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Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of sustainability app on environmental citizenship behavior on the basis of norm-activation model. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey, which comprises five variables (i.e. awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, personal norms, environmental citizenship behavior in a private sphere and environmental citizenship behavior in a public sphere) measured through 16 items, was conducted in the USA by using Amazon Mechanical Turk. With 549 valid respondents’ answers in hand, the collected data were analyzed applying a multi-group structural equation modelling technique with IBM SPSS AMOS 23 software program. Findings The results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, personal norms and environmental citizenship behavior in both private and public sphere. Furthermore, this study attested that sustainability apps utilization has a moderating effect on the predictors of environmental citizenship behaviors. Originality/value Past studies have seldom examined the contribution of mobile apps to environmental sustainability. This paper enriches the extant academic literature in the field of technology for behavior change, and bears significant implications on how sustainability apps can be adopted by governments, policymakers, organizations and teacher educators to engage people and stimulate environmental citizenship behaviors.

This research discusses the social perception of marketing in the Italian context. The authors conducted a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of Facebook statuses. From data analysis emerged that marketing receives any kind of public criticism. The most evident accusation regards the adoption of misleading actions, manipulation, and pervasiveness. The study also reveals an accentuated confusion about what marketing really is as a discipline and in practice. Non-marketing people tend to depict marketing as the art of selling stuff. This negative view contrasts with the image that academic community and Organisations, such as the American Marketing Associations, wish to convey about marketing discipline.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has forced individuals to modify their routine and lifestyle, pushing them into a different social, economic, cultural, political, and consumption reality. Restrictive actions preventing contagions, such as general lockdown and curfew, inevitably changed consumption models and behaviors. Against this backdrop, the current study aimed to investigate the Coronavirus pandemic's impact on consumption patterns by adopting Big Data Analysis (BDA) techniques, such as text mining, regression, and correlation analysis. Specifically, was analyzed a dataset comprising of 4.5 million transactional and textual data obtained from a supermarket chain, including large retailers and proximity stores, based in Salerno, Italy. Results pointed out relevant information for marketing practitioners concerning brand choice and family expenditures.

This study investigates how social media (SM) can affect the consumer-brand relationship phenomena. Basing on the literature concerning the so-called “dark side” of social media (e.g., fake news and memes), the authors analyze the case of Corona beer. Web-users attacked this Mexican brand due to the link between its brand name and the Coronavirus. The case was analyzed via Twitter textual analysis. Results offer insights for both scholars and practitioners.

According to previous research, in several countries, the achievement of the objectives for tourism development and the better functioning of protected areas is affected by bad governance activities. This paper provides a framework based on the combination between the Viable Systems Approach (vSa) and the actor engagement theory for improving the managerial effectiveness of protected areas. Exploring the case of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, a well-known tourism destination in Southern Italy, we gave empirical evidence of the risks that can occur when the governing body of protected areas does not adopt a systems-based management approach, and therefore cannot handle the complexity of the territory, generate socio-economic benefits for local populations, resolve conflicts with local actors, or advance sustainable tourism goals. Findings suggest that the governing body should adopt specific strategies to engage local actors in decision-making and idea-generation processes. Such strategies could help to integrate resources within the system, co-create value and handle conflicts when the goals are not mutually aligned. Hence, actor engagement is necessary for achieving conditions of systemic consonance and resonance.

Nowadays, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) play an important role in different functional areas of marketing. Starting from this assumption, the main objective of this theoretical paper is to better understand the relationship between Big Data, AI, and customer journey mapping. For this purpose, the authors revised the extant literature on the impact of Big Data and AI on marketing practices to illustrate how such data analytics tools can increase the marketing performance and reduce the complexity of the pattern of consumer activity. The results of this research offer some interesting ideas for marketing managers. The proposed Big Data and AI framework to explore and manage the customer journey illustrates how the combined use of Big Data and AI analytics tools can offer effective support to decision-making systems and reduce the risk of bad marketing decision. Specifically, the authors suggest ten main areas of application of Big Data and AI technologies concerning the customer journey mapping. Each one supports a specific task, such as (1) customer profiling; (2) promotion strategy; (3) client acquisition; (4) ad targeting; (5) demand forecasting; (6) pricing strategy; (7) purchase history; (8) predictive analytics; (9) monitor consumer sentiments; and (10) customer relationship management (CRM) activities.

The objective of this study is to explore the complex phenomenon of “social media firestorms”, because such crises can substantially affect brand reputation and the financial performance of the company owning the brand. Analysing the case of Dolce & Gabbana (D&G), we tested some extant theories concerning the antecedents of such form of collaborative brand attacks. Furthermore, focusing on brand management strategies in response to consumer attacks, we found out what brands should do, or not do, to survive a social media crisis.

In the past few years, an explosion of interest in big data has occurred from both academia and business communities. To reduce the uncertainty associated with some types of big data, organizations...

This article seeks to contribute to the extant knowledge about branding in the digital era exploring why consumers assume adversely behaviours towards brands and how brand managers react when their brand is attacked. From the multiple case study analysis emerged that not every brand reacts at the same way. Specifically we noted the following four different strategies: (1) ignore; (2) apologize; (3) start a dialogue with trolls and haters; (4) change behaviour. Interestingly, (3) and (4) appeared more effective in mitigating consumers attacks. On the contrary (1) and (2) would be risky in some contexts.

By relying on the taxonomy introduced by Kotlar and De Massis (2013), the present study proposes to investigate the dynamics and the set of goals perceived by the family members strategic for the future growth of their family business. Using an interview approach, the researchers recorded the professional stories of 15 family firm owners and managers. Through the interpretation of the narrative material emerged that the interviewees never mentioned the role that family-centred non-economic goals (i.e., ‘family harmony’, the ‘family social status’ and ‘the family identity’) plays in the performance of the family firms. Contrary, non-family non-economic goals, such as innovation and internationalisation, are considered two keys growth drivers. In particular, if both innovation and internationalisation have equal importance amongst the current goals, internationalisation assumes a greater importance in relation to the future goals of growth. Keywords: Goal setting process; Family business; Growth Strategy; Narrative analysis

The aim of the paper is to identify the main strategic goals that are deemed as strategic by the owner/managers for the future growth of a family firm, and to assess how innovation ad internationalisation are included in such goals. By relying on 15 in-depth interviews with family firms’ key informants (i.e. family firms’ owners, managers and professionals), the study makes an original contribution that is significant and relevant both from a theoretical and a methodological perspective. In relation to the former, it provides a comprehensive review of the main family business goal setting models in order to identify the relevant categories used to classify the goals. Additionally, differently from extant research the study outlines the pivotal importance of innovation and internationalization as strategic goals for family firms’ growth. In relation to the latter, by relying on a narrative approach, the study provides a finer-grained understanding of how internationalization and innovation are conceived with respect to traditional characteristics of the family firms.