Search

PurposeThis research aims to systematically explore the cognitive and emotional effects of values-related and performance-related negative brand publicity and investigate how the psychological effects translate into different behavioural outcomes. In addition, it examines the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies in mitigating negative publicity.Design/methodology/approachTwo experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 examines the effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity, using a 3 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related vs control) × 2 (brand: Dove vs Axe) between-subjects experiment. Study 2 further compares the effects of two major brand response strategies on consumers’ post-crisis perceived trustworthiness and trust and responses towards a brand involved in negative publicity. A 2 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related) × 2 (brand response strategy: reduction-of-offensiveness vs corrective action) between-subjects design was used.FindingsThe results suggest that values-related negative brand publicity is perceived as being more diagnostic and elicits a stronger emotion of contempt, but a weaker emotion of pity than performance-related negative brand publicity. Moreover, values-related negative brand publicity has a stronger negative impact on consumer responses than performance-related negative brand publicity. Interestingly, compared to perceived diagnosticity of information and the emotion of pity, the emotion of contempt is more likely to cause differences in consumer responses to these two types of negative brand publicity. Regarding brand response strategy, corrective action is more effective than reduction-of-offensiveness for both types of negative brand publicity, but the advantage of corrective action is greater for the performance-related case.Originality/valueThis research enriches the negative publicity and brand perception literature, showing the asymmetric cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity. It also identifies the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses to negative brand publicity, and it provides empirical evidence for the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies.

Die Erkenntnisbeitrage dieser Arbeit basieren im Wesentlichen auf den funf eingangs formulierten Forschungsfragen. Sie sollen daher im Folgenden anhand dieser Forschungsfragen zusammengefasst werden.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how subjective knowledge about fair trade products and the perceived trustworthiness of information about fair trade goods influence purchase intention and reported purchase behaviour across two product categories, namely, fashion and food. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from an online survey with a sample of 1,616 consumers in four European countries, namely, Germany, Italy, Austria and the UK. Findings The results show that subjective knowledge moderates the positive relationship between intentions to purchase and reported purchase behaviour of fair trade products, however, the moderating role of perceived information trustworthiness was not significant. Furthermore, both the intention to purchase and reported purchase behaviour are significantly lower for fair trade fashion products than for fair trade food products. Practical implications This paper shows how fair trade consumption behaviour is mainly influenced by subjective knowledge about fair trade products. It reveals existing differences in both the buying intentions and reported purchase behaviour in different European markets. Originality/value This research broadens the understanding of consumers’ fair trade consumption behaviour across two different product categories and four different countries, with a focus on the interaction effect of consumers’ subjective knowledge and information trustworthiness.

Die Digitalisierung beziehungsweise digitale Transformation stellt aufgrund ihrer ubiquitaren Durchdringungstiefe einen wesentlichen Treiber gesellschaftlicher Veranderungen dar (Altmeppen et al., 2018). Fur Unternehmen bedeutet die digitale Transformation, dass die Veranderungen in vielen Fallen uber die Gestaltung von Produkten und internen Prozessen hinaus tief in die Geschaftsmodelle einwirken. Diese Veranderungen geschehen nicht blos evolutionar, sondern in grosen Teilen disruptiv (Keuper et al., 2018).

Angesichts der zunehmenden Bedeutung von Musik-Streaming ist das Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags die empirische Analyse der Akzeptanz von kostenpflichtigen Musik-Streaming-Diensten. Basierend auf einem erweiterten Technologieakzeptanzmodell (TAM) werden dazu die Einflussfaktoren der Nutzungsintention untersucht. Zur Prufung der aufgestellten Hypothesen wurde eine Online-Befragung durchgefuhrt, an der uber 500 Probanden teilnahmen. Mit Hilfe einer Strukturgleichungsanalyse werden Determinanten der Nutzungsintention von kostenpflichtigen Musik-Streaming-Diensten identifiziert, aus denen sich Handlungsempfehlungen fur das Dienstleistungsmanagement sowie fur die weiterfuhrende Forschung ergeben.