People face various situations that they have to decide whether to buy or not, before uncertainty is resolved. Under the uncertain conditions, it is most crucial part for consumers that they should consider the expected valuation derived from purchasing tickets or services. Thus, it is important to contemplate buyer uncertainty about future valuation. Xie and Shugan presented the relationship between spot price and advance price in a situation that involves uncertainty. Their findings provide the explicit advance pricing strategies that can create profit improvements (Xie & Shugan, 2001). Their findings lay a foundation of this problem, because buyers are almost always not sure about their future valuations for most services (Xie & Shugan, 2001). In addition to these findings, the researchers found that profits under option pricing strategy outperform those from advance pricing strategy (Preethika Sainam, 2010). They introduce the concept of consumer options and analytically prove that consumer options can make more profits and also can protect consumers from the pitfall derived from unwanted outcomes (Preethika Sainam, 2010). In this paper, we want to consider this problem under more complex and real circumstances. We include one more pricing strategy, discounted advance pricing, which is often called early bird pricing. Furthermore, we divide consumers in two types, risk-neutral consumers and risk-averse consumers. We present a simple analytical model in what conditions each pricing strategies can out-perform others based on consumer types and capacity types.

We examined whether hybrid consumers exist in the commodity food market by comparing food products in general, fresh pork and precooked pork patties using an online questionnaire (N=200). The same consumers changed their selection criteria depending on the type of commodity food product they were considering, reflecting hybrid consumer attitudes.

Introduction Can the background colors of products on an online shopping site affect consumers’ haptic perceptions and evaluations? When shopping online, consumers cannot obtain a product’s haptic information by touching it directly and usually rely on visual information such as the product’s image and description. Nevertheless, consumers sometimes use haptic information to judge whether to purchase a product and marketers aim to engage consumers’ haptic preferences. Currently, researchers in the field of sensory-marketing research are interested in the interaction of multiple senses. Although previous research has demonstrated the interaction between visuals and haptic perception (e.g. Xu & Labroo, 2014), there is still considerable opportunity for further research on consumers’ haptic perception of products they cannot touch directly, such as through online shopping. In this study, we focus on how the background colors of product images affect consumer’s haptic perceptions and evaluations of the products. Theoretical Background Krishna & Morrin (2008) indicate that the interaction among plural senses is caused by perceptual transfer. When an individual perceives a sense, it is associated with previous experiences with other senses, which may cause perceptual transfer (Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2015). For instance, Harrar, Piqueras-Fiszman, & Spence (2011) found that the color of the bowl affected consumers’ perceptions of taste when eating popcorn. In this study, when consumers ate popcorn in a red bowl, they associated the color with mature fruit and evaluated the popcorn as sweeter. Consumers who ate popcorn from a blue bowl evaluated the popcorn saltier because they associated the color with the sea. Based on these results, we predict that the background colors of products will affect consumers’ haptic perceptions and product preferences. Babin, Hardesty, & Suter (2013) show that red and orange induce the perception of warmth. Thus, an orange background color causes consumers to perceive products as warmer. Zwebner, Lee, & Goldenberg (2014) demonstrate the influence of physical warmth on consumers’ behavior and they focus on the anthropomorphic characteristics of products. They mention that consumers tend to perceive inanimate products as anthropomorphized so when they percept warmth to products, they feel emotional warmth and it induces their intention to purchase them. From their findings, we predict that the effect of warm background colors is restricted to anthropomorphized products. Additionally, warmth is strongly associated with softness (Tai, Zheng, & Narayanan, 2011). Hence, we also predict that warm background color might affect consumers’ perception of softness of the products. H1: The color orange is perceived as warmer than white (control). H2a:When the background color is orange (vs. white), anthropomorphized products are evaluated with more familiarity. H2b: When the background color is orange (vs. white), anthropomorphized products are evaluated more favorably. H2c: When the background color is orange (vs. white), there is greater intention to purchase anthropomorphized products. H3a:When the background color is orange (vs. white), anthropomorphized products are perceived as warmer. H3b: When the background color is orange (vs. white), anthropomorphized products are perceived as softer. H4: The perception of the warmth of products affects the perception of softness of products. H5: The influence of “H2a” mediates the perception of warmth of products. Methods We conducted two studies to research the hypotheses above. Warm and soft inanimate products are anthropomorphized (Horowits & Bekoff, 2007), and we researched this hypothesis by comparing warm and soft products with cold and hard products in study1. For the purpose of identifying warm and soft products (anthropomorphized products) as well as cold and hard products (non-anthropomorphized products), we conducted a pretest. For the study1 pretest, we chose a teddy bear, futon, and scarf as anthropomorphized products and a garbage can, ice pop, and glass as non-anthropomorphized products. In study2, we used hand watches, which are considered cold and hard. However, a watch indicating 10:10 is recognized as a smiling human (Labroo, Dhar, & Schwarz, 2008). Hence, we compared watches set to 10:10 and 12:00. For study1 and study2, we conduct a 2 (orange vs. white) × 2 (anthropomorphized products vs. non-anthropomorphized products) between-subject test on the participants. Participants answered a questionnaire on a website. They evaluated the color and products on a 7-point Likert scale. For both study1 and study2, we recruited participants via the Internet. They received a point worth 3 JPY (approximately 0.03 USD) for participating in the study. Results Study1 We used a t-test to compare the averages of warmth to the background colors. It showed a significant difference between Group orange and white (t=32.329, df=916.938, p< .001). For H2a to H3b, we conducted the two-way ANOVA of 2 (background color: orange, white)×2(anthropomorphic characteristics of products: anthropomorphized, non-anthropomorphized). The results showed no interactions. Hence, we used t-tests (See Table1). The results supported H2a to H3b. In addition, we conducted a path analysis on the influence of the perception of products’ warmth toward the perception of products’ softness. The influence was significantly positive (β=0.776, p<.001). In comparison, the path from the background colors to the perception of products’ softness was not significant (p= .142). Hence, H4 was supported. Study2 We used a t-test to compare the averages of warmth to the background colors. It showed a significantly positive difference between Groups orange and white (t=22.206, df=323.539, p< .001). Therefore, H1 was supported again. Aside from the above analysis, the results supported H2a to H3b (See Table2). Furthermore, to test H4, we conducted a path analysis on the influence of the perception of products’ warmth towards the perception of products’ softness. Results showed that the influence was significantly different (β=0.823, p<.001). In comparison, the path from the background colors to the perception of products’ softness was not significant (p= .142). Thus, H4 was supported again. Moreover, to test H5, we ran the mediation model by using the PROCESS macro (Model 4, Hayes, 2013). For anthropomorphized products, bootstrapping tests with 2,000 bootstrapped samples revealed that the effect of background colors on familiarity was mediated by the perception of the warmth of the products(a×b=0.09, 95%CI=0.058 to 0.478 excluded 0). The direct effect c’ (0.15) is significant (p= .045), although c (0.06) is not significant (p= .385). On the other hand, for non-anthropomorphized products, the regression analysis revealed that the direct effect c’ (-0.03) is not significant (p=0.711). Hence, H5 was supported. Discussion and Conclusion We demonstrated that warm background colors affect the perception of products’ warmth and softness and increase consumers’ intention to purchase products. We also found that the effect of warm background colors is restricted to anthropomorphized products. This research showed that the effect of warm background colors on the familiarity of anthropomorphized products was mediated by the perception of the products’ warmth. Based on these results, we also demonstrated that the perception of products’ warmth influenced the perception of their softness. Our findings might help to apply Zwebner et al. (2014)’s findings regarding online shopping sites where consumers cannot touch products directly and marketers cannot control consumers’ room temperature.

Marketing and market research are centered on the need to explore consumer experiences to inform management decisions. Heuristics and biases are of interest to marketing practitioners as these influences can impact data that is delivered to inform decisions. Existing research listing heuristics and biases alongside management strategies is limited to five reviews presenting frameworks and/or detailing heuristics and biases, none of which have been extended to a marketing context. This research 1) details the heuristics of interest to marketing practitioners by presenting n=7 core heuristics and the mechanisms of their operation and 2) examine solutions and proposed frameworks reported within the literature to avoid or acknowledge biases which may be present.

In the past, scholars and policy makers have tried to educate as well as incentivize practices like recycling to avoid reduce landfill stocks and create new objects from past used materials. Such products have been commercialized more and more by big brands (i.e. Adidas and Levi’s) and by famous fashion designers (i.e. Stella McCartney). While more academic literature has focused on drivers for consumers’ motivations to engage in recycling activities, there has been little research investigating consumers’ underlying psychological factors to favour recycled products over standard ones. In this study we address this issue by experimentally testing consumer evaluation and intention to adopt recycled products through an implicit theory – or mind-sets-framework on. In a set of three studies we demonstrate how consumers holding and incremental mind-set – who believe that trait like intelligence, morality or personality are malleable and transformable over time – are more keen top adopt products made of recycled materials. In contrasts, individuals with an entity mind-set – who instead believe human traits are fixed and non-mutable- are more sceptical to embrace such products. In Experiment 1 we demonstrated that the chronic incremental mind set of individuals influences their intention to acquire a recycled – over a non-recycled – coffee mug. In Experiment 2, we demonstrate through a laboratory experiment that this preference for products made out of recycled materials is stable in individual with an incremental min-set – over their entity min-set counterpart – even below the liminal attention threshold. Finally, in Experiment 3 we demonstrate that by attributing the merit of the transformation in a different object to qualities that are embedded in the materials used (rather than to the process to transform them) can make recycled products more appealing also to individuals with an entity mind-set. The results of these studies contribute to the literature on implicit theory by investigating another area in consumer psychology (intention to adopt recycled products) so far unexplored. On a managerial point of view, this study suggests how highlighting the effort spent by a company in creating the product can attract consumer (especially incremental theorists) to intend to buy the product, while highlighting the qualities of the material used can attract more entity theorists.

Understanding consumer insight in luxury watch purchase is crucial in the current situation where the industry is recovering from a downturn. Today, the consumer does not only purchase a luxury watch to impress others as in the past. Using the means end chain approach, this study discovers that branding, together with design, function and price are key attributes that customers consider. Consequently, the consumer benefits from having a sense of personal identification. In addition, today the consumer perceives the benefit of luxury watch purchase as an investment. Therefore, they seek product distinction, durability, and a value-work product, in order, to serve the perceived value of capital investment. The results of the study reflect a changing trend in the luxury consumer. Prestige value is not the only key factor determining the purchase decision as was found in previous studies. Therefore, the luxury watch players, in an effort to elicit increased sales, should consistently build the brand profile by offering both functionality and design. Furthermore, communication of focus on quality leads to durability that would be considered as an investment asset from generation to generation. Introduction In the luxury watch industry, despite the start of a recovery, from a downward trend, the growth rate is forecast to be at a slow pace (ReportLinker, 2017; Deloitte, 2016). The global luxury watch players face the challenge of decreasing demand as per the change in consumer behavior (Financial Time, 2017). Like other luxury goods, the luxury watch is considered as a product that is not entirely necessary but the drive behind the buying intention is due solely to the personal desire of the consumer In addition, individual perception as well as consumer purchasing power, has a strong link with decision making. Why a consumer buys a luxury watch today is rather different from why they bought one ten years ago (Adams, 2017). This study is conducted in order to understand luxury watch consumer insight using the means end theory, in ways of appropriation, and examine variations in consumer willingness-to-pay (Gengler & Mulvey, 2017). Luxury consumption behavior There are numerous studies to be found that explore luxury product consumption starting from extrinsic themes like consumer purchasing power (e.g. Veblen, 1899), consumer characteristics (e.g.Dubois & Laurent, 1993); (O'cass & McEwen, 2004), consumer behavior (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999; Kastanakis, & Balabanis, 2012) to intrinsic themes like consumer motivation (e.g.Xiao-hui, 2006; Truong & McColl, 2011), consumer perception (e.g. Zhan & He, 2012; Vigneron & Johnson, 2017) and at a more subjective level of consumer value (Sukhdial, Chakraborty, & Steger, 1995; Moraes, Carrigan, Bosangit, Ferreira, & McGrath, 2017; Vigneron, & Johnson, 2017). This is because the nature of the consumer has changed. The current consumer does not view purchasing a luxury item as a vehicle to impress others but much more to serve their own perspectives (Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels, 2009). Thus to cope with this downtrend, it is necessary, nowadays, for luxury brand suppliers to have a deep and detailed understanding of customer insight. Means end chain theory (MEC) and laddering MEC has been regarded as one of the most felicitous theories in consumer research since 1980 (Grunert et al. 2001). It was developed to help understand consumer insight in the decision making process (Gengler, Mulvey, & Oglethorpe, 1999) starting from how the consumer thinks about a product and why they buy it. Through MEC (Olson and Reynolds, 1983; Gutman, 1982; Howard, 1977; Young and Feigin, 1975), the researcher and marketer can discover the salient meanings consumers associate with products, both in services and behavior. The chain explains the linkage; starting from attributes through to consequences, and then to values in the form of a hierarchial model Gutman, 1982; Gengler, Mulvey, & Oglethorpe, 1999; Leao and Mello, 2007). Beginning with the first level, attributes are characteristics of the product/service the consumer is expecting which can be both tangible and non-tangible features. However, attributes will mean nothing to the consumer, without so called consequences (Klenosky, 2002). At the second level of the hierarchical model, consequences are benefits that take part in explaining why those attributes are important to consumers (Olson and Reynolds, 1983). The consumer is looking for particulars benefits when purchasing that certain product or service (Voss and Gruber, 2006). The final level is value. The consumer judges the benefit of the product based on the perceived value, in the mind of the customer (Gutman, 1982; Olson and Reynolds, 1983; Costa, Dekker, and Jongen, 2004). It is notable that the higher the hierarchial level, the greater the level of abstraction (Woodruff & Gardial, 1996). Using the MEC helps gain consumer insight information which allows the luxury brand supplier to offer products which are best suited for their targeted consumers (Petison, Thongthou and Lekmoung, 2012). Methodology By its nature, the MEC is adopted as a qualitative research method. In order to understand why a consumer is interested in a product and makes a purchasing decision (Smith and Swinyard, 1999); the decision making process can be revealed using the laddering interview (Gutman, 1982; Olson & Reynolds, 1983; Ozguven, 2012). Through the laddering interview, researchers decide to apply a soft laddering interview; an open answer question, rather than hard laddering interview; or a fixed answer question, to enjoy the benefits of go by the flow (Ozguven, 2012). Furthermore, soft laddering interview is well suited to the elite in a sense that interviewer can adjust questions depending on answers and ambience (Harvey, 2011). In this study a total of 30 luxury watch consumers; 18 females and 12 males, who recently bought luxury watches in 2017 were interviewed. This is because the researchers want to obtain the most up to date information. This group of consumers tended to purchase a luxury watch every year. The most popular brands these consumers purchased are Rolex, Patek Philippe, Panerai and Audemars Piguet. In face to face time, a semi structure interview was applied based on Reynolds and Gutmam (2001), who suggested questions such as; What affects your purchasing decision?, How do you feel about the product? Why do you want to wear this watch? etc. All interviews were recorded and verbatim transcripts produced. Content analyses were applied following the interviews. The preliminary categorization was into groups of attribute consequence and value, and recurring words with similar meanings collected in clusters. Research triangulation was applied to ensure validity. The researchers created a hierarchical value chain for each consumer then analyzed the findings by using LaddermapTM software. Results According to the content analysis process, a total of 28 attributes, 22 consequences, and 15 values were found in the study. Through the LaddermapTM software analysis only 7 attributes, 11 consequences, and 9 values can be reported as in figure 1. Figure 1: Hierarchial value map of luxury watch purchase Brand is the most important attribute from the viewpoint of the luxury consumer followed by design, price and function. For example, one consumer mentioned that “…brand helps one who wears it by identification…it reflects a certain lifestyle…wearing a Rolex is easy to take care of because of its quality as well as the ease to wear on any occasion…it is value for money… but more than this as it constantly appreciates in value.…” In addition, brand is a key attribute that leads to two most important consequences which are personal identification and investment. However, impressing others, which used to be a key rationale for purchasing luxury product is found to be absent from the top consumer benefits nowadays. However, today, luxury brand consumers are more concerned with distinction, durability, and value-work product as a consequence of watch purchase. For example, one consumer said that “…normally, women do not wear Pannarai. I love to be different…so I bought a limited edition….I wear it constantly for both work and leisure activities…although the price is high, I feel secure with the price paid…it has a warranty and good after- sales service…” Among reported values, monetary satisfaction is found to be the most the important followed by self- image and pleasure. For example, one consumers said that “…I always buy Rolex…my parents also use Rolex. From my parent’s experience of use, it was made aware that the Rolex is fabulous due to its quality and resale price. …I have never ever changed my mind about Rolex…it is excellent value as an investment…I am happy and satisfied with the money I have spent…” This study also found other consumers who expressed their satisfaction with money invested in comparison with another investment options such as gold or stocks. Moreover, it is an investment that can be passed on to their children. Discussions and Implications Nowadays, brand, design, price and function are the key attributes that luxury consumers focus on. Luxury brand suppliers should pay particular attention to a design that reflects the unique identity of the brand and distinguishes it from competitors. This is a consistent finding of Subhadip, Jain, &Matta (2018) that the luxury product ought to reflect its own creativity, artistry, and uniqueness. Moreover, consumers prefer a luxury watch that offers various functions that they can be used with ease on any occasion. In addition, the luxury consumer does not only purchase a watch that represents their self-image and bring in pleasure value, but also monetary satisfaction which is found to be most important nowadays so that the luxury watch player should advertise their brand based on this distinctive study finding. Durability is a reflection of quality brand. Warranty is the linkage between quality and value for money. Monetary satisfactory also comes from the benefits of investment and a generation to generation heritage.

Over time popular media has used the idea of Italian Mafia and the related image of mobsters in TV series, movies, and cartoons. The overall image surrounding Mafia is so powerful that nowadays many people associate the name Mafia to The Godfather movie or other fictional images. In addition to this, there are also businesses that offer products and services branded with names that remind the idea of Mafia, despite, in reality, the Mafia is a violent criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, murders, etc. However, marketing research has never studied consumers’ attitudes towards the use of these stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use them. This research tries to fill this gap and, by adopting Forsyth’s (1980) ethical ideologies questions, it studies the links between consumers’ ethical ideologies and: 1) consumers’ attitudes towards these products and services; 2) consumers’ willingness to buy them in order to understand whether there are differences between relativists and ideologists consumers. This research is based on an online survey made up of open and closed-ended questions. Section one of the survey was made up of closed-ended questions aimed at studying ethical ideologies; section two was made up of a mix of open- and closedended questions aimed at understanding the perceptions that respondents had towards the Mafia; their degree of acceptance towards the use of the Mafia for commercial purposes; and their willingness to buy Mafia-inspired products; the last section included some demographic questions. The survey was made available via Qualtrics and respondents were recruited through Prolific. In the end 152 responses from UK participants were collected. Data analysis has not been carried out yet, but it is expected to analyse data through the Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), a new data analysis technique that is aimed at identifying necessary, but not sufficient conditions within data. In addition to this, analysis of group differences will be carried out through ANOVA, in conjunction with regression analysis. Through this research it is expected to be able to understand whether consumers’ attitudes towards the use of Mafia stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use these stereotypes differ according to whether consumers are classified as relativists or ideologists. With this study it is expected to analyse an area of consumption that so far has been neglected by research, i.e. consumers’ attitudes and willingness to buy products and services that use Mafia-related stereotypes.

The prevalence of unsecured consumer credit is conducive to the normalization of credit and debt in consumer culture (Peñaloza & Barnhart, 2011). Credit facilities not only enable consumers to achieve intertemporal borrowing possibilities, but also empower individuals to become active members in contemporary consumer culture (Bernthal, Crockett, & Rose, 2005). However, viewing credit and debt as “normal” has often put consumers in precarious financial positions that ultimately lead to longterm struggle of debt repayment and financial deprivation (Fischer, 2013). As Peñaloza and Barnhart (2011) observe, “as phenomena normalize, they merit less conscious attention in being taken for granted” (p.760), which could lead to a fallacious sense of optimism amongst those who may be financially vulnerable. Consequently, the normalization of credit and debt presents a moral challenge in the credit market in that it disrupts consumer capacity to engage in optimal financial socialization. The normalization of debt practice is especially relevant to those who are in the process of learning to use financial tools and to adapt to their accepted practices. Thus, this research pays specific attention to young consumers aged 18-24, as the majority of the population tend to encounter their first stage of financial socialization within this age group. For example, 18 years is the minimum eligibility age for opening a bank account, applying for credit card and using other financial products without parental supervision. Despite being digital natives who benefit from valuable access to offline and online financial decision-making guidance, young consumers are also statistically more likely to experience financial vulnerability than any other age groups. For instance, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (2017) finds that 52% of 18 to 24 year-olds reported low confidence in their ability to manage money and knowledge of financial matters – the worst amongst all adult financial consumers. One in ten people in this age group are also reporting financial difficulties in meeting their day-to-day living expenses and servicing their debts (Financial Conduct Authority, 2017). The young consumer cohort also represents a lucrative target for the credit industry. For example, previous studies find that the young consumers have greater lifetime earning potential than other age groups and greater likelihood to develop long-term brand loyalty towards their first credit card (Braunsberger, Lucas, & Roach, 2004; Szmigin & O’Loughlin, 2010; Warwick & Mansfield, 2000). However, credit card marketing efforts to this market segment has harboured concerns over the youths’ long-term financial welfare due to their predatory practices on these inexperienced consumers. A major criticism of the credit card targeting towards youths is on the promotion of positive, aspirational images of credit card use, which obscures the negative consequences of debt. Moreover, credit card marketing often fails to display transparent credit pricing structures. For example, consumers often do not realize that spending on a 0% balance transfer deal when the promotional period subsides will incur higher interest than non-promotional interest rate (Money Advice Trust, 2009). Despite a growing interest on youth financial literacy (e.g., Richins 2011), the literature remain disconnected and fragmented when it comes to the learning process that individuals go through in order to become financially capable consumers. Such knowledge is valuable for policy developers who seek to enhance young consumers’ financial learning. Following extant research, we define financial socialization as an experiential process influenced by influential agents who interact with, teach and guide individual’s attitude formation and behavior around money (Pinto, 2005; Shim, Barber, Card, Xiao, & Serido, 2010; Ward, 1974). The present research thus aims to examine the impact of debt normalization on the consumers’ financial learning and socialization. In doing so, this study offers important implications in providing insights into how marketing practice can improve their communication strategies and how public policy can strengthen intervention to improve consumer financial decisions.

In nowadays consumption-based society, products (e.g. food and electronic products) are often thrown away before they are sufficiently used. The aversive consequence of such a lifestyle is becoming more alarming. There is an urgent need for a change in people’s consumption style. How can we make people correct their existing wasteful consumption behaviors and act responsibly? In fact, feelings very often can influence people’s behavior and judgments (Schwarz, 1990), even though the feelings are aroused by irrelevant sources - incidental emotion (Garg, Inman, & Mittal, 2005; Lerner & Keltner, 2000; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). Feelings of guilt and shame are known as moral emotions which are the guidance to ethical behaviors (Tangney, 1991, 2003). Although there is a significant overlapping between these two emotions, they also differ in several important aspects. One critical difference lies in the way the transgressor makes attributions (Niedenthal, Tangney, & Gavanski 1994). A transgressor who attributes the wrongdoing to a specific behavior (i.e. “I’ve done something bad”) is more likely to experience guilt while a transgressor who makes attribution to the global self (i.e. “I’m a terrible person”) is more likely to experience shame (Tracy & Robins, 2004). Given these fundamental differences, we speculate that a guilt-laden consumer is more likely to correct his or her wrongdoing (i.e. wastage) by taking reparative actions to minimize waste but a shame-laden consumer may possibly give up doing so. Findings from an experimental study (N=90) largely support this prediction. Undergraduate students who were made to feel shame were less likely to participate in a recycling campaign organized by the university than the students in the control condition. They reported a lower intention to use recycling facilities provided. On the other hand, participants who were made to feel guilt reported a marginally higher intention to participate in the campaign than the control participants. These preliminary findings suggest that emotional experience derived from other life domains might determine responsible consumption behaviors. Shame, which is commonly regarded as a moral emotion, may not necessarily make people more responsible consumers. The mechanism that underlies this effect may warrant further investigation.

The literature on ethical consumption has expanded over time and has focused on studying the attitudes and behaviours of consumers with regards to different products and services, such as organic, Fair Trade, environmentally and social friendly products. In addition to this, some research has focused on studying consumers’ attitudes and behaviours towards pirated or counterfeited products. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, so far research has not mapped the “objects” taken into account within ethical consumption research (i.e. the type of products or services bought by consumers). Hence, this research aims at mapping these elements in order to have a clear picture on what aspects the marketing literature on ethical consumption has focused on and, in this way, understand if there are products and services on which future research should focus on. In order to achieve this aim a scoping review has been carried out by analysing 195 papers published on ethical and unethical consumption. From the results achieved so far, it appears that research has mainly focused on environmental and social products and services, while limited research has been devoted to legally questionable objects (e.g. smuggled cigarettes, illegal drugs, etc.). It should be noted, however, that the analysis of collected papers is still on-going, thus the results here reported are incomplete.

Despite the continued and increasing relevance of public policy and regulatory issues in managerial marketing, legal topics related to marketing are often covered in little detail. “Business law” or “legal environment of business” courses typically address marketing issues superficially, while courses for marketing majors may include a few references to legal or regulatory topics as anecdotes or archaic history (e.g., Sherman Antitrust Act). Managerially germane topics such as consumer privacy, antitrust, consumer protection, product safety, or intellectual property may be cursorily included in an introductory business law course or principles of marketing course, but this does not insure connection of these concepts with “real life” significance. Many practical factors, such as globalization, and academic factors, such as those related to the establishment of a broad domain of research and conceptual development in “marketing and public policy,” have expanded the domain of marketing from a pure business orientation to one through which law, regulation, and public policy are worthy of more in-depth treatment of these topics in the tertiary marketing education curriculum. This paper outlines why and how “marketing and public policy” can be taught and how it can complement the broader curriculum of the business school. From the manager’s perspective, the legal environment of business often represents a series of challenges or impediments to the manager’s decisions and to a business’ success. At the same time, whether or not a consumer is aware of it, these same business impediments often represent protections to the consumer from financial or physical harm. Criminal sanctions in a global (or national) marketing context can include imprisonment for managers or multimillion dollar judgments against companies; this should provide sufficient incentive for marketing practitioners in the business community to develop an interest in marketing law, and this interest can be fostered through examples, cases, and student research. Public policy topics often compel decision makers to consider broad questions (“what is a market?”) as much as they must bear in mind matters related to consumers and competitors (“Is comparative advertising effective?”). Teaching marketing students to be concerned and informed about the law can produce marketing managers who are aware of their social and legal environments. Incorporating public-policy related examples across courses can also satisfy pedagogical objectives.

This research is concerned with the mediation of the relationship between co-creation and trust by emotions. Data is generated from responses to questions posed after panellists read a structured scenario. Emotions are found to partially mediate the relationship between co-creation and trust. The mediation effect is stronger in B2C situations than B2B, in services rather than products and for women more than men. In a services context there is full mediation of the relationship between co-creation and trust by emotions for women and for a business-to-consumer context. The strategic imperative that co-creation is vital in the services industry is underscored, particularly in a consumer situation or when dealing with women.

Consumers tend to anthropomorphize brands and treat products under the anthropomorphized brands as if they were human beings. Previous research has pointed out that there could be two kinds of anthropomorphized brands, i.e., servant and partner brands and claimed that typical consumers (non-materialists) prefer brands-as-partner, whereas materialists prefer brands-as-servant. However, there is room for improvement: (1) Previous studies have examined only brands-as-servant and brands-as-partner and brands-as-master have been ignored; and (2) they have regarded materialists as a unidimensional construct, though it can be divided into instrumental and terminal materialists. Thus, we conducted multiple comparison tests among the three kinds of anthropomorphized brands with a dataset of three kinds of consumers. The results showed that non-materialists, instrumental materialists, and terminal materialists prefer, brands-as-partner, brands-as-servant, and brands-as-master, respectively.

Eco-innovation is an important component of a firm's environmental sustainability strategy and provides both environmental benefits and competitiveness, resulting in a win-win situation. Although previous studies have examined the influence of organizational ambidexterity (exploration and exploitation) on the business performance, little is known about how organizational ambidexterity affects eco-innovation (i.e. eco-process, eco-product, and eco-organizational innovativeness). Building upon the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities perspective, I develop a model to explain how relational capital may moderate the relationship between inter-firm relational knowledge stores and organizational ambidexterity and how organizational ambidexterity enhance eco-innovation in the context of international buyer-supplier relationships. The results of a survey of 124 OEM suppliers in Taiwan show that the relational knowledge stores have a positive effect on organizational ambidexterity, and organizational ambidexterity has a positive effect on eco-innovation. Our findings also show that the direct relationship between relational knowledge stores and organizational ambidexterity was stronger when the relational capital was high as opposed to when it was low. This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of why some firms engage in organizational ambidexterity than others, analyzing relational knowledge stores as a predictor and relational capital as moderator. I discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

This research was conducted to examine procedures in regain management (RM) by professional service firms (PSF) on the basis of an explorative, qualitative research approach for the first time. The authors tried to solve the following research questions: How are endangered and disaffected clients identified, segmented and reasons analysed in PSFs? How can customer reacquisition dialogues be initiated and timed and which reacquisition offers are to be addressed to clients? How should the success of customer reacquisition measures be evaluated? The results from interviews with 30 leading managers show deficits of the PSF in (1) disaffection analysis, (2) regain activities and (3) regain controlling. Optimization approaches are recognized with larger support by the owners, more in-depth client dialog, optimization of internal processes as well as provision of additional financial and personnel resources. The interviewees reported that the owners have not yet been sufficiently sensitized to the regain of customers and that their attitudes and behaviour significantly impact the success of regain management – a factor hardly considered previously.

Introduction Marketing research habitually claims that customers are willing to pay a price premium for fair-trade products, for environmental-friendly production and other environmental or social matters. We question this paradigm by asking for contextual variables. We identify under which circumstances consumers perceive price increases caused by social reasons as more fair. In particular, we examine the role of individualism as a key trait influencing price fairness perception. Our empirical study (n>400) shows that the subdimensions of individualism differently impact perceptions of price increase fairness: consumer competition decreases fairness perception for social price increase reasons, uniqueness increases fairness perception caused by environmental-friendly production and consumer independence has a neutral effect. Theoretical Development In our study, we reason that different types of individualism differently influence fairness perception of price increase reason because of different social reasons. First, independence reflects an individual’s value of autonomy in judgment, decision making, and actions (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991). We expect that people who feel independent put more emphasis on their person’s freedom and do not feel strong connections to others. Consumer competition represents an interpersonal comparison between the self and others and the individual’s desire to get ahead of others and striving for individual achievements (e.g., Triandis & Gelfand, 1998). Consumers also compete for the costs and benefits of higher prices. Thus, we expect that consumer competition reduces fairness perception for all subdimensions of individualism. Uniqueness is the perceived importance of developing the self’s unique identity and expressing characteristics that are different from others (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991). People who feel unique typically strive for lifestyles to show their uniqueness by purchasing items, which are socially visible and symbolic of identity (Berger & Heath, 2007). They might also be willing to pay more for products and services, which support this uniqueness such as a more environmental-friendly production of products. Research Design We test the hypotheses using a paper-and-pencil survey approach in Germany because in Germany, price increases for CSR topics were very common in many industries in the past few years. We measured the three dimensions of individualism using the scale by Chen and West (2008). The fairness measurement of three types of price increase justifications follows the study by Homburg, Hoyer and Koschate (2005) using established 7-point Likert scales. The sample consists of more than 400 respondents. Results and Conclusion As assumed, results show no significant impact of consumer independence on fairness perception of price increases caused by higher payments for suppliers and environmental-friendly production. Furthermore, the effect for price increases caused by better employee payment is positive, but only small and marginally significant. These results support our hypotheses, assuming a neutral effect of independence. As expected, consumer competition decreases price fairness perception for all price increase reasons, which supports our hypotheses. Perceived uniqueness has no influence on fairness perceptions of price increases caused by higher payment for suppliers and better payment for employees, but increases fairness perception of price increases caused by environmental-friendly production. Age and gender as control variables have mainly no influence on price fairness perception. Our work contributes to marketing theory by originally showing that differences in cultural orientations within a country can explain fairness perceptions of socially justified price increases. Simple country comparisons often neglect heterogeneity in the population. Nevertheless, our results should also be generalizable for country comparisons. Secondly, consumer competition has a negative impact on price fairness for all price increase justifications, while independence has mostly neutral influences and, uniqueness partly even positive effects. This suggests to differentiate dimensions of individualism. Thirdly, the effects differ across social price increase justifications. Thus, consumers seem to evaluate carefully what benefits they personally get from a specific price increase reason. For example, uniqueness increases fairness perceptions if the company refers to an environmental-friendly production, but not for better payment of suppliers and employees. Hence, customers might perceive a higher signaling benefit from buying and consuming environmental-friendly produced products. These findings deepen our knowledge on effects of price increase justifications.

How the destination image is presented in terms of the content and the selected media is known to have a considerable influence on consumers. In the current study, we examined the effect of destination images of Japanese hot spring hotels through photographic images taken by actual hotel guests on intended customer engagement behaviors (CEB) and their evoked conceptualization of the hotels. By showing photographic images of two types of hot spring hotels (traditional/contemporary) to participants from the United States (Phase 1, n=154) and Japan (Phase 2, n=677), we found that the image of traditional hot spring hotels induced higher evaluations and stronger CEB. When participants were clustered based on their travel motivations, we also found that, in both inbound and domestic markets, more engaged tourists gave higher evaluations and stronger CEB. The results suggest that the relationship among key constructs tested in this study validates the conceptual perspective on the theory application of destination image and CEB to hotel operations. From a practical perspective, hotel managers should carefully reconsider the primary drivers that attract tourists to visit the site and stay at their hotel. In addition, when developing promotional materials, managers should also consider key features in the photographic image to create a desirable destination image to attract tourists to visit and recommend the property to others.

Customer engagement has become a prominent issue in hospitality and tourism industry. However, customer engagement, is not easily defined or uniformly measured because a number of diverse factors must be considered. While meeting planners are important customers to CVBs, their engagement with CVBs has rarely been studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a model of meeting planners’ engagement in CVBs empirically. Survey data were collected from a variety of meeting planners, which resulted in 305 usable responses for data analysis. Two step analyses (measurement model and structural model) were implemented. In addition, the moderating effect of reputation and familiarity were examined among the paths of the constructs. The results showed that the hypotheses were supported while familiarity has less salient impact than reputation on customer engagement in the event industry.

Employee innovation is critical to business success and draws knowledge and ideas from customer engagement (CE). In particular, customer interaction, a key aspect of CE, offers opportunities for, and act as a source of, hotel employees’ innovative behaviors (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014; Li & Hsu, 2016). Focusing on the hotel industry, this study investigates the role of customer interaction, positive affect, and employee motivations in enhancing employees’ innovative behaviors. A structural model was developed based on relevant literature and pilot tested on data collected via a quantitative survey of 196 hotel employees who were in a position requiring interactions with customers. The findings provide support for the proposed model and suggest customer interaction, positive affect, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as influential factors impacting on employees’ innovative behaviors directly and/or indirectly. This pilot study forms the basis of a larger project modeling the customer interaction - employee innovation relationship (findings to be presented at the conference). The study contributes to the limited literature on innovation through enhancing CB and employee emotional welfare, addressing the call to strengthen research on the antecedents and outcomes of CB (So, King, Sparks, & Wang, 2016). Practically, the results highlight a need for hotels’ benefit and reward systems to incorporate measures of employee performance in relation to CB.

Introduction Although hotel employees are trained to deliver the best service, service failures may happen at any time because service is delivered by people to people (Susskind, 2002). Moreover, customers are more impressed by failed services than good services (Titz, 2001). According to the recovery paradox, customers have higher satisfaction level after experiencing a service failure if they receive satisfactory service recovery or compensation (McCollough & Bharadwaj, 1992). With the development of information communication technology and mobile device, customers can receive personalized services in recent days (Migacz, Zou, & Petrick, 2018). They also can easily share their experience on the online review platforms such as TripAdvisor, as well as select hotels based on shared online reviews (Liu & Park, 2015; Nieto-Garaía, Muñoz-Gallego, & González-Benito, 2017). Therefore, it is important for hotel managers to understand the mechanisms for service failure and recovery strategy. Thus, this study aims to examine the relationship between different emotion, customer engagement and brand loyalty under the context from the luxury hotels in China that different service failure compensation strategies are adopted. Particularly, the following two research questions are aimed to be addressed: First, do emotions (anger, regret and helplessness) significantly affect hotel brand loyalty through customer engagement? Second, does compensation type (immediate vs. delayed) significantly affect customer engagement and hotel brand loyalty based on customers’ emotions? The results of this study will benefit industry practitioners for formulating effective service failure recovery strategies. Theoretical frameworks and hypotheses development Stimulus-Organism-Response framework Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework is a commonly used form of behavioral research in which events or occurrences are said to be the result of certain stimulus leading to a certain response, following a set of organism processes (Kim & Lennon, 2013; Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). In behavioral research, the S-O-R theory explains “how” something happens and a variance theory describes “why” (Chiles, 2003). We adopted the S-O-R framework in an attempt to explain the effect of the compensation types (immediate vs. delayed) on hotel brand loyalty. In our research model, customer engagement is used an intervening construct on the causal relationship between emotions of customer (anger and regret as a retrospective emotions, helplessness as a prospective emotion) (Gelbrich, 2010) and hotel brand loyalty. Customer engagement is composed of multidimensional concepts of identification, enthusiasm, attention, absorption, and interaction (So, King, & Spark, 2014). Our model thus explains four basic processes of relationship impact on service failure as “stimulus”, emotions and customer engagement as “organism”, and hotel brand loyalty as “response”. This study also emphasizes compensation type as “moderator”. The model shows how to enhance the understanding of emotions that affect hotel brand loyalty through customer engagement based on the moderating effect of compensations type. Customer engagement It is important for a firm to manage customers to improve a firm’s performance. Customer management has transformed from customer transactions, to relationship marketing, and then engaging customers (Pansari and Kumar 2017). There are different definition about customer engagement and most of them define customer engagement as the activity of the customer toward the firm. For example, Pansari and Kumar (2017) define customer engagement as how customer contributes to the firm by “the mechanics of a customer’s value addition to the firm, either through direct or/and indirect contribution.” Vivek et al. (2012) define customer engagement as “the intensity of an individual’s offerings or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiates” (p.127). It has been discussed that customer engagement has been affected by customer emotion and also has significant impact on behaviour intention and brand loyalty. However it has not been discussed under service failure context and when different types of compensation strategies are employed. This study therefore aims to explore this mechanics. Under hospitality context, So, King and Sparks (2014) develop five factors to measure customer engagement: identification, enthusiasm, attention, absorption, and interaction. Since this study also examine hotel guest customers, we adopt the scale of So et al. (2014) due to its comprehensiveness and consistent context. Service failure and emotion Customer emotion is an important antecedent of customer engagement. Currently firms have been shifted their focus from selling products to emotional connection with their customers (Pansari and Kumar 2017). Positive emotion may enhance customer engagement and thereby improve customer loyalty. But when service failure occurs, customers have different negative emotions including anger, frustration, helplessness, regret amongst others. These negative emotions of customers disappoint customers themselves and reduce customer loyalty. Different emotions may have different impact on customer engagement. Anger often refers to the attributes of others such as the service providers (Weiner, 1985) whereas regret often refers to the service failure locus of customer himself/herself such as the customer is regret to choose this service provider (Roseman, 1991). Both anger and regret refer to retrospective emotions and when customer would like to solve questions they may also negative emotion of helplessness which is called prospective emotions (Davidow, 2003; Gelbrich, 2010). This study aims to examine and differentiate the impact of two retrospective emotions of anger and regret and one prospective emotions of helplessness. The first hypothesis is therefore proposed: H1: Anger has negative impact on customer engagement. H2: Regret has negative impact on customer engagement. H3: Helplessness has negative impact on customer engagement. Service failure compensation Though service providers aim to deliver zero fault service, it is inevitable service failure may occur that may bring customers anger and dissatisfaction and damage the customer loyalty thereby. It is found that compensation is an effective way to comfort and delight the dissatisfied customers. Therefore, it is important to formulate effective compensation strategy when service failure occurs. Different compensation strategies such as monetary or nonmonetary (Fu et al. 2015), immediate or delayed compensation (Boshoff, 1997; Davidow, 2003), may be suitable to different contexts/situations. According to prospect theory, a customer is risk-reverse in case of gains. A customer may value products available now more than products obtained in the future due to the higher certainty of the former. Similarly, immediate compensation has less uncertainty than delayed compensation, and therefore is supposed to have higher value. Therefore customers with anger are assumed to have higher customer engagement when immediately compensated. On the other hand, regret customers attribute failure to himself/herself and therefore less expect compensation. The immediate compensation may lead to unfair and thereby less effect than delayed compensation. Therefore immediate compensation may not always be superior over the delayed one under different contexts. We therefore propose the second hypothesis: H1a: Compensation type (immediate vs. delayed) moderates the relationship between anger and customer engagement. H2a: Compensation type (immediate vs. delayed) moderates the relationship between regret and customer engagement. H3a: Compensation type (immediate vs. delayed) moderates the relationship between helplessness and customer engagement. Brand loyalty Brand loyalty refers to the loyalty of a customer toward the brand both behaviourally and attitudinally (Dick and Basu 1994; Li and Petrick 2008; So, King, Sparks, and Wang 2013). It is a key goal of marketing activities, and its antecedents have been extensively examined such as satisfaction, perceived quality, received value, and brand trust, amongst others. Customer engagement, as the activity of a customer toward to a firm, is naturally viewed to influence brand loyalty. This study therefore adopts brand loyalty as the consequence of customer engagement. Furthermore, we would like to examine if compensation types have moderating effect between customer engagement and brand loyalty. We therefore propose below two hypotheses: H4: customer engagement has positive impact on brand loyalty. H4a: Compensation type (immediate vs. delayed) moderates the relationship between customer engagement and brand loyalty. The research model is shown in Figure 1 where all hypotheses are demonstrated. Our research model is developed based on the S-O-R framework in which emotions are antecedent of customer engagement, and customer engagement impacts hotel brand loyalty. This research model also shows the moderating effects of compensation types has on causal relationships between the aforementioned constructs. Methodology Scenario design Scenario based questionnaire is designed to obtain quantitative data for analysis. Based on the interview with hotel managers/operators, one service failure scenario and two compensation scenarios (immediate and delayed) are designed. In-depth interviews with a couple of hotel managers and guests were conducted to verify the realisation of the scenarios formulated. The questionnaire begins with a screening question: in the previous 12 months have you ever had experience staying in a four- or five-star hotel? The survey would only continue if the answer is “yes”. Then the participant is asked to write down the name of this hotel and read the below service failure scenario thereby. Service failure scenario: Imagine you have checked into this hotel again. During your stay in hotel, you send your coat for laundry. It is a nice coat and you bought it a year ago with the price of 1000RMB. However when you collect the cleaned coat, you notice that there is a damage on your coat which makes you cannot dress this coat anymore. You therefore call the service counter for complain. Immediate and delayed compensation scenarios were designed as follows: Immediate compensation scenario: after 15 minutes, the duty manager of the hotel went to our hotel and expressed his sincere apology. You showed him about the damage and informed him the original price of your coat. The manager offered you the cash compensation with the original price of your coat and you agree with this. After half an hour you received 1000RMB cash as the compensation. Delayed compensation scenario: after 15 minutes, the duty manager of the hotel went to your room and expressed his sincere apology. You showed him about the damage and informed him the original price of your coat. The manager said according to the hotel policy, they need to check how this happened and confirm the price of your coat first before making the compensation for you. After two weeks you left the hotel, you received 1000RMB compensation which is transferred into your bank account directly. Participant emotion is measured after the participants read the service failure scenario and before they read the compensation scenario. Each participant is randomly assigned to be involved in one compensation scenario only. Customer engagement and hotel brand loyalty are measured after the compensation happened. Variable measurement Customer engagement is measured using 25-item scale developed by So et al. (2014) in which five factors are involved: identification, enthusiasm, attention, absorption, and interaction. Particularly, identification is measured by four attributes: “When someone criticizes this brand, it feels like a personal insult”, “When I talk about this brand, I usually say we rather than they”. “This brand’s successes are my successes”. “When someone praises this brand, it feels like a personal compliment”. Enthusiasm is measured by five attributes: “I am heavily into this brand”. “I am passionate about this brand” “I am enthusiastic about this brand” “I feel excited about this brand” “I love this brand”. Attention is measured by five attributes: “I like to learn more about this brand” “I pay a lot of attention to anything about this brand” “Anything related to this brand grabs my attention” “I concentrate a lot on this brand” “I like learning more about this brand” . Absorption is measured by five attributes: “When I am interacting with the brand, I forget everything else around me” “Time flies when I am interacting with the brand” “When I am interacting with brand, I get carried away” “When interacting with the brand, it is difficult to detach myself” “In my interaction with the brand, I am immersed” “When interacting with the brand intensely, I feel happy”. Interaction is measure by five attributes: “In general, I like to get involved in brand community discussions” “I am someone who enjoys interacting with likeminded others in the brand community” “I am someone who likes actively participating in brand community discussions” “In general, I thoroughly enjoy exchanging ideas with other people in the brand community” “I often participate in activities of the brand community”. Three emotion of anger, regret and helplessness are included as the measurement of emotion. Particularly, according to Gelbrich (2010), three attributes are adopted to measure anger “I would feel angry with the hotel/hotel employees”, “I would feel mad with the hotel/hotel employees”, and “I would feel furious about the hotel/hotel employees”. Three statements are employed to measure regret (Tsiros & Mittal 2000): “I would feel sorry for choosing this hotel”, “I regretted choosing this hotel”, and “I should have chosen another hotel”. Four statements are used to measure helplessness (Gelbrich 2010): “I would feel helpless”, “I would feel lost”, “I would feel defenceless”, and “I would feel stranded.” Five statements are used to measure brand loyalty (So, King, Sparks, & Wang 2013): “I would say positive things about this brand to other people.” “I would recommend this brand to someone who seeks my advice.” “I would encourage friends and relatives to do business with this brand.” “I would consider this brand my first choice to buy services.” “I would do more business with this brand in the next few years.” A seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (=disagree strongly) to 7 (=agree strongly) is adopted for all measurement. Data collection and analysis method In-depth interview with managers from upscale hotels and customers will be used to finalize scenarios. Opinions of academic experts will be used to revise variable measurements and questionnaires. Convenience sampling method will be adopted to obtain about 400 respondents who has experience of staying at four- or five-stars hotels in China in the previous year. Regarding with data analysis, Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypotheses proposed. Expected results The manipulation check has been conducted to verify the scenarios designed. The negative relationship between emotions and customer engagement are expected and compensation timing (delayed or immediate) may moderate this relationship. Most importantly, it is expected that this moderating effect varies when different emotions and customer engagement are examined. Contributions The theoretical contributions have three folders. Firstly, this study first considers compensation timing into the examination of relationship between different negative emotions and customer engagement, after service failure occurs. Secondly, this study adopts stimulus-organism-response theory to explore the mechanism how service failure could be well recovered by relationships of different negative emotions, effective compensation type, customer engagement, and brand loyalty. Thirdly, this study applies second order factor for the measurement of customer engagement and also divides negative emotions into retrospective and prospective ones to shed light on customer engagement in the context of service failure and compensation. The practical implication of this study will benefit industry practitioners for their formulation of compensation strategies. Especially as the development of big data, hotel industry is able to adopt different strategies for individuals to maximize customer experience. The findings of this study could propose different strategies for different situations/individuals thereby.