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High-profile instances of brands accused of cultural appropriation suggest that even the most prominent brands fail to fully understand the complexities of this phenomenon. This work experimentally unpacks consumer perceptions of cultural appropriation and its impact on brand attitudes and purchase interest. The authors begin by developing and validating a scale for measuring perceptions of cultural appropriation. Next, a series of studies demonstrates that viewing this phenomenon through a historical lens can help determine when and why the use of cultural elements is viewed as appropriative. Specifically, an emphasis on historical power imbalance explains why liberal consumers are more likely to recognize cultural appropriation and why commercializing disadvantaged cultures is considered appropriation, whereas using elements from advantaged cultures may be more acceptable. The conceptualization further identifies brand actions and interventions that influence perceptions of cultural appropriation, including externally emphasizing historical power imbalance, how brands obtain cultural elements, and how brands represent the culture in their product offerings and marketing. These findings help marketers (1) avoid launching products that can be damaging to the brand and offensive to consumers and (2) understand how to better promote products in a way that prevents rather than amplifies these negative perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triazolophanes are used as the venue to compete an aliphatic propylene CH hydrogen-bond donor against an aromatic phenylene one. Longer aliphatic C-H...Cl(-) hydrogen bonds were calculated from the location of the chloride within the propylene-based triazolophane. The gas-phase energetics of chloride binding (ΔG(bind) , ΔH(bind) , ΔS(bind) ) and the configurational entropy (ΔS(config) ) were computed by taking all low-energy conformations into account. Comparison between the phenylene- and propylene-based triazolophanes shows the computed gas-phase free energy of binding decreased from ΔG(bind) =-194 to -182 kJ mol(-1) , respectively, with a modest enthalpy-entropy compensation. These differences were investigated experimentally. An (1) H NMR spectroscopy study on the structure of the propylene triazolophane's 1:1 chloride complex is consistent with a weaker propylene CH hydrogen bond. To quantify the affinity differences between the two triazolophanes in dichloromethane, it was critical to obtain an accurate binding model. Four equilibria were identified. In addition to 1:1 complexation and 2:1 sandwich formation, ion pairing of the tetrabutylammonium chloride salt (TBA(+) ⋅Cl(-) ) and cation pairing of TBA(+) with the 1:1 triazolophane-chloride complex were observed and quantified. Each complex was independently verified by ESI-MS or diffusion NMR spectroscopy. With ion pairing deconvoluted from the chloride-receptor binding, equilibrium constants were determined by using (1) H NMR (500 μM) and UV/Vis (50 μM) spectroscopy titrations. The stabilities of the 1:1 complexes for the phenylene and propylene triazolophanes did not differ within experimental error, ΔG=(-38±2) and (-39±1) kJ mol(-1) , respectively, as verified by an NMR spectroscopy competition experiment. Thus, the aliphatic CH donor only revealed its weaker character when competing with aromatic CH donors within the propylene-based triazolophane., (Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)