This study aims to investigate how attitudes towards femvertising affects brand credibility, brand authenticity, and purchase intention. Further, the mediation of femwashing on these relationships was investigated. And lastly, the impact of brand credibility and authenticity on purchase intention was examined. The results show that a favourable attitude towards femvertising positively affects brand credibility and authenticity but is not significant for purchase intention. Likewise, the mediation of femwashing on these relationships was not significant. In addition, brand credibility and brand authenticity had a positive impact on purchase intention.

Environmental concern has escalated as the climate crisis is an increasingly prevalent issue for the global society. Further catalysed by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer behaviours are shifting, materialising in greener purchasing behaviour and heightened expectations of environmental brand practices. This phenomenon is affecting consumer attitudes and behaviour towards fashion brands. As such, credible environmental marketing strategies are increasingly central to brand success, influencing brand credibility perception.

Based on the Stereotype Content Model and the credibility and persuasion literature, this study examines the influence of COO on advertising claim credibility and purchase intentions. A set of hypotheses were developed and tested with an experimental design on a British sample of consumers.

본 연구는 현대 교회의 모습이 성경의 에클레시아와 다르다는 전제를 갖고 시작한다. 교회 내의 여러 위기는 기독교 신앙에 대한 신뢰의 선교적 위기로 분석되고 표현된다. 이러한 위기를 극복하기 위해서 “교회”를 신약 성경 에클레시아의 번역으로 사용할 수 있는지를 질문할 필요가 있다. 모순과 시대착오의 이유로 성경에서 “교회”를 타당한 번역으로 볼 수 있는지 의문이 제기된다. 에클레시아와 까할(qahal)의 더 올바른 번역인 “집회”를 사용하는 것이 성경의 에클레시아와 현대 교회를 구분하기 위한 방법으로 제안되기도 한다. 이러한 차별화의 의미는 현재의 선교학에 대해, 그리고 신뢰성의 선교적 위기에 대한 해결책으로 논의된다.

Product replacement (PPL) is used widely in marketing and plays crucial roles but the effects of the PPL attributes on a restaurant brand are not well known. Therefore, this study examined the effects of PPL attributes on brand awareness and brand credibility. In addition, the relationship among brand awareness, brand credibility, and brand loyalty was investigated. The study found that the characteristics of PPL, such as information and entertainment, affected brand awareness. On the other hand, inconvenience did not have any impact on brand awareness. In addition, information, entertainment, and inconvenience affected brand credibility. Furthermore, brand awareness and credibility influenced brand loyalty significantly. These results suggest that PPL can be a very effective way to advertise. Hence, PPL should be done with a sense of information and entertainment than simply with more frequent exposure to consumers, which that might cause inconvenience.

This study investigates the effects of the type of advertisement, brand extension, and consumer innovativeness on the credibility of fashion advertisements. The factorial design is constructed as a 2(type of fashion advertisement: general vs. cross-media) × 2(consumer innovativeness: high vs. low) × 2(the type of fashion brand extension: similar vs. dissimilar) three-way mixed design in which consumer innovativeness is the between-subjects variable. Subjects of this study included 210 men and women in their 20s and 30s who resid in Seoul and had SNS experiences. Frequency analysis, credibility analysis, three-way ANOVA, and simple interaction analysis were conducted using the SPSS 20.0 statistics package. The results are as follows: First, the type of fashion advertisement had a significant effect on advertising credibility. Cross-media advertisements had a more positive effect than general advertisements on all of the dependent variables. Also, the type of brand extension and consumer innovativeness showed significant effect on advertising credibility and the interaction effect between the type of fashion advertisement and consumer innovativeness was significant. Lastly, the effect of different types of brand extensions on advertising credibility showed a significant difference according to consumer innovativeness. Thus, a marketing strategy using cross-media advertising is proven to be effective in gaining consumer trust for a fashion brand.

With the advancement of digital technologies, the importance of inbound marketing in the B2B is increasing rapidly. Previous studies on B2B marketing suggested that compelling content is a key component in B2B suppliers' inbound marketing. The most representative marketing content of B2B supplier firms is BRC (business reference content). BRC refers to a content, such as a ‘case study’ and/or a ‘success story’ that describes, in detail, deliveries of existing satisfied customers. Prior researchers argued that using existing customers as referrers enhances the confidence of potential customers, lowers perception of purchase risk. For these reasons, many B2B marketing experts consider BRC as the core of B2B digital marketing. Nonetheless, little is known regarding with researches on BRC in the academic domain. Therefore, there is urgent need for empirical research and an integrated model that can clarify the underlying mechanism of BRC. The focus of this study is to identify how BRC influences prospective customers' purchase decisions. To examine the underlying mechanism of BRC, our research focused on two unique aspects of BRC: 1) BRC format (narrative formant vs non-narrative format), and 2) ‘transportation’ to explain BRC effect process. Using a scenario-based online experiment, our results provide several interesting insights on the BRC. Results showed that stronger transportation takes place in narrative BRC (vs non-narrative BRC). In addition, narrative BRC has a positive impact on a favorable attitude toward referrer through transportation, which in turn lowers purchase risks (e.g. product performance risk, psychosocial risk, potential financial risk, and potential time risk). The results provide a clear basis for why it is important to use BRC in B2B supplier firms' marketing communication.

Introduction There is ample evidence in the medical research literature to show that the harmful effects of smoking are real. As a result, most governmental agencies around the world attempt to discourage smoking among smokers and nonsmokers alike by requiring cigarette companies to print health-warning messages on their product packages as a means to deter smoking. Little, however, is known about the credibility of these cigarette-warning messages perceived by both smokers and non-smokers alike on the effectiveness of these messages. Other studies have also examined socio-psychological factors other than health warning messages such as peer pressure, bad breadth, et al., (Pechmann, et al, 2003) which can also influence consumer desires whether or not to smoke. No study to our knowledge has incorporated this factor other than just health warning messages in the same model to study this phenomenon. Furthermore, most research on this topic has focused on consumers in western industrialized countries, even though the issues related to smoking can be just as severe in developing countries and warrants more research attention. In this research, we propose to study the credibility of cigarette warning messages on the effectiveness of these messages on deterring smoking behavior and the mediating effects of the perceived health and social risks in an integrated structural equation model (SEM) framework in an emerging country- Turkey. The study should provide insights into how these factors may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently and enable public policy makers to institute programs or strategies targeting the two different segments of consumers. Literature Background and Hypotheses Copious research has reported on the efficacy of Health Warning Message (HWM) in the Health Communications and Marketing literature (for reviews see Hammond, 2011; Noar, et al, 2015; 2016). In the USA, current rules only require health warnings be printed with tiny fonts on cigarette packages. The effectiveness of this format to deter smoking has come into serious questions. Other countries including countries in the EU have long required pictorial depiction of health hazards resulting from smoking be printed on cigarette packages that must occupy a substantial portion (50% or more) of the surface area on the cigarette package. The assumption is that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. However, the results are equivocal at best (Sabbane, et al., 2009). The real impact of HWM continues to be a point for debate as there are other tobacco consumption reduction methods such as increased taxes and smoking bans (Ruiter & Kok, 2005) various governments can and have imposed. Previous research has shown that when consumers believe that smoking behavior leads to unhealthy consequences and is unwise and unattractive, they generally would refrain from engaging in this behavior (Azjen & Fishbein, 1980). However, consumers who think that they are invincible and that these health hazards will never affect them but only other people, may have engaged in the process of rationalization and may actually discount the credibility of these claims. If so, the HWM may become less effective (Kees, et al., 2006). We therefore formulate the following hypothesis: H1: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases the effectiveness of HWMs. On the other hand, the extent to which consumers may perceive that cigarette HWMs to be credible can better persuade them about the health and social risks such as yellow teeth, bad breath, bad smell, et al., leading to social rejection associated with smoking (Pechmann, et al., 2003). Hammond’s review article (2011) provided some evidence that size and the presentation format can enhance the believability of HWMs. We should expect then that a greater perceived credibility will lead to better persuasion. Similarly, Kowitt, et al. (2016) also show in their study that the believability of HWMs vary among the adolescents regarding cigar smoking. Again, the assumption is that if they perceive the messages to be more credible, they will be more effective in persuading them about the harmful effects of smoking. We thus formulate the following two hypotheses: H2: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases negative social risk perception of smoking H3: Perceived credibility of HWMs increase negative health risk perception of smoking Past research has revealed that knowledge about the negative consequences of a behavior can lead to behavior change even though this may be contingent upon how difficult it is to quit a behavior such as smoking (Nourjah, et al., 1994). Consumer behavior literature has confirmed that due to various factors, attitude may not correlate with behavior even in the context of smoking (Ruiter &Kok, 2005; Solomon, 2018). Extant literature suggests that HWMs may be more successful in influencing attitude (Cameron & Williams, 2015). This research focuses on the health risk perception’s potential impact on intention to quit smoking rather than the act of actually quitting smoking. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, other factors such as smoking ban and price increases, et al. may cause smoking behavior change. Hence we present the following hypothesis: H4: Perceived health risks associated with smoking influence the effectiveness of HWMs. Smoking has become less socially acceptable in western industrialized countries in recent years. Many nations and states have now banned smoking in public places such as colleges, restaurants and airports including second hand smokes. This creates a social stigma for many smokers. Smokers, as a result, has to bear greater social risks these days. This may also cause them to develop a negative attitude toward smoking as well as reducing their intention to smoke (Chuang & Huang, 2012). As Turkey is a country whose citizens care more about social acceptance, we postulate the following hypothesis: H5: Perceived social risks of smoking affect the effectiveness of HWMs. As mentioned earlier, the effectiveness of HWMs may vary according to subjects’ responses to such messages. They may discount the message veracity by a process of rationalization or even by the extent to which they may have been addicted to the habit. This is so particularly for smokers who may have engaged in such behavior for a long time. Hence, one should expect these messages to be more persuasive and thus more effective in dissuading non-smokers from starting the habit. Smokers, on the other hand, are likely to remain unconvinced and view these messages as exaggerations and therefore less affected by these messages (Hammond, 2009; Hahn & Renner, 1998; Pechmann & Knight, 2002). Based on this discussion, we postulate that the impacts of HWMs’ credibility on perceived health and social risks, as well as the messages’ effectiveness will vary depending on the smoking status of the subjects. We expect greater impacts for non-smokers. Therefore, we tested the SEM for smokers and the same model for nonsmokers in this study. The model is shown in Figure 1 in the Appendix. MethodologyWe designed a four parts questionnaire to measure the constructs in the model we used in this study. In the first part of the questionnaire, we first presented the 14 HWMs currently required by law in Turkey to be displayed on cigarette packages. Furthermore, each of these messages is to be rotated on the packages. We then used the semantic differential scale items comprising of five bipolar adjectives derived from previous literature (Beltramini, 1988; Renee & Cameron, 2015) to measure the perceived credibility of HWMs: (1) believable- unbelievable, (2) convincing- unconvincing, (3) reasonable- unreasonable, (4) easy to understand- hard to understand, (5) informativeuninformative. In the second part of the questionnaire, we operationalized the effectiveness construct by asking the respondents to indicate the extent to which they perceived these HWMs as effective on a 1 item semantic differential scale: “HWMs motivate me to quit or not quit smoking” for smokers and “HWMs reduce my curiosity and desire to try smoking” for nonsmokers. In the third part of the questionnaire, we measured health and social risks perceptions by using 4 statements. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement/disagreement with each of the 5- point Likert scales culled from Kim (2006): Smoking makes me “contract various diseases and become addicted (health risks); Smoking makes me look “stupid, filthy (social risks). The last part of the questionnaire asked respondents about their smoking status and demographics including age, gender and the level of education. We collected the data by posting a copy of the questionnaire online on a website dedicated to discussing higher education issues in Turkey (www.akademikpersonel.org). We obtained an effective sample size of 432 after removing those with incomplete answers. Male and female respondents constituted 50 % of the sample each. The largest percentage of respondents was in the age group of 17 to 22 (35 %). Respondents (249) who have achieved the level of a college undergraduate degree or equivalent on education constituted 58 % of the sample. We conducted Chi-sqaure analyses to test significance of demographic differences between the two groups of smokers and nonsmokers. The results revealed no significant differences on age (χ2/3df=4.83; p=0.185), gender (χ2/1df=2.70; p=0.123) and the level of education (χ2/2df= 0.873; p= 0.646) between the smoking and nonsmoking subsamples. ResultsWe used WarpPLS 5.0 to conduct the structural model analyses as this analysis tool does not require the data set to be normally distributed (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We first tested the measurement scales with respect to their convergent and discriminant validities through standardized factor loadings. We conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). We eliminated two items on the credibility scale, which did not reach at least 0.5 on factor loadings for both subsamples. The two remaining items are “believable” and “convincing”. We then evaluated reliabilities of the scales for both subsamples, results for both subsamples showed that both credibility and health risk scales achieved Cronbach’s α scores higher than 0.7. Even though the Cronbach α score for the two items scale to measure social risk only reached a value of 0.6 for each of the subsample, this is considered adequate due to the smaller number of items used (Field, 2013). We assessed the assumptions of PLS-SEM. Variance inflation factors (VIFs) are well below the recommended 3.30. Hence, both vertical and lateral collinearity assumptions were met, thus deemed to be free from the common method bias (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We then evaluated convergent and discriminant validities of the latent construct. Discriminant validity was achieved as the square roots of AVE (average variance extracted) scores were higher than and correlation of the factor with another measure (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). For each subsample, composite reliabilities of all factors were higher than 0.8 and indicators’ loadings higher than 0.5 on the latent constructs. Thus, all scales used in the model achieved convergent validities for each subsample. We then proceeded to test the structural model for each of the subsamples. The results showed that for nonsmokers, the model explained 12% of total variance in the effectiveness of HWMs and for smokers 33%. All path coefficients were significant for nonsmokers except the health risks → HWMs effectiveness (β= 0.05, p= 0.23). Other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.154, p= 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.148, p= 0.014), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.285, p < 0.01) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.148, p < 0.014). For the smokers’ subsample, the path coefficient between the perceived health risks and effectiveness was also shown to be non-significant (β= 0.06, p= 0.19). All other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.197, p < 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.247, p< 0.001), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.503, p < 0.001) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.213, p < 0.001). These results confirmed H1, H2, H3 and H5 but not H4 for both smokers and nonsmokers. Discussion and Conclusion This study reveals some useful insights about how HWMs on cigarette packages may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently in an emerging country- Turkey, which can be used by public policy makers to formulate effective anti-smoking campaigns to target the two groups. The effect sizes appeared to be greater for smokers than nonsmokers. This suggests that if these HWMs can be crafted to be perceived as more credible, the smokers can be more persuaded to quit smoking than for nonsmokers to start smoking. These results appear to be consistent across the board whether we are considering the direct effect or indirect effects through the mediating variables. This is perhaps somewhat consistent with what we would expect based on our earlier discussions. Smokers may be more resistant to HWMs due to the fact they are already engaged in such behavior and therefore more likely to discount the messages as well as the associated health and social risk perceptions. For nonsmokers, on the other hand, it may not take as much to convince them about the harmful effects of smoking and therefore greater perceived credibility of HWMs may be less critical in persuading them not to start smoking. It is important then when designing such HWMs to consider carefully whether these messages are perceived to be credible. Some of the US cigarette warning messages printed in tiny scripts are ambiguous such as smoking can be harmful to your health clearly can not be expected to be highly credible. Research has also shown that pictorial messages can be more persuasive. However, research has also shown that the results are far from being conclusive (Sabbane, et al., 2009). More research is warranted, especially in emerging countries. It is also interesting to note that social risks perceptions are more persuasive than health risks perceptions. Future communications strategies should place a greater emphasis on this factor and not just on health risks. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research Although our study is able to provide some useful insights into how perceived credibility of HWMs can influence the effectiveness in deterring smoking among nonsmokers and smokers alike either directly or indirectly through perceived health and social risks, we would like to point out several limitations of this study. First, we collected our data online using a web portal in Turkey that focuses on discussing higher education issues in general and therefore the respondents’ level of education is higher than the general population as well as the age group being younger. Future study should collect data from other age groups and education levels to produce results that are more generalizable. We conducted our study in one emerging country- Turkey. In future studies, more countries should be included. As the results revealed the prominence of social risks over health risks in influencing the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns, the issue about how to promote the social wellbeing of not smoking (promotional) versus the health risks aspects of the campaign warrants further research.

The recent addition of Instagram feature, ad labels for sponsored posts, enables users to explicitly identify sponsored posts, increasing the level of transparency of posts (O’Brien, 2017). In sponsored posts in social media, followers are aware the marketing efforts that go on behind the user generated contents and message threads. Thus, the impact of postings on the followers’ behavioral response may vary depending on the levels of trust that followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram posts. In that regards, retailers implementing Instagram platform have faced creating more persuasive postings that can build the posting credibility and generate positive responses toward the brand. Grounded upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), this study attempted to identify determinants of persuasive postings that build the message credibility of brand sponsored Instagram posts and positive responses toward the brand and to examine how the levels of trust followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram moderate the persuasion process when followers elaborate the postings. Data was collected via online survey and a total of 263 responses were determined to be usable in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. The study results showed that post popularity and the argument quality of the post were determinants of the persuasive posting, increasing message credibility and yielding positive response towards the sponsored brand. Interestingly, post attractiveness was not a persuasive post characteristic. The results implied that post popularity and argument quality of post increased Instagram post credibility. These characteristics of posts have persuasive power to increase the post credibility, leading to a positive response toward the sponsored brand. Consumers’ levels of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand moderated the persuasive process. The result supported that consumers with a low level of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand carefully read a wide range of information and pay more attention to argument quality of posts, which consisted of the post content and other followers’ input regarding the product. Through the lens of Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study suggests that retailers should pay particular attention on the argument quality of a post and post popularity. The argument quality of a post is the influential factor determining persuasive and credible posts, further leveraging post credibility for consumers with a low level of trust on the sponsored post.

Celebrity endorsement has been traditionally considered as a strategic promotional tool by marketers. Actually, advertising scholars generally found a positive influence of celebrity endorsement on brand equity and, consequently, on consumer purchase intention. On the one hand, literature interprets celebrity source and endorsement factors as related to celebrity-brand fit, perceived celebrity motive, and celebrity expertise. On the other hand, consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) has been usually referred to brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness, and brand associations. Despite such a growing interest, there is limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms linking celebrity endorsement to CBBE. Building on consumer psychology and brand signaling theories, this study develops a conceptual model which hypothesizes consumer-based brand authenticity (CBBA) and brand credibility as mediating variables of the aforementioned relationship. First, CBBA is interpreted as a multidimensional construct composed of a brand’s quality commitment, sincerity, and heritage. Second, credibility refers to a brand’s ability – e.g. expertise – and willingness – e.g. trustworthiness – to reliably keeping its promises to consumers. Moreover, this study hypothesizes that the influence of CBBA and brand credibility on CBBE vary according to consumers’ advertising evaluation. Hence, communication effectiveness is considered as a moderating variable of these relationships. The conceptual model is empirically tested using bootstrapped moderated mediation analysis on a sample of Millennial consumers. In fact, Millennials very well describe postmodern consumption and communication, which increasingly emphasize the need of “real” and authentic communication by credible endorsers and endorsed brands. By stressing the significant role of brand authenticity and credibility in the context of celebrity endorsement, this study provides both theoretical and practical implications to marketing communication literature.

목적: 본 연구는 소비자가 인식하는 안경원의 브랜드 자산, 외부환경, 내부환경이 고객만족, 신뢰 및 재방 문 의도에 미치는 영향을 구조방정식을 이용하여 실증해 보고자 하였다. 방법: 서울, 경기, 충남지역에 거주하는 안경원 이용 경험이 있는 성인 420명을 대상으로 설문을 실시하 였고, 불성실히 응답한 9부를 제외한 411부가 분석에 사용되었다. 신뢰성 분석과 확인적 요인 분석 및 구조 방정식 모델을 이용하여 가설을 검증하였다. 결과: 브랜드 자산이 외부환경과 내부환경 변수에 유의한 영향을 미쳤으며, 브랜드 자산, 내부환경 등 외 생변수가 매개변수인 고객만족을 통해 신뢰에 간접적으로 유의한 영향을 미치고, 다시 고객만족과 신뢰를 통해 재방문에 미치는 영향이 모두 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 특히 외부환경은 고객만족과 신뢰 모두에서 유 의한 영향을 미치지 못했으나, 브랜드 자산과 내부환경의 경우에서는 재방문에 직접적으로 유의한 영향을 미치고 있었으며, 고객만족과 신뢰를 통해 간접적으로도 유의하게 영향을 미침을 알 수 있었다. 결론: 안경원은 기타 서비스직종과 달리 내부환경 중에서도 안경사특성이 큰 비중을 차지하고 있는 특수 성을 가지고 있다. 본 연구를 통해 브랜드 자산이 내·외부 환경에 유의한 영향을 미쳤으며, 이 중 내부환경 즉, 상품, 가격 그리고 안경사 특성이 고객만족으로 이어져 신뢰를 거쳐 재방문에 이르는 것을 확인하였다. 이를 통해 브랜드 자산을 높이기 위한 노력과 함께 내부 환경 및 고객과의 신뢰 향상에 대한 중요성을 인식 하고 이에 대한 관리에 더욱 노력을 기울어야 할 것으로 보인다.

The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that contribute to tourists’ intention to staying in green hotels when traveling. After examining 208 Taiwanese tourists’ responses, the results show that green label credibility and environmental concern can both affect tourists’ green hotel staying intentions.

This paper discusses how online video clips are used in official construction project presentations, in attempts to convey credibility and trust. Empirical vignettes are from large construction projects in the Greater Stockholm area: The Friends Arena; the Arena City; the new Karolinska University Hospital; and the Stockholm Bypass traffic project.

The advances of the Internet open consumers new opportunities to share their consumption experiences, opinions and feelings with others. Online customer reviews (OCRs) are a crucial source of information for consumers and are regarded as one of the most influential types of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in shaping consumer attitudes and facilitating purchase decisions (Plummer, 2007). Prior research has produced a number of valuable insights on OCRs (e.g., Dellarocas, Gao, & Narayan, 2010; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Mayzlin, Dover, & Chevalier, 2014). Especially the influence of OCR valence (positively vs. negatively framed information) has received considerable attention both from practitioners and from scholars (e.g., Xue & Zhou, 2010; Yang & Mai, 2010; Lee et al., 2009). However, we argue that scientific insights on the influence of OCR valence remain limited. Specifically, this paper shows that the level of source credibility (high vs. low) as well as the type of product (search vs. experience good) are important moderators of the influence of OCR valence on several consumer OCR reactions (product attitude, product quality, and product trust) under specific circumstances only. Four hundred and sixteen respondents (70% females, average age 24 years) participated in an experiment with a 2×2×2 between-subjects full factorial design manipulating the OCR valence (positive vs. negative), the source credibility (high vs. low) and the product type (search vs. experience good). Results demonstrate that the effect of positive OCRs from highly credible sources on diverse outcome variables is larger than from low credible sources. By acknowledging Chaiken et al.’s (1989) theoretical extension of the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, 1980) we provide empirical evidence that source credibility intensifies the impact of positive OCRs due to the additivity effect. In contrast, credible negative information is not more influential than incredible information. A similar mechanism becomes operational when considering product type. Here, positive OCRs about experience goods have a stronger influence on product evaluations than similarly valenced information about search goods. This research provides further support for the crucial role of credible, positive OCRs in affecting consumer behavior in contrast to their negative counterparts. From a practical perspective, marketers should consider including highly credible OCRs from trustworthy and experienced customers’ peers as decision aids. This can be achieved, for instance, by including personal postings from Facebook. Such a strategy is particularly efficient as positive OCRs increase the consumer’s confidence towards the product while credible negative OCRs are not more harmful than incredible ones.

Many authors and practitioners have suggested that scarcity increases a product’s perceived value, because scarcity affects availability of a product and people assume that what is less common is more valuable (Cialdini, 1987). Communicating such restrictions on product availability is a common advertising tactic intended to motivate consumer purchasing behavior by arousing product scarcity perceptions. To further our knowledge on scarcity effects researchers indicate the need to examine contextual or individual factors which are related to demand-caused scarcity and/or supply-caused scarcity. Corresponding to the call for further research this study empirically examines seller credibility, product type, and consumer orientation as moderators on the relationship between scarcity and purchase intention. Extant research have found that both excess demand and limited supply lead to increased product choice, but engender distinct inference processes (Hsuan, Chien & Tzu, 2012). Scarcity can be based on changes in demand or supply. Demand scarcity arises when supply cannot meet market demand. Advertisers may emphasize this limited availability in positive terms by claiming “only while stocks last”. Demand scarcity messages, either “in popular demand” or “over sold” indicates consumers that a product’s popularity is creating demand that exceeds the product’s available supply (Herpen, Pieters, & Zeelenberg 2009; Verhallen, 1982). Supply scarcity suggests that the product is exclusive, and affects consumer preferences through perceptions of the symbolic benefits the product can provide, including uniqueness (Snyder, 1992) and social status (Lynn, 1992). Advertisements convey supply scarcity when marketers produce quantities of a new product less than enough to meet initial demand and distribute a competitive number of units to individual retail store. Researchers have indicated the need to examine contextual or individual influences on the distinct type of scarcity to gain further insight into these two scarcity effects. This research examines the moderating effect of seller credibility, product type, and consumer orientation on the relationship between scarcity and purchase intention. The first research objective is to examine if scarcity effect is stronger when a seller is more credible than not. The second research objective is to examine if demand scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for utilitarian products as opposed to symbolic products. In contrast, supply scarcity will be valued more highly for symbolic products, because the product’s limited availability can deliver consumers symbolic benefits such as uniqueness (Snyder, 1992) and social status (Lynn, 1992). The third research objective is to examine if demand scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for consumers with prevention-focus than those with promotion-focus. Similarly, the research also examines if supply scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for consumers with promotion-focus than those with prevention-focus. This research employs a laboratory experiment to empirically test the research hypotheses. The experiment manipulates scarcity, seller credibility, and product type and it measures consumer orientation as either promotion-focus or prevention-focus. Thus it employs a 3 (scarcity: demand scarcity, supply scarcity, no scarcity) x 2 (high credibility, low credibility) x 2 (utilitarian product, symbolic product) between-subjects design. Results of hypothesis tests and implications will be discussed.

본 연구는 강한 판매촉진，제조사 신뢰성，지각된 품질이 브랜드신뢰성 대한 영향 관계를 검증하고 브랜드 충성도와 재구매의도에 매개 효과를 알아보고자 한다. 이는 기업 장기적 생존과 성장의 중요한 역할을 히는 브랜드신뢰성에 대하여 연구하고자 한다. 본 연구에서는 231 명의 대상으로 하여 설문을 수집 및 분석하였다. 분석방법은 Smart PLS 2.0을 이용하여 판별 타당성，신뢰도와 모형의 적합도，경로 분석을 실시하였다. 이를 통하여 연구 가설의 유의성을 검증하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 브랜드 신뢰는 제조사 신뢰성，지각된 품질에 영홍上을 받으며 충성도와 재구매에 영향을 미치고 매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 브랜드 신뢰성의 영힘t을 미치는 요인과 충성도，재구매와의 상호관계를 알아본 것이 의미있다 하겠다.