Search

This study evaluates the impact of sales promotions that are featured in store flyers distributed by prominent retailers and their capacity to attract consumers to their establishments. A distinctive conceptual framework is introduced that scrutinizes the influence of ethically-minded consumer behavior, digital citizenship/literacy, and a retailer's orientation toward environmental sustainability and explicit ecological concerns. A quasi-experimental design was used to formulate four distinct scenarios from a possible set of eight, stemming from the combinations of three variables: 2 Retailer Positioning (green vs. without explicit ecological claims) × 2 Flyer Mediums (paper vs. digital) × 2 Discount Levels (5% discount vs. 30% discount). Through an online survey, a sample of 269 responses was garnered to gauge consumer reactions to these store flyers, evaluating their attitudes and receptiveness. The findings suggest that attitudes toward paper flyers were more favorable when presented by non-green retailers compared to their green counterparts. This can be attributed to a perceived inconsistency between a green brand positioning and the use of paper flyers. Furthermore, the propensity to transition to digital flyers was notably stronger for green retailers compared to non-green retailers, but this inclination was most pronounced when higher discounts were offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of digital marketing communication on product categories like books, music, fashion accessories, clothing, banking and online gaming etc. has been well researched by the researchers; but automobile industry despite being one of the largest digital spenders has faced dearth of academic studies especially in India. The present study aims to understand the effect of digital marketing communication on consumer buying decision process in Indian passenger car market. Mixed methodology was adopted for the study. Primary data was collected from 784 respondents from ‘Delhi’ using area wise proportionate sampling. One sample Wilocoxon Signed Rank, one sample binomial test and chi-sqaure tests were applied as tests of significance. The study concluded that 75% of the respondents used at least one digital channel of communication while buying a car. ‘Website’ was the most used digital channel of communication while buying a car followed by ‘social networking sites’ and ‘smartphones’. Each and every stage of car buying decision making process right from ‘need recognition’ to ‘post purchase’ was ‘significantly’ affected from digital marketing communication with ‘evaluation’ being the most affected stage. The results of the study confirmed that digital marketing communication is capable of even triggering need recognition in high involvement product category like car. The results also established that consumers feel positive towards digital communication, get affected from other customers' reviews and express their post-purchase feeling feelings over digital platforms. However, the study also confirmed that although customers appreciate the usage of digital channels throughout the decision making journey, still they don't book a car online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several articles within the issue on topics including product life-cycle theory as stakeholder engagement with nonprofit organizations; role of social media in ontological security; and consumer anticipation.

Mishra and Raghunathan (2004) and Kim (2008) conducted a study on the same model but reached conflicting results on under what circumstances vendor-managed inventory (VMI) benefits the retailer as opposed to retailer-managed inventory (RMI) in a setting where two products are partially substitutable. However, we note that their conflicting results were due to different assumptions about unmet demand after product substitution, which is influenced by consumers response to retail stockouts. This paper then extends their studies by incorporating consumer response to retail stockouts and re-examining the impacts of VMI on the retailer's performance as well as on each manufacturer's. Therefore, this paper reconciles the conflicts in the existing scholarly work and provides a more complete understanding of when each supply chain member is better off with VMI than RMI in a two-product setting. Additionally, the incorporation of consumer response to retail stockouts sheds light on how product substitution and consumers' store loyalty affect the value of VMI to each supply chain member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product return is a critical issue due to the uncertainty associated with the price, demand, and quality of the product. Thus, businesses must improve their information transparency to administer the product return behaviour of the end-user. Different studies so far have contributed to developing solutions to manage product return issues. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on the product returns management domain to provide the scientific landscape map of existing studies for exploring the state of the current body of knowledge. A systematic literature review of existing literature, quantitative bibliometric analysis, and in-depth content analysis are conducted to accomplish the purpose. A total of 518 published articles from January 1986 to November 2020 are selected, reviewed, classified, and analysed in this study. We classified papers into six identified PRM categories, namely product recovery, forecasting product returns, consumer behaviour, return policy, uncertainty, and technology. Finally, we blended the state-of-the-art research and outlined the future research agenda concerning various themes, methodologies used, and aspects like lean, agility, and disruption in PRM based on research gap analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of customers in luxury market. Such a substantial rise has gained much attention from both academics and industry experts seeking to better understand the meanings and factors involved in luxury consumption. Therefore, this special section aims to enrich and update the existing body of knowledge on luxury product and brand purchasing behaviour. We have encouraged the contributors to forward both conceptual and empirical papers reflecting current concerns in the field of luxury shopping, more specifically in luxury product and brand purchasing behaviour. In the end, this special section includes three papers on external store environment, meaning of luxury, and luxury brand fashion. Certainly, additional references are necessary for better understanding the meaning and contents of luxury consumption and main drivers behind it. The special section introduces the reader to some of these important references but also notes that there is still avenue for more studies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the 2006 "Academy of Marketing New Blood Special Edition." The authors congratulate the researchers included in the special issue, as well as provide information as to how to submit articles and essays for future editions. Four papers from authors representing new perspectives in the field of marketing research chosen for inclusion in the "New Blood Special Edition" are discussed, covering topics such as the intrusion of brands into daily life, shelf price research, and complaint satisfaction.

We use the proportional hazard model (PHM) to study purchase-timing behavior of households in two product categories: laundry detergents and paper towels. The PHM decomposes a household's instantaneous probability of buying the product at a point of time into two components: the baseline hazard that captures the household's intrinsic purchase pattern over time and the covariate function that captures the effects of marketing variables on the household's purchase timing decision. We compare the continuous-time and discrete-time PHMs, where the latter explicitly accounts for households' shopping trips that do not involve purchase of the product. We find that the discrete-time PHM empirically outperforms the continuous-time PHM in terms of explaining the observed purchase outcomes. We compare five different parametric specifications of the baseline hazard, and find that the three-parameter expo-power specification outperforms the exponential, Erlang-2, Weibull, and log-logistic specifications. We use a cause-specific, competing-risks PHM to distinguish between two types of purchase events that differ in terms of whether or not they were preceded by a shopping trip that involved purchase of the product. Such a cause-specific, competing-risks PHM is shown to outperform the traditional discrete-time PHM. We then estimate a nonparametric version of the PHM and find that it does not offer any additional insights compared to the parsimonious parametric PHM. Finally, we accommodate unobserved heterogeneity across households by allowing all of the parameters of the PHM to follow a discrete distribution across households whose locations and supports are nonparametrically estimated from the data. We find evidence for substantial unobserved heterogeneity in the data, both in the parameters of marketing variables and in the baseline hazards. This study will be a useful reference to researchers hoping to use the PHM to study event times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis Systematic Literature Review explores the evolving landscape of consumer behaviour towards DVAs using the TCCM (Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology) framework. Through a comprehensive analysis of 64 research papers sourced from the Scopus database, indexed in the ABDC (Australian Business Deans Council) category list, and published until December 2023, we uncover pivotal themes and significant knowledge gaps in the current body of research. The findings show that most studies on consumer-DVA interactions are empirical in nature, predominantly focused on the shopping and hospitality sectors, and grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) frameworks. Applying the TCCM framework, this paper uncovers fertile ground for future research, highlighting opportunities for further exploration and development. Building on the identified research gaps and our insights, we present integrated frameworks on consumer behaviour towards DVAs. Additionally, we provide actionable recommendations for DVA researchers, developers, and marketers, highlighting critical areas for future research, such as integrating sentiment analysis and emotional recognition capabilities. We also propose tailored strategies, including customizable DVA personalities and engaging voice experiences, to enhance consumer engagement and brand loyalty. The paper concludes with a summary of limitations and key findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the recent surge in restaurant research, there is a need for timely reviews employing quantitative methods to portray the intellectual structure of the field. This paper aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of restaurant research on the Web of Science database. The research investigates the dynamic evolution of the restaurant literature during three critical stages between 1995 and 2021. Based on 1146 journal articles published by 1849 authors, the paper analyzes different bibliometric networks, including co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, and collaboration networks. The study additionally highlights the most influential scholars and publications in the restaurant field. Results indicate that restaurant research has grown exponentially over the last five years. Findings also show that consumer behavior, consumer satisfaction, consumer-brand relationships, corporate social responsibility, and green restaurants represent the contemporary hotspots in restaurant research. Finally, the study provides practical implications and some opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative consumption (CC) is becoming a key concept in marketing. Despite the topic's relevance, the academic literature on consumer behavior in collaborative consumption remains very fragmented. This present research aims to provide a systematic review of consumer behavior in collaborative consumption research in the existing literature. An extensive literature review was systematically conducted on collaborative consumption spread over the time period between 2010 to 2021 published journals which were identified from online academic and research databases of Web of science and EBSCO. A total of 97 conceptual and empirical articles were analyzed based on criteria such as year of publication, theoretical underpinning, methodological approaches, etc. The paper highlights the critical emergent themes and sub-themes, extensively used methodologies and analysis approaches, and dominant theoretical underpinnings. By providing the distribution schema of collaborative consumption articles based on the mentioned criteria and the future research areas, the present study will help future researchers understand the current status of collaborative consumption research in the marketing and consumer behavior discipline and take this research area forward. Our theme-based segregation of collaborative consumption gives a deeper insight to the managers of sharing services concerning the key motivations and constraints of collaborative consumption. This systematic literature review provides a holistic view of consumer behavior in collaborative consumption. It highlights three major research themes (customer-centric studies, sustainability-centric studies, and consumer trust studies) and their related and relevant sub-themes to date addressed in the research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political measures during the COVID-19 pandemic forced consumers to cancel flights, resulting in significant decreases of their individual greenhouse gas emissions. This paper introduces the concept of imposed flying sufficiency and asks whether this could lead to a flying rebound. Imposed flying sufficiency describes that external factors, such as political measures during the pandemic, force consumers to reduce their flights. The term flying rebound refers to the gap between the emissions that could be potentially saved due to flying sufficiency and the actualized emissions savings due to adjusted flying behavior. A major contribution of this paper is combining the economic mechanisms with moral-psychological aspects of rebound effects in an experimental study. In a 2 (with/without economic hint) × 2 (with/without ecological hint) between-subjects experimental study, this paper analyzes how the awareness of monetary savings and the awareness of ecological consequences affect consumers' flying intentions. The study reveals an interaction effect of these two aspects: While awareness of the monetary savings will increase flying intentions, awareness of the ecological consequences will buffer this effect. Furthermore, the degree to which consumers feel flight shame, strongly moderates the economic and ecological hints' impact. Finally, the paper provides implications for managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer behaviour is changing in the e-commerce age for apparel products. More and more consumers tend to bracket, which means they purchase multiple versions of the same product to try at home and return those that do not meet their requirements. This bracketing behaviour can increase the likelihood that consumers buy the good-fit products. However, the tsunami of returns from bracketing has become challenging for online retailers. In this paper, we analytically address this issue by developing profit-maximising models for retailers facing bracketing customers. Our contribution is to explore whether and under what conditions should retailers encourage or discourage the bracketing purchase behaviour. Whether or not bracketing is profitable for retailers depends on the bracketer proportion and retailer's reverse logistics cost. Further, we also find that while the profit is eroded because of the large number of returns, retailers should order more product to meet bracketers' demand. In addition, we generate managerial insights from the findings that help online apparel retailers convert the seemingly harmful consumer returns from bracketing into an advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including consumer decision making processes concerning electric automobile use, American consumers' pro-environmental behavior and knowledge, and sustainable food production and consumption.

In recent years, social media platforms have transformed into dynamic spaces for brand-consumer interaction, with commenting emerging as a strategic tool for brands to connect with their audience. This research study aims to examine what types of incentives trigger customers’ engagement in terms of commenting on different brand-related content types on social media. A total of 415 questionnaires were analyzed and a structural equation modeling approach was used to investigate the relationships among communal, self-interest, and reward incentives as independent variables and intentions to comment on commercial, personal opinion, and lifestyle brand-related content on social media as dependent variables. The results reveal that communal and reward incentives positively influence intentions to engage in commenting on commercial, personal opinion, and lifestyle content, whereas self-interest incentives negatively influence intentions to engage in commenting on the three types of analyzed brand-related content on social media. The paper focuses specifically on intentions to comment on different types of brand-related social media content rather than on contributing activities in general. The present study fills the research gaps, concerning the lack of analysis of the influence of different incentives on intentions to comment on different brand-related content types on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Global Sport Management is the property of the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growing use of mobile technologies is spawning firms' adoption of mobile relationship-building techniques, including via mobile apps. However, despite the rapid rise of these technologies, little remains known regarding consumers' mobile app- (vs. desktop browser) related behaviours, and this is therefore investigated in this paper. Specifically, we explore the effect of customer engagement (CE) and customer experience (CX) on customers' relationship quality/loyalty intention across mobile app- (vs. desktop browser)-based interactions. Using structural equation modelling, we analyse data collected from 420 customers. The results reveal a stronger positive association between CE/CX and relationship quality/loyalty intention for mobile app- (vs. desktop browser)-based interactions, revealing the former's strategic importance. We conclude by discussing key implications that arise from our analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and retailer where the manufacturer undertakes greening efforts in terms of pack-size reduction and transportation cost reduction. The retailer decides on shelf-space allocation for the product. Both the players benefit from the greening efforts of the manufacturer. In such a setting, we examine strategic decisions of the players and compare and contrast the performance of the decentralised supply chain with the centralised supply chain. We also examine the effect of collaborative mechanisms by modelling two contracts in which the retailer offers a transportation cost reduction effort based contract and a two-part tariff contract. We find that the decentralised supply chain leads to lower greening efforts and shelf-space allocation decisions. We also find that the contracts improve pack-size reduction effort, transportation cost reduction effort and shelf-space allocation, while also improving the profitability of individual players. The findings demonstrate a scope for supply chain collaboration between manufacturer–retailer pairs in this setting. The paper uniquely combines three critical elements in supply chains, namely, product design, transportation and retailing decisions, and aims to provide insights into the decision making of players considering environmental waste and pollution. The paper also reflects consumer behavior and trade-offs that the supply chain players face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To compete with e-commerce, retailers are increasingly integrating smart technologies into their offline retail environment. This enables retailers to analyze their customers and provide them with a personalized shopping experience. However, research to date has mainly focused on the customer rather than the retailer. Building on a semi-systematic review of 75 studies using sensor technologies in retail environments between 2001 and 2021, this paper facilitates future research on the selection and combination of sensor technologies for in-store customer analysis from a retailer's perspective. The literature was analyzed in terms of the technology used, the raw data collected, and the interpretation of the data. The results show that technologies were primarily used to gain insights into customers' physical behavior, while few studies attempted to identify the customer or examine customers' emotions. The identified studies rarely combined multiple technologies. Based on the analysis, this study provides recommendations for selecting and combining sensor technologies in stores. Current approaches to support technology selection take a broad perspective and compare entire store technology concepts, such as smart shelving or smart shopping carts, rather than basic sensor technologies. The findings are relevant to both research and retail practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapidly growing online sales, e-commerce firms in emerging economies like India risk unsustainable practices such as the relentless consumption of goods, increased plastic and paper packaging, or inefficient delivery options that increase fuel consumption. To maintain a favorable corporate image amongst consumers, online firms possibly adopt various mechanisms to signal consumers' adoption of sustainable practices. Such practices by firms may involve implementing sustainability practices in doorstep delivery, packaging, and product selection to influence consumers' buying preferences. This research uses a structured survey approach to explore the impact of three sustainable practices implemented by an e-commerce firm on the consumer's intention to purchase from such a firm. Using a dual theory perspective of the theory of consumption value (TCV) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the study demonstrates the impact of the belief of environmental risks on consumers' intentions to purchase from such e-commerce firms with sustainable practices. The data findings from 301 Indian e-commerce consumers suggest that consumers with a higher belief of environmental risks display a higher degree of tolerance for the inconvenience of order delivery and sustainable product purchase intentions, further influencing their intentions to purchase from e-commerce firms with sustainable practices. However, the preference for sustainable packaging does not impact intentions to purchase from e-commerce firms with sustainable practices. The study discusses the implications for online e-commerce retailers and policymakers and informs online e-commerce consumers' choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of plant-based beverages hinges not only on their inherent properties but also on an understanding of consumer behavior. Factors such as health conditions, sustainability awareness, and constant innovation drive consumer interest, while barriers like food neophobia and sensory attributes can deter consumption. To address these challenges, strategies such as nutrient complementation and customization of taste, color, and texture cater to individual preferences, expanding the appeal of plant-based beverages. Despite challenges, the plant-based beverage industry presents significant opportunities for growth, with consumer behavior playing a pivotal role in shaping this trend. This paper investigates the multifaceted factors influencing consumer behavior towards plant-based beverages, offering specific examples of motivations and barriers, drawing from a comprehensive analysis of available literature. The findings suggest that a consumer-centric approach, informed by a nuanced understanding of consumer behavior, is essential for the success of the plant-based beverage industry. By addressing consumer needs and preferences, companies can attract new customers and foster loyalty among existing ones, thereby capitalizing on the significant opportunities for growth within the plant-based beverage market. This paper highlights the implications of consumer behavior for industry stakeholders and underscores the importance of ongoing research and innovation in meeting evolving consumer demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor behavior and the act of charity have attracted evident attention globally in recent years primarily because of squeezed government funding to charities and Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs) post 2008 financial meltdown. This paper reviewed 148 articles on charity donor behavior and giving behavior, and provides a coherent and contemporary view with a classification scheme having various categories based on different attributes. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it covers a systematic literature review (SLR) of charity donor behavior and its drivers. Second, it identifies the gaps in the current body of knowledge and highlights the future research direction. Using SLR Method, the present research identifies, meticulously evaluates, critically analyzes, and synthesizes findings of the relevant studies published in international journals in the fields of consumer behavior, information technology, services marketing, psychology, economics, and marketing management from 1980 onwards. Subsequently, various emerging themes in the area of Donor Behavior are identified based on gaps to facilitate the researchers and practitioners for their future research efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As manufacturers continue to provide new and unique products and services for their customers, we argue that warranty menus with differentiated options are an often-overlooked unique selling point. Meanwhile, there is a huge swathe of customers who own durable products which are still in use even after the expiration of a warranty. It is in this area that we develop a research perspective which urges customers to consider warranty plans and post-warranty maintenance strategies simultaneously when making a purchasing decision. In this paper, through the lens of a consumer, we propose an integrated model of warranty and post-warranty maintenance under a flexible renewable warranty. This model takes into account repair limits and multiple failure types with time-varying probabilities. As part of this, a new post-warranty maintenance strategy is designed, in which the repair time-based corrective replacement and the age-based preventive replacement are combined. The life cycle cost rate of the product is minimised by a synthetic decision-making about the consumer's warranty purchase and post-warranty maintenance strategy. Numerical studies show that there exists a joint optimal solution, which can help the customer to develop an optimal overall warranty-maintenance strategy under the warranty menu with minimised cost rate. An integrated model of warranty and post-warranty maintenance is developed. The warranty product has minor and catastrophic failures with time-varying probabilities. A flexible renewable warranty is considered for the consumer. A post-warranty maintenance strategy with the repair time limit is proposed. The optimal warranty-maintenance strategy is derived to minimise the Life cycle cost rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks are one of the largest and fastest-growing marketing tools in the world. Their strength is proven by 3.8 billion users worldwide in 2020. The tool offers great economic potential for a commercial brand. This paper focuses on the social network sought after by the millennials - Instagram. One advertisement on Instagram can reach up to 849 million users. One-third of so-called stories are commercial and 200 million users a day look at a business profile. The aim of this paper is to characterize the influence of interactivity in the form of 'liking', commenting, and sharing on consumer shopping behavior. The partial goal of the paper is to characterize the interests of users on the social network Instagram. The paper is based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm developed by Howard and Sheth (1969). The research concerns the influence of interactivity on the motives for using Instagram (O) and especially on brand awareness and the intention to purchase (R). Interactivity only influences responses when it is mediated through the individual's motivation to use the application, whether for hedonistic or utilitarian reasons. The data were obtained using a questionnaire and were evaluated using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Equation Structural Modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branding literature has long recognized storytelling as a powerful tool to provide meaning to the brand, and to build relationship between customers and brands. In the literature, there has been a lot of focus on consumer behavior and narrative process, but only a few studies have investigated storytelling from a managerial or strategic branding perspective. This paper aims to bridge this gap by using a single case study based on 18 semi-structured interviews with brand and communication managers. Building on the stakeholder's co-creation of brand meaning perspective, this research makes use of an in-depth case study in an effort to understand, from the inside, how brand storytelling is implemented and embedded in the communication process, as well as how the new digital ecosystem may challenge the brand storytelling. It provides detailed insights into the dynamic construction of brand storytelling and extends the scope of the brand meaning's co- creation from consumers to intra-organizational stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies a creator's quality commitment strategies with uncertain demand when the creator lacks setup funding and chooses crowdfunding to finance. Facing uncertain demand, the creator may or may not choose to make a quality commitment. Conventional wisdom indicates that the strategy of committing to a certain quality outperforms the no-commitment strategy by eliminating the consumers' strategic behavior of delaying purchases. We build a two-period model consisting of crowdfunding and spot sales periods, a creator lacking setup funding, and consumers with heterogeneous valuations for the product. When considering the creator's setup cost and market uncertainty, we find, counterintuitively, that making no quality commitment to consumers can be more profitable for the creator because of the advantage of flexibility. Moreover, our analysis shows that when the creator's setup cost is high enough, the profit-maximising creator will make a quality commitment to consumers and offer a higher-quality product than when making no commitment. Also, we show that the product quality increases with the market uncertainty under certain conditions. In addition, we find that the creator should finance through crowdfunding only when the setup cost is less than a threshold, and the threshold increases with market uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to performance evaluation, productivity analytics, and benchmarking, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the most widely used tool. To this aim, the paper considers pre-processed data via DEA and adds the DEA efficiency value into the logistic regression model, which can improve the accuracy of the basic logistic regression model. Based on a sample of U.S. public firms from 2012 to 2016, the empirical results illustrate that, compared to the conventional DEA models, the proposed models yield more useful productivity expression for diversified firms, and that the model-suggested resource reallocation is linked to better firm performance. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines how input devices of human-computer interaction (HCI) affect consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions. Across four studies (one study with two secondary data and three experiments), we demonstrate that consumers using direct HCI (touch with fingers) will generate more favorable attitudes and greater purchase intentions than those using indirect HCI (click with a mouse). This effect is mediated by the sense of immersion and moderated by the product haptic importance. Specifically, the sense of immersion significantly mediates the effect of input devices on consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions for high haptic products. In contrast, the mediating effect of the sense of immersion becomes weaker for low haptic products. These findings make important theoretical contributions to the HCI and touch literature. We also provide some practical implications for firms to improve product evaluations and purchase behavior through human-computer interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An expanded model of the effect of culture on consumer behavior is presented in this paper. This model expands upon the model earlier developed by the authors, specifically incorporating two significant issues relevant for cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research in the new millennium. These include: (1) consumer motivation reflecting materialism and status seeking and impression building as the salient forces and (2) intense competition in the marketplace. The other four papers included in this special issue are mapped on to this model and summarized in terms of the nature of the paper, cultures and/or nations compared and samples, cultural component/consequence, constructs and consumer behavior domain. Directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study synthesises current understanding and developments in omnichannel marketing, provides a comprehensive and structured review of this domain, and suggests future research directions. The research adopts a structured literature review approach to analyse and synthesise 174 omnichannel-related papers published from 2011 to 2021. Within the omnichannel-related literature, omnichannel marketing is in its infancy stage. We find mature themes such as consumer behaviour, customer decision, and customer experience, as well as emerging topics such as customer engagement and switching experience, thus allowing us to define key trends in omnichannel marketing. We apply a holistic perspective and present a novel and original review of omnichannel marketing within an up-to-date, comprehensive picture of omnichannel-related studies. This study is useful for practitioners as it outlines the pillars of recent developments in omnichannel marketing based on scholarly literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chatbots can bring innovation in online assistance and communication with customers. Due to the growth of e-commerce, fashion brands have been adopting chatbots to provide personalised consumer experiences. Research in the area of chatbots for fashion e-commerce has addressed technological advancements and consumer behaviour, but little has been done on analysing chatbot features through a holistic point of view. The aim of this paper is to offer an interdisciplinary review through a comprehensive categorisation of recent studies on the theme and inform future research in the area. To achieve that, a theme-based literature review was carried out through the analysis of specialised research. The collected work was categorised addressing both computational and non-computational perspectives. The findings show that Deep Learning, recommendation systems, audio recognition and integration of chatbots with other fashion applications are a few design opportunities to be applied in both research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following earlier ethnographic research on experiential immersion in nature that probe consumer responses to the poignant risks and tensions of the nature harmony paradox (Canniford and Shankar 2013; Scholz, Joachim, and Jay Handelman. "Living in Harmony with Nature: A Post-Human Analysis of Consumers' Relationships with Nature." In NA – Advances in Consumer Research, edited by June Cotte and Stacy Wood, Vol. 42, 668–669. Duluth: Association for Consumer Research, 2014), my goal with this paper is to understand the emotional dynamics embedded in this paradox while camping. By introducing new methodological tools for autoethnography, I integrate 22 years of introspective participant-observation as a seasonal RV (recreational vehicle) camper while reckoning with the contradiction between nature's extraordinary experiences and its betrayal. Transformational interactions with the forest and its creatures failed to balance escalating feelings of despair when rain, mold, mildew, fungi and mice invaded my space and belied the natural world's romantic appeal. This paper adds to the literature on consumer frustration by demonstrating the benefits of an autoethnographic methodology to discover, interpret and understand deeply felt emotions pervading the nature harmony paradox while camping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shelf life of a food product is a time threshold that determines when it no longer retains its quality. It can be estimated using data coming from sensory experiments where potential consumers taste aged portions of the product and state whether they will consume the product or not. The raw data obtained from the experiment consist of a binary sequence for each assessor. The standard approach to analyze this type of data is based on reliability theory and requires the coding of the raw data into censored intervals. This paper discusses how the aforementioned coding yields a loss of information and low coverage of confidence intervals. Furthermore, the paper introduces an alternative methodology to estimate shelf life based on longitudinal data theory. This methodology prevents loss of information, quantifies the effect of inconsistent responses, explicitly incorporates and diagnoses the correlation structure of the consumer's responses, and provides an easier interpretation of the results for the final user. These features are shown using real data coming from sensory experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous growth of information and technology has resulted in considerable changes in the retailing environment, with a restriction on brick-and-mortar retailing and a push toward online retailing. The purpose of this study is to map the available literature on e-tailing in order to forecast where the field might be headed in the coming years and to identify the key features that contribute to e-tailing businesses. The paper employs an integrative review methodology and bibliometric method as a computational tool, and selected Web of Science and SCOPUS database(s), to identify the most productive research disciplines and countries that conduct the majority of e-tailing research. The study examines major themes such as consumer behavior and perception, technology and media, pricing strategies, channel integration, cognitive impact, business strategies, and models, and channel strategies to provide a comprehensive framework of e-tailing. This is the first study to present a thorough picture of e-tailing by identifying topics, research evolution, annual publishing trends, and the most relevant journals. The study offers future research areas in the form of thematic propositions and advocates greater research into upcoming trends such as voice assistants, chatbots, AI, and direct-to- consumer markets while adding relevant concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has become a consideration for every firm operating in today's business landscape. Scholars are tasked with uncovering bridges and barriers to successfully implement sustainability strategies, and the academic community has largely responded. However, while sustainability research has proliferated across business disciplines, it is conspicuously missing from professional selling and sales management. This is partly due to conceptual ambiguity, but also because sustainability generally involves firm-level policies and programs, and therefore domains like consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and supply chain management have occupied the space. This is problematic because while executives develop sustainability strategies, the sales force is responsible for conveying those priorities to external stakeholders. Therefore, the goals of our manuscript are to: 1) organize and refine the definition of sustainability in a professional selling context, 2) review relevant literature that examines sustainability in that context, 3) explore emergent themes from this review that 4) reveal gaps in our understanding, and 5) present a research agenda for sales scholars to bridge these gaps and advance our understanding of the role of sustainability in sales and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection is increasingly a concern, but false claims by companies have raised green skepticism among consumers. Young consumers constitute a significant group for consumption in an economy like India. While young consumers have rarely been surveyed on factors like green perceived value and perception regarding green claims, there is a paucity of research on the moderating role of skepticism. This paper provides a new perspective regarding the underexplored debate on green skepticism levels among young consumers. Data from 610 respondents were gathered through a researcher-controlled survey. Antecedents to environmental attitude, namely green perceived value, environmental knowledge, and interpersonal influence, were found to influence the relationships significantly. Young consumers' environmental attitude was significant in explaining their green purchasing behavior. The paper sheds first light on the negative moderating effect of skepticism on the attitude-behavior relationship. The study highlights the role of educated and urban young consumers in sustainable consumption. In the same vein, findings suggest that managers should consider the importance of consumers' doubts as a valuable element for global green advertising effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses papers in the special issue of "The Service Industries Journal" devoted to consumer behavioral analysis and services, including one about impulse buying, a paper on consumer behaviour analysis and social marketing practice, and a paper on planned purchases by consumers.

Throughout human history, people have expressed admiration for heroes who possessed extraordinary abilities and achieved superhuman goals. For many, modern-day celebrities fulfil this role and are prominent in various marketing communications activities. This paper addresses the literature review gaps and provides an in-depth review of the psychological and social psychological perspectives which are relevant to the celebrity endorsement literature. The contributions of this paper consist of a detailed analysis of important types of consumer-celebrity relationships, key emotional drivers (e.g. envy and admiration) of celebrity influence and the development of an original conceptual model. The conceptual model pulls together the past research and identifies new research gaps, which synthesises different research perspectives and provides a sound theoretical basis guiding future researchers and marketing managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces anarchic manufacturing, an extremely distributed planning and control philosophy, as the methodology for planning and controlling future smart factories. Anarchic manufacturing delegates decision-making authority and autonomy to the lowest level of entities in system elements with no centralised control or oversight. It is often postulated that traditional hierarchical structures may not be well suited to manage the state-of-the-art hyper-connected smart factories due to their reliance on communication between management layers. Distributed systems, on the other hand, are commonly perceived to be inherently more flexible, robust and adaptable than hierarchical systems due to their structure. This paper characterises distributed systems by evaluating the relative flexibility of a representative hierarchical system against an anarchic system in a job shop scenario. Multi-agent-based simulation is used to model both hierarchical and anarchic systems, which are tested for flexibility following the Taguchi method and compared against Taillard's benchmark job shop problems for overall performance. The results show that the anarchic system performs as well as the hierarchical system when subjected to unforeseen disruption, refuting the argument that hierarchical systems are too rigid and distributed systems are inherently more flexible. However, anarchic manufacturing systems, which show adaptability and self-optimising traits, provide a platform to potentially enable the emerging digital manufacturing paradigm through the free market structure especially when bandwidth for communications is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delineates a dual-channel model of consumer resistance towards corporate social irresponsibility. The model assumes a conditional mediational relationship among affective response to corporate social irresponsibility and ethical judgement as drivers of consumers' inclination towards boycotting, protesting and negative word-of-mouth. Mediation-analysis results are largely in line with the model hypotheses: Affective response to corporate social irresponsibility solely has a significant direct effect on resistance inclination of consumers with a low preference for ethical products. Moreover, contractualistic and moral equity (utilitarian) judgement mediate(s) the effect of affective response on resistance intention for consumers with high (low) ethical product preferences. Based on the empirical findings, the paper presents practical implications and avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergent mobile technologies are dramatically and rapidly changing not only the way we consume but also the way we live. In theory, it is becoming harder and harder to keep pace with the changes already embodied in practice. First, this paper aims to reduce the gap between theory and practice by introducing online/offline hybridity both as a new kind of hybridity and a universal contemporary human condition. Second, it presents the concept of hybrid space as a new frame of reference, as an overarching conception of our everyday. Third, it proposes the necessary micro-level updates regarding consumer self and consumption due to these changes in perspective. Fourth, it concludes by introducing privatescapes as a new global flow of shared private content with a significant impact on consumer behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a new conceptual contribution to our understanding of the value of events, examining their potential through the lens of service dominant logic. Through a conceptual analysis and discussion, augmented by a small-scale and exploratory empirical study using semi-structured interviews, it evaluates the growing resonance of events in modern-day marketing. The paper advances the conception of ‘value-creation space’ as an overarching term to coalesce the otherwise disparate range of organisational events that have marketing imperative and/or impact. The underpinning virtues of events are recognised and used to build a discussion that can provide a coherent basis for further conceptual development. The findings depict considerable synergy between the collaborative nature of events and the service dominant logic notions of co-creation (or co-destruction), and co-production. However, an intuitive and well-executed event marketing approach is critical to events' continued success as value-creation spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we study a firm's optimal joint product quality and quantity decisions when the consumers' utilities change with the market environment. We develop a model framework to study a monopolist firm's decisions about product quality and related production quantity planning when responsive pricing is implemented. Consumers are heterogeneous in their marginal valuations of the product quality but homogeneous in their reservation utility. Considering a utility function incorporating the reservation utility, quality, and price, consumers make their purchase decisions. We find that as the reservation utility increases or the quality valuation decreases, the optimal quantity increases. However, counterintuitively, the optimal quality decreases when the reservation utility becomes higher. Furthermore, the product quality and quantity are substitutes in the context of responsive pricing. We also investigate the optimal quality and quantity for a product line that is vertically differentiated. Compared to a firm offering a single product, a firm offering a product line is more likely to alter its quality investment decisions due to changes in reservation utility, whereas the optimal investment decisions are less sensitive to changes in quality valuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced marketers to adjust to different consumer responses the world over. Country responses have ranged from complete lockdowns to informal guidelines on avoiding infection. Limiting physical interactions through social distancing is key to mitigating health risks. Yet, some mitigating behaviours such as home delivery versus going to the supermarket come with a higher financial cost. A survey of American and Canadian consumers examined relationships among income, financial strain, and risky social distancing behaviours. Regression analyses found that financial strain had a stronger effect on the incidence of risky behaviours than did income. These relationships were found in the USA but not in Canada. The paper discusses the results and presents the implications for international marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst understanding the social norms of trash talking is an emerging field of research, the extent to how esport consumers perceive its practice in esports is currently limited. Guided by Chung and Rimal (2016) framework to identify how social norms and moderating attributes influence behaviour, this study investigated consumers perceptions of trash talk in FPS esports. Focusing on Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege scenes, this study used data harvesting through the popular social media forum – Reddit and gathered 1,724 comments for analysis. Subjective and descriptive norms were influenced around the context of trash talk and the moments it occurred. Behavioural, individual, and contextual moderating attributes also influence consumers perspectives on why esport players do, or do not engage in trash talk. As an area of research still in its infancy, this paper aids in enhancing how communities reflect, discuss and debate relevant themes within esports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we formulate and analyze a novel model on a retailer's inventory and pricing decisions for fresh agricultural products with consumers' forward consuming behavior under online channel. We consider a dynamic stochastic setting, where every period consists of two stages, discounting pricing stage and regular sale stage. At the beginning of the period, the retailer decides how much new fresh agricultural products to order and sets discount price for leftover inventories from the previous period which will be disposed otherwise, and determines regular price for fresh products on the second stage, respectively. Since forward purchase consumers may buy the products during discount pricing stage, which may cannibalize future sales at regular price, the retailer needs to make a trade-off decision between regular price and discounting price. We bring forward a dynamic optimization model and use nonlinear programming method of Karush Kuhn Tucker condition to obtain the optimal dynamic strategy, which is comparatively analyzed to dominate the related static strategy. We also show that consumers forward buying behavior will negatively influence the retailer's profit. When the price is set too low in regular or discounting sales, the profit will show an up-down trend if the inventory exceeds a certain threshold. Meanwhile, when fresh goods returns are allowed and resold in the secondary stage, the retailer's profit will increase. We finally conduct numerical studies to further characterize the optimal policy, and to evaluate the loss of efficiency under static policies when compared to the optimal dynamic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model which will unveil how fans of different film genres observe the importance of elements of marketing mix when consuming products in the film industry during COVID-19 pandemics. To verify the proposed conceptual model, a survey was conducted during the lockdown and the responses of 1606 individuals from Serbia, who declare themselves as film fans, were analyzed using structural equation modelling analysis. The results support the assumption that the respondents who prefer different film genres give different importance to elements of the film marketing mix. Our findings show that based on the genre of the film marketing activities can be tailored so as to improve their effects, especially during the pandemics and post-pandemics period. It is believed that the herein presented research could initiate further research on the issue of modelling marketing activities in the film industry based on consumers' genre preference and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relations and dynamics between influencers, brands and marketers, social media digital platforms and consumers are indeed complex and can be analysed through the contrasting perspectives of parasitism and symbiosis. The influencer marketing symbiosis/parasitism framework One unique way of looking at the relationship between influencers, marketers and brands, consumers and social media platforms is to consider who is exploiting whom and to what ends. Recent contributions in this regard include special issues and sections in advertising scholarship that explore the efficacy and consumption of influencer marketing (Hudders & Lou, [46]) and how advertisers can best leverage influencers (Rosengren & Campbell, [93]), with in press special issues in business and marketing dedicated to examining virtual influencers (Koles et al., [60]), implications of influencers and influencer marketing for consumers and society (Mardon et al., [74]) and the ways influencers can be leveraged for the "greater good" to encourage sustainable and pro-social behaviours (Gerrath et al., [40]). In academic marketing research, the abundance of scholarly work to date centres on practical aspects of influencer marketing: how brands can profit from influencers (Hughes et al., [47]; Ki & Kim, [58]; Leung et al., [67]; Lou & Yuan, [70]; Martínez-López et al., [76]; Reinikainen et al., [91]), the functional components of influencer marketing (Brooks et al., [19]; Campbell & Farrell, [23]), roles and categorisations of influencers (Ouvrein et al., [84]; Rundin & Colliander, [94]), disclosure implications in influencer marketing (Audrezet & Charry, [10]; Chen et al., [26]; De Jans & Hudders, [29]; Giuffredi-Kähr et al., [42]; Karagür et al., [54]), and consumer perceptions of influencers (De Veirman et al., [30]; Lee & Eastin, [64]; Yuan & Lou, [114]). [Extracted from the article]

Based on the secondhand data of the hotel industry, this paper conducts an empirical test in order to study the relationship between within-group multimarket contact (WGMMC), service diversity and consumer rating. Besides, this paper also analyzes the moderating role of market reciprocity and travel experience. The empirical results show that WGMMC has a significant negative impact on hotels' service diversity, and market reciprocity will strengthen the negative correlation between WGMMC and service diversity. Furthermore, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between service diversity and consumer rating, and travel experience will weaken this relationship. By extending the impact of multimarket contact on corporate competitive behavior to the consumer side, this article enriches the empirical research in the field of dynamic competition. At the same time, this research also helps hotels expand their strategic vision, improve their relationship with consumers, and ultimately promote the healthy and orderly development of industry competition. 基于连锁酒店行业的二手数据，本文对组群内多市场接触、服务多样性与消费者评价之间的关系进行了实证检验，并分析了市场互换性与顾客旅行经验在其中发挥的调节作用。实证结果显示，组群内多市场接触对酒店服务多样性具有显著的负向影响，且市场互换性会加强这一负相关关系。此外，服务多样性与消费者评价之间呈倒U型关系，而顾客旅行经验会削弱这一关系。通过将多市场接触对企业竞争行为的影响扩展至消费端，本文丰富了动态竞争领域的实证研究。同时，本文还有助于酒店企业扩展战略视野、改善企业与消费者之间的关系，并最终促进行业竞争的健康有序发展。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]