actual store environment. In particular, the crossmodal congruent scent crossmod-
ally matched the store environment (i.e., both the scent as the store environment
elicited the similar correspondence for the 11 concepts of the CMCI), while the
crossmodal incongruent scent elicited the opposite correspondence than the store
environment. The results indicated that the crossmodal congruent scent indeed
leads to more favorable consumer reactions when compared to the crossmodal
incongruent scent.
In this study, we will therefore apply the method of Adams and Doucé (2017) to
the combination of an online store environment and background music. To be spe-
cific, two musical pieces will be sought which are not different from each other in
perceived pleasantness and fit with the theme of the online store environment, but
will differ in their crossmodal congruency with the store environment. After select-
ing the appropriate musical pieces, a main study will be executed, where partici-
pants will shop in the online store environment while being present in one of the
three conditions: (1) a no music condition, (2) a crossmodal incongruent music
condition, and (3) a crossmodal congruent music condition.
Our expectations are, in line with the results of Adams and Doucé (2017), that
both musical conditions will result in more positive consumer reactions that the no
music condition due to the fact that both musical pieces are perceived as pleasant
and fitting with the theme of the store. Furthermore, the crossmodal congruent
music condition will further enhance consumer reactions when compared to the
crossmodal incongruent music condition due to its crossmodal fit with the online
store environment.
Methodology
Crossmodal Profile of Online Store Environment
As online store environment, an online fashion store was chosen. The online store
did not make use of music yet and represented a well-known retail outlet with full
coverage of physical stores in the country where the study was conducted. The
online store primarily sells its own private label and targets men, women, and chil-
dren. To be able to choose the musical piece to be used in the conditions (i.e., cross-
modal incongruent and crossmodal congruent condition), the profile of the online
store environment with respect to elicited crossmodal correspondences is needed. In
addition, the contours of this profile will provide a first idea of which musical pieces
are more likely to be crossmodally incongruent or congruent.
The crossmodal profile of the online environment was measured by use of the
crossmodal congruency index as presented by Adams and Doucé (2017). The cross-
modal congruency index consists of 11 bipolar concepts that refer to a certain cross-
modal correspondence (i.e., expectation in another sense), which might be triggered
by a stimulus (e.g., a store environment, a scent, …). The 11 bipolar concepts rep-
resent sensory attributes in the visual sense, the auditory sense, and the tactile sense
by means of two antonyms (e.g., loud vs. quiet). One of the bipolar concepts was not
exemplified by two words but by use of a visual representation of a rounded shape
(i.e., a spot) versus an angular shape (i.e., a star) in order to determine the elicited
crossmodal correspondence of shape.
Each bipolar concept is measured by means of a 100-mm visual analog scale
(VAS). On this scale, participants had to indicate the degree in which they found the
store environment to match the word on the left side of the scale or the word on the
right side of the scale. The midpoint of the scale was indicated by a small vertical
line and represented a neutral answer for that bipolar concept (i.e., none of the two
words was found to be a match or both words were matched equally). In Table 1, the
11 bipolar concepts and their location on the VAS are listed.
Table 1 Items selected to represent the Crossmodal Congruency Index

First word (left side of VAS) Second word (right side of VAS)
Star-shape Spot-shape
Bright Dim
Cold Hot
Fragile Sturdy
High Low
Light Dark
Light Heavy
Loud Quiet
Rough Smooth
Shallow Deep
Soft Hard
Table 2 Crossmodal profile of online store environment

Bipolar concept Online store environment
M SD
Star versus Spot 62.27∗ 20.77
Bright versus Dim 19.27∗ 13.94
Cold versus Hot 69.93∗ 22.67
Fragile versus Sturdy 50.63 21.02
High versus Low 39.47∗ 20.96
Light versus Dark 19.07∗ 11.94
Light versus Heavy 19.73∗ 12.68
Loud versus Quiet 64.33∗ 20.87
Rough versus Smooth 72.33∗ 12.57
Shallow versus Deep 42.60 20.34
Soft versus Hard 25.83∗ 15.09
∗
Indicates a significant difference from midpoint of scale (i.e., 50) at .05 level
A total of 30 participants (Mage = 20.03; 10 male and 20 female) were recruited

from students attending a medium-sized University offering a wide range of masters
(e.g., Master of Architecture, Master of Biomedical Sciences, Master of
Economics, …). Participants were individually seated in a small office where a
laptop was provided. On the laptop, the homepage of the online store environment
was presented, and the participant could browse freely for 60 s. The participant was
then asked to go back to the homepage and fill in a paper-and-pencil questionnaire
presenting the 11 bipolar concepts on the VAS.
In Table 2, the mean ratings of the online store environment for each bipolar
concept are presented. By means of one-sample t-tests, it was examined whether the
rating on the bipolar concept was significantly different from the midpoint of
the scale (i.e., 50) at a .05 level. If so, then the value of the rating indicates whether
the first word of the bipolar pair was more considered to be a match (i.e., value
below 50) or whether the second word of the pair was more considered to be a
match (i.e., value above 50).
Selection of Musical Pieces
A second pretest was needed to be conducted to find two musical pieces to be used
in the main study: one that crossmodally matches the online store environment and
one that does not crossmodally match the online store environment. Ideally, both
musical pieces should be pleasant, fitting with the type of store (i.e., fashion store
selling clothes and accessories) and should not differ from each other for both crite-
ria (i.e., equal in perceived pleasantness and fit with store). Should this ideal pair of
musical pieces not be found, then the actual value of perceived pleasantness or fit
Table 3 Selected musical pieces to be profiled

Musical piece Expected crossmodal congruency
Title Artist with online store environment
1 Good Time Owl City and Carly Rae Congruent
Jepsen
2 Fireflies Owl City Congruent
3 Call me maybe Carly Rae Jepsen Congruent
4 Don’t worry Madcon ft. Ray Dalton Congruent
5 Libérée, Délivrée La Reine des Neiges Congruent
6 Apologize One Republic Incongruent
7 Stay Rihanna and Mikky Ekko Incongruent
8 Halo Beyoncé Incongruent
9 Chandelier Sia Incongruent
10 Read all about it Emeli Sandé Incongruent
may be neutral provided the values of both musical pieces are not significantly dif-
ferent from each other (e.g., both musical pieces are neutral in perceived pleasant-
ness and are not significant different from each other with respect to perceived
pleasantness).
The crossmodal profile of the online store environment was utilized as a prelimi-
nary selection tool for the musical pieces to be profiled. In particular, 10 musical
pieces belonging to the same type of musical genre (i.e., popular music) were cho-
sen (see Table 3) of which 5 were expected to be crossmodally congruent (i.e., elicit
the same crossmodal correspondences as the online store environment) and the
other 5 were expected to be crossmodally incongruent (i.e., elicit the opposite cross-
modal correspondence as the online store environment). Of all musical pieces, the
instrumental version (i.e., no lyrics) was chosen.
A second set of 30 respondents was thus recruited from the student population of
the same university (Mage = 19.60; 15 male and 15 female). Participants were asked
to enter the same experimental room where a laptop was present. On the laptop, the
10 musical pieces were presented to the participant in a randomized order.
Participants were, while listening to the music, asked to rate each musical piece on
the elicitation of the 11 bipolar concepts presented on a VAS as well as to rate each
piece on a 7-point Likert-type scale concerning its perceived pleasantness and its
perceived fit with a fashion store.
The profiles of the 10 musical pieces were first analyzed in order to identify those
musical pieces that are considered to be unpleasant or unfitting. Based on the mean
rating on perceived pleasantness and perceived fit as well as one-sample t-tests
(Table 4), it was decided to eliminate musical piece six due to its neutral rating on
perceived pleasantness (M = 4.43, t(29) = 1.535, p = .14) and musical piece nine due
to its significant negative fit (M = 3.27, t((29) = −2.420, p = .02).
The crossmodal profile of the remaining eight musical pieces was subsequently
compared to the crossmodal profile of the online store environment. In line with the
calculation method of Adams and Doucé (2017), a crossmodal congruency score
Table 4 Perceived pleasantness and fit of musical pieces

Pleasantness Fit
Musical piece M (SD) M (SD)
1 5.67 (.88)∗ 4.33 (1.27)
2 5.27 (1.57)∗ 4.27 (1.51)
3 5.27 (1.68)∗ 5.33 (1.49)∗
4 5.50 (1.28)∗ 5.03 (1.54)∗
5 5.37 (1.33)∗ 4.27 (1.78)
6 4.43 (1.55) 3.70 (1.49)
7 5.43 (1.28)∗ 3.63 (1.54)
8 5.47 (.94)∗ 4.37 (1.35)
9 5.17 (1.09)∗ 3.27 (1.66)∗
10 5.90 (.84)∗ 3.53 (1.46)
∗
Indicates a significant difference from midpoint of scale
(i.e., 4) at .05 level
Table 5 Calculated Crossmodal Congruency Score sorted from most

congruent (i.e., lowest score) to least congruent (i.e., highest score)
Online store environment compared
to musical piece … Crossmodal congruency score
1 8.64
5 9.82
2 11.60
4 16.34
3 16.41
8 17.89
10 20.95
7 21.29
was calculated, which represents the degree of congruency between the musical
piece and the online store environment. This score was calculated by summing up
the absolute difference between the rating of the online store environment and the
rating of the musical piece for each of the 11 bipolar concepts and dividing this sum
by 11 (see Table 5 for the calculated crossmodal congruency scores sorted from
most congruent to least congruent). The resulting score represents the average mag-
nitude of the absolute difference in rating and consequently the lower the score, the
more crossmodally congruent the musical piece and the online store environ-
ment are.
Based upon the crossmodal congruency scores and the perceived pleasantness
and fit of each musical piece, the ideal pair of musical pieces needed to be found. In
particular, the two musical pieces selected should represent opposite ends of the
crossmodal congruency score while not being different from each other in perceived
pleasantness and fit. Paired-samples t-testing revealed that musical piece 1 and
musical piece 8 met these criteria. Both pieces were equally pleasant (M1 = 5.67,
M8 = 5.47, t(29) = 1.030, p = .31) as well as equally neutral on perceived fit

(M1 = 4.33, M8 = 4.37, t(29) = −.095, p = .93). Musical piece 1 was thus selected as
the crossmodal congruent musical piece, and musical piece 8 was selected as the
crossmodal incongruent musical piece. In other words, reflecting upon the expected
crossmodal congruency (Table 3), the position of both pieces is accordingly con-
firmed in the actual ratings.
Procedure, Participants, and Dependent Variables
In the main study, there were three conditions: (a) no music condition, (b) a pleasant
crossmodally incongruent music condition, and (c) a pleasant crossmodally congru-
ent music condition.
A total of 120 students (Mage = 20.16; 52 male and 68 female) were recruited
from the same university as the sample of the pretests and were randomly allocated
to one of the three conditions. Each participant was placed individually in the same
office as where the data of the pretests was collected. Each participant was placed
behind the same laptop with as start screen the homepage of the online store envi-
ronment. First, they were asked to perform a shopping task (i.e., compose an outfit
for a night on the town with friends for a maximum budget of 200 euros). After
completion of the shopping task, the participants were asked to fill in a paper-and-
pencil questionnaire. The questionnaire measured six dependent variables. To
enhance comparability, the selected dependent variables were in line with the
dependent variables as used by Adams and Doucé (2017).
First, by means of 7-point Likert-type scales, pleasure experienced as well as
arousal experienced was measured by the items as defined in the Pleasure Arousal
Dominance Scale of Mehrabian and Russell (1974). In particular, pleasure experi-
enced was measured by six items (i.e., happy/unhappy, pleased/annoyed, satisfied/
dissatisfied, contended/melancholic, hopeful/despairing, and relaxed/bored) and
summated into one measurement (α = .89). For arousal, the measured six items (i.e.,
sluggish/frenzied, dull/jittery, sleepy/wide awake, unaroused/aroused, calm/excited,
and relaxed/stimulated) were also summated into one measurement (α = .76).
Second, the evaluation of the store environment was measured by 14 items (mean
of 14 items, α = .95): the 13 items of the environment quality scale (i.e., unattract-
ive/attractive, tense/relaxed, uncomfortable/comfortable, closed/open, depressing/
cheerful, drab/colorful, negative/positive, boring/stimulating, bad/good, dull/bright,
unlively/lively, unmotivating/motivating, and uninteresting/interesting) of Fisher
(1974) combined with the item of pleasantness, which Spangenberg et al. (1996)
and Mattila and Wirtz (2001) advised to be added. All items were measured by
7-point Likert-type scales.
Third, the customers’ overall assessment of the store was measured by 5 items on
7-point Likert-type scales (i.e., bad/good, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive,
outdated/modern, and nice/not nice; summated scale; α = .90). The five items were
adapted from the study of Spangenberg et al. (1996).
Table 6 Summary of one-way ANOVAs and post hoc tests

M (SD)
No music Incongruent Congruent
Dependent variables F (2,117) p (a) music (b) music (c)
Pleasure experienced 2.54 .08 5.32b 4.88a 5.20
(.67) (1.04) (.92)
Arousal experienced 3.72 .03 3.83 3.48c 4.00b
(.84) (.89) (.89)
Store environment 2.52 .09 5.31 4.98c 5.39b
evaluation (.75) (1.06) (.81)
Store evaluation 1.80 .17 5.52 5.35 5.68
(.70) (.81) (.85)
Approach behavior .07 .94 4.59 4.66 4.61
(1.04) (.86) (.77)
Money spent 4.78 .01 164.43bc 144.197a 142.13a
(42.37) (31.54) (31.92)
Note: superscripts indicate a significant difference at p < .10
The final and fourth measurement concerned the degree of approach behavior of
the participants. This behavior was measured by eight statements on 7-point Likert-
type scales. The chosen statements were in line with the study of Donovan and
Rossiter (1982) which extended on the work done by Mehrabian and Russell (1974).
Based on factor and reliability analysis, the item “I spend more money than origi-
nally planned” was not included in the summated scale (mean of 7 statements;
α = .86).
In addition to the data collected from the questionnaire, the intended value of
money to be spent (i.e., the total value of the shopping cart after completion of the
shopping task) was registered for each participant separately.
Results
For each dependent variable (i.e., pleasure experienced, arousal experienced, store
environment evaluation, store evaluation, approach behavior, and money spent), a
one-way ANOVA was conducted with the condition as between-subjects factor. The
assumption of equal variances was not violated for any of the dependent variables.
If a significant main effect was found, post hoc comparisons were executed. If the
found relationship was in line with the expectations, no correction was made for
post hoc comparisons and LSD p values are reported. If the found relationship was
not in line with the expectations, Bonferroni-corrected p values are reported. Due to
the exploratory nature of this study, p values are reported at a .10 level. A compre-
hensive overview of the results appears in Table 6.
Results show a significant main effect for all variables except store evaluation
(F(2;117) = 1.80, p = .17) and approach behavior (F(2;117) = .07, p = .94). When
comparing the actual ratings, however, the expected relationship (i.e., lowest rating
in the no music condition, highest rating in the congruent music condition) was not
found for any of the variables with a significant main effect. To be specific, albeit
both musical pieces were considered to be pleasant and neutral on fit with the online
store environment, the incongruent music condition leads to the least favorable rat-
ing for most of the variables. Furthermore, although the exact value of the congruent
music condition was higher when compared to the no music condition for arousal
experienced, store environment evaluation, store evaluation, and approach behavior,
there was no significant difference between the no music condition and the congru-
ent music condition for these variables.
The no music condition did differ significantly with the incongruent music con-
dition with respect to pleasure experienced (i.e., a significant lower degree of plea-
sure experienced in the incongruent music condition when compared to the no
music condition, p = .09). Furthermore, the no music condition differed signifi-
cantly with both music conditions concerning the value of money to be spent. In
particular, the value of the money spent was in both music conditions significantly
lower (i.e., no music condition vs. incongruent music condition: p = .04; no music
condition vs. congruent music condition: p = .02).
Finally, the congruent and incongruent music condition differed significantly
from each other in favor of congruent music condition with respect to arousal expe-
rienced (p = .01) and store environment evaluation (p = .09).
Discussion
The aim of this study was to examine whether congruency with respect to crossmo-
dal correspondences between background music played in an online store environ-
ment and the online store environment itself might offer an online retailer with a
means to more optimally engage the available senses in an online retail environ-
ment. Based on the results of the study presented, two main conclusions can
be drawn.
First, for this study the usage of pleasant background music did not appear to
enhance consumer reactions when compared to the situation when no background
music is played. This result needs to be reframed within a limitation of this study, in
particular that the musical pieces were neutral in perceived fit with the theme of the
store. Positive effects of background music on consumer reactions in online and
offline store environment were confirmed in previous research (i.e., Jacob et al.
2009; Cheng et al. 2009) when the music added was pleasant and fitting. In this
study, where the music was only pleasant, the mere pleasantness of the music
seemed to be insufficient to generate more positive consumer reactions. Additionally,
for the duration of the shopping task participants were asked to execute, the selected
song was played in a loop on the background. It could thus be that certain
participants, who had not finished the task within the duration of the song played
once, experienced annoyance when they were subjected to the same song twice or
even a third time.
Second, although no straightforward advantage of using crossmodally congruent
background music presented itself, an in-depth analysis of the results does point to
a possible added value. While the crossmodal congruent music condition did not
outperform the no music condition, the crossmodal incongruent music condition did
lead to significant less favorable results for the pleasure experienced (when com-
pared to the no music condition) and for arousal experienced and store environment
evaluation (when compared to the congruent music condition). If crossmodal con-
gruency would not exert any influence, then it would be expected that the crossmo-
dal congruent condition, similar to the crossmodal incongruent condition, would
also differ significantly from the no music condition. This was, however, not found,
and consequently the added value of crossmodal congruency for background music
in online store environments warrants further research.
For retailers, the results of this study indicate no specific benefit of using back-
ground music in an online store environment. Should a retailer consider adding
background music, the music is advised to be pleasant, fitting with the theme of the
online store environment and crossmodally congruent with the online store
environment.
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Do Salespeople Trust their Customers?
Toward an Understanding of Trust in B2B
Relationships under Uncertainty:
An Abstract
Maria Rouziou, Itzhak Gilboa, Dominique Rouziès, and Riley Dugan
Abstract Trust is a fundamental concept in relationships, between humans and

organizations alike. It has been noted that trust is essential to almost all business
transactions (B2B or B2C); moreover, trust is essential to internal organizational
aspects as well. Management scholars define trust as the willingness to be vulnera-
ble to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will per-
form a particular action important to the trustor. This definition, although consistent
with the Trust Game in experimental economics, accounts for reciprocity; yet, it
fails to account for high risk or uncertainty. For instance, there are cases where the
trustor trusts the trustee in a generalized sense without anticipating concrete actions
from the trustee.
The purpose of this study is to extend management and economics insights by
providing a clearer definition of the concept of trust by distinguishing two different
types; “trust under risk” and “trust under uncertainty.” To lend support to our con-
tentions, we seek evidence from salespeople and customers relationships, a com-
plex business relational context reflecting the two aspects of trust (e.g., “salesperson
A trusts customer B to close the deal” vs. “salesperson A trusts customer B”).
Moreover, we model trust by relying on insight from experimental economics and
decision theory in order to enhance our understanding of when and how trust is
generated and how it can be maintained, lost, or regained when prior beliefs cannot
M. Rouziou (*)
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
e-mail: mrouziou@wlu.ca
I. Gilboa · D. Rouziès
HEC Paris, Jouy-en-Josas, France
e-mail: gilboa@hec.fr; rouzies@hec.fr
R. Dugan
Dayton University, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: rdugan1@udayton.edu

298 M. Rouziou et al.
be postulated. Further, we attempt to link the different types of trust with

salespeople’s utility outcomes, such as job satisfaction, job embeddedness, and ulti-
mately, individual (subjective and objective) performance.
Keywords Trust · Uncertainty · Risk · Salespeople · Decision theory · Sales

performance

Proposing a Framework of Observe–
Hypothesize–Challenge–Resolve (OHCR)
Teaching Moves for Knowledge
Construction in Marketing Pedagogy:
An Abstract
R. Ranjit Raj and Ashutosh Dutt
Abstract Despite common knowledge now that key to learner engagement is ask-
ing high cognitive-level questions, why is it still, even after a hundred years of
research on teacher questioning, hard for practitioners to ask them enough times in
class? Its practical root cause, the authors observe, is that current best practices
seem to address and also add value to the beginner practitioner concerned about
their survival in class. However, once these practitioners believe they can survive,
once they have their planned questions in place, they start moving to build compe-
tence in spontaneous questioning, the current best practices, because they were
learnt as a beginner, seem self-evident. What practitioners are then left with is a
planning-centered scripted approach to questioning, a proliferation of classifica-
tions of questions, or a broad description of questioning styles, the knowing of
which still does not reveal the elusive pattern of moves that one senses is being
spontaneously performed by experienced practitioners in class. This gap, this lack
of clarity in the discourse moves behind spontaneous high-cognitive level questions,
the authors observe, is the conceptual root cause of why emerging practitioners find
such questioning hard to sustain in class.
Interestingly, research in classroom discourse analysis offers great clarity in the
questioning pattern of discourse moves underlying low learner engagement: the IRF
pattern, expanded as Initiate, Respond, Feedback. Modeled along the same IRF pat-
tern, derived from constructivist theory, conceptualized by inductive reflection,
practicalized by the categories of the ARCS Motivational Instructional Design
Model, and validated by the Interaction Analysis Model for sustaining knowledge
The authors thank Prof. Siddharth Deshmukh, MICA, Ahmedabad, India, for germinating the
research without which the model would not have been possible.
R. Ranjit Raj · A. Dutt (*)

MICA, Ahmedabad, India
e-mail: ranjit17@micamail.in; ashutosh.dutt@micamail.in

300 R. Ranjit Raj and A. Dutt
construction discourse, the authors identify and propose a pattern made of four
fundamental discourse moves underlying high learner engagement: the OHCR pat-
tern, expanded as Observe, Hypothesize, Challenge, Resolve. As a framework, the
OHCR model offers a method to plan the discussion around high cognitive-level
questions, and as thumb rule, the model offers a principle for spontaneous question-
ing, hence flexibly appealing to both the planner and the spontaneity-seeking prac-
titioner. Applications in concepts across their variety and implications by way of (1)
a pre-lecture do-confirm checklist for beginners, and (2) discourse visualization
software to offer practitioner feedback at scale, are discussed.
Keywords Discourse move · Questioning technique · Constructivism ·

Engagement

The Effect of the User Experience Cycle
on the Adoption of Smart Technologies
for Innovative Consumers: The Case
of Mass-fashion and Luxury Wearables:
An Abstract
Marzena Nieroda, Mona Mrad, Michael Solomon, and Charles Cui
Abstract Smart technologies, such as wearables, represent an attractive innovation

that many companies still perceive as a way to build competitive advantage. This is
exemplified by the recent launch of the Apple Watch Series 4 and the Gen 4
Smartwatch by Fossil, among others. However, due to the short product life cycle of
such devices and weaker than anticipated consumer adoption, manufacturers find it
even more important now to overcome those challenges and convince customers
their products are useful and desirable.
Traditionally, the way to encourage adoption of new products was to target inno-
vators, those who are most likely to purchase and use novelty products (Rogers
1995; Im et al. 2003; Im et al. 2007). Innovators are crucial in encouraging adoption
of new products, as they are not only more likely to purchase them but are also
likely to wear those products, use them, and build interest about them (Agarwal and
Prasad 1998). Consequently, to enable marketers to facilitate further diffusion of
smart technologies, we need to understand the cognitive processes that underlie
positive user experiences of this specific group, the experiences that are likely to
M. Nieroda (*)
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
e-mail: marzena.nieroda@manchester.ac.uk
M. Mrad
Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon
e-mail: mona.mrad@lau.edu.lb
M. Solomon
Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
e-mail: msolom01@sju.edu
C. Cui
University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
e-mail: charles.cui@northumbria.ac.uk

302 M. Nieroda et al.
guide their future decisions (i.e., use or purchase of another device in the future),
and the way adoption is likely to diffuse beyond this segment.
Addressing this research gap, we draw on the consumer behavior, IS, and wear-
ables literatures to develop an innovative user experience cycle model, and propose
how such a process affects use and upgrade intention (replacing a wearable after a
year or two) for wearables. User experience is a type of product knowledge that
consumers learn as a result of using a product for a given amount of time and is
related to knowledge about that product (Raju et al. 1995). We propose that innova-
tive user experiences are affected by individual innovativeness (using the example
of technology and fashion innovativeness) and product type (using example of mass
fashion or luxury). Then, considering those individual and product differences, we
show how perceived ease of use and usefulness together with perceptions of hedonic
value and social self-congruence affect both intention to use and replacement
(upgrade) of a wearable.
Keywords Technology · Wearables · Fashion · Luxury · Innovation ·

Experience cycle

Do Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds?
Examining the Role of a Product’s
Packaging Functionality on Consumer
Behavior: An Abstract
Christian V. Baccarella, Lukas Maier, Anna-Laura Himmelreich,

and Kai-Ingo Voigt
Abstract Despite an apparent scarcity of studies on the role of packaging design in

innovation and marketing research (Luchs et al. 2016), integrating a practical func-
tionality into a packaging can enhance the whole consumer experience of how prod-
ucts are used. Within the product design literature, functionality has been described
as a set of potential benefits that a product delivers to the user during consumption
(Ziamou and Ratneshwar 2003). However, looking at the majority of studies that
focus on product packaging functions and their associated benefits, it becomes obvi-
ous that this notion of packaging functionality is characterized by an inherent pas-
sivity that is not connected with the act of using a product, implying a very narrow
understanding of package functionality.
We propose that packaging functionality can have two roles: First, packaging
functionality can be passive, meaning that the benefits stemming from the packag-
ing are not directly linked to the goals associated with the actual consumption of the
product. Second, package functionality can be active, implying that the packaging
itself holds a functionality that actively supports users in achieving their consump-
tion goals. The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of active packaging
functionality and to provide first empirical evidence on how it influences consum-
ers’ product and firm evaluations. In order to achieve our research goals, we present
two experimental studies. The first study tests the influence of active packaging
functionality (vs. passive packaging functionality) in an online setting (n = 230,
63.9% female; M = 32.67 years). In our second study, we use a point-of-sale experi-
mental setting to validate and further explore the role of active packaging function-
ality (n = 125, 63.3% female; M = 39.61 years).
C. V. Baccarella · L. Maier (*) · A.-L. Himmelreich · K.-I. Voigt

Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
e-mail: christian.baccarella@fau.de; lukas.maier@fau.de; anna-laura.himmelreich@fau.de;
kai-ingo.voigt@fau.de

304 C. V. Baccarella et al.
Our results show that active packaging functionality leads to more positive prod-
uct perceptions and to increased purchase intention. Moreover, our findings show
that active packaging functionality was associated with a perceived higher innova-
tion ability of the offering firm.
Keywords Consumer behavior · Packaging · Functionality · Gestalt theory ·

Product design

An Abstract on Evaluating the Use
of Curated Digital Magazines in Marketing
Courses: A Comparative Analysis
Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez and Enda McGovern
Abstract The rapid growth of mobile technologies has given rise to the emergence
of applications (apps) that facilitate the creation and dissemination of online content
for educational purposes. Some of these applications allow marketing educators to
curate digital magazines that can extend student learning beyond the classroom. The
use of curated digital magazines can help students better understand class-related
topics by providing them with instant access to recent business content across dif-
ferent platforms (e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers).
Marketing educators can curate their magazines by selecting business articles that
expand the knowledge acquired in the classroom or clarify important class topics.
Given the relevance for educators to embrace technology and find innovative
ways to engage students with class content, this research explores the adoption of
curated digital magazines in marketing courses and their effect on student learning.
This paper evaluates the impact of curated digital magazines in marketing courses
in a three-stage analysis. Study 1 focuses on understanding students’ attitudes, per-
ceptions, and evaluations of the tool during the implementation phase. Study 2
evaluates the effect of curated digital magazines on students’ engagement, enjoy-
ment, and learning relative to the use of traditional (paper-based) class materials.
Following up on these findings, study 3 proposes and evaluates a model of the
impact of instructional media on student learning by using structural equation mod-
eling (SEM) analysis.
Overall, students responded positively to the adoption of the digital magazine in
their classes. The use of curated digital magazines in marketing classes (a) sparked
students’ curiosity and interest, (b) increased their engagement with class content,
(c) provided a learning experience beyond the classroom, and (d) offered them an
extended accessibility through different devices. Furthermore, the use of digital
C. Luna-Nevarez (*)
Texas A&M University—San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
e-mail: cnevarez@tamusa.edu
E. McGovern
Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, USA
e-mail: mcgoverne@sacredheart.edu

306 C. Luna-Nevarez and E. McGovern
magazines increased students’ learning, engagement, and enjoyment relative to tra-

ditional (paper-based) class materials. Analyses for the third study, which evaluates
a model of the impact of instructional media on student learning, are still in progress.
Curated digital magazines represent a novel way to increase students’ engage-
ment with class content through a platform that is convenient, innovative, entertain-
ing, and educational. For marketing educators, a curated digital magazine can
facilitate their explanation of class concepts by connecting them to current events.
As demonstrated by this research, app-based digital magazines have a positive
impact on students’ enjoyment, engagement, and learning. Thus, marketing educa-
tors may benefit from implementing this tool in their classes.
Keywords Digital magazines · Curation · Marketing · Apps · Digital pedagogy

Special Session: Looking for a New
Research Partner: Find your Perfect
“Researcher Match”: An Abstract
Janna Parker and Hyunju Shin
Abstract After completing a doctoral program, many researchers find that they
need to find new research collaborators. Their former professors will have new stu-
dents to mentor, and at small institutions, they may not find colleagues with similar
research interests. Conferences can provide networking opportunities to assist with
solving this problem. Yet, sometimes, conditions may make it difficult for these
connections to occur.
The purpose of this special session is to provide an opportunity for researchers,
and specifically those who are new to the field, to connect with other researchers
who share an interest in specific areas. Researchers will select two topics of interest
as they arrive. The session will be composed of three rounds in which all will par-
ticipate in “research circles” with other interested researchers. Groups will be
formed for e-commerce, social media, advertising and IMC, consumer behavior,
ethics and sustainability, nonprofit and public policy, services and retailing, and
branding, among others. The goal of this special session is to facilitate the making
of new research-related connections.
Keywords Research · Marketing research · Special session · Networking
J. Parker (*)
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA
e-mail: parke4jm@jmu.edu
H. Shin
e-mail: hshin@georgiasouthern.edu

Revising the Concept and Effectiveness
of the Customer Orientation
of Salespeople: An Abstract
Desirée Jost and Alexander Haas
Abstract More than 35 years after its introduction to the sales literature, a sales-
person’s customer orientation is still a key concern of managers and researchers
alike. While scholars and managers have assumed a positive relationship between
salesperson customer orientation and performance, extant research does not provide
evidence for a consistent relationship. To date, research cannot explain why.
Why does salesperson customer orientation not consistently increase perfor-
mance? Drawing on in-depth interviews with 39 purchasing and 40 sales experts
from various B2B industries, the study illustrates that more research is needed to
fully understand the conceptualization of a salesperson’s customer orientation and
its relationship with performance outcomes as well as possible moderators. Although
previous research has refined the conceptualization of a salesperson’s customer ori-
entation to include a psychological aspect, little has been done to broaden our
understanding of the behaviors that customer-oriented salespeople engage in. Our
research expands on previous conceptualizations and outlines the importance of
previously neglected customer-oriented behaviors after a deal has been closed.
Second, our research addresses the effectiveness of a customer-oriented selling
approach by outlining its negative impact on a customer’s perceived level of risk
and its positive impact on the formation of trust. By doing so, we provide a theoreti-
cal mechanism to explain how a salesperson’s customer orientation influences per-
formance outcomes in the short- and long term. Third, this study reveals the need to
carefully examine contextual factors that have an impact on a customer’s perceived
level of risk and the formation of trust and thus the relationship between customer
orientation and performance. Saxe and Weitz (1982) already proclaimed the impor-
tance of accounting for situational factors in analyzing the relationship between
customer orientation and performance. However, since then little has been done to
investigate potential moderators.
D. Jost (*) · A. Haas

Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
e-mail: desiree.jost@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de; alexander.haas@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de

310 D. Jost and A. Haas
Given the great investment in, and high managerial focus on, salespeople’s cus-
tomer orientation, we urge managers to reconsider the link between a salesperson’s
customer orientation and performance. We provide a set of behaviors that can sup-
port a customer-oriented selling approach after the sales encounter with the custom-
ers. We further encourage salespeople and companies to place a stronger focus on
situational factors. In some situations, the customer’s perceived level of risk is rather
low, he or she is not interested in a business relationship, and a customer-oriented
selling approach is less effective. While in other situations, a salesperson’s customer
orientation becomes more important to reduce the customer’s perceived level of risk
and build trust as the basis for a business relationship with the supplier.
Keywords Customer orientation · Salesperson performance · Perceived risk ·

Trust · Situational factors

Value from Experiences and Customer
Happiness: Implications for Customer
Experience Management: An Abstract
J. Joško Brakus, Yi-Chun Ou, and Lia Zarantonello
Abstract Offering a strong customer experience gives companies a difficult-to-

copy competitive advantage, yet companies often do not understand what customers
gain from such an experience in return. We posit that customers derive different
types of perceived value as they go through an experience, which contributes to
customer happiness and, in turn, positively affects desired customer experience
management (CEM) outcomes. We test a proposed model that links customer expe-
rience to CEM outcomes (e.g., customer recommendation) in service contexts (a
gym and four airlines). Six types of perceived value (functional, escapist, fantasy,
intellectual, self-image, and status signaling) and two types of customer happiness
(hedonic [experiencing pleasure] and eudaimonic [reaching meaningful goals])
complete the model. Structural equation modeling is the main analytic method. The
results confirm that different experiences create different kinds of perceived value,
which subsequently influence customer happiness in different ways. The results
also show that increasing customer hedonic happiness is the key mechanism through
which managers can improve customer recommendation, whereas increasing cus-
tomer eudaimonic happiness improves other CEM outcomes, such as frequency and
loyalty intention. Managers need to be cautious, however, about the role of specific
values in bridging experiences and hedonic happiness. The impact of some values
(e.g., fantasy in a gym, intellectual in an airline) on hedonic happiness could back-
fire. Finally, the length of the relationship between a customer and a firm moderates
the results. For example, customers who have been with the firm for a shorter dura-
tion derive more value in self-image and status-signaling value from brand experi-
ence than those with a longer duration. By contrast, customers with a longer duration
attain more eudaimonic happiness from perceived value in escapist and intellectual
J. J. Brakus · Y.-C. Ou (*)

University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
e-mail: j.brakus@leeds.ac.uk; busyou@leeds.ac.uk
L. Zarantonello
University of Roehampton, London, UK
e-mail: lia.zarantonello@roehampton.ac.uk

312 J. J. Brakus et al.
value than those with a shorter duration. The study provides managers guidance on
how to effectively provide a strong customer experience and improve CEM out-
comes in different service settings.
Keywords Customer experience · Perceived value · Customer happiness ·

Relationship length · Service-dominant logic

How do Customers Respond to the Use
of Self-Service Technologies? An Empirical
Study from China: An Abstract
Qian Xiao, Weiling Zhuang, and Zhongpeng Cao
Abstract The growth of self-service technologies (SST) has continued to change

the nature of services. Many service providers have adopted a wide range of tech-
nologies to allow customers to participate in the service production. Some examples
of self-service technologies (SSTs) include applications such as ATMs, Internet
shopping, self-checkout at airports, and self-pumping at gas stations (Meuter et al.
2000). The SSTs enable both customers and service providers to get and provide
better and efficient services. Despite increasing popularity of this trend, very little
seems to be known about consumers’ perceived challenges when they are involved
in this process. The current research addresses an important question: Do SSTs
always produce better outcomes to customers?
In this study, we suggest that the feeling of powerlessness is an aversive state that
will generate undesirable consequences with the result being a denigration of value
or net negative value for the service experience. Power is one of the most omnipres-
ent forces in customers’ lives. Rucker and Galinsky (2008) show that a state of low
power might signal to customers that they have fewer resources, and such feelings
reduce the amount the customers are willing to spend on products and services. This
research focuses on the impact of SST on the feeling of powerlessness, while
consumer-perceived control and consumer expertise about the technologies are
included to further examine these relationships.
Across three experiments, we found evidence consistent with the notion that
placing consumers into a service environment where only self-service technologies
are available increased their perceived feeling of powerlessness. We believe the
present research offers the following important contributions. The present work pro-
vides one of the first systematic investigations of the effects of SSTs on consumer
Q. Xiao · W. Zhuang (*)

Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA
e-mail: qian.xiao@eku.edu; weiling.zhuang@eku.edu
Z. Cao
Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
e-mail: zpcao@mail.neu.edu.cn

314 Q. Xiao et al.
behavior when important variables such as powerlessness, control, and customer

expertise were included in the research framework. Prior studies on SSTs have
focused on topics that have not examined the important mediation effects of control
between customer feeling of SSTs-only environment and the perceived powerless-
ness. In addition, this research also demonstrates that the impacts of control on
powerlessness rely on the moderator consumer expertise.
Keywords Self-service technologies · Powerlessness · Service experience ·

Perceived control

The Brand Identity of a Football Manager:
The Case of Arsène Wenger: An Abstract
Adele Berndt
Abstract In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that the sports industry is worth
£20 billion, with football accounting for 43% of this figure. Football clubs use a
branding strategy to connect with the fans and to differentiate the club from its com-
petitors. One of these components is the management of the club, specifically the
manager. The manager is the human face of the football club brand and is the target
of the fan’s joy or frustration with the performance of the team.
Branding is not limited to products and services, with people, specifically celeb-
rities and CEOs having been the focus of research to determine how they impact the
brand (or company) with which they are associated. However, the branding of foot-
ball managers, either personally or as the representative of the football brand, has
not been examined. This is surprising due to their contribution to the football (club)
brand. Using an integrated theoretical perspective based on personal branding, cor-
porate and CEO branding, this paper seeks to contribute the understanding of how
an English Premier League (EPL) football manager (Arsène Wenger) develops his
brand identity.
The study makes use of an exploratory research design, specifically a qualitative
case study method. The league selected as the EPL, specifically a U.S.-owned club
and from these clubs, Arsenal, and specifically Arsène Wenger was selected. Media
articles were collected from the leading newspapers sites and from leading press
agencies and sports writers in the United Kingdom with the initial search done using
the manager’s name. A total of 1364 newspaper reports were analysed using NVivo
from the perspective of the brand owner, that is, Arsène Wenger.
The analysis suggests there are three main components used to develop the foot-
ball manager’s brand identity. First, the performance that includes player manage-
ment, the on-pitch tactics and their managerial philosophy necessary to deliver
positive results. The second component is the person (manager) including his per-
sonality, emotions and his visual and verbal communication style and finally the
context in which the manager works, which includes the club, its finances, transfer
policies and the supporters (fans) and professional bodies (such as the FA and UEFA).
A. Berndt (*)
Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
e-mail: adele.berndt@ju.se

316 A. Berndt
The study seeks to develop understanding of how human brands are built in a
dynamic and competitive sporting environment while assisting clubs in using this
persona in their branding activities.
Keywords Persona · Human brand · Football manager · Premier league · Wenger

Virtual Trade Show (VTS): A Systematic
Literature Review: An Abstract
Mohammad Osman Gani, Yoshi Takahashi, and Anisur R. Faroque
Abstract Virtual trade show (VTS) marketing has been growing as a major issue of
interest from the last decade, attracting the businessperson and researcher. However,
this body of research has not been subject to systematic review. Accordingly, the
purpose of the study is to highlight past assessment, present trends, and to direct
future research agenda within the VTS domain. The approach is taken as a literature
review format. For this purpose, multiple databases were searched, and ten VTS
articles were extracted. The extracted articles were carefully analyzed from the
broader perspective, and only four empirical studies were found in this field. The
paper was aggregated into the following themes: (1) preliminary discussion on VTS
and comparison with physical trade show based on participation mode; activity
stage; subject area; and performance and (2) from the empirical findings, three cat-
egories of antecedents are identified, namely, website factors; market-orientation
factors; and firms’ motives. Also, direct as well as indirect consequences through
mediators and with moderators are identified. All these are presented as an inte-
grated framework. (3) Based on the compendium of the antecedents and conse-
quences of VTS literature, the research focused on the limitations, implications, and
extends future research avenue that can be utilized by trade show attending firms for
their better performance in the future. The findings suggest that future VTS research
can exploit from the application of concepts and theories used in the physical trade
show literature and offered by other disciplines that traditionally have not been
examined in VTS. Future researchers could also focus on the development of a tech-
nological aspect of VTS systems to overcome the limitation of unavailability of
modern technology, low-quality website design, lack of timeliness and accuracy of
information content, inability to measure effectiveness, virtual rudeness, lack of
after service initiative, and lack of synergies between human and electronic ele-
M. O. Gani · Y. Takahashi (*)

Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
e-mail: osmangani@hiroshima-u.ac.jp; yoshit@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
A. R. Faroque
Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland
e-mail: anisur.faroque@lut.fi

318 M. O. Gani et al.
ments. Managers of VTS firm can identify the important technologies related to
VTS on different stages (preshow, at-show, and post–post) and can imply a conve-
nient way to establish human interaction along with technological issues.
Keywords Virtual trade show (VTS) · Market orientation · Integrated framework ·

Systematic review

Confronting the Customer–Engagement
Paradox in Sales–Leader Succession:
An Abstract
Russell Lemken and Jason Rowe
Abstract This study addresses a critical question concerning how a firm’s succes-
sion practices for senior salespeople impact the sustainability of selling strategies
and the consistency of sales and service results. Customer account strategies fre-
quently rely on a sales leader, commonly identified as a relationship manager or
account manager, designated by the selling firm as a central contact point and inter-
nal advocate for the customer. When a sales leader leaves the firm, the departure can
result in disruptions for customers and raise questions about the continuity of rela-
tionships built on trust and customer knowledge accumulated over time. Further
developing this area, our study employs an inductive approach to understand how
firms that rely on deep personal relationships between salespeople and customers
manage the succession process.
Interviews with 41 managers in the financial services sector and 12 industry
experts reveal a customer–engagement paradox, where an element often considered
essential to sales success—a high level of salesperson–customer affinity developed
through successful customer engagement—becomes the proximate cause of imped-
iments in sustaining the relationship post-succession. Our findings offer specific
insights gleaned from managers and industry experts who have engineered effective
sales–leader succession processes. Strategic relationship management has received
increasing attention from sales scholars in recent years, yet this critical boundary
condition and associated vulnerabilities of relationship management strategies have
remained largely unstudied.
We contribute to both theory and practice by using a disciplined induction
approach to develop a “Customer Engagement Framework for Sales-Leader
Succession” intended for sales executives facing the retirement or departure of
senior sales leaders. The framework provides guidance to executives who need to
assess the firm’s level of reliance on customer engagement efforts and define the full
scope of their sales succession needs in order to choose a sales succession strategy
R. Lemken (*) · J. Rowe

East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
e-mail: lemkenr17@ecu.edu; rowew@ecu.edu

320 R. Lemken and J. Rowe
with the greater likelihood of success. The results of the interviews were s ummarized
and provided to the study informants immediately following data collection. Several
of the firm leaders who participated have applied the insights from the study and
reported greater success in recruiting and retaining sales leaders to fill the roles of
long-time producers who retired or left the firm, providing some face validity to the
study’s findings.
Keywords Customer engagement · Professional selling · Sales management ·

Sales teams · Succession planning

Consumers’ Non-Participation in Creative
Crowdsourcing: Exploration Through
the Lenses of Meaning of Work:
An Abstract
Souad Djelassi, Fanny Cambier, and Ingrid Poncin
Abstract Crowdsourcing is the consumers’ participation at the accomplishment of

a task, traditionally performed by the internal employees (Howe 2006). Examples
are proposing innovative ideas, contributing to product development or solving
complex problems. Consumers may also engage in creative tasks (e.g., ad creation,
logo design, packaging design), which constitutes the popular practice of creative
crowdsourcing. The value and success of a creative crowdsourcing initiative require
attracting sufficient numbers of participants (Hopkins 2011). This remains a persis-
tent issue (Faullant et al. 2016): the majority of the crowd does not participate. If
crowdsourcers are to be considered as workers (Cova and Dalli 2009; Rieder and
Voß 2010), they must be managed and motivated. Traditional management princi-
ples, such as recruitment, hierarchy, and internal coordination, might not apply here.
Therefore, this research addresses a pressing question: why may people be reluctant
to participate in creative crowdsourcing and what might encourage them to partici-
pate? As the crowd is heterogenous, composed of professionals/experts in the cre-
ative tasks and others, rather ordinary/amateur consumers (Brabham 2008, 2012),
this research examines the meaning that potential participants, both creative profes-
sionals and ordinary consumers, assign to their nonparticipation. To this aim, we
mobilize the theoretical framework of the meaning of work (Rosso et al. 2010) bor-
rowed from human resources literature.
Rosso et al. (2010, p. 94–95) define meaning as “the output of having made sense
of something.” The meaning of work not only influences work motivation but also
affects other critical organizational outcomes, such as engagement, empowerment,
individual performance, and personal fulfilment (Steger et al. 2013).
S. Djelassi (*)
University of Lille, Lille, France
e-mail: souad.djelassi@univ-lille.fr
F. Cambier · I. Poncin
Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
e-mail: fanny.cambier@uclouvain.be; ingrid.poncin@uclouvain.be

322 S. Djelassi et al.
The results of our qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 19 ordi-
nary consumers and 14 professionals from the creative sector, highlight different
reasons for nonparticipation. Creative professionals express clear meanings under-
lying their nonparticipation decision. Their discourse highlights a resistance to cur-
rent creative crowdsourcing practices, whether individually and/or collectively
(Peñaloza and Price 1993), such that they “rant” and initiate expressive actions
(Hirschman 1970), encouraging “general boycotts” of these practices.
Ordinary consumers’ nonparticipation can be better explained by an inability to
meet their expectations or a perceived lack of competences. This absence of willing-
ness to participate might signal a perceived lack of work/activity meaning or a per-
ceived lack of value creation for themselves.
Current research limitations are delineated and implications for researchers and
practitioners are further offered. These results should also encourage organizations
to adapt their recruitment activities, based on the different crowd groups.
Keywords Crowdsourcing · Meaning of work · Crowd · Non-participation

Exploring the Role of Authentic
Assessment on the Development of Future
Marketers: An Abstract
Christina O’Connor, Gillian Moran, and Denise Luethge
Abstract This research aims to explore the role authentic assessments can play in
the learning, engagement and skill development of students who wish to pursue a
marketing career. The use of assessments within the classroom has taken on a more
significant role today with assessments not merely testing students to evaluate learn-
ing, but rather demonstrating students’ success in achieving pre-set learning out-
comes (Stone Watt 2012; Astin and Antonio 2012). The role of assessments in
‘authentic learning’ has emerged as a way in which students learn-by-doing and
ultimately challenge educators to provide opportunities for students to experiment
with complex issues in varying settings as they would in the workforce (Lombardi
2007). Interestingly, it is perceived that authentic learning is most likely to flourish
in a ‘high-impact’ setting such as business practice, in which ‘students integrate
diverse theories and concepts, share ideas with faculty and peers outside of class,
judge the value of information in specific situations, and learn from perspectives
other than their own’ (Brownell and Swaner 2009, p. 26). Ultimately, this is expected
to contribute to higher grade achievement and knowledge transfer (Kuh 2009).
This research study is set within the context of an undergraduate business mod-
ule, integrated marketing communications (IMC), and serves to provide interesting
insight into the role of formative authentic assessments in generating and nurturing
learning, engagement and key skills of students, while creating solutions for organi-
zations in response to specific marketing problems that mimic the real-world proj-
ects. Three authentic assessment practices were undertaken by 134 marketing
students within the IMC module over a 12-week period. These assessments were
based on the information of key skills required by graduate employers in Ireland in
2018/2019. A multi-method approach was adopted using a two-stage survey as well
as a student reflection journal to gather rich insight into student’s perceptions of the
C. O’Connor (*) · G. Moran

Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland
e-mail: christina.oconnor@mu.ie; gillian.moran@mu.ie
D. Luethge
Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY, USA
e-mail: luethged1@nku.edu

324 C. O’Connor et al.
authentic assessment practices on their learning, engagement and skill develop-

ment. Through the authentic assessment practices, students reported enhanced skills
sets as well as feeling better prepared to undertake a marketing career. It is evident
that this type of formative assessment practices is beneficial for future marketers
and employers, demonstrating a marrying of the academia/practice divide as well as
providing students with future skills as marketing practitioners.
Keywords Authentic assessment · Formative · Skill development · Marketing ·

Student-centred

How Cultural and Institutional Dimensions
Shape Consumer–Brand Relationships’
Effects on Brand Loyalty: An Abstract
Mansur Khamitov, Matthew Thomson, and Xin (Shane) Wang
Abstract Research on consumer–brand relationships has started to empirically

examine mechanisms behind the brand relationships—customer brand loyalty link
(e.g., impression management, feelings of security; Sen et al. 2015), but still little is
known about the cultural and institutional settings that enable these links. In this
study, we conduct a meta-analytic investigation of how seven country-level cultural
and institutional variables moderate the relationship between consumer–brand rela-
tionships (CBR) and customer brand loyalty. Specifically, we investigate how and
why different types of CBRs—namely brand attachment, brand love, self-brand
connection, brand identification, and brand trust—drive loyalty better in some cul-
tural and institutional contexts than others.
The indulgence versus restraint dimension is a significant moderator, such that
the effect of all five different brand relationships on customer brand loyalty is sig-
nificantly more positive in restrained cultures (βtrust = −0.35, p < 0.001; βlove = −0.54,
p < 0.001; βattachment = −0.42, p < 0.001; βidentification = −0.66, p < 0.001; βself-brand connec-
tion = −0.55, p < 0.001). Individualism versus collectivism is also significant, such
that the impact of each of the five brand relationships on loyalty is more positive in
collectivist cultures (βtrust = −0.46, p < 0.001; βlove = −0.51, p < 0.001; βattachment = −0.47,
p < 0.001; βidentification = −0.56, p < 0.001; βself-brand connection = −0.60, p < 0.001). We
show that the link between brand trust and loyalty is significantly stronger in femi-
nine societies (βtrust = −0.38, p < 0.001). We also find that in cultures higher on
power distance dimension, the positive effect of self-brand connection-based and
identification-based relationship loyalty is stronger (βself-brand connection = 0.45,
p < 0.002; βidentification = 0.30, p < 0.001). Further, compared to countries that are high
on economic globalization, countries that are comparably less economically global-
ized exhibit stronger positive influence of brand identification on loyalty
M. Khamitov (*)
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
e-mail: mkhamitov@ntu.edu.sg
M. Thomson · X. (. Wang
Western University, London, Canada
e-mail: mthomson@ivey.ca; xwang@ivey.ca

326 M. Khamitov et al.
(βidentification = −0.17, p < 0.009). Finally, countries that were lower on voice and
accountability showed stronger brand identity–loyalty effects (βidentification = −0.41,
p < 0.001) as did less urbanized countries (βidentification = −0.25, p < 0.004). However,
similar moderating effect of voice and accountability as well as the level of urban-
ization did not emerge for the self-brand connection–loyalty link (βself-brand connec-
tion = −0.19, p = 0.176 and βself-brand connection = −0.09, p = 0.490).
Our approach of trying meta-analysis to country-level factors is new to the con-
sumer–brand relationship literature. Theoretically this work helps to identify what
particular brand relationships drive loyalty most effectively (Khamitov et al. 2019)
under particular cultural and institutional settings (Eisingerich and Rubera 2010).
Second, we contribute to the work on cross-cultural consumer behavior and cross-
cultural research in general (Al Omoush et al. 2012; Hofstede and Bond 1984; Lam
et al. 2009) by providing a more nuanced understanding of the differential influence
of cultural dimensions in a branding context. Practically, our findings suggest it may
be critical to approach selection and fostering of brand relationships differently
based on the types of cultures and institutional contexts brand managers operate in.
Keywords Consumer-brand relationship · Customer brand loyalty · Cultural

differences · Institutional moderators · Meta-analysis

Synthesizing Negative Critical Incidents:
Integration of Service Failure–Recovery
and Brand Transgression Streams:
An Abstract
Mansur Khamitov, Yany Grégoire, and Anshu Suri
Abstract Research studies on brand transgression (BT), service failure-recovery

(SFR), and product-harm crisis (PHC) appear to have a common focus, yet the three
streams developed surprisingly independently and with limited reference to one
another. This situation is unfortunate because all three fields study a similar phe-
nomenon by using complementary conceptualizations, theories, and methods; we
argue that this development in silos represents an unnecessary obstacle to the devel-
opment of a common discipline.
In response, this review synthesizes the growing BT, SFR, and PHC literatures
by systematically reviewing 236 articles across 21 years using an integrative con-
ceptual framework. In doing so, we showcase how the mature field of SFR in con-
cert with the younger but prolific BT and PHC fields can enrich one another while
jointly advancing a discipline of critical negative events. Through this process, we
provide and explicate seven overarching insights, across three major themes (theory,
dynamic aspects, and method), to encourage researchers to contribute to the inter-
face between these three important fields.
First, the current systematic review has brought together diverse academic
research (BT, SFR, and PHC). As our analysis indicates, the last two decades have
witnessed significant developments in these three areas on our seven integrative
dimensions of interest. The analysis reveals that various strengths, weaknesses, and
gaps exist in each literature, complementing each other and offering significant
opportunities for future research. This review differs from and complements previ-
ous syntheses on related areas (Cleeren et al. 2017; Davidow 2003; Fournier and
Alvarez 2013; Sayin and Gürhan-Canlı 2015) by specifically bridging the gap
M. Khamitov (*)
Y. Grégoire · A. Suri
HEC Montréal, Montréal, Canada
e-mail: yany.gregoire@hec.ca; anshu.suri@hec.ca

328 M. Khamitov et al.
between BT, SFR, and PHC and by using a broader perspective on a phenomenon
labeled “critical negative events.” In so doing, our first contribution lies in identify-
ing a series of seven priority insights generated from systematic integration of BT,
SFR, and PHC and the corresponding future directions that should help researchers
in all three streams.
Second, this review advances the idea of a broader science of critical negative
events (Fournier and Alvarez 2013), which goes beyond any individual contribu-
tions of BT, SFR, and PHC. We hope that our review will spur the development of
a general discipline by combining deep insights from SFR, BT, and PHC. Such a
“discipline of critical negative events” could systematize our understanding of criti-
cal negative events, and it could help the development of not only SFR, BT, and
PHC but also other streams studying negative events (e.g., customer deviance,
immoral actions, and relationship termination). The current research aims to be a
first step toward the development of this discipline by generating a unifying seven-
insight framework.
Keywords Service failure · Product-harm crisis · Brand transgression · Systematic

review · Negative critical incident

Bandwagon Consumption among
the Black Middle Class
Zanele Mdlekeza and Mignon Reyneke
Abstract This paper investigates psychological factors that influence consumers to

engage in bandwagon consumption when purchasing luxury motor vehicles. The
South African Black middle class has been receiving attention in consumer markets,
especially from luxury brand houses looking at emerging markets for growth. This
study was designed to measure the impact of the self-concept, susceptibility to nor-
mative influence, propensity to seek status and the need for uniqueness on the pro-
pensity to engage in bandwagon consumption behaviour. An online survey of 184
respondents provided the data that was analysed using the PLS Structural Equation
Modelling (SEM) technique.
Findings noted that cultural and individual orientation dynamics play a pivotal
part when examining the role of the self-concept in influencing bandwagon con-
sumption behaviour through the susceptibility to normative influence trait. The
results confirmed the presence of bandwagon consumption and found that the
behaviour occurs in spite of the self-concept and the need for uniqueness.
Keywords Bandwagon consumption · Luxury brands · Middle class ·

Emerging market
Introduction
The global luxury market is estimated at €1.2 trillion (Bain and Company 2017)
with the largest luxury markets being developed countries such as the United States,
Japan, Italy and France that account for almost half of global sales. These countries
remain significant to the global luxury market albeit with moderate growth; how-
ever, emerging countries are driving luxury growth (Deloitte 2017). It was recently
reported by Deloitte (2017) that 70% of consumers in the UAE, China and Russia
admitted to increasing their luxury spend in the past year.
Z. Mdlekeza · M. Reyneke (*)

e-mail: zanele@southafrica.net; mignon.reyneke@gsb.uct.ac.za

330 Z. Mdlekeza and M. Reyneke
A topical trend among the emerging countries has been the rise of a middle class
(Ernst and Young 2013), which is looking for ways of displaying its newly found
wealth. Bain and Company (2017), indicate that growth in China has bounced back
in 2017 as a result of significant middle-class growth, but other emerging countries
such as Brazil, India, South Africa and South-East Asia also represent largely
untapped opportunities. Euromonitor International (2013) suggests that specifically,
the South African luxury industry growth has benefitted from increasingly aspira-
tional spending patterns among the country’s mid-income group.
Since the past decade, South Africa has seen a burgeoning Black middle-class
population that is becoming significantly representative in the consumer markets
(UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing 2017). This expansion is mainly
attributed to credit availability, education, the government’s Black Economic
Empowerment Programme and economic growth. The UISM defines the Black
middle class as any Black African adult older than 18 years old, either living in a
household with an income between R16,000 and R50,000 per month or meeting at
least two of the following criteria: “owns a car, has a tertiary qualification or cur-
rently studying, works in a professional job, lives in a metropolitan area” (UISM
2017). For the purposes of this study, the middle class is defined by this level of
affluence or lifestyle, which includes both sociological and economic meanings as
suggested by Visagie and Posel (2013).
Chikweche and Fletcher (2014) similarly describe the South African middle-
class consumers and observed that, of the products and services they currently con-
sume or aspire to in the near future, there is an emphasis on luxury vehicles. A
similar trend transpired in the UISM (2017) study where luxury vehicle brands such
as BMW and Mercedes were identified as sought-after brands. BMW, Mercedes-
Benz and Audi are the main brands in the South African luxury car market and
constitute 80% market share of the luxury vehicle industry (Clark 2013).
In response to the trends in developed countries, luxury marketers are extending
their brands by making more affordable products that are within reach to aspira-
tional middle-income consumers (Park et al. 2008). Accordingly, luxury vehicle
brands worldwide are shifting towards more compact models that still offer some
form of luxury to the consumer with a limited budget.
Hudders (2012) proposed that publicly consumed brands, such as vehicles, allow
people to signal information about themselves to significant others. Steg (2005) also
argued that vehicles not only fulfil functional needs but also serve important sym-
bolic functions since these are high involvement products (Huang et al. 2012), and
consumers tend to be subjected to social influence when making high involvement
purchase decisions. Based on this, this study presupposes that luxury vehicles lend
themselves to bandwagon consumption.
This research set out to test the presence of bandwagon luxury consumption
among the South African Black middle class and whether the propensity to
engage in such consumption can be explained by certain psychological factors
such as the independent self-concept, interdependent self-concept, consumer
need for uniqueness, status consumption and consumer susceptibility to norma-
tive influence.
Bandwagon Consumption among the Black Middle Class 331
Literature
The Bandwagon Effect
Conspicuous consumption refers to the consumption of expensive goods and ser-

vices for purposes of displaying wealth and income rather than the intrinsic value of
the goods and services (Veblen 1899). In South Africa, Kaus (2013) not only found
evidence of conspicuous consumption but also argued that Black households are
engaging more in visible consumption than their White counterparts.
Several consumer behaviour theorists regard Veblen (1899) as one of the first
theorists to suggest this type of consumption that is motivated by the need to estab-
lish social networks and the desire to imitate members of higher social classes
(Vigneron and Johnson 1999; Vickers and Renand 2003; Kastanakis and Balabanis
2012). Leibenstein (1950) built on Veblen’s (1899) theory by suggesting external
effects that explain consumer motivation for using material consumption to fulfil
their social needs such as status, bandwagon effect, snob effect and Veblen effect.
The bandwagon effect refers to “the extent to which the demand for a commodity is
increased due to the fact that others are also consuming the same commodity”
(Leibenstein 1950, p. 189).
The bandwagon effect in the context of luxury consumption has received atten-
tion from various academic studies (Dubois and Patrick 1993; Vigneron and Johnson
1999; Wiedmann et al. 2009). Although there is consensus among these scholars
that the bandwagon effect does indeed occur when people consume or purchase
luxury brands, few studies focus on the bandwagon effect exclusively. The study by
Kastanakis and Balabanis (2012), and consequently this study, examines the band-
wagon effect in isolation and provides insights into some of the psychological influ-
ences on the consumer that bring about the bandwagon effect when making luxury
purchasing decisions. Kastanakis and Balabanis’ (2012) study hypothesised that
consumers’ interdependent self-concept cause bandwagon luxury consumption and
that the relationship between the interdependent self-concept and bandwagon con-
sumption is mediated by the consumer’s susceptibility to normative influence and
their predisposition to seeking status and the need for uniqueness.
The Independent and Interdependent Self-Concepts
The self-concept can be defined as “the totality of an individual’s thoughts and feel-
ings having reference to himself as an object” (Sirgy 1982, p. 287). The self-concept
is relevant to consumer behaviour as individuals’ purchasing decisions are often
influenced by the thoughts and feelings they have about themselves thus, individu-
als can define, preserve and improve their self-concept by purchasing products that
allow them to do so (Hosany and Martin 2011).
The self-concept can be independent; where individuals see themselves as

s eparate from others or interdependent; where they see themselves as connected to
others (Torelli 2006). Park H. S. (2001) found a positive correlation between the
independent self-concept and individuals who put an emphasis on upholding their
own opinion. These individuals could be expected to value being distinct and unique
from others. Interdependent individuals concern themselves with what they per-
ceive as the thoughts, emotions and actions of those they relate to thus putting an
emphasis on fitting into a group (Gudykunst and Lee 2003).
Lalwani and Shavitt (2009) argued that the independent and interdependent self-
concepts coincide in an individual, however, the cultural context usually advances
one or the other. Consequently, the independent self-concept is conceptualised to
correspond to individualist cultures and thus, more prominent in Western countries.
On the other hand, interdependent self-concept relates to collectivist cultures and is
more pronounced in countries such as Asia and Africa (Cross et al. 2011). The
South African Black African culture, in particular, was conceptualised as collectiv-
ist by Eaton and Louw (2000).
Consumer Susceptibility to Normative Influence
Research has demonstrated that a person’s behaviour is affected by the degree to

which they are vulnerable to interpersonal influences (Vigneron and Johnson 1999;
Shukla 2011). People believe that others judge their consumption choice to the
extent that they might alter their choices when they become aware that others are
observing their consumption decisions (Orth and Kahle 2010; Shukla 2011).
Illustrating the importance of interpersonal influences to luxury consumption,
Kapferer and Bastien (2009) suggested that consumers who engage in luxury con-
sumption are concerned with the impression they make on others; even in the
absence of visibility.
Consumer susceptibility to normative influence refers to “the need to identify or
enhance one’s image with significant others through the acquisition and use of prod-
ucts and brands, the willingness to conform to the expectations of others regarding
purchase decisions …” (Bearden et al. 1989, p. 474). Consumers who are under
pressure to conform to social norms are more likely to engage in luxury consump-
tion that serves as a public display of their affluence (Park et al. 2008).
Susceptibility to normative influence has been found by Lee and Kacen (2008) to
influence consumers’ purchasing decisions more in collectivist than in individualist
cultures. Dholakia and Talukdar (2004) argued that normative influence can moti-
vate aspirational consumers to emulate the consumption behaviours that are socially
desirable within other higher ranking groups. This suggests that the South African
Black middle class can be expected to be susceptible to normative influences. It was
therefore hypothesised that:
H1a: The interdependent self-concept relates positively with consumer susceptibil-

ity to normative influence.
H1b: The independent self-concept relates negatively with consumer susceptibility
to normative influence.
H1c: Consumer susceptibility to normative influence relates positively with band-
wagon consumption.
Status Consumption
Status consumption is “the motivational process by which individuals strive to

improve their social standing through conspicuous consumption of consumer prod-
ucts that confer or symbolize status both to the individual and to surrounding sig-
nificant others” (Eastman et al. 1999, p. 42). Han et al. (2010) offered that among
those consumers who aspire and imitate those who possess more wealth, consump-
tion is highly motivated by status. A study by Mai and Tambyah (2011) suggested
that in developing economies, the emerging middle- and upper-class consumers
tend to engage in status consumption to display their newly acquired wealth.
Applying this principle to the South African context, Kaus (2013) argued that the
increased conspicuous consumption amongst South African Black households com-
pared to White households serves as a means to signal status.
Shukla (2010) also investigated status consumption behaviour as it related to
individualism (British) and collectivism (Indian) in cultural contexts. Specifically,
status consumption in the individualistic culture was used for social gains (includ-
ing respect and popularity), to indicate self-esteem and flashy behaviour.
Alternatively, status products in the collectivist culture were consumed largely with
ostentation in mind. In view of Leibenstein’s (1950) conceptualisation of the band-
wagon effect, it was anticipated that status-seeking would lead to bandwagon con-
sumption. Kastanakis and Balabanis (2012) theorised that the interdependent
self-concept ultimately leads to bandwagon consumption via status consumption,
while the independent self-concept lacked the need for status and hence discour-
aged bandwagon consumption. It was therefore hypothesised that
H2a: The interdependent self-concept relates positively with status consumption.
H2b: The independent self-concept relates negatively to status consumption.
H2c: Status consumption relates positively to bandwagon consumption.
Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness
Consumers’ need for uniqueness is the “trait of pursuing differentness relative to

others through the acquisition, utilization, and disposition of consumer goods for
the purpose of developing and enhancing one’s self-image and social image” (Tian
et al. 2001, p. 52). This need for uniqueness can be satisfied by the symbolic
meanings of the products and brands one consumes (Tian et al. 2001). Vigneron and
Johnson (1999) argued that the exclusiveness that is inherent in luxury goods fulfils
the need for uniqueness. Whereas the bandwagon effect implies conformity in
Leibenstein’s (1950) terms, the consumer’s need for uniqueness indicates
counter-conformity.
Kastanakis and Balabanis (2012) created the association between the constructs
of the self-concept, consumers’ need for uniqueness and bandwagon luxury con-
sumption by suggesting that consumers who have a relatively greater need for
uniqueness use luxury products to enhance their independent self-concept through
dissociation with significant groups. It was therefore further hypothesised that:
H3a: The interdependent self-concept related negatively with the need for
uniqueness.
H3b: The independent self-concept related positively with the need for uniqueness.
H3c: The need for uniqueness related negatively with bandwagon consumption.
Method
This quantitative research made use of online surveys to collect structured quantita-
tive data resulting in 184 usable responses. Established scales were used to measure
the constructs: Singelis’ (1994) scale for the self-concepts, Bearden et al.’s (1989)
scale for consumer susceptibility to normative influence, Eastman et al.’s (1999)
scale for status consumption, Ruvio et al.’s (2008) short form of Tian et al.’s (2001)
scale for consumers’ need for uniqueness and the scale developed by Kastanakis
and Balabanis (2012) for bandwagon consumption.
By means of purposive sampling followed by snowball sampling respondents
who fit the criteria of being Black, middle class, currently driving a luxury motor
vehicle or, who intend to purchase a luxury motor vehicle in the coming 5 years,
were asked to respond by means of a self-completed web-based questionnaire.
Luxury motor vehicle brands in the South African context were also identified as
BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, Porsche, Volvo, Jaguar, Mini, Land Rover, Infiniti
and Lexus. The study assumes that bandwagon consumption behaviour manifests
itself even before purchase; hence the inclusion of the group intending to buy a
luxury motor vehicle in the short to medium term as this may generate business-
related and theoretical insights.
Findings
Descriptive Statistics
In terms of age, respondents were distributed between the ages of 21 and 59 years
old with the majority of respondents falling in the category of 30 and 50 years of
age. Of these respondents, 56% were male and 44% female. In terms of current
Table 1 Internal consistency Composite

and convergent validity tests reliability
Construct (>0.6) AVE
Independent self-concept 0.713 0.217
Interdependent self-concept 0.675 0.175
Need for uniqueness 0.901 0.439
Susceptibility to normative influence 0.923 0.602
Status consumption 0.891 0.624
Bandwagon consumption 0.916 0.785
Table 2 Discriminant validity test

Independent Interdependent Need for Normative
√AVE self self uniqueness influence Status Bandwagon
Independent 0.466 −0.047 0.353 −0.042 0.039 −0.032
self
Interdependent −0.047 0.419 0.086 0.339 0.006 0.194
self
Need to 0.353 0.086 0.662 0.147 0.215 0.111
uniqueness
Normative −0.04 0.339 0.147 0.776 0.485 0.53
influence
Status 0.039 0.006 0.215 0.485 0.79 0.431
Bandwagon −0.03 0.194 0.111 0.53 0.431 0.886
vehicle ownership, 92% of the respondents indicated they owned a vehicle of which
the brands they currently owned included Mercedes Benz (22%), followed by BMW
(21%) and Audi (20%).
Measurement Model Assessment
To test the reliability of the model, Table 1 indicates the internal consistency for
each construct. All values report acceptable internal consistency according to the
accepted rule of thumb (>0.6). The degree of variance explained is indicated by the
AVE score.
Discriminant validity is indicated in Table 2 where each construct is shown to
have the highest degree of variance with itself.
Fig. 1 Coefficients of determination and path coefficients
Structural Model Assessment
The structural model, excluding the measurement model for the sake of simplicity,
including the coefficients of determination and path coefficients is depicted in Fig. 1.
Bandwagon consumption reported a high R2 value of 0.320 relative to the bench-
mark of 0.2. While the scores for normative influence and the need for uniqueness
were acceptable, status consumption had a low R2 value (0.002). Therefore, it can-
not be concluded that there is a strong model fit. Fortunately, the estimation of the
coefficient paths provides the researcher with a means to support the proposed
structural theory (see Table 3). Only three of the hypotheses are confirmed through
the significance test but it is worth noting the strengths of the relationships in the
three hypotheses as indicated by the path coefficient in Table 3.
Discussion
According to the results, three of the nine hypotheses were accepted (H1c, H2c and
H3b). Each of the accepted hypotheses in this study is congruent with the findings
of Kastanakis and Balabanis’ (2012) and indicates the following major findings:
Table 3 Structural model path coefficient test results

Low High
Relationship Score Mean interval interval Significance
Interdependent self-concept → 0.338 0.305 −0.302 0.496 No
susceptibility to normative influence
Independent self-concept → −0.027 −0.007 −0.323 0.303 No
susceptibility to normative influence
Susceptibility to normative influence → 0.42 0.422 0.27 0.555 Yes
bandwagon consumption
Interdependent self-concept → status 0.008 0.035 −0.343 0.295 No
consumption
Independent self-concept → status 0.04 0.068 −0.316 0.381 No
consumption
Status consumption → bandwagon 0.227 0.23 0.08 0.375 Yes
consumption
Interdependent self-concept → 0.102 0.105 −0.229 0.352 No
consumers’ need for uniqueness
Independent self-concept → 0.358 0.354 0.101 0.495 Yes
consumers’ need for uniqueness
Consumers’ need for uniqueness → 0 0.001 −0.116 0.133 No
bandwagon consumption
Firstly, consumer susceptibility to normative influence was found to relate posi-

tively with bandwagon consumption thus, Black middle-class consumers who are
susceptible to normative influence are motivated to engage in the bandwagon con-
sumption of luxury motor vehicles. Leibenstein (1950) noted that a key motivator
for engaging in bandwagon consumption is the consumer’s desire to conform to
social norms or to get into the swim of things. The presence of bandwagon con-
sumption in the context of the South African Black middle class affirms the inclina-
tion for aspirational consumers (such as the Black middle class) to engage in such
consumption behaviour.
Secondly, status consumption was found to relate positively with bandwagon
consumption of luxury products proving the presence of bandwagon consumption
among the Black middle class in the context of luxury vehicles as being attributable
to status consumption. Kastanakis and Balabanis (2012) offered that identifiable
luxury products (such as motor vehicles) that depend on the consumption of others,
in accordance with Leibenstein’s (1950) theory, are able to improve social ranking
as they award and symbolise status for the owner. Since H2a and H2b were not
accepted, the indication is that there is no effect of either independent- or interde-
pendent self-concept on the status behaviour of the Black middle class and that they
will engage in status consumption regardless of self-concept.
Thirdly, the results showed a significant and positive relationship between inde-
pendent self-concept and consumer need for uniqueness. Kastanakis and Balabanis
(2012) conceptualised that individuals with greater than average need for unique-
ness enhance their independent self-concept through seeking products that distance
themselves from majority groups. This particular finding that the independent
self-concept encourages the need for uniqueness would lead to an expectation that
there is a negative relationship between the need for uniqueness and bandwagon
consumption in this case. Since the results indicate that H3c was not accepted, there
is no evidence of a negative relationship between the need for uniqueness and band-
wagon consumption. This would suggest that even the independent Black middle
class avoid social punishment by engaging in differentiating behaviours that are
considered devoid of social sanctions. For example, consumers purchasing a brand
of the luxury vehicle that is aspired to by the larger group but is customised with
accessories to provide the required degree of uniqueness.
Implications
The study has theoretical implications with regards to the contribution it makes to
furthering understanding of the antecedents of bandwagon luxury consumption.
The most straightforward implication is that bandwagon luxury motor vehicle
consumption behaviour is present among the South African Black middle class.
That is, luxury motor vehicles are regarded to be popular by this market segment,
and as such, their demand is intensified by this popularity. However, implications of
the psychological antecedents need to be understood to effectively benefit from
bandwagon consumption behaviour. Culture has a significant influence on consum-
er’s wants and behaviour. Given the general culture of collectivism in South Africa,
marketers of luxury motor vehicles should take care and opt for communication
with a soft appeal that displays collectivistic values.
The Black middle class engages in bandwagon consumption of luxury motor
vehicles in spite of their self-concepts. Although Black middle-class consumers
with a prevalent interdependent self-concept are aligned with the collectivistic cul-
ture, they still hold their opinion in the highest regard. This should be anticipated
more so in luxury motor vehicles, given that they are high involvement products.
The communication and advertising, therefore, need to be less prescriptive and
demonstrate respect for the opinions of the consumer. This kind of approach would
also resonate with the Black middle class with an independent self-concept disposi-
tion. This group is not entirely impervious to the subtleties of a collectivistic culture.
Notwithstanding, the independent Black middle-class consumer has a need for
uniqueness but uses the less punishable sources of uniqueness. Marketers should
make their luxury motor vehicles customisable so that consumers can choose a
combination of features that give uniqueness to the motor vehicle. Extending prod-
uct lines to create exclusive ranges, for example, limited editions and concept mod-
els could address the need for uniqueness through creative choice or avoidance of
similarity.
Given the susceptibility of this market segment to normative influences, dealer-
ships should be trained to spend time explaining product features and benefits to
friends and family as they will likely influence the final purchase decision. Celebrity
endorsements could further accentuate the status, prestige and popularity of luxury
motor vehicles, particularly using local celebrities because of the collectivistic

cultural context. Also, communication should be biased towards status messages
related to social benefits rather than information on mechanical and innovative
features.
Limitations and Future Research
A study of this nature is susceptible to a number of limitations.

First, since respondents were recruited by other respondents the sample may be
biased towards more cooperative individuals or respondents with relatively larger
social networks. Also, sample composition is influenced by the choice of initial
seeds. The impact of this could be in the demographic composition of respondents
as most of the respondents were in the higher household income range that is not
typical of the Black middle class.
Second, the model was tested in a cross-sectional timeframe therefore it cannot
be said that the findings endure over time. Future research could focus on perform-
ing a longitudinal study, examining bandwagon luxury consumption and its ante-
cedents over time.
Third, it was demonstrated that the cultural context has a strong influence on the
antecedents of bandwagon consumption. Future studies could examine the tested
constructs in other collectivist cultures to investigate if the findings hold true across
collectivist cultures.
Finally, it was determined that both the independent and interdependent self-
concepts in the context of the Black middle class appear to share the need for
uniqueness but perhaps use different behaviours. Future studies could examine the
relationships between these two self-concepts and the three uniqueness seeking
behaviours of creative choice counter-conformity, unpopular choice counter-
conformity and avoidance of similarity. Lastly and related to this, future research
could examine the relationship between these three behaviours and bandwagon
luxury consumption.
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The Issues and Impacts of Programmatic
Advertising in the Financial Sector:
An Abstract
Weilan Tang and Renato Hubner Barcelos
Abstract In the growing digital advertising market, programmatic advertising

plays an indispensable role. Thanks to its audience-targeting capabilities, through
the collection of big data, programmatic advertising has changed the way of buying
advertisement and the relationship between advertisers and publishers. By leverag-
ing algorithmic data analytics, programmatic advertising allows advertisers to target
a consumer in the right context and at the right time. However, despite its benefits,
there is still limited scientific research about the impacts of programmatic advertis-
ing on marketing management. Hence, this study investigated the issues and impacts
of the use of programmatic advertising, with a specific focus in the financial sec-
tor—one of the main buyers of digital advertising in Canada.
We adopted a qualitative approach due to the recency of the topic and the lack of
studies about the issues and impacts of programmatic advertising on marketing
management. We opted for a triangulation approach, comprising a journal-based
observation inside the marketing department of a large financial company in Canada
during a period of 4 months; and a series of five in-depth interviews with experts
and managers directly involved with programmatic advertising in the finan-
cial sector.
The results of our analysis show that the two main issues of programmatic adver-
tising for marketing management are expertise and transparency. Expertise was a
primary issue for the respondents in the creation of an in-house team, while trans-
parency is related to operating cost and placement of advertisements and reflected
in traders’ day-to-day tasks. Data were also considered an important issue in con-
nection with measurement indicators. Also, some respondents mentioned the risk of
fraud as a significant issue, since it can impact on several elements in the ecosystem
(data, inventories, and audience). The main positive impacts of programmatic
advertising throughout our observations are flexibility, efficiency, and personaliza-
tion. The media buying process is simplified due to less human integration, and the
results of the marketing investment are measurable. On the other hand, the two most
W. Tang · R. H. Barcelos (*)

ESG UQAM, Montreal, Canada
e-mail: tang.weilan@courrier.uqam.ca; hubner_barcelos.renato@uqam.ca

344 W. Tang and R. H. Barcelos
cited disadvantages of programmatic advertising are the lack of transparency about

the cost and the loss of control over ad placement. To counteract these problems, the
financial company in the study has decided to create an internal team to take charge
of programmatic advertising. Not only that decision allowed the company to reduce
operating costs and increase transparency (compared to outsourcing programmatic
advertising to a digital marketing agency), but it also allowed the team to get more
value and better work quality. Finally, the use of a DMP (data management plat-
form) allowed the company to manage its audience in a more refined way, predict
audience scenarios in advance, and acquire greater data independence on ad cam-
paigns management and easier data exchange with its partners across sectors.
Keywords Programmatic advertising • Digital advertising • Digital marketing •

Financial sector

Marketing When Insiders are Locked in:
An Abstract
Minghui Ma and Jian Huang
Abstract Initial public offering (IPO) share overhang refers to the share retention
in an IPO by pre-IPO shareholders, who are predominantly insiders. We evaluate
the link between overhang and the strategic value of post-IPO marketing activity.
IPO overhang is positively related to post-IPO marketing spendings. On average, a
one-standard deviation increase in overhang leads to an additional $4.6 million
spent on marketing during the three years after an IPO. Furthermore, in these three
years, high overhang firms that spend more on marketing significantly outperform
their counterparts. Finally, while greater marketing spendings are associated with
enhanced equity liquidity, insiders do not derive an economically significant bene-
fit. Overall, our results suggest that the positive link between overhang and market-
ing is more a reflection of insiders’ interest alignment than a self-serving desire to
boost short-term stock performance or stock liquidity prior to cashing out. This
positive effect is moderated by the existence of financial stakeholders such as ven-
ture capitalists, and non-financial stakeholders such as key customers. Despite the
capital infusion and the rapid growth they realize from an IPO, newly public firms
should not consider aggressive marketing a universal choice, as it is value-enhancing
only when pre-IPO shareholders’ interests are aligned. Our findings advance the
literature on marketing resource allocation, insider ownership and IPOs, and high-
light their relations within an agency theory framework. The paper intends to con-
tribute to the knowledge of researchers, managers, and investors. To date, the
marketing literature has focused on agency issues and interest alignment mecha-
nisms (e.g., compensation) of lower-level agents such as salespeople. However,
mechanisms to align the interests of higher-level agents such as corporate decision
makers have not received commensurate attention. Accordingly, we apply agency
M. Ma (*)
York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA, USA
e-mail: mma2@ycp.edu
J. Huang
Towson University, Towson, MD, USA
e-mail: jhuang@towson.edu

346 M. Ma and J. Huang
theory to corporate marketing decisions, by investigating the impact of share

retention by pre-IPO shareholders, a potential interest alignment mechanism, on a
firm’s post-IPO marketing strategy.
Keywords Marketing resource allocation · Ownership structure · Key customer

relationship · Initial public offerings (IPO)

Variability of Brands: Perspectives
of Perceived Entitativity: An Abstract
Joseph W. Chang, Kai-Yu Wang, and Yung-Chien Lou
Abstract Extant research in social cognition has utilized perceived entitativity to

discuss group perceptions and identified eight antecedents for the group entitativity,
including interaction, importance, outcomes, goals, similarity, duration, size, and
permeability. On-line processing is activated if the groups are perceived as high
entitative groups, whereas memory-based processing is elaborated if the groups are
perceived as low entitative groups. As the cognitive processes underlying the evalu-
ations of social objects including groups and products are common, it is expected
that the influences of perceived entitativity on group perceptions also apply to brand
perceptions. Thus, capitalizing on the perceived entitativity theory, this research
examines the applicability of the eight properties of group entitativity for brand
evaluations.
The eight properties of perceived entitativity were utilized to measure 40 presti-
gious consumer brands selected from the Top 100 Global Brands of Interbrand. One
hundred and ninety-two undergraduate students participated in this study. A 40 × 9
matrix in which each cell contained the average rating of a single family brand on a
single property was created by averaging the 192 participants’ ratings of each of the
brands for each of the nine properties. Descriptive analyses on brand ratings
revealed that participants did see substantial variation among the brands.
Correlational analyses indicated that six properties, except importance and interac-
tion, were positively (i.e., duration, goals, outcomes, and similarity) and negatively
(i.e., size and permeability) correlated with entitativity. Regression analyses indi-
cated that these variables were strongly correlated with entitativity and accounted
for a substantial portion of the variation of entitativity. However, the pattern of
J. W. Chang (*)
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA
e-mail: wchang1@umassd.edu
K.-Y. Wang
Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
e-mail: kwang@brocku.ca
Y.-C. Lou
National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: yjlou@nccu.edu.tw

348 J. W. Chang et al.
inter-correlation across properties for the brands was different from the pattern for
the social groups. Hierarchical cluster analyses identified a six-cluster solution for
the classification. Further, K-means cluster analyses specifying the six-cluster solu-
tion identified the brands of each cluster. Based on the characteristic patterns of the
clusters in the eight properties, six types of brands were captured, including inti-
mate, resemblance, performance, loose association, task, and conscious brands.
The results indicated that, as with social groups, properties of perceived entitativ-
ity are effective antecedents clustering brands, which may subsequently elaborate
different cognitive processes (i.e., online and memory-based information process-
ing) for brand evaluations. Brands can be effectively differentiated with perceived
entitativity consisting of various patterns of brand properties. As with group percep-
tions, consumers’ information processing about brands should be more spontaneous
(or online) for high-entitativity brands than low-entitativity brands. The discussions
about brand evaluations and adverse extension effects will be more insightful when-
ever the perceived entitativity is considered. Research may be further conducted to
verify the hypothesis.
Keywords Perceived entitativity · Brand evaluations · Group perceptions ·

Permeability

An Affinity for Variety: Umbrella Brands
and Buyer Behavior: An Abstract
Claudia-Roxana Rusu, Jean-François Trinquecoste, and Dale F. Duhan
Abstract In this study, we investigate the relationship between levels of variety in

buyers’ purchases and the variety offered by umbrella brands. We studied that rela-
tionship in a competitive market where there are many product alternatives available
to buyers.
Humans have a Love/Hate relationship with variety. On the one hand, humans all
seek variety to some extent because “variety is the very spice of life that gives it all
its flavor” (Cowpers 1785). On the other hand, too much variety can complicate life
and cause the stress associated with information/decision overload. Umbrella brands
offer a means of relieving some of the tension in this Love/Hate dilemma by provid-
ing a variety of products under a common brand name. This variety offers buyers
added “spice” without the cognitive tasks and risks of assessing additional brands.
In this study, we investigate the relationship between levels of variety in buyers’
purchases and the variety offered by umbrella brands. We studied that relationship
in a competitive market where there are many product alternatives available to buy-
ers. The definitions of variety fall into two broad categories. The first category
includes definitions that focus on patterns of behavior such as sequences of pur-
chases (processes). The second broad category includes definitions that focus on the
variability within a group of purchases (outcomes). Our preliminary analysis
employed an outcomes approach.
The retail grocery industry is the context for this research. We started with data
from one category in one store (approximately 120,000 purchase observations,
10,600 rewards card numbers, 660 brands of wine, 297 umbrella brands). We
removed buyers with fewer than three purchases in the category from the data
C.-R. Rusu (*)

University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
e-mail: claudia-roxana.rusu@u-bordeaux.fr
J.-F. Trinquecoste
University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
e-mail: jean-francois.trinquecoste@u-bordeaux.fr
D. F. Duhan
e-mail: dale.duhan@ttu.edu

350 C.-R. Rusu et al.
(approximately 4500 buyers and 90,000 transactions). We measured several charac-

teristics of buyers, brands, and brand attributes. Our measures included (a) Category
Variety Score, (b) Among Brands Variety Score, (c) Within Brand Variety Score,
and (d) Brand Umbrella Width. The preliminary analyses found positive and signifi-
cant relationships between brand Umbrella Width and brand sales and negatively
correlated with buyer’s Category Variety Score. Category Variety Score is also cor-
related with Within Brand Variety Score. The implications of this research are
intended to enhance our knowledge of this relationship and to provide insights that
are useful to brand and retail category managers.
Keywords Umbrella brands · Buyer behavior · Variety behavior · Retail industry

Think versus Feel: Two Dimensions
of Brand Anthropomorphism: An Abstract
Xinyue Zhou, Siyuan Guo, Rong Huang, and Weiling Ye
Abstract Past research and practice often focus on brand anthropomorphization

along a single dimension. In spite of being parsimonious and rigorous, the single
dimension model may not fully capture variation in consumers’ perceptions of
brands. This article clarifies an important nuance by proposing that people attribute
human consciousness (i.e., a human-like mind) to brands on two distinct dimen-
sions: Think and Feel. Think brands are perceived to have the capacity to think,
plan, remember, and intend. Feel brands are considered to be able to feel and to
experience anger, pain, and pleasure. Eight studies were conducted to first develop
and validate the 14-item Brand Anthropomorphism Questionnaire (BAQ) with two
subscales, which are psychometrically sound and show discriminant validity with
regard to existing brand constructs. Furthermore, Think or Feel brand anthropomor-
phism dimensions can predict consumers’ moral judgment of brands above and
beyond existing brand scales. Think brands are attributed moral agency and hence
responsibility, whereas Feel brands are attributed moral patience and hence rights
and privileges. This distinction has important implications when brands are blamed
for their wrongdoings or praised for their socially responsible actions.
This research makes theoretical contribution to the brand anthropomorphism lit-
erature by differentiating the two dimensions and exploring the influence of
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, project number:
NSFC 71472115, NSFC 71572103, NSFC 31871095 & NSFC 71672169.
X. Zhou
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
e-mail: xinyuezhou@zju.edu.cn
S. Guo
Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China
e-mail: guosiyuan@gdufe.edu.cn
R. Huang (*)
Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH, USA
e-mail: rhuang@anselm.edu
W. Ye
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
e-mail: ye.weiling@mail.shufe.edu.cn

352 X. Zhou et al.
anthropomorphism of consumer moral judgment. The present research offers

preliminary evidence about the value of distinguishing between Think brand and
Feel brand in consumer moral judgment. Further research could investigate other
potential impact of the two dimensions, and possible antecedents of Think/Feel
dimensions. Managers can use the scale for assessment, planning, decision-making,
and tracking purposes. In addition, in the event of brand scandal or brand CSR
activities, public-relations efforts can use the findings to earn or regain the trust of
consumers, as this research demonstrates that marketers can shape (tailor) the Feel
or Think dimensions of brand perception to change consumers’ moral judgment of
the brands.
Keywords Brand anthropomorphism · Moral judgment · CRS · Brand

transgression · Measurement · Crisis management

Does Brand Origin Really Matter
in the Luxury Sector? The Impact
of Consumer Origin and Consumer
Ethnocentrism on Consumers’ Responses:
An Abstract
Marie-Cécile Cervellon
Abstract This paper investigates the significance of luxury fashion brands’ country
of origin on consumers’ responses based on brand origin matching consumers’ ori-
gin. The results of two experiments indicate that respondents do not have an explicit
preference toward home brands (i.e., French respondents do not state a preference
toward French luxury brands; Italian respondents do not prefer Italian brands in
self-report measures). Yet, when assessed indirectly (through an Implicit Association
Test based on response-latency measures), there is an implicit preference toward
luxury brands from the home country over foreign countries, particularly among
respondents with high levels of consumer ethnocentrism. In addition, when exposed
to messages of delocalization to a foreign country, respondents adopt defensive
responses to home brands (e.g., denial) and negative responses to foreign brands
(e.g., decrease in quality perception and alteration of luxury image). This research
concludes that even if brand origin is not salient when consumers evaluate brands
and does not determine explicit brand preferences, brand origin is nonetheless pres-
ent below awareness (implicit preferences), as part of the brand heritage and the
brand identity; it influences brand liking, brand image and might be weighted as a
purchase decision making criterion. It might manifest in defensive reactions in the
home country (e.g., Keep Burberry British! in 2007). It might also take the form of
consumers’ higher perceived risk and guilt when purchasing counterfeits of home
brands versus foreign brands (see Chakraborty et al. 1996). In the luxury sector, the
M.-C. Cervellon (*)

Edhec Business School, Nice, France
e-mail: marie-cecile.cervellon@edhec.edu

354 M.-C. Cervellon
made-in has legitimacy to be promoted by brands as it contributes significantly to

the perception of luxury and reinforces the emotional bond with consumers in the
home country.
Keywords Luxury · Brand origin · Consumer ethnocentrism · Delocalization · IAT

The Paradigm of Sharing: A Unifying
Conceptualization: An Abstract
Beibei Dong and K. Sivakumar
Abstract Sharing economy is now a worldwide phenomenon that describes eco-

nomic activities to connect interdependent economic actors as “sellers” and “buy-
ers” in the marketplace. Despite the remarkable growth of sharing economy, a
review of the academic literature and business press indicates two major gaps: (1)
There is a lack of clear conceptualization of the definition and domain of sharing;
and (2) there is an absence of a unified typology to explain varied sharing activities
and delineate managerial guidelines from their nuanced differences.
Phrases such as “sharing economy” and “collaborative consumption” are in their
nascent stages of development of the lexicon to represent some new and emerging
business models. The exact definition and meaning of these terminologies require
refinement as more and more enterprises come under this “sharing economy”
umbrella. For example, Zipcar, Bikeshare, Uber, and Turo all call themselves shar-
ing economies while there are inherent differences in what is being delivered and
how it is being delivered.
This diversity of examples under “sharing economy” necessitates a more precise
conceptualization of the definition and domain of sharing economy, and a unifying
typology to capture the nuances, similarities, and differences among the various
examples. This article aims to address these research needs by (1) providing a defi-
nition of sharing, clarifying its conceptual domain, and differentiating it from other
related constructs such as renting, leasing, etc. and (2) developing a comprehensive
typology of sharing to classify various sharing activities based on two dimensions:
nature of the service provider (who provides the service, the company or the peer
who are also regular customers in other times) and nature of the interaction (who
controls the interaction, service provider-controlled vs. 3rd party platform medi-
ated). Such a conceptualization results in three types of sharing: company-owned
sharing, freelancer-based sharing, and peer-to-peer sharing. Our inclusive frame-
work covers a broader domain of sharing than existing literature and the typology
suggests the importance of adjusting managerial practices accordingly when deal-
ing with different sharing activities. We then discuss the theoretical connections of
B. Dong · K. Sivakumar (*)

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
e-mail: bdong@lehigh.edu; k.sivakumar@lehigh.edu

356 B. Dong and K. Sivakumar
the typology to other constructs and research streams, managerial implications of

the research, and future research directions emanating from the typology.
Following MacInnis’ (2011) delineation of the ways of making a conceptual
contribution to marketing, our work contributes toward identifying (what is and
what is not sharing), delineating (describing the characteristics of sharing and
related terminologies and increasing conceptual clarity), differentiating (differenti-
ating sharing from other similar constructs, differentiating various sharing exam-
ples), integrating (providing an inclusive framework to cover a variety of sharing
activities), and advocating (justifying the appropriateness of using “sharing” over
other terms such as “collaborative consumption”).
Keywords Sharing economy · Collaborative economy · Collaborative consumption

· Domain · Definition · Conceptualization

From Third Place to Third Space: How
Social Networking Sites Shape
the Perception of our Social Spaces:
An Abstract
Jan H. Kietzmann, Kerstin Heilgenberg, Jeannette Paschen,

and Maryam Ficociello
Abstract The proliferation of information and communication technologies,

including communication applications such as social networking sites, email,
instant messaging, and mobile telephone, has led to an age of “perpetual contact.”
The initial concern that such technologies would lead to diminishing face-to-face
time has been argued against with much research showing how they can develop,
maintain, and strengthen social interaction, and demonstrating how social concep-
tions of people’s online and offline identities and behavior are changing. Particularly
social networking sites that make extensive use of the co-presence of their members
in real and virtual spaces are growing faster than others. Despite their popularity, the
merger of the digital and real-world perception of public urban spaces remains
largely unexplored in the literature. Under the umbrella of location-based services,
these sites offer people a connection between the real and the virtual world. Despite
their popularity, little research exists on how these sites impact the digital and real-
world perception of public urban spaces. Using the social networking site Yelp as a
research context, our case study investigates the mediating role that social network-
ing sites play in the digital and real-world perception of public urban spaces. Our
article discusses the underlying social and behavioral norms and the implications
that the emerging third spaces play for the convergence of online and digital worlds.
One of the implications of this research for managers is in learning from the business
J. H. Kietzmann · K. Heilgenberg
e-mail: jkietzma@uvic.ca; kerstinh@uvic.ca
J. Paschen (*)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, Canada
e-mail: jeannette.paschen@kpu.ca
M. Ficociello
Dar Al-Hekma University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
e-mail: ficociello@sfu.ca

358 J. H. Kietzmann et al.
model that Yelp has created whereby users generate content for free, and Yelp
successfully created an atmosphere, or as some yelpers call it, a “lifestyle”-like
realm by engaging people that is especially effective in long-term loyalty. Among
other contributions, this work provides marketing implications for managers with
respect to designing platforms that support effective utilization of user-generated
content, for example, through incorporating gamification mechanisms, status levels,
and others.
Keywords Third place · Third space · Social networking sites · Yelp

The Interaction of Consumer, Endorser,
and Brand Personality in Social Influencer
Marketing: An Abstract
Klaus-Peter Wiedmann and Walter von Mettenheim
Abstract The importance of social influencer marketing as a means of brand

communication is consistently growing. This is hardly surprising, as social influ-
encers have the advantage to be generally perceived as authentic testimonials who
can communicate in a customized way to the consumer target group. Certain social
influencers can even attract a larger audience than an average television production.
Thus, it is crucial to know the success factors of an influencer marketing campaign.
Until now, research has mainly focused on global measures of success such as dif-
ferent measures of number of followers, pagerank, or retweets. However, practitio-
ners sometimes state that these measures are too superficial. This presumption
becomes further substantiated by numerous examples of social influencer cam-
paigns that failed, although the endorser fulfilled the above mentioned criteria.
Often, the reasons for these failures lie in a mismatch between influencer and
brand. Hence, practitioners speculate that it would be relevant to consider the triad
of (a) social influencer personality, (b) brand personality, and (c) consumer person-
ality. An exemplary follow-up question may be whether it is important that the
personality of the social influencer matches one of the brands. The work at hand
picks up on this chain of thoughts: It investigates whether the interplay of (1) per-
sonality congruence between influencer and brand, (2) the identification of the con-
sumer with the influencer, and (3) the level of product involvement have effects on
constructs of brand perception (brand attitude, brand trust) and brand behavior
(purchase intention). For this purpose, stimulus material in the form of social influ-
encer profiles and posts endorsing two well-known brands. Hypothesizes testing
occurs by means of structural equation modeling. The results indicate that (1) per-
sonality congruence between influencer and brand is the most important success
K.-P. Wiedmann · W. von Mettenheim (*)

Leibnitz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany
e-mail: wiedmann@m2.uni-hannover.de; vonmettenheim@m2.uni-hannover.de

360 K.-P. Wiedmann and W. von Mettenheim
factor, followed by (2) identification. (3) The level of product involvement is nearly
insignificant. Based on these findings, implications for management and further
research are developed.
Keywords Social influencer marketing · Social media marketing · Branding ·

Personality · Involvement

Avenues to Optimize Strategic Decision
Making to Drive Firm Performance
and Market Success: An Abstract
Theresa Eriksson
Abstract Starting a business involves many risks and current data indicates that
over half of new ventures do not survive to see their fifth birthday. As for any firm,
entrepreneurial firm’s executive leadership team plays a pivotal role, because of
their responsibility to make strategic decisions aimed at both ensuring firm survival
and driving firm performance. Research shows that better strategic decision making
can be expected to positively influence firm performance, while sub-optimal deci-
sion making is expected to negatively influence performance. In this context, the
type of strategic orientation a firm has (such as market, technology, learning, entre-
preneurial, or marketing) specifically influences firm performance. Extant research
indicates that inter-relations between different strategic orientations aid competitive
advantage and that balancing more than one strategic orientation enables better firm
performance. The research question for this paper aims to analyze what options in
leveraging the type of strategic identity may be available for different types of entre-
preneurial firms, to optimize strategic leadership decision making related to market-
ing strategy. This decision making in turn is aimed at driving firm performance and
market success. The context of this paper is the entrepreneurial firm environment,
focusing on decision making related to creating and executing marketing strategy.
In this work, literature related to the inter-relation between entrepreneurial and mar-
keting orientations is reviewed. The different blends of strategic orientation inform
the firm strategic identity type. Options are discussed related different blends of
marketing orientation and entrepreneurial orientation, contingent on the type of
result the executive leadership team targets to drive. A set of propositions are devel-
oped and a framework is proposed, to be further tested in an entrepreneurial context.
Additionally, for the practitioner, this framework may be used to provide input for a
T. Eriksson (*)
e-mail: maria.theresa.eriksson@ltu.se

362 T. Eriksson
leadership team to—depending on the outcomes they are aiming to achieve—

identify and introduce a desired strategic identity. Limitations and opportunities for
future research are discussed.
Keywords Entrepreneurship · Strategy · Leadership · Strategic orientation ·

Marketing

How can Targeted Price Promotion Create
Value for Firms in B2C Relationships?
A Systematic Review and Research
Agenda: An Abstract
Sreedhar Madhavaram and Dorcia Bolton
Abstract Advances in technology have facilitated an increased emphasis on tar-

geted price promotion to consumers. Given the increased use of targeted price pro-
motion by firms and the significant emphasis on marketing’s ability to generate
substantial value for firms, it is imperative that researchers give increased attention
to the value-creating potential of targeted price promotions. The significant push by
manufacturers and retailers to embrace targeted price promotion as a strategy to
offer special prices only to select customers is fueled by the continuous develop-
ments in marketing technologies, which enhance firms’ ability to target customers.
In fact, projections also suggest that firms will continue to engage in the use of tar-
geted pricing strategies and individualized offers to customers expected to remain
on an upward trajectory. Overall, firms’ targeted price promotion strategies involve
the collection and interpretation of vast amounts of data on consumers to generate
insights into consumers’ likely response to promoted products, brands, and ser-
vices. However, the effectiveness of a targeted price promotion as a strategy to help
generate firm value is dependent on consumers’ response to the promotion.
Unfortunately, although marketing researchers have examined the impact of tar-
geted price promotion on firm outcomes, targeted price promotion research remains
highly fragmented. In addition, mixed results from existing research and the grow-
ing use of the targeted price promotion by firms demand a systematic approach to
bring clarity, specificity, and comprehensiveness to targeted price promotion strat-
egy. To address this research gap, we first frame our research question as the impact
of targeted price promotion on the creation of value for firms. Next, we systemati-
cally review and summarize research findings on how targeted price promotion
impacts key firm value indicators such as increased marketing effectiveness,
S. Madhavaram (*)
e-mail: s.madhavaram@ttu.edu
D. Bolton
Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, AL, USA
e-mail: dbolton@aum.edu

364 S. Madhavaram and D. Bolton
c ustomer loyalty, and revenue, while also discussing challenges such as sub-optimal
returns and customer switching. Finally, we offer a research agenda and implica-
tions of our research for theory and practice.
Keywords Targeted promotion · Pricing · Firm value · Marketing effectiveness ·

Customer loyalty

Knowledge is Power: The Moderating
Effect of Product Knowledge: An Abstract
James J. Zboja, Susan Brudvig, and Mary Dana Laird
Abstract Although high pressure sales tactics are still sometimes applied by sales-
people in the marketplace, most academics and marketers alike agree with Hartman
(2005, p. 74) that “pressure is consistently an effective strategy for producing mana-
gerially undesirable consequences.” So, the study of consumer perceptions of sales
pressure is vital to better understanding in what situations consumers feel pressured,
in an effort to minimize such situations.
Using Friestad and Wright’s (1994) Persuasion Knowledge Model as a frame-
work, this research seeks to focus on consumer entitlement, product knowledge, and
persuasion knowledge as antecedents to consumer perceptions of sales pressure.
Particularly in focus is the moderating role of product knowledge on the relation-
ships of consumer entitlement and persuasion knowledge on perceptions of sales
pressure. We seek to test whether product knowledge can simultaneously enhance
the impact of persuasion knowledge on perceived pressure, while mitigating the
impact of consumer entitlement on perceived pressure.
Though the moderation was insignificant where consumer entitlement was con-
cerned, product knowledge did significantly moderate the relationship between per-
suasion knowledge and perceived aggressive sales pressure. Although it is logical
that someone with high levels of self-confidence in their persuasion knowledge
should feel less sales pressure in a buying experience, our results suggest that this
outcome is not realized at low levels of product knowledge. In fact, the pressure
alleviating impact of persuasion knowledge increases significantly with consumer
product knowledge. It would behoove marketers to not only encourage, but
also actively enable consumers to be more informed in their buying efforts.
These enabled consumers will, as a result, feel less pressured in a buying situation,
J. J. Zboja (*) · M. D. Laird

Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA
e-mail: jimzboja@creighton.edu; mdlaird@creighton.edu
S. Brudvig
Indiana University East, Richmond, IN, USA
e-mail: subrudvi@iu.edu

366 J. J. Zboja et al.
resulting in a more satisfying and trusting interaction and relationship with their
seller. The buying process will be more of a partnership among buyer and seller with
the goal being a quality purchase and experience for all involved.
Keywords Sales pressure • Product knowledge • Consumer perceptions •

Consumer entitlement

Overcorrection in Mixed Racial
Purchasing: An Abstract
Katharina Dinhof, Janet Kleber, Bodo Schlegelmilch, and Nilüfer Aydin
Abstract We investigate consumer behavior in situations of interracial sales con-

tact and explore how prejudice influences prosocial purchase decisions towards
vendors from a racial in- and out-group by applying the theory of overcorrection. In
general, out-group interactions are widely associated with negative behavior; how-
ever, the opposite can also occur by showing overly friendly and controlled behavior
(so-called overcorrection).
Overcorrection is an under-researched phenomenon in the domains of consumer
behavior and sales management. We argue that overcorrection has potentially
important marketing implications and aim to shed light on this issue by focusing on
the role of prejudice, as well as on the motivation to appear unprejudiced. In a labo-
ratory experiment, the race of street vendors (Whites vs. Blacks) was manipulated
between subjects and a prosocial purchase decision was measured. Implicit and
explicit prejudice, as well as the motivation to act without prejudice, moderated the
relationship between the vendor's race and the likelihood of a prosocial purchasing
decision (willingness to purchase). Overcorrection is observable at a very low level
of prejudice (implicit and explicit) and disappears at moderate and high levels of
prejudice. Where prejudice towards Black vendors is low, participants indicate a
higher willingness to purchase from Black than from White vendors. We argue that
participants with low prejudice showed the highest overcorrection because they
experience less intergroup anxiety, hence are not experiencing cognitive depletion
and can regulate their behavior. A higher motivation to act without prejudice (regard-
less of the level of prejudice) leads to overcorrected behavior. Despite its omnipres-
ence, race, in general, is an under-researched construct in consumer behavior and
marketing and needs to be investigated from many perspectives.
Our research extends existing research on influential factors in sales interactions
and charitable giving by considering prejudice and one’s motivation to control it.
K. Dinhof (*) · B. Schlegelmilch

WU University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria
e-mail: katharina.dinhof@wu.ac.at; bodo.schlegelmilch@wu.ac.at
J. Kleber · N. Aydin
Alps-Adria University, Klagenfurt, Austria
e-mail: janet.kleber@aau.at; niluefer.aydin@aau.at

368 K. Dinhof et al.
Furthermore, race in the marketing context has only been investigated from the
perspective of the consumer’s race or ethnic origin but has been neglected from the
stand of the seller. The insights of these findings have substantial implications for
sales and charity managers.
Keywords Charity • Race • Racial bias • Overcorrection • Interracial contact •

Prosocial consumer behavior

The Effects of Person-Team Fit
on Learning Goal Orientation
and Salesperson Performance: An Abstract
Yuerong Liu, Wyatt Schrock, and Yanhui Zhao
Abstract Guided by goal interdependence theory, this research examines different

effects of person-team fit in the sales force. Of particular interest are the ways trait
cooperativeness and trait competitiveness might individually and jointly affect
objective measures of salesperson performance. In the current study, person-team fit
implies that salespeople and their sales teams have compatible personality traits
(i.e., trait cooperativeness and trait competitiveness), while person-team misfit
implies that salespeople and their sales teams have incompatible personality traits
(e.g., cooperative-oriented salespeople within competitive-oriented sales teams).
Following a review of relevant literature, the authors explore relationships
between the two traits (i.e., competitiveness and cooperativeness) and measures
of learning goal orientation. In line with extant marketing literature, learning goal
orientation is modeled as a function of both individual and environmental char-
acteristics. Ultimately, this research proposes that (1) cooperative salespeople in
cooperative teams exhibit higher learning goal orientation than those in competitive
teams, and (2) competitive salespeople in competitive teams exhibit lower learning
goal orientation than those in cooperative teams. In turn, salesperson learning goal
orientation is expected to directly and positively affect objective sales performance.
As such, person-team fit is proposed to strengthen the positive effect of the two traits
studied only when individuals and teams are fit on trait cooperativeness. However,
in contrast with a traditional view that misfit is inferior to fit, this research sug-
Y. Liu (*)
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
e-mail: yl0015@mix.wvu.edu
W. Schrock
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
e-mail: schrockw@msu.edu
Y. Zhao
University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA
e-mail: yzhao2@unomaha.edu

370 Y. Liu et al.
gests that person-team misfit (e.g., competitive-oriented salespeople in cooperative-

oriented teams) can be beneficial and positively drive salesperson performance.
In the end, the current research builds on goal interdependence theory literature
to suggest that, in addition to formal goal structure and team structure, trait competi-
tiveness and trait cooperativeness at the team level can also define cooperative con-
texts and competitive contexts. Several managerial implications (e.g., recruiting and
selection) are explored. Research limitations and directions for future research are
also discussed.
Keywords Person-team fit • Trait cooperativeness • Trait competitiveness • Goal

orientation • Salesperson performance

When Crowdsourcing Proposition
Rejection Reinforces Brand Relationship:
An Abstract
Cyrielle Vellera, Elodie Jouny-Rivier, and Mathilde Briffa
Abstract Although a large body of literature highlights the benefits of crowdsourc-

ing initiatives (both for brands and participants), innovation in collaboration with
communities can “create frustration and evoke angry reactions” due to disappoint-
ing experiences (Gebauer et al. 2013). Indeed, while the literature reveals that users
engage in virtual co-creation activities as they expect the participation to be rewarded
by the nodal brands (Füller 2010; von Hippel 2005), only a very small fraction of
crowd proposals is selected and rewarded by the brand contest committee.
This research, carried out in two studies, investigates the impact of rejection of
participants’ submissions on the brands running a crowdsourcing project. In a first
study, a longitudinal survey dealing with repeated measures before and after the
announcement of the non-selection (ideation stage) was conducted. The study aims
to identify the consequences on customer-brand relationships of attitudinal and
behavioral responses to proposal rejection, focusing on brand trust, attitude, loyalty,
attachment, emotional attractiveness, proselytism, and commitment, as well as the
intention to diffuse negative word of mouth.
The findings reveal that rejection does not impact brand attachment, brand trust,
brand attitude, and brand loyalty. However, participation in the contest, even if the
submission is rejected, reinforces positively the emotional attractiveness of the
brand, proselytism, and brand commitment. Subsequently, a second quantitative
study goes further by comparing these variables at two stages: ideation stage (pre-
selection round) and expansion stage (development and deepening phase leading to
the finale). No significant differences between ideation stage rejection and expansion
C. Vellera
Toulouse School of Management, Toulouse, France
e-mail: cyrielle.vellera@tsm-education.fr
E. Jouny-Rivier (*)
ESSCA School of Management, Angers, France
e-mail: elodie.jouny-rivier@essca.fr
M. Briffa
Décathlon France, Lille, France
e-mail: mathilde.briffa@decathlon.com

372 C. Vellera et al.
stage rejection were found for brand trust and attitude toward the brand. Nevertheless,
the results reveal that participants rejected at the expansion stage rate the brand
higher than those rejected at the ideation stage on the following variables: brand
attachment, emotional attractiveness of the brand, proselytism, brand commitment,
and brand loyalty. In both studies, no intention to diffuse negative word of mouth is
revealed. These findings offer interesting managerial contributions for managers
who can be fearful of engaging their brands in crowdsourcing activities. Indeed,
brands initiating crowdsourcing projects gather new ideas to improve new product
development and, simultaneously, reinforce their relationship with participants.
Keywords Crowdsourcing • Rejection • Customer-brand relationships • Contests

• Emotional attractiveness • Proselytism • Brand commitment

Co-creation for Customer Engagement
Management: When do they Want
to Talk? An Abstract
Linda Hamdi-Kidar and Tomoko Kawakami
Abstract Firms are increasingly promoting user-designed products, but earlier

work revealed a mitigated effect of customers’ reactions towards customer partici-
pation in new product development (e.g., Haumann et al. 2015). In this study, we
explore the user-design effect by comparing consumers’ perceptions if a product is
developed in collaboration with fans of a brand or any average consumers. We also
test if the effect on (1) the perception of co-created product and (2) sending WOM
to others could be moderated by the perceived complexity of the product category.
To answer this question, we build on social identity (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and
social comparison (Locke 2003) theories. Both let us think that consumers’ reac-
tions regarding the co-created product would be improved if a product is co-designed
with a fan of the brand (compared with ordinary users). However, this effect may be
reduced when the product is perceived as complex. Based on the previous theoreti-
cal development, we hypothesize that (1) Product class involvement, (2) Domain-
specific knowledge, and (3) Similarity with fans will affect positively the perception
of the co-created product and, in turn, spreading WOM.
We tested the hypotheses with an online questionnaire survey. Data collection
was conducted by a professional market research agency with a representative sam-
ple of 240 Japanese consumers. Product selection was based on the perceived com-
plexity of the product: beer represents low-complexity consumer product, whereas
cars are perceived as high-complexity consumer goods.
The results show that, in all cases, consumers who are involved in the product
class tend to perceive positively the co-created products, both for low- and high-
complexity products. The product class involvement however affects WOM inten-
tion only for the cases of co-developing a beer with ordinary consumers or with
fans, not for cars. If consumers are knowledgeable about the product category, they
L. Hamdi-Kidar (*)
Toulouse Business School, Toulouse, France
e-mail: l.hamdi-kidar@tbs-education.fr
T. Kawakami
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ktomoko@waseda.jp

374 L. Hamdi-Kidar and T. Kawakami
tend to spread WOM on the product co-created with both ordinary consumers and
with fans, in both cases of beers and cars. However, it does not influence the percep-
tion of the co-created product except for the case of developing a car with ordinary
consumers.
One of the most interesting findings is that, when consumers feel similar and
familiar with the fans of their favorite manufacturer, they tend to evaluate the co-
created product higher in both cases of co-creation with ordinary consumers and
with fans. However, similarity with fans does not affect the level of WOM for all the
cases. Finally, the level of WOM is improved by the perception of the co-created
product for both categories.
Keywords Co-creation • User-design effect • Word-of-mouth • Product

complexity • Fans • Average users

What Frugal Products are and Why they
Matter: An Abstract
Sergej von Janda, Sabine Kuester, Monika C. Schuhmacher, and G. Shainesh
Abstract Frugal innovation is on the rise (Levänen et al. 2016). Practitioners and
academics increasingly acknowledge the promising potential of developing frugal
products for both emerging and industrialized countries. However, the frugal inno-
vation literature still lacks a universal conceptualization of product frugality, an
adequate operationalization, and an investigation of the anticipated consequences of
product frugality, for example, in the form of high adoption rates. Our study
addresses these gaps in the current literature.
In this multi-method study, we develop a comprehensive conceptualization and
operationalization of product frugality using a systematic literature analysis, expert
interviews, consumer interviews, and consumer surveys. Applying established pro-
cedures of index construction to a large and diverse set of consumer data from the
USA, the U.K., Germany, India, and South Africa (n = 2,398), we develop and vali-
date an index of product frugality. Our results depict product frugality as a formative
construct with four dimensions: cost of consumption, sustainability, simplicity, and
basic quality. We define product frugality as a set of product characteristics that
particularly appeals to consumers who, by necessity or choice, value products with
low cost of consumption that, at the same time, are sustainable, simple, and offer
basic quality. For example, the TATA Nano as a very simple and no-frills economy
car that is highly fuel efficient and reduces the usage of raw material over the entire
product lifecycle is a frugal product. In contrast, the Smart Fortwo, as an economy
car manufactured by the Daimler AG is not a frugal product. The Smart Fortwo
starts at US$ 13,000, offers a long list of infotainment features and configuration
S. von Janda (*) · S. Kuester

University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
e-mail: vonjanda@bwl.uni-mannheim.de; kuester@bwl.uni-mannheim.de
M. C. Schuhmacher
Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
e-mail: monika.schuhmacher@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de
G. Shainesh
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
e-mail: shaineshg@iimb.ernet.in

376 S. von Janda et al.
packages, and does not pay particular attention to a conscious usage of resources
such as raw materials or fuel.
Our findings provide important implications for theory and practice as we gener-
ate a common understanding of product frugality that acknowledges the multi-
dimensional nature of this construct. Nomological examination of our index reveals
that product frugality increases consumers’ willingness to generate word of mouth.
Our research proffers guidance for managers seeking to explore the potential of
frugal products in addressing consumers’ need for higher value products while min-
imizing environmental impact.
Keywords Frugal innovation • Frugal products • Scale development •

Word-of-mouth

Monetary and Nonmonetary Cost Factors
in the Cycle of Unhealth
Alyssa J. Reynolds-Pearson
Abstract Policymakers have long suggested a need to overhaul supplemental

nutrition assistance programs in the USA to save taxpayer money. However, these
efforts are often met with resistance because cutting costs is often paired with reduc-
ing the quality of diet which can result in even greater costs in government-provided
healthcare. This research takes a consumer-driven perspective and explores the cost
factors driving food purchases for low-income, urban consumers in order to better
understand the ways that the current food marketing system is failing to provide this
population with value. The samples include a 32-person sample from a low-income
urban area in North Carolina as well as a 52-person general population sample taken
from Amazon mTurk. This exploratory research shows that low-income consumers
tend to rely more heavily on well-known food and are most concerned about the
cognitive burden and time required to prepare meals at home. These findings can be
used to better understand the shopping decisions of low-income consumers and for
policy makers to design higher value supplemental nutrition programs to address
these concerns.
Keywords Food marketing · Obesity · Economic mobility · Shopping · Poverty ·

Supermarket
Introduction
Supplemental nutrition assistance programs are lightning rods for government ire in
the USA. Despite the effectiveness of such programs as economic stimulators and
in improving lifetime education and employment outcomes for its younger
Funding for this research was provided by the Center for the Study of Economic Mobility at
Winston-Salem State University though a grant from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s
Center for Advancing Opportunity (CAO).
A. J. Reynolds-Pearson (*)
Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
e-mail: reynoldsa@wssu.edu

378 A. J. Reynolds-Pearson
participants (United States Department of Agriculture 2018; Frongillo et al. 2006;

Hoynes et al. 2016), government officials frequently cite the need to improve these
“handouts” to reduce participant dependence and costs; however, such efforts rarely
view the low-income consumers who receive nutritional assistance as consumers in
need of comprehensive cost-cutting solutions that also maximize their access to the
healthy food items they want. For example, in February 2018, the Trump adminis-
tration suggested a “Harvest Box” for those on nutrition assistance programs (Evich
2018). To reduce costs, the box would contain a standardized assortment consisting
mostly of calorie dense and non-perishable items shipped straight to the doorstep of
recipients. Based on the disastrous health outcomes for Native Americans on a simi-
lar plan (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017), Trump’s “Harvest Box”
takes a myopic view of improvement that would reduce financial costs in the short-
term without properly accounting for the long-term costs of governmental health-
related subsidies to box recipients dealing with the resulting obesity-related illnesses
(Godoy 2018). This is especially problematic because, as a percentage of budget,
the government spends over 14 times the cost of all food and nutrition assistance
programs (1.6%) on healthcare (23%) (The White House 2018). This research
attempts to avoid such pitfalls by examining the costs (both monetary and nonmon-
etary) of cooking and preparing food at home for low-income consumers in order to
inform efforts to maximize benefits for supplemental nutrition programs while also
potentially lowering the lifetime healthcare costs for recipients.
Though the recent rise in levels of obesity in higher income Americans has led to
a relative equalizing of rates of obesity for high-income and low-income Americans
(Ogden et al. 2010), the disparity in obesity between low-income and high-income
children continues to grow from 6.2% in 1999 to 11.3% in 2011 (Datar and Chung
2015). Furthermore, though obesity rates are similar, obesity-related health issues
are far more prevalent among those of a low socioeconomic status including type II
diabetes (Rabi et al. 2006), heart disease (Franks et al. 2011), stroke risk among the
elderly (Avendano et al. 2006) post-stroke disability (Bettger et al. 2014).
Additionally, adult obesity is 15.2% more prevalent in black Americans than white
Americans (Wang and Beydoun 2007).
Additionally, positive feedback loop of obesity falls disproportionately on the
most economically vulnerable populations. Though changes in food offerings pro-
vide promising potential for reducing the nonmonetary costs of healthy eating (time,
skills, cognitive burden), the associated price premium currently places them out of
reach for the low-income consumers who need them most. This research seeks to
identify the greatest costs (monetary, functional, psychological) faced by low-
income consumers when making food decision which inhibit their ability to eat a
more nutritious, healthful diet. By doing so, this research would inform the most
effective changes to nutritional assistance policy to allow recipients to break through
the health ceiling that currently inhibits their economic mobility.
This cycle of unhealth is inexorable part of systemic poverty. For those with
limited economic means, cheap, calorically dense, shelf-stable foods become a sta-
ple feature in diets from a young age. This palate priming for taste-optimized pro-
cessed foods and inability to risk wasting nutritious foods that children refuse to eat
Monetary and Nonmonetary Cost Factors in the Cycle of Unhealth 379
(e.g., broccoli, spinach) causes children in low-income households to have a life-

time aversion to vegetables as well as unknown foods in general relative to their
wealthy peers (Pinsker 2017). In adulthood, obesity leads to maladies that are not
only inherently expensive to manage but also cause major barriers to gainful
employment and promotion which undermines the potential of these individuals for
economic mobility. For example, obesity-related complications increase workplace
limitations and unemployment (Tunceli et al. 2006), are associated with a perceived
lower suitability for employment (Flint et al. 2016) and lower leadership potential
as well as lower expectations for success (Flint and Snook 2014). Compound this
with the fact that class signals on resumes (e.g., lower-class extracurricular like
track and field versus higher-class extracurricular like sailing) can reduce the likeli-
hood of receiving an interview by two-thirds, and low-income, obese people are
facing not only barriers to acquiring employment but also in upward mobility within
the workplace.
These employment barriers compound the health cycle because the economic
limitations lead to the further consumption of cheap, calorically dense foods with
these food habits eventually being passed down to the children of obese people lay-
ing the groundwork for the next generation to be caught in a never-ending cycle.
Maslow’s hierarchy would suggest that the inability of a person to consistently meet
basic needs such as health and steady employment would make it difficult, if not
impossible, for him or her to seek, nonetheless meet, higher-level psychological
needs like prestige and accomplishment or self-actualization. These needs are a
driving force for economic success that are perpetually out of reach for low-income
people with obesity creating a “health ceiling” on economic mobility.
Theoretical Background
With childhood obesity rates continuing to rise especially in low-income areas

(Datar and Chung 2015), the urgency of breaking this cycle of obesity is more press-
ing than ever. Historically, public policy efforts in the USA frequently focus on
increasing exercise or providing informational campaigns to improve dietary knowl-
edge. Unfortunately, the 20 minutes of recommended exercise a day can be made
null by one biscuit with butter at dinner while informational campaigns fail to
address the immense costs prohibiting low-income consumers—who already suffer
from a lack of resources—from planning, purchasing, preparing, and consuming a
healthy diet.
This research would be a substantial departure of traditional public policy efforts
because it would seek to explore the needs of low-income, obese persons as con-
sumers who have demand for an offering—tasty, nutritious, and low-cost dietary
solutions that promote a healthy weight—that is not being met by the free market.
Costs in this research will be conceptualized in three categories. As in, costs for
low-income consumers will be evaluated not just monetarily but also functionally in
terms of features such as time-intensive and psychologically in terms of features
such as skill-intensive or cognitively burdensome. By creating a value model for

these consumers, this research allows for an assessment of which market offerings
may be best suited to meet their needs.
Furthermore, the United States government also has a prerogative to invest in
improving dietary offerings for low-income people because they are often left bar-
ing the costs of obesity-related illnesses for these groups. Of the 15.5 million people
in poverty (income <$25,000) in 2009, approximately 5 million of these were obese
and 1 million had diabetes. The annual per person costs of treating two of the most
common obesity-related illnesses—diabetes and cardiovascular disease—are $7900
(American Diabetes Association 2013) and $18,953 (Nichols et al. 2010), respec-
tively. Spending a few hundred dollars of additional funds to provide low-income
Medicaid/Medicare recipients at risk for such diseases the food offerings they need
to lose weight and improve nutrition could amount to a substantial long-term cost
savings even if such programs are less than 100% effective at preventing obesity.
Looking at the most effective ways to maximize the comprehensive value of
dietary offerings for low-income, obese customers will allow researchers and poli-
cymakers to assess current offerings or develop new offerings that are best suited to
their needs. This research could help in the development of programs that ensure
people are not just fed but fed in such a way that individuals and their families are
able to transcend the achievement ceiling created by obesity. Examples of ideas that
this research may suggest warrant further research include recent trends in con-
sumer food acquisition such as home-delivery meal services (i.e., Blue Apron, Hello
Fresh) and free grocery pickup (i.e., Walmart, Target) as well as subsidies and grants
for small-scale grocery stores owned by residents in low-income areas that are cur-
rently food deserts.
Methodology
This research analyzes a convenience sample of consumers taken in a low-income,

low economic mobility urban area in the Southeastern United States outside a gro-
cery retailer. A convenience sample was considered ideal for this research for two
reasons, this research is exploratory and given the cost associated with more thor-
ough, in-depth interviews in such an inaccessible population such efforts should be
guided by questions derived from research in the area.
Thirty-two low-economic-mobility-area (LEMA) residents were recruited in
front of a local grocery store and paid $5 for their participation as well as entered in
to an opportunity to win a $250 gift card. Forty total surveys were collected but five
had substandard completion rates while three consistently failed to answer the ques-
tions in the units required suggesting they were not thoroughly reading questions.
The sample is 93.7% black, 3.1% American Indian, and 3.1% white as well as
46.9% male and 53.1% female. Their household income distribution was 58.0%
making less than $10,000, 6.5% making $10,000–19,999, 9.7% making
$20,000–29,999, 12.9% making $30,000–39,999, 6.5% making $40,000–49,999,
3.2% making $60,000–69,999, and 3.2% making $70,000–79,999. 38.7% of the

sample receive nutrition assistance (SNAP, WIC or TANF). Their mean household
size was 3.22 with average distribution of the number of people in the household by
age as follows: Young children (0–5 years) = 0.563, older children = 1.50, young
adults = 0.9412, adults = 1.65, and seniors = 0.294.
This research examines the differences between the 32-person sample from the
LEMA neighborhood and a 100-person sample of the U.S. population recruited
from mTurk who were paid $1.00 in exchange for participating. After removing 10
participants who failed attention checks, the sample was then reduced to 52 to make
it comparable to the LEMA sample. The disparity in compensation in the online
survey vs. the LEMA survey is due to the reduced time it takes to complete survey
online as well as the eagerness of the mTurk workers to exchange their time for
compensation compared to LEMA residents who were not seeking opportunities to
participate in research for compensation. The larger sample for the online data was
obtained due to the lower reliability of in online samples. The general population
online sample was 13.2% black, 73.6% white, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 7.5%
Asian, and 1.9% other as well as 43.4% male and 56.6% female.
LEMA residents also have higher rates of nutrition assistance (MEW = 0.39,
SD = 0.495; Mpop = 0.12, SD = 0.323; t = −2.729, p = 0.009) and lower household
incomes (MEW = 2.29, SD = 1.97; Mpop = 6.35, SD = 3.10; t = 7.287, p < 0.000).
In general, the LEMA population rated the following cost dimensions as most
important to least important when shopping for food: (1) Monetary (M = 3.95,
SD = 1.06), (2) Cognitive burden (M = 3.83, SD = 1.00), (3) Healthful (M = 3.79,
SD = 1.06), (4) Time (M = 3.52, SD = 1.22), (5) Skills (M = 2.20, SD = 1.10). In
deciding to eat meals outside the home, LEMA residents are most concerned about
not having the time to clean the kitchen (M = 3.59, SD = 1.46), prepare and cook
food (M = 3.45, SD = 1.26), and plan good meals (M = 3.16, SD = 1.27) in their top
reasons while preference (M = 2.10, SD = 1.04) was at the bottom of reasons. The
high rating of healthfulness in food shopping behavior is encouraging and suggests
that informational campaigns encouraging healthy eating have been effective; how-
ever, the prohibitive monetary and nonmonetary costs may be taking precedence.
The next stage of analysis examines the differences between LEMA residents
and a general population sample taken from Amazon mTurk. Five major differences
emerged between the LEMA residents and the general population.
The first is that LEMA residents spend a significantly greater amount of time
weekly—nearly double—budgeting food purchases (MEW = 2.09, SD = 2.51;
Mpop = 1.35, SD = 1.35; t = −2.303, p = 0.027) as well as double the amount of time
on shopping for food (MEW = 3.11, SD = 2.61; Mpop = 1.77, SD = 1.49; t = −2.259,
p = 0.030). This could mean that balancing the time costs and monetary costs may
be posing a greater difficulty for LEMA residents than the population at large and
suggests that tools to reduce the time costs of budgeting may be helpful in improv-
ing dietary decisions.
Secondly, LEMA residents responded that they are significantly more likely to
buy foods that they are familiar with (MEW = 4.09, SD = 0.777; Mpop = 3.62,
SD = 0.932; t = −2.536, p = 0.013) as well as brand name foods (MEW = 3.91,
SD = 0.963; Mpop = 3.17, SD = 1.080; t = −3.235, p = 0.002) and frozen foods
(MEW = 3.00, SD = 1.218; Mpop = 2.31, SD = 0.963; t = −2.818, p = 0.007). All of
the food options above are similar in that they remain relatively consistent in cost
and portion sizes. Additionally, branded and frozen foods are less likely to spoil.
This raises the question of whether LEMA shoppers are relying more heavily on
heuristics to reduce the cognitive burden of shopping decisions. Choosing known
quantities may help alleviate the nonmonetary energy and time costs of food deci-
sions but may also make LEMA shoppers more susceptible to buy ultra-processed
branded food based on food advertising efforts.
Tertiarily, LEMA residents also reported a greater certainty that they were buy-
ing “the most nutritious foods possible” when they shop for food (MEW = 3.66,
SD = 0.971; Mpop = 3.08, SD = 1.026; t = −2.599, p = 0.011). Given their time and
budgetary constraints, LEMA shoppers feel confident that they are providing the
most nutritious meals possible. Whether this increased certainty is due to an
informed certainty that LEMA residents are maximizing their resources or a mis-
conception about how well they are utilizing those resources is not immedi-
ately clear.
Next, though LEMA residents did not report eating significantly more meals
outside the home (MEW = 4.42, SD = 5.00; Mpop = 2.95, SD = 2.69; t = −1.482,
p = 0.146), they did report eating significantly less meals inside the home
(MEW = 7.06, SD = 4.52; Mpop = 10.62, SD = 5.64; t = 3.566, p = 0.003). The large
variance for LEMA residents suggests that LEMA residents may vary more in pro-
pensity to eat meals outside the home. Combine this with the significant difference
in propensity to eat meals inside the home and evidence suggests that LEMA resi-
dents may be more likely to rely on outside prepared food and are less likely to cook
at home.
Lastly, LEMA residents reported not having the skills to make a good meal
(MEW = 2.97, SD = 1.56; Mpop = 2.02, SD = 1.29; t = −2.894, p = 0.005) and not
having the time to clean the kitchen (MEW = 3.59, SD = 1.46; Mpop = 2.15, SD = 1.29;
t = −4.595, p < 0.000) as significantly more important in their decision to eat a meal
prepared outside the home. This may be partially because LEMA residents report
spending more time in cleaning the kitchen when cooking (MEW = 4.77, SD = 6.22;
Mpop = 3.09, SD = 1.99; t = −1.419, p = 0.166). Time spent cleaning the kitchen,
though insignificantly different than the population, may be a more latent concern
for LEMA residents. This may also factor in to the purchase of frozen and branded
foods which may be less likely to involve extensive prep or cleaning time. The skills
component is especially interesting because though it rated relatively low as a con-
cern overall for LEMA residents, they were significantly more concerned about the
lack of skills than the general population sample.
Conclusions and Implications for Theory and Practice
This research shows that food retailers are failing to provide comprehensive options
to low-income consumers that allow them to minimize costs and maximize health.
These failures may make low-income consumers such as LEMA residents more
likely to rely on safe food purchases that are highly processed and calorically dense
and on eating meals outside the home. If current trends in grocery continue, this
research suggests that in-store food options which facilitate healthy, not messy,
inexpensive, and reliability could drastically improve nutrition quality for this popu-
lation though additional research is required to design such products in more detail.
Overall, this research illuminates several possibilities for future research to
explore. Most importantly is understanding the reliance on branded, frozen, and
well-known foods which may be a way to not only reduce the nonmonetary time
costs of food budgeting, food shopping, food preparation, and cleaning the kitchen
but also a way to potentially reduce the nonmonetary cognitive burden costs as well.
Future research should explore the types of heuristic mechanisms that may underlie
these food decisions. This research also suggests that though LEMA residents do
not worry about skills related to their food behavior but that this may be related to
this reliance on safe food choices (frozen, branded, well-known) which may limit
healthy meal options inside the home. Additional research should be done to see
what resources might allow LEMA residents to cook more meals from scratch such
as closing the perceived skill gap, reducing the effort necessary to plan such meals,
and lastly reducing the perceived and actual effort required to clean after prepara-
tion. The Seattle Obesity Study has found that eating inside the home is associated
with a higher degree of healthfulness as well as a reduced overall food expenditure
(Tiwari et al. 2017). Future research should explore whether LEMA residents are
eating more meals outside the home or are simply not able to cook as many meals
inside the home due to budgetary constraints though both possibilities suggest more
work should be done to help LEMA residents cook at home.
Though LEMA residents do not rate themselves as concerned about time in their
food shopping decisions, they do rate time as important in the decision to eat outside
the home. This may mean that LEMA residents are not adequately budgeting for
time when shopping which may be leading to an increased reliance on outside meals.
Unsurprisingly, monetary concerns are ranked very highly for LEMA consumers
who have lower incomes and a greater reliance on food assistance. However, this
research lends support to the idea that services such as curbside grocery delivery or
grocery pickup services may be able to improve the quality of food choices for
LEMA and other low-income residents if those services could be better optimized
to create easy to clean up meals (e.g., one-pot wonders) or that can assure lower the
monetary costs to reduce the time and cognitive costs of budgeting for LEMA resi-
dents who are limited by low incomes and nutrition assistance allowances.
Because this was a paper and pencil survey administered in-person, four partici-
pants indicated they would be unable to participate either due to poor vision or lack
of literacy required. Additionally, this research was conducted on people who had
the ability to access the grocery store so future research should focus on accessing
LEMA residents who may have be excluded by this sampling and paper survey
methods. For example, in-depth interviews may be able to provide additional quali-
tative insights not provided by this survey on how currently food options are failing
to optimize value for these consumers.
Future research should involve in-depth interviews with LEMA residents in
order to better understand some of the findings of this research as well as to gain
access to feedback from low-literacy residents. Given that this population is gener-
ally inaccessible and tight knit, being able to hire student researchers who can
access this population while also being able to pay participants in cash for their time
would help tremendously. Asking participants in greater detail about the kinds of
products they might like to help alleviate concerns suggested in this research would
help guide policy suggestions or even suggestions for corporations such as Walmart
who are looking to improve food product offerings.
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In-Game Advertising and Gamers’
Behavior in App Environment:
An Abstract
Naser Valaei, Gregory Bressolles, S. R. Nikhashemi, and Hina Khan
Abstract The Global Games Market Report released by Newzoo has shown that
almost 2.2 billion gamers across the world are estimated to have generated sales
volume of US $108.9 billion in 2017. Mobile gaming is performing as the most
lucrative segment with the highest potential growth. More than half of the US popu-
lation play games on their smartphones and tablets and the percentage of population
who play games on smart devices is expected to hit 63.7% in 2020. The time people
spent on gaming apps accounts for 32% of the total time spent online. Not surpris-
ingly, with the trend of increasing time spent on gaming apps, companies’ expendi-
ture on mobile gaming apps advertisements is increasing accordingly. Mobile
advertisement spending is estimated to hit US $195.55 billion which accounts for
70.1% of digital ads.
Even though there is a noticeable market value in the mobile gaming apps indus-
try, there has been limited research examining experiential value of gamers in
respect to in-game ads in gaming apps. This study addresses this gap in the literature
by examining factors associated with “Experiential Value of Gamers through Ads in
Gaming Apps (EVGAGA)” as well as investigating its antecedents (in terms of
cognitive and affective involvement) and consequences (positive word of mouth and
continuance intention to play gaming apps). A total of 600 valid responses from
gamers were used to test the model fit, measurement and structural models, condi-
tional probabilistic queries, and nonlinearity. This study found that EVGAGA is a
second-order factor of four constructs: escapism, enjoyment, social affiliation, and
N. Valaei (*) · G. Bressolles

KEDGE Business School, Bordeaux, France
e-mail: naser.valaei@kedgebs.com; gregory.bressolles@kedgebs.com
S. R. Nikhashemi
Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
e-mail: farhadn@squ.edu.om
H. Khan
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
e-mail: h.khan11@lancaster.ac.uk

388 N. Valaei et al.
entertainment. The structural paths between cognitive/affective involvement and

dimensions of EVGAGA are supported. Surprisingly, only social affiliation and
entertainment values predict positive word of mouth and continuance intention to
play gaming apps. Furthermore, the results of multi-group analysis indicate that the
relationship between Enjoyment → Continuance intention to play gaming apps is
stronger for those having high level of attachment to games. The findings have
important implications for companies that could help develop brand and communi-
cation strategies. For instance, by understanding factors associated with experiential
value of gamers, companies could leverage specific advertisement formats and pres-
ent their ads to the right audience in the right gaming apps and at the right time.
Keywords In-game advertising · Apps · Experiential value · Mobile gaming

industry

Predicting the Future of Advertising
Creative Research: An Abstract
Douglas C. West
Abstract This study provides an examination of the current literature on advertis-

ing creativity and suggests that what has been published in recent years will enable
a prediction of future trends. In order to do so, this study offers a structured litera-
ture review. It provides a “viewpoint” with the intent to provide an assessment of the
direction of advertising creative research combining the author’s perspective based
upon a review of selected literature.
At the outset it was decided to confine the review to 50 articles published between
2012 and 2018, given the objective was to identify trends and to project these into
the future. Two databases were utilized for source material. One was EBSCO
Business Source Complete, a leading business and management database and the
other WARC (World Advertising Research Center), a leading advertising and mar-
keting one. The elements identified were year of publication, authors, location of
research, primary research method, and sample. That left the thematic coding of
topics as the most subjective aspect of the structured review, given the potential for
multiple categorizations. To go some way to addressing the problem each article
was categorized by the author according to highlighted keywords listed in the two
databases. Each article was then comprehensively reviewed.
Six primary themes emerged. (1) It comes as no surprise to suggest that, in terms
of the location of data for advertising creative research will continue to be domi-
nated by studies from the USA and Western Europe. Equally it will come as no
surprise to suggest that Asia (in particular China) will provide an increasing number
of studies with Australasia continuing to be well represented. Some growth in stud-
ies from the Mideast and South America are also to be expected. (2) A combination
of the dominance of experimentation, qualitative, survey, and content analysis are to
be anticipated. Conceptual studies utilizing databases and cases will likely feature
more prominently. (3) Samples featuring practitioners will continue to form a basis
for much of the investigative work, but those featuring the public, assessments of
media and, to some extent, students, will also be in evidence. Further progress in the
D. C. West (*)
e-mail: douglas.west@kcl.ac.uk

390 D. C. West
use of market data is also to be expected. (4) Thematically the fascination with
responses to creative versus non-creative advertising is set to continue given it
remains debatable. (5) Work on agencies and the agency–client relationship will do
likewise. (6) However, it is to be anticipated that the role of creativity and the media,
especially digital and social, will see growing interest.
Keywords Advertising · Agency · Agency–client · Creativity

Investigating the Effect of Mobile In-store
Promotions on Purchase Intention: Is
WhatsApp More Effective? An Abstract
Valentina Pitardi, Giulia Miniero, and Francesco Ricotta
Abstract Mobile devices possess the ability to enable consumers to use and inter-
act with in-store based technology (Grewal et al. 2016). Despite the increasing
interest in this topic, relevant both for academics and practitioners, to date, only few
studies have focused on mobile in-store advertising and its effects on consumers’
decisions (Bues et al. 2017; Hui et al. 2013). Yet, closer insights are needed in order
to address the literature gap regarding the drivers affecting in-store mobile advertis-
ing effectiveness.
By focusing closely on location based advertising (LBA), this study investigates
the effect of the platform used in the mobile promotion (Facebook–WhatsApp) and
the content of the promotion (shopping goal congruent–shopping goal non-
congruent) on consumers’ purchase intention. Specifically, the study hypothesizes
that, due to the level of social presence perceived, WhatsApp mobile promotions are
more effective in driving purchase intentions, and such effect will be greater when
the promotion is congruent with the consumers’ goal.
Social presence (SP) is defined as the degree to which a medium allows users to
experience others as psychologically present (Short et al. 1976) and is an important
construct that affects consumer’s reactions to marketing communication stimuli
(Robert and Dennis, 2005). The level of SP changes according to the communica-
tion media types. For instance, Karapanos et al. (2016) showed how WhatsApp trig-
gers higher level of social presence (SP) compared to Facebook. The perceived
congruity between the shopping goal and the promotion, too, may affect consum-
ers’ responses in a shopping setting (van't Riet et al. 2016). Congruently, we expect
V. Pitardi (*)
KEDGE University, Marseille, France
e-mail: valentina.pitardi@kedgebs.com
G. Miniero
Franklin University Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland
e-mail: gminiero@fus.edu
F. Ricotta
Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
e-mail: francesco.ricotta@uniroma1.it

392 V. Pitardi et al.
to find WhatsApp in-store mobile promotion having more positive effect on promo-
tion redemption than Facebook in-store mobile promotion, because of the higher
level of social presence triggered by WhatsApp. Also, we propose that this effect
will be stronger when mobile ads are goal congruent.
A pre-test and two experiments were conducted. Findings demonstrate that
WhatsApp in-store mobile promotion is more effective in driving purchase inten-
tions, especially for goal congruent promotion. Moreover, the research shows that
the level of social presence triggered by the platform mediates this relationship.
Overall, the results demonstrate that goal congruent mobile promotion positively
affects promotion redemption when delivered during a shopping expedition; also,
they show that WhatsApp exerts a higher influence than Facebook, and such differ-
ence is particularly significant when the promotional message is goal congruent.
From a theoretical perspective, the study sheds light on the role played by specific
mobile platforms and applications, namely WhatsApp and Facebook. Moreover, by
applying social presence theory in the context of real-time mobile communication,
the study explains why WhatsApp is more effective in driving decisions, thus con-
tributing to a better understanding of the differential advertising’s effects and impli-
cations of both platforms.
Keywords Mobile promotions · Social presence · Goal congruity · Purchase

intention

Influential Language, Imagery, and Claims
in Print Advertising: An Abstract
David Gilliam, Justin Munoz, Fernando R. Jiménez, and Christopher Kyle
Abstract Despite the ubiquity and importance of print advertisements in business-

to-business (B2B) marketing, academic research on the content of current B2B ads
is limited. Researchers have acknowledged that B2C marketers often value content
design of print advertisement more than their B2B counterparts (Bellizzi and Hite
1986). With notable exceptions (Bellizzi and Hite 1986; Bellizzi et al. 1994; Lohtia
et al. 1995; Lohtia et al. 2003; Turley and Kelley 1997; Clark and Honeycutt 2000;
Baack et al. 2016), the investigation of content design elements in B2B advertising
has received less attention.
The purpose of this investigation is to compare three elements of content
design—influential language, imagery, and claims—between B2B and B2C adver-
tisements. Specifically, we examine (1) how does the use of influential language,
imagery, and claims differ in B2B versus B2C, (2) how does the use of these tools
differ among B2B advertisers, and (3) how should researchers and B2B advertisers
proceed to improve B2B print advertising.
The results of a content analysis of 270 print ads showed that B2B ads lag behind
B2C ads in employing some persuasive elements. B2C ads showed a higher fre-
quency of influential language such as taglines, slogans, spokespeople, humor, and
links to other media. When employing imagery, B2B lagged behind B2C ads in
employing dynamic images of products, images of products in use, and showing
spokespeople. B2B advertisers did not lag behind B2C advertisers in the use
of claims.
The results should provide researchers and practitioners with a clearer view of
print ad content development. These insights may help researchers target important
ad elements and practitioners take better advantage of little used tools of persuasion.
The results may also facilitate improved management of ad creation. The frame-
D. Gilliam · C. Kyle
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR, USA
e-mail: dagilliam@ualr.edu; cmkyle@ualr.edu
J. Munoz (*) · F. R. Jiménez
The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
e-mail: jrmunoz3@miners.utep.edu; frjimenezarevalo@utep.edu

394 D. Gilliam et al.
work developed for classifying influential language, imagery, and claims in ads may
be adaptable to classifying content in digital and other advertising to facilitate inte-
grated marketing communications.
Keywords B2B · B2C advertising · Advertisements · Content analysis

Sustainable Promises? The Evolution
of Business Models Founded
on the Promise of Corporate Social
Responsibility: An Abstract
Marjorie Delbaere, Vince Bruni-Bossio, and Adam Slobodzian
Abstract Most consumers look favorably on companies that promise to do good

(Kelleher 2007), that is, companies with an explicit statement of supporting a social
cause, for example, engaging in charitable donations or environmental stewardship.
In 2000, Carroll predicted that businesses would focus on aligning their philan-
thropic interests with their economic mandates, allowing both to be achieved at the
same time. Carroll (2000, p. 37) referred to these efforts as “strategic philanthropy.”
While Carroll did not go so far as to predict the development of a new business
model based on philanthropy, his description of strategic philanthropy seems to
have been a harbinger of this movement. The purpose of this research is to conduct
an investigation into the long-term sustainability of one of the newest classes of
business models, one that integrates social enterprise into traditional for-profit busi-
ness. TOMS Shoes, for example, promises to donate one pair of shoes for every pair
of shoes purchased. This study investigates the history and evolution of three busi-
nesses founded on an integration of social enterprise and traditional for-profit mod-
els: TOMS Shoes, Warby Parker, and Ten Tree. We traced the evolution of the social
promise at the core of each of these businesses—all variations of the buy-one-give-
one promise. Our objective was to examine whether businesses founded on prom-
ises of charitable donations in exchange for purchases are in fact profitable and
sustainable in the long-run, or whether the high costs associated with the donations,
along with the appropriateness of the social interventions, require adaptation and
down-scaling of the promises to be sustainable as the businesses grow over time.
Our research revealed that companies founded on a for-profit, social enterprise busi-
ness model adapt their promise of social responsibility as the company grows and
matures. Throughout their histories, these companies have expressly promoted their
promises to good, something which resulted in positive media coverage and set the
foundation for building goodwill with customers and a positive brand image. This
M. Delbaere (*) · V. Bruni-Bossio · A. Slobodzian

University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
e-mail: delbaere@edwards.usask.ca; bruni-bossio@edwards.usask.ca; adam.slobodzian@
usask.ca

396 M. Delbaere et al.
also created expectations of continued social responsibility in the future. When

companies are so vocal about their corporate ethics, and then are faced with the
need to change their promises, they would perhaps be better served by being as open
about the reasons for changing as they were about making the promise in the
first place.
Keywords Social enterprise · Buy-one-give-one · Business models · Corporate

ethics · Sustainability

Point of Sale Donations from a Managerial
Perspective: An Abstract
Debra Z. Basil, Bola Fowosere, Jared Hubbard, and Viktor Kashirin
Abstract Customers are frequently being asked to make charitable donations

at the cash register when making purchases. This growing trend of point of sale
donations (POSD) brings in about $500 million for causes annually (Catalyst 2018).
Research has examined consumer response to these inquiries, demonstrating mildly
positive reactions (Catalyst 2018). To a far lesser extent research has examined
employee response to POSD, revealing ambivalence and discomfort (Basil et al.
2018). To date, little or no research has examined POSD from the perspective
of the manager who is responsible for both customer and employee experiences.
Through a series of interviews this research examines managerial perceptions
of POSD.
Information in this study is drawn from 13 face-to-face structured interviews
administered to Canadian management personnel who oversee POSD initiatives in
their stores. Their responses to this topic indicate that although they recognize the
functional challenges of requesting donations at the cash register, such as taking
more time for the employee and the customer, they do not recognize potential emo-
tional challenges the employees may face. Previous research suggests that request-
ing donations can be quite challenging for employees. It can affect their morale,
which impacts their overall job performance (Basil et al. 2018). The managers we
spoke with do not seem to recognize these challenges.
Results suggest that managers’ positive POSD attitudes may lead them to under-
estimate negative responses from customers and employees. As such, managers
may be reducing the potential value of these programs and missing an opportunity
to further engage employees. Managers appear reluctant to acknowledge that
requesting donations may be emotionally challenging for employees, and declining
D. Z. Basil (*) · B. Fowosere · J. Hubbard · V. Kashirin

University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada
e-mail: debra.basil@uleth.ca; bola.fowosere@uleth.ca; jared.hubbard@uleth.ca; kashirinv@
uleth.ca

398 D. Z. Basil et al.
to donate may be similarly challenging for customers. Managers are encouraged to

adopt a more empathic understanding of all perspectives in order to maximize the
benefit of POSD programs.
Keywords Cause marketing · Cause-related marketing · Point of sale donations

· Interviews

When Extremely Good is not Enough
for Sustainability Disclosures: An Abstract
Yoon-Na Cho and Christopher Berry
Abstract The wide array of sustainability labels used in retail environments across
the globe is staggering. One source indicates that there are currently 463 labels used
in 199 countries across 25 industries and the number of labels used is anticipated to
grow (Ecolabel Index 2018). Despite this widespread labeling, however, consumers
still express confusion over the green attributes of products, suggesting that the
information presented on these product labels is frequently insufficient and that this
may be a contributing factor to unsustainable choices (Frazier 2007).
We draw from schema congruity theory and the information disclosure literature
to examine sustainability labels with scale ratings on product perceptions and pur-
chase outcomes. This study presents sustainability disclosures, in an absolute for-
mat, that incorporate life cycle assessments (cf. GoodGuide) and utilize a scoring
scheme in a comparative context—more accurately depicting a purchase scenario in
a retail environment in which multiple products (vs. a single products) are pre-
sented. Therefore, in these situations, the provision of objective sustainability infor-
mation at the product level (e.g., overall indices or levels that are attribute-specific
across a product category) should influence consumers’ product evaluations.
Our findings demonstrate that implementing a sustainability disclosure system
informs consumers in status quo retail environments and enables them to make
more sustainable decisions. Findings suggest that the level of schema congruity
must be increased so that the sustainability level is consistent with consumers’
expectations within specific product categories. However, consumers’ perceived
efficacy and concerns with social desirability must be considered because they serve
an important moderating role in the effects of sustainability disclosures on product
Y.-N. Cho (*)

Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA
e-mail: yoon-na.cho@villanova.edu
C. Berry
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
e-mail: chris.berry@colostate.edu

400 Y.-N. Cho and C. Berry
evaluations. In summary, the provision of sustainability disclosures for all products

within a category may provide substantial benefits to manufacturers, retailers, con-
sumers, and the environment.
Keywords Schema congruity · Category expectations · Sustainability disclosure

· Social desirability

Determining Factors of the Sustainability
Orientation: An Examination
from the Past to the Present: An Abstract
Rocio Rodríguez, Göran Svensson, David Eriksson, and Carmen Padin
Abstract Høgevold and Svensson (2016) identify multiple organizational direc-

tions to assess the organizational efforts and priorities of sustainability initiatives
through time. This study combines and applies their developed frameworks in the
service-oriented industry of health care organizations, namely both private and pub-
lic hospitals.
This study aims to offer a foundation to understand past and present organiza-
tional efforts and priorities of sustainability initiatives. In doing so, it seeks to pro-
vide an empirical foundation for the organizational direction of sustainability
initiatives through time, as well as revealing similarities and differences between
private and public sectors.
An inductive approach (Thomas 2006) has been used to gather data in this study.
In this study, we have used the triple bottom line (TBL) framework proposed by
Elkington (1997) to interpret and structure the data. This study has been conducted
in one industry, overcoming contextual bias (Hartline and Jones 1996), targeting
both public and private hospitals in Spain. A judgmental sampling was used in this
industry to select the organizations (Fischhoff and Bar-Hillel 1982).
The present situation across hospitals reveals both similarities and differences in
terms of their initiatives and actions of sustainability. A research implication based
on this study is that the areas identified by Høgevold and Svensson (2016) and
Høgevold et al. (2014) to assess the organizational direction of sustainability initia-
tives through time has enabled us to characterize past and present efforts and priori-
ties of sustainability initiatives in Spanish health care organizations.
R. Rodríguez (*) · G. Svensson

e-mail: rrodriguez@um.es; svegor@kristiania.no
D. Eriksson
Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
e-mail: david.eriksson@ju.se
C. Padin
Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
e-mail: padin@uvigo.es

402 R. Rodríguez et al.
We conclude that the multi-dimensional framework of past and present organiza-

tional efforts and priorities applied in this study offers a relevant foundation to
understand the determinants of organizational direction in sustainability initiatives
through time. We also conclude that this study provides an empirical foundation for
the organizational direction of sustainability initiatives through time, as well as
revealing similarities and differences between private and public sectors.
Keywords Sustainability · Time · Organizational direction · Healthcare

A Proposed Moderated Mediation Model
of Customer Loyalty Outcomes:
An Abstract
J. Joseph Cronin Jr, Brian Bourdeau, Duane M. Nagel,

and Christopher Hopkins
Abstract To date, research has revealed that the concept of customer loyalty is
tantamount to gaining strategic success during customer exchanges (Cronin et al.
2000; Wolter et al. 2017). To this end, this paper seeks to determine the antecedents
of enhancing loyalty outcomes associated with the service exchange. Three studies
are undertaken to not only propose the antecedent effect of satisfaction and mediat-
ing effect of value on loyalty outcome but also to further advance understanding by
identifying the moderating effect of perceived justice to service satisfaction, value,
and customer loyalty outcomes.
The direct effect of satisfaction on loyalty outcomes such as (a) identification (b)
exclusive consideration, (c) advocacy, (d) strength of preference, and (e) share of
wallet was supported in our study. Assessment of the indirect effect of value on
loyalty outcomes was based on the bootleg confidence interval estimates associated
with each effect (Hayes 2017). From these tests, four of the five models proved
value as a significant (p-value ≤0.001) mediator. Only the influence of satisfaction
on strength of preference proved not to be mediated by value. A moderated media-
tion model of perceived justice and the relationship between satisfaction and value
was also tested and suggests that greater perceived justice enhances the effect of
satisfaction on value. Moreover, perceived justice positively moderates the strength
of the mediated relationship between satisfaction and loyalty outcomes through
value such that the mediated relationship is stronger under greater levels of per-
ceived justice for loyalty outcomes
J. J. Cronin Jr
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
e-mail: jcronin@fsu.edu
B. Bourdeau · C. Hopkins
e-mail: bourdbl@auburn.edu; cdh0059@auburn.edu
D. M. Nagel (*)
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA
e-mail: duane.nagel@wichita.edu

404 J. J. Cronin Jr et al.
The purpose of this study was to gain greater understanding of the antecedents
and moderators of customer loyalty outcomes. Herein, the findings suggest that
value plays a significant role in mediating the influence of satisfaction on all loyalty
outcomes. Further, the indirect effect of value is moderated by increased justice
perceptions such that perceptions of value are enhanced when customers feel a
heightened sense of justice during the service encounter. This proved true for all
outcomes with the exception of strength of preference.
These findings have significant implications for service strategy in that, while
value tends to be a key driver of loyalty, its role is diminished if customers perceive
injustice during the service encounter. Thus, equity in the exchange is a key driver
of loyalty outcomes.
Keywords Customer loyalty · Satisfaction · Perceived justice · Value

Patron Sentiment of Employee–Customer
Interaction: Exploring Hotel Customer
Reviews through Machine Learning:
An Abstract
Stuart J. Barnes, Richard Rutter, Jan Mattsson, and Flemming Sørensen
Abstract Experiences are a critical element in creating value for customers of ser-
vice companies. In the tourism industry, employee–tourist encounters are particu-
larly important as a lever for experience value creation. However, typically such
encounters are based on a service quality logic that is standardised and functional
(based on standard quality theory), thus missing considerable opportunities for
employee-related experience creation. In this research, we seek to apply big data
analytics to identify the types of customer–employee interactions that are the most
influential in improving customers’ perceptions of service, value and overall satis-
faction. A popular and well-known review website was selected to provide data for
a range of hotel rankings (one- to five-stars) and sentiment performance. English
language reviews and related variables associated with each review were used. This
provided more than a quarter of a million reviews for analysis. A dictionary of terms
was created by collecting and compiling synonyms associated with the types of
hotel customer–employee interaction based on personalisation, flexibility, co-
creation, emotions and knowledge gain/learning. Dictionary terms were also devel-
oped for mentions of employees. The process helped us to develop a final list of 639
words. To improve the computational efficiency of the analysis, the data were pre-
processed using Python’s Natural Language Toolkit. In order to focus on the most
objective and reliable reviews, we reduced the sample to those reviews with a sub-
S. J. Barnes (*)
e-mail: stuart.barnes@kcl.ac.uk
R. Rutter
Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait
e-mail: r.rutter@ack.edu.kw
J. Mattsson · F. Sørensen
Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: mattsson@ruc.dk; flemmiso@ruc.dk

406 S. J. Barnes et al.
jectivity level less than or equal to 0.5. Each review was then content-analysed for
sentiment and interaction type in order to explore these important relationships
statistically. ANOVA tests were applied to examine differences in service quality,
satisfaction and value based. The overall assessment of our results appears to sug-
gest that hotel customers are difficult to please; positive employee–customer inter-
actions receive significant positive improvements in customer perceptions of
satisfaction, values and service, but customers are extremely sensitive to any prob-
lems in employee–customer interactions. Amongst the types of employee interac-
tions, emotional intelligence and co-creation of customer experiences appeared to
be the most promising for increasing the three outcome variables, whilst flexibility
appeared to be a critical element of employee interactions not to get wrong. The
research has significant implications for future research and practice.
Keywords Consumer experience · Employee interactions · Text analytics

· Tourism

The Effectiveness of Sponsor-Linked
Marketing within a Rivalry Context:
The Effect of Team Sponsorship
on Implicit and Explicit Brand
Associations: An Abstract
Matthias Limbach, Steffen Schmidt, Philipp Reiter, and Sascha Langner
Abstract The evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness is a major research stream in

academic research provided well advances regarding the assessment of sponsorship
performance (Cornwell and Maignan 1998; Walliser 2003). However, business
practice as expressed in the ANA (2013) study demands more sophisticated spon-
sorship evaluation approaches that currently incorporate (a) the application of addi-
tional measurement instruments, especially from the area of neuromarketing and (b)
the analysis of various customer and spectator perspectives, e.g., fan vs. anti-fan in
the context of rivalry. With regard to the latter, Madrigal and Dalakas (2008)
reviewed that the nature of fan behavior ranges from socially acceptable reactions
to negative inappropriate reactions. However, there is only little research explaining
how affective dispositions of fans and anti-fans determine the effectiveness of sport
sponsorship outcomes such as association transfers from the sponsored entity (e.g.,
a football team) to the sponsor brand. The sweetness and spiciness of rivalry nur-
tures media’s and public’s awareness and gets them geared up for an ongoing com-
petitive contest (Stead 2008; Whitson 1998). In the light of the relevance of rivalry
as a key element for a high viewer attraction in sports (Kimble and Cooper 1992;
Mahony and Moorman 1999) and with reference to Cornwell (2008), the present
study partially fills the gap of empirical research in general and empirical evidence
in particular related to the measurement of sports sponsorship impact. Particularly,
M. Limbach
Europafachakademie Dr. Buhmann, Hannover, Germany
e-mail: limbach@buhmann.de
S. Schmidt · S. Langner (*)
e-mail: schmidt@m2.uni-hannover.de; langner@m2.uni-hannover.de
P. Reiter
eye square GmbH, Berlin, Germany
e-mail: reiter@eye-square.com

408 M. Limbach et al.
the current research relies on an adapted implicit association test (IAT; Greenwald
et al. 1998) from cognitive psychology and widely applied in neuromarketing to
better understand consumer’s automatic and spontaneous responses, the so-called
implicit processes, to marketing stimuli (e.g., Dimofte 2010: Horcajo et al. 2010).
Specifically, the effect of team sponsorship on explicit and implicit brand-related
information processing from a fan rivalry perspective is addressed. The empirical
results of the presented study suggest that team sponsorship has an impact on
implicit and explicit brand information processing. However, a significant positive
impact on both dual processes was only revealed within the group of fans, whereas
within the group of non-fans only negative implicit and explicit association changes
could be identified. In sum, sport spectators’ feelings in terms of affective disposi-
tions toward a sponsored subject or object in a rival competition are of high rele-
vance for the marketing management of the sponsor brand (e.g., Tyler and Cobbs
2015). Particularly, affective dispositions are often related with positive reactions
such as favoritism (e.g., Gwinner and Swanson 2003) and a potentially positive
association transfer as well as with negative reactions such as aggression (e.g.,
Wann et al. 2015) which might lead to a negative association transfer.
Keywords Sports sponsorship · Reaction time measurement · Implicit measures

· Consumer information processing · Sport rivalry

Exposing Underage Consumers to Alcohol
Branding in Sport Sponsorship:
An Abstract
Angeline Close Scheinbaum, Hyunsang Son, Yongwoog Jeon, Gary Wilcox,

and Seung Chul Yoo
Abstract An overall research question grounded in theories of arousal is: Among

underage consumers, what is the role (if any) of exposure to alcohol sponsorship
and arousal of the sport on their attitude to the alcohol brand sponsor and subse-
quent choice between the sponsor’s alcoholic beverage vs. a non-alcoholic drink?
In this set of experiments, we narrowed the sample to underage drinkers (age 18–20)
to investigate the effects of the sponsorship dynamic on alcohol consumption
choice. The pilot test (n = 24) is in the context of Ultimate Fighting Championship,
sponsored by Bud Light. Arousal is manipulated, while brand familiarity, prior
brand attitude, and product category involvement are measured. The dependent
variable is beverage choice (beer vs. non-alcoholic beverage). Results indicated that
the arousal manipulation, sponsorship manipulation, and their interaction did not
influence the level of positive emotion. Together, this result showed that arousal
level is important for future study. Thus, the main study seeks to build on this in the
soccer context. In total, 124 participants were assigned to one of the four experi-
ment conditions: a 2 (sponsored brand: alcohol brand of Budweiser vs. non-alcohol
brand of Toyota) × 2 (level of arousal: high vs. low) between subjects randomized
experiment. A two-way ANCOVA with attitude toward the brand and purchase
intention as the dependent variable revealed significant main effects of the brands
and interaction effects between brands and arousal levels. We captured significant
main effects of a brand on brand attitude (F (1, 118) = 14.14, p < 0.001, partial
η2 = 0.107) and purchase intention (F (1, 118) = 18.48, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.135),
but did not find main effects of arousal. Participants who were exposed to the non-
alcohol sponsor (i.e., Toyota) during the match exhibited more favorable brand
A. C. Scheinbaum (*) · H. Son · Y. Jeon · G. Wilcox

e-mail: angeline@austin.utexas.edu; hyunsangson@utexas.edu; yongwoog@utexas.edu;
burl@mail.utexas.edu
S. C. Yoo
Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
e-mail: communication@ewha.ac.kr

410 A. C. Scheinbaum et al.
a ttitude than those exposed to the alcohol brand (i.e., Budweiser) (Mnon-alcohol = 5.58,
SD = 1.35 vs. Malcohol = 4.75, SD = 1.50). For purchase intention, consumers who
watched the non-alcohol-sponsored match indicated a higher level of purchase
intention than those who watched the alcohol brand-sponsored match (Mnon-
alcohol = 4.91, SD = 1.40 vs. Malcohol = 3.84, SD = 1.68). We found a significant interac-
tion between arousal level and sponsored brand type on purchase intention (F (1,
118) = 5.57, p = 0.020, partial η2 = 0.045). For those who watched the high-aroused
match, the discrepancy between the non-alcohol brand and the alcohol brand (Mnon-
alcohol = 5.15, SD = 1.35 vs. Malcohol = 3.45, SD = 1.69) was greater than for those who
watched the low-aroused match (Mnon-alcohol = 4.66, SD = 1.43 vs. Malcohol = 4.24,
SD = 1.60). In conclusion, our research investigated the role of different types of
sponsorship in underage drinker’s brand attitude and behavior.
Keywords Consumer psychology · Attitude · Arousal · Branding · Sports

marketing · Sponsorship

When does Creativity Matter? The Impact
of Consumption Motive and Claim Set-
Size: An Abstract
Ilgım Dara Benoit and Elizabeth G. Miller
Abstract Designing creative ads is a critical goal for advertisers. Yet, while many
researchers find positive effects of creativity on consumer responses, others argue
that creativity is wasteful for ad persuasiveness or find no impact of creativity on
outcomes such as ad attitudes. This paper identifies two boundary conditions affect-
ing the effectiveness of an advertisement’s creativity: consumption motive (utilitar-
ian vs. hedonic) and claim set-size (small number of claims vs. large number of
claims). We propose and find that creativity is more effective for an advertisement
when the consumption motive is utilitarian rather than hedonic. Further, using a
larger claim set-size within an advertisement increases (decreases) the effectiveness
of advertisement creativity for those with hedonic (utilitarian) consumption motives.
Across two experiments, we find support for our hypotheses using both hedonic vs.
utilitarian products (study 1) and manipulated hedonic vs. utilitarian decision goals
within the same product category (study 2).
This is the first research to explicitly study boundary conditions for when ad
creativity matters by showing that creativity matters more (i.e., enhances persua-
siveness of the ad and attitudes toward the ad) when the consumption motive is utili-
tarian, especially when ads have small claim set-size. Additionally, creativity
matters for hedonic consumption contexts if the advertisement has a large claim-
size. Thus, our research contributes to the creativity literature by showing when
creativity matters depending on the consumption motive and claim set-size. In addi-
tion, our research expands the utilitarian vs. hedonic consumption literature by
highlighting another way in which these two motives differ. Finally, our research
expands the claim set-size literature by demonstrating that the effects of claim set-
size depend on both consumption motive and features of the ad (i.e., its level of
I. D. Benoit (*)
e-mail: benoitid@appstate.edu
E. G. Miller
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
e-mail: emiller@isenberg.umass.edu

412 I. D. Benoit and E. G. Miller
creativity). These findings help marketers manage their advertising budget more
effectively and efficiently knowing when advertisement creativity matters and thus
when to invest in creativity.
Keywords Creativity · Advertisement · Ad claims · Hedonic decision

· Utilitarian decision

An Investigation of Slacktivism in Online
Donation Campaigns: An Abstract
Yashar Dehdashti, Lawrence B. Chonko, Aidin Namin,

and Brian T. Ratchford
Abstract Donations by individuals make up the vast majority of contributions

received by nonprofit organizations. Based on the statistics published by Giving
USA, around 72% of donations made in 2014 ($258.5 billion) were individual con-
tributions. Not surprisingly, in a digital era, online donation campaigns account for
a significant part of contribution figures. Crowdfunding campaigns, in particular,
collected about $16 billion in 2014, a 1718% increase from 2010. While it seems
intuitive that sharing these campaigns on social media increases donations, as more
people get to know about them, the net effect of such sharing has not been studied.
Using data collected from a major crowdfunding website, and utilizing three econo-
metrics models, it is shown that sharing crowdfunded campaigns on social media
actually has a negative effect on donations. A phenomenon which, in recent litera-
ture, has come to be known as slacktivism; the tendency of people to make fast, easy
contributions (e.g., sharing a campaign, wearing a bracelet to support a cause, etc.)
instead of meaningful, perhaps more difficult contributions (e.g., actually giving
money to a cause). It is further shown that consistent with similar social living (non-
donation) campaigns (e.g., Groupon), there is a “critical mass” beyond which dona-
tions increase significantly. The existence of these phenomena in the nonprofit
Y. Dehdashti
Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, TX, USA
e-mail: ydehdashti@txwes.edu
L. B. Chonko
University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
e-mail: larry.chonko@uta.edu
A. Namin (*)
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA
e-mail: aidin.namin@lmu.edu
B. T. Ratchford
University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
e-mail: btr051000@utdallas.edu

414 Y. Dehdashti et al.
domain has important strategic implications about how awareness is to be made

about nonprofit campaigns in the online world. It could also lead to more creative
social media awareness strategies than merely sharing.
Keywords Slacktivism · Crowdfunding · Donation · Online campaigns

· Social media

An Abstract on the Effects of Psychological
Distance on Nostalgic Cultural Brands
and Consumers’ Purchase Intentions:
A Construal Level Theory Perspective
Gerardo J. Moreira and Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez
Abstract Nostalgic cultural brands and products are impacting the market place
due to the increasing levels of immigration (Bundas 2018; Hernandez 2014). A
manner in which immigrants can be transported back to their home country is
through consumption of nostalgic cultural brands. Their memories are a way to
reconnect with their home country (Bray 2014; Fujita et al. 2006). Nostalgia often-
times serves as a strong driver in their decision-making when choosing products
(Guzman and Paswan 2009; Sierra and McQuitty 2007).
Nostalgia is defined as a “preference toward objects from when one was younger
or from times about which one has learned vicariously perhaps through socializa-
tion or media” (Fairley 2003). Guzman et al. (2009) proved that immigrants have
higher affinity toward home country products in contrast to those living in their
home country. Moreover, we infer that immigrants, in regard to nostalgic products,
have a stronger desire for products depending on the psychological distance to their
home country.
Psychological distance refers to the manner in which we think about particular
situations, high- vs low- construal levels (Klaus 2007). Thus, drawing on CLT, the
objective of this article is to explore the role that psychological distance (temporal-,
spatial-, social-, and hypothetical-distance) plays on the relationship between nos-
talgic cultural brands and purchase intentions.
Given the diverse demographics of the United States, it is an ideal conduit for
immigrant data collection. Statistically, the USA receives a large number of immi-
grants both in sheer volume and variety. Our general hypothesis states (H1): The
G. J. Moreira (*)
Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, USA
e-mail: moreirag@sacredheart.edu
C. Luna-Nevarez
Texas A&M University—San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
e-mail: cnevarez@tamusa.edu

416 G. J. Moreira and C. Luna-Nevarez
relationship between nostalgic cultural brands and purchase intentions is positive,

such that nostalgic cultural brands will lead to higher purchase intentions among
immigrant consumers.
Primary research to be conducted in both survey method and focus groups to
gather immigrant emotions toward and perceptions of home and host country, reac-
tion to nostalgic cultural brands, and the motivation of purchasing the products of
nostalgic cultural brands.
As immigration is a natural experience in the modern day, understanding immi-
grants better is critical for the success of nostalgic cultural brands. Knowledge of
immigrant purchase intentions allows for more refined marketing techniques (i.e.,
segmenting, targeting, and positioning).
Keywords Nostalgic cultural brands · Psychological distance · Construal theory

· Purchase intentions

Utilitarian versus Hedonic Brands:
Cognitive and Affective Country Image
Components: An Abstract
Carmen Lopez and George Balabanis
Abstract Research acknowledges a variety of sources that can influence country

image, including a country’s economic, political, and social conditions; culture and
traditions; citizens; tourism; sports; historical events; and the media (Anholt 2002;
Jaffe and Nebenzahl 2006; Kotler and Gertner 2002; O’Shaughnessy and
O’Shaughnessy 2000; Papadopoulos and Heslop 2002). Our study examines the
neglected area of country image formation by focusing on the role of a country’s
brands. Specifically, we assess the influence of the dominant type of recalled brands
(hedonic vs. utilitarian) on the affective and cognitive components of country image.
The study is based on empirical evidence provided by collecting quantitative data
through an online panel comprised of British people. Respondents were asked to
retrieve from memory as many brands as they could about Italy and South Korea,
respectively. Then they evaluated the country image (the cognitive and affective ele-
ments) of Italy and South Korea. To test the hypotheses, we classified the retrieved
brands into hedonic and utilitarian categories. The results suggest that the link
between hedonic (utilitarian) brands and the affective (cognitive) is complex and
may be moderated by other variables. Theoretically and managerially, it is crucial to
determine how a country’s brands contribute to shape the country’s image.
Understanding the makeup of a country’s image and the contribution of each ele-
ment can shed better light on the mechanisms underlying the country of origin
C. Lopez (*)
University of Brighton, Brighton, UK
e-mail: c.lopez@brighton.ac.uk
G. Balabanis
City University, London, UK
e-mail: g.balabanis@city.ac.uk

418 C. Lopez and G. Balabanis
effects and help identify the elements in a country’s image that are crucial to the
activation of such effects. The results of this study should help practitioners allocate
resources in nation-branding campaigns.
Keywords Country image · Brand · Hedonic · Utilitarian · Country of origin

Consumer Acculturation as a Process:
A Propensity to Acculturate Index
and an Adapted Acculturation Scale:
An Abstract
Kristina Harrison and John B. Ford
Abstract For service firms to achieve and maintain competitive advantages, they
must understand and appropriately serve their consumers. The United States is
becoming increasingly multi-cultural and there are various new immigrant con-
sumer groups that businesses try to reach through ethnic-based segmentation and
targeting. Often, businesses offer accommodation strategies to their ethnic con-
sumer groups through language or other cultural accommodation tactics. There are
inconsistencies in the literature for the efficacy of ethnic-based targeting and accom-
modation strategies: often these do not have the desired results and there is evidence
that ethnic identification may be fading over time for many immigrant groups.
Service firms need another way to understand, segment, target, and serve their vari-
ous cultural groups.
There is evidence that acculturation may be a better predictor of consumer
behavior and preferences in service settings. Acculturation is the adoption by a per-
son or group of the culture of another social group, or the process leading to accul-
turation, and assimilation is the complete adoption so that a person has left behind
their former culture. There are various existing measurement tools to identify an
individual’s level of acculturation; however, there are concerns with the existing
tools. All but one measurement tool treat acculturation as a reflective scale, all view
acculturation as a one-time event, and the tools have been largely developed for
specific contexts such as mental healthcare. Also, many scales lump all ethnicities
into one group such as the Suinn-Lew Asian Acculturation Measurement. This pres-
ents theoretical cultural concerns. The difficulty is that the acculturation process
involves both formative and reflective components.
In order to effectively examine acculturation, there must first be a desire or pro-
pensity to acculturate and then that propensity in turn will influence actual accul-
turation behaviors. In order to do this, we are proposing the development of a
K. Harrison (*) · J. B. Ford

e-mail: kstuhler@odu.edu; jbford@odu.edu

420 K. Harrison and J. B. Ford
propensity to acculturate index which will causally influence subsequent accultura-

tion behaviors. To develop the index, we are using Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer’s
(2001) index-development protocols. In order to recognize someone’s acculturation
categories, we are also adapting existing Asian context acculturation measures
using the Churchill (1979) scale-development method.
Keywords Consumer acculturation · Segmentation · Index development

· Scale development

Investigating the Effect of Social
Comparison on Helping Behavior:
The Moderating Role of Self-Construal
Level and the Mediating Role of Emotion:
An Abstract
Kun Zhou and Jun Ye
Abstract We are faced every day with social comparison about our performances,
abilities, appearance, attributes, or emotional states relative to others’ (Gerber and
Wheeler 2018). Some comparisons are positive, that is, we are better than peers on
certain tasks or dimensions. This type of comparison is also called downward com-
parison. Some comparisons might be negative, that it, we are worse than peers on
certain tasks or dimensions. Such comparison is called upward comparison. Both
directions of comparison appear as part of a rich social milieu. They not only play a
role in self-evaluation but also have significant effect on intrapersonal consequences
(Corcoran et al. 2011).
Researchers have been interested in examining the effect of social comparison on
prosocial behavior (e.g., Klein 2003; Schlosser and Levy 2016; Yip and Kelly 2013).
However, the current findings are mixed and far from being inclusive. Klein (2003)
found that people show higher prosocial behavior when making downward social
comparison compared to those making upward social comparisons. While Shipley
(2005) found that people increase donation after receiving upward social compari-
son information. Furthermore, Yip and Kelly (2013) showed that individuals are less
likely to give after making social comparison, regardless of the direction of the
comparison.
Obviously, the influence of social comparison on prosocial behavior is more
complex than a simple main effect. We suspect that the mixed effects are caused by
some unmeasured factors that change people’s interpretation of the upward or
downward differences in social comparison. We propose that when individuals
receive feedback about upward or downward comparison, their self-construal level
may affect how they process the information of upward/downward difference, thus
influence if they choose to help others or not.
K. Zhou (*) · J. Ye
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
e-mail: 33720150150182@stu.xmu.edu.cn; junye@xmu.edu.cn

422 K. Zhou and J. Ye
There are two kinds of self-construal that are especially powerful in influencing
one’s relation to the social world and available to be activated at different times or
in different contexts, the personal-self and the social-self (Cross et al. 2011;
Oyserman and Lee 2008). We demonstrate that when the individuals are personal-
self (vs. social-self), downward comparison can induce more scorn, and scorn can
decrease their prosocial behavior. Whereas, the upward comparison can induce
more envy, and envy can decrease their prosocial behavior. When the individuals are
personal-self (vs. social-self), downward comparison can induce more sympathy,
and sympathy can increase their prosocial behavior. Whereas, upward comparison
can induce inspiration, and inspiration can increase their prosocial behavior.
Keywords Social comparison · Emotion · Self-construal · Prosocial behavior

How does Providing Financial Information
Impact Retirement Intentions?
An Abstract
Arvid O. I. Hoffmann and Daria Plotkina
Abstract With the ongoing shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pen-
sion schemes and the bleak projections of many social security systems across the
world, individual consumers are increasingly expected to prepare for a financially
secure retirement themselves (e.g., Hira et al. 2009). Unfortunately, there is growing
evidence that many individuals are incapable of making the required financial deci-
sions (Lusardi 2015), in particular as the financial environment becomes evermore
complex (Agnew and Szykman 2005). Overall, financial literacy and interest in
retirement matters are low, with only two in three US adults having a basic under-
standing of financial matters (Klapper et al. 2015). An important question, there-
fore, is: How can we increase consumer intentions to learn about and start preparing
for retirement? Providing financial information is often seen as a remedy in this
regard (Allen et al. 2016; Clark et al. 2017), but the most appropriate format of
financial education in order to effectively change consumers’ financial attitudes is
yet to be established. With the majority of the US population online, the Internet
offers new opportunities to get informed on financial matters from government and
peer-generated sources (Lusardi et al. 2017).
Following the meta-analysis of Fernandes et al. (2014), we investigate the impact
of providing financial information on consumers’ immediate willingness to learn
more about retirement planning and plan for retirement. Moreover, we examine how
source (government vs. peer-generated), tone (prescriptive vs. descriptive), and
presence of graphical illustrations (vs. text only) affect the effectiveness of financial
information messages. We examine the process through which the aforementioned
effects occur by studying the mediating role of retirement financial self-efficacy
(Danes and Haberman 2007; Wiener and Doescher 2008). To do so, we develop an
online experiment. The 736 participants are recruited through Qualtrics, who
A. O. I. Hoffmann
University of Adelaide Business School, Adelaide, Australia
e-mail: arvid.hoffmann@adelaide.edu.au
D. Plotkina (*)
EM Strasbourg Business School, Strasbourg, France
e-mail: daria.plotkina@em-strasbourg.eu

424 A. O. I. Hoffmann and D. Plotkina
aintains a large nationally representative online panel of Americans and ensures a

m
consistent panel quality. We perform a between-subject design with a hanging con-
trol group. Every participant was randomly attributed to one of the 9 experimental
conditions. We use established scales with demonstrated validity and reliability to
measure all constructs. The results reveal a significant effect of financial informa-
tion on participants’ propensity to plan and willingness to learn more about retire-
ment planning with an exception of prescriptive information having no impact on
propensity to plan. Also, a governmental message is more effective than a peer-
generated message to stimulate willingness to learn. A mediation analysis revealed
that retirement self-efficacy has a significant positive effect for both studied finan-
cial behaviors. Our results provide valuable insights for policy makers and business
practitioners on how to design an effective message containing financial informa-
tion to stimulate consumers’ intentions regarding retirement planning.
Keywords Consumer financial decision-making · Message format · Public policy

· Retirement · Self-efficacy

The Power of Collective Brand Defending
in Mitigating Negative eWOM:
An Abstract
Koblarp Chandrasapth, Natalia Yannopoulou, Klaus Schoefer,

and Darren Kelsey
Abstract Negative eWOM is becoming an ever more serious threat to brands’

reputations. Dissatisfied consumers increasingly engage in negative electronic
word-of-mouth (eWOM) by sharing their complaints in online communities rather
than reaching out to the brand with which they have an issue. Brands, in turn, have
been ineffective in responding to such complaints. It is also because consumers are
inclined to look for answers from their fellow users who they consider more trust-
worthy due to a lack of commercial motives. As a result, certain consumers take it
upon themselves to defend their preferred brand against those attacks. This under-
researched phenomenon is becoming of high interest to both theoreticians and prac-
titioners, as brand defence ceases to exclusively rely on the company.
The first aim of this research is to examine how negative eWOM arising from
customers’ dissatisfaction due to product failure can be mitigated by the collective
power of brand defenders in the context of a consumer-organized brand community.
The second aim is to identify different characteristics of brand defenders and their
adopted strategies. By linking Jung’s (1990) theory of archetypes with consumer-
brand defending literature, a Multimodal Discourse-Mythological Approach is pro-
posed to display how the negative eWOM within a Thai online consumer-organized
community devoted to Samsung is mitigated. Our findings result in the reconceptu-
alization of the existing binding expectation that companies are solely responsible
for the defence and protection of their brands. The negative eWOM is shifted away
K. Chandrasapth (*) · N. Yannopoulou · K. Schoefer · D. Kelsey

Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
e-mail: k.chandrasapth2@newcastle.ac.uk; natalia.yannopoulou@ncl.ac.uk;
klaus.schoefer@ncl.ac.uk; darren.kelsey@ncl.ac.uk

426 K. Chandrasapth et al.
from relying solely on a company’s responsibility to (re)create a new boundary of

what constitutes the fair treatment and legitimate responsibilities that the brand
could undertake and what is beyond a brand’s responsibility.
Keywords eWOM · Online community · Brand defending · Conflict management

· Archetypes

The Usefulness of Brand Polarization
to Various Parties: An Abstract
Sergio Andrés Osuna Ramírez, Cleopatra Veloutsou,

and Anna Morgan-Thomas
Abstract Consumers develop feelings and build relationships with brands

(Fournier 1998; Veloutsou 2007) and these relationships have a valence (Alvarez
and Fournier 2016), ranging from strong positive (e.g., Albert and Merunka 2013;
Carroll and Ahuvia 2006) to strong negative relationships (e.g., Hegner et al. 2017b;
Zarantonello et al. 2016, 2018). A number of strong brands have at the same time
lovers and haters (Luo et al. 2013a; Outram 2016; Walsh 2017) and they are called
polarizing brands (Luo et al. 2013a, b; Monahan 2017; Monahan et al. 2017). There
is very little research on polarizing brands (Luo et al. 2013a, b; Monahan 2017;
Monahan et al. 2017) or polarizing products (Rozenkrants et al. 2017) and their
effects to different stakeholders. It is widely unknown if brand polarization can be
helpful or even benefits for the parties involved with the polarizing brand. This
exploratory study explores potential benefits of brand polarization, and the negativ-
ity towards brands that is evident in the context of brand polarization, for all parties
involved with these polarizing brands.
To reach saturation, in total 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with
UK residents of different backgrounds face-to-face or via video conferencing. These
interviews lasted in total about 12 h and when transcript they produced 68,925
words of text. Line-by-line coding and thematic analysis was used.
The analysis of the results revealed that from the standpoint of consumers there
are three distinct entities benefiting in various ways from brand polarization. The
three entities are (a) the brand management team supporting the polarizing brand,
(b) the polarizing brand as a stand-alone entity and (c) the consumers who are posi-
tively or negatively predisposed towards the polarizing brand.
The study identifies advantages of brand polarization for various parties involved.
The three parties that advance from brand polarization are the brand management
team, the brand as an entity and the engaged consumers. Polarizing brands act as
anchors that link the three parties and help them benefit. Both the brand manage-
ment team and the passionate consumers get enhanced value through their
S. A. O. Ramírez · C. Veloutsou (*) · A. Morgan-Thomas

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
e-mail: s.osuna.1@research.gla.ac.uk; cleopatra.veloutsou@glasgow.ac.uk; anna.morgan-
thomas@glasgow.ac.uk

428 S. A. O. Ramírez et al.
e ngagement with the polarizing brand. The study extends recent research suggest-
ing that the identity of the individuals, the brand and the brand community around a
brand are co-created through constant exchange (Black and Veloutsou 2017) by
suggesting that the brand management team is also a player in the process of devel-
oping brand meaning.
Keywords Brand polarization · Polarization · Polarizing brands · Brand rivalry

· Brand love · Brand hate

The Picture of Luxury: Millennials’
Relationship with Luxury Brands:
An Abstract
Jacqueline K. Eastman, Hyunju Shin, and Kristen Ruhland
Abstract Given the growth of the luxury market, the size of the millennial cohort,
and millennials’ growing interest in luxury products, it is vital for luxury marketers
to gain insight into these millennial consumers to build consumer-brand relation-
ships with them now as they start to enter their peak earning years. The purpose of
this research is to examine millennials’ relationship with luxury through a content
analysis of 630 luxury collages (10 collages each from 63 college-age millennials)
to determine what represents luxury to them, how millennials perceive the consumer-
brand relationship, and who they are as luxury consumers. The college students
created personal collages that represent their thoughts and feelings/emotions, expe-
riences/memories, ideas/perceptions about luxury brands and who consumes them,
consumption motives, product usage/shopping occasions, and/or relationships with
luxury brands. Each collage includes pictures/photos/images along with a typed
description/summary that explains what each collage represents. A content analysis
of the collages involved three judges. The PRL reliability measure ranged from 0.72
to 0.97 indicating the categorization by the judges was reliable. The results suggest
millennials are pro-luxury and represent a vibrant current and future luxury seg-
ment. Millennials see a wide variety of luxury categories and brands that meet their
needs for luxury. For luxury marketers, this is a segment amenable to luxury goods,
services, and experiences, and inroads have been made by luxury brand marketers
as seen in the collages. Millennials see luxury as addressing both out-of-reach or
aspirational luxury as well as masstige or affordable luxury. Luxury marketers can
build brand relationships with millennials with entry-level products as the millenni-
als are current luxury consumers and see this consumption expanding in the future.
Key luxury characteristics for millennials vary from other generations as they are
J. K. Eastman (*) · H. Shin · K. Ruhland

e-mail: jeastman@georgiasouthern.edu; hshin@georgiasouthern.edu; kruhland@
georgiasouthern.edu

430 J. K. Eastman et al.
looking for fashion, hedonic value, technology, and the need to demonstrate their
extended self rather than rarity. Finally, who they see as the luxury consumer is
influenced by social media, celebrities, friends, and family.
Keywords Luxury · Consumer-brand relationship · Millennials · Collage method

The Influence of Brand Acquisition
on Perceived Authenticity: An Abstract
Sabinah Wanjugu, Juliann Allen, and Julie Guidry Moulard
Abstract Firms are increasingly engaging in acquisitions due to high competition.

Acquisition as a strategy enables the firm to obtain technologies, products, distribu-
tion channels, and desirable market positions (Lee et al. 2011; Schweizer 2005).
Acquisitions also have an effect on the brand being acquired. Prior research demon-
strates that acquisition negatively affects the acquired brand’s culture (Rieley and
Leahy 1998), is a means of talent acquisition (Galpin et al. 2012), and increases
financial performance (Morgan and Rego 2009). An acquisition may also alter con-
sumer perceptions of the acquired brand. In many cases, acquisitions involve large
corporations buying out small start-up companies (Arikan and Stulz 2016). Though
larger companies have the power to offer lower prices and higher efficiency, large
corporations can be perceived to have a negative side riddled with perceptions of
impersonality and commercialization (Kovács et al. 2013). These consumer percep-
tions of corporate commercialization may tarnish the acquired brand’s image, in
particular its authenticity.
While many facets or types of brand authenticity exist, one type that is poten-
tially affected by an acquisition is whether brand management is “true to self.” True-
to-self brand authenticity is defined as the degree to which consumers perceive a
brand’s management as intrinsically motivated about the products they produce
(Moulard et al. 2016). Authentic brands are perceived as being led by passion-driven
individuals motivated by the pure enjoyment of producing their craft rather than by
the sole purpose of turning a profit. Smaller brands are likely perceived as highly
authentic, especially if they are managed by the founder. A founder’s enduring man-
agement can increase a brand’s longitudinal consistency, or the perception that a
brand has not changed since its inception. High longitudinal consistency has been
shown to strengthen brand authenticity (Moulard et al. 2016).
The current research asks, what happens to perceived authenticity of smaller
brands when larger companies acquire brands seen as discordant to the corporate
image? The studies will examine how features of brand acquisition (acquired brand
disclosure, acquiring firm size and brand manager preservation) affect brand
S. Wanjugu · J. Allen (*) · J. G. Moulard

e-mail: swa026@latech.edu; jma074@latech.edu; jmoulard@latech.edu

432 S. Wanjugu et al.
authenticity. Theoretically, the piece contributes to a broader stream of brand

authenticity literature by examining how the association of one brand can affect the
perceived authenticity of another. Managerially, brand managers of larger compa-
nies can enhance post-acquisition marketing strategies by considering how consum-
ers may perceive acquired brands originally recognized as authentic, as consumer
perceptions about the brand’s authenticity may shift after an acquisition.
Keywords Brand authenticity · Perceived authenticity · Brand acquisition · Brand

trust · Brand trust

A Comparison of the Determinants
of Online Shopping Cart Usage in the US
and China: An Abstract
Jeffrey R. Carlson, Monika Kukar-Kinney, and Heping He
Abstract Online shopping has experienced drastic changes in the past ten years,
which includes changes in the ways consumers utilize online shopping carts. The
purpose of this research is to revisit the work of Close and Kukar-Kinney (2010)
investigating consumers’ motivations to use online shopping carts and to determine
whether the changes in the online shopping environment have led to respective
changes in the consumers’ online cart use motivations in the United States almost a
decade later (Study 1). In addition, we aim to establish the extent to which the same
motivations can be found in China, a developing country with one of the fastest
growing economies in the world and a changing consumer landscape, characterized
by a rapidly growing middle-class and e-commerce adoption (Study 2). We use two
surveys, one in the United States and one in China, to test a model of a conceptual
framework for how specific motivations influence online shopping cart use.
Motivations include: current purchase intent; taking advantage of price promotions;
entertainment; organizational intent; and research and informational search.
Consistently across both countries, results from both surveys demonstrate that cur-
rent purchase intent and organizational intent both positively affect consumers’ fre-
quency of using the online shopping cart, while the motives of research/information
search and taking advantage of price promotions exert no significant impact on cart
usage. Interestingly, entertainment purpose negatively influences shopping cart
usage in the United States, but has no significant effect in China. Based on these
results, we suggest that retailers should provide a convenient and easy-to-understand
overview and summary of items placed in the cart and their features, including
J. R. Carlson (*) · M. Kukar-Kinney

e-mail: jcarlso2@richmond.edu; mkukarki@richmond.edu
H. He
Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
e-mail: jeremyhe@szu.edu.cn

434 J. R. Carlson et al.
price, quantity, color, size, whether an item is on sale, etc. They should also allow
consumers to easily move the items up and down the list, group them, and display
their additional features without having to exit the cart.
Keywords Online shopping · Online motivations · Shopping carts

· Cross-cultural

An Empirical Study on the Relationship
between Cross-Channel Integration
and Offline Store Patronage Behavior:
An Abstract
Takumi Tagashira and Chieko Minami
Abstract This study aims to empirically reveal the relationship between retailers’
integration of multiple channels (e.g., e-commerce and bricks and mortar) and con-
sumers’ offline store patronage behavior. Online retailers can obtain detailed cus-
tomer information such as purchase history and click-stream. Since such data
enables retailers to conduct personalized communication with each customer, many
traditional retailers add online channel and conduct cross-channel integration to
obtain competitive advantages (Cao and Li 2015; Verhoef et al. 2015).
In traditional retail context, consumers usually use several stores for their daily
consumption (Uncles et al. 1995), and purchase products, especially for conve-
nience goods, portfolio basis, and create loyalty toward a primary store and second-
ary stores (Baltas et al. 2010). This type of store patronage behavior has been
conceptualized as multiple store patronage (Baltas et al. 2010). Even though retail-
ers invest on EC-based online information systems, it is difficult to obtain data of
such offline shopping behavior. Moreover, it is difficult to track the customers’
channel switch behavior from online to offline channel. In other words, the impacts
of retailers’ cross-channel retail services on consumers’ offline patronage behavior
is unknown.
Therefore, this study aims to clarify the relationship between cross-channel inte-
gration and multiple store patronage. We conducted questionnaire survey and the
results show that cross-channel integration is positively associated with the store
patronage. This study contributes to the research streams on cross-channel
This study was supported by a grant from JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers 18K12876 and
16H02035.
T. Tagashira (*)
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: takumi.tagashira@r.hit-u.ac.jp
C. Minami
Kobe University, Kobe, Japan
e-mail: cminami@kobe-u.ac.jp

436 T. Tagashira and C. Minami
i ntegration and multiple store patronage. This study also shows that consumers who
feel higher enjoyment for shopping tend to use greater number of stores and to be
less loyal to the primary store.
Keywords Cross-channel integration · Multiple store patronage · Multichannel

retailing · Mobile retailing

From the Store to the Kitchen: The Effects
of an Ambient Situated Health Food Scent
on Healthy Food Choices: An Abstract
Megan Phillips, Sommer Kapitan, and Elaine Rush
Abstract Retailers today are in a pivotal position to help reduce rising

obesity rates. As the choice architects, retail managers and retail designers can
shape the retail food space to better assist the shopper. Until recently, there has been
little evidence to suggest how retailers could use ambient scents to influence the
purchase and selection of healthier foods (i.e., Biswas and Szocs 2018; Lefebvre
and Biswas 2019). However, to extend recent research, we suggest that an ambient
situated health food scent (e.g., herb scent) in a retail food setting, that is non-
consciously and subtly perceived, can also nudge shoppers to purchase health-
ier foods.
Against the backdrop of nudging and congruency theory, the present research
reveals that an ambient situated health food scent can act as a reminder or a prompt
for shoppers to purchase healthier foods. We first identify, through an observation
study and a pre-test, an ambient food scent that is typically present in more healthy
food environments and also associated with healthier foods. We next demonstrate in
a laboratory setting via a virtual supermarket, that a situated health food scent can
drive purchase of a healthier basket of goods. We then question whether this can be
applied in a real-world context to influence real shopper food choices. We find that
in retail food stores, the scent can both increase the number of healthier items and
decrease the number of less healthy items sold.
Across the three multi-method studies, we advance previous research
beyond cross modal influences such as sensory compensation (i.e., Biswas and
Szocs 2018), and innate physiological responses (i.e., Lefebvre and Biswas 2019),
to include a congruency perspective. We also show this effect in both virtual and
physical retail food environments, this being key to the future of retail. From a prac-
tical standpoint, this research has important implications for policy makers, health
professionals, retailer managers, and retail designers wanting to improve public
M. Phillips (*) · S. Kapitan · E. Rush

Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: mphillip@aut.ac.nz; s.kapitan@aut.ac.nz; e.rush@aut.ac.nz

438 M. Phillips et al.
health. By implementing such strategies, retailers can achieve corporate social

responsibility outcomes, as well as increase profits by targeting fresh food
departments.
Keywords Situated health food scent · Nudging · Food choice · Health-related

retail strategy · Store atmospherics · Ambient scent

Use of Surveytainment Elements
in Knowledge-Assessment Tests:
An Abstract
Alena Kostyk, Wenkai Zhou, and Michael R. Hyman
Abstract Psychologists and pedagogy researchers suggest the way people process
information has changed dramatically in recent decades. Multitasking habits may
be the primary cause for some college students’ self-reports about boredom in face-
to-face classes (Barnes et al. 2007; Robinson and Stubberud 2012). Similarly, stu-
dents may struggle when asked to respond to a knowledge-assessment test (Beaton
2017; Castillo 2017; Zwarun and Hall 2014).
Recent studies have found that attention focus is closely linked with mood
(Kostyk et al. 2019). People generally prioritize affect regulation—which requires
attention allocation and cognitive processing—over other mental processing (Gross
1998; Muraven and Baumeister 2000). Mental resource limitations and processing
interdependencies cause affect regulation to impair memory and performance on
subsequent cognitive tasks (e.g., anagram solving) (Amos et al. Keneson 2014;
Bauer and Baumeister 2016; Muraven and Baumeister 2000).
Students’ emotions and mood fluctuate routinely. Responding to a knowledge-
assessment test demands very high attentional control that drains cognitive resources
(Ochsner and Gross 2005). Concurrently, most students are likely to experience
negative affect when facing a knowledge-assessment test. Attempting to regulate
this negative affect will reduce the attention they allocate to answering test ques-
tions unless that affect is alleviated.
Prior research suggests interruptions can modify emotional valences towards
ongoing actions and induce better consumer outcomes in some contexts (Mandler
1990a, b; Nelson and Meyvis 2008; Nelson et al. 2009). Similarly, taking brief yet
A. Kostyk (*)
e-mail: alena.kostyk@neoma-bs.fr
W. Zhou
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI, USA
e-mail: zhouw@uwgb.edu
M. R. Hyman
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
e-mail: mhyman@nmsu.edu

440 A. Kostyk et al.
entertaining breaks from answering knowledge-assessment questions may increase

students’ enjoyment of and attention to tests.
‘Surveytainment’ is the interactive and non-interactive questionnaire elements
meant to improve survey respondents’ mood and consequently enhance their atten-
tiveness and questionnaire-related attitudes (Kostyk et al. 2019). Knowledge-
assessment tests are similar to questionnaires and might elicit stronger negative
affect from students. Therefore, students—through better performance—and subse-
quently instructors—through better student evaluations of teaching—may benefit
from including surveytainment elements in knowledge-assessment tests.
Results of a pretest and proposed empirical research agenda are discussed.
Keywords Knowledge-assessment tests · Knowledge-assessment tests

· Discrepancy/interruption theory · Attention

Soft Skills as an Assessed Course
Component: An Abstract
Hulda G. Black, Rebecca Dingus, and Alex Milovic
Abstract As expectations grow for students to gain “real world” experiences dur-
ing their college careers, faculty members must be creative to integrate transforma-
tional activities into their curriculum to close the gap between what employers are
looking for and what higher education provides. Every year, LinkedIn compiles
data and survey results to report the most in demand hard skills and soft skills (busi-
ness.linkedin.com). This report alone speaks to the importance of soft skills, with
the 2018 report emphasizing leadership, communication, collaboration, and time
management. Further, a PwC report stated that 77% of CEOs believed lack of soft
skills was the biggest threat to business (www.pwc.com). As millennials and digital
natives enter the workforce, there needs to be an increasing focus on developing the
soft skills of the current generation of college graduates (e.g., Tulgan 2016). A
review of the literature in marketing education reveals little if no focus on imple-
menting soft skills into college classroom as an assessed means to prepare students
for their transition to the workforce. Despite a certain level of innateness, soft skills
can be taught, as evidenced by the countless courses on LinkedIn Learning and
Udemy. In a survey of business executives, soft skill attributes included communi-
cation, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, interpersonal skills, attitude, professionalism,
responsibility, teamwork, and work ethic (Robles 2012). In this paper, we advocate
H. G. Black (*)
e-mail: hblack@ilstu.edu
R. Dingus
Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
e-mail: rebecca.dingus@cmich.edu
A. Milovic
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA
e-mail: alexander.milovic@marquette.edu

442 H. G. Black et al.
to focus on these attributes by adding soft skills as a course component and encour-
aging its use as displayed through attitudes, behaviors, and communications
throughout the semester.
Keywords Professionalism · Soft skills · Marketing education · Networking

The Need for Franchising Curriculum
to Deliver Value to Underrepresented
Groups: An Abstract
Rebecca Rast, Aaron Gleiberman, and Juliana White
Abstract For the fall of 2017, females were the majority with about 11.5 million
attending colleges and universities compared to 8.9 million males (Institute of
Education Sciences 2018). In addition, the enrollment of Hispanic and black stu-
dents increased from 21.7% in 2000 to 36.6% in 2015 for Hispanics, and 30.5% to
34.9% for blacks for that same time period (Institute of Education Sciences 2018).
With the expanding enrollment of female and minority students in higher education,
colleges and universities have to discover new ways to market to and satisfy this
varied demographic in order to survive in the competitive education marketplace
(Penaloza and Gilly 1991). This is a challenge for many U.S. institutions who are
not accessing and understanding the needs of the diverse market (Penaloza and
Gilly 1991). Institutions must work towards developing a multidisciplinary curricu-
lum that specifically benefits not only female and minority students but also provide
benefits to businesses and industry (Mikitka and Stampfl 1994). We suggest a fran-
chising curriculum as one such way to reach this goal.
This research proposes that a course curriculum dedicated specifically to the
study of franchise business provides three essential benefits:
• P1: A franchising course is interdisciplinary, covering subjects such as market-
ing, management, economics, finance, and accounting—all functions that fran-
chisers and franchisee encounter.
• P2: A franchising course positively impacts both minority and female students
with additional education, providing greater support as they enter the field of
business.
R. Rast (*)
Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
e-mail: rrast@missouristate.edu
A. Gleiberman
e-mail: aarong@lsu.edu
J. White
Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, USA
e-mail: juliana.white@selu.edu

444 R. Rast et al.
• P3: A franchising course positively enhances the creativity, self-confidence, and

self-efficacy of students in their ability to manage their own business
This paper heeds the call to develop marketing curriculum that provides compre-
hensive mastery over various business topics, while boosting self-confidence and
self-efficacy of all students. Providing students with a real-life business scenario of
running a franchisee seamlessly incorporates the major business subjects while
refining their strategizing, analyzing, negotiating, and communication skills. These
are skills that are essential for any career in marketing or business, not just franchis-
ing. Specifically, affording franchising courses provides an opportunity to expose
underrepresented groups to avenues of small business ownership that they naturally
gravitate towards in the marketplace. Students can gain great takeaways from this
course curriculum that will resonate with them in boosting their confidence and
self-efficacy as they embark on careers in business.
Keywords Franchise · Entrepreneurship · Curriculum · Females · Minority ·

Self-efficacy · Creativity

I Pay, therefore I Am (An A): Co-Creation
of Value in Higher Education: An Abstract
Ebru Ulusoy and Arne Baruca
Abstract Higher education is a service that has adopted the marketing discourse.
Market principles position academia as an institution that offers a professional ser-
vice for payment. Yet, there might be some tensions between intellectual goals (the
core academic principles) and these principles. Some believe that this process leads
to sovereign and rational students who would request and attain greater educational
capital. Whereas most others view this process as one that results in lower intellec-
tualism and academic standards, commodification of knowledge, elitism, and uni-
versities as professional degree, rather than knowledge, providers.
This research aims to explore how value is co-created by education providers and
students at college level education, and the implications of this phenomenon. This
research goal is significant primarily for two reasons: (1) Higher education is a big
service industry and (2) It is increasingly becoming market-oriented and customer
(student)-centered. This study looks at marketization as a value driver. It aims to
understand how professors, who have a better understanding of “educational value”
due to their expertise, approach the co-creation of value process. In other words, it
investigates the concept of value creation in academia in the context of marketiza-
tion, and aims to understand the implications of this approach from the supply per-
spective. The two main research questions are as follows:
1. What does co-creation of value mean in higher education?
2. What are the implications of co-creation of value in higher education?
This study is exploratory in nature, it utilizes a qualitative methodology. It
involves analyses of textual data. Data was collected through semi-structured in-
depth interviews with professors.
The findings from initial data analysis are categorized as: (1) Control versus
participation: Professors from the marketized context see their role as the facilitator,
E. Ulusoy
SUNY Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY, USA
e-mail: ulusoye@farmingdale.edu
A. Baruca (*)
Texas A&M University-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
e-mail: arne.baruca@tamusa.edu

446 E. Ulusoy and A. Baruca
and largely mention the importance of working with students in almost every stage
of a course design. Professors in the less marketized context focus on having control
in the course design; (2) Marketability of students: Co-creation of value in a mar-
ketized context largely means equipping students with practical knowledge and
skills that would help them get a better paying job. In the less marketized context,
professors emphasize educating students to be good citizens; (3) Meaning of knowl-
edge: In the marketized context, professors talk about the importance of performing
and making learning fun. In the less marketized context, professors follow a more
straightforward approach to offering information; and (4) Finding a balance between
student requests versus what they should learn: In the marketized context, profes-
sors feel more pressure to help students pass the course. In the less marketized
context, professors focus on what they believe students should learn.
Keywords Higher education · Co-creation · Value · Qualitative study

The Future of Terroir: An Abstract
Guy Leedon, Patrick L’Espoir Decosta, Gary Buttriss, and Vinh N. Lu
Abstract Terroir is a French concept relating the qualities and quality of agricul-
tural products to their physical and socio-cultural place of origin. It is increasingly
used by business and policymakers as a marketing technique to provide economic
benefits (e.g., Lenglet 2014; Wine Australia 2015), and to potentially preserve cul-
tural heritage (e.g., Bauer 2009) and the environment (e.g., Bowen 2010). The rising
interest in this interdisciplinary and sometimes controversial concept (e.g., Bosker
2017; Matthews 2016) presents an opportune time to consider important future
directions for research and collaboration.
Here, we present a preliminary consensus on future research priorities for terroir
drawn from interviews with 36 academic, industry and policy experts. The experts
were selected for their expertise and global recognition, while ensuring a balance of
geographic regions and gender. The preliminary areas identified as priorities for
future terroir studies are as follows:
(1) terroir’s economic and marketing advantages for business and regions;
(2) consumer views of terroir;
(3) relating quality and terroir;
(4) terroir’s meaning and use in different languages, cultures and places;
(5) the importance and origins of terroir in different products;
(6) the plant–place biophysical relationship;
(7) climate change effects and adaptation, for agriculture and more broadly;
(8) terroir as a dynamic concept, changing through time and
(9) terroir’s connection to environmental sustainability.
G.L. thanks The Australian National University, Wine Australia, The Australian Government
Department of Education, The French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the International
Organisation of Vine and Wine, and the UMR CESEAR for supporting this research.
Patrick L’Espoir Decosta, Gary Buttriss, and Vinh N. Lu contributed equally to the research.
G. Leedon (*) · P. L’Espoir Decosta · G. Buttriss · V. N. Lu

The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
e-mail: guy.leedon@anu.edu.au; patrick.lespoirdecosta@anu.edu.au; gary.buttriss@anu.edu.
au; vinh.lu@anu.edu.au

448 G. Leedon et al.
Following the identification of priorities including the environment, climate

change, marketing advantages and cultural differences, it is clear that understanding
terroir’s connection to the broad idea of sustainability (environmental, social and
economic) is of critical importance. To advance this we present a revised conceptu-
alisation of terroir, which emphasises its connection to sustainability through the
integration of physical-natural and socio-cultural aspects. Using this conceptualisa-
tion, we develop seven propositions describing the relationship between terroir and
business decisions, with clear implications for business sustainability.
Keywords Terroir · Research agenda · Business sustainability · Food tourism

· Alternative food

Residents’ Support for Sustainable
Tourism Development: The Mediating Role
of Life Satisfaction: An Abstract
Lanlung Chiang and Thi Le Huyen Nguyen
Abstract This study aimed to investigate whether residents’ perceptions affected

their life satisfaction and support towards sustainable tourism development in three
small islands in Central Vietnam. Besides, this study also examined whether resi-
dents’ life satisfaction mediated the impact of their perceptions on support for sus-
tainable tourism development. The data have been directly collected from the
residents in three small islands located in Central Vietnam. The questionnaire was
established based on the previous research, using a 5-point Likert scale. 400 ques-
tionnaires were distributed, and 332 responses were usable for data analysis. The
data were analyzed by using SPSS 22 and AMOS 22. This study used a quantitative
research method in order to examine the relationships among constructs. Specifically,
structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in this research.
As a result, residents’ positive perceptions had a positive impact on life satisfaction
and residents’ negative perceptions did not exert an influence over their life satisfaction.
Moreover, it was found that residents’ support for tourism development was positively
related to their negative and positive perceptions. There was also a positive relationship
between residents’ satisfaction with life and their support for tourism development. In
addition, the findings indicated that life satisfaction partially mediated the impact of
positive perceptions on support towards tourism development, and there was no mediat-
ing effect of satisfaction with life on the relationship between residents’ negative per-
ceptions and their support towards tourism development. In line with the use of the
social exchange theory, this research has given important contributions to residents’
perceptions, life satisfaction, and support for tourism development literature.
Furthermore, from the results found in this research, the local authorities of three islands
in Central Vietnam have some practical implications to develop sustainable tourism.
Keywords Sustainable tourism · Tourism development · Life satisfaction

· Mediating role · Residents’ perceptions · Residents’ support · Small island
L. Chiang · T. L. H. Nguyen (*)

Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
e-mail: lukech@saturn.yzu.edu.tw; nguyenthilehuyenkt@tckt.edu.vn

A Study of Camino de Santiago Hikers:
An Abstract
Michael D. Basil
Abstract The field of marketing has begun to examine the consumption of experi-
ences as an important and growing part of the economy and of people’s lives. In the
contemporary context, people often spend a considerable amount of time and money
in recreational pursuits. Consistent with the tenants of Consumer Culture Theory,
leisure-time activities may provide an important means of identity and self-definition
to consumers. To what extent do experiences provide a means of identity?
This ethnographic study examined people’s experiences on the several hundred-
mile Camino de Santiago in Spain. First, I engaged in participant-observer research
in June 2018 by walking the Camino and conducting 34 semi-structured interviews
with pilgrims along the 300-km Camino Primitivo and the 500-km Camino Frances.
The interviews were conducted in English and I talked with pilgrims not only from
the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia, but also from Denmark, Germany,
Portugal, Luxembourg, Italy, and France. These interviews were conducted at many
points along the trails. I began the interview by asking where they were from, how
they heard about the Camino, and their motivation for the walk. I then asked about
their experiences on the way. The interview took between 10 and 30 min, although
I met many of the pilgrims at other times and asked follow-up questions. I also re-
contacted five of the pilgrims I had met on the trail by email several months after
they had returned home to ask them about their insights and if the walk altered their
view of themselves or their world view. Finally, I followed several online Camino
forums on Facebook for additional insights.
For many the journey came at a transition point such as finishing college, “empty-
ing the nest,” or retirement. Many pilgrims suggested that the Camino provided some
draw, but one that they could not fully explain. As for their experiences, many pil-
grims told me that the journey provided them a means to decelerate and simplify their
hectic everyday life, and some offered that this provided an opportunity to examine
their lives. For many pilgrims the journey also provided a sense of identity, a sense
of accomplishment, and a sense of connectedness to nature and to other people.
M. D. Basil (*)
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada
e-mail: michael.basil@uleth.ca

452 M. D. Basil
Many pilgrims later reminisced about the trail, their experiences, and their
friendships and expressed an interest to revisit the Camino in the future.
This study demonstrates that a Camino pilgrimage can provide a sense of accom-
plishment and a sense of identity to participants. This finding is consistent with
other studies of leisure-time activities including long-distance hikes, extended inter-
national travel, and extreme adventures, and suggests that they can be important in
establishing one’s identity. This is a valuable insight for Consumer Culture Theory
researchers.
Keywords Identity · Hiking · Camino de Santiago · Leisure · Recreation

The Effect of Big Data on Small Firm
Marketing Capabilities: An Abstract
Grace Carson, Christina O’Connor, and Geoff Simmons
Abstract Researchers have recently started to explore the foundations of market-

ing capabilities, with the aim of identifying and understanding the mechanisms and
resources required by firms to create, develop and organize their marketing capabili-
ties (Massiera et al. 2018). Whilst interest is increasing, a gap still exists regarding
how marketing capabilities develop in small firms and their potential antecedents
(Qureshi and Kratzer 2011).
This study addresses this deficit by exploring the relationship between big data
and three types of marketing capabilities in small firms: specialized (marketing
mix), architectural (market planning) and dynamic capabilities (market sensing and
resource reconfiguration). Marketing capabilities within small firms have long been
identified as under-developed, given their lack of resources, time and personnel
(Blankson et al. 2006). A small pool of recent research, however, purports that big
data can enhance small firm marketing capabilities by providing customer insights
that guide them as to which value-adding activities they should undertake, and how
they should be implemented (Hutchinson et al. 2015). However, extant literature in
this area remains in its infancy and attention from the resource-based theory has
generally focused on how large firms deploy big data to outperform competitors
(O’Connor and Kelly 2017). Hence, this study offers to broaden understanding of
the deployment of big data in small firms and its effect on their marketing
capabilities.
This research observed seven case firms from the Northern Irish agri-food indus-
try. Using a qualitative, longitudinal approach, the change in their marketing capa-
bilities was explored over three-stages (pre, post and during data provision). The
findings show a complementarity between big data absorption and small firm mar-
keting capabilities. In some cases, the uptake of planning processes and resource
reconfiguration increased, which directed the deployment of newly informed
G. Carson (*) · G. Simmons

Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK
e-mail: gcarson07@qub.ac.uk; g.simmons@qub.ac.uk
C. O’Connor
Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland
e-mail: christina.oconnor@mu.ie

454 G. Carson et al.
arketing mix activities. In others, a lack of direction or commitment to learning

m
and a nonchalant attitude portrayed by the owner-manager precipitated an indiffer-
ence towards engagement with the data, with the effect that their marketing pro-
cesses remained static. Therefore, a pertinent aspect of this empirical research is the
influence of the owner-manager on data application. This is particularly interesting
for practitioners as it indicates the potential of big data as a small firm resource,
relative to the degree of empathy towards its value. It also represents a significant
opportunity for government bodies subsidizing the provision of information
resources, as by identifying a classification of owner-manager prior to an engage-
ment, the likely return on public investment can be predicted and justified.
Keywords Marketing capabilities · Big data · Small firms · Owner-manager

Frontiers of Internal Marketing:
How Cultures of Procrastination
and Improvisation Drive Project
Chris Hinsch, Anton Fenik, and Kevin Lehnert
Abstract Decision-making literature heavily relies on the plan first execute second
framework where project employees allocate time to plan and utilize time effec-
tively to execute the plan (Wind and Mahayan 1997). More recent studies point out
today’s time-based state of market competition where product life cycles are getting
shorter and market demand is changing rapidly. Consequently, firms are faced with
a diminishing amount of time that can be allocated to planning. When the time gap
between planning and executing shortens, decision-making is forced to become
more improvisational in nature (Moorman and Miner 1998). At the same time, the
personal characteristics of project employees (e.g., procrastination and perfection-
ism) often forbid them from utilizing their time and workload effectively.
This manuscript explores how these deviations from the underlying decision-
making framework influence project outcomes. Specifically, this study tests unin-
tentional and intentional procrastination and its impact on performance. Also,
improvisation is considered as a mediator of these relationships. Temporal
Motivation Theory (TMT) is utilized to conceptualize the studied model. TMT rec-
ognizes time as the fundamental factor across motivational theories and the theory
was designed to directly address procrastination in decision-making literature (Steel
and König 2006).
A sample of managers from family owned businesses who have decision-making
power and were part of recently finished project were considered here. Primary data
was collected using a survey and adaptation of established measures. Mediation was
tested with linear regression using PROCESS in SPSS.
Results indicate that intentional procrastination (vs. unintentional procrastina-
tion) has a positive impact on performance, while improvisation mediates these
relationships. Moreover, perfectionism can positively affect the link between impro-
visation and project performance. These results offer both confirming and new
C. Hinsch · A. Fenik · K. Lehnert (*)

Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
e-mail: hinschc@gvsu.edu; fenika@gvsu.edu; lehnertk@gvsu.edu

456 C. Hinsch et al.
insights to existing academic literature. Practitioners can benefit from these results
as well. The negative stigma of procrastination and improvisation should be lifted
and, instead, through corporate policy and culture, managers can unlock the poten-
tial of these seemingly negative employee attributes. Implications, future research,
and limitations are offered in greater detail.
Keywords Decision-making · Procrastination · Improvisation · Perfectionism ·

Temporal motivation theory

The Empirical Link Between Export
Diversification and Export Performance:
Strategic and Resource Contingencies:
An Abstract
João S. Oliveira and John W. Cadogan
Abstract Export diversification, i.e. the degree to which the company pursues sales
opportunities across different export markets, is a fundamental aspect of export
strategy (Aulakh et al. 2000). However, research on the relationship between export
diversification and export performance is limited. Additionally, while there have
been few inroads regarding the study of the impact of export diversification on
export performance (e.g. Aulakh et al. 2000), research on variables that can affect
the usefulness of pursuing higher/lower export diversification levels on export per-
formance is scant. This is an important research gap, as managers need to have
information regarding factors which they can manipulate to leverage the advantages
of diversification for export performance.
The present study aims to address the research gaps presented above. Drawing on
contingency theory (e.g. Zajac et al. 2000) and on the resource-based view (RBV)
of the firm (e.g. Barney 1991), we develop and test a model where we examine
(1) the link between export diversification and export performance, and (2) the role
of export marketing strategy adaptation and export human capital as moderators of
such relationship.
To test our theoretical model, we use data gathered via a cross-sectional online
survey of UK exporters. Our findings indicate that the link between export diversi-
fication and export performance is tied to multiple contingencies. Firms get the
highest export performance benefit when they simultaneously pursue higher levels
of export diversification and of export marketing strategy adaptation. However, this
J. S. Oliveira (*) · J. W. Cadogan

e-mail: j.oliveira@lboro.ac.uk; j.w.cadogan@lboro.ac.uk

458 J. S. Oliveira and J. W. Cadogan
only applies to firms with greater levels of export human capital. For firms with
lower levels of human capital, diversification is detrimental for performance, espe-
cially under greater levels of export marketing strategy adaptation.
Keywords Exporting · Export performance · Diversification · Adaptation

· Human capital

Learning Orientation and Market
Orientation: The Mediating Role
of Employees’ Absorptive Capabilities:
An Abstract
Zeeshan Ullah, Fahad Mushtaq, Vesa Puhakka, and Naveed Iqbal
Abstract This paper aims to theoretically explore the mediating role of employees’
absorptive capabilities between learning orientation and market orientation. Past
research asserts the interaction of learning orientation with the market orientation to
gain competitive advantage but do not pay attention to the mediating role of learn-
ing capabilities. To fill the gap, this study theorizes the employees’ absorptive capa-
bilities as a learning capability and theoretically explores the role of components of
employees’ absorptive capabilities in determining market orientation activities.
This paper studies the micro-level dynamic capability theory under the organiza-
tional learning theory to present a simple yet complete organizational learning
framework, consisting of learning orientation, employees’ absorptive capability,
and market orientation to provide a deeper understanding of phenomenon for future
research.
This paper made several contributions to existing literature. Firstly, this paper
studies employees’ absorptive capabilities with market orientation in the marketing
domain. Secondly, this study uses disaggregated concepts to theoretically explore
the role of operational-level employees’ absorptive capabilities in determining mar-
ket orientation activities. Thirdly, theoretically explores the resource development
role of dynamic capabilities in market orientation activities. Lastly, by theorizing
the mediating role of employees’ absorptive capabilities between learning orienta-
tion and market orientation, this paper provides coherence in this relation.
Z. Ullah (*) · V. Puhakka

University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
e-mail: zeeshan.ullah@oulu.fi; vesa.puhakka@oulu.fi
F. Mushtaq
University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan
N. Iqbal
University of the Punjab, Gujranwala, Pakistan
e-mail: naveed.iqbal@pugc.edu.pk

460 Z. Ullah et al.
Considering the limitations, several highly cited studies on learning orientation

and market orientation are reviewed to build theoretical arguments but a compre-
hensive bibliometric analysis is not done. Secondly, combinations of aggregated
and disaggregated variables are theorized for developing propositions.
Keywords Learning orientation · Absorptive capabilities · Market orientation

· Dynamic capabilities

The Effect of Fake News
on the Relationship between Brand Equity
and Consumer Responses to Premium
Brands: An Abstract
Oluwafunmilayo Bankole and Mignon Reyneke
Abstract Fake news has been in existence since humans could communicate; how-
ever, the Internet and specifically social media have been significant in terms of
information dissemination and fake news has gained major importance of late. The
barriers to entry in the media industry have dropped drastically, making the scale of
the problem grow exponentially. Furthermore, social media are conducive places
for spreading fake news since information is not fact checked and verified and can
easily be shared to millions of followers. This study investigated the moderating
role of fake news in a social media context on the relationship between customer-
based brand equity and consumer responses to premium brands.
Fake news stories targeted at brands can negatively affect consumer’s perception
of these brands and facilitate or impede consumers’ behaviour towards these brands.
Since the growing middle class in South Africa often use premium brands as a form
of creating self-identity and associating with an aspirational class by conspicuously
consuming brands, this study tested whether the effect of fake news serves as a
moderator between the brand equity of aspirational (premium) brands and these
consumers’ response to these brands.
A descriptive quantitative study was conducted using a convenience sample of
192 respondents. The upper middle class were chosen as respondents for this study
as a result of their ability to afford premium brands and their increased tendency to
consume premium brands, especially luxury vehicles, conspicuously in order to
show their new wealth.
Results indicated that brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality and
brand associations are all good predictors of consumer response in the form of
brand loyalty, willingness to pay a premium and brand preference. However, fake
news in this case was not found to moderate the relationship between brand equity
and consumer response.
O. Bankole · M. Reyneke (*)

e-mail: 17386269@gibs.co.za; mignon.reyneke@gsb.uct.ac.za

462 O. Bankole and M. Reyneke
Marketing managers will do well to spend marketing budgets on developing

strong brand equity. The results indicate that brand equity serves as a shield to
defend brands against fake news and to minimise damage caused by fake news.
Since premium brands are particularly vulnerable to fake news due to the status and
self-identity consumers are able to convey through the display of these brands, man-
agers of premium brands in particular should focus their energies on creating strong
and consistent brand equity as a means of buffering the effect of fake news which is
not in their control.
Keywords Fake news · Premium brands · Brand equity · Brand preference
References Available on Request

Fake News and the Top High-Tech Brands:
A Delphi Study of Familiarity,
Vulnerability and Effectiveness:
An Abstract
Andrew Flostrand, Åsa Wallstrom, Esmail Salehi-Sangari, Leyland Pitt,

and Jan Kietzmann
Abstract Fake news is one of the most discussed phenomena in politics, social life
and the world of business. Recent literature has indicated that it can be a serious
threat to brands and their management. Brands can be both victims of, and either
unwitting or deliberate agents of fake news. This paper presents the results of a
three-round Delphi study of a panel of brand marketing scholars in which they indi-
cated their familiarity with ten major high-tech brands, and estimated the vulnera-
bility of these to fake news, and how effectively these brands would deal with fake
news. The levels of familiarity with the brands vary considerably, and it also appears
that lower familiarity with the brand (with one notable exception) is associated with
higher estimates of vulnerability, and lower estimates of the management’s ability
to deal effectively with fake news.
The researchers considered a large number of commercial media brand ratings
with titles such as, “World’s Best Hi-tech Brands”, “100 Most Valuable Brands”,
“25 Best Technology Brands” and the like. Not surprisingly all these lists are marked
by their differences rather than their similarities. A handful of brands such as Apple,
Google, Amazon and Microsoft feature in all these rankings, but behind them, there
A. Flostrand (*) · Å. Wallstrom

e-mail: flostran@sfu.ca; asa.wallstrom@ltu.se
E. Salehi-Sangari
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
e-mail: ess@indek.kth.se
L. Pitt
J. Kietzmann
e-mail: jkietzma@uvic.ca

464 A. Flostrand et al.
tend to be differences. For purposes of this study, the researchers then settled on and
included the following ten high-tech brands: Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon,
IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel, eBay, Facebook and Dell.
The fake news phenomenon is unlikely to dissipate in the future, especially as
social media technologies continue to make its spread so much easier. The risk to
brands will be ever-present and will almost certainly increase. Hi-tech brand custo-
dians do and will need to be vigilant of how they might be vulnerable and to have
contingency plans in place for that day in the future when their brand becomes
a target.
Keywords Fake news · Social media · Delphi study · Brand management · Brand
vulnerability

The Dominant and Underexamined
Role of Brand’s Moral Character
in Determining Brand Perception
and Evaluation: An Abstract
Mansur Khamitov and Rod Duclos
Abstract What sorts of trait information do people most care about when forming
brand evaluations? Recent research on brand relationships (Kervyn et al. 2012) sug-
gests “warmth” should be of prime importance in evaluation formation. Yet, some
psychological research on morality (Goodwin 2015) suggests information about
brands’ specifically moral traits—their moral “character”—may be a primary
dimension. Although warmth and character are sometimes construed interchange-
ably in the interpersonal domain (Cuddy et al. 2008), we argue they are separable in
the consumption domain. More importantly, we posit that across a wide variety of
contexts, character is likely more important than warmth in brand evaluation
formation.
Study 1 asked participants to rate seven different brand targets in a random order
that varied in both valence and closeness. Regression analyses revealed that as pre-
dicted, it was the moral character traits, along with the moral character–warmth
traits, that best predicted variance in evaluations. Either one of these trait categories
best predicted variance in evaluations for all seven target brands. In contrast, the
warmth traits did not best predict evaluations for any of the target brands. Moreover,
the moral character traits independently predicted variance in evaluations for all
seven target brands controlling for other three trait categories.
Study 2 examined whether brand moral character information exerts a greater
causal impact on brand evaluations than does warmth information. Analysis revealed
large main effects of both moral character and warmth on evaluations in the pre-
dicted direction. However, the overall main effect of moral character was larger than
the main effect of warmth. And, of critical interest, the target brand that was of good
M. Khamitov (*)
R. Duclos
Western University, London, ON, Canada
e-mail: rduclos@ivey.ca

466 M. Khamitov and R. Duclos
character but cold was rated significantly more positively than was the target brand
that was of bad character but warm. Lastly, Study 3 sought to extend findings of
study 2 using a between-subjects design and employing behavioral intention mea-
sures in addition to the attitudinal one. The findings replicated, speaking to the
robustness of the key effects.
Theoretically, we contribute to the literature in at least several ways. Our first
contribution to brand relationships research (Alvarez and Fournier 2016; Fournier
1998) lies in bringing a new trait (moral character) from research on social cogni-
tion and psychology of morality into the branding domain while showing it really
matters in the consumption context. To this effect, showing that the influence of
brand’s moral character holds while controlling for brand’s warmth and competence
that are already explored in the branding domain (Ivens et al. 2015; Kervyn et al.
2012) represents a particularly intriguing finding that can boost future research in
the domain. Importantly, although warmth and character are sometimes conceived
of as interchangeable in the context of interpersonal relationships (Cuddy et al.
2008), our findings suggest they are separable in the consumption domain. Finally,
results also give back to psychology of morality and social cognition literatures
(Goodwin 2015; Goodwin et al. 2014) by establishing that influence of moral char-
acter extends to consumption/branding domain.
Keywords Moral character · Perceived warmth · Branding · Moral cues · Brand

evaluation

Do U.S. Consumers Want More Power
over their Personal Data? A Preliminary
Study on Consumer Data Right
Preferences: An Abstract
Brooke Willis and Tunmin (Catherine) Jai
Abstract In the wake of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data scandal (New

York Times 2018) and the implementation of the European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) (European Commission 2018), the need to under-
stand U.S. consumers’ attitudes toward online retailers and current privacy regula-
tions is warrant. Adopting Bandura’s social cognitive theory Westin’s privacy
segment index, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the importance of consumer
data rights implemented by the European Union and how right preferences differ
among privacy groups. Moreover, how brand trust correlates with the different
rights given to consumers under the new GDPR regulation. A total of 200 responses
were collected using the Amazon MTurk platform to administer an online question-
naire that was developed in Qualtrics.
The results showed that, for the privacy fundamentalist group (43.5%), they
preferred the right to be forgotten and the right to object. For the privacy uncon-
cerned group (22.5%), as expected, there were no significant relationships with
any consumer data rights. For privacy pragmatists (33.5%), they preferred the
right to request that decisions based on automated processing concerning their
data be made by natural persons, not just computers. There was also a positive
relationship found between brand trust and the right to correct any incorrect, inac-
curate, or incomplete personal data that a retailer has stored on them. The results
indicate that the higher the consumer’s brand trust, the more likely the consumer
will want the right to correct their personal data that a retailer has collected
about them.
For theoretical implications, the study findings will add empirical evidence in the
body of Westin’s consumer privacy-segment groups study and extending Bandura’s
B. Willis (*) · T. (. Jai

e-mail: brooke.willis@ttu.edu; catherine.jai@ttu.edu

468 B. Willis and T. (. Jai
social cognitive theory in the context of business-consumer relationships. Moreover,

understanding consumer sentiment towards what consumer data rights they would
like to exercise, this study sheds light on U.S. federal privacy policies.
Keywords Online retailing · Consumer data rights · Brand trust ·

Consumer privacy

A Review and Weight Analysis of Factors
Affecting Helpfulness of Electronic Word-
of-Mouth Communications
Elvira Ismagilova, Nripendra Rana, Emma Slade, and Yogesh Dwivedi
Abstract eWOM communications significantly affect consumer behaviour.

Previous studies found that helpful online reviews affect information adoption,
which results in intention to buy. As a result, large number of studies started inves-
tigating factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications. However, the
mixed findings on the factors affecting perceived helpfulness of eWOM communi-
cations can lead to confusion for academics and marketing practitioners. Thus, the
aim of this research is to synthesise findings from existing studies on eWOM com-
munications by using weight analysis. This will help to investigate the predictive
power of the independent variables on the dependent variable, by taking into con-
sideration the number of times a relationship has been previously examined. The
results of weight analysis showed that valence, emotions, length, source expertise,
argument quality, rating, relevance, and source credibility are best predictors of
eWOM helpfulness. There were also three promising predictors with a perfect
weight of one such as volume, reputation of the reviewer, and certainty. Future steps
of this study involve conducting meta-analysis, which will help strengthen results of
weight analysis and develop a conceptual model for empirical evaluation of various
factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications.
Keywords eWOM · Weight analysis · eWOM helpfulness · eWOM usefulness
E. Ismagilova (*)
University of Bradford, Bradford, UK
e-mail: e.ismagilova@bradford.ac.uk
N. Rana · Y. Dwivedi
Swansea University, Swansea, UK
e-mail: n.p.rana@swansea.ac.uk; y.k.dwivedi@swansea.ac.uk
E. Slade
University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
e-mail: emma.slade@bristol.ac.uk

470 E. Ismagilova et al.
Introduction
Electronic word-of-mouth communications (eWOMs) represent one of the most

important information sources, which consumers use in order to make informed
purchase decisions (Tsao and Hsieh 2015). eWOM is defined as “the dynamic and
on-going information exchange process between potential, actual, or former con-
sumers regarding a product, service, brand, or company, which is available to a
multitude of people and institutions via the Internet” (Ismagilova et al. 2017, p.18).
According to recent statistics, 97% of consumers read online reviews before making
a purchase decision (Caplan 2018).
As the amount of eWOM communications is increasing at a steady pace, it is
becoming almost impossible for consumers to read all of them. For example, users
of Yelp provide around 24,000 new reviews every minute on their website (Eslami
et al. 2018; Shrestha 2016). Thus, it becomes necessary for companies to identify
helpful reviews and present them to consumers first. Previous research found a link
between perceived helpfulness of eWOM communications and information adop-
tion, which in turn impacts purchase behaviour. Individuals consider information as
helpful when it provides support to their purchase decision (Davis 1989). Companies
use eWOM as a tool to influence individuals’ evaluations of products and services
(Mayzlin 2006); it was found that helpful reviews affect consumer purchase deci-
sion more than unhelpful reviews (Chen et al. 2008; Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006).
As a result, a great number of studies investigate factors which influence perceived
helpfulness of eWOM communications. However, some studies have contradicting
results about the impact of different factors on helpfulness of eWOM communica-
tions. For instance, Kim and Gupta (2012) found that valence affects perceived
helpfulness of online reviews of laptops by using between subjects experiment,
while Jamil and Hasnu (2013) found that it does not, by collecting reviews from
Epinions.com for different product categories. Another group of studies have mixed
results about accuracy and its impact on helpfulness of eWOM communications.
For example, Cheung et al. (2008) found that accuracy does not affect helpfulness,
while Jamil and Hasnu (2013) found the opposite. The difference in the results
might be explained by different types of products and services, as well as different
platform characteristics. The mixed findings on the factors affecting perceived help-
fulness of eWOM communications can lead to confusion for academics and market-
ing practitioners alike.
While there have been some studies to assist the literature on eWOM communi-
cations (e.g., Hong et al. 2017; Mudambi and Schuff 2010; Purnawirawan et al.
2015), some of these studies are somewhat dated and some have focused on a lim-
ited number of factors, or excluded studies which used surveys and experimental
data. Thus, the aim of this research is to synthesise findings from existing studies on
eWOM communications by using weight analysis (Dwivedi et al. 2017; Rana et al.
2015; Rana et al. 2014). This will help investigate the predictive power of the inde-
pendent variables on the dependent variable, by taking into consideration the num-
ber of times a relationship has been previously examined. The model developed
A Review and Weight Analysis of Factors Affecting Helpfulness of Electronic… 471
through weight analysis would allow eWOM practitioners to decipher more influen-
tial factors.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. First, the research method
employed for this study is described. Next, the findings from weight analysis are
presented. Then, the findings are discussed, followed by conclusion and identifica-
tion of limitations of this study and directions for future research.
Research Method
As this research aims to synthesise existing findings regarding the factors affecting
helpfulness of eWOM communications, it was considered appropriate to employ
weight analysis. Weight analysis is used to ascertain the predictive power of inde-
pendent variables taking into account the number of times the relationships between
independent and dependent variables were studied before.
To perform the analysis, peer-reviewed journal articles on eWOM communica-
tions were collected from bibliographic databases Scopus, EBSCO and Web of
Science. The searched keywords included “Electronic word-of-mouth” OR
“Electronic word of mouth” OR “eWOM” OR “Internet word-of-mouth” OR
“Internet word of mouth” OR “iWOM” OR “Online word-of-mouth” OR “Online
word of mouth” OR “Virtual word-of-mouth” OR “vWOM” OR “Virtual word of
mouth”. As a result of this search more than 600 articles were identified.
Subsequently, articles which focused on factors affecting perceived helpfulness of
online reviews were selected from the general pool, resulting in 80 articles.
Following previous studies on weight analysis, factors, which were used more than
three times were selected for this study (Rana et al. 2014). As a result, 29 articles
were ultimately used for this research. Based on the literature search Table 1
presents the identified factors affecting perceived helpfulness of eWOM
communications.
Studies investigating factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications
were mainly conducted in China (Cheung et al. 2008; Cheung 2014; Rabjohn et al.
2008; Teng et al. 2014; Yan et al. 2011; Yan et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2014) and the
USA (Ahmad and Laroche 2015; Mafael et al. 2016; Park and Lee 2009; Wu 2013;
Yin et al. 2014). Other studies were conducted in South Korea (Kim and Gupta
2012), Hong Kong (Lee et al. 2011a); Spain (López and Sicilia 2014a, b), Pakistan
(Jamil and Hasnu 2013), Taiwan (Chen et al. 2014), Japan (Parry et al. 2012) and the
United Kingdom (González-Rodríguez et al. 2016). The majority of the studies
used the information adoption model (Chen et al. 2014; Cheung 2014; Parry et al.
2012; Rabjohn et al. 2008) as a theoretical foundation. Other theories used to inves-
tigate factors affecting helpfulness of online reviews included: dual process theory
(Cheung et al. 2008; Filieri 2015); attribution theory (Jeong and Koo 2015; Kim and
Gupta 2012); negativity bias (Jeong and Koo 2015; Wu 2013); social influence the-
ory (Lee et al. 2011a, b); uses and gratifications theory (Park and Lee 2009); cogni-
tive fit theory (Yan et al. 2011); cognitive appraisal theory (Ahmad and Laroche
Table 1 Factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications

Construct Definition Representative studies
Valence Whether message is positive or Jamil and Hasnu (2013); Kim and
negative. Variables included: Gupta (2012); Lee et al. (2011a);
valence, tone López and Sicilia (2014a); Mafael
et al. (2016); Willemsen et al.
(2011); Wu (2013); Yan et al. (2011);
Zhang et al. (2010)
Emotions Emotions expressed in the Ahmad and Laroche (2015); Kim
message and Gupta (2012); Yin et al. (2014)
Length The total length of the review. Ahmad and Laroche (2015); Baek
Variables included: length, word et al. (2012); González-Rodríguez
count et al. (2016); Hu et al. (2017); Jamil
and Hasnu (2013); Wu (2013); Yin
et al. (2014); Zhang et al. (2010)
Source expertise The degree to which a person is Cheung et al. (2008); González-
able to provide the correct Rodríguez et al. (2016); Jamil and
information Hasnu (2013); Lee et al. (2011a)
Argument quality Perceived relevance, timeliness, Chen et al. (2014); Cheung (2014);
accuracy, and comprehensiveness Filieri (2015); Jamil and Hasnu
of the information. Variables (2013); Teng et al. (2014);
included: argument quality, Willemsen et al. (2011); Zhang et al.
quality, strength (2014)
Rating The overall evaluation of the Ahmad and Laroche (2015); Baek
reviewers of a product in a specific et al. (2012); Filieri (2015); Hu and
category. Variables included: Chen (2016); Hu et al. (2017); Wu
recommendation rating, average (2013); Yin et al. (2014); Zhang et al.
product rating (2010)
Perceived ease of The degree to which the consumer Lee et al. (2011a); Lee et al.
use believes using the Internet for (2011b); Parry et al. (2012)
shopping will require little effort
Relevance The degree of congruence between Cheung (2014); Cheung et al.
what the user wants or requires (2008); Jamil and Hasnu (2013);
and what is provided by the Rabjohn et al. (2008)
information
Source credibility Consumers' overall perceptions Chen et al. (2014); López and Sicilia
regarding the credibility of review (2014a); Rabjohn et al. (2008); Teng
sources rather than the content of et al. (2014)
online reviews
Timeliness The extent to which the messages Cheung et al. (2008); Jamil and
are current, timely and up-to-date Hasnu (2013); Rabjohn et al. (2008)
Accuracy User’s perception that the Cheung et al. (2008); Jamil and
information is correct Hasnu (2013); Rabjohn et al. (2008)
Comprehensiveness Completeness of the output Cheung et al. (2008); Jamil and
information content Hasnu (2013); Rabjohn et al. (2008)
Source Recipient’s degree of trust of the Cheung et al. (2008); Jamil and
trustworthiness message communicator Hasnu (2013); López and Sicilia
(2014b)
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Construct Definition Representative studies
Volume Total number of posted online Filieri (2015); López and Sicilia
reviews. Variables included: (2014a); Yan et al. (2016)
volume, number of reviews,
quantity of reviews
Reputation of the Reputations of the provider of the Jamil and Hasnu (2013); Wu (2013)
reviewer message
Internet shopping Overall shopping experience using López and Sicilia (2014a); Park and
experience Internet Lee (2009)
Photo Using photo image for the Jamil and Hasnu (2013)
reviewers profile
Certainty Degree of certainty expressed in Ahmad and Laroche (2015)
the message
2015; Yin et al. 2014); regulatory focus theory (Zhang et al. 2010); cognitive cost
theory (Yan et al. 2016); biased assimilation theory (Mafael et al. 2016) and diag-
nosticity theory (Hu et al. 2017).
Findings
In order to perform weight analysis, the number of significant results was divided
by the total number of times that particular relationship between a given indepen-
dent and dependent variable had been tested (Jeyaraj et al. 2006; Rana et al. 2015;
Rana et al. 2014). For instance, to calculate the weight for the relationship between
source expertise and eWOM helpfulness, 7 (the number of significant results) is
divided by 8 (the total number of tests). Table 2 presents the findings from weight
analysis.
According to Jeyaraj et al. (2006), predictors can be classified in the following
ways. A predictor is defined as “well-utilised” when examined five or more times.
If a predictor is examined less than five times it is defined as “experimental”. In
order to be a “best predictor”, a variable should satisfy two conditions: have weight
equal or greater than 0.8 and be well-utilised (Jeyaraj et al. 2006). Based on the
weight analysis it was found that 9 predictors out of 18 were well-utilised. Of the
well-utilised independent variables, valence (examined 15 times), emotions
expressed in the message (examined 14 times), and length of the message (exam-
ined 10 times) are the most utilised. Among well-utilised predictors, it was found
that best predictors for eWOM helpfulness are valence (examined 15 times, signifi-
cant 13 times); emotions (examined 14 times, significant 14 times); length (exam-
ined 8 times, significant 7 times); argument quality (examined 8 times, significant 8
times); rating (examined 11 times, significant 11 times); relevance (examined 5
times, significant 4 times) and source credibility (examined 5 times, significant
4 times).
Table 2. Weight analysis

Independent variable Dependent variable Significant Non-significant Total Weight
Valence eWOM helpfulness 13 2 15 0.867
Emotions 14 0 14 1
Length 10 0 10 1
Source expertise 7 1 8 0.875
Argument quality 8 0 8 1
Rating 11 0 11 1
Perceived ease of use 4 2 6 0.667
Relevance 4 1 5 0.8
Source credibility 4 1 5 0.8
Timeliness 1 3 4 0.25
Accuracy 2 2 4 0.5
Comprehensiveness 2 2 4 0.5
Source trustworthiness 3 1 4 0.75
Volume 4 0 4 1
Reputation of the reviewer 4 0 4 1
Internet shopping experience 2 1 3 0.667
Photo 0 3 3 0
Certainty 3 0 3 1
The analysis of variables used across the most frequently examined relationships
indicates that the well-utilised predictors of helpfulness of eWOM communications
such as emotions (examined 14 times, significant 14 times), length (examined 10
times, significant 10 times), argument quality (examined 8 times, significant 8
times) and rating (examined 11 times, significant 11 times) were found to be signifi-
cant across all studies. Thus, their weight is equal to 1, according to the techniques
used by Jeyaraj et al. (2006), and as a result they hold significant place in eWOM
research (Rana et al. 2015).
Some experimental relationships with the predictors volume (examined 4, sig-
nificant 4), reputation of the reviewer (examined 4 times, significant 4 times) and
certainty expressed in the message (examined 3, significant 3) have a weight equal
to 1 and can be classified as promising predictors of perceived helpfulness of eWOM
communications. In spite of the fact that these relationships were found to be sig-
nificant each time they were examined, it is suggested that experimental variables
need more testing to be qualified as best predictors for their corresponding depen-
dent variable (Rana et al. 2015; Tamilmani et al. 2018). As a result, researchers are
encouraged to examine these predictors in their future studies.
A weight of 0 was found regarding the relationship between predictor photo and
information helpfulness, which make this predictor non-significant. One of the
well-utilised predictors—perceived ease of use (examined 6 times, significant 4
times)—was also found to be a least effective predictor.
Valence Emotions
Length
Internet
shopping
experience
0.867 1
1 Certainty
Source
expertise
0.875 1
Argument Timeliness
quality 1 0.25
eWOM
Photo 0 helpfulness 0.5
Accuracy
Reputation 1
of the 0.5
reviewer Comprehensiveness
1
0.8
0.75
0.67
Rating 0.8
Source
1 Credibility
Source
trustworthiness Relevance
Perceived
ease of use
Volume
Fig. 1 Factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications. Note: ---> experimental predic-
tors; -> well-utilised predictors.
Discussion
Considering the large number of studies examining the factors affecting helpfulness
of eWOM communications it is important to discuss and analyse their collective
findings. Figure 1 shows the diagrammatic representation of the factors affecting
helpfulness of eWOM communications with their corresponding weights, based on
the results of weight analysis. The findings suggest that best predictors such as
valence, emotions, length, source expertise, argument quality, rating, relevance and
source credibility should be included in identifying factors affecting helpfulness of
eWOM communications. Promising predictors such as volume and reviewer reputa-
tion should be included in further empirical studies to determine their overall
performance.
Most of the studies investigating factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM com-
munications focused on characteristics of the message (e.g., valance, length, argu-
ment quality, accuracy) and information source (source expertise, source
trustworthiness, reviewer reputation). However, just a limited number of studies
focused on reviewer characteristics (Internet experience), which can influence the
way individuals process eWOM communications.
It was found that some predictors were either not significant (photo) or were least
effective predictors (perceived ease of use). According to Jeyaraj et al. (2006) it is
suggested that research should find convincing reasons to continue investigating
these kinds of predictors. However, we think that to make decisions about excluding
these relationships in the context of eWOM research may be premature. First,
eWOM research into the factors affecting perceived helpfulness of eWOM com-
munications is still developing. Out of the total 18 most frequently used predictors
of helpfulness of eWOM, only 9 were found to be investigated five or more times.
This indicates that eWOM empirical research is still not well developed. Second,
just using weight analysis is not a sufficient condition to exclude variables from
further analysis. In this case a meta-analysis approach (potentially followed by fur-
ther experimental studies) would appear to be desirable to provide further
confirmation.
Conclusion
The aim of this research was to perform weight analysis of existing research find-
ings on eWOM communications. The aim was achieved by collecting previous
studies on eWOM communications which focused on factors affecting helpfulness
of eWOM communications, identifying the number of significant and non-
significant results between independent variables and helpfulness of eWOM com-
munications, and evaluating the weights. Further examination of the weaker
predictors through additional secondary data and validation with primary data could
confirm their potential as predictors of message helpfulness of eWOM research.
The results of this study could provide a platform for obtaining a consolidated view
of factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM communications, which will advance
individuals’ information processing.
The current study provides some theoretical and practical implications.
Researchers looking further into the factors affecting helpfulness of eWOM com-
munications can develop a more conceptually rigorous theoretical framework by
using the results of this research to make more informed decisions about inclusion
of factors in their research. Practitioners should carefully evaluate the accepted wis-
dom concerning the traditionally utilised predictors, and consider increasing their
attention on the predictors, such as valence, emotions embedded in the message,
length, source expertise, argument quality, rating, relevance and source credibility,
which have been found to be the most significant in affecting helpfulness of eWOM
communications. For example, marketers in companies that publish online con-
sumer reviews must ensure that the quality of the reviews on their website is high.
Nowadays, most of the e-commerce web sites and opinion platforms (e.g., Epinions.
com, Amazon.com, Tripadvisor.com) offer general guidance about how to write
online reviews. Applying the results from this study, platform administrators can
use the findings to make their websites more user-friendly, by enhancing writing
guidelines, which will encourage more useful product and service reviews.
In addition, platform operators should make the information regarding the message
source available, as it can help receivers to judge helpfulness.
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
This study has a number of limitations. First, the current research did not take into
consideration moderators of relationships between variables. Thus, future research
should include moderating variables such as age, gender and level of expertise to
deal with this issue. Second, a meta-analysis of the relationships has not been under-
taken in this research. Using meta-analysis can help researchers evaluate the signifi-
cance of the relationships based on effect size statistics. In addition, results of
meta-analysis can strengthen outcomes of weight analysis. As a result, future
research should perform both types of analyses of factors affecting helpfulness of
eWOM communications. Lastly, studies for this research were collected only from
Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO databases, which can limit the number of stud-
ies available for weight analysis. Future research could utilise a wider range of
databases.
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Leadership Effectiveness and Marketing
Successful Stories in Latin America:
An Abstract
Luis E. Torres and Carlos Ruiz
Abstract The association between leadership effectiveness and successful market-

ing efforts has been a somewhat popular area of research in business. Some studies
have also investigated if those relationships hold in different regions across the
world. This manuscript proposes an empirical study of the relationship between
leadership effectiveness and marketing in Latin America, a region that lacks strong
academic business research.
Marketing management has acknowledged the importance of virtuous organiza-
tional functioning with elements such as leadership effectiveness and culture being
at the heart of the marketing function (Deshpande and Webster 1989). As the con-
nection between marketing success and leadership effectiveness becomes more
eminent, recent sub-marketing areas have started to investigate how that association
holds. Some studies are also testing how the associations might be different under
different cultural contexts.
On the other hand, little agreement exists about global organizational behavior
determinants of leadership effectiveness. Research on leadership in a cross-cultural
context is progressing and raising new questions (Dickson et al. 2009). Several of
those should be reflective of marketing activities, a function that is crucial for busi-
ness ventures.
The proposed methodology would look into individual employees’ beliefs,
assumptions, and convictions about the attributes and behaviors that distinguish
effective from ineffective managers/leaders (Eden and Leviatan 1975). A sample
from several Latin American countries will be collected. Findings are not available
at the time of submission. Based on previous studies, it is expected that effective
leaders in Latin America are perceived as someone who possesses attributes such as
being considerate of employee's points of view, fair decision makers, providers of a
L. E. Torres (*) · C. Ruiz

Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA, USA
e-mail: ltorres1@ggc.edu; cruiz@ggc.edu

482 L. E. Torres and C. Ruiz
professional and positive work environment, promoters of hard work, flexible and
open to new ideas, and good listeners and supportive (Torres et al. 2015). All those
traits should facilitate successful marketing activities.
Keywords Successful · Leadership · Effectiveness · Latin America · Cross-

cultural marketing

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Gender
Choice of Celebrities Endorsing Beauty
Brands: An Abstract
Shuang Wu and Li (Jenny) Ji
Abstract According to the cosmetics industry report worldwide (Statista 2018),

the annual growth rate of global cosmetic market has reached the highest number
(5%) in the past ten years. Asia is the largest market, and its market share has grown
from 31% to 37% from 2011 to 2017. Among them, China has the highest market
value growth from 2014 to 2018. Most leading brands (L’Oréal, Unilever, P&G Co.,
and Estee Lauder Cos.) are speeding up their expansion into the Chinese market and
frequently utilizing celebrity endorsement to pull up their sales (Winterich 2018).
An emerging trend appears that male celebrities with soft masculinity are endorsing
female-oriented beauty brands in Chinese market. The male idols, normally called
“Xiaoxianrou” in Chinese Internet slang translated as “little fresh meat” in English.
In contrast with the traditional “match-up” hypothesis supporting the effectiveness
from the fit between the endorser and the endorsed product, the underlying mecha-
nism of consumers’ response to the mismatch between product gender image and
endorsing celebrity gender is yet to be enriched.
Building on existing research on gender role representation and entertainment
theory, we intend to identify a dual mediation model. The purpose of the study is to
enrich the understanding of the gender-specific celebrity endorsement strategy by
specifying the underlying mechanism of consumers’ response to cross-gender
endorsements featuring male idols and cross-cultural differences in gender role atti-
tudes. For practitioners, this study reveals both positive and negative outcomes of
S. Wu
Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA
e-mail: wus@rowan.edu
L. (. Ji (*)
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: jennyji2-c@cityu.edu.hk

484 S. Wu and L. (. Ji
cross-gender celebrity endorsement and enriches brand managers’ understandings

on leveraging the benefits of celebrity entertainment in their marketing strategy
globally.
Keywords Celebrity endorsement · Cross-gender endorsement · Gender ·

Cosmetics industry · Male idols

Should I Care for the Environment
or Myself? Ads for Green Products:
An Abstract
Ceren Ekebas-Turedi, Elika Kordrostami, and Ilgim Dara Benoit
Abstract Both consumers and marketers have realized that natural resources are
not endless, and firms’ actions can have a major impact on the environment (Kotler
2011). Consumers are more aware of the impact of the products on themselves and
the environment. Consequently, firms have put more effort into green marketing
strategies by producing environmentally friendly products. Consumers engage in
green consumption behavior typically for two reasons: the product provides a ben-
efit to the environment (a chance to protect the environment) or directly to the con-
sumer (White and Simpson 2013; Green and Peloza 2014). Therefore, marketers
have been using green advertising appeals while stressing the benefit to the con-
sumer such as less chemical exposure or financial benefits (self-appeal) or the ben-
efit to the environment such as less environmental waste (other-appeal).
The notion of influencing consumers by framing the message to highlight the
benefit to self and benefit to others has been investigated in other contexts such as
donation intentions (e.g., Brunel and Nelson 2000; Nelson and Viela 2009; White
and Peloza 2009). However, extant literature stated mixed results in the benefit of
using self vs. other appeals. How consumers perceive the green appeals and their
associated brand evaluations might depend on individual differences (Ellen et al.
1991). These individual differences can lead to different levels of perceived social
responsibility (PSR) of the brand/company which in turn can lead to different con-
sumer outcomes. The current research aims to extend prior research by examining
the role of how consumers’ belief on whether their efforts can make a difference
influences the ad appeal effectiveness.
C. Ekebas-Turedi (*)
Purdue University Northwest, Hammond, IN, USA
e-mail: cturedi@purdue.edu
E. Kordrostami
e-mail: kordrostami@rowan.edu
I. D. Benoit
e-mail: benoitid@appstate.edu

486 C. Ekebas-Turedi et al.
The current study focuses on the effect of using different types of green message
framing (self-benefit vs. other-benefit) on consumers’ perception of the company’s
social responsibility, which is known as perceived social responsibility, which then
reflects on consumer response (i.e., attitude toward brand and purchase intentions).
The results show that different PCE levels influence how consumers perceive green
ad appeals and accordingly company’s PSR and responses towards the brand.
Keywords Green marketing · Perceived consumer effectiveness · Self vs. other

appeals · Message framing

Examination of the Preference of French
Consumers in the Fashion Sector: How
Important is Ethical Attribute?
An Abstract
Mohamed Akli Achabou
Abstract Faced with a negative social and environmental assessment, some fash-
ion brands have responded to the numerous criticisms by placing sustainability at
the center of their strategic planning. More than 500 large companies communicate
about CSR issues on their websites (Bhattacharya and Sen 2004). Other brands such
as Stella McCartney have put sustainable development at the heart of their business
model (Kim and Hall 2015). However, it is much more difficult for fashion brands
to build a responsible image than for other brands, particularly due to their reputa-
tion for meeting expressive and psychological needs that are considered non-
essential and excessive (Kim and Hall 2015). Although the pressure exerted by the
various NGOs has increased in recent years, consumers continue to show little con-
cern about societal issues when buying fashion products. Joergens (2006) indicates
that consumers are less inclined to consume ethical fashion products, despite show-
ing a positive attitude to sustainable development issues. In this context, does CSR
commitment really enable a fashion brand to stand out in the market? Is it wise for
fashion brands to build their business model on a commitment to sustainable devel-
opment? This study aims to provide answers to these questions. Although there has
been an increasing number of studies of consumer behavior towards ethical fashion
products in recent years, none (to our knowledge) have compared this behavior for
products of a pioneering ethical fashion brand (proactive stance) and those of a
well-reputed brand name that has implemented CSR in response to criticism (reac-
tive posture).
This study uses the conjoint analysis method and analyzes a sample of 381
French consumers. Two sports brands were tested in our experiment: Nike and
Patagonia. The results obtained confirm the existence of a gap between the positive
attitude of fashion consumers towards environmental and social issues and their
consumption behavior. Indeed, despite the sensitivity the respondents showed to the
M. A. Achabou (*)
IPAG Business School, Paris, France
e-mail: ma.achabou@ipag.fr

488 M. A. Achabou
social and environmental conditions involved in the manufacture of the shoes they
purchase, they mainly preferred Nike—whose CSR reputation is worse than that of
Patagonia. Their recognition of a greater CSR effort by Patagonia does not seem to
change this preference. The results confirm the low sensitivity of consumers to the
ethical issues in the fashion sector and challenge the assumption that ethical com-
mitment can be a real differentiator in the market. Finally, this study provides some
advices for managers of fashion companies committed to responsible policies.
Keywords Ethical fashion · Consumer preference · Conjoint analysis · France

The Marketing of International
Humanitarian Aid in a Changing Global
Marketplace: An Abstract
Robert Mittelman and José I. Rojas-Méndez
Abstract We have only just begun to make progress in theorizing about the con-
cept of giving to 'distant others', contributing to the development of knowledge in
this area, and building towards a greater understanding of charitable donor behavior
and the role that marketing can play in international humanitarian aid (IHA). This
work represents some initial steps into investigating the role of marketing in IHA
and greater understanding of donor behaviour.
Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a theoretical framework, we
explore the concept of Justice Restoration Efficacy (JRE) to examine the intention
to donate to distant others (IDDO) in IHA. For the purpose of testing, a multiple
regression analysis was used to regress IDDO onto a revised TPB model that
includes the concept of JRE. In order to test an extended model, an eight-section
questionnaire was designed in order to carry out an online survey. All constructs
were measured using 7-point, Likert-style questions. Psychometric properties of all
variables are within recommended levels. Data collection resulted in a convenience
sample of 411 charitable donors from across Canada (N = 199) and the USA
(N = 212).
The adjusted variance explained by the model reaches 59% of IDDO. By looking
at the individual contribution of each variable (i.e., standardized beta coefficients),
we observe that JRE is the most important antecedent of IDDO with a 0.59, fol-
lowed far behind by subjective norms with 0.20. The other three significant vari-
ables show beta coefficients no greater than 0.13 each. These results highlight what
is most important to potential donors in deciding to help distant others, the ability to
have an impact and restore justice. When it comes to distant others, it is no longer
enough to support a cause or an organization, but the focus of the donor has become
on what the donation can do and the change it can make.
R. Mittelman (*)
Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada
e-mail: robert.mittelman@royalroads.ca
J. I. Rojas-Méndez
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
e-mail: jose.rojas@carleton.ca

490 R. Mittelman and J. I. Rojas-Méndez
The findings highlight that the predictors and influences on IDDO are different
than for the intention to donate. As such, IDDO represents more than just a novel
context in which to examine charitable giving but a separate, albeit related, con-
struct. This study establishes the link between JRE and IDDO. This is the first use
of the JRE concept in the non-profit marketing and charitable giving literature.
Keywords Charity · Donor behavior · Humanitarian aid · International

The Value of Psychological Capital
for Customer Participation Management:
An Abstract
Sara Leroi-Werelds and Sandra Streukens
Abstract Prior research considers various aspects of customer participation (CP)

which can be defined as customers’ contribution of effort, knowledge, information,
or other resources to service production and delivery (Dong and Sivikumar 2017).
However, actionable guidelines for customer participation management (CPM)—
i.e., organizational actions and activities that aim to affect customers’ contribution
to service production and delivery—are currently lacking (Mustak et al. 2016).
To fill this research gap, a fruitful approach is to take a human resource manage-
ment (HRM) perspective on CPM (Mustak et al. 2016). The rationale is that, in a CP
context, customers can be considered “partial employees” of the organization
(Groth 2005; Xie et al. 2008) and “serve as critical human resources that must be
managed so that their efforts are in line with the goals and strategy of the firm”
(Halbesleben and Buckley 2004, p. 356). Groth (2005) emphasized the value of
extending HRM theories to CPM and called for more research on this topic to create
a more actionable understanding of CPM. However, more than 10 years later, a
systematic literature review conducted by Mustak et al. (2016) revealed that prior
studies on CPM offer little actionable knowledge: “Most of these studies do not
discuss specific managerial tools or methods that can be applied in real life situa-
tions” (Mustak et al. 2016, p. 263). As a result, they call for research that is more
directly applicable to managers since there is a clear need to translate theoretical
knowledge into actionable guidelines.
In light of this research call, this paper extends Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
from HRM to CPM. Specifically, we investigate the value of customers’ PsyCap as
a manageable driver of CP. PsyCap involves an individual’s positive assessment of
circumstances and probability for success, and prior HRM studies offer several
actionable guidelines for developing PsyCap. Most of these guidelines can be trans-
lated to a CP setting which allows the design of truly actionable strategies for CPM.
S. Leroi-Werelds (*) · S. Streukens

Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
e-mail: sara.leroiwerelds@uhasselt.be; sandra.streukens@uhasselt.be

492 S. Leroi-Werelds and S. Streukens
Study 1 demonstrates the predictive value of PsyCap as a key driver of CP by

examining its relative impact on CP attitude and intention compared to alternative
CP drivers (role clarity, extrinsic benefits, intrinsic benefits). Furthermore, this
study reveals the impact of several task-related antecedents (compatibility, observ-
ability, trialability, complexity, and perceived risk) on these CP drivers. Study 2
demonstrates the managerial value of PsyCap by translating existing guidelines for
developing PsyCap from the employee to the customer domain and revealing
boundary conditions for PsyCap development.
Keywords Customer participation · Co-production · Psychological capital

· PsyCap

An Abstract: Burdens of Health Service
Access: Examining Prospective Customers
Perceptions of Clinical Help-Seeking
Jessica Wyllie, Jamie Carlson, and Mohammad M. Rahman
Abstract Transformative services embody a fertile domain for future service

research. In particular, health care necessitates the timely adoption and compliance
of a myriad of transformative health services by its customers as a pathway to
enhance the patient journey. As adopting these services is paramount to enhancing
individual and collective well-being, research is needed to understand how to
encourage early intervention amongst customers at varying temporal phases of
decision-making.
There is growing demand for mental healthcare services; however, many indi-
viduals are reluctant to admit that they have a mental illness or to seek professional
help. In spite of the well-documented role of perceived public stigma in influencing
decision-making in mental health care, the role of self-stigma in the decision-
making process is not well understood. This is largely due to fear of exposure,
owing of the stigma associated with mental health disorders in many western and
eastern societies. Stigma is thus aligned toward mental illnesses, as well as help-
seeking behaviours associated with improving and/or maintaining mental well-
being. As a response to this challenge, this research seeks to provide theoretical and
empirical elaboration on the role of stigma and guilt as focal mechanisms in influ-
encing prospective customers’ adoption of transformative mental health services.
Specifically, this study aims to examine the perpetual service adoption gap in
mental health care and focuses on the implications of Self-Stigma and Anticipated
Guilt in determining customers’ intentions to adopt transformative health services.
The proposed model encompasses an expanded view of the Theory of Planned
Behaviour and is tested with data in a multi-country study setting gathered from 700
Australian and 1073 Chinese prospective customers. Results indicate that self-
stigma, anticipated guilt, self-efficacy and subjective norms are major determinants
J. Wyllie · J. Carlson
University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
e-mail: jessica.wyllie@newcastle.edu.au; jamie.carlson@newcastle.edu.au
M. M. Rahman (*)
Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA, USA
e-mail: mmrahman@ship.edu

494 J. Wyllie et al.
of intentions to adopt. Furthermore, self-efficacy and attitude were found to play

dominant roles towards self-stigma whereas subjective norms had strongest impact
towards anticipated guilt. The authors conclude with managerial implications, high-
lighting that the importance of mental health interventions and PSAs hat foster and
facilitate consumer empowerment, which in turn enhances proactive behavioural
engagement with health services.
Keywords Transformative service research · Self-stigma · Anticipated guilt ·

Cross-country comparison · Adoption · Mental health

Demystifying Perceived Psychological
Proximity for Hedonic Product Choices:
An Abstract
Faheem Ahmed and Pierre Valette-Florence
Abstract Consumers often make decisions and tradeoffs in their daily lives
between pursuing pleasures or distancing themselves from these, both of which
have an impact on their subsequent actions. The current research attempts to answer
questions about consumption of hedonic and utilitarian products, and how individu-
als adapt their perceptions of these experiences by focusing on affective or cognitive
processing mechanisms through changes in psychological proximity.
Psychological proximity or distance is the perception that a physical entity or a
mental construct is far in terms of physical distance, time, reality, and the self; con-
sidering the current place, present time, ongoing reality, and our own self, all of
these comprise the zero distance points from the “here and now” (Liberman, Trope,
& Stephan, 2007). The current research employs perceived psychological proximity
as “the perceived proximity of the self to an object and its associated experience
based on the quality of the experience felt,” considering its accessibility as a subjec-
tive experience (Van Boven, Kane, McGraw, & Dale, 2010) across objective dis-
tance (spatial, temporal, social, hypothetical). Even though various events and
decisions may happen differently across our lives, there are some which stand out
due to the intensity of felt emotion and are thus perceived psychologically proximal
more than others at comparable objective distances (Van Boven, Loewenstein,
Welch, & Dunning, 2012). Researchers have shown that greater proximity to an
object and decision at a higher construal level enhances attitudinal responses and
hedonic consumption (Basoglu & Yoo, 2015; Chang & Tuan Pham, 2013; Huyghe,
Verstraeten, Geuens, & Van Kerckhove, 2017).
The current study which is an ongoing work relies on an innovative data collec-
tion approach called the Album On-Line (AOL), which is a projective technique
based on individuals’ representations and unconscious opinions through online
photo albums. The choice of this method is very pertinent to understanding consum-
ers’ unsaid, subconsciously perceived proximity with product choices. The research
questions that this study aims to address include: (1) what is the role of p sychological
F. Ahmed (*) · P. Valette-Florence

Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
e-mail: faheem.ahmed@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr; pvalette@grenoble-iae.fr

496 F. Ahmed and P. Valette-Florence
proximity within hedonic consumption decisions; (2) understand the different pro-
cessing mechanisms for product purchase decisions based on psychological prox-
imity; (3) assess the factors which affect psychological proximity and product
preference within the context of hedonic consumption.
The significance of demystifying perceived psychological proximity has greatly
increased with the advent of digital marketing and consumers’ online presence.
Several businesses are now targeting consumers via online media across large dis-
tances. An understanding of psychological proximity perceptions around hedonic
product decisions would be helpful for hedonic behaviors as well such as impulsive
spending, drugs and substance abuse, eating and drinking behaviors.
Keywords Psychological proximity · Choices · Hedonism · Purchase motivations

· Album on-line

Short or Long? The Right Combination
of Time Duration, Cause Type,
and Product Type in Cause-Related
Marketing: An Abstract
Chun-Tuan Chang, Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, I-Ting Tsai,

and Ming-Tsung Kung
Abstract Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a common form of activity, which

involves a company’s promise to donate a certain amount of money to a nonprofit
organization or a social cause when customers purchase their products/services
(Varadarajan and Menon 1988). Researchers have suggested that a CRM campaign
that promotes a cause for a longer period of time increases spending on a product or
service (Brink et al. 2006; Drumwright 1996; Varadarajan and Menon 1988; Webb
and Mohr 1998). However, evidence from practice and research appears to be
inconsistent that some companies are found to support causes over a short period
of time.
We propose that the decision of time duration should depend on cause type (pri-
mary vs. secondary) and product type (utilitarian vs. hedonic). Results from three
studies show that a long time duration works when pairing a utilitarian product with
a primary cause or a hedonic product with a secondary cause. On the other hand, a
short time duration is advantageous for a hedonic product with a primary cause.
This research further demonstrates the attributed company motives as the mecha-
nism underlying consumer purchase behavior.
Our findings make several theoretical contributions. First, this study makes
important contributions to the extant CRM literature by considering the time factor.
Second, going beyond simple demonstrations of how short and long durations affect
CRM effectiveness, this research clarifies the conditions under which each time
duration is likely to be effective. We do so by considering two factors that influence
CRM success: product type and cause type. Third, the current research also adds to
C.-T. Chang (*) · I.-T. Tsai · M.-T. Kung

e-mail: ctchang@faculty.nsysu.edu.tw; kmts7888@mail2000.com.tw
X.-Y. (. Chu
e-mail: marcoschu@nju.edu.cn

498 C.-T. Chang et al.
the literature on sponsorship. Examination of these advertising cues adds to our

understanding of sponsorship effects.
This research has important managerial implications for marketers. Companies
planning to engage in CRM may choose the time duration of a campaign. If a com-
pany decides to implement tactical CRM on a short-term basis, the company should
pair a hedonic product with a primary cause. The nonprofit sector and social market-
ers can also benefit from our research. The findings provide specific guidelines to
help nonprofits maximize the impacts of cause–brand alliances, based on time dura-
tion, product type, and cause type.
Keywords Cause-related marketing • Time duration • Cause type • Product type •

Attributed company motives

Virtual Reality Branding Campaigns,
Impact and Public Perception: An Abstract
Anouk de Regt, Stuart J. Barnes, and Kirk Plangger
Abstract Marketing practitioners have long recognised the importance of

non-transactional customer behaviour (Sashi 2012). In line with this, the industry
introduced the ‘engagement’ metric in strategic marketing and branding to assess
corporate and brand performance (Van Doorn et al. 2010). Prospect and trend
reports from the industry indicate that advances in digital technologies continue to
shape the business landscape. In line with that, a shift towards engaging consumers
through implementations of new technologies can be observed throughout a broad
range of different industries. Arguably, one of the most prominent new technolo-
gies is virtual reality (VR), which can be defined as a real-time, immersive and
interactive multisensory experience situated in, and artificially induced by, a
responsive three-dimensional computer-generated virtual environment—usually
paired with advanced input and output devices (e.g. head-mounted display and
haptic motion feedback controllers; de Regt and Barnes 2019). Various brands are
currently experimenting with virtual reality technology and incorporating it into
their marketing strategies in order to create more profound connections with their
target audiences—i.e., by increasing awareness, promoting engagement and gen-
erating unique brand experiences. Although VR technology is moving towards
widespread adoption, the possibilities and impact of how VR can best be imple-
mented to enhance both product and brand marketing have not been investi-
gated fully.
This research aims to contribute to this knowledge by investigating how VR
experiences are perceived by consumers, specifically focusing on how they influ-
ence brand perception and the consumer’s intention to engage with the brand. The
research is based on a series of semi-structured focus group interviews with a pur-
poseful sample of English-speaking participants. Prior to taking part in the focus
groups, all participants experienced VR through head-mounted displays (HMDs).
A. de Regt (*) · S. J. Barnes · K. Plangger

e-mail: anouk.de_regt@kcl.ac.uk; stuart.barnes@kcl.ac.uk; kirk.plangger@kcl.ac.uk

500 A. de Regt et al.
A semi-structured interview framework was implemented to generate the in-depth

and actionable brand insights. The paper rounds off with recommendations for prac-
tice and future research.
Keywords Virtual reality • Consumer experience • Brand engagement •

Marketing campaigns

Consumer Response to Product Safety
Recall: An Empirical Research
from China: An Abstract
Weiling Zhuang, Yinping Mu, and Barry J. Babin
Abstract A number of high-profile recalls of food, medical, and consumer prod-

ucts have raised public awareness and media attention on product safety. The 2008
powdered milk scandal, in which powdered baby’s milk was contaminated with
melamine, injured hundreds of thousands of babies, at least six fatally (Huang
2014). Children’s product safety is a particularly vital concern. Children are consid-
ered vulnerable consumer groups and the products they use affect their health,
growth, and well-being. Children’s product quality and safety in China have become
a complex issue in need of further study (Zhao et al. 2013).
This study employs an event study methodology to analyze the financial impact
of children’s product safety incidents in China. Our analysis focuses on the Chinese
stock market and children’s product industry. Based on a sample of 87 product
safety incidents from 2009 to 2016, we first examine the stock market reaction to
announcements of children’s product safety incidents. Second, we examine factors
that could affect the magnitude of the market reaction. Our study focuses specifi-
cally on incident features (information source) and firm characteristics (outsourcing
strategy and focus strategy).
We find significant negative abnormal returns on the incident day when the
announcement is published. Our findings further reveal that the market will react
more negatively to the announcements associated with the public media as informa-
tion disclosure source. Moreover, the negative market reaction will be amplified
when the involved firm fabricates its own product than taking an outsourcing
W. Zhuang (*)
Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA
e-mail: weiling.zhuang@eku.edu
Y. Mu
University of Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
e-mail: ypmu@uestc.edu.cn
B. J. Babin
e-mail: bbabin@latech.edu

502 W. Zhuang et al.
s trategy. However, our results suggest that the market will react indistinctively to the
firms whether they mainly operate in the children’s product industry or not.
Our study has several managerial implications. First, our study provides inves-
tors with better support for investment decisions. Historical data provide an impor-
tant guide to investors when they make decisions. Investors need to be prudent
especially when the firm’s product has been previously involved in a product safety
incident. Second, our study sheds light on the better understanding of the influence
of product safety incidents and the importance of crisis management for children’s
product safety incidents. Third, our study helps enterprises make better crisis man-
agement decisions, which could reduce the loss of the enterprise and the impact of
the crisis.
Keywords Product recall • Product safety • Children product • Crisis

management

When the Star Beckons: Celebrity-
Branded Products and Retailer Resonance:
An Abstract
Vishag Badrinarayanan and Enrique Becerra
Abstract Celebrity endorsements have been a long-standing fixture in advertising

and marketing strategies. In recent years, however, more and more celebrities have
transitioned from merely endorsing a product for a third-party brand, to creating
their own product lines by leveraging their personal brand. However, despite an
abundance of research on celebrity endorsements, there has been very little research
on celebrity-branded products. The focus of this study is on how celebrity-branded
product lines influence shoppers’ evaluations of retailers. Partnership arrangements
between celebrities and retailers (e.g., Jennifer Lopez line at Kohl’s, Victoria
Beckham line at Target, Shaquille O’Neal line at JCPenney) provide celebrities
with access to retailers’ merchandizing and marketing expertise, while providing
retailers with the ability to leverage celebrity products to differentiate themselves
from competing stores and enhance their appeal to chosen target markets.
Specifically, this study develops and tests a theoretical framework of the transfer-
ence effects of celebrity-branded products on shoppers’ evaluation of retailers.
Drawing from the brand resonance model, this study postulates that shoppers’
awareness and evaluation of the salience of celebrity-branded products sold in a
retailer influence evaluation of the retailer, judgments about the retailer, and retailer
resonance (i.e., active, intense loyalty toward the retailer). Data collected using an
online survey of 443 adult shoppers show support for the transference effects of
celebrity brands on retailer resonance and provide empirical validation of the brand
resonance model. Specifically, results indicate that shoppers’ assessments of
celebrity-branded products (i.e., celebrity-product fit, celebrity-store fit, and brand
alignment) lead to higher derived performance evaluation (i.e., store attractiveness),
which lead to positive judgments of the store (i.e., store uniqueness), and ultimately,
active shopper–retailer relationships. Overall, this study demonstrates that, if prop-
erly designed, the partnership between celebrity-branded product lines and retailers
V. Badrinarayanan (*) · E. Becerra

e-mail: vb16@txstate.edu; eb25@txstate.edu

504 V. Badrinarayanan and E. Becerra
can be mutually beneficial to both entities and can enhance shoppers’ engagement
with retail stores. Based on the findings, implications are offered for theory and
practice.
Keywords Celebrity-branded products · Brand resonance · Transference effects ·

Retailer strategy

Consumers’ Quality Perception of Food
Shape Abnormality: Effects on Customer
Perceived Value and Consumer Behavior:
An Abstract
Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Levke Albertsen, and Evmorfia Karampournioti
Abstract The issue of food waste has received increasing public and research attention
in recent years. Food waste refers to food items ready for human consumption but not
consumed. In contrast to food loss, which occurs in early parts of the supply chain, food
waste occurs at the end of the food chain and generally relates to retailers’ and consum-
ers’ behavior. Between 30% and 50% of the world’s annual food production never
reaches consumers. Thereby, fresh food is often excluded by retailers, as it does not
conform a particular aesthetic standard (e.g., shape, color, or size) that is believed to be
demanded by consumers. In particular, it is believed that consumers associate food
abnormalities with lower product quality and thus avoid purchasing such products. For
these reasons, the present study aims to understand consumers’ perceptions and inten-
tions toward food shape abnormality. By gaining a deeper understanding of product-
related quality characteristics of abnormally shaped food (e.g., taste, visual appearance,
or convenience), insights will be generated on which attributes drive customer-perceived
value and purchase intention of abnormally shaped vegetables. Our results show that the
dimensions of customer perceived value are mainly driven by the quality characteristics
health benefits, environmental friendliness, visual appearance, and taste. Furthermore,
the individual value has been identified as the most important customer-perceived value
dimension regarding the influence on purchase intention. These findings provide valu-
able insights for organizations and companies, by identifying dimensions that can help
to reduce consumers’ avoidance toward abnormally shaped vegetables.
Keywords Quality perception · Customer-perceived value · Consumer behavior ·

Food shape abnormality
K.-P. Wiedmann · L. Albertsen (*) · E. Karampournioti

e-mail: wiedmann@m2.uni-hannover.de; albertsen@m2.uni-hannover.de; karampournioti@
m2.uni-hannover.de

Examining Primacy and Recency Effects
in Hypocritical CSR News: An Abstract
Michael Peasley, Parker Woodroof, and Joshua T. Coleman
Abstract In their interactions in the business environment, consumers are placing

an increased importance on the social actions with which firms are involved.
Typically, research has focused on the positive benefits of corporate social respon-
sibility (CSR) or how consumers respond to negative CSR. Negative CSR involves
the presence of a transgression, usually some violation of what is generally accept-
able in terms of ethics, society, and the consumer–firm relationship. It occurs when
a firm engages in activities that are damaging to communities, customers, employ-
ees, and/or the natural environment. These failures are often accompanied by posi-
tive CSR declarations and activities, creating inconsistent or contradictory
information (Wagner et al. 2009). However, little research exists that investigates
how consumers react to contradictory CSR information and what firms can do to
mitigate its effects. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the impact of contra-
dictory CSR information on consumers and identify communication strategies firms
can employ to promote their positive CSR outcomes to alleviate any negative effects
from CSR failures.
Drawing on research that demonstrates the influence of primacy and recency
effects on the success of a firm’s CSR strategy (Wagner et al. 2009), this study
explores how a consumer’s experience with the firm and the firm’s CSR reputation
impact the consumer’s response to contradictory CSR information. Using a longitu-
dinal design, this study tests the impact primacy and recency effects have in three
different ethical failures. The findings show that multiple past experiences with the
firm facilitates a “primacy effect” so that when negative CSR occurs, the prior posi-
tive experiences mitigate negative consequences. Moreover, a well-known and
M. Peasley (*)
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
e-mail: michael.peasley@mtsu.edu
P. Woodroof
University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, USA
e-mail: parkerw@uca.edu
J. T. Coleman
Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
e-mail: jcoleman@missouristate.edu

508 M. Peasley et al.
p ositive reputation causes a primacy effect to occur, as the strong reputation works
as a signal for how the firm will behave in the future. Thus, the results suggest that
firms benefit most from a proactive CSR communication strategy with their current
customers and a reactive CSR communication strategy with consumers who have
little to no experience with the firm (general public).
Keywords Corporate social responsibility · Negative CSR · Hypocritical CSR ·

Expectancy-contrast theory · Primacy and recency effects · Proactive and reactive
communication strategy

High Growth Private Companies: Values-
Led and Profitable: An Abstract
Peggy H. Cunningham
Abstract More than 99% of the businesses in North America are private firms,
and they account for nearly 59% of sales and nearly 49% of aggregate pretax prof-
its (Biery 2013). A small percentage of these firms grow rapidly and are called
gazelles (see Birch et al. 1989, 1994). Gazelles are those firms that have achieved
a growth rate of 20% or more for at least three consecutive years. Private firms
have been largely neglected in both the public press and academic literature. What
has been uncovered represents a fragmented body of work (Gabrielsson et al.
2011). Typical explanatory variables for rapid growth that have arisen out of the
extant research include founder characteristics, ownership type, firm size and age,
strategic orientation, market environment, partnership development, customer ori-
entation, innovation and new product development, and human resource practices.
The research, therefore, was driven by two questions: (1) Why are some private
firms highly successful in terms of rapid growth of their revenues, profits, number
of employees and markets and (2) Are there common characteristics among the
successful, fast growth firms that differentiate them from their less success-
ful peers?
These questions were explored using elite interviews and secondary data from 40
private fast growth companies. One of the unexpected findings from the study was
that the most successful private firms are values-led firms when compared to their
less successful counterparts. The most common values among the successful firms
were care for employees, customer obsession, fairness, respect for diversity,
collaboration, and sustainability. Having a values-led orientation served to engage,
motivate, and retain employees who in turn provided superior service and i nnovative
products to a clearly defined set of customers in a differentiated niche marketplace.
Values were also used to guide and sometimes control growth and market entry.
Peggy H. Cunningham wishes to acknowledge the support of Grant Thornton LLP.
P. H. Cunningham (*)
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
e-mail: peggyc@dal.ca

510 P. H. Cunningham
Although there is an extensive literature related to firm performance, none could be

found that link being led by a specific set of values with superior performance and
growth. Thus, it is believed that this work makes a novel contribution to the literature.
Keywords Private companies · Values · Gazelles · Growth

Chinese Consumers’ Attitudes of Chinese
Versus Western Fashion Brands:
An Exploration of Possible Predictor
Variables Related to Individual
and Cultural Values: An Abstract
Joy M. Kozar
Abstract This paper reflects the conference theme regarding the evolution of the
global marketplace, specifically, in China. Factors such as the rising middle class in
China and transformations among the Chinese that instill more Westernized values
shape how fashion brands and retail firms do business in China. It is necessary for
marketers to consider the most effective means in targeting Chinese consumers and
driving their purchasing behavior of fashion goods. This study explores the efficacy
of “face-saving,” materialistic, and ethical values in predicting Chinese consumers’
attitudes toward Western and Chinese fashion brands.
In the last year, China has become the largest marketplace in the world. As dis-
cretionary income growth and the demand for high-quality goods among Chinese
consumers continues to surge, there is a sizable opportunity for growth in China’s
marketplace for Western fashion brands and retailers. Yet, there are numerous cases
in which Western brands have failed in their pursuit of consumers in China. This is
most often due to a failure in catering to Chinese consumers’ predilections.
An online questionnaire (with a specific URL address) was utilized to collect
data related to the purposes of this study. The questionnaire was translated from
English to Chinese then back translated to English. The sample included 1199
Chinese men and women between the ages of 18 and 64 living in China. Overall,
participants were found to hold strong “face-saving” and materialistic values and a
moderate level of ethical values. Likewise, a comparison of the computed mean
scores revealed that participants perceived Western fashion brands more favorably
than Chinese fashion brands.
Using a multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that the higher the par-
ticipants’ “face-saving” and materialistic values, the greater their attitudes toward
Western fashion brands. The lower the participants’ ethical values, the greater their
J. M. Kozar (*)
e-mail: jmrobbins@ksu.edu

512 J. M. Kozar
attitudes of Western fashion brands. In a similar vein, the higher the participants’
“face-saving” and materialistic values, the lower their attitudes for Chinese fashion
brands. The higher the participants’ ethical values, the lower their attitudes toward
domestic brands.
Given these results, future research should examine other moderating variables
in predicting Chinese consumers’ attitudes of Western vs. Chinese fashion brands.
Complimentary inquiries should investigate the relationships between additional
cultural, social, and individual values as often applied in consumer psychological
research.
Keywords Chinese consumers · Ethics · Face-saving · Fashion · Materialism ·

Purchasing behavior

Using the Online Search Volume to Predict
Ran Liu
Abstract This study attempts to examine how online search data related to the
change of MNE’s performance. By using both cross-sectional and longitudinal
panel studies, a positive relationship between online search interest related to an
MNE’s product and corporation names and its financial performance is hypothe-
sized and tested, and its managerial and theoretical implication is discussed.
As a result of the extensive use of search engines, consumers and managers
increasingly rely on online information in decision making. Information about
search frequency reveals consumer interest and intention to make a transaction.
Search data serve as a predictor for future demand, which means data from search
engines not only reflect a different degree of interest of a product or corporation but
also indicate a fundamental change in how to explain the present and predict future
business (Wu and Brynjolfsson 2015).
This study attempts to reveal the relationship between Google Trends data and
MNEs financial performance, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. These find-
ings have theoretical contributions and invaluable managerial implications as well.
The established correlation between Google Trends data and business performance
reassures managers of the importance of aggregate consumer interest. The present
study extends findings by Du et al. (2015) who highlight the importance of feature
keyword search in the automobile industry in the United States.
This study adds a new perspective on existing MNE performance predictive
model. Online search data represented by Google Trends provide a promising
research avenue for International business. Krugman (2009) argues that social sci-
ence has focused on developing complex statistic models to make business predic-
tions. Even so, all the models have shown limited predictability of disruptive
economic fluctuations. Simon (1984) advises that developing tools to explain and
observe economic phenomena is better than focusing on models and noisy data in
social science research. Search engine technology represented by Google Trends
answers this call and provides useful aggregate data reflecting invaluable informa-
tion such as consumers’ interest in a product feature and that feature’s importance
R. Liu (*)
e-mail: rliu001@odu.edu

514 R. Liu
as well as their buying intentions (Du et al. 2015). Analyzing search data helps
researchers explain consumers’ intentions and improve the effectiveness and effi-
ciency of predicting future economic activities (Wu and Brynjolfsson 2015).
Keywords Google trend · Search engine · EWOM · Performance

Reappraising Effects of Word-of-Mouth
Communication on the Innovation
Diffusion Process: An Abstract
Ran Liu
Abstract Since the digital revolution, the internet and mobile communication
now play a crucial role in marketing. Consumers are both more informed and more
skeptical than before, which has transformed the way a company implements its
marketing strategies and the patterns used to study consumer behaviors. These
behaviors took shape under the influence of traditional marketing tools, such as
offline advertising, promotional activities, and personal selling (Kimmel and
Kitchen 2014). Because of the advancement of technology, mainly social media’s
role in marketing communication, marketers can reach consumers more easily, but
they are less influential to those customers (Kimmel and Kitchen 2014). The level
of trustworthiness improves dramatically for unknown consumers if the informa-
tion’s source is from a trusted website. Because eWOM is written, it is more
permanent than traditional WOM, which explains why an increasing number of
firms now use social networks as their marketing platforms (Brown et al. 2007;
eMarketer 2012).
People store a previous response to a stimulus as a cognitive representation that
can be retrieved for subsequent decisions. The available information at the moment
that people decide to pursue their goals determines how people process information,
including processes such as information encoding, organization, storage, and
retrieval (Wyer and Srull 1986).
This study argues whether or not previous marketing communication theories
hold dependent upon specific contexts. The negativity effect of eWOM will be illus-
trated in the early and late majority consumer groups; however, negativity effect is
inconsistent in the old adopter groups, which gives the weight that the negativity
effect is context- and product-specific. The study demonstrates that the effective-
ness of eWOM varies among different groups of people over various timelines,
congruous with the elaboration likelihood theory. This finding also indicates that
R. Liu (*)
e-mail: rliu001@odu.edu

516 R. Liu
marketers should employ different marketing strategies at different stages of the

innovation diffusion process to maximize the efficiency of their marketing
investments.
Keywords eWOM · Innovation diffusion · Negativity effect · Social media

Special Session: New Directions in B2B
Sales and Marketing Research AMS 2019
Annual Conference, Vancouver:
An Abstract
Carolyn F. Curasi, James S. Boles, Rob Mayberry, Nwamaka A. Anaza,

and Avinash Malshe
Abstract Our special session combines four papers that offer fresh, new, directions
in business-to-business (B2B) research. Our first paper, “Emotions in B2B Multi-
Million Dollars Sales Proposals: A Qualitative Examination of the Buying Process
in Large Value Key Account Sales,” focuses on the B2B buying process with large
value, key accounts. The authors, Carolyn Curasi and Jim Boles, track the specific
steps within the buying cycle (Curasi et al. 2018) and offer a modified framework of
the B2B buying cycle, examining drivers of sales performance (Samli et al. 1988;
Verbeke et al. 2011).
“Opportunistic Utilization and the Salesforce Potemkin Village: The Self-
Destructive Cycle That Can Result from the Misuse of IT in Salesforce Management,”
investigated and authored by Robert Mayberry, examines the interface between
sales management, corporate analytics, and the behavior of the sales force within
one large corporation. This research explores the intentional misuse of the Sales
Force Automation (SFA) system among the sales force, with serious and far-
reaching consequences.
C. F. Curasi (*) · R. Mayberry

Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
e-mail: ccurasi@gsu.edu; rmayberry1@gsu.edu
J. S. Boles
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, USA
e-mail: jsboles@uncg.edu
N. A. Anaza
Southern Illinois, Carbondale, IL, USA
e-mail: nanaza@business.siu.edu
A. Malshe
University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, MN, USA
e-mail: amalshe@stthomas.edu

518 C. F. Curasi et al.
In “Story Type, B2B Advertising, and Decisions Making,” Nwamaka Anaza,

examines stories and their influence in organizational decision making, an area that
has been largely overlooked in B2B research (e.g., Huang 2014). B2B firms are
increasing their advertising budgets (eMarketer 2017) and are using stories as part
of their internal organizational messaging, however, little empirical research exists
that examines story-based advertising in organizational decision making.
Our special session is rounded out by Avinash Malshe’s paper, “Thinking Beyond
the Sales-Marketing Interface,” which takes a novel look at what a successful sales
process entails in our dynamic, fast-paced, and hypercompetitive business world
(Hartman et al. 2018), and suggests that selling can no longer be viewed as a linear
process (Dixon and Tanner 2012), but that instead, the sales process is supported by
contributing processes often involving multiple individuals and parties within the
buying and selling organizations (Bolander et al. 2015; Friend and Malshe 2016).
Keywords Business-to-business · Sales performance · Sales process · Business

buying process · B2B Advertising · B2B decision making · B2B Sales performance
· Sales-marketing interface

Special Session: Brand Heritage:
Cross Cultural Perceptions: An Abstract
Fabien Pecot, Sunmee Choi, Varsha Jain, Gregory Rose, and Mei Rose
Abstract Although marketing research seems to hold a positive bias toward the
future and making predictions, the concept of heritage has been successfully devel-
oped, at a corporate brand level (Urde et al. 2007), and then extended for the study
of product brands (Hudson 2011; Merchant and Rose 2013; Pecot and de Barnier
2017). Recent work considers the perceptions consumers hold of brand heritage,
both qualitatively (Rindell et al. 2015) and quantitatively (Pecot et al. 2018; Rose
et al. 2016). Although some studies look at China (Balmer and Chen 2017) and
North America (Hudson 2011; Rose et al. 2016), it remains mostly European.
The aim of this special session is to discuss ongoing research looking at percep-
tions of brand heritage in empirical contexts that had not been considered before.
Varsha Jain and her colleagues look at how residents construct stories in the context
of a heritage UNESCO site in India. Mei and Greg Rose also look at destinations,
but using a scale development approach in order to identify the dimensions of a
destination brand heritage, which is a new area. Finally, Greg Rose and his col-
leagues present the results of a refined measurement for brand heritage perceptions,
validated in the United States, France, and South Korea.
F. Pecot (*)
e-mail: fabien.pecot@york.ac.uk
S. Choi
Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
e-mail: sc128@yonsei.ac.kr
V. Jain
e-mail: varsha.jain@micamail.in
G. Rose
University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, USA
e-mail: rosegm@uw.edu
M. Rose
University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA
e-mail: mcrose@alaska.edu

520 F. Pecot et al.
This special session therefore extends existing knowledge on brand heritage per-
ception from different perspectives. For the first time, it includes insights from India
and South Korea. It also explores the heritage dimension of destination brands.
Altogether, this session will significantly advance research on brand heritage per-
ception from a cross-cultural perspective.
Keywords Brand heritage · Destination heritage · Heritage site · Cross-cultural

Effective Pricing Strategies: Investigating
the Contrast Between Theory and Practice:
An Abstract
Vahid Rahmani, Elika Kordrostami, and John B. Ford
Abstract Anecdotal evidence suggests that companies tend to charge women a

“gender tax” and women’s products often cost more than comparable men’s prod-
ucts. An important question arises: Is charging women a price surcharge conducive
to higher revenues? In five studies, this paper shows that charging women price
premiums could backfire and lower companies’ revenues and profits because on
average women are more price-sensitive than men. This paper used diverse sources
of data and myriad statistical analyses to make several substantive theoretical and
practical contributions. First, using the population data set of 184,216 unique prod-
ucts, study 1 offered unambiguous evidence that Amazon.com charges men higher
prices than women for selling them comparable products. Study 2 utilized a longi-
tudinal sample of 424,000 products/day observations to show that Amazon’s gender-
based price discrimination is likely to be the product of women’s higher price
sensitivity. Studies 3 and 4 provided evidence that men are more likely to associate
higher prices with higher levels of quality and value, and this is the likely underly-
ing reason for the effect of gender on price elasticity. Finally, study 5 investigated
the gender differences in thinking style as an alternative reason for gender differ-
ences in price elasticity.
To our knowledge, this paper is the first paper that offers empirical evidence that
women are more price-sensitive than men. This finding has profound and expansive
practical implications. Additionally, this paper provided further evidence that price
creates a “placebo effect” on men that transcends their expectations and affects their
experience of products. Finally, this paper offers an in-depth look into the pricing
practices of the world’s largest online retailer. Therefore, we believe that the findings
of our studies could serve academics, companies, and consumer organizations.
V. Rahmani (*) · E. Kordrostami

e-mail: rahmani@rowan.edu; kordrostami@rowan.edu
J. B. Ford
e-mail: jbford@odu.edu

522 V. Rahmani et al.
Future research should further examine the underlying reasons for the effect of
gender on price elasticity. Study 1 showed that in beauty and personal care industry
women’s products were generally more expensive than comparable men’s products.
This could be the result of the level of involvement of consumers in the shopping
process of these products. Nevertheless, more research is needed to establish (or
refute) this postulation. Furthermore, future studies should investigate the moderat-
ing effect of hedonic/utilitarian, purchase frequency, and symbolic value of prod-
ucts in the relationship between gender and price elasticity of demand.
Keywords Price sensitivity · Price elasticity · Dynamic pricing · Gender

differences

Price Priming Effects in Online Display
Ads: An Abstract
Hamid Shaker, Sylvain Sénécal, Sihem Taboubi, and Yany Grégoire
Abstract Although some studies (e.g., Drèze and Hussherr 2003; Yoo 2008) reveal
that online ads can affect consumers even when they are trying to avoid them, there
are no guidelines about communicating price information in online display ads as
they are seen by consumers in a real online environment. Along with our interest in
studying the effects of price anchor in online ads, we also study the effects of ad
repetition. We focus on this attribute because ad repetition is one of the common
strategies used to increase the effectiveness of the online advertisement (Malaviya
et al. 1999; Yaveroglu and Donthu 2008). Again, to the best of our knowledge, the
effects of ad repetition on price anchoring have not been studied in the context of
incidental ad exposure in online environments.
Results of an eye-tracking study show that the magnitude of price stimuli can
affect consumers’ attention toward online display ads that consumers are exposed to
incidentally. That is, consumers’ fixation duration (pupil size) is longer (larger) for
ads that contain high-value price stimuli than ads that contain low-value price stim-
uli. Moreover, when ads are displayed repeatedly on the same web page, the fixation
duration is increased as a function of the order of placement only when ads contain
high-value price stimuli. For ads containing low-value price stimuli, the gaze behav-
ior did not change. We suggest that the observed different gaze behavior is due to a
different price-processing mechanism for incidental price stimuli: When ads con-
tain high-magnitude price stimuli, consumers process them through the elaborative
selective accessibility mechanism (Strack and Mussweiler 1997); but when ads con-
tain low-magnitude price stimuli, consumers process them through the more direct
priming mechanism of anchoring and adjustment (Tversky and Kahneman 1974).
Keywords Online display ads · Price anchoring · Non-conscious price processing

· Eye-tracking
H. Shaker (*) · S. Sénécal · S. Taboubi · Y. Grégoire

HEC Montréal, Montréal, Canada
e-mail: hamid.shaker@hec.ca; sylvain.senecal@hec.ca; sihem.taboubi@hec.ca; yany.
gregoire@hec.ca

Examining Country Image in Expert
Electronic Word-of-Mouth: An Abstract
Zixuan (Mia) Cheng, Chatdanai Pongpatipat, Kirk Plangger,

and Leyland Pitt
Abstract Experts guide consumers’ preferences and purchase decisions because

they are often perceived as unbiased and trustworthy. Countries spend billions on
marketing their agricultural industries to not only their own citizens but also foreign
citizens all over the world, including these experts. The wine industry is a high-
value agricultural industry from the standpoints of both the main raw agricultural
products (i.e., grapes) and the value added in the finished products. This paper
explores the role of country image in expert ratings and reviews (i.e., expert eWOM)
using large data sets from the global wine industry and the automated text analysis
DICTION. We find significant differences between countries regarding price, rat-
ing, and all of the DICTION content dimensions using ANOVA tests at p < 0.001.
Furthermore, using regression analysis, we find significant effects for the price, all
five review content dimensions, all major countries with the exception of Australia
and France. The “France” variable was significant until we controlled for the influ-
ence of price. The Australia variable was nonsignificant in all regression analysis
indicating that the Australian wine ratings were not statistically different than minor
wine-producing countries. This paper makes several contributions to the expert
eWOM and country image literatures. Producers in prestigious wine-producing
countries (e.g., Italian or German) can extract a price premium related to the image
of that country that is perceived by the experts as high quality. However, producers
in less prestigious wine-producing countries (e.g., South African or Chilean) can
signal quality through a higher price that can help them overcome their country
image bias and aid the perception by experts of high quality. Producers can also
manage expert eWOM by priming these reviewers to write reviews that use more
Z. (. Cheng (*) · K. Plangger

e-mail: zixuan.cheng@kcl.ac.uk; kirk.plangger@kcl.ac.uk
C. Pongpatipat
e-mail: cpong@svsu.edu
L. Pitt

526 Z. (. Cheng et al.
active, certain, and optimistic language to increase quality ratings. Thus, govern-
ments and industry associations can build country images that encourage experts to
write reviews with active, optimistic, and central language to influence quality
ratings.
Keywords Expert reviews · eWOM bias · Wine · Intext-mining

A Value-Based Model of Consumer
Smartphone Usage for Online
Transactions: The Role of Consumer
Characteristics and Purchasing Situation:
An Abstract
Stefanie Sohn, Malte Fiedler, and Wolfgang Fritz
Abstract With the rapid adoption of mobile technologies among different con-
sumer segments, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become a promising growth
market for online retailers. Evidence exists that consumers adopting mobile chan-
nels to make online purchases increase their overall order rate and size with the
retailer (Wang et al. 2015). However, there is sparse knowledge regarding the fac-
tors determining adoption. Owing to the unique characteristics of mobile online
channels (e.g., ubiquitous use opportunities), knowledge cannot be directly trans-
ferred from research on electronic commerce. Hence, this research develops and
empirically tests a value-based adoption model to elucidate consumers’ usage of
mobile channels for online purchasing (i.e., mobile purchasing or m-purchasing). In
detail, this work contributes to the literature in the following way: (1) the present
study considers value enablers and inhibitors that occur at different steps of the
m-purchasing process (i.e., from the product evaluation to the transaction); (2) this
study additionally encompasses consumer characteristics and, more specifically,
shopping styles to predict value creation. The analysis of the interactions between
individual characteristics and the value determinants offers scholars a nuanced
explanation of the consumer adoption of m-purchasing; (3) this study provides a
differentiated view on the determinants and consequences of consumer perceived
value by additionally uncovering the role of the purchasing situation (i.e., type of
product category) in the formation of value perceptions.
The findings of a scenario-based online survey among German smartphone users
(n = 882) support that the greater the perceived value is, the greater the usage of
mobile channels for online transactions. Consumers create the value by balancing
costs (i.e., the security risk of transactions, the effort involved in product evaluation)
and benefits (i.e., control over the shopping process, flexibility). Both, the p urchasing
S. Sohn (*) · M. Fiedler · W. Fritz

Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
e-mail: s.sohn@tu-bs.de; malte.fiedler@tu-braunschweig.de; w.fritz@tu-bs.de

528 S. Sohn et al.
situation and consumer characteristics, moderate the strength of value determinants.

The latent moderated structural equation method revealed that consumers’ brand
consciousness dampens the negative effect of effort on value. The multigroup analy-
sis showed, among others, that the indirect effect of flexibility on the usage of
m-purchasing is significantly stronger when buying jewelry than buying electronics
or clothes. By contrast, the analysis demonstrated that the effect of the perceived
effort of evaluating products via smartphones has a stronger effect on value forma-
tion for apparel and electronics than for jewelry. The findings offer scholars a
nuanced explanation of the consumer adoption of m-purchasing. For retailers, the
findings provide differentiated implications for how to promote m-purchasing.
Keywords Mobile purchasing · Value-based adoption · Smartphone · Online

purchasing

Effects of Double Language Labeling
in the Context of FMCG-Products:
A Mixed-Methods Approach: An Abstract
Sabrina Heix and Hartmut Holzmüller
Abstract To save costs or to target bilingual populations, internationally operating

companies use double language labeling, which is the usage of a foreign language
next to a domestic language to advertise, e.g., ingredients or use instructions.
Companies catering on a national level might also benefit from this approach as
their products can profit from a spillover effect of a positively perceived foreign
language. Negative effects are also possible as a second language might make the
product appear in a less positive light. As we concentrate on mainstream (# bilingual
or bicultural) consumers, we assume that decoding information in a foreign lan-
guage can be perceived as more challenging, resulting in negative effects. Our study
seeks to clarify the impact of double language labeling of products on product per-
ceptions and behavioral intentions in the context of food and beverages.
We applied a somewhat new approach by manipulating languages according to
their comprehensibility. Languages can be classified as comprehensible and non-
comprehensible languages, depending on people’s language proficiency. Cross-
cultural communication research suggests that language choice can be connected to
ad effectiveness through the ease of processing (Noriega and Blair 2008). Luna and
Peracchio (1999) conclude by their research that it is recommendable to advertise
consumers in their native language. We postulate that in case of a noncomprehen-
sible language, the negative effects should be even more prominent as measured in
the level of significance due to people not being able to understand the information.
We conducted two between-subjects online experiments with one manipulated fac-
tor: language labeling (single: German; double and comprehensible: German +
English; double and noncomprehensible: German + Spanish), using peanuts (orange
juice) as test stimuli partially based on a company cooperation. A total of 88 (135)
participants; Mage = 25.8, 55.7% female (Mage = 25.5, 56.0% female) completed the
study. Both language labeling approaches harm the product, measured in percep-
tions and behavioral intentions. The effects are negative, however, they are statisti-
cally significant only with regard to the noncomprehensible language. A qualitative
S. Heix (*) · H. Holzmüller

TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
e-mail: sabrina.heix@tu-dortmund.de; hartmut.holzmueller@tu-dortmund.de

530 S. Heix and H. Holzmüller
explanative approach was used to better understand language labeling. By varying

product categories and interviewing 15 participants, we detected constructs related
to culture, e.g., the context-specific quality signaling role of the German language.
At this stage of research, we suggest that companies—those catering on a national
level to mainstream consumers—should refrain from using an additional foreign
language. Our findings need to be backed up with the help of our identified cultural
constructs to understand their (possible) influence as moderating effects.
Keywords FMCG advertising · Language labeling · Consumer perceptions ·

Consumer behavior · Mixed-methods

What Makes the Difference? Employee
Social Media Brand Engagement:
An Abstract
Sherese Y. Duncan, Christine Pitt, Sarah Lord Ferguson, and Phillip Grant
Abstract Through the employee lens of business-to-business (B2B) firms, we

explore word use through brand engagement and social media interaction to under-
stand what makes the difference of those employees who rate their employer brands
highly on social media, and those who do not. This content becomes a valuable
source of information for marketing decision makers, as well as an interesting and
rich new source of data for B2B marketing scholars.
Fortunately, the recent past has not only seen a significant rise in the amount of
unstructured textual data available to researchers, but also a noteworthy increase in
the number and sophistication of tools available to perform textual content analysis
using computers. One of the major computerized text analysis tools in use today is
LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), the development of which is described
by Pennebaker and his colleagues (Pennebaker et al. 2001). We conducted a textual
content analysis of social media job evaluation site glassdoor.com using the LIWC
software package to analyze 30 of the top 200 B2B brands listed on Brandwatch
using four variables, namely, analytical thinking, clout, authenticity, and emo-
tional tone.
The results show that employees who rate their employer’s brand low use signifi-
cantly more words, are significantly less analytic, and write with significantly more
clout because they focus more on others than themselves. Employees who rate their
S. Y. Duncan (*)
e-mail: sduncan@efficio.org
C. Pitt
e-mail: christing.pitt@indek.kth.se
S. L. Ferguson
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
e-mail: sarah_lord_ferguson@sfu.ca
P. Grant
Langara College, Vancouver, Canada
e-mail: pgrant@langara.ca

532 S. Y. Duncan et al.
employer’s brand highly, write with significantly more authenticity, exhibit a

significantly higher tone, and display far more positive emotions in their reviews.
Brand engagement drives brand equity. Brand equity is not only a significant
indicator of marketing effectiveness, it is also a fundamental driver of firm value.
This research demonstrates that B2B brand managers and B2B branding scholars
should treat social media data disseminated by individual stakeholders, like the vari-
ables used in this study (tone, word count, and frequency), as an opportunity to tap
a rich source of data with powerful automated text analysis tools to better under-
stand and manage brand insight, brand engagement, and brand equity now and
over time.
Keywords Brand engagement · Social media · Business-to-business · Content

analysis

Why the Shortened ADAPTS Scale Should
Not Be Used for Sales Students:
An Abstract
Aaron D. Arndt
Abstract Student samples are uncommon in professional sales research, but are
useful for studying sales education. Because adaptive selling is a core concept of
personal selling, it may be useful to measure the adaptive selling behaviors of sales
students. However, in order to measure adaptive selling behaviors as a single con-
struct, items contain a high level of abstraction that may be difficult for students to
fully comprehend. One of the most commonly used measures of adaptive selling
behaviors is the shortened RMML ADAPTs scale. That scale contains the phrase
“selling approach” in four of the five items. Sales students could interpret “sales
approach” as referring to a variety of sales behaviors such as influencing tactics,
service/product offerings, communication channels, verbal communications, and
nonverbal communications. If students lack a stable understanding of the “sales
approach,” it may be difficult for them to accurately respond to items containing that
concept. Due to the complexity of such estimation, students may rely on their self-
rated performance. Students are typically asked about their adaptive selling behav-
iors based on specific class activities, role-plays, and/or sales simulations. It is likely
that students find it easier to rate their performance than their adaptive behaviors
because performance often has objective outcomes such as class grade, instructor
feedback, and/or activity success. Students may then base their ratings of adaptive
behaviors on their perceived self-rated performance. Adaptive selling behaviors
items are worded positively so that if the salespeople have high performance it is
logical that they must be engaged in positive behaviors. Hence, previous perfor-
mance is likely to influence response to adaptive selling scales.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which past performance
influences student self-ratings on the RMML ADAPTS scale. The research consists
of a qualitative study and an experiment. In the qualitative study, students discuss
their interpretation of several items used in the RMML ADAPTS scale. The findings
show that students have an inconsistent understanding of the items. In the experi-
ment, students participated in a sales simulation. Their performance was randomly
A. D. Arndt (*)
e-mail: aarndt@odu.edu

534 A. D. Arndt
predetermined to be high or low regardless of their choices in the sales simulation.

Then RMML ADAPTS and other related behaviors were measured. The findings
show that the manipulated performance condition is a stronger predictor of RMML
ADAPTS ratings than the actual adaptive behaviors observed in the simulation.
Consequently, sales researchers should not use the RMML ADAPTS rating scale
with student samples.
Keywords Adaptive selling · Measurement scale · Sales · Personal selling ·

Student samples

White Coats, Mild Manners, and Good
Doctors? When Red Decreases Perception
of Dominance: An Abstract
Bruna Jochims and Adilson Borges
Abstract Research demonstrating that color red can signal dominance is extensive
(Braun and Silver 2007; Labrecque et al. 2013). The effect drawn on the evolution-
ary perspective shows that subtle changes in facial redness convey emotional states
(e.g., anger, arousal) that serve as cues to dominance (Khan et al. 2011; Stephen
et al. 2012). This research contributes to the literature by exploring the impact of
using the color red in the healthcare context. Auerbach and colleagues (2002) found
that the tension dominance–submission directly influences health outcomes, as
patients of less dominant physicians demonstrated greater engagement with medi-
cal recommendations (DiMatteo 1994). However, considering that under situations
of uncertainty, individuals strongly rely on extrinsic cues as forms to facilitate infor-
mation acquisition (Schifferstein and Desmet 2007) and the role that color red plays
into performance appraisals, by its perceptual dominance (Hill and Barton 2015;
Wiedmann et al. 2015), we propose that the dominance attribute of color red will
uplift judgments of physician expertise, increasing the patients’ health behavioral
intentions.
Hence, through two experiments, we demonstrate the color–dominance associa-
tion in the healthcare context. Study 1 shows that participants (51 MTurk workers,
Mage = 43.9, 52.9% females) have higher intentions to follow the recommendation
when the physician was portrayed in the red (vs. white) coat (Mred = 5.870,
Mwhite = 4.159, F(2,48) = 8.297, p < 0.01). Further analysis ruled out the influence of
color originality, and a correlation analysis demonstrated that color served as an
indicator of the physician’s level of expertise (Mred = 5.430 vs. Mwhite = 4.581,
r = −0.314, p < 0.05). In study 2, participants (185 MTurk workers, Mage = 39.01,
54% females) imagined selecting a physician through an online database, seeing the
physician’s picture (red vs. white coat) and resume (high-expertise vs. low e xpertise),
B. Jochims (*)
ESDES Business School, Lyon, France
e-mail: bjochims@univ-catholyon.fr
A. Borges
e-mail: adilson.borges@neoma-bs.fr

536 B. Jochims and A. Borges
and assessing physician’s traits afterward. Despite not revealing a significant inter-
action effect (F(4,158) = 0.368, p > 0.05), results demonstrate that both coat color
(Mred = 5.216 vs. Mwhite = 5.685, F(4,158) = 4.781, p < 0.05) and physician expertise
(Mhigh = 5.707 vs. Mlow = 5.194, F(4,158) = 9.261, p < 0.01) influence perception of
physician’s dominance. Interestingly, mediation analysis shows that the coat color
affects participants’ intention to engage in medical treatment intentions mediated by
perception of dominance [ab = 0.3174, CI95% = 0.0648; 0.6252]. Altogether, the
results provide initial evidence to our proposition that the dominance intuition of
color red does not hold in the healthcare context. Specifically, we demonstrate that
in the health context, the red color can serve as a compensatory cue indicating phy-
sician expertise affecting the intentions to act.
Keywords Color · White coat effect · Dominance perception · Behavioral

intention

Value Co-Creation and Behavioral
Consequences: Evidence from Brazilian
Consumers: An Abstract
Eduardo Roque Mangini, Cláudia Simões, and André Torres Urdan
Abstract The Service Profit Chain (SPC) establishes that value creation emerges
from the interactions among the company, employees, and consumers. The rationale
is that employees’ satisfaction influences consumer satisfaction, affecting the com-
pany’s performance. In this study, we rely on the general rationale of SPC connect-
ing to the notions of value co-creation (VCC) and customer behavioral outcomes.
VCC entails resource-integrating actors and promotes the customization process,
affecting service development, processes, and production. In VCC, value is co-
created, delivered, and evaluated in a dialogic way by consumers and service pro-
viders. The way employees and customers interact and liaise with each other is core
to transform and facilitate the co-creation of value. A central aspect of VCC entails
resource-integrating actors. Based on SPC insights transposed to the VCC process,
we propose a model to investigate the customer co-creation process and its out-
comes. In particular, the model advances that VCC dimensions (Dialogue, Access,
Risk assessment, and Transparency) affect Satisfaction, Trust (affective and cogni-
tive), and Customer Loyalty. We conducted a survey among Brazilian consumers in
the following services: education, banking, and mobile communications. The ques-
tionnaire was administered using the electronic platform Survey Monkey. The sam-
ple produced 1012 valid questionnaires. The sample entails 45.6% male and 55.5%
female respondents, with a mean age of 35 years. Data analysis included structural
equation modeling conducted through the analysis of the correlation matrix.
Findings revealed a positive impact of all VCC dimensions on Customer Satisfaction.
Findings further revealed a positive relationship between the VCC dimensions of
E. R. Mangini (*)
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo, São Roque, Brazil
e-mail: eduardo.mangini@ifsp.edu.br
C. Simões
University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
e-mail: csimoes@eeg.uminho.pt
A. T. Urdan
University Nine of July, São Paulo, Brazil
e-mail: andre.torres@uni9.pro.br

538 E. R. Mangini et al.
Dialogue, Risk, and Transparency and Affective Trust. The results reinforced satis-
faction and cognitive trust as important drivers for Loyalty. Multigroup analysis
revealed nuances in the findings related to the different services. Relevant differ-
ences were found between banking and education services and between education
and mobile services. The study further reported managerial implications and ave-
nues for future studies.
Keywords Service profit chain (SPC) · Value co-creation · Consumer behavior ·

Satisfaction · Trust · Loyalty

Subjective Financial Deprivation
and Budget Allocation Preferences:
An Abstract
Laurent Bertrandias and Alexandre Lapeyre
Abstract Living in a materialistic world that values and encourages possession can
easily lead to a form of dissatisfaction related to the frustration of not being able to
buy what is desired. Probably, for this reason, financial deprivation has become a
significant topic within the marketing literature in recent years. The concept of sub-
jective financial deprivation is rooted in the theory of relative deprivation. Building
on this theory, Sharma and Alter (2012) define perceived financial deprivation as
“an unpleasant psychological state in which consumers feel financially ‘inferior’ or
‘worse off’ relative to a salient comparison standard because they perceive a deficit
in their financial resources.” Thus, consumers can feel financially deprived when
they compare themselves to referent others even when they do not face an actual
income decrease. Alternatively, consumers may feel deprived when they perceived
a deterioration of their financial position in time.
The distinction between Social Financial Deprivation (SFD) and Temporal
Financial Deprivation (TFD) is rarely made explicit in the literature. It is like con-
sidering that financial dissatisfaction related to a decrease in purchasing power and
dissatisfaction related to the social comparison result in similar effects. This is not
to say that consumers cannot feel both socially and temporally deprived. However,
we advocate that it is not always the case and, anyway, the two forms of deprivation
involve different compensatory mechanisms. Based on compensatory consumption
theory and self-signaling theory, this article aims to show that these two forms of
deprivation lead to different budget allocation preferences.
Two similar online quantitative studies were carried out in France on large sam-
ples, the first one studying the budget allocation preferences between “daily food
and grocery products” (“FOOD”) and “clothes and fashion accessories”
(“CLOTHES”), the second one studying the preferences between “FOOD” and
L. Bertrandias (*)
Toulouse Business School, Toulouse, France
e-mail: l.bertrandias@tbs-education.fr
A. Lapeyre
University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
e-mail: alexandre.lapeyre@iut-tlse3.fr

540 L. Bertrandias and A. Lapeyre
“holidays and leisure activities” (“LEISURE”). Choice-based conjoint analysis was

used to measure the utility consumers attribute to different budget allocations.
We find that, strictly speaking, SFD is not associated with the preference for
increasing the CLOTHES budget at the expense of the FOOD budget. However, this
relationship is moderated by status consumption: only consumers who seek status
demonstrate a preference for increasing clothing budget at the expense of the food
budget. TFD is associated with a preference for maintaining budget allocation
between the CLOTHES budget and the FOOD budget. TFD is associated with a
preference for increasing the FOOD budget at the expense of the LEISURE budget.
Our results show that SFD and TFD do not have the same effect on consumer
behavior. Our findings have several implications for marketing and public policy.
Future research needs to specify which type of financial deprivation is studied.
Keywords Financial deprivation · Budget allocation · Compensatory consumption

· Choice-based-conjoint analysis

Is There a Self Beyond Identity:
An Abstract
Nanda K. Viswanathan
Abstract In general, past research on identity focuses on group identity and the
self as it relates to group identity (Belk 1988; Sheriff 1936; Thompson and Loveland
2015). There is relatively less focus on the distinction between the self and con-
sumption per se and the self and consumption as mediated by identity. In this
research, we ask the question, as to whether in the context of consumption, there is
a self that is distinct from group identity. We explore how this self may be concep-
tualized and identify future directions in which this exploration may take place.
According to Social Identity Theory, the individual identity “I” is a composite of
many group identities “We.” Group identities are the result of categorization pro-
cesses wherein the individual begins to view her (him) self as a category representa-
tive based on a similar perception by other members of the group. An individual
typically perceives themselves and is perceived by others to belong to multiple cat-
egories and a particular category may be highlighted in a particular consumption
context.
The individual “I” is essentially a composite of many group identities “We.” The
I and the WE are related in as much as almost all our consumption is related to our
perceived group membership. In a market economy with particular emphasis on
market segmentation and supply-side catering to the needs of groups of consumers,
any individual consumption act whether it be a travel destination, hotel room, res-
taurant visit, purchase of a car or home has been performed in a similar way by
many other consumers. The market economy has influenced human interaction in
such a manner as to lead to individual behavior that consumes to satisfy the internal
norms of the many “We.” Given the large influence of “We” and its impact on “I,”
the question arises as to whether the “I” is truly distinct and if it even exists in the
consumption context.
The “I” and “WE” are distinct in that the “I” in general is not expressed in a
particular good or service, but more so in the process of aggregation by which a
consumer creates a basket of goods. A series of consumption decisions based on
N. K. Viswanathan (*)
Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY, USA
e-mail: viswann@farmingdale.edu

542 N. K. Viswanathan
group effects results in a basket of goods that is individualistic. The basket of goods
produced by the many identities constituting the composite identity of an individual
forms the basis for individual expression. In the consumption context, individuality
in effect arises out of the combination of group identities and there is no individual-
ity outside of group identity.
Keywords Identity · Group influence · Self · Consumption · Social identity ·

Segmentation

How Common or Scientific Name Works?
The Influence of Food Type
and Regulatory Focus on the Choice
of Ingredient Name: An Abstract
Dickson Tok and Chun-Tuan Chang
Abstract Consumers rely on nutrition ingredient names in their food evaluations.

Food companies could announce an ingredient name by using its common name
focusing on the effects of a food component familiar to consumers (i.e., the name of
the compound) or its specific and academia-based name (i.e., scientific name). Ares
et al. (2009) indicated that displaying ingredient name affected consumer’s food
evaluation. Drawing from construal level theory (Trope et al. 2007), we propose that
consumers will look for advertising cues, which are congruent with high or low
construal level that will facilitate or eliminate the effectiveness of ingredient name.
Two moderators are proposed: food types (vice vs. virtue) and regulatory foci (pro-
motion vs. prevention).
Two experiments show that a common name works better than a scientific name
when vice food is promoted with promotion focus. On the other hand, a scientific
name is more persuasive when virtue food is presented with prevention focus. The
choice of ingredient name does not matter when vice food with prevention focus or
food virtue with promotion focus is promoted. This research further demonstrates
that perceived guilt and perceived efficacy respectively serve as the underlying
mechanism for vice and virtue foods.
The current research makes theoretical contributions. First, it expands the knowl-
edge and usage of food label in choosing the compatible ingredient name. The right
combinations lead to higher product evaluations. Second, construal level theory
explains how the different psychological construals will influence the effects of
ingredient names. The results support the notion that a common (scientific) name is
associated with high (low) construal level. Finally, the underlying mechanisms of
D. Tok (*)
e-mail: dg1802505@smail.nju.edu.cn
C.-T. Chang
e-mail: ctchang@faculty.nsysu.edu.tw

544 D. Tok and C.-T. Chang
perceived guilt and perceived efficacy enhance the knowledge and understanding
behind the interaction effect.
The usage of presenting ingredient name offers important implications for both
brand managers and marketers. First, marketers should consider how to eliminate
the weakness of the product attributes and strengthen the benefits. Second, market-
ers should try to lower the perceived guilt of consumers vice consumption and
increase the perceived efficacy of the virtue food by varying ingredient name and
regulatory focus. Finally, vice and virtue are not always bipolar. Advertisers are able
to frame their product in more vice or virtue by focusing hedonic attributes (e.g.,
taste or eating enjoyment) or utilitarian attributes (e.g., health goal or freshness).
Keywords Ingredient name · Food type · Regulatory focus · Perceived guilt ·

Perceived efficacy · Construal level theory

The Spill-Over Effect of the Emotional
Reaction to the Use of Internet
on the Intention to Use Internet of Things
(IoT) Services: An Abstract
Yang Lu, Savvas Papagiannidis, and Eleftherios Alamanos
Abstract The study incorporates psychological and emotional factors of user

experiences with the Internet to test their potential spillover effect on IoT accep-
tance. Behavioral spillover may be explained by two psychological mechanisms.
Firstly, behaviors manifested in one domain may be generalized into knowledge and
habits that, in turn, influence behaviors in other domains. Secondly, when situa-
tional cues in two domains are highly similar, spillover can be direct without inter-
vening processes. The positive emotions experienced in an originating domain, i.e.,
the Internet in this study, may increase the users’ self-efficacy and motivation in the
receiving domain, i.e., IoT. Users’ emotions can be classified into four types,
namely, achievement, challenge, loss, and deterrence emotions. Well-being (defined
as the degree of users’ needs fulfilment and quality of life enhancement by using the
technological platforms) is another potential psychological factor that influences
the user adaptation to the transition. Following the above, this study tests the role of
emotions and well-being in IoT usage. An online questionnaire was administered in
the United States to 615 respondents and Structural Equation Modelling was
employed for the analysis of the data. The results suggest that only challenge emo-
tions have is a statistically significant influence on IoT usage behavioral intention.
Achievement and challenge emotions are aroused when the users can benefit from
the Internet, achievement emotions are more likely to occur when the users feel a
lack of control over the Internet. Achievement emotions do not significantly enhance
the intention of using the IoT. Perceived enjoyment is influential at the post-
adoption stage. Challenge emotions also showed a significant positive effect on the
users’ intention of IoT usage. As the users experience challenge emotions when
using the Internet, they are more likely to try the IoT and more capable of enhancing
their efficiency and effectiveness by using the IoT. Loss and deterrence emotions
are evoked when users feel unsatisfied with the performance of using the Internet.
Y. Lu · S. Papagiannidis · E. Alamanos (*)

Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
e-mail: y.lu41@ncl.ac.uk; savvas.papagiannidis@ncl.ac.uk; eleftherios.alamanos@ncl.ac.uk

546 Y. Lu et al.
The effect of the perceived value of the Internet on the intention of using the IoT
suggests that the overall assessment of the prior IS/IT significantly influences the
transition. The perceived value is also confirmed as an expected outcome of IoT
usage. Perceived well-being was confirmed to be both an antecedent and an out-
come of IoT usage.
Keywords IoT · Spill-over effect · Emotional response · Well-being

Online Environment–Product Congruence:
The Role of Experience and Product
Consumption Type on Product Liking:
An Abstract
Luke Liska
Abstract In today’s online landscape, many retailers focus their home pages, not
on the products that they sell, but on the environment in which their products are
used. For example, The North Face, Inc. shows an image of a user wearing their
product in front of an image of a mountain range, indicating to potential buyers that
these products would be suited for the worst weather. Patagonia, Inc. shows their
products being used by mountain climbers in a similar fashion, while Hot Hands®
places a snowy mountain behind their product to indicate a popular scenario to use
them. This raises the question, why would a manager want to focus their home page
design on the environment within which a product is used, rather than on the details
(e.g., benefits, technical specs) of the product itself? Put in a broader scope, how do
online environment–product interactions affect consumers’ purchasing habits?
This research contributes to our understanding of the complex online landscape.
Theoretically, we provide evidence that prior product experience moderates the
relationship between product–environment congruence and conceptual processing
fluency, and that product consumption types moderate the relationship between con-
ceptual processing fluency and product liking. Furthermore, by providing evidence
for the process by which product–environment congruence can impact product lik-
ing, managers can better present their products to improve product liking. When
displaying a hedonic product online, it is important to take into consideration the
display of the product within the environment it is used and consumers’ experience
with the product.
The findings from this research have implications for website and display ad
designs. For example, a hedonic product would benefit from being displayed on a
background image, which shows an environment in which the product may be used.
A brand-like Razer, which focuses on the gaming peripherals (e.g., a computer
mouse), should present their products on a background image showing their p roducts
L. Liska (*)
e-mail: lliska@usf.edu

548 L. Liska
in an environment they may be used (such as a desk) and target consumers with
experience using their products. On the flip side, for a brand like Logitech, which
sells mice known more for their user’s comfort and convenience, a product’s back-
ground and users’ prior experience with the product is less important.
Keywords Processing fluency · Congruence · Product-environment · Experience

· Online

How Peer-to-Peer Sharing Promotes
Product Purchase: An Abstract
Jan F. Klein, Mark-Philipp Wilhelms, Katrin Merfeld, Sven Henkel,

and Tomas Falk
Abstract Despite growing interest in the sharing economy, research has pre
dominantly focused on the relationship between sharing platforms and renters in a
traditional business-to-consumer context. In peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing, however,
consumers share their own product with other consumers via a sharing platform.
Thereby, they take a hybrid role as the buyer and provider of an asset. Further, previ-
ous studies position sharing as an alternative to acquisition and ownership. However,
P2P sharing requires consumers’ ownership, according acquisition, and consequent
temporary disposition of assets. Thereby, P2P sharing contradicts the notion of
completely substituting ownership with access-based consumption through includ-
ing acquisition and relativizes the imposed threat.
The objective of this paper is to link purchase behavior to the temporary disposi-
tion in P2P sharing and thereby investigate how sharing affects consumer’s willing-
ness to purchase products. Due to the lack of existing research on P2P asset sharing,
we applied a mixed-methods approach. We first conducted three focus groups to
support the development of our hypotheses. Throughout the focus groups, consum-
ers mentioned the financial burden of owning an asset as one of the key factors in
their purchase decision. P2P sharing, however, was perceived as an option to
economize on the costs of ownership and thus to reduce the burdens. Subsequently,
we tested our hypotheses using two experimental studies with 673 consumers. The
objective of the first study was to test the effect of sharing on consumer’s purchase
intention as well as the mediating role of burdens of ownership. The objective of
the second was to test the effect of sharing on consumer’s purchase decisions by
J. F. Klein (*)
Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
e-mail: j.f.klein@uvt.nl
M.-P. Wilhelms · K. Merfeld · S. Henkel
EBS University, Wiesbaden, Germany
e-mail: mark-philipp.wilhelms@ebs-partner.de; katrin.merfeld@ebs.edu;
sven.henkel@ebs.edu
T. Falk
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: tomas.falk@aalto.fi

550 J. F. Klein et al.
implicitly manipulating the economic benefits of sharing. Specifically, we manipu-

lated whether renters’ preferences are shown prior to the consumer’s decision
regarding which asset brand and type to buy.
Contrary to the threat that sharing decreases product purchase, this study illus-
trates the positive effects of P2P sharing on peer providers’ willingness to purchase
products. We show that the option to share a product not only increases consumers’
purchase intentions but also increases purchase intention for more expensive prod-
ucts, driven by the reduction of burdens of ownership as it enables consumers to
economize their purchase by sharing it. Marketers aiming to increase units sold
could provide consumers with an option to temporarily dispose of their product as
it allows consumers to integrate losses with future gains. Interestingly, we also find
that providers will take renters’ preferences into account when making a purchase
decision. They are more likely to buy a brand they do not prefer if it enables them
to earn more. Our findings illustrate that the sharing economy is not only a threat to
traditional product manufacturers but also an opportunity to increase purchases.
Keywords Sharing economy · Peer-to-peer sharing · Purchase intention ·

Mixed methods

Catalog and Online Retailing: Effects
of Signals of Quality and Need
for Cognition: An Abstract
Joseph Jones
Abstract Shopping through direct-to-consumer channels has been found to be

appealing to consumers who like the convenience of in-home/office shopping. The
use of direct channels to shop for non-digital products (i.e., material products that
can best be assessed for quality through tactile inspection) has been shown to be
most rewarding to consumers with high levels of confidence in their ability to make
product decisions without physical tangible experience. However, for direct channel
retailers using multiple shopping modes, some important challenges have been in
projecting distinctive images and identifying appropriate target markets. In particu-
lar, retailers dealing with print catalog- and online-shopping modes have had diffi-
culty in designing programs, in part, because of a lack of research on the effects of
cues of quality and the role of personality traits and consumer’ motivations in pro-
cessing shopping modes.
Signaling theory provides an explanation for the effects of cues of quality or
signals. According to the signaling theory, retailers have a good idea about the qual-
ity of shopping experiences, but consumers might have doubts. Different degrees of
signal importance have been found, with easily available cues, such as physical
store size, recognizable storefronts, and store designs and layout, being some of the
more important ones. This research draws on signaling theory and examines the
influence of one of the most conspicuous signals, that is, affiliation with well-known
local brick-and-mortar stores. It is the first to explore the effects of affiliation across
print catalog- and online-shopping modes.
Studies on personality traits and consumer’ motivations in processing different
types of shopping modes have indicated that the need for cognition variables can
play an important role. In the direct channels’ literature, the need for cognition has
received some consideration about its influence on online shopping. But, there have
been minimal efforts at examining its effects on print catalog shopping. Moreover,
J. Jones (*)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA
e-mail: joseph.jones@ndsu.edu

552 J. Jones
the literature has largely ignored whether it has any influence on the way consumers
process the combined effects of the signals of quality and direct shopping modes.
The purpose of this research is twofold. First, in the context of a consumer
shopping for non-digital products through print catalog- and online-shopping

modes, it aims to shed light on the impact of affiliation as a signal of quality. Second,
it aims to help clarify the role of the need for cognition variables. This research uses
a series of between-subjects experimental designs to test hypotheses. Several find-
ings are new to the literature and offer insights for designing direct-to-consumer
programs.
Keywords Direct channel retailing · Non-digital product shopping · Signals of

quality · Personality traits

Perceptions of Power in the Digital Era:
An Investigation of Idea Crowdsourcing
versus Crowdvoting: An Abstract
Matthew Wilson, Obinna Obilo, and Karen Robson
Abstract Research is clear that (1) social power is an important part of understand-
ing the relationship between parties in an exchange (French and Raven 1959); (2)
digital technologies have shifted more power into the hands of consumers (Füller
et al. 2009; Labrecque et al. 2013; Pitt et al. 2002); and (3) there are a range of
crowdsourcing activities in which consumers are able to exercise their power
(Wilson 2018; Wilson et al. 2018; Prpic et al. 2015). Yet, there exists no research,
which provides insight into the consumer perception of power in the context of
crowdsourcing, nor there exists a measurement instrument for understanding con-
sumer perceptions of their own power. Enhancing the understanding of these areas
is the goal of this research. In this work, we utilize French and Raven's (1959) the-
ory of social power. Specifically, we adapt the Perceived Social Power Scale by Imai
(1989) for measuring consumer perceptions of power in the context of crowdsourc-
ing and present the results of an experiment designed to test how individuals in
consumer collectives perceive their position of power when engaged in digitally
enabled crowdsourcing activities.
In this exploratory research, we focus on crowdvoting and idea crowdsourcing.
Based on Wilson’s (2018) paper, we compare consumers’ perceptions of expert and
coercive power when engaged in either an idea crowdsourcing or a crowdvoting
activity. Participants reported their perceived social power in response to hypotheti-
cal scenarios in which they engage in specific forms of crowdsourcing. Participants
were given a scenario that describes participation in a crowdsourcing endeavor.
They were requested to imagine that they are participating in the described crowd-
sourcing initiative themselves. After this, the participants completed the adapted
perceived social power scale.
M. Wilson · O. Obilo
Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
e-mail: wilso6m@cmich.edu; obilo1o@cmich.edu
K. Robson (*)
University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
e-mail: krobson@uwindsor.ca

554 M. Wilson et al.
Subjects in the idea crowdsourcing scenario displayed a higher level of coercive

power than subjects in the crowdvoting scenario. Contrarily, subjects in the idea
crowdsourcing scenario displayed a lower level of coercive power than subjects in
the crowdvoting scenario. Our study offers contributions to both the academic lit-
erature and to practice. For academics, this research adopts and validates a scale for
measuring consumer power in the context of crowdsourcing. For practitioners, our
findings provide insights into the power dynamics at play during crowdsourcing
activities.
Keywords Consumer power · Social power · Idea crowdsourcing · Crowdvoting

Gamification Research in View
of Bibliometrics: A Literature Trend,
Bibliographic Coupling, and Co-citation
Analysis: An Abstract
Gunwoo Yoon
Abstract Gamification, the use of game designs and mechanics, has been used to
enhance marketing effectiveness. Over the past decade, advertising in games and
persuasive advergames have been the two types of engaging technologies for pro-
moting brands. However, it is becoming difficult for researchers in various disci-
plines to evaluate the impacts of gamification. Researchers and marketers have thus
called for research that can provide well-thought-out gamification strategies as well
as a thorough review of the state of the literature. The authors answer that call by
proposing a bibliometric approach, which offers quantitative analytical tools to pro-
vide a more comprehensive overview of the literature. We particularly intend to go
above and beyond a simple counting of publications or citations. The present study
aims to map out the meaningful citation-based links between and among gamifica-
tion research documents, and we hope to provide a visual representation of com-
plex, networked, scholarly works.
To clearly reveal the intellectual structure of gamification research, the authors
compile bibliometric data using the ISI Web of Science, and identified 94 scholarly
documents that were published in 32 different scholarly sources by 202 authors
within the time period 1995–2018 (1697 citations and 3543 cited references),
mostly from advertising and business fields. The authors first used a bibliographic
coupling to measure a relationship between citing documents. The result shows the
existence of five distinct clusters based on the coupling strength (e.g., research on
gamification and cognitive reactions as marketing outcomes), which helps us detect
different topical areas and identify new directions of research. The authors further
map the intellectual tradition of gamification by assessing the relationship between
cited documents. The co-citation analysis allows us to see the existence of six dif-
ferent thematic classifications and their theoretical foundations (e.g., research on
gamification in the context of advertising literacy and consumers’ use of persuasion
G. Yoon (*)
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA
e-mail: gunwoo.yoon@uni.edu

556 G. Yoon
knowledge). The present research is among the first to apply both bibliographic
coupling and co-citation analysis in exploring the forefront of gamification research
and its intellectual heritage.
Keywords Gamification · Bibliometrics · Co-citation analysis · Bibliographic

coupling

The Conceptualization and Measurement
of Perceived Value in Social Media:
The Case of Facebook Brand Pages
Georgios Tsimonis and Sergios Dimitriadis
Abstract The paper focuses on online consumer–brand relationships and explores

how perceived value can be conceptualized and measured in social media brand
pages, by identifying the benefits and costs consumers–members of Facebook brand
pages perceive. Data were collected from consumers who follow popular brands on
Facebook, with the use of a questionnaire that was uploaded on the Facebook fan
pages of two leading companies in Greece. The results indicated that the perceived
value in social media brand pages can be conceptualized as a second-order construct
consisting of seven relational benefits, i.e., social, special treatment, self-
enhancement, enjoyment, functional and advice benefits, and three relational costs,
i.e., privacy concern, information overload, and ad irritation. Further, this value had
a significant impact on fan page relationship quality. The study proposes social
media practices toward the enhancement of perceived value, through a balanced
delivery of relational benefits and costs.
Keywords Brand pages · Perceived value · Relational benefits · Relational costs ·

Relationship quality
Introduction
The rise of Web 2.0 technologies, such as online blogs, forums, and social network-
ing sites, has significantly changed not only the means of communication between
Internet users but also the ways consumers interact with the brands they purchase
G. Tsimonis (*)
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
e-mail: georgios.tsimonis@dmu.ac.uk
S. Dimitriadis
Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece
e-mail: dimitria@aueb.gr

558 G. Tsimonis and S. Dimitriadis
from Hudson et al. (2016). Attracted by the interactive nature and popularity of
social media, firms are increasingly creating brand fan pages on popular social
media platforms to interact, build, and enhance relationships with their customers
(Relling et al. 2016; Saboo et al. 2016). In the marketing literature, the most promi-
nent theoretical paradigm, which conceptualizes the mechanisms that are responsi-
ble for and explains in a significant degree the success or failure of relationships
between firms and their customers, is the relational benefits & costs—perceived
value—relationship quality approach (e.g., Gwinner et al. 1998; Palmatier et al.
2006; Ravald and Grönroos 1996). Recent research shows that the marketing bud-
gets directed toward social media are constantly growing, suggesting that brands are
increasingly establishing brand pages on popular social media platforms (Hudson
et al. 2016). Through such pages, firms not only connect and build relationships
with their customers, but also deliver value to existing and prospective customers,
through a blend of brand and nonbrand related activities and content they offer.
Although social media have been recognized as a powerful medium for digital mar-
keting and relationship building purposes, no studies have attempted to capture the
value consumers perceive through their participation in social media brand pages
and its impact on online consumer–brand relationships.
Considering this gap, the increasing use of social media brand pages as a digital
marketing tool, and the recent calls for further research on the topic (e.g., Hudson
et al. 2016; Saboo et al. 2016), this study aims to: (1) identify the different relational
benefits and costs consumers perceive from participating in social media brand
pages, (2) examine their relative contribution in forming perceived value, and (3)
confirm the impact of this perceived value on online relationship quality.
Theoretical Background
Social Media Brand Pages
Social media platforms have emerged as a major digital marketing tool, through
which marketers can engage in two-way communications with existing and
potential customers. Traditionally, companies have tried to connect and build up
relationships with consumers through traditional marketing activities such as
direct marketing, reward programs, and public relations (Jahn and Kunz 2012).
Recent research shows that the marketing budgets directed toward social media
are constantly growing, suggesting that brands are increasingly interested in hav-
ing a presence in social media, by establishing brand pages on popular social
media platforms (Hudson et al. 2016). Social media brand pages can be found in
the literature as “brand fan pages” (Jahn and Kunz 2012) or as “company social
networks,” which according to Martins and Patricio (2013, p. 568) are “a group
of people (followers, fans) connected to a company or brand within the boundar-
ies of a social network site.” Through such pages, companies offer activities and
The Conceptualization and Measurement of Perceived Value in Social Media: The Case… 559
content related to the brand or the core product/service, while consumers learn
about, interact with, and share information on the brands they love and buy from
(Hudson et al. 2016).
Relational Benefits and Costs in an Online Environment
According to the theory of relationship marketing, for a relationship to last and

develop, both parties should receive some sort of benefits, in addition to those stem-
ming from the core product/service. Based on this assumption, two widely adopted
and used typologies were proposed by Gwinner et al. (1998) (i.e., “confidence bene-
fits,” “social benefits,” and “special treatment benefits”) and by Reynolds and Beatty
(1999) (i.e., “social benefits” and “functional benefits”). Several subsequent studies
have confirmed the existence and importance of these benefits in various offline tradi-
tional contexts. With the emergence of Internet, e-commerce, and virtual communities
(i.e., forums), a number of authors have confirmed the existence of the above rela-
tional benefits in the online environment, or identified new ones such as “self-enhance-
ment benefits” (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004), “status benefits” and “perceived
enjoyment” (e.g., Li 2011), and “advice benefits” (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004).
Apart from the benefits, the development and maintenance of a relationship
between customers and firms are supposed to generate for or require from the cus-
tomer some sort of sacrifices and costs (Bendapudi and Berry 1997; Morgan and
Hunt 1994). Several studies suggest that the use of online environments, such as
e-commerce and personal social networking websites, is accompanied by a series of
consumer concerns, unpleasant experiences, and feelings, related with and derived
from company marketing and promotional actions, such as “privacy concern” (e.g.,
Ku et al. 2013), “information overload” (e.g., Chen et al. 2009), and “ad irritation”
(e.g., Baek and Morimoto 2012).
Relationship Quality
A fair number of studies in marketing literature consider relationship quality as a

meta-construct composed mainly of three key interrelated components, namely
trust, commitment, and satisfaction (Palmatier et al. 2006), reflecting the overall
nature of relationships between companies and consumers (Hennig-Thurau et al.
2002). These three dimensions are widely studied as consensual indicators of rela-
tionship quality, as each one of these three dimensions captures a different facet of
the quality of the consumer–company relationships. Although relatively fewer stud-
ies were conducted in an online context, the three key dimensions of the construct
have been shown to be important in an online (e.g., retail) context by several
researchers (e.g., Rafiq et al. 2013).
Perceived Value
Perceived value is broadly defined as the customer’s assessment of what is received

relative to what is given (Zeithaml 1988). Ravald and Grönroos (1996) have sug-
gested that value assessments should take into account relational benefits for rela-
tional exchange. It is generally supported that relational benefits add to the perceived
value of a product or service because the relationship is strengthened when custom-
ers perceive benefits beyond their satisfaction with the core product or service
(Liljander and Roos 2002). Toward this direction, literature further supports that
perceived value could be enhanced not only by adding benefits to a product or ser-
vice but also by reducing the costs associated with the use of the product/service
(Ravald and Grönroos 1996). Therefore, customers are more likely to remain in a
relationship when the benefits exceed the costs they perceive (Zeithaml 1988), and
this will further have a positive impact on relationship quality dimensions, i.e., sat-
isfaction, trust, and commitment (Moliner 2009).
Although a number of studies have theoretically proposed or empirically tested
the existence of various individual benefits and unpleasant experiences perceived by
Internet users in several online contexts (i.e., e-commerce websites, online commu-
nities, personal social networking sites), none of them has identified and examined
what relational benefits and costs consumers simultaneously perceive through their
participation in company-created social media brand pages and their importance in
forming value perceptions. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, so far, no
study has examined how the perceived value from social media brand pages impacts
online consumer–brand relationships.
Hence, this paper aims to (1) identify the benefits and costs consumers perceive
through their participation in Facebook brand pages; (2) explore their relative
importance in forming perceived value; and (3) confirm the impact of this perceived
value on the three dimensions of fan page relationship quality, i.e., fan page trust,
fan page commitment, and fan page satisfaction.
Methodology
Measurement Instrument
The data for this research were collected through a survey instrument, in which
relational benefits and costs were initially identified through a series of focus groups
with frequent social media users who follow popular brands, while the scales were
adopted from the extant literature, and modified to serve the purpose of the study.
Relationship quality: satisfaction and commitment (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2002);
trust (Chauduri and Holbrook 2001). Relational benefits: social benefits (Gwinner
et al. 1998; Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004); special treatment benefits (Gwinner et al.
1998); self-enhancement benefits and advice benefits (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004);
status benefits (Li 2011); enjoyment benefits (Li 2011; Wang et al. 2013); functional
benefits (Reynolds and Beatty 1999). Relational costs: privacy concern (Ku et al.
2013); information overload (Chen et al. 2009; Winzar and Savik 2002); ad irrita-
tion (Baek and Morimoto 2012). The items for all the studied constructs can be
found in the appendices (Tables 1 and 3).
Sample and Data Collection Procedures
The survey instrument was pretested with a group of consumers who are fans of
popular brands on Facebook. The questionnaire was then uploaded on the Facebook
fan pages of (and in cooperation with) the two leading technology/computer retail-
ers in Greece. A seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to
“strongly agree” was used. This process resulted in 476 fully completed and usable
questionnaires. The sample was mainly male (61.6%), between 18- and 34-year-old
(70.6%), and university/college educated (72.2%).
Data Analysis And Results
Data were analyzed in three steps. Firstly, a first-order confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) was performed (AMOS 20.0) on 10 latent constructs to assess the reliability
and validity of the relational benefits and costs identified in the focus groups and in
the literature, as a first-order construct (Table 1). Fit indices for the measurement
model (χ2 = 2590.15, df = 1266, CFI = 0.948, TLI = 0.943, NFI = 0.903, and
RMSEA = 0.047) were acceptable (Schumacker and Lomax 2010, p. 85). Cronbach’s
alpha values of all the constructs were greater than 0.8 (Hair et al. 2014, p. 123),
while the composite reliability values are generally greater than 0.9 (Bagozzi and Yi
1988). As can be seen in Table 1, all indicators have significant loadings (at
p < 0.001) onto the respective latent constructs with values between 0.647 and
0.965, while the average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct is greater than
0.57, indicating convergent validity of the constructs (Fornell and Larcker 1981).
As an intermediate step, CFA was also performed on relationship quality dimen-
sions, with results indicating good model fit and convergent validity for the con-
structs (Table 2).
Secondly, a second-order CFA (Table 3) was conducted (AMOS 20.0) to test
perceived value as a second-order model of 10 first-order factors (relational benefits
and costs). Fit indices (χ2 = 2733.936, df = 1296, CFI = 0.943, TLI = 0.940, NFI
= 0.898 and RMSEA = 0.048, PRATIO = 0.940, PNFI = 0.844, PCFI = 0.887) are
acceptable, which shows that the second-order operationalization of perceived value
fits the data well. Since higher order factor models are more parsimonious, they
should perform better on parsimony indices like PRATIO, PNFI, and PCFI, as com-
pared to the first-order factor models (Hair et al. 2014). Comparing the fit indices of
Table 1 Relational benefits and relational costs—first-order CFA

Constructs Items SL CR AVE
Social benefits 1. I am recognized by certain users of the fan page 0.767 0.926 0.584
(a = 0.926) 2. I am familiar with the fan page administrator 0.712
3. I have developed friendships with other users 0.818
4. Users know my name 0.753
5. I enjoy certain social aspects of the relationship 0.764
with the company
6. I enjoy certain social aspects of the relationship 0.869
with other users
7. I believe a chat among like-minded people is a nice 0.647
thing
8. It’s fun to communicate this way with other people 0.761
in the fan page
9. I meet nice people this way 0.765
Functional 1. I value the convenience benefits the fan page 0.837 0.921 0.744
benefits provides me very highly
(a = 0.929) 2. I value the time-saving benefits the fan page 0.846
provides me very highly
3. I benefit from the advice the fan page gives me 0.915
4. I make better purchase decisions 0.850
Self-enhancement 1. I can express my joy about a good buy of a product 0.892 0.951 0.830
benefits that the company sells
(a = 0.951) 2. I feel good when I can tell other fan page users 0.913
about my buying success
3. I can tell other fan page users about a great 0.935
experience with the company
4. My contribution to the fan page shows others that I 0.903
am a clever customer
Enjoyment 1. I have fun using the fan page 0.896 0.933 0.739
benefits 2. Using the fan page provides me with a lot of enjoyment 0.935
(a = 0.929) 3. I enjoy using this fan page 0.950
4. It’s boring for me to use the fan page 0.680
5. Participating in the fan page entertains me 0.808
Special treatment 1. I get discounts, coupons and special deals that 0.648 0.915 0.646
benefits nonfan page users don’t get
(a = 0.930) 2. I get better prices than nonfan page users 0.762
3. The company does services for me that they don’t 0.752
do for nonfan page users
4. I am given priority over customers who are nonfan 0.946
page users
5. I get faster service than nonfan page users 0.834
6. I get better service than nonfan page users 0.849
Status benefits 1. My image among the users has improved 0.923 0.967 0.881
(a = 0.967) 2. My status among the users has increased 0.965
3. I am becoming a more valued member of the page 0.919
4. My popularity among the other users has increased 0.947
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Advice benefits 1. I receive tips from other fan page users about the 0.938 0.948 0.902
(a = 0.948) products that the company sells
2. I receive advice from other fan page users that helps 0.961
me solve problems with the products that the company
sells
Ad irritation 1. When the fan page posts advertising messages, I 0.804 0.961 0.756
(a = 0.963) think it is Negative
2. When the fan page posts advertising messages, I 0.836
think it is Irritating
think it is Pointless
think it is Unappealing
think it is Regressive
think it is Unattractive
think it is Vulgar
think it is Awful
Information 1. There is too much information on this fan page that 0.683 0.885 0.570
overload I am unable to handle it
(a = 0.890) 2. I can effectively handle all the information on this 0.486
fan page (reversed item)
3. Because of the plenty of information on this fan 0.777
page, I feel difficult in acquiring all this information
4. The fan page posts messages too often 0.846
5. I have no idea about where to find the information I 0.798
need on this fan page
6. I feel overloaded by the amount of information on 0.872
this fan page
Privacy concern 1. It bothers me when this fan page asks me so many 0.771 0.919 0.696
(a = 0.919) personal information
2. I am concerned that this fan page is collecting too 0.908
much personal information about me
3. I am concerned that unauthorized people may 0.849
access my personal information
4. I am concerned that this fan page may keep 0.821
inaccurate personal information about me
5. I am concerned about submitting information to 0.815
this fan page
Model fit: χ2 = 2590.15 (p < 0.001), df = 1266, CFI = 0.948, TLI = 0.943, NFI = 0.903,
RMSEA = 0.047, PRATIO = 0.919, PNFI = 0.830, PCFI = 0.871
Table 2 Fan page relationship quality confirmatory factor analysis

Fan page 1. My choice to use this fan page was a wise one 0.886 0.961 0.859
satisfaction 2. I am always delighted with using this fan page 0.903
(a = 0.959) 3. Overall, I am satisfied with this fan page 0.945
4. I think I did the right thing when I decided to use 0.971
this fan page
Fan page trust 1. I trust this fan page 0.954 0.948 0.859
(a = 0.948) 2. I believe it is a reliable fan page 0.937
3. This is an honest fan page 0.889
Fan page 1. My relationship with this specific fan page is very 0.915 0.970 0.891
commitment important to me
(a = 0.969) 2. My relationship with this specific fan page deserves 0.943
my maximum effort to maintain
3. My relationship with this specific fan page is 0.975
something I really care about
4. My relationship with this specific fan page is 0.941
something I am very committed to
Model fit: χ2 = 110.631 (p < 0.001), df = 36, CFI = 0.988, TLI = 0.983, NFI = 0.984, RMSEA = 0.066
Table 3 Perceived value—second-order confirmatory factor analysis

First-order constructs
Second- Social Functional Self- Enjoyment Special
order factor benefit benefits enhancement benefits treatment
benefits benefits
SL 0.809 0.821 0.791 0.766 0.667
p Value ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗
Perceived Status Advice Ad irritation Information Privacy
value benefits benefits overload concern
SL 0.745 0.633 −0.149 −0.026 −0.190
p Value ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗
Model fit: χ2 = 2733.936 (p < 0.001), df = 1296, CFI = 0.943, TLI = 0.940, NFI = 0.898,
RMSEA = 0.048, PRATIO = 0.940, PNFI = 0.844, PCFI = 0.887,
*** = p < 0.001
the first-order and second-order models, we note that the second-order perceived
value model performs better than the first-order model on PRATIO, PNFI, and PCFI
indices, while each of the first-order factors have significant loadings onto the
second-order perceived value, allowing us to conclude that the overall fit of the
second-order perceived value model is acceptable.
During the last step, a structural equation model (Fig. 1) of the relationships
among perceived value and relationship quality dimensions was fitted to the data
(AMOS 20.0). Results suggest that the tested model fits relatively well the data
Fig. 1 Research model
(χ2 = 4069.687, df = 1919, CFI = 0.935, TLI = 0.932, NFI = 0.884, RMSEA = 0.049).
Path coefficients shown in Fig. 1 indicate that the perceived value impacts relation-
ship quality dimensions, i.e., fan page trust (i.e., β = 0.741, p < 0.001), fan page
commitment (i.e., β = 0.746, p < 0.001), and fan page satisfaction (i.e., β = 0.717,
p < 0.001) positively. This is in line with previous studies (e.g., Moliner 2009), pro-
viding further evidence that the examined second-order construct of perceived value
that consists of the ten identified relational benefits and costs is acceptable.
Discussion, Implications, Limitations, and Future Research
Building on the digital and relationship marketing literatures, and to the best of our
knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine how perceived value can be
conceptualized and measured in the environment of social media brand pages, pro-
viding a holistic approach of the “benefits/costs-perceived value-relationship qual-
ity” paradigm. Findings indicate that perceived value in Facebook brand pages can
be conceptualized as a second-order construct that consists of seven relational ben-
efits and three relational costs, having a positive and negative contribution respec-
tively. The positive impact of perceived value on the online relationship quality
highlights the importance of this perceived value (conceptualized as relational ben-
efits/costs) in building online consumer–brand relationships.
Following the study’s findings, brand managers could adjust their social media
strategies to enhance and moderate users’ perceived relational benefits and costs,
accordingly. For example, social benefits could be developed by adding social fea-
tures that could enhance consumer-to-consumer/brand interactions (e.g., interactive
knowledge games). For enhancing special treatment benefits, firms could be inter-
acting personally with each one of their fans, for example, by mentioning the name
of the user while answering questions in comments. Regarding the enhancement of
the status and self-enhancement benefits, marketers could strengthen the information-
sharing capability of their fan pages, giving fan page users the opportunity to tell
others about their experiences with the company’s products and feel that they are a
valued member of the fan page. Online events and contests could put consumers in
a good mood and increase perceptions of enjoyment benefits. Furthermore, by pro-
viding useful and informational content to their fans, companies can make them feel
that they gain value and enhance perceptions of functional and advice benefits.
Similarly, limiting the frequency of Facebook page updates and avoiding over-
pushing could limit information overload perceptions. When posting updates, com-
panies have to make sure that they are providing useful content, not overly
promotional advertising for their products and services. Additionally, firms should
define a clear policy about users’ personal data on Facebook, and inform their fans
about the handling of their profile information.
As there are various social media, with different characteristics and audiences,
and every social network transmits messages to users differently, the results of the
study cannot be generalized to all available social media platforms. Users of other
social media platforms, such as Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, should be reached
to provide a better-grounded view of consumers’ perceptions of relational benefits
and costs. Also, a longitudinal examination of social media participation would
allow observing how perceptions of benefits and costs are affected by changes and
newly added features of social media.
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Interacting and Learning through Cross-
Functional Product Development Teams:
Driving New Product Creativity, Design
Value, and Product Advantage:
An Abstract
Subin Im, Charles H. Noble, Daisuke Ishida, and Naoto Onzo
Abstract Success in new product development (NPD) is elusive. Going to the mar-
ket with radically differentiated, superior quality products that capture the desires of
many consumers is the goal of most companies, yet it is achieved by few. Despite
the plethora of research that has considered the “radicalness” and product quality
that result from cross-functional NPD interactions, and a lesser set that has consid-
ered the role of creativity in driving these outcomes, there has been a lack of research
on how cross-functional NPD efforts drive both creativity and the emerging concept
of design value to lead to desired product outcomes. This research explores these
phenomena and tests our model using 401 responses collected from three countries:
the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
In considering the organizational dynamics of NPD, this study considers two
factors, cross-functional integration (CFI, defined as the extent to which different
functional groups can work effectively together, Song and Parry 1997) and superor-
dinate identity (SI, defined as the extent to which organization members can identify
with the team to which they belong, are committed to its overarching goals, and feel
a stake in its success and failure, Mackie and Goethals 1987) as essential a ntecedents
S. Im (*)
Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
e-mail: imsubin@yonsei.ac.kr
C. H. Noble
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
e-mail: cnoble@utk.edu
D. Ishida
Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ishida.daisuke@nihon-u.ac.jp
N. Onzo
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: naoto@waseda.jp

570 S. Im et al.
to drive desirable NPD outcomes. We expect these factors will influence two medi-
ating factors—new product creativity and design value—which lead to traditional
product outcomes. New product (NP) creativity is defined as, “the degree to which
new products are perceived to represent unique differences from competitors’ prod-
ucts in ways that are meaningful to target customers” (Im and Workman 2004).
Following Im and Workman (2004), we consider this construct as a combination of
dimensions of NP novelty and NP meaningfulness. In addition to creativity, we also
consider the design value generated by the cross-functional effort of the NPD team.
As the value of design has not been studied effectively thus far, we adopt a distinc-
tion between functional and emotional design value (Kumar et al. 2014) in this
study. We examine how the design value and new product creativity, driven by CFI
and SI, eventually influence important product outcomes of product radicalness and
product quality superiority. The results from maximum likelihood (ML) estimation
in a structural equation model in AMOS suggest that CFI and SI must be managed
as positive team factors to enhance different dimensions of NP creativity and design
value in general which, in turn, differentially influence product competitive advan-
tage. Our findings further suggest that product managers should look carefully at
dual routes to gaining product competitive advantage—product radicalness and
product quality superiority. Theoretically, we expand thinking in achieving new
product success through product competitive advantage to incorporate a combined
view of both creativity and design excellence as intertwined and necessary con-
cepts, setting the stage for future work in the area.
Keywords Cross-functional integration · Superordinate identity · Creativity ·

Design value · Product competitive advantage

Product’s Digital Transformation Effect
on Perceived Luxury Level and Brand
Authenticity: The Watch Industry Case:
An Abstract
Sayma Messelmani and Virginie de Barnier
Abstract Businesses need to innovate in order to perpetuate their survival and

existence on the market. However, companies that could not deal with the continu-
ously fast-moving economy ended up by disappearing, such as Kodak who “missed
the digital photography revolution” (Lucas and Goh 2009, p. 46). Thus, new innova-
tive offerings can cause obsolescence and the rupture of the previous ones. However,
we can witness that some companies are talking about innovation and the fact that,
nowadays, ‘doing’ innovation is important, but only a few actually succeed
(Tajeddini and Trueman 2008). Companies fear that the brand loses its brand aura,
brand personality, and its core values (Morhart et al. 2015). In a branding context,
innovation is gaining interest in marketers and researchers’ discussions. In fact,
when we aim to provide real examples of luxurious and authentic brands turning
their products to innovative digitalized products, we found that the market does not
contain much. Although the concept of digital transformation in general has for a
long period attracted lot of interests, digital transformation applied to brands and
products is yet a recent research path. Thus, from a research perspective, we ignore
the impact of products’ digital transformations on consumers behavior related to
luxurious and authentic brands.
Our study contributes to brands’ challenges of launching innovative offerings by
shading light on consumers’ behaviors toward luxurious and authentic brands in the
digital era. As it was demonstrated in previous research, consumers are seduced by
luxurious and authentic brands because of their perceived added value to their inte-
rior selves (De Barnier et al. 2012; Morhart et al. 2015). Thus, our research investi-
gates on the impact of a product’s digital transformation on the perceived luxury
level and brand authenticity. However, we examine the watch industry not only
because of the watch added symbolic meaning on consumers (Kessous et al. 2017),
S. Messelmani (*) · V. de Barnier

Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
e-mail: sayma.messelmani@iae-aix.com; virginie.de-barnier@iae-aix.com

572 S. Messelmani and V. de Barnier
but also because such an industry, globally known for its handcraft, high precision,
and quality (Tajeddini and Trueman 2008), is a threatened industry by digitalization
(Glasmeier 1991).
Keywords Luxury · Authenticity · Brands · Digital · Digital transformation ·

Innovation · Fluency theory

New Product Advantage Infused
by Marketing and Technical Resources:
Does Modularity Design Matter?
An Abstract
Yazhen Xiao and Haisu Zhang
Abstract Building on the resource-based view, this research aims to examine how
marketing and technical resources impact new product advantage when product
design (i.e., product modularity) and process design (i.e., process modularity) capa-
bilities vary. Compared to firm-level resources, project and program level resources
are more detailed and less obvious to firms’ competitive advantage. As a result,
there have been limited insights on how such resources influence NPD projects in
different contexts. Yet, selecting and allocating resources for NPD projects are com-
plicated, challenging, and critical for managers to advance the projects.
In this research, modular design in both products and processes is examined as
capabilities that impact NPD resource allocation. Product modularity represents a
design capability that creates complex products from smaller and independent sub-
systems functioning together as a whole, while process modularity reflects a capa-
bility of reducing the complexity of production process design. Capabilities per se
indicate the utilization of resources, but the dual dimensions of resources (market-
ing vs. technical) and design capabilities (product vs. process) call for knowledge
on exactly how they interact to maximize new product advantage.
To examine the influence of different resources and their interactions with modu-
lar design capabilities, the authors conducted a survey study of managers involved
in new product development (NPD) from multiple industries in the United States.
Overall, findings show that marketing resources, rather than technical resources,
improve new product advantage. However, when product modularity arises, techni-
cal resources exert a more positive influence on new product advantage, but the role
of marketing resources is constrained. On the contrary, when process modularity
Y. Xiao (*)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
e-mail: sxiao@utk.edu
H. Zhang
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
e-mail: hzhang@njit.edu

574 Y. Xiao and H. Zhang
increases, the influence of technical resources is indistinct, but marketing resources

are more positively related to new product advantage. These findings advance the
understanding of resource allocation during NPD projects and uncover that product
and process design capabilities are contingency factors for resource allocation. This
research also provides implications for managers to distribute resources for devel-
oping superior new products.
Keywords Marketing resources · Technical resources · New product development

· Innovation · Modularity

Responses to Female Sexual Power
Portrayals in Ads: An Abstract
Melika Kordrostami and Russell N. Laczniak
Abstract Although previous research has investigated the impact of sexual objec-
tification portrayals of women on receivers (Peterson and Kerin 1977), there is a
dearth of research that examines the impact of females portrayed in a sexually pow-
erful manner. The current research intends to fill this gap by studying these effects
and identifying their underlying mechanisms. Sexual power has been identified as
one of the dimensions of female power portrayals in contemporary advertisements
(Kordrostami 2017). Female sexual power in advertisements is defined as the power
of exercising sexuality and attractiveness in such a way that males view women as
“alluring” and “seductive” (Kordrostami 2017).
Previous research has shown that portrayals of power express the pride of the
powerful person (Tiedens et al. 2000). Two types of pride are identified in the previ-
ous literature (Tracy and Robins 2004), hubristic and authentic. Tracy and Robins
(2007, p. 507) describe these types of pride as follows: “Specifically, authentic, or
beta, pride (I’m proud of what I did) might result from attributions to internal, unsta-
ble, controllable causes (I won because I practiced); whereas, pride in the global self
(I’m proud of who I am), referred to as hubristic, or alpha, pride, might result from
attributions to internal, stable, uncontrollable causes (I won because I’m always
great).” This study proposes that when female audience views sexual power por-
trayal in ads, the female’s reaction depends on the type of pride displayed by the
female model. If the model displays authentic pride, the audience is expected to
respond with benign envy rather than malicious envy (H1), a more positive attitude
toward the female model (H3), and more positive attitudes toward the brand (H5).
On the other hand, If the model displays hubristic pride, the audience will respond
with malicious envy rather than benign envy (H2), less positive attitude toward the
female model (H4), and less positive attitudes toward the brand (H5).
M. Kordrostami (*)
California State University San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA
e-mail: melika.kordrostami@csusb.edu
R. N. Laczniak
Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
e-mail: laczniak@iastate.edu

576 M. Kordrostami and R. N. Laczniak
To explain responses of the female audience to female model portrayals in ads,

previous research has been couched within two distinct theoretical frameworks:
social comparison theory and self-referencing. We propose that social comparison
and self-referencing work in an interconnected manner. Female receivers are likely
to compare themselves with the female models in the ads because of the general
tendency of comparison to maintain an acceptable level (social comparison theory)
(H6). However, this effect is enhanced if they can relate to the female models (H7).
Two experiments are conducted to investigate the proposed hypotheses. Our
results show that reactions to power portrayals were dependent on the type of pride
that is shown by the female model. Furthermore, our data suggest that social com-
parison increases when viewers engage in self-referencing.
Keywords Feminism · Sexual power · Advertising · Self-referencing · Social

comparison

Psychological Effects of Social Exclusion
on Stereotyping and Consumer Behavior:
An Abstract
Felipe Pantoja, Patricia Rossi, Marat Bakpayev, and Sukki Yoon
Abstract In times of increased connectedness, research gradually starts to unveil

the potential side effects of high social media usage (Forbes 2017). Paradoxically,
people with higher reported social media usage seem to feel more socially excluded
than those who make less use of those platforms (Primack et al. 2017). Social exclu-
sion has been recognized as a growing epidemic, increasingly linked with physical,
mental, and emotional consequences (Valtorta et al. 2016; Mourey et al. 2017). By
definition, social exclusion is the feeling of being lonely, rejected, isolated, or ostra-
cized (Su et al. 2017). Although a lot has been shown about the causes and the
existence of this phenomenon, a recent and growing concern is how the experience
of social exclusion affects people’s judgments and decision making.
Research shows that social exclusion threatens people’s need to belong (Aydin
et al. 2010; Gardner et al. 2000). Specifically, feeling socially excluded leads to a
greater interest in making new friends and improves the desire to work with others
(Maner et al. 2007). Additionally, social exclusion leads to higher fixation and atten-
tion to positive social cues (e.g., smiling faces; DeWall et al. 2009). Therefore,
regardless of the specificity of the effects of social exclusion, the reaction is related
to an attempt to cope with the self-threat and restore the shaken self.
This research sheds light on the role of social exclusion on peoples’ interpersonal
judgments. As our studies show, participants have a higher purchase intentions
F. Pantoja (*)
IÉSEG School of Management, Paris, France
e-mail: f.pantoja@ieseg.fr
P. Rossi
IESEG School of Management, Lille, France
e-mail: p.rossi@ieseg.fr
M. Bakpayev
University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA
e-mail: mbakpaye@d.umn.edu
S. Yoon
Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, USA
e-mail: syoon@bryant.edu

578 F. Pantoja et al.
toward a product that was pre-owned by a senior (vs. young) seller (Study 1) and
demonstrate more positive attitudes toward an overweight (vs. thin) seller in a sell-
ing context (Study 2) when primed with feelings of social exclusion. This research
provides several contributions. First, the findings provide initial evidence on the
effects of social exclusion on approaching behavior toward stigmatized social
groups. More specifically, we argue that feeling excluded might reduce stereotypi-
cal behavior, as in our studies people in the social exclusion condition had approach-
ing responses toward commonly stigmatized groups. Contrarily, in the control
condition, this effect dissipates.
Keywords Social exclusion · Consumer behavior · Interpersonal judgments ·

Behavioral intentions

Authentic Ethnic Advertisements
Perception: An Abstract
Nora Alomar, Natalia Yannopoulou, and Klaus Schoefer
Abstract This research explores authentic ethnic advertisements from the target
consumers’ perception of what authenticity in the ethnic advertisement is and how
it is constructed. Newman and Bloom (2012) have stated that the higher the percep-
tion of authenticity within a product/service, the higher positive attitudes and out-
comes toward the product/services. Thus, when advertisements are deemed as
authentic, consumers have an overall positive response toward the advertisement
itself (Miller 2015). The objective of this research is derived from the lack of litera-
ture surrounding authenticity within the ethnic advertisements and the increasing
ethnic immigration, which generates a great added capital (Census 2011) for mar-
keters to target.
Previous studies have explored authenticity within advertisements (Beverland
et al. 2008; Tang et al. 2015; Freathy and Thomas 2015) and ethnicity within adver-
tisements (Appiah and Liu 2009; Zungia 2016) in regard to consumers’ perceptions
and attitudes in combination with their ethnic backgrounds. However, many of these
studies and replicas came back incoherent with contradicting findings (Cui et al.
2009; Zungia 2016). Authenticity in ethnic advertisement is a topic area that has yet
to be explored, which may be the reasoning for the inconsistent findings and a new
justification to what consumers look for in ethnic advertisements.
Semi-structured interviews took place with the use of photo-elicitation, where
respondents brought a few adverts that they felt were authentic to their ethnic back-
ground. A construct definition developed of AEA. Additional factors that heighten
notions of ethnic authenticity emerged from the data; behavioral, body language,
dress code, and social settings. These factors of AEA increase recall, purchase
intention, and the overall success factors of the advertisement. These additional fac-
tors are more embedded in the consumer’s cultural knowledge of the ethnic back-
ground and their overall life experiences, which have been highlighted within the
findings. Consumers with heightened cultural knowledge criticized ethnic adverts
to a higher standard than consumers with low cultural knowledge, and, their s tanders
N. Alomar (*) · N. Yannopoulou · K. Schoefer

Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
e-mail: n.alomar2@ncl.ac.uk; natalia.yannopoulou@newcastle.ac.uk; klaus.schoefer@
newcastle.ac.uk

580 N. Alomar et al.
to what constituted authenticity was higher. Moreover, notions of ethnic identity

play a role on how consumers perceive authenticity within the ethnic advertisement
and how consumers self-reference themselves. Consumers with higher ethnic iden-
tity and self-referencing perceived authentic ethnic advertisements more positively
and increased positive behavioral outcomes toward the advert. This study also
shows there are added factors to be considered when developing an authentic ethnic
advert such as consumers self-referencing, levels of ethnic identity, location of the
print advert (platform), and use of emerging factors of authentic ethnic advertise-
ments, as notions of embedded cultural and ethnic knowledge are presented within
these factors.
Keywords Authenticity · Ethnicity · Advertising · Ethnic authenticity

Personalized Online Recommendations
and the Effect of Trust and Valence:
An Abstract
Mazen Jaber and Chatdanai Pongpatipat
Abstract Online recommendations could be consumer-generated (Park et al. 2007)

or personalized recommendations (West et al. 1999). Irrespective of the source,
these recommendations help in improving choice satisfaction (Pu et al. 2012). In
this study, we explore the moderating role of trust and review valence on the rela-
tionship among recommendation source, product price, offer attractiveness, and
purchase intention.
The primary objective of this paper was to examine the effect of product recom-
mendation/review on offer attractiveness and purchase intentions. The present
research extends previous work on online reviews, trust, and review valence. In two
studies, we demonstrated how the effectiveness of product recommendations on
consumer purchase intentions is dependent on trust, valence, and price level. In
study 1, we found that automated recommendations are perceived as more attractive
when the product was expensive and the trust in the website was low. On the other
hand, this effect was reversed when the trust in the website was high. For lower
priced products, lower risk is involved, and the consumers are attracted to the con-
sumer recommendations even when the trust in the website is low.
In study 2, we explored the effects of recommendation source and we also added
review valence on offer attractiveness and consumer participation intentions and
found the only effect was a three-way interaction with the price level. In particular,
we found that for low-priced items and when the reviews were positive, consumer-
generated recommendations were significantly more attractive than automated rec-
ommendations. The same effect was there at higher price levels and when the
reviews were negative. When asked about their likelihood to purchase the item,
consumers preferred the automated recommendation to the consumer recommenda-
tion when the prices were high and the review was positive.
M. Jaber (*) · C. Pongpatipat

e-mail: mjaber@svsu.edu; cponpat@svsu.edu

582 M. Jaber and C. Pongpatipat
Results from this research shed new light on how consumers are influenced by
online recommendations. Businesses may use these results to improve their online
recommendation system to its full potential.
Keywords Online recommendations · Online reviews · Trust · Valence

The Influence of Luxury Brands’ Firm
Engagement on Customer Engagement
on Social Media: An Abstract
Xia Liu, Hyunju Shin, and Alvin C. Burns
Abstract Unlike non-luxury brands, luxury brands thrive on the principles of rarity
associated with a high-quality product, premium pricing, controlled distribution,
and personalized communication. Despite such unique characteristics of luxury
branding, luxury brand managers lack guidance on how to utilize their social media
to engage and influence consumers through the targeted use of social media.
Although previous researchers have documented the effect of luxury brands’ social
media marketing efforts on customer engagement, most research relies on case
studies or self-reported survey data that measure behavioral intentions instead of
capturing actual behaviors of the customer. Furthermore, research to date has
focused only on a limited number of luxury brands and utilized cross-sectional data
collection. Today, big data are available from both firm and consumer activities,
making it possible to investigate firm–consumer interactions in social media. Luxury
brand managers may benefit from utilizing big data to obtain a more accurate under-
standing of customer engagement on social media and consequently formulate more
effective customer engagement strategies. The purpose of this research is to utilize
big data in investigating the impact of a luxury brand’s social media marketing
activities on customer engagement. In particular, applying the dual perspective of
customer engagement, this research examines the influence of focusing on the
entertainment, interaction, trendiness, and customization dimensions of a luxury
brand’s social media activities on customer engagement with brand-related social
media content. Using big data retrieved from a 60-month period on Twitter (July
2012 to June 2017), this paper analyzes 3.78 million tweets from the top 15 luxury
X. Liu
e-mail: liul@rowan.edu
H. Shin (*)
e-mail: hshin@georgiasouthern.edu
A. C. Burns
e-mail: alburns@lsu.edu

584 X. Liu et al.
brands with the highest number of Twitter followers. Our results suggest that a
luxury firm’s social media engagement to enhance entertainment, interaction, and
trendiness pays off in terms of increasing customer engagement with brand-related
social media content. An unexpected finding of our analysis is that customization
efforts as part of luxury brands’ social media activities did not increase customer
engagement with the brands’ social media content. The findings have important
implications for the design, delivery, and management of social media marketing
for luxury brands to engage customers with social media content.
Keywords Big data · Luxury brand · Customer engagement · Social media

Supply Chain Resilience on Business
Continuity Programs: The Role
of Anticipated, Inherent, and Adaptive
Resilience: An Abstract
Samuel Sekar and Robert Hooker
Abstract Globalization has resulted in globally dispersed suppliers (Blackhurst

et al. 2005). These disperse suppliers are exposed to multiple unforeseen natural and
manmade risks and vulnerabilities (Simchi-Levi et al. 2014; Zsidisin et al. 2004).
One of the consequences of exposure to manmade and natural risks is supply chain
disruption (Schmidt and Raman 2012; Zsidisin et al. 2004). Therefore, the risks and
vulnerabilities faced by the supply chain of large enterprises have made them to
focus on monitoring supply chain risks and preparing their organizations to be resil-
ient enough to come back after a significant disruption.
Supply chain risk is defined as “any risks for the information, material and prod-
uct flows from the original supplier to the delivery of the final product for the end
user” (Jüttner et al. 2003), and resilience is defined as “the capacity for an enterprise
to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of turbulent change” (Fiksel 2006). Based on
the systems theory, two types of resilience are identified. They are inherent resil-
ience and adaptive resilience (Buikstra et al. 2010). But the third type of resilience,
anticipated resilience, is also recognized as essential, which is the company’s ability
to continually innovate and be prepared for any adverse effects (Hamel and
Valikangas 2003). All three resiliencies are necessary for the continuity of business
after a disaster. Apart from this, companies have also realized the importance of
transparency or visibility of inherent vulnerabilities of the firm to which a supply
chain is exposed to (Kleindorfer and Saad 2005).
This work-in-progress paper is based on the data collected from a major supplier
in the United States. It focuses on addressing the question, “how does anticipated,
inherent and adaptive resilience, as well as supply chain visibility, influence busi-
ness continuity programs?” The contingent resource-based theory (Brandon-Jones
S. Sekar (*) · R. Hooker

e-mail: ssekar@mail.usf.edu; rhooker@usf.edu

586 S. Sekar and R. Hooker
et al. 2014) is employed to establish and explain the relationship among inherent
resilience, anticipated resilience, adaptive resilience, supply chain visibility in per-
formance, and business continuity.
Keywords Supply chain resilience · Inherent resilience · Anticipated resilience ·

Adaptive resilience

Corporate Social Responsibility Beyond
Borders: US Consumer Boycotts
of a Global Company over Sweatshop
Issues in Supplier Factories Overseas:
An Abstract
Joon Soo Lim and KyuJin Shim
Abstract The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of moral founda-
tions on US consumers’ boycotting intentions against the US company, which is
involved in an alleged sweatshop issue at a supplier’s factory in a developing coun-
try. Drawing from moral foundations theory, the current study tests six hypotheses
that showed the roles of blame attributions and anger in mediating the effect of
consumers’ moral values on their boycott intentions. A survey using a representa-
tive sample of 1124 was conducted to test the proposed model. The results of a
structural equation model analysis showed that individualizing foundations with a
special focus on the fairness/care values turned out to be a stronger predictor of
boycotts.
The causal impact of moral foundations was not so much direct as indirect, since
the effect was mediated by blame attributions and anger. Notably, the current
research showed that blame attributions and anger were important in mediating the
effect of moral foundations on boycott intentions. In other words, the current study
demonstrates that US consumers’ anti-sweatshop boycotts are most likely to occur
among individuals of high individualizing moral values when they have the capacity
to appraise the situation and identify who deserves blame, or when they are angered
by the unfair treatment of employees overseas. The current study’s findings are
consistent with the results of the consumer revenge model of Zourrig and his col-
leagues (2009) who identified theoretical linkages between the cognitive appraisal
of moral values and revengeful behaviors mediated by blame attributions and nega-
J. S. Lim (*)
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
e-mail: jlim01@syr.edu
K. Shim
University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
e-mail: kyujin.shim@unimelb.edu.au

588 J. S. Lim and K. Shim
tive emotions. When it comes to the influence of anger on boycott intentions, we

confirmed that consumer anger could play a crucial role in triggering consumer
boycott behaviors. The results are consistent with previous research (Braunsberger
and Buckler 2011; John and Klein 2003; Lindenmeier et al. 2012; Makarem and Jae
2016; Xie et al. 2015).
The effects of binding foundations on blame attribution, anger, and boycott
turned out to be nonsignificant. A plausible explanation is that individuals uphold-
ing binding foundations tend to be more harmonious with social order and conform
to norms. Haidt and Graham (2007) noted that political conservatives have levels of
ethical sensitivity differing from those of liberals. That is, conservatives are more
concerned about community-oriented and duty-based morals, such as in-group/loy-
alty and authority/respect, than liberals are. Therefore, intuitively and promptly,
individuals who possess high binding foundations would perceive boycotting
behaviors as something against the current social system.
Keywords Moral foundations · Consumer behavior · Boycotts · International

public relations · Individualizing foundations

Every Coin has Two Sides: The Negative
Effects of Brand Social Power, the Dual
Character of Face, and Counterfeit Luxury
Consumption: An Abstract
Jiang Ling and Shan Juan
Abstract Though counterfeit consumption occurs in various product categories,

luxury is the main target for counterfeiters. Marketing researchers revealed that
consumers search for “products” within a brand in the nondeceptive counterfeit
context (Eisend and Schuchert-Güler 2006; Gentry et al. 2001). This indicates that
the genuine brand’s attraction plays a pivotal role in the context where consumer
intentionally purchases the counterfeit product. Although previous research has
indicated that the purchase intention of luxury brand counterfeits is largely depen-
dent on the consumers’ desire of the genuine brand, it is still unclear how genuine
luxury brand affects the consumers’ purchase decision of the counterfeit.
Drawing from social power theory and signaling theory, we extend the current
research on nondeceptive counterfeit consumption by demonstrating that genuine
brand’s social power directly influences the purchase intention of luxury brand
counterfeits. Specifically, we propose that the brand social power impacts luxury
counterfeit consumption, given that (1) buying counterfeit luxury can be an eco-
nomical way to gain social status (Perez et al. 2010; Wilcox et al. 2009); (2) status
is one basis of power (Rucker and Galinsky 2009); and (3) brand social power is
considered as a perceptual concept that links the consumer with the brand (Aaker
2012). Further, based on the consumers’ perceived social gain that leads the coun-
terfeit consumption, we argue that the effect of brand social power on counterfeit
consumption is dependent on the consciousness of social face because of positive or
negative social evaluation. We draw upon past research (Zhang et al. 2011) to con-
ceptualize face into two correlated dimensions—desire to gain face versus fears of
losing face, and propose that when consumer feels a need to gain face by associating
J. Ling (*)
University of Quebec in Montreal, Montreal, Canada
e-mail: jiang.ling@uqam.ca
S. Juan
Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
e-mail: shanjuan@shu.edu.cn

590 J. Ling and S. Juan
with a powerful brand, they will be more interested in purchasing a counterfeit high
social power brand; however, when consumers try to avoid losing face, they will be
less interested in purchasing a counterfeit high social power brand.
While the prior research mainly focused on the positive role of brand in con-
sumer consumption, this study explored the “dark” side of the consumer–brand
relationship. It is the first to introduce the brand social power into counterfeiting
consumption research. Further, by dividing the face consciousness into two dimen-
sions, this study not only enriches the social identity theory but also helps researcher
and brand managers better understand the Chinese consumers’ complex psycho-
logical mechanism of buying luxury counterfeits.
Keywords Brand social power · Face consciousness · Gaining mianzi · Losing

lian · Counterfeit consumption

Assessing Strategic Customer Behavior
under Bounded Rationality: An Abstract
Jihoon Cho, Anocha Aribarg, and Puneet Manchanda
Abstract In service markets, customers are often uncertain about future service
outcomes. To resolve this uncertainty, customers update their expectations of what
is to come and use the updated expectations to generate responses or judgment
(Hintzman 1988). Accordingly, firms make efforts to deliver free service upgrades
to meet or exceed customer expectations (Schneider and Bowen 1999). Such efforts,
however, may not necessarily improve the firm’s profitability as customers elevate
their expectations over time and become strategic to “cherry-pick” the offers.
This paper provides empirical evidence on such strategic choice behavior via the
use of individual-level cross-sectional and time-series data from the auto rental
industry. Given that customer strategy is driven by their expectations based on the
past events retrieved from memory (Bettman 1979), we also investigate the extent
that time-dependent forgetfulness, the similarity and recency effects (Bordalo et al.
2017; Murdock 1967), affects customer expectations and the subsequent strategic
choice over time.
To model the bounded customer expectations, we follow the adaptive expecta-
tion framework where customers recursively update their expectations based on
prior service experiences. To describe the unobserved customer expectations and
their impact on strategic choice behavior in a single framework, we adapt a state-
space model based on the Kalman filter algorithm (Hamilton 1994), which allows
us to separate out the effect of (recalled) service encounters from that of prior
expectations accrued through service usage over time (Akçura et al. 2004).
The results suggest evidence of bounded customer expectations. First, memories
similar to the current event facilitate customer recall and recent experiences are
more easily remembered than remote ones. Further, we observe the presence of
positive expectation carryover and its considerable decay. We also find the presence
of customers’ strategic choice behavior followed by free upgrades, that is, c ustomers
J. Cho (*)
e-mail: jihoonch@ksu.edu
A. Aribarg · P. Manchanda
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
e-mail: anocha@umich.edu; pmanchan@umich.edu

592 J. Cho et al.
tend to strategically request a car-class lower than or equal to the one that previously
resulted in a free upgrade.
Building on the theoretical literature in memory, our research provides an empir-
ical framework that accounts for customers’ bounded rationality in customer expec-
tations, which has received less attention from the previous research. Further, our
empirical findings via a series of counterfactual analyses provide managerial
insights such that free upgrade offers can hurt the firm’s profitability. With no
bounded rationality in consideration, however, the firm is likely to be misled to
provide more free upgrades in order to increase its profitability.
Keywords Customer expectations · Customer strategy · Bounded rationality ·

Kalman filter

Role of Task Difficulty in Brand Image
Measurements: An Abstract
Melisa Mete and Gary Davies
Abstract Answering survey questions can require significant cognitive effort and
ability and cause difficulties to many respondents. This difficulty can lead respon-
dents to adopt strategies to reduce the “task difficulty” of answering a questionnaire.
Task difficulty has been widely researched in the educational and ergonomics litera-
tures (e.g., Bittner et al. 1989; Hendy et al. 1993; Paas 1992). In the marketing area,
there is work to investigate how metacognitive difficulty enhances the evaluation of
consumption (Pocheptsova et al. 2010). However, the topic has been neglected in
the marketing and market research areas. This research aims to introduce task dif-
ficulty and to illustrate its effects using work on brand imagery measurement, spe-
cifically on employer branding.
An online survey was made with employees as respondents where they were
asked to evaluate the image of the company that they worked for using either a pro-
jective or direct means of questioning, where the former should involve lower task
difficulty. Two dimensions of the brand image were used, warmth and competence.
A convenience sample of 440 respondents from a nationally representative con-
sumer panel was randomly assigned to one of four groups in a 2 × 2 factorial,
between-subjects design: (Personification (n = 222, 50.5%) vs. Direct (n = 218,
49.5%)) × (Warmth (n = 223, 50.7%) versus Competence (n = 217, 49.3%)).
When looking at the responses of people who are given “warmth” question-
naires, the personification approach is rated higher on Task Difficulty. Conversely,
when looking at the responses of people who are given competence questionnaires,
the non-personification approach is rated higher on Task Difficulty. The results
show that the personification approach has a lower task difficulty score only when
the competence dimension is used. However, the outcomes are not statistically sig-
nificant. The expected lower scores for task difficulty when respondents used a pro-
jective technique to assess brand image were not found. Task difficulty did, however,
M. Mete (*)
Keele University, Keele, UK
e-mail: m.mete@keele.ac.uk
G. Davies
University of Chester, Chester, UK
e-mail: gary.davies@chester.ac.uk

594 M. Mete and G. Davies
vary as expected with respondent demographics, but not as some prior work
suggests (e.g., Pressley et al. 1989; Salthouse 1991). Here, task difficulty was
significantly higher for younger and for more qualified respondents. The age and
education of respondents correlated negatively (p < 0.001). Employers, in particu-
lar, might be interested in an explanation, implying a need for further research for
employer branding. Prior work in market research has emphasized task difficulty in
the context of making sure a survey is well designed (Krosnick 1991). The findings
here suggest that there may be a wider issue and that researchers may wish to add a
measure of task difficulty as a control variable in a survey questionnaire in general,
and in brand image surveys in particular.
Keywords Brand image · Brand image measurement · Task difficulty · Warmth ·

Competence · Personification

“What-are-you-looking-at?”: Implicit
Behavioural Measurement Indicating
Technology Acceptance in the Field
of Automated Driving
Marc Kuhn and Viola Marquardt
Abstract Automated driving functions are gradually entering individual mobility

markets. First studies on consumer acceptance show that parts of the classical inno-
vation acceptance models can be applied to autonomous driving, but others do not
work in this context. As it is expected that perception and evaluation of automated
driving functions are correlated with the behaviour of the driver, we investigated if
eye-tracking data as an implicit behavioural measurement could indicate the accep-
tance of automated driving. We developed and conducted a user experience study
with a pre- and post-questionnaire, a standardized test track, and 98 test drivers with
eye-tracking glasses using level 2 driver assistant systems either with a Mercedes-
Benz E-Class or S-Class. The study refers to the Consumer Acceptance of
Technology model and adds eye distraction from forward road scenes as an anteced-
ent indicator, while activating the automated “Lane Keeping” function in separated
1-minute slot. Results of structural equation modelling show that despite a lack of
significance, our general line of argument is largely confirmed according to which a
longer eyes-off-road-time indicates a higher acceptance of automated driving tech-
nology. It is assumed that the effects could become more apparent when participants
use the automated driving function within a longer period.
Keywords Automated driving · Eye-tracking · Implicit measurement · Technology

acceptance
M. Kuhn (*) · V. Marquardt

Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: marc.kuhn@dhbw-stuttgart.de; viola.marquardt@dhbw-stuttgart.de

596 M. Kuhn and V. Marquardt
Introduction
“Autonomous Driving” is currently one of the “hot topics” on mobility markets

(Bertrandias et al. 2018). Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) deals with the
development of innovative functionalities, politicians discuss about legal issues and
science investigates the driver’s intention of using this technology. The investigation
of these intentions is essential because it provides important insights into the accep-
tance of this technology. In the field of technology acceptance, different theoretical
models were developed (e.g. Davis et al. 1989; Kulviwat et al. 2007) as well as
reviewed and evolved during the past decades (e.g. Nasco et al. 2008; Hong et al.
2013). However, most studies investigating the acceptance of automated driving are
based on standardized questions in the context of scenario descriptions or simulated
driving with regard to an automated vehicle so that only explicit measurements are
included in the model (e.g. Buckley et al. 2018; Planing 2014; Nielsen and Haustein
2018; Rödel et al. 2014; Waytz et al. 2014; Bansal and Kockelman 2018; König and
Neumayr 2017; Haboucha et al. 2017).
Yet, the automated driving technology is developed incrementally—series vehi-
cles today only reached autonomous level 2 from 5 (SAE International 2018)—but
the full disruptive version of a driverless car is already in the head of consumers. In
a level 2 vehicle, drivers can take their hands off the wheel for a certain period of
time. However, they are still responsible for the entire driving process and can take
control of the vehicle again at any time (see Table 1).
Since the autonomous car is already in the head of the driver, the technology
acceptance models could be supplemented by implicit behavioural measured vari-
ables to overcome the weaknesses of an exclusively explicit measurement through
standardized questioning. With implicit behavioural measured variables, we mean
above all variables that measure the behaviour of drivers with level 2 automated
vehicles using implicit methods like eye-tracking. Especially the parameter “eyes-
off-road-time” is of interest, which specifies how long a driver keeps his eyes away
from the road. A longer eyes-off-road-time could indicate a higher technology
acceptance, since the driver already turns his attention away from the road when
Table 1 Overview of available automated driving functions

Driving function Description of autonomous level 2 functions in today series vehicles
Lane keeping … assists the driver in keeping the vehicle in its lane.
Lane changing … assists the driver in lane changing, e.g. in an overtaking manoeuvre.
Automatic distance … keeps the vehicle within a safe distance from vehicles ahead.
keeping
Automatic speed … ensures that vehicle speed does not exceed a legally enforced speed.
control
Automated parking … assists the driver in moving the vehicle into a parking spot.
Automated braking … prevents dangerous situations by informing the driver of an upcoming
collision and by braking automatically in an emergency situation.
Adapted from Selinka and Kuhn (2018)
“What-are-you-looking-at?”: Implicit Behavioural Measurement Indicating… 597
driving with a level 2 (and not fully autonomous) vehicle. Our research question
can, therefore, be formulated as: To what extent do implicit behavioural measured
variables indicate the acceptance of automated driving, a technology where the fully
disruptive innovation (level 5) is already known?
To address this question, we conducted a user experience study with level 2 auto-
mated vehicles in which the test drivers were equipped with an eye-tracking glasses
system (Tobii glasses 2, 50 Hz sampling rate) to measure their eye-distraction from
forward road scenes.
Theoretical Background and State of Research
The evaluation of technology acceptance for automated driving is essentially based on

the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Consumer Acceptance of
Technology (CAT) model as its further development (e.g. Buckley et al. 2018; Köpsel
et al. 2018). The TAM identifies two central factors that influence the “Attitude Toward
Adoption”, i.e. the attitude towards the use of the technology, and by the end the
“Adoption Intention” of the technology: “Perceived Usefulness” (PU) and “Perceived
Ease of Use” (PEoU). PU refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a
particular technology is helpful and enhances performance (Davis et al. 1989). PEoU
is an individual assessment in terms of the effort required to use the technology (Davis
et al. 1989). Buckley et al. conducted a study where they applied the TAM to assess a
driver’s intended use of automated driving technology after undertaking a driving
simulation task (Buckley et al. 2018). The TAM variables of PU and PEoU explained
41% of the variance in intentions (Buckley et al. 2018).
The CAT model adopts the core idea of the TAM and adds “Relative Advantage”
(RA) to the cognitive dimension of PU and PEoU. RA refers to the degree to which
a technology is perceived as superior to its predecessor (Kulviwat et al. 2007). This
aspect is particularly important in the context of automated driving, as the functions
are intended to support the driver in comparison to a “conventional car”. In addition
to the cognitive dimension, the model also includes an affective dimension, which
comprises “Pleasure” (e.g. happiness), “Arousal” (e.g. relaxation) and “Dominance”
(e.g. control; Kulviwat et al. 2007). These three variables define a person’s feelings
that, in turn, influence the “Attitude Toward Adoption”, and by the end the “Adoption
Intention” of the technology.
A study published by Köpsel et al. examined the CAT model in the context of a
user experience setting. More than 200 test drivers activated automated driving
functions following a standardized test track on public roads using either a Mercedes-
Benz E-Class or a Tesla Model S with level 2 automated driving functions (Köpsel
et al. 2018). Questionnaires before and after the driving experience included items
on the attractiveness of innovation (Boyd and Mason 1999), self-efficacy (Jones
1986; Meuter et al. 2005) and standardized dimensions of expectations. The cogni-
tive determinants of the CAT model showed a high explanation of variance in test
driver’s intention of using automated driving functions. While the cognitive part of
the CAT model has been confirmed, there were no effects of affective determinants
on the “Attitude Toward Adoption” and thus on the “Adoption Intention” (Köpsel
et al. 2018). Furthermore, the authors emphasized that it was very difficult to trans-
fer the dimensions of the cognitive part into the context of automated driving
(Köpsel et al. 2018).
Against this background, the present paper builds upon the “reduced” version of
the CAT model including the cognitive part in terms of RA, PU and PEoU. The
focus is not so much on a further empirical test of the already known line of argu-
ment, whereby the variables of the cognitive dimension influence the “Attitude
Toward Adoption”, which in turn affects the “Adoption Intention”. Rather, we refer
to one of the few studies that used eye-tracking as an implicit behavioural measure-
ment for the evaluation of technology acceptance in terms of TAM (Molina et al.
2013). Molina et al. investigated the usage of mobile devices in teaching–learning
contexts. The eye-tracking system was mainly used to distinguish between visual-
ization behaviours of different types of devices—the relationship between the eye-
tracking parameters and the variables of the TAM was not analysed (Molina et al.
2013). Given that, further studies on implicit behavioural measurements in the area
of technology acceptance are required, especially in the field of automated vehicles.
The benefit—in considering implicit behavioural measurements—is an understand-
ing of technology acceptance that takes into account that the final stage of develop-
ment is already known. Furthermore, the study by Köpsel et al. highlighted the
context-dependency of item formulations with regard to the affective dimension of
the CAT model (Köpsel et al. 2018), which makes it necessary to use measurements
that are context-independent. This context-independency is also met by implicit
behavioural measurements in terms of eye-tracking.
Research Approach and Methodology
We conducted a user experience study with a total of 98 test drivers recruited through
local press releases using either a Mercedes-Benz E-Class or S-Class equipped with
identical level 2 automated driving systems. Each participant got a general introduc-
tion to the automated driving system while sitting in one of these test vehicles. The
test drivers were also informed that they were responsible for the entire driving pro-
cess and had to respect traffic regulations. The participants were equipped with eye-
tracking glasses (Tobii glasses 2, 50 Hz sampling rate) for measuring glance behaviour.
The following main drive took place on a standardized test track in Stuttgart/Germany
in December 2017 (see Fig. 4). The driving experience had an average time of approx-
imately 40 min and was framed by two questionnaires before (expectations) and after
(experience/evaluation) the test. We reached an age distribution corresponding to the
German population (see Table 2). A χ2 test showed no significant differences between
the age structure of our sample and the population in Germany. With a gender split of
63–37%, we had a disproportionally high share of male participants.
The eye-tracking technology is mainly used in distraction studies with regard to
the active usage of human–machine interfaces in vehicle cockpits (Kraft et al. 2018).
In this context, the project of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) is of particular importance aiming to fight driver distraction caused by
Table 2 Age distribution of Distribution in Distribution in

test drivers Age our study (%) Germany (%)
18–29 years 19.4 17.0
30–39 years 10.2 14.7
40–49 years 20.4 16.7
50–59 years 20.4 18.9
60–69 years 13.3 13.8
70 years and older 16.3 18.8
Table 3 Hypotheses
Cognition Hypotheses with regard to “eyes-off-road” parameter
RA H1. Test drivers with longer eyes-off-road-time evaluate automated driving
functions with a higher relative advantage.
PU H2. Test drivers with longer eyes-off-road-time evaluate automated driving functions
with a higher perceived usefulness.
PEoU H3. Test drivers with longer eyes-off-road-time evaluate automated driving
functions with a higher perceived ease of use.
In-Vehicle Electronic Devices (NHTSA 2010). According to the findings of this

project, driver distraction can be measured by assessing the driver’s glance behav-
iour, i.e. the driver’s eye-distraction from forward road scenes when using/looking
at an in-vehicle display is evaluated (eyes-off-road-time) (Table 3).
As studies show a general positive relationship between driver’s eye-distraction/
eyes-off-road-time and their degree of habituation and relaxation in driving condi-
tions (Kraft et al. 2018), we assume that this correlation might be transferred to the
acceptance of automated driving technology. The assumption that driving while
automated driving functions are activated is: A more “relaxing” driving behaviour
in terms of a longer eyes-off-road-time indicates a higher acceptance of automated
driving technology. Based on this assumption, we derive the following three hypoth-
eses concerning the cognitive part of the “reduced” CAT model.
An empirical examination of these hypotheses required the definition of two
“Areas of Interests” (AOIs). AOI1 comprised all glances on the road (eyes-on-road),
while AOI2 comprised all other glances, e.g. to the interior space of the vehicle
(eyes-off-road; see Fig. 1). We investigated the raw eye-tracking video material in
Tobii Pro Lab and defined here in a first step the two event types AOI1 and AOI2.
We then analysed each video with reduced speed and manually marked the driver’s
glances starting with the AOI “eyes-off-road”. The program calculated the differ-
ence between the time stamps for every pair of AOI so that we could get the total
duration for each driver’s eyes-off-road-time (in sec). It must be noted that this
study refers to the driver’s eyes-off-road-time while activating the “Lane Keeping”
function in separated 1-minute slots at fixed locations on the test track.
Figure 2 illustrates the model as tested in this study. The items for the “reduced”
version of the CAT model were mainly adapted from prior studies and appropriately
modified to suit the purposes of the study. A list of the CAT items and scale types is
presented in Table 5.
Fig. 1 Eye-tracking recordings at “Lane Keeping”
Cognition
Relative
Advantage
Implicit behavioural Attitude

H2. positive effect Perceived Adoption
measurement via Toward
Usefulness Intention
eye-tracking (eyes- Adoption
off-road-time)
Perceived
Ease of
Use
Fig. 2 Conceptual model
Data Analysis and Results
Because of the exploratory character of this study, the model and hypotheses are
examined by a consistent partial least squares-based structural equation modelling
approach (Dijkstra and Henseler 2015). The data are analysed in SmartPLS 31
(Ringle et al. 2015), employing a path weighting scheme and consistent bootstrap-
ping method. In this context, we draw on 5000 bootstrap samples and applied no
sign change option.
Firstly, we evaluate the three reflectively measured models of RA, PEoU and
Attitude Toward Adoption (see Table 4) concerning reliability and validity. The
assessment of convergent validity leads to the exclusion of four items from the ini-
tial structural equation model as their loadings are clearly below the threshold value
of 0.70 (Hair et al. 2017). The loadings of the remaining items are above 0.70 or
1
Outliers in the eye-tracking parameter (n = 3) were detected by visual inspection of boxplots and
excluded before running the analysis. Occasional missing values were replaced with the mean
value. Results were estimated after six iterations.
Table 4 Loadings of the final set of indicators

Measurement Loading
Implicit behavioural measurement
Eyes-off-road-time 1. Total duration of “eyes-off-road” while 1.0
Single item activating the “Lane Keeping” function (in s)
Cognition
Relative advantage of automated Based on your experience with the test vehicle,
driving functionsReflective how do you evaluate the following autonomous
driving functions?
1. … Distance alert assistant 0.70
2. … Automated braking assistant 0.61
3. … Speed adaption assistant 0.82
7-point scale from very negative to very
positive.
Perceived usefulness of automated 1. In my daily life, automated driving functions 1.0
driving functions Single item will be…
7-point scale from very useless to very useful
Perceived ease of use of automated 1. This technology looks easy to learn. 0.96
driving functions Reflective 2. This technology looks easy to master. 0.71
3. The implicit knowledge of this technology 0.63
looks easy to figure out by myself.
7-point scale from very useless to very useful.
Attitude toward adoption
Attitude towards the use of Overall, how would you describe your
automated driving functions experience?
Reflective For me, using the automated driving functions is:
1. … bad/good 0.94
2. … negative/positive 0.85
3. … unfavourable/favourable 0.90
4. … unpleasant/pleasant 0.71
7-point scale within a semantic differential.
Adoption intention
Intention to adopt automated 1. Assuming you have access to such a 1.0
driving functions technology in the future, what is the probability
Single item that you would use it?
7-point scale from unlikely to likely.
slightly lower. Table 4 summarizes the final set of indicators and their loadings,
respectively. A further criterion for convergent validity is the average variance
extracted (AVE) which should be at 0.50 or higher (Henseler et al. 2015). In this
study, the AVE scores exceed the minimum requirement of 0.50 so that on average
all reflective constructs explain more than 50% of the variance of their indicators
(see Table 6). As far as discriminant validity is concerned, we evaluate the Fornell–
Larcker criterion, which states that a latent variable should share more variance with
its associated indicators than with any other construct (Hair et al. 2017). Accordingly,
the square roots of the AVE should be larger than the interconstruct correlations.
This condition is met since all AVE measures prove to be greater than the
Table 5 Item summary

Measurement Source
Cognition
Relative advantage of Based on your experience with the test vehicle, how
automated driving do you evaluate the following autonomous driving
functions functions?
… Distance alert assistant
… Automated braking assistant
… Speed adaption assistant… Automated parking
assistant
… Lane keeping assistant
… Lane change assistant7-point scale from very
negative to very positive
Perceived usefulness of In my daily life, automated driving functions will Kulviwat
automated driving be…7-point scale from very useless to very useful et al. (2007)
functions
Perceived ease of use This technology looks easy to learn. Hong et al.
of automated driving This technology looks easy to master. (2013)
functions The implicit knowledge of this technology looks
easy to figure out by myself.
It seems convenient for me to use this technology.7-
point scale from very useless to very useful
Attitude toward adoption
Attitude toward the use of Overall, how would you describe your experience? Kulviwat
automated driving For me, using the automated driving functions is: et al. (2007)
functions … bad/good
… negative/positive
… unfavourable/favourable
… unpleasant/pleasant7-point scale within a
semantic differential
Adoption intention
Intention to adopt Assuming you have access to such a technology in Kulviwat
automated driving the future, what is the probability that you would use et al. (2007)
functions it?7-point scale from unlikely to likely
Table 6 Criteria for assessing convergent validity and reliability

AVE Cronbach’s α Composite reliability Dijkstra–Henseler’s ρA
Adoption intention 1 1 1 1
Attitude toward adoption 0.73 0.92 0.92 0.92
Off-road-time 1 1 1 1
Perceived ease of use 0.61 0.80 0.82 0.86
Perceived usefulness 1 1 1 1
Relative advantage 0.51 0.76 0.76 0.77
Note: AVE refers to convergent validity. Cronbach’s α, Composite Reliability and Dijkstra–
Henseler’s ρA refer to reliability
Cognition
R2adj = 0.01
Relative
Advantage
0.21 0.19*
0.13
R2adj = 0.59 R2adj = 0.57
R2adj = 0.06
Implicit behavioural Attitude

Perceived Adoption
measurement via -0.04 0.60*** Toward 0.76***
Usefulness Intention
eye-tracking (eyes- Adoption
off-road-time)
0.15 0.16
0.24**
Perceived
Ease of R2adj = 0.01
Use
Fig. 3 Results of structural equation modelling using a partial least squares-based approach. Note:
∗∗∗
p ≤ 0.01; ∗∗p ≤ 0.05; ∗p ≤ 0.10; dashed paths refer to nonsignificant relationships
interconstruct correlations suggesting that the reflectively measured models are

empirically distinct from each other. In addition, the indicator loadings are higher
compared to their cross loadings (Hair et al. 2017). Finally, the HTMT values for all
reflectively measured models are significantly below the more rigorous threshold
value of 0.85 with the 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals not including the
value of 1, which provides further confidence for discriminant validity (Hair et al.
2017). For reliability assessment, we evaluate Cronbach’s α, Composite Reliability
and Dijkstra–Henseler’s ρA (threshold value = 0.70). These three measures vary
between 0.76 and 0.92 (see Table 6), thus suggesting a satisfactory level of internal
consistency (Henseler et al. 2015).
After confirming reliability and validity with regard to the reflective measure-
ment models, we evaluate the results of the structural model. Multicollinearity
assessment by means of variance inflation factor (VIF) demonstrates that the results
are not biased, since the VIF values range between 1.0 and 1.15, thus not exceeding
the threshold value of 5 (Hair et al. 2017). The results of testing the model and its
hypotheses are summarized in Fig. 3.
The examination of the explanatory power shows a substantial adjusted R2 value
of 0.57 for our ultimate endogenous variable Adoption Intention. Focusing on the
predictive power of the eye-tracking parameter, we find rather weak adjusted R2
values. However, this weak predictive power can be explained by the lacking statis-
tical significance of eyes-off-road-time, thus leading to a rejection of all three
hypotheses. Notwithstanding the absence of statistical significance, it must be noted
that the effects are largely in line with our expectations (see Fig. 2).
In assessing the impact of a particular predictor latent variable, the effect size f2
is calculated. A recommended guideline is that values of 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35 repre-
sent a small, medium or large effect at the structural level (Hair et al. 2017). The
path between eyes-off-road-time and RA indicates a small effect size (f2 = 0.02) so
that the removal of the path from the structural model would have a small effect on
Fig. 4 Test track in Stuttgart/Germany
RA. Similarly, the removal of the path between eyes-off-road-time and PEoU sug-
gests a small effect size (f2 = 0.02). Finally, the path between eyes-off-road-time and
PU is clearly smaller than 0.2.
Discussion, Limitations and Further Research
The objective of this study is the evaluation of automated driving technology using
implicit behavioural measurement in terms of the eye-tracking parameter “eyes-off-
road-time”. In summary, our general line of argument is—despite a lack of signifi-
cance—largely confirmed according to which a longer eyes-off-road-time indicates
a higher acceptance of automated driving technology. However, the absence of sig-
nificance could be primarily a consequence of our operationalization, since eyes-
off-road-time refers to a period of only 1 min. It is assumed that the effects could
become more apparent when test drivers use the automated driving function within
a longer time frame. Furthermore, it should also be kept in mind that this study
refers to level 2 automated vehicles. Drivers are obligated to keep their concentra-
tion on the road. In the next stage of development, drivers have more freedoms,
since level 3 automated vehicles allow them to turn their attention away from for-
ward road scenes for a longer time. Accordingly, it can be expected that the eyes-
off-road-time parameter provides in this context more reliable information with
regard to the evaluation of technology acceptance. If our line of argument is further
confirmed, it will be necessary that the OEMs develop measures to bring “technol-
ogy enthusiasts”, who already fully trust the technology, back onto the road. The
findings could also be integrated into the marketing process in order to address
precisely this target group. It is also possible to include in future studies further
automated driving technologies (e.g. automated braking assistant, automatic speed
control) to obtain a more comprehensive picture of technology acceptance. Finally,

a balanced relation between male and female participants would be desirable
as well.
Overall, the present study argues to include implicit behavioural measured vari-
ables when evaluating technology acceptance of automated driving, since this is a
technology where the fully disruptive innovation (level 5) is already in the head of
consumers. The implicit behavioural measured variables also meet the requirement
of context-independency, a demand formulated by Köpsel et al. for the evaluation of
technology acceptance in the field of automated driving (Köpsel et al. 2018). The
effects that tend to be observed in this study now need to be examined further using
level 3 automated vehicles, which in turn provides a deeper understanding of tech-
nology acceptance.
Appendix
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The Effect of Consumers’ Asset Specificity
Sensitivity on Mobile Payment Service
Adoption: The Role of Switching Cost
and Product Compatibility: An Abstract
Jyh-Shen Chiou, Chiayang Chang, and Chih-Wei Lin
Abstract The purposes of this study are to explore the effect of consumers’ asset
specificity sensitivity (CASS) on mobile payment adoption, to explain this effect by
the mechanism of switching costs, and found the moderating effect of product com-
patibility on the relationship between switching costs and mobile payment adoption.
Based on our research purposes, we conduct our survey in a mobile payment
service setting. We adopt the in-person questionnaire survey. In order to raise
respondents’ motive, we give them 100 NT dollars (around 3.5 USD) as incentives.
The total sample size is 352 respondents returned questionnaires. After eliminating
incomplete questionnaires, the final effective sample is 325 respondents. We found
that the first CASS is negatively related to mobile payment adoption, and switching
costs are a partial mediator, which conjunct CASS and mobile payment adoption.
Moreover, product compatibility weakens the negative effect of switching costs on
mobile payment adoption.
Based on our empirical evidences, we apply Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)
into the consumer behavior field, and extend the concept of asset specificity to the
consumers’ concern before adopting mobile payment service. Moreover, we also
combine product compatibility from innovation diffusion, and it gives us a hint on
how to reduce consumers’ holdup concern when they tend to adopt mobile payment
service. According to the theoretical implication, the current study suggests that
mobile payment services providers should enable consumers to perceive lower
switching costs. As long as consumers with high CASS perceive high switching cost
if they adopt mobile payment services, their adoption intention will be low.
Fortunately, increasing the compatibility of mobile payment services will reduce
J.-S. Chiou · C. Chang (*)

National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: jschiou@nccu.edu.tw; machang@nccu.edu.tw
C.-W. Lin
Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: chihwei.lin@scu.edu.tw

608 J.-S. Chiou et al.
the negative effect from switching costs. Therefore, mobile payment service provid-
ers should add more stores, which can apply their services to enhance consumers’
adoption intension of mobile payment service. Future studies can employ the two-
stage survey method to collect data and to solve this problem. Further, since we
found the partial mediating effect of switching costs on the relationship between
CASS and adoption behavior, future studies should take a further step to explore
other mechanisms in this relationship.
Keywords Consumers’ asset specificity sensitivity · Mobile payment adoption ·

Product compatibility · Switching costs

Personalization Perceptions in Retail
Technology Adoption: The Mediating Role
of Dependency and Intrusiveness:
An Abstract
Tyler Hancock, Brett Kazandjian, Christian Barney, and Kavitha Nambisan
Abstract The modern retail environment is experiencing a shift in how retail ser-
vice is conducted (Rafaeli et al. 2017). Increasingly, technology is integrated into
the retail service, such as Kroger’s new shop and scan program, which encourages
shoppers to use scanners while they are shopping to streamline the checkout process
(Forbes 2018). Implementing retail technologies can save retailers money by requir-
ing less employee involvement and can also improve the shopper’s experience as
shopper data are collected and utilized to create a more personalized offering (Inman
and Nikolova 2017). However, personalization alone may not be enough to per-
suade shoppers to adopt a new shopper-facing retail technology. The shopper’s
dependence on technology and their feelings about the invasiveness of the technol-
ogy may also influence the relationship between personalization and retail technol-
ogy adoption. This study uses parasocial interaction theory to look at the relationship
between personalization perceptions of retail technology and the adoption of that
technology using the mechanisms of dependency upon the technology and per-
ceived invasiveness.
As shoppers perceive offerings to be more personalized to their specific needs, a
level of dependency is developed based around the parasocial relationship with the
technology. This dependency negatively influences the level of perceived intrusive-
ness tied to technology. Without the development of dependency, the perceptions of
intrusiveness can limit the shopper’s intentions to adopt the technology. By limiting
the perceived intrusiveness through the development of dependency, the service
provider can act to limit the issues associated with shopper-facing retail technology.
When personalized campaigns increase the dependency associated with the offer-
ing, negative effects on intrusiveness and intentions to adopt can create a positive
indirect path from personalization to adoption intentions. Moreover, this indirect
T. Hancock (*) · B. Kazandjian · C. Barney · K. Nambisan

Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
e-mail: tdh521@msstate.edu; bjk209@msstate.edu; cb3496@msstate.edu;
kan229@msstate.edu

610 T. Hancock et al.
path provides a better explanation of the influences of adoption intentions than

personalization alone.
These results will begin to provide academics with a better understanding of how
shoppers develop parasocial interactions with technology and perceptions of per-
sonalization in shopper-facing retail technology. Additionally, the study attempts to
provide recommendations to practitioners on how to effectively implement person-
alization in the experience for the benefit of their shoppers.
Keywords Parasocial interactions · Personalization · Dependency · Intrusiveness

· Retail

Comparing Product Policy’s Effectiveness
for E-Commerce Companies: An Abstract
Maximilian Groh and Cláudia Simões
Abstract E-commerce companies experience increasing challenges related to the

global nature of markets and general economic turbulence. Under such conditions,
it is relevant to understand the factors of non-price product competition on the
Internet. In particular, e-commerce product policies may considerably influence
e-commerce companies’ performance levels. Although existing research has high-
lighted the landscape and effectiveness of online marketing structures, studies have
overlooked a more detailed understanding of the effectiveness of product policies
employed by e-commerce companies. This study looks at the effectiveness of prod-
uct policies generally employed by e-commerce companies. We develop and test a
model that captures dimensions affecting the choice of paid versus free e-com-
merce products, assessing the effectiveness of e-commerce companies’ product
policies. The model entails the following constructs: opinions of critics, opinions of
users, level of competition, advertising, brand, and paid/free product. For the
empirical analysis, a data set was withdrawn from an online platform containing
information about the downloads from global firms offering software products. The
sample entails software products from firms associated with brands with large
name recognition and market cap, such as Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Macromedia,
Blizzard Entertainment and Capcom, as well as little-known firms, with small mar-
ket cap, such as ES-Computing, Bohemian, and Felt Tip. There are 540 observa-
tions related to 18 different types of software (e.g., audio, browsers, desktop
enhancement, developer tools, digital photo, education, entertainment). Findings
supported the general idea that consumers prefer free products and consider various
existing alternatives for the solution of their specific needs. Among the factors
influencing software download, the largest positive associations with downloads of
both free and paid software were reflected in the variables advertising and b randing.
Users and critics’ reviews and assessments also produced a significant association
M. Groh (*) · C. Simões

University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
e-mail: groh@eeg.uminho.pt; csimoes@eeg.uminho.pt

612 M. Groh and C. Simões
with the rate of software download for both free and paid software. The study
allows establishing implications for managers and drawing avenues for future
research.
Keywords E-Commerce · Product competition factors · Free offers · Paid offers ·

Consumer choice

Top Management Emphasis and Silo-
Spanning Communication for Marketing
Knowledge Integration: An Empirical
Examination: An Abstract
Sreedhar Madhavaram, Vishag Badrinarayanan, and Robert E. McDonald
Abstract Marketing is a central business function, and because marketing strategy

affects decisions central to generating and sustaining competitive advantage, it
plays a significant role in the firm’s overall business performance. Further, market-
ing’s boundary-spanning nature results in marketing strategies playing a major role
in the business-strategy formulation. However, in the aftermath of the 2008 reces-
sion, many firms have questioned the value of marketing as evidenced by reduced
marketing budgets, less executive time allocated to marketing, marketing increas-
ingly being perceived as a cost, and the reduction in the tenure of marketing execu-
tives on top management teams (TMTs). In recent times, from a position touted to
be in great peril, marketing executives on TMTs are slowly growing into the role of
being significant contributors to firm strategy. In this research, drawing on upper
echelons theory and silo-spanning communications research, we investigate how
integration of marketing knowledge can go a long way in facilitating strong firm
performance. Specifically, we investigate how top management emphasis, silo-
spanning communication through formal and informal cross-functional interface
mechanisms, knowledge valuation, and knowledge-oriented culture influence mar-
keting knowledge integration and, in turn, marketing and financial performance.
The results of our research support our premise that organizations that facilitate the
integration of marketing knowledge are more likely to reap the positive influence on
firm performance. Specifically, by not facilitating effective marketing knowledge
integration, it is firms that fail the marketing function and not the other way around.
Overall, modern-day marketing strategy is inherently complex and dynamic, and
the ever-changing bundles of knowledge about customers, competitors, technologies,
S. Madhavaram (*) · R. E. McDonald

e-mail: s.madhavaram@ttu.edu; bob.mcdonald@ttu.edu
V. Badrinarayanan
e-mail: vb16@txstate.edu

614 S. Madhavaram et al.
strategies, policies and procedures, and other environmental forces demand

continuous integration of marketing knowledge. This research is one of the first to
empirically examine the role of the marketing function in impacting firm perfor-
mance. Specifically, on the foundations of upper echelons theory, this research dem-
onstrates the valuable role that the marketing function can play in contributing to
firm performance.
Keywords Marketing knowledge integration · Marketing function · Marketing

executives · Top management emphasis · Silo-spanning communication ·
Marketing performance · Firm performance

Brand Architecture Challenges
in the Digital Age in the Context of a Broad
Brand: An Abstract
Claudia Gonzalez, Frank Alpert, and Josephine Previte
Abstract The digitally empowered world has introduced new branding rules that
must be acknowledged if managers are to build and manage brands in the digital age
(Erdem et al. 2016). Brands are being consolidated into fewer stronger power or
mega brands, distant brand extensions are being introduced, and there is a prolifera-
tion of multi-category brands (Hill et al. 2005; Keller 2016; Parker et al. 2018). The
transformation of brands in the context of the digital environment presents an
opportunity to understand how to manage complex brand structures as broad brands.
This study investigates the architecture of broad brands as perceived and imple-
mented by managers in the context of digital transformations. The problem centres
on discussions in the literature that focus on traditional “static” models of brand
architecture. A case study of media brands, specifically broadcast television brands,
provides a dynamic context in which to study how changes to the digital media
environment are shaping brand management perspectives and practices. The case
study investigates a brand in transition that struggles with digital disruption to be
established as a broad brand. The brand is a critical case—a leading operator in an
industry undergoing transformation. In addition to archival data, field notes and
company documents, informants in charge of strategic planning or implementing
branding policies from disparate departments in an organisation were interviewed.
Forty-three face-to-face and phone interviews of approximately 40–60 min were
conducted. Observations from the data include challenges of the broad brand
architecture in terms of changing boundaries of the brand and the complexity of
relationships between brands. This study develops three insights into managing
brand architecture in the digital age and in the context of broad brands. First, it
investigates complex brand architecture, which is an unexplored research topic.
C. Gonzalez (*) · F. Alpert · J. Previte

The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: cgonzalez@business.uq.edu.au; f.alpert@business.uq.edu.au;
j.previte@business.uq.edu.au

616 C. Gonzalez et al.
Second, it identifies brand architecture as a flexible framework. Finally, it identifies

a brand platform as a strategy to manage brand architecture complexity and leverage
opportunities in the digital environment.
Keywords Brand architecture · Broad brand · Digital environment · Brand

architecture strategy · Digital age · Brand complexity

Are All Customer Empowerment
Strategies Equally Beneficial? A Relative
Efficacy and Issue of the Campaign
Accounts: An Abstract
Hajer Bachouche and Ouidade Sabri
Abstract Managerial practices of consumer empowerment are increasingly used

by companies from consumer goods sector. Since Fuchs and Schreier’s (2011)
foundational works on customer empowerment as a critical strategy for new product
development, numerous features have been advanced by scholars to help managers
deploy effective empowerment campaigns. These authors have distinguished two
types of strategies: empowerment-to-create, which enables customers to submit
ideas for new products; and empowerment-to-select, which relies on consumers’
votes to choose products, which will ultimately be marketed. Although academics
addressed strong results about conditions of consumer empowerment strategies
effectiveness, market research has yet to fully assess relative efficacy (create vs.
select) of empowerment strategies on brand variables (word of mouth, brand atti-
tude, etc.). Furthermore, identification of critical situational variables (e.g., the
introduction of the rewards effect) remains incomplete and therefore deserves fur-
ther study. Our empirical findings suggest that managers of consumer goods should
refine their empowerment strategies characteristics while implementing them.
When companies’ objectives behind empowerment strategies are an enhancement
of word-of-mouth toward the brand, performing empowerment to create designs
appears more advantageous for companies than empowerment to select. However,
coming up with empowerment to select contests is more interesting for companies
that want to improve the other behavioral indicators (brand attitude, purchase inten-
tion) as they are less expensive and easier to implement as empowerment to create
strategies. Then, we show that losing or winning the campaign (and therefore finan-
cial reward) for participating customers who take part into empowerment managerial
H. Bachouche (*)
SCBS—Groupe ESC Troyes, Troyes, France
e-mail: hajer.bachouche@yschools.fr
O. Sabri
IAE de Paris, Paris, France
e-mail: ouidade.sabri@univ-paris1.fr

618 H. Bachouche and O. Sabri
practices does not make a significant difference in terms of impact on brand

performance metrics. Our results that did not conclude about dependent variables
enhancement in the case of gain suggest that the communication of the outcome of
the campaign to the consumer whether it is favorable or unfavorable does not
significantly improve the effectiveness of these innovation challenges. Extending
recent developments, this research is giving directions for an effective crafting of
crowdsourcing strategies and a sustainable contests participation.
Keywords Consumer · Empowerment · Strategies · Relative efficacy · Rewards ·

Motivations · New product development

Leveraging User-Generated Content
for Demand-Side Strategy: An Abstract
Terrence E. Brown and Mana Farshid
Abstract The amount of user-generated content (UGC) in the hospitality industry

has exploded. Much of it exists in crowdsourced social media, forums, blogs and
review sites. Schuckert et al. (2015) did a study on the role of online customer
reviews in the hospitality industry and found that reviews can be a strategic tool and
have a crucial role in hospitality and tourism management. By investigating user-
generated material more thoroughly, the firms can better align their social media
messages to the different and unique needs of their social media users (Zhu and
Chen 2015). In doing this, they can better leverage the increasingly important social
media. Although the predominant strategic perspectives, including the resource-
based view, transaction cost economics and positioning tend to ignore the ultimate
objects of strategy, the customer, the advent of social media may lead to a change.
With the growth of social media and other UGC, there is a significant opportunity
to use the views, thoughts, ideas, attitudes and so on from the actual consumer to
help build a strategy from the bottom-up, rather than just top-down. Unsurprisingly,
a focus on bottom-up or demand-side strategy is appropriate, especially in market-
ing strategy, where the customer plays such a crucial role. As this UGC is a source
of customer intelligence, firms should be able to improve their market research
resulting in better strategic decision making. Therefore, the primary purpose of this
study is to understand whether a firm strategy can be enriched by using demand-side
insights generated by customers.
Resulting in the primary question—How can user-generated content help firms
make strategic decisions?
In sum, in this research, we argue that the crowd through its production of online
content can aid firms in their demand-side marketing research, particularly concern-
ing strategic decision making. Furthermore, as the amount of user-generated con-
tent continues to grow, new tools and techniques allow firms and managers to
explore consumers more deeply and to create value, new products and services and
new business opportunities. This study uses qualitative data from TripAdvisor and
computer-assisted content analysis. From this overall sampling frame of user
T. E. Brown (*) · M. Farshid

e-mail: terrence@kth.se; mana.farshid@indek.kth.se

620 T. E. Brown and M. Farshid
comments using a custom application, we collected customer reviews and

comments from three restaurant segments in New York State—steakhouses, Italian
restaurants, and seafood restaurants for an overall total of 282,087 comments. The
results confirm that accessing consumer insight directly can be valuable in assisting
marketers in making decisions, especially demand-side strategic decisions. It fur-
ther found that crowdsourcing through the use of user-generated content can be a
valuable technique in conducting market research. This study contributes to the
theory in a number of ways including giving empirical support for the idea by using
user-generated content from customers.
Keywords User-generated content · Crowdsourcing · Content analysis · Demand-

side strategy

Sense and Sensibility: What are Customers
Looking for in Online Product Reviews?
An Abstract
Fang Wang and Sahar Karimi
Abstract Online product reviews have become the single, largest depository of
supplementary information that customers use in their product search, evaluation,
and purchase process. The innate value of online reviews lays in the valuable infor-
mation they provide to prospective customers in their decision making. This has
inspired researchers to identify the characteristics of helpful reviews. Extent
research suggests that helpful reviews are often of certain numeric features, such as
lengthy details and unequivocal rating (Karimi and Wang 2017; Mudambi and
Schuff 2010). However, these numeric features do not reveal the nature of the review
content. Recognizing the importance of review content, recent studies gear toward
examining review content, with a focus on sentiment, using text analysis techniques
(Cao et al. 2011; Salehan and Kim 2016). Apart from sentiment, the impact of other
content characteristics of online reviews is largely unknown.
This research explores online review content by decomposing and comparing
three fundamental information components that a review may contain: sensory
information (i.e., reviewer’s observation), cognitive information (i.e., thoughts/
analysis), and affective information (i.e., emotions). These components are directly
associated with three fundamental psychological processes (observation, thinking,
and emotion) that people experience to interact with and make sense of the world.
When writing a review, reviewers tangle various types of information together to
construct narratives and express opinions, creating a complex review content.
Readers, on the other side, retrieve and evaluate the information of all types to form
an opinion on the quality and helpfulness of the review. Distinguishing these differ-
ent information components and analyzing their direct and combined effects can
significantly enhance our knowledge of consumer’s information needs and online
search behavior.
F. Wang (*)
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
e-mail: fwang@wlu.ca
S. Karimi
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
e-mail: sahar.karimi@liverpool.ac.uk

622 F. Wang and S. Karimi
This research performs text analysis to capture the three types of information in
online product reviews, analyze their patterns and effects on perceived information
value. Results from analyzing a sample of 56,752 reviews from Amazon.com indi-
cate that sensory information in online review content has a significantly positive
effect on online review helpfulness; whereas, this effect is insignificant for cognitive
information, and significantly negative for affective information. This indicates that
review readers highly value reviewer’s observations and their expression of sensory
experience, are indifferent toward reviewer’s thoughts and analysis, and dislike
expression of emotions in review content. This pattern is more salient in reviews of
search goods than those of experience goods.
Keywords Online review · Sensory information · Cognitive information ·

Affective information · Text analysis

Police Brutality and Running Shoes:
Authentic Brand Activism or Woke
Washing: An Abstract
Jessica Vredenburg, Sommer Kapitan, Amanda Spry, and Joya Kemper
Abstract Historically, brands have not engaged in social and political conversa-
tions for fear of potentially alienating customers. However, in today’s postmodern
culture, corporate neutrality has been subject to criticism. Remaining ambivalent on
contentious issues is now more of a failing than a virtue, especially in the eyes of
certain consumer groups (Beverland 2009).
Engaging with sociopolitical issues is not necessarily new for companies. This
has often been seen in cause-related marketing and advocacy advertising. However,
the emerging concepts of corporate social advocacy (CSA) and corporate political
advocacy (CPA) differ in terms of the polarizing nature of the cause. Consider the
controversial Nike advertisement featuring NFL football player Colin Kaepernick,
the first athlete not to stand for the U.S. national anthem. Nike’s message delivered
by Kaepernick was “believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything,”
which raised brand awareness among their target demographic. As brands engage in
more corporate social activism, however, motives underpinning this activity are
increasingly scrutinized (Holt 2002).
Prior research has established the relationship between corporate societal mar-
keting and brand equity, in part through building brand awareness and enhancing
brand image (Hoeffler and Keller 2002). Our research is concerned with how this
variation of corporate social activism impacts brand equity. Particularly, we are con-
cerned with brands that are perceived to be inauthentic in their “wokeness.” “Woke,”
added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2017, is defined as being well-informed and alert
to racial or social discrimination and injustice. Consumers may react negatively
J. Vredenburg (*) · S. Kapitan

Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: jessica.vredenburg@aut.ac.nz; sommer.kapitan@aut.ac.nz
A. Spry
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
e-mail: amanda.spry@rmit.edu.au
J. Kemper
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: j.kemper@auckland.ac.nz

624 J. Vredenburg et al.
because they question the authenticity of a corporate social initiative and the brand’s
follow-through to concretely improve related social issues. We argue that whether
affiliation with a political or social cause has a positive effect on brand equity cru-
cially depends on the authenticity of this gesture. Brand equity for social activism
marketing thus hinges on whether the brand engages in practices that match its
message.
The contribution of this research thus is twofold. First, the authors martial the
disperse literature around the marketing dimensions of CSR and corporate sociopo-
litical advocacy to inform the concept of brand activism. Second, this paper draws
on an exploratory study to produce a typology of brand activism. In particular, we
investigate issues of authenticity (Wettstein and Baur 2016) raised by brand activ-
ism efforts when contrasted with brand practices. The resulting typology reveals
when brands are more likely to be perceived as “woke washing” or inauthentic in
their marketing, as their practices may not clearly align with their messaging. As
such, this work produces a clear and theoretically grounded set of implications
drawn from the fast-evolving attitudes of consumers toward brands that signal their
activism via marketing communications.
Keywords Brand activism · Woke washing · Corporate social responsibility ·

Brand equity

The Lazarus Touch of Heritage: Place
Branding, a Multi Stakeholder Study:
An Abstract
Varsha Jain, Preeti Shroff, Altaf Merchant, and Subhalakshmi Bezbaruah
Abstract In today’s globalized world, geographic locations have emerged as hubs

of cultural influences, historic uniqueness and economic development. Each geo-
graphic location possesses distinct characteristics, emanating from the cultural, his-
toric, community and people traditions, which can be moulded into a brand
experience. Hence, the concept of place branding is garnering attention from aca-
demic as well as governments and industry experts. Place branding refers to the
development of geographic locations as a unique brand with distinctive traits, given
the national and cultural identity aspects. However, unlike the product/service
brand, the place brand is a multilevel concept. The growth prospects of tourism,
competitive ecosystem and the multilevel experiential dimensions make place
branding an important research area.
The existing academic research analyses place branding based on functional–
utilitarian, cultural–subjective and community–experience related aspects as dis-
tinctive elements. However, the current research landscape on place branding is
beleaguered with challenges arising from the lack of a commonly acknowledged
description, issues related to considering a place as a branded entity and lack of a
common framework. Henceforth, this paper aims to develop a framework for place
branding, highlighting the interactions across the subjective, utilitarian and
experience-based elements, and the vital role of brand heritage by putting people
and their intangible living heritage at the center. The study was conducted in the
context of the historic city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India (UNESCO recognized
First Heritage City in the country). The rich legacy, multiethnic communities and
multiple-religious (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, Jain, Sikh etc.) dimensions of
Ahmedabad were the important criteria for selection.
V. Jain (*) · P. Shroff · S. Bezbaruah

e-mail: varsha.jain@micamail.in; preeti.shroff@micamail.in; subhalakshmi_fpm17@
micamail.in
A. Merchant
University of Washington, Tacoma, WA, USA
e-mail: altafm@uw.edu

626 V. Jain et al.
The study adopted a qualitative approach—the methods employed were in-depth

interviews of 34 selected city residents, and multi-sited ethnography covering 18
sites that have high historic and heritage legacy. Content and thematic analysis of
the data collated from the study resulted in four vital themes: the meaning of heri-
tage, place as an element of brand heritage, people as an element of brand heritage
and enablers of a heritage place brand. The study resulted in a cohesive model for
place branding, with a clear dynamic of the subjective, utilitarian and experience-
based elements. The insights of the study contribute significantly to academics,
industry and future research avenues.
Keywords Place branding · Brand heritage · Heritage place brand · Historical

The Influence of Retail Return Policies
on Brand Image: An Abstract
Jennifer A. Espinosa and Lisa Monahan
Abstract U.S. retailers lose in excess of $350 billion in sales per year due to
returns (Appriss 2017). The area of product returns continues to be an under-
researched area, despite its significance to manufacturers and retailers (Yon Seo
et al. 2015). To date, a large amount of the research on product returns seeks to
identify personality traits of customers, which can be used to pinpoint and predict
who will return products (e.g., age; Daunt and Harris 2012), or to provide evidence
that strategically increasing the stringency of return policies will reduce returns
(e.g., Petersen and Kumar 2010; Powers and Jack 2013). In contrast, the current
research investigates whether a strict return policy is always in the best interest of
the retailer. We investigate whether a lenient return policy can have a positive long-
term impact on retailers by favorably influencing brand image and other related
brand outcomes.
Drawing on cue utilization theory, we study the influence of return policy strin-
gency on retail brand image and consumer behavioral outcomes, such as willing-
ness to pay and intentions to revisit a retailer. We test our hypotheses in an online
experiment with 80 participants. We find empirical evidence that a lenient return
policy was effective in increasing consumers’ brand image and trust, and that
brand trust mediates the relationship between return policy stringency and brand
image. As consumers’ brand trust increases, a lenient return policy improves brand
image faster than a strict return policy. Further, a lenient return policy increased
consumers’ intentions to purchase from the retailer, but may have no impact on
the amount of money consumers spend, only increasing their likelihood of pur-
chasing the brand when they know it is easy to return. For supply chain and brand
J. A. Espinosa (*)
e-mail: espinosaj@rowan.edu
L. Monahan
Meredith College, Raleigh, NC, USA
e-mail: lamonahan@meredith.edu

628 J. A. Espinosa and L. Monahan
managers, the results of this study reveal that the strictness of the return policy
impacts more than the effort consumers exert to return products and the firm’s bot-
tom line—the return policy also directly influences brand image, brand trust, and
purchase intentions.
Keywords Product returns · Return policy · Brand trust · Brand image ·

Behavioral intentions

Bridging Islands: Boundary Resources
in Solution Networks: An Abstract
Ruiqi Wei, Susi Geiger, and Róisín Vize
Abstract In solution business, solution providers use boundary resources (i.e. the
individuals/boundary spanners who span interorganizational boundaries and the
interfaces that help coordinate interfirm relationships) to coordinate their networks.
However, due to modularization and digitalization of solution process, these inter-
faces may have taken over or complemented the functions of boundary spanners.
Boundary spanners may also have new functions due to these changes. Thus, this
research aims to explore how solution providers can utilize diverse boundary
resources simultaneously to orchestrate large and diverse solution networks. A mul-
tiple case-study approach studies three companies with digital platforms that
orchestrate solution networks in the LED and ICT industries. In this research, 37
semi-structured interviews have been conducted with employees at different levels
in the companies and with their customers. Documents and archival records have
also been collected and analysed. Thematic analysis has been applied to analyse the
data. The research findings reveal the functions of interfaces, which include module
providers’ categorization and ranking, module reconfiguration, module standard
testing, network communication and responsibility specification. Boundary span-
ners also develop new functions, including capability examination, resource mobi-
lization, network representation and strategic planning. The functions of interfaces
offer the infrastructure for boundary spanners to reconfigure networks. For exam-
ple, boundary spanners mobilize resources among network members through the
supports of interface functions, such as module categorization and ranking as well
as network communication. On the other hand, boundary spanners’ function of
capability examination complements the interface function of module provider
categorization and ranking. Some traditional functions of boundary spanners,

such as communication and module reconfiguration, have also been taken over by
R. Wei (*) · S. Geiger

University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
e-mail: ruiqi.wei@ucdconnect.ie; susi.geiger@ucd.ie
R. Vize
Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
e-mail: roisin.vize@dit.ie

630 R. Wei et al.
interfaces. This research contributes to the boundary spanner literature by extending

boundary spanners’ functions. It also contributes to the B2B network literature
broadly by pointing out the use of boundary resources to orchestrate a large and
dynamic network with diverse business partners.
Keywords Solution business · Modularity · Digital platforms · B2B networks ·

Boundary spanners · Interfaces

Value Proposition with the Relevant
Business Ecosystem: The Moderating Role
of Customer’s Business Change
Niko Lipiäinen and Kirsi Kokkonen
Abstract Value proposition and business ecosystem are well-established concepts

in business literature. However, further delineation is needed about their relation-
ship and drivers. This study examines the moderating role of customer’s business
change for the development of value proposition and its relevant business ecosys-
tem. We applied case study research strategy with analysis methods of the inductive
theorizing and the abductive reasoning. Therefore, four different customer cases of
a small-sized software firm were examined. The results revealed that the level of
customer’s anticipated business change affects the value proposition’s complexity
and the required business ecosystem, as complementary resources and capabilities
are needed to fulfill the changed customer needs. Based on our analysis, we intro-
duce four empirically testable propositions about the causality between the ele-
ments of business change, value proposition, and business ecosystems for further
research.
Keywords Value proposition · Value co-creation · Customer orientation · Business

ecosystem · Business change · Case study
Niko Lipiäinen wishes to thank Finnish Cultural Foundation for funding (70141339).
Business Finland for parallel project funding, partner firms for collaboration, and two anonymous
reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions for improving the paper.
N. Lipiäinen (*) · K. Kokkonen

LUT University, Lappeenranta, Finland
e-mail: niko.lipiainen@lut.fi; kirsi.kokkonen@lut.fi

632 N. Lipiäinen and K. Kokkonen
Introduction
Intertwined concepts of value proposition and business ecosystems have gained

attention in business literature (Adner 2017; Clarysse et al. 2014; Jacobides et al.
2018; Marcos-Cuevas et al. 2016; Payne et al. 2017; Skålén et al. 2015). However,
a deeper understanding of their relationship still requires further delineation.
This kind of delineation would help firms to form better value propositions in their
business ecosystems as well. Since firms aim to fulfill customer’s needs with their
offerings, changes in customer’s business are important drivers for the firms’ future
business development and strategic transformation. Our objective in this study is to
identify how a change in customer’s business would affect firms’ value proposition
definition and the development of a surrounding business ecosystem.
Our conceptual approach is based on established views of value proposition and
business ecosystems with their dynamic nature. We define value proposition as a
strategic tool to define, express, and facilitate customer’s value creation in an evolv-
ing business ecosystem. This definition follows the already identified views in the
business literature (Adner 2017; Clarysse et al. 2014; Grönroos and Voima 2013;
Payne et al. 2017; Skålén et al. 2015). We will apply this conceptual approach to an
empirical setting with a case study method. Our context is focused on four different
customer cases with differences in their size and anticipated level of business
change. The collected data are analyzed with inductive theorizing and abductive
reasoning. With selected methods, we can discover not only the possible effects of
customer’s business change to the value proposition and business ecosystem but
also understand why these effects emerge by possible causalities.
The study’s theoretical contributions are founded on these empirical findings. As
the main contribution we recognized that the more radical the change is anticipated
in the customer’s business, the more likely a greater relevant business ecosystem is
required to fulfill more complex value propositions. This connection is linked to the
existing literature and supported by four empirical testable propositions. Managerial
implications reveal the firm’s opportunity to adjust their value propositions to match
customer’s business change and surrounding business ecosystem.
Value Proposition in Business Ecosystems
Depending on the viewpoint, the value proposition can be seen as the promise of
future customer’s value creation or a strategic tool for communicating value to cus-
tomers (Grönroos and Voima 2013; Payne et al. 2017; Skålén et al. 2015). As a
communication tool, the value proposition has not only a direct positive impact on
customer’s value perception but also an indirect impact by the provider’s market
orientation (Payne et al. 2017). The process of developing the value proposition
contains different sets of practices, like sense-making frameworks and routine activ-
ities (Skålén et al. 2015). As an indented outcome, the customer’s perceived value
consists of objective and experienced attributes of benefits and undesired conse-
quences (Kumar and Reinartz 2016). Therefore, the value proposition related to
Value Proposition with the Relevant Business Ecosystem: The Moderating Role… 633
problem-finding practices aims to identify customer’s problems in value creation

and their needs for new forms of value creation (Skålén et al. 2015).
Firm’s customer-related know-how can create many opportunities to add value,
like understanding customer’s supply market, operations, and products, as well as
participation in customer’s product development (Ulaga and Eggert 2006).
Discovering of this kind of opportunities can be called as problem-solving practices,
which aim to solve customer’s problems by including operant resources, like train-
ing, and operand resources, like training materials (Skålén et al. 2015). In addition
to exchanged resources, providers’ operant resources that are needed for forming a
value proposition can be product, market, and innovation knowledge (Payne et al.
2017). The provider can also apply these operant resources, like knowledge and
skill to their operand resources, like the software (deLeon and Chatterjee 2017).
Customers make choices that will not only maximize benefits but also minimize
undesired consequences (Kumar and Reinartz 2016). Therefore, the customer firm
also considers risks and implementation costs when they evaluate potential value
(deLeon and Chatterjee 2017). They will encounter not only price but also other
transaction and leaning costs and risks, which can be delayed as well (Kumar and
Reinartz 2016). These cost factors may also be used as key criteria to choose a
potential group of providers (Ulaga and Eggert 2006). As a response to fears of
undesired consequences, output-based value propositions can be used, which trans-
fer uncertainty and risks to the provider (Worm et al. 2017). This kind of output-
based value proposition is, for example, services that increase the productivity of
customer’s assets and also services that perform processes on behalf of the customer
(Ulaga and Reinartz 2011). Additionally, the provider can utilize its know-how of its
indirect customers to offer product adjustments, consulting, or training to direct
customers (Homburg et al. 2014).
The value proposition’s structure is created with modeling practices (Skålén et al.
2015). For example, the provider may change existing services scope by adding aug-
mented operand resources over the core product (deLeon and Chatterjee 2017). The
nature of the value proposition varies not only between offered services oriented toward
the provider’s goods or customer’s processes but also they are input and output based
(Ulaga and Reinartz 2011). Additionally, to modeling practices, naming and labeling
practices aim to describe the value proposition’s activities and fulfillment to the cus-
tomer (Skålén et al. 2015). These practices can have a great impact on relationship
satisfaction, like expressed clarity about customer’s value creation (deLeon and
Chatterjee 2017). To help with clarity, interaction practices enable the value proposi-
tion’s co-creation with customers and its communication to them (Skålén et al. 2015).
The interaction between actors appears in value creation in forms of direct and indirect
interaction (Grönroos and Voima 2013). This kind of interactive relationship between
provider and customer emerges already during value proposition formation (Payne
et al. 2017; Skålén et al. 2015). To manage relationship-related information, the pro-
vider may map actors by their role, influence directions, and valence (Homburg et al.
2014). Additionally to the customer’s closest stakeholders, the value proposition
defines the relevant ecosystem’s endogenous boundary (Adner 2017).
Firms increasingly operate in business ecosystems where multiple actors com-
bine their offerings into a coherent customer-facing value proposition (Autio and
Thomas 2016; Marcos-Cuevas et al. 2016). A business ecosystem can be defined as

a value-oriented perspective for company networks, where the value is co-created
and captured between providers, customers, and other ecosystem actors. From a
business ecosystem perspective, the indirect roles of actors in value creation and
capture, as well as the possibility of actors’ changing roles over the time, are taken
into account (Marcos-Cuevas et al. 2016; Peltola et al. 2016; Rong et al. 2013).
Differing from traditional value chain or business network approaches, business
ecosystems can be seen characterized by increased connectivity, interdependence,
and coevolution of actors (Aarikka-Stenroos and Ritala 2017; Jacobides et al. 2018).
Business ecosystems create value as an interrelated system of cooperating interde-
pendent firms, who contribute with specific components of the overall solution and
delivering it jointly to the customer (Clarysse et al. 2014; Jacobides et al. 2018).
Thus, ecosystems require providers of complementary offerings from different
industries, which have an impact on the actor roles and level of interdependency, as
well as ecosystem behavior and organizing structures (Jacobides et al. 2018).
Changes in customers’ business may affect changes in the whole business eco-
system. These changes may cause challenges, for example, developing comple-
ments (Ozalp et al. 2018). In general, to be able to benefit from strategic innovation,
firms need to adapt to the type of business transformation they aim for a context.
The types of transformation (e.g., incremental or radical) are different in scope, but
also in the factors that make them work (Szekely and Strebel 2013). The more dis-
ruptive the change, the more it causes uncertainty for both the disruptor and partici-
pants in its business ecosystem, for example, in forms of customer and partner needs
and the viability of the ecosystem’s value proposition and underlying technology
(Autio and Thomas 2016; Snihur et al. 2018). We suggest that to align the ecosys-
tem value creation with the changing needs of the customers, the value proposition
in the different business transformation cases should first be examined.
Data and Methods
For empirical research, we chose a case study research strategy, as it allows research-
ers to explore or test theories within the context of complicated real-life situations
(Myers 2013; Yin 2003). For research on business relations and ecosystem-based
business, a case study provides an opportunity for creating a many-sided view of a
situation in its context. It gives an opportunity to put objects, like firms, in relation
to the environment where they operate and use their abilities. Moreover, it is a strong
strategy for studying change processes, as it allows the study of contextual factors
and process elements in the same real-life situation (Creswell 2013; Halinen and
Törnroos 2005).
The study was conducted as a part of a one and a half years’ parallel project with
three Finnish software firms. During the project, the researchers got familiar with
the firms’ business development opportunities and changes in the business environ-
ment, as they were discussed and analyzed in several meetings and workshops. This
specific empirical study was conducted with one of the firms, which is specialized
in business-to-business software solutions. The firm has become increasingly

dependent on its business environment players to create value that fulfills changing
customer expectations in a dynamic business environment. To achieve its strategic
targets for domestic and international growth, the firm should continually increase
its knowledge on the business models of its existing and potential customers, and
the scale and impact of customer business change on the firm and its partner net-
work. Therefore, the aim was to gain comparative insight on different customer
groups of the firm by examining how the value proposition should be aligned with
the customers’ size and type of their business transformation, and moreover, how
the alignment of value proposition influences on the formation of partnerships and
development of business ecosystems. The examination was limitedto the customers
in the manufacturing industry, which is the most important customer segment for
the studied firm.
For empirical analysis, two basic dimensions were chosen: the type of custom-
er’s business transformation and the size of the customer group. These dimensions
were first ideated by the researchers and then validated with the firm. The business
transformation scope and scale were seen to set in two main categories: incremental
change, which includes a relatively small change in customer’s products, processes,
or supporting infrastructure; and radical change, which means wider strategic busi-
ness transformation (Grant 2010; Szekely and Strebel 2013). The initial grouping of
customers was done by their size, using adapted European Union’s (2003) defini-
tion. Our size classification was based on the firm’s staff headcount, with less than
50 as small, between 50 and 250 as midsize, and more than 250 as large. Because
the firm sees the future business potential mainly in midsize and small-size cus-
tomer groups, these two groups were chosen for further examination. Thus, four
different customer cases were formed, as small firms with incremental change (S–I),
small firms with radical change (S–R), midsize firms with incremental change
(M–I), and midsize firms with radical change (M–R).
Primary data were collected in a workshop with the representatives of the firm,
including the firm’s joint owner, chief executive officer, and project manager. In the
first phase of the workshop, customer characteristics in the predefined four cus-
tomer cases were identified, including the customer’s current situation, business
transformation areas, business challenges and opportunities, management of strate-
gic changes, sourcing logic, purchasing behavior, and owners of the change. The
second phase concentrated on the value proposition for different customer cases,
where the customers’ pursued value, elements of value proposition, and the firm’s
solutions’ value for different customers were discussed. As support material, we
used Osterwalder et al. (2014) practitioner-friendly value proposition canvas and
filled it separately for all the customer cases using predefined leading questions (see
Appendix). The workshop also included identification of other actors and their busi-
ness models, and examination of value flows between the actors and ideation of
possible ecosystems’ revenue models. Based on the ideation, the initial business
ecosystems around different customer cases were drafted and evaluated. Collected
data were written up into electronic form and then validated in a separate workshop
with firm representatives.
For analysis methods, we will rely on two main approaches. The first is inductive
theorizing and the second is abductive reasoning. With inductive theorizing, schol-
ars can extract specific context away and introduce more generalizable abstracted
knowledge (Bansal et al. 2018). For this purpose, we use the Gioia methodology to
present data structure. It should also provide adequate rigor for further analysis
(Gioia et al. 2013). Abductive reasoning transforms the general theory’s logic to fit
case-related contextual characteristics with the theory (Ketokivi and Choi 2014).
For this contextualized explanation, we apply the methodology that Dubois and
Gadde (2002) call systematic combining. It can be described as a nonlinear process
for matching theory and reality (Dubois and Gadde 2002).
Data Structure and Contextualization
At the beginning of the analysis, validated data from each customer case were cat-
egorized into the same dimensions that were used in the workshop. These categories
are labeled as the first-order concepts and their content aims to retain informant
terms as purely as possible (Gioia et al. 2013). Chosen categorization should also
provide an inductive perspective and increase the distance from customer case-
related context dependency. However, abbreviations for each customer case were
still included for traceability during later analysis. Figure 1 represents validated data
and the first-order concepts on the left.
During the second phase of the analysis, the first-order concepts were general-
ized to higher abstraction-level second-order themes, which may help to describe
and explain the phenomena (Gioia et al. 2013). The generalization was conducted
by identifying and discussing emerging patterns among the researchers. Figure 1
represents the second-order themes in the middle column. The group of customer’s
aim and task conceptualized into concrete and more abstract aims. Concrete aims
can be like “new part etc.” as our informants mentioned. Abstract aims may be
“pursue for growth” in our informants’ terms. Customer’s looked benefits was con-
ceptualized as two second-order themes: defined and undefined benefits. We would
concern defined benefits, for example, what our informants mentioned as “clear
vision of the wanted outcomes.” Other types of looked benefits we are concerning as
relatively undefined benefits. We conceptualized customer’s expected challenges or
fears of undesired consequences into customer’s know-how related and information
system-related challenges. We consider know-how related challenges, for example,
“unknown extent of the change” in our informants’ terms. On the other hand, “ERP
integration” in our informants’ terms would be system-related challenges.
We conceptualized the group of provider’s direct interaction with customer’s
stakeholders into groups of workers and managers. Managers are also often the
owners of the smaller firm. Workers can be, for example, designers. Our conceptu-
alization for responses to customer’s looked benefits divides into solutions provided
by in-house resources and in those who need external systems or know-how as well.
In-house responses can be for example what our informants call “production-ready
1st Order 2nd Order Aggregate

Concepts Themes Dimension
Expected customer’s view

Customer’s aim or task
• New part etc. / Well defined problem (S-I) Concrete aim
• Pursue for growth (S-R) Type of change’s aim
• Product change (M-I)
• Servitization / Execute changes (M-R) Abstract aim
Looked benefits
• Clear vision of the wanted outcomes (S-I) Defined benefits
• Improved reporting / New services and products (S-R)
• Clear vision of the wanted outcomes / Scalability (M-I) Type of benefits
• Control for the lifecycle information / Stabilized resource Undefined benefits
demand (M-R)
Challenges or fears of undesired consequences

• Unknown extent of the change (S-I)
Know-how related
• Costs / Defining required change / Production bottlenecks /
Tacit knowledge / Engineering / ERP integration (S-R) challenges
• Hurry in changes / Quality and implementation challenges / Type of challenges
Manual work (M-I)
System related
• Limited know-how / Tacit knowledge / Defining required challenges
change / Scattered lifecycle information (M-R)
Provider’s view
Interaction with customer’s stakeholders
• Worker / CEO / Owner (S-I) Worker
• Management team / CEO / Owner (S-R) Target personnel
• Designer / IT and management team (M-I)
Management
• Management team (M-R)
Responses to looked benefits

• Clear product / Production ready solution (S-I)
• Utilization of third-party systems, like data warehouse, In-house
Need for external
business intelligence, visualization and open source
partners
systems (S-R)
External
• Identified bottlenecks with customer’s designers (M-I)
• Integrations / Simulators (M-R)
Responses to anticipated challenges

• Profound understanding of the customer firm (S-I)
• Pricing / Optimizing load smoothness / Clear package / Know-how
Information into systems / Automatization (S-R) Value proposition
• Implementation support / Automatization (M-I) orientation
• Information systems / Know-how support for change Systems
definition (M-R)
Characteristics of possible products and services

• Small package (S-I)
• Emphasize cash flow / Platform / Understanding of the Simple solution
Level of value
benefit or improvement (S-R)
• Testing / Audit / Services or projects (M-I) proposition complexity
• Information system / Solution for the change process / Complex solution
Comprehensive solution (M-R)
Fig. 1 Data structure
solution.” Responses that require external resources can be “utilization of third-

party systems” in our informants’ terms. We conceptualized responses for antici-
pated challenges into know-how and system-related resolutions. Know-how related
resolutions can include, for example, “know-how support for change definition”
Table 1 Contextualized conceptual dimensions

Small firms Midsize firms
Conceptual Incremental Incremental
dimension change Radical change change Radical change
Expected customer’s view
Type of change’s Concrete aim Abstract aim Concrete aim Abstract aim
aim
Type of benefits Defined benefits Undefined benefits Defined benefits Undefined benefits
Type of Know-how Know-how and Know-how Know-how and
challenges related system related related system related
challenges challenges challenges challenges
Provider’s view
Target personnel Worker and Management Worker and Management
management management
Need for external In-house External In-house External
partners
Value Know-how Know-how and Know-how and Know-how and
proposition systems systems systems
orientation
Level of value Simple solution Complex solution Simple solution Complex solution
proposition
complexity
based on our informants. System-related resolutions include information systems,

which can store information and automatize customer’s tasks. Finally, we conceptu-
alized characteristics of possible products and services into simple and more com-
plex solutions based on the solution’s monetary value as well as required resources.
These simple solutions can be described as “small package” based on our infor-
mants. Complex solutions are like what our informants call “comprehensive solu-
tion,” which may require a deep “understanding of the benefit or improvement” for
the customer.
In the third phase of the analysis, second-order themes were distilled into aggre-
gate dimensions by following Gioia et al. (2013) example. These dimensions are
represented in Fig. 1 on the right. The first dimension is defined as a type of change’s
aim, which customer is pursuing. The next dimension is the type of benefits that the
customer is looking for. Continuing with the type of challenges what the customer
is expecting. From the provider’s side, dimensions varied more. The first dimension
is target personnel with whom the interaction will happen. The second dimension is
the extent of needed external partners. The third dimension is the value proposi-
tion’s orientation. The final dimension is the level of value proposition complexity.
In the fourth phase of the analysis, we contextualized the second-order themes
for each customer case context and aggregated dimensions. This mapping enables
further analysis of possible causalities. Table 1 represents the mapping sorted by
aggregated dimensions on expected customer’s and provider’s views. Based on the
mapping, the early perception is that the second-order themes are distributed mainly
by the level of customer’s change, not by the size of the customer’s firm. Each of the
factors on the provider views’ conceptual dimension will be discussed in the forth-
coming sections to identify possible reasons for this behavior and to analyze cau-
salities from contextualized customer’s view to a provider’s view.
When the value proposition is required to be customer-oriented, the customer’s
view is the leading source for needed aspects to fulfill. Since the same approach is
applied in the data collection phase, it would be meaningful to understand how this
causality appears. The first conceptual dimension for the causality analysis is the
customer’s target personnel, which the provider will interact in a typical case. Since
in typical incremental changes the customer has a concrete aim with defined bene-
fits, interaction typically involves worker-level persons who are executing or directly
related to the change. Radical changes with more abstract aim need more strategic
planning and larger purchases, therefore, managers are typically more involved.
Provider’s need for external partners follows a similar pattern. Cases where the
customer is looking for more abstract and radical change with undefined benefits,
tend to require changes in customer’s key information systems as well. However,
these key information systems are not provided in-house by the case firm, and there-
fore external partners are needed. The relatively small size of our case firm also
means relatively small amount of available resources, and the external partners may
have specialized know-how, which is required as well. Thus, radical changes in
customers’ business boost the development of business ecosystems.
Value proposition orientation is weighting the know-how aspect. Customer’s
needs for incremental change weight on consultative know-how support, but with
radical change information systems are needed. The single exception is a midsize
firm’s incremental change, where information system changes are related to autom-
atization. Since the case firm is specialized in these automatization solutions, they
can be provided with in-house resources.
Value proposition complexity varies mainly with the level of customer’s business
change. Customer’s system-oriented demands require know-how and technological
resources from the providers’ side. These demands are not fulfilled by the case firm
itself, but they often require common ecosystem capabilities from several partners.
When packaging a broader set of different providers’ offerings, the complexity level
of the possible solution increases. On the other hand, the case provider expects to
offer relatively simple products and services for customer’s incremental changes.
Discussion
Our findings from customer cases are mainly in line with the current literature.
However, we identified additional insight into the customer’s business change’s role
for value proposition and its relevant business ecosystem. Our study recognized a
similar interactive relationship between providers and customers than service and
value proposition literature have described (Grönroos and Voima 2013; Payne et al.
2017; Skålén et al. 2015). However, the focus stakeholder group within the cus-
tomer’s organization seems to vary by customer’s level of change and is expressed
by the customer’s aim and looked benefits. Thus, we would suggest the following
proposition:
P1: The level of a customer’s business change has a positive moderating effect on
the relationship between value proposition-related interaction and hierarchy level of
the target stakeholder group within the customer’s organization.
Business ecosystem literature has also highlighted the multi-actor and dynamic
nature of the ecosystems (Clarysse et al. 2014; Jacobides et al. 2018; Snihur et al.
2018). Like we noticed during the contextualization, to respond on the different
levels of customer’s change with the suitable value proposition, the ecosystem’s
endogenous boundary needs to change as well with the provider’s external partners.
This appears especially in small firms with limited resources. Therefore, the follow-
ing proposition is introduced:
P2: The level of customer’s business change has a positive moderating effect on
the relationship between the value proposition’s relevant business ecosystem forma-
tion and the endogenous boundary of the ecosystem.
Provider’s general knowledge and customer-related know-how are important
aspects for developing a value proposition, along with customer’s fear of undesired
consequences (deLeon and Chatterjee 2017; Kumar and Reinartz 2016; Payne et al.
2017; Ulaga and Eggert 2006). To delineate these relationships, we noticed that
customer’s expected challenges have a leading role in defining a need for value
proposition’s orientation between know-how or systems. On the contrary, the pro-
vider’s operant and operand resources define a feasible response to the need in each
case. Thus, we would add the following proposition:
P3: Type of customer’s challenges and level of providers’ operant and operand
resources have a direct effect on the value proposition’s suitable orientation.
Different scopes of offering and business ecosystem’s ability to create complex
value propositions are discussed in the literature as well (Clarysse et al. 2014;
deLeon and Chatterjee 2017; Jacobides et al. 2018; Marcos-Cuevas et al. 2016). Our
findings indicate that radical changes in customer’s business are leading to more
complex value propositions than incremental changes, due to a variety of resources
of different business ecosystem actors, which need to be integrated. This finding
would suggest the following proposition:
P4: Business ecosystem’s resource integration ability has a positive moderating
effect on the relationship between the level of a customer’s business change and
value proposition’s complexity.
Based on the presented propositions, the level of customer’s business change

affects not only the interaction between the customer and provider but also to the
provider’s whole business ecosystem. A value proposition should be aligned with
this change as well since the customer’s needs evolve along with the business trans-
formation. The more radical the change in the customer’s business, the more likely
the value is cocreated in a business ecosystem. Thus, the business ecosystem should
be built customer-driven, utilizing actors’ complementary resources.
Conclusions
In this study, we have examined the role of the customer’s business change related
to the value proposition and the relevant business ecosystem. The main theoretical
contribution lays on extending current knowledge by identifying causalities between
these conceptual structures. Identified causalities are expressed in the form of four
propositions. As the main theme, we noticed that the greater a customer’s antici-
pated business change, the greater is the relevant business ecosystem required to
fulfill more complex value propositions.
Managerial implications of this study appear as opportunities for firms to recog-
nize a level of customer’s business change as a driver for building suitable value
propositions. Firms may also extend their operant and operand resources within the
business ecosystem, to build more complex value propositions than they could build
by themselves.
Limitations of this study appear mainly on its limited dataset since it is based on
the provider’s view of the phenomenon. The nature of the study is more discovery
than confirmatory, as it follows a qualitative case research approach. In general, the
study has opened an interesting path for future research. We suggest that future
research should emphasize examination of the causalities in various empirical set-
tings, like different provider’s and customer’s sizes, as well as including both side’s
viewpoints. Empirical quantitative research could also be conducted for measuring
the actual strength of the causalities.
Appendix
Value proposition canvas was filled separately for all the customer cases by using
the leading questions, which are presented in Table 2. Each of the questions repre-
sents an element of the value proposition canvas and can be related to findings from
the literature.
Table 2 Leading questions for the workshop

Value proposition
Leading question canvas relation Supporting literature
What is the customer’s typical aim Customer jobs Skålén et al. (2015), Ulaga and
or task in this case? Eggert (2006)
What benefits the customer is Gains Kumar and Reinartz (2016), Skålén
looking for in this case? et al. (2015)
What fears or challenges customers Pains deLeon and Chatterjee (2017), Kumar
expect to have in this case? and Reinartz (2016)
Which things bring typical benefits Gain creators deLeon and Chatterjee (2017), Skålén
in this case? et al. (2015)
Which things typically reduce fears Pain relievers Homburg et al. (2014), Ulaga and
and challenges in this case? Reinartz (2011), Worm et al. (2017)
What kind of solution could be Products and deLeon and Chatterjee (2017), Skålén
suitable in this case? services et al. (2015), Ulaga and Reinartz
(2011)
Which customer’s stakeholder group Homburg et al. (2014), Payne et al.
is typically involved in this case? (2017), Skålén et al. (2015)
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How can Supervisors Help Frontline
Employees Deal with Customer
Mistreatment? An Abstract
Achilleas Boukis, Christos Koritos, Kate Daunt,

and Avraam Papastathopoulos
Abstract Customer mistreatment of frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread

phenomenon and is detrimental to employee well-being driving increased job stress,
work withdrawal, and employee incivility (Wang et al. 2011). To date, research in
this field has focused on exploring the antecedents and conditions that trigger cus-
tomer mistreatment of FLEs, mapping the reactions and consequences of customer
mistreatment of FLEs. The role of supervisory interventions in managing the imme-
diate impact on FLEs from such disruptive experiences has yet to be addressed,
despite constituting the only proximal resource that can be enacted to help FLEs
cope with in-progress episodes of customer mistreatment (Zhan et al. 2014).
Drawing on the premises of the job demands–resources (JD-R) and conservation of
resources (COR) frameworks, the current research employs an experimental meth-
odology and explores how two of the most common forms of customer mistreat-
ment toward FLEs (verbal aggression and demand for untenable service levels)
affect FLEs’ psychological and behavioral reactions. In addition, the buffering
effect of three supervisor leadership styles on FLEs’ psychological reactions and
behavioral intentions following customer mistreatment is investigated.
Through scenario-based experimental designs, two studies were conducted.
Study 1 draws on full-time FLEs working in hotels and its results confirm that
A. Boukis (*)
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
e-mail: a.boukis@sussex.ac.uk
C. Koritos
ALBA Graduate Business School, Athens, Greece
e-mail: ckoritos@alba.acg.edu
K. Daunt
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff, UK
e-mail: dauntk@cardiff.ac.uk
A. Papastathopoulos
Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
e-mail: avraam.p@adu.ac.ae

646 A. Boukis et al.
FLEs’ psychological and behavioral responses to customers’ display of verbal

aggression and excessive demands vary significantly. Customer verbal aggression is
associated with higher FLE retaliation intentions and role stress, the display of
excessive demands from the customers’ side is associated with higher FLE rumina-
tion and stronger withdrawal intentions than verbal aggression. Study 2 adopts a 2
(customer incivility: verbal aggression/excessive demands) × 3 (supervisor leader-
ship style: empowering/directive/laissez-faire) between the subjects’ experimental
design, and draws on full-time FLEs working in hotels. Results of study 2 suggest
that empowering and directive supervisors reduce the depleting effects of excessive
customer demands on FLEs’ psychological and behavioral responses significantly
more in comparison to laissez-faire supervisors. Also, supervisory styles differ con-
cerning the extent to which they can reduce the depleting effect of customer verbal
aggression on FLEs behavioral responses, with directive leaders reducing FLEs
retaliation intentions significantly more, compared to both empowering and laissez-
faire leaders.
Keywords Frontline employees · Customer incivility · Supervisor · Leadership

style · Hospitality

Wearing Expertise on your Sleeve:
Increasing Customer Service Expectations
through Employee Apparel: An Abstract
Christian Barney, Carol Esmark-Jones, Adam Farmer, and Haley Hardman
Abstract With technology increasingly integrated into the retail experience and a
decrease in the availability of retail employees, the responsibility for initiating ser-
vice encounters in a retail setting has shifted from employees to customers in many
situations. However, as many as 90% of shoppers will leave without making a pur-
chase rather than asking for help from an employee (Businesswire 2014), adversely
impacting perceptions of service quality. This paper uses signaling theory, which is
primarily concerned with differential access to information (Connelly et al. 2011),
to look at the process through which shoppers create impressions of an employee.
Employee apparel is proposed as a primary signal regarding anticipated service
quality, which may act as a predictor of their wiliness to approach an employee.
Although employee apparel has been conceptualized as a potent atmospheric
cue, little work has been done on the relationship between employee apparel and
service expectations. A conceptual model is proposed with perceived expertise
mediating the relationship between employee apparel and service expectations.
This study provides evidence that formal attire increases consumers’ perceptions
of expertise and, through expertise, perceptions of service quality in a retail setting.
Employees in formal attire, such as a lab coat, were perceived as having more exper-
tise than those dressed in less formal attire, such as a white polo and khakis.
Additionally, consumers’ perceptions regarding expertise were positively and sig-
nificantly related to service expectations. Expertise significantly and fully mediated
the relationship between apparel and service expectations. This suggests that the
formality of consumer apparel can influence the ways in which shoppers view a
retail employee and may impact the way in which they evaluate the retail service.
Therefore, in services where expertise is of substantial importance to customers
(e.g., genetic testing, salons, etc.) using more formal employee apparel may signal
expertise to customers as well as raise their expectations of the service being
provided.
C. Barney (*) · C. Esmark-Jones · A. Farmer · H. Hardman

Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
e-mail: cb3496@msstate.edu; cesmark@business.msstate.edu; afarmer@business.msstate.
edu; heh189@msstate.edu

648 C. Barney et al.
This study is the first step in exploring the complicated relationship between
customer perceptions of employee apparel and their evaluation of the retail service.
Although much work needs to be conducted to fully understand the influence of
employee appearance, these findings help to fill several gaps by showing why the
outfit is important as well as showing the ways in which apparel impacts service
expectations in a retail environment.
Keywords Embarrassment · Employee apparel · Signaling theory · Expertise

Integrating Social and Activity Utilities
to Explain Consumption: An Abstract
José-Domingo Mora
Abstract As they shop and consume, individuals spend time with friends and sig-
nificant others. As generalized as joint consumption is thought, most studies to date
focus only on its consequences. Research has paid little attention to its antecedents
and neglected the possibility that both being with others (companionship) and shop-
ping may provide consumers with distinct but, crucially, related benefits.
We model the utilities of the activity and companionship during the activity as
two endogenous dependent variables. This allows determining whether companions
enhance shopping or impair it, and vice versa, what shopping does to companion-
ship. A random-effects model with instruments is calibrated on data from the
American Time Use Survey (ATUS; United States Department of Labor and Bureau
of Labor Statistics 2016).
Overall, in the total sample, the utility derived from sharing time with compan-
ions (uisharing ) and the utility of performing or doing an activity (uidoing) tend to syner-
gize; people enjoy being with companions, and even more so if they also enjoy what
they do, that is, uisharing → uidoing > 0 and uidoing → uisharing > 0. This changes dramati-
cally by activity subsamples. When shopping for groceries both uisharing → uidoing < 0
and uidoing → uisharing < 0, a situation we call antagonism, which implies that enjoying
the company and accomplishing shopping goals are opposed. The mechanism by
which companionship promotes shopping seems to be that companions improve
social utility to a sufficient degree to reverse the negative effects that shopping has
on the enjoyment of companionship. Thus, promotions for physical shops should
make salient the presence of specific roles—spouse, children, and/or friends—dur-
ing shopping in order to motivate potential shoppers. Importantly, children posi-
tively contribute to both uidoing and uisharing only when shopping or when hanging
around at a mall. In experiential consumption, for example, dining out or sharing
J.-D. Mora (*)

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA, USA
e-mail: jmora@umassd.edu

650 J.-D. Mora
drinks, the signs reverse and both companionship and activity tend to build each
other, with the endogenous utility estimates being one order of magnitude larger
than for the total sample.
Keywords Joint consumption · Companions · Shopping · Activities · Time use

Does Sampling Order Moderate the Effect
of Autotelic Need for Touch on Product
Evaluation: An Abstract
Nino Ruusunen and Tommi Laukkanen
Abstract Consumers often sample products sequentially when shopping. Haptic

information influences consumers’ evaluation of a product (Biggs et al. 2016;
Kampfer et al. 2017; McDaniel and Baker 1977; Schifferstein 2009). This research
draws on the literature on how people differ in their need for touch (Peck and
Childers 2003a, b) and how they are influenced by order effect in their product
evaluation (Biswas et al. 2014; Li and Epley 2009; Mantonakis et al. 2009; O’Brien
and Ellsworth 2012; Quigley-McBride et al. 2018).
The Need-for-Touch (NFT) scale is divided into two dimensions: (1) instrumen-
tal and (2) autotelic (Peck and Childers 2003a). Consumers’ preferences and moti-
vations on using haptic information differ, and some are more chronically inclined
to use touch as an information source (Peck and Childers 2003b). Autotelic touch is
about unplanned examination of multisensory product relationships and no pur-
chase goal is required, just an interest to examine product via touch (Klatzky and
Peck 2012; Peck and Childers 2003a). High autotelics, due to larger exposure to
haptic information and using haptic sense more, are leaving out haptic information
of the evaluating process when it is not diagnostic for the task (Krishna and Morri
2008). Therefore, we hypothesize that autotelic need for touch has a significant
effect on product evaluation (H1).
Sequential sampling leads participants to compare samples against one another,
using the first sample as an anchor. We suggest that anchoring leads to perceived
wins and losses when samples differ. Kahneman and Tversky (1979) find that sub-
jective gains are perceived smaller than subjective losses. Schifferstein et al. (1999)
find this asymmetry in consumer evaluations of an experiential product. Following
the diagnosticity-based model that, for example, Krishna and Morrin (2008) use,
high autotelics are capable of leaving the haptic perception out when evaluating a
Nino Ruusunen would like to thank Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and Foundation for
Economic Education for their support.
N. Ruusunen (*) · T. Laukkanen

University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
e-mail: ninoru@student.uef.fi; tommi.laukkanen@uef.fi

652 N. Ruusunen and T. Laukkanen
beverage, whereas low autotelics involve the haptic information into their taste eval-
uation. We hypothesize that when sampled in a sequence, sampling order moderates
the effect of autotelic need for touch on product evaluation (H2).
We tested our hypothesis in two separate studies where participants evaluated
coffee. Participants were divided into low and high autotelics based on the autotelic
NFT scores (Peck and Childers 2003a). When haptic information was minimal, low
and high autotelic groups did not differ in their evaluations. However, when sequen-
tial sampling and haptic information (flimsy/firm cup) were introduced to the test
setting, the results show that autotelic need for touch has a significant effect on
product evaluation, but only if the firm cup is sampled first.
Order effect moderating autotelic need for touch, and thus, influencing product
evaluation needs to be kept in mind when designing tactile products and experiences
as there is no “one size fits all” solution.
Keywords Order effect · Haptic perception · Need-for-touch · Sequential

sampling

Shopping Mall Values, Customer
Satisfaction, and Loyalty: The Moderation
of Education Level in Morocco:
An Abstract
Delphine Godefroit-Winkel, Mbaye Fall Diallo, and Souad Djelassi
Abstract This paper investigates the effects of shopping center value dimensions
on customer satisfaction and loyalty and the moderation effect of distinct levels of
university education (Bachelor vs. Master/PhD) in Morocco, Africa. A shopping
intercept survey generated 244 usable questionnaires. Structural equation modeling
was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings show that utilitarian and
hedonic values significantly affect customer loyalty, but not customer satisfaction.
The socialization value significantly influences customer satisfaction, it does not
affect customer loyalty to a shopping mall. Utilitarian and hedonic values affect
customer loyalty to the mall.
Further, the university education level moderates the effects of utilitarian and
nonutilitarian value dimensions on satisfaction and loyalty. In particular, the effect
of shopping mall utilitarian value is stronger for higher than for lower educated
customers. The effect of shopping mall hedonic value on satisfaction is stronger for
higher than for lower educated customers. Its effect on loyalty to the shopping mall
is also stronger for higher than for lower educated customers. Shopping mall relax-
ation value significantly influences only the satisfaction of lower educated custom-
ers. It has no significant effect on loyalty to the shopping mall. The effect of shopping
mall socialization value on satisfaction is stronger for lower than for higher edu-
cated customers. Finally, the effect of shopping mall socialization value on satisfac-
tion is stronger for higher than for lower educated customers.
D. Godefroit-Winkel (*)
Toulouse Business School, Casablanca, Morocco
e-mail: d.godefroit-winkel@tbs-education.ma
M. F. Diallo · S. Djelassi
University of Lille, Lille, France
e-mail: mbaye-fall.diallo@univ-lille.fr; souad.djelassi@univ-lille.fr

654 D. Godefroit-Winkel et al.
Mall managers interested in Morocco and similar African countries should focus
on factors that enhance the socialization value of the mall, especially when they
target highly educated customers.
Keywords Shopping malls · Utilitarian value · Non-utilitarian value · Satisfaction

· Loyalty · Education

Usability of Automated Driving Functions:
A User Experience Study
Sarah Selinka, Benjamin Österle, and Marc Kuhn
Abstract Car manufacturers offer a wide variety of driver assistant systems. Each
system is a technological development bringing us closer to fully autonomous vehi-
cles. In this specific constellation of an innovation process, the total disruptive
potential of an autonomous car can already be imagined by consumers, but will be
reached only after years of incremental developments. Our study focuses on the
usability measurement of existing automated driving functions by using the System
Usability Scale (SUS). Compared to most of the studies dealing with automated or
autonomous driving in general, this work is based on a real driving experience. We
conducted a user experience study with a pre- and a post-questionnaire, using 207
test drivers who took part in a 1-hour standardized driving assignment on a defined
driving route within Stuttgart (Germany) using either Mercedes-Benz E- or S-Class.
Results indicate that the usability of automated driving functions is already in an
acceptable range even if functions are still far from full automation. We could not
find any group-specific differences in usability assessment. The data analysis also
shows a significant correlation between a positive usability evaluation and an inten-
tion to purchase corresponding vehicles with automated driving functions.
Keywords Automated driving · User experience · Usability · System Usability

Scale (SUS)
Introduction
For some years, the topic of “autonomous driving” has been regarded as one of the
most promising trends for future mobility and is a buzzword present everywhere. In
the context of autonomous driving in general, six degrees of car autonomy have
been defined (“level 0 = No Automation” up to “level 5 = Full Automation”) (SAE
S. Selinka · B. Österle (*) · M. Kuhn

Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: sarah.selinka@dhbw-stuttgart.de; benjamin.oesterle@dhbw-stuttgart.de; marc.kuhn@
dhbw-stuttgart.de

656 S. Selinka et al.
International 2018). To date, series vehicles provide level 2 automated assistance

functions such as parking assistance, lane changing, lane keeping, automated speed
adaption, or automated braking functions. Thus, drivers are assisted through the
technology, but are still responsible for the entire driving process. Existing studies
focus on the perception and evaluation of the potential consumer regarding the inno-
vative technology. Furthermore, existing data on the perception and evaluation are
mainly based on fictitious driving conditions without experiencing real automated
driving functionalities or, in a few cases, on driving simulations on special routes
where the driver is detached from real vehicle traffic (Albert et al. 2015; Bansal and
Kockelman 2016; Haboucha et al. 2017; König and Neumayr 2017; Rödel et al.
2014; Waytz et al. 2014). So far, there are only a few studies where the data collec-
tion is based on a test drive in real traffic (Kuhn et al. 2017; Kraft et al. 2018).
Moreover, the specific aspect of the usability of the currently available automated
driving functions is not the subject of existing research work. However, this point
seems to be particularly important in terms of facing future developmental steps
toward a complete level 5 driving autonomy. Particularly with regard to the widely
discussed topic of safety issues (Kalra and Paddock 2016; De Bruyne and Werbrouck
2018), a simple and intuitive use of automated driving functions seems relevant. The
consideration of usability in this circumstance can also be regarded as benchmark-
ing between different vehicle manufacturers. According to the results of such
usability tests, the findings can be valuable sources for the respective marketing of
corresponding vehicles. Thus, car manufacturers need objective assessments in this
context in order to be able to offer a reliable product for the market.
It can, therefore, be stated that existing literature has not investigated how con-
sumers rate the experience-based usability of automated driving functions in an
early market stage as a step on the way to full automation. However, this evaluation
seems to be of particular importance for future developmental steps of the
technologies.
Examining this issue, we addressed the following research question: How do
potential consumers evaluate the usability of automated driving functions after test-
ing them under real driving conditions? And how does the usability performance of
automated driving functions compare to other innovative technology?
To address these questions, the remainder of this paper is structured as follows:
First, we provide a background of the research approach and the methodology used.
Afterward, various results from data analysis will be presented. The final sections
draw conclusions, define areas of future research on the topic, and address the limi-
tations of the study.
Research Approach and Methodology
It is difficult to define usability in general, since usability always depends on the

respective context (Brooke 1996). However, there are some key points that should
be significant for any usability measurement. According to ISO 9241-11, usability
Usability of Automated Driving Functions: A User Experience Study 657
measurement should include effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. In principle,

the user must be able to complete a task in the appropriate quality. The resources to
be invested must be adequate and a subjective user perception should be able to be
tested (Brooke 1996).
To determine usability, the “System Usability Scale (SUS)” model developed by
Brooke (1996) was used. This type of scale was previously used to analyze the
usability of many products and services in a wide variety of areas (e.g., Bangor et al.
2008; McLellan et al. 2012; Harrati et al. 2016). The advantages of this method
result from the uncomplicated structuring of the questions, the quick implementa-
tion, and the uniform application of a Likert scale. Furthermore, SUS is a very cost-
effective tool because it is nonproprietary (Bangor et al. 2008). On this scale, the
subjects indicate their degree of agreement to ten polarizing statements. Based on
this information, an SUS score can be determined that assesses the degree of usabil-
ity in general.
The research was designed as an exploratory, impact-orientated analysis.
Therefore, in the following, no classical research hypotheses have been derived, but
rather theses, which have to be validated with the help of the developed
research design.
Some functionalities have already existed for some time and have thus also expe-
rienced corresponding development progress (Verband der Automobilindustrie e.
V. 2018). Therefore, it is assumed that the usability assessment regarding automated
driving functions is already in a positive range. Due to the measurement of usability
by an objective measuring instrument, it is also assumed that there are no group-
specific differences between the test participants, for example, regarding age or gen-
der (Bangor et al. 2009). Thirdly, we suspect that a positive usability evaluation will
also be accompanied by a higher intention to buy the corresponding product in the
future (Kim et al. 2012; Hasbullah et al. 2016).
For the investigation of the usability regarding existing automated driving func-
tions, we conducted a three-step user experience study (UX). The sample itself was
generated by a call in local media. According to the feedback from interested par-
ticipants, a sample was then created that would reflect the German population in
terms of gender and age distribution. In the first step, the invited test drivers
answered a few questions about their general experience with automated driving
functions. They also had the opportunity to formulate their personal positive and
negative associations with this topic. Free associations referring to automated driv-
ing were captured via open formulated questions (“What positive and negative
aspects do you associate with automated driving functions?”). Multiple answers
were possible.
In the second step, test drivers passed a 1-hour standardized driving assignment
on a defined driving route within Stuttgart (Germany) using a Mercedes-Benz E- or
S-Class (see Fig. 2). Both cars were equipped with series, automated driving func-
tions (see Table 1). During the test drive, different automated driving tasks had to be
fulfilled by the test participants, for example, automated lane changing or auto-
mated parking.
In the third step, test drivers took a second survey. The test drivers were asked
again for their positive and negative associations with regard to automated driving.
Table 1 Overview of available automated driving assistants

Automated
driving functions Description
Lane keeping The lane keeping assists the driver in keeping the vehicle in the lane.
Lane change The lane change assists the driver in changing the lane, for example, in case
of an overtaking maneuver.
Automatic The automatic distance keeping retains the vehicle in a safe distance from
distance keeping vehicles ahead.
Automatic speed The automatic speed control ensures that vehicle speed does not exceed a
control legally enforced speed.
Automated The automated parking assists the driver in moving the vehicle into a
parking parking spot.
Automated The automated braking prevents dangerous situations by informing the
braking driver of an upcoming collision and by braking automatically in a situation
of emergency.
They also evaluated statements about the usability of automated driving functions.
Items were derived from the System Usability Scale (SUS) developed by Brooke
(1996). The SUS is composed of five positive and five negative statements, which
alternate (see Table 2). Participants answered those questions via a Likert scale from
1 “do not agree at all” to 7 “completely agree.”1 In general, SUS scores can range
from 0 to 100. A higher value represents better usability.2
In addition, the persons were asked how likely the purchase of a corresponding
vehicle is within the next 3 years after this experience (7-point Likert scale from 1
“no chance” to 7 “absolutely certain” + 8 “I already have a car with automated driv-
ing functions”).
To the best knowledge of the authors, there is no comparable study design con-
ducted in Germany surveying those aspects to date.
Results
The quantitative data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 25, the qualitative
data through MAXQDA. The sample consisted of 207 test participants of whom 78
were females and 126 males. Three respondents gave no gender information. The
average age was 49 years (SD = 16.815) and ranged from 19 to 82 years. Compared
with the German age distribution, the sample could be classified as very representa-
tive. One-third of the test drivers stated that they already had experience with
1
The original scale works with a 5-point Likert scale (see Brooke 1996). We chose a 7-point scale
for consistency reasons. The second questionnaire of the UX contained further items related to
another theoretical construct. Those items work with a 7-point scale. However, as these are not part
of this study, this will not be further discussed.
2
For a detailed description of how to calculate the score, see Brooke (1996).
Table 2 Item summary, scale: do not agree at all (1) … completely agree (7)
Items
1. I think that I would like to use automated driving functions frequently.
2. I found automated driving functions unnecessarily complex.
3. I thought automated driving functions were easy to use.
4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use automated
driving functions.
5. I found the various functions regarding automated driving functions were well integrated.
6. I thought there was too much inconsistency regarding automated driving functions.
7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use automated driving functions very
quickly.
8. I found automated driving functions very cumbersome to use.
9. I felt very confident using automated driving functions.
10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with automated driving
functions.
100% 8% 5% During each

20% 14% 21% 15% 6% trip
80% 23%
35% 25% Incidental
38% 32% use
60%
58%
23% 29% Tested once
40% 16% 17%
66%
20% 11% 34% 32% Never
30% 31%
12%
0%
Speed adaption Automated parking Automated braking Distance alert Lane keeping Lane change
assistent (n=66) assistent (n=65) assistent (n=63) assistent (n=66) assistent (n=65) assistent (n=64)
Fig. 1 How often did you use the following automated driving assistants?
automated driving functions. The assistant for automatic distance keeping and speed
control, in particular, was used relatively frequently, whereas the lane change assis-
tant was used much less frequently by the test drivers in this context (see Fig. 1).
The evaluation of the open formulated questions via content analysis (Früh 2017)
generally shows that a real driving experience is a very important aspect. The actual
test drive certainly leads to changes in assessments of positive and negative associa-
tions regarding the topic of automated driving. For example, it is becoming apparent
that the safety aspect is highly relevant for participants. This is by far the most fre-
quently mentioned in the questionnaire before the test drive regarding positive asso-
ciations. In positions 2 and 3 of the most frequently mentioned concerns are
relaxation and support, respectively. However, after the test drive, the importance of
these three categories change. Afterward, the support of the driver by automated
driving functions is the most frequent with 96 positive entries—an increase of
approximately 80%. A look at the negative associations also reveals substantial
changes. It is particularly noticeable that after the test drive the topic development
need is mentioned by more than 50% of the test participants. Before the test drive,
this aspect was only relevant for 16 people.
Table 3 Summary of SUS Product/sector Total mean score

scores by user interface type
Automated driving functions 71.5
(see Bangor et al. 2009)
Websites 68.2
Cell phones 65.9
IVR 72.4
GUI 76.2
Hardware 71.8
TV 67.8
Fig. 2 Test track in Stuttgart/Germany
Qualitative data give a first impression of the topic of interest. However, the spe-
cific usability of the system is in the foreground in this case. In the present context,
the average SUS score of automated driving functions is 71.5 (SD = 16.22). With
this score, according to Bangor et al. (2008), the usability of automated driving
functions is already in an acceptable range. Through their numerous usability stud-
ies, they came to the conclusion that “products which are at least passable have SUS
scores above 70, with better products scoring in the high 70s to upper 80s. Truly
superior products score better than 90” (Bangor et al. 2008, p. 592). To provide a
basis for comparison, the present value can be compared with other SUS scores, for
example, websites and cell phones. Bangor et al. (2009) report an overall mean of
about 70 with regard to different products (see Table 3). Tullis and Albert (2013)
also performed an analysis of 129 different SUS scores conducted in various parts
of the world too. This shows an average score of 66. The maximum is 81. Comparing
these values with the SUS score of our study, it can be said that the usability of the
automated driving functions is already in a good range and therefore can be classi-
fied as positive in general.
Besides those descriptive evaluations, we also implemented further quantitative
analyses. In order to investigate possible differences in the SUS score between
different groups of people, the specific SUS score of the variables gender, age, and
prior experience was determined. We conducted a parametric t-test, respectively,
bivariate correlation due to approximate normal distributed data and our large sam-
ple size. The comprehensive examination of all results shows that the subdivision of
the variable gender (t(202) = −1.002, p ≥ 0.05), age (r = −0.085, p ≥ 0.05), and
prior experience (t(204) = 0.722, p ≥ 0.05) does not produce large mean differences
regarding SUS.3 Furthermore, no significant effects arise. It can, therefore, be con-
cluded that the perception of usability with regard to the tested automated driving
functions is not subject to any group-specific characteristics. With regard to gender,
our findings are in line with existing literature (Bangor et al. 2009). For the age
dimension, on the other hand, Bangor et al. (2009) were able to achieve a significant
negative relationship. However, the effect was not very strong.
In order to derive an initial intention between usability evaluation and the pur-
chase intention of the corresponding vehicles, the test participants were asked, as
previously mentioned, about their future purchase intention. In principle, about a
third of those surveyed who do not own a car yet with the appropriate equipment
show a positive buying intention within the next 3 years. The calculation of Pearson’s
r between the usability data and the purchase intention also shows a small but sig-
nificant positive correlation (r = 0.172, p ≤ 0.05).4
Discussion and Recommendations
The main objective of this study was the measurement of usability with regard to the
innovation of automated driving functions. In this respect, three basic theses were
formulated, which were to be validated using the data collected.
Results show that the usability of automated driving functions is already in an
acceptable range, even if available assistant systems are still far from fully automa-
tion level. A positive trend is particularly evident in comparison with the values of
other evaluated innovations (see Bangor et al. 2008; Tullis and Albert 2013).
At this point, however, one must be aware that depending on the single-car man-
ufacturer, automated driving functions differ regarding their levels of development.
For example, Tesla offers a beta version, and technology is being developed in the
ongoing process. German car manufacturers, on the other hand, are pursuing a sig-
nificantly more restrictive, risk avoidant strategy. The present study can thus be seen
as a benchmark for others who take a closer look at the functioning of automated
driving technology from other manufacturers. Resulting SUS scores can then be
used as valuable input for corresponding marketing campaigns. In this context, it
also appears to be of interest that the available data could establish a connection
3
The requirements for the tests have been checked and are confirmed. Nonparametric tests show
the similar tendencies regarding significance and effect size.
4
The requirements for the test have been checked and are confirmed. Nonparametric test Kendall’s
Taua shows the similar tendencies regarding significance and effect size.
between usability evaluation and purchase intention. Good usability can, therefore,
lead to monetary benefits for the car manufacturer.
Nevertheless, the SUS score of 71.5 still appears to be expandable. This impres-
sion is confirmed in particular by the qualitative data on the negative associations
regarding automated driving functions. After the test drive, the need for further
development is mentioned by more than 50% of the test participants. Before the test
drive, this aspect was only relevant for 16 participants. In this respect, it can be
assumed that the lack of sensor technology, for example, in the case of bad weather
conditions, leads to difficulties during a drive and as a result, there is a negative
impression regarding usability. Therefore, facing problems like the lack of sensor
technology in the case of bad weather conditions should have priority on the agenda
of the automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In this circumstance, an
efficient user interface design seems to be important. Car drivers must be able to
recognize what the car is doing all the time. As a result, trust toward technology can
be strengthened. This could be accompanied by an improved usability perception.
Thus, OEM has to improve the technology so far that consumers recognize a real
added value by using automated driving assistants. Therefore, measuring usability
allows verification with regard to communication and promotion of the available
assistance functions to prevent disappointment and frustration for consumers.
In addition to this objective technical improvement, however, it seems inevitable
that manufacturers must put the perception of end consumers more into perspec-
tive—consumers usually cannot distinguish between “autonomous driving” and
“automated driving functions.” The good but not outstanding SUS score for series
systems should be recognized as a warning signal for OEM to not inflate their mar-
keting and communication strategies. Pretending to provide an “auto-pilot-function”
(Tesla) seems to be counterproductive. If too much is expected from current level 2
systems by the consumer, disappointment can quickly occur by using currently
available technology and OEM will lose their creditability. This, in turn, can
indirectly be reflected by the evaluation of the usability of corresponding

functionalities.
Limitations and Further Research
The implementation of a real UX regarding automated driving is one of the major

strengths of this study compared to existing literature. Furthermore, recruitment and
testing of more than 200 study participants can be seen as a particular feature.
Nevertheless, some limitations exist, which shall be discussed as follows.
Although age distribution of the sample could be classified as very representative
for Germany, men are slightly overrepresented in the sample. A balanced relation
between women and men is desirable for future research.
The test vehicles were cars from the same manufacturer. The inclusion of other
vehicle brands is, therefore, an important point for further investigations. This is the
only way to generate a comprehensive picture of the usability of automated driving
functions in general. However, the available study results can be used as a bench-
mark for further investigations.
The present study has already evaluated the usability according to individual
characteristics such as gender and age. An extension of the research design to other
countries and cultural societies seems to be of great significance too. With regard to
existing literature focusing on differences based on cultural background in general
(Hofstede and Hofstede 2007), differences in evaluating usability could be
considered.
Another option for further research in the field of autonomous automated driving
could be to underline more strongly the qualitative research part after an UX, for
example, by integrating a semi-structured interview. Experience shows that after
testing the car, participants report interesting aspects, which cannot be captured
through open formulated questions. However, for very large samples, as in the pres-
ent case, a qualitative approach can also be problematic in terms of handling and, in
particular, evaluation. Therefore, a qualitative analysis of a single subsample is
probably most appropriate for facing future research projects in this context.
This study involved both people who have already had experience with auto-
mated driving functions and those without any previous knowledge. However, it can
be assumed that an exercise effect cannot be neglected with regard to the handling
of corresponding functions. Future projects could, therefore, consider a longitudinal
design to gather further information facing the usability of automated driving func-
tions in the long term. Also, the study replication parallel to future innovation cycles
could give useful insights. The way usability will be perceived on upcoming level 3
and 4 automation could indicate the willingness of innovation adaption on the way
to fully autonomous driving technology.
Appendix
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Social Media Usage, Status Consumption,
and Online Public Consumption:
An Abstract
Ali Heydari and Michel Laroche
Abstract The proliferated use of different types of social media has greatly influ-
enced various aspects of people’s lifestyles around the world. Consumption is one
of the important areas affected by social media usage. More specifically, nowadays
we see more and more people uploading photos or videos and even streaming their
consumption experiences on social media. For example, today it is quite common to
see photos or live videos of eating in restaurants and attending concerts shared and
streamed by Facebook or Instagram users. The aim of this research is to develop and
test a conceptual model explaining this phenomenon and suggest implications for
the affected industries, as no research to date has examined the impact of social
media usage on status consumption. Two main research questions we address in this
paper are: how do social media usage impact the motivation for product or experi-
ence consumption? And how does involvement in social media can affect the way
that people consume the products and experiences motivated by social media
involvement?
In the conceptual model developed in this research, by using uses and gratifica-
tions theory, we show how tools and features of social media facilitate and motivate
self-presentation. Moreover, social media usage offers more visibility for the users,
which is the main factor determining the social value of products. Additionally, in
the model, with support from literature, we hypothesize that both the encouraged
self-presentation by social media usage and the social value resulted from the visi-
bility provided by social media increase the tendency for status consumption. This
status consumption stimulated by social media usage would take place in public.
However, here this public consumption is presented to online audiences in social
media through uploaded photos or videos. Therefore, we call it “online public con-
sumption.” In other words, involvement in social media can turn consumption of
experiences such as eating in restaurants or attending concerts into public consump-
tion or more accurately saying, into online public consumption. We would test the
A. Heydari (*) · M. Laroche

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
e-mail: ali.heydari@concordia.ca; michel.laroche@concordia.ca

666 A. Heydari and M. Laroche
model through a survey study and offer managerial implications to those industries
in which consumers’ motivations and behavior have been influenced by social
media usage.
Keywords Social media · Status consumption · Public · Consumption · Visibility

CSR: The Best of Both Worlds: Driving
Returns to the Business and its Employees:
An Abstract
Sarah Desirée Schaefer, Peggy Cunningham, Sandra Diehl, and Ralf Terlutter
Abstract Worldwide, companies should give due care to managing stakeholders’

perceptions and reactions to business practices pertaining to Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR). A basic belief underlying this sea change in corporate action
and thinking is that if done right, CSR can generate “win–win opportunities” for
companies, the environment, and stakeholders (Carvalho et al. 2010). Employees,
not only considered as internal stakeholders but also as credible spokespersons to
and for other stakeholder groups, have gained increasing attention in the marketing
literature in the past decade (Diehl et al. 2015; McShane and Cunningham 2012). In
particular, there is a dynamic stream of research analyzing the outcomes of CSR
practices on employees (Roeck and Maon 2018).
Using social identity to guide our research, we build on and extend the growing
body of literature exploring how companies profit internally from business practices
and policies pertaining to CSR. In particular, our overall objective was to develop
and empirically test a CSR-Outcome-Model. A cross-departmental investigation
with the employees from a national division of a global company selling fast-
moving consumer goods is reported (n = 135). In order to test the conceptual model,
the data were analyzed with Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation
Modeling (PLS-SEM) using smart PLS 3.0 software.
We tested employees’ evaluation of perceived CSR as well as CSR authentic-
ity as it is related to employees’ organizational pride and to firm-beneficial as well
as individual-beneficial outcomes in the workplace. Firm-beneficial outcomes are
directly linked to the company’s performance and prosperity. Individual-beneficial
outcomes are linked to the employee’s personal welfare. The firm-beneficial out-
comes include loyalty to the company, trust in management, and positive word-
S. D. Schaefer (*) · S. Diehl · R. Terlutter

Alpen-Adria Universitaet, Klagenfurt, Austria
e-mail: sarah.schaefer@aau.at; sandra.diehl@aau.at; ralf.terlutter@aau.at
P. Cunningham
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
e-mail: peggyc@dal.ca

668 S. D. Schaefer et al.
of-mouth, whereas individual-beneficial outcomes include job satisfaction and

emotional well-being. Furthermore, employees’ involvement in CSR is regarded as
a moderator that intervenes in the relationships.
Our results suggest that employees’ evaluation of perceived CSR and perceived
CSR authenticity strongly impact their sense of organizational pride. In turn, out-
comes beneficial to the firm (trust in management, positive word-of-mouth) as well
as individual-beneficial outcomes (job satisfaction, emotional well-being) are
enhanced with an increase in organizational pride. Finally, employees’ involvement
in CSR has a moderating role in the perception–social identity mechanism.
Implications for internal CSR management, directions for future research, and limi-
tations are discussed.
Keywords CSR · Social identity · Employees · Relationship-management

The Public Healthcare System as a Service
Network: An Assessment through
the Time: An Abstract
Rocio Rodríguez, Göran Svensson, Carmen Otero-Neira, and Carmen Padin
Abstract This research focuses on the sustainability approach of the public health-
care industry, functioning as a service network. This present study particularly con-
siders time as a guide for research, in view of the fact that in service businesses,
long-term relationships really must consider time as a core issue (Hedaa and
Törnroos 2008), since sustainability efforts not only evolve through time but even
vary through time (Høgevold and Svensson 2016).
The research objective is threefold: (1) to frame the foundation of healthcare
organizations’ past and present sustainability efforts; (2) to frame the direction of a
healthcare organizations’ sustainable development; and (3) to reveal and character-
ize what determines the foundation and direction in a public healthcare sector. This
study aims at providing the basis for a consistent and organized comprehension of
sustainability and time, as the result of an ongoing process over years of accumula-
tive insights and experiences from fieldwork, research, and relevant literature.
This study is based on the public Spanish healthcare industry, which enabled
avoiding the contextual bias because the research team could control the potential
influence of other industry characteristics (Hartline and Jones 1996). Public hospi-
tals depend on public funding. The central government in Madrid has a sustainable
development strategy. In this respect, it is important to emphasize that Spain con-
sists of 17 autonomous regions, which implies that local governments can take inde-
pendent decisions in relation to the central government. The studied public hospitals
were therefore selected on the basis of judgmental sampling (Fischhoff and Bar-
Hillel 1982).
The findings indicate that the leadership of the healthcare organizations had a
higher involvement of top-level management in the past, and the organizations were
R. Rodríguez (*) · G. Svensson

e-mail: rrodriguez@um.es; svegor@kristiania.no
C. Otero-Neira · C. Padin
Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
e-mail: cachu@uvigo.es; padin@uvigo.es

670 R. Rodríguez et al.
more committed to sustainability efforts than in the present. The findings also
indicate that the healthcare organizations also planned and provided some funding
in the past to support employees’ desires to engage in sustainability efforts.
Keywords Network · Public healthcare · Sustainability · Past · Present

Relative Effectiveness of Direct
and Indirect Comparative Advertising:
The Role of Message Framing and Gender
on Believability and Attitude Certainty:
An Abstract
Dan Petrovici, Linda L. Golden, and Dariya Orazbek
Abstract Comparative advertising (CA) has been used in the United States for
decades, with the time the United Kingdom being less. Excepting Chang (2007),
little is known about gender differences in responses to comparative ads and little
attention has been devoted to regulatory focus and CA (see Higgins 1997; Kao
2012). This study contributes by examining the role of ad format (direct vs. indirect
CA—DCA and ICA, respectively), gender, and message framing for UK consumer
response in the context of Regulatory Focus Theory predictions.
The product used in this research is analgesics because they are often a target for
CA. Direct and Indirect Comparative Ads were pretested for the Internet survey (N
= 153 final sample). A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial between subjects’ design was used, with
ad format (DCA vs. ICA); promotion versus prevention framed messages
(Regulatory Focus Theory) and gender.
Results revealed that claim believability and brand beliefs for the Direct
Comparative Ad (explicit comparisons between named brands) were stronger than
for the Indirect Comparative Ad treatment level (with no ad format differences for
attitude certainty). Promotion message framing produced the highest claim believ-
ability and strongest brand beliefs. In addition, males were more certain of their
attitudes than were females.
The strength of comparison (direct or indirect), the framing/regulatory focus of
the message (promotion or prevention) and gender matter in consumer reactions to
a message. Further, these variables interact to impact message response. DCA with
a promotion message framing produced the highest attitude certainty. Males were
D. Petrovici · D. Orazbek
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
e-mail: d.a.petrovici@kent.ac.uk; do294@kent.ac.uk
L. L. Golden (*)
e-mail: linda.golden@mccombs.utexas.edu

672 D. Petrovici et al.
impacted more strongly on claim believability and brand beliefs when exposed to
promotion message framing. In addition, females respond with stronger claim
believability and brand beliefs to prevent framing. Framing, Gender, and
Comparative Ad Type combine to impact attitude certainty, with the highest cer-
tainty resulting from a DCA ad with framing promotion and when exposed to males.
This study shows that the effects of comparative advertising format, gender, and
message framing for attitude certainty do not mirror the effects on conventional
outcome variables, such as brand beliefs or claim believability. Except for attribu-
tion theory, research, belief, and/or attitude certainty are often not measured in
advertising research, especially comparative advertising. Future research should
measure the combined audience impact of message framing and processing styles
for argument strength and expand the range of outcomes to elaborate on belief and
attitude certainty, given these interesting results. Insights need to be revealed for
other products, comparative advertising formats, and metacognitive variables.
Keywords Message framing · Comparative advertising · Gender · Claim

believability · Attitude certainty · Brand beliefs · Indirect comparison · Direct
comparison · Prevention appeal · Promotion appeal

Special Session: Blockchain Technology
and How It Will Change Marketing:
An Abstract
Haya Ajjan, Dana E. Harrison, Joe Green,

Nikilesh Subramoniapillai Ajeetha, and Harry Wang
Abstract Blockchain was first described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and Scott
Stornetta as a methodology to timestamp documents and became popular with the
introduction of cryptocurrency in 2008. A blockchain can be both public and private
and is often described as a special ledger (like a spreadsheet) with five distinctive
features. (1) It is distributed, with no central database that if a copy is corrupted oth-
ers can replace it. Although each participating member on the blockchain has access
to the database, there is no single controller of the information. Every member can
verify transactions directly without involving intermediaries. (2) Transactions are
peer to peer. There is no central node for transactions. Each peer stores and forwards
transactions to all other peers. (3) It is transparent, with all transactions visible in the
blockchain. Members are given access to the blockchain and all nodes of the trans-
action. (4) It is immutable. Once a transaction is created in the chain and the accounts
are updated, it cannot be altered. (5) It is based in cryptography, the connection of
the blocks is cryptographically secured, and the last line of the block is added as the
first line in the next block. Each block is connected to the preceding chain making
the record chronological and permanent. Furthermore, the blockchain can be pro-
grammed to include rules that activate transactions between nodes. Blockchain
technology expedites and solves many business challenges. For example, b lockchain
H. Ajjan (*) · J. Green

e-mail: hajjan@elon.edu; jgreen36@elon.edu
D. E. Harrison
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA
e-mail: harrisondl@etsu.edu
N. S. Ajeetha
Cisco, San Jose, CA, USA
e-mail: subramoniapillai.ajeetha@cisco.com
H. Wang
Coinchain Capital Inc., Vancouver, Canada
e-mail: harry.wang@coincc.ca

674 H. Ajjan et al.
technology can be used for payment processing, fraud detection, supply chain
management, and verification of ownership.
Blockchain technology continues to gain recognition by consumers and compa-
nies promising to disrupt existing centralized establishments while improving trans-
parency and increasing accountability. This special session has several objectives.
First, we will discuss blockchain technology and how it functions. Second, we will
introduce cases of how industries are using this technology. Finally, we will propose
a research framework that corresponds with four distinct exchange relationships:
consumer-to-consumer, firm-to-firm, firm-to-consumer, and consumer-to-firm.
Keywords Blockchain technology · Accountability · Research framework ·

Blockchain use cases

Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in A Changing Global Marketplace

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Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in A Changing Global Marketplace

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Developments in Marketing Science:

Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13409

ISSN 2363-6165 ISSN 2363-6173 (electronic)

© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020

Marketing Opportunities and

May 29–31, 2019

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

President Vice President for

Barry J. Babin David J. Ortinau

Altaf Merchant, University of Washington Tacoma, USA

Advertising & IMC

Special Session Submissions

Zahid Abdul Joshua Beck Victor Chernetsky

Laurie Balbo Jeffrey Carlson Catherine Demangeot

Susi Geiger Chuck Howard Iliana Katsaridou

Ada Lee Jane McKay-Nesbitt Obinna Obilo

Vahid Rahmani Angeline Scheinbaum Chuanyi Tang

9. Seek means for establishing student scholarships and professional university

Glassboro, NJ Shuang Wu

Lastly, the Academy of Marketing Science extends sincere appreciation to all

Glassboro, USA Shuang Wu

 xploring Customer Engagement and Sharing Behavior

 ll Hands on Deck Special Session: Cultivating Socially Responsible

 roduct Innovation Determinants and Export Performance

 xplaining Sustainable Consumption: A Theoretical

 eturn on Investment of Effective Complaint Management:

When my Brand does Something Morally Wrong: An Abstract���������������� 135

 ow Many Likes are Good Enough? An Evaluation of Social Media

Preliminary Tests of the Consumer Normalcy Scale: An Abstract ������������ 187

 ither Bandwagon Effect or Need for Uniqueness?

 umerical Framing and Emotional Arousal as Moderators

 o Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds? Examining the Role of a Product’s

 ynthesizing Negative Critical Incidents: Integration

 ow can Targeted Price Promotion Create Value for Firms in B2C

 oint of Sale Donations from a Managerial Perspective:

 onsumer Acculturation as a Process: A Propensity

 he Need for Franchising Curriculum to Deliver Value

 Review and Weight Analysis of Factors Affecting Helpfulness

 hen the Star Beckons: Celebrity-­Branded Products and Retailer

 Value-Based Model of Consumer Smartphone Usage for Online

 erceptions of Power in the Digital Era: An Investigation of Idea

 olice Brutality and Running Shoes: Authentic Brand Activism or

Jamie Carlson, Yi-Chuan Liao, and Mohammad M. Rahman

Abstract Given the increasing attention to building customer–brand relationships

© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020 1

Keywords Customer engagement · Sharing behaviours · Social media · Brand

References Available Upon Request

© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020 3

Keywords Digital identity · Social media · Students · Higher education ·

References Available Upon Request

Mark Bender, Veronika Ponomarenko, Hao Wang, Khalia Jenkins,

M. Bender · V. Ponomarenko · H. Wang · K. Jenkins (*) · D. Davis

© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020 5

Keywords Marketing research · Marketing models · Longitudinal review ·

References Available Upon Request

Julie Robson and Caroline Burr

Abstract Qualitative methods of analysis are concerned with transforming and

Keywords Qualitative research · I-poems · Teenage girls · Money

References Available Upon Request

J. Robson (*) · C. Burr

© The Academy of Marketing Science 2020 7

Abstract In today’s business environment, companies face more challenges and

Glassboro, NJ Shuang Wu

Glassboro, USA Shuang Wu

xploring Customer Engagement and Sharing Behavior

ll Hands on Deck Special Session: Cultivating Socially Responsible

roduct Innovation Determinants and Export Performance

xplaining Sustainable Consumption: A Theoretical

eturn on Investment of Effective Complaint Management:

When my Brand does Something Morally Wrong: An Abstract�� 135

ow Many Likes are Good Enough? An Evaluation of Social Media

Preliminary Tests of the Consumer Normalcy Scale: An Abstract �� 187

ither Bandwagon Effect or Need for Uniqueness?

umerical Framing and Emotional Arousal as Moderators

o Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds? Examining the Role of a Product’s

ynthesizing Negative Critical Incidents: Integration

ow can Targeted Price Promotion Create Value for Firms in B2C

oint of Sale Donations from a Managerial Perspective:

onsumer Acculturation as a Process: A Propensity

he Need for Franchising Curriculum to Deliver Value

Review and Weight Analysis of Factors Affecting Helpfulness

hen the Star Beckons: Celebrity-Branded Products and Retailer

Value-Based Model of Consumer Smartphone Usage for Online

erceptions of Power in the Digital Era: An Investigation of Idea

olice Brutality and Running Shoes: Authentic Brand Activism or