Salaries of managers across many firms have sizeable performance-linked reward components. Conventional wisdom suggests that these performance-linked rewards are effective in keeping employees motivated and innovative. However, recent psychological research indicates that overly-attractive rewards may in fact reduce performance and be counterproductive for an otherwise high performing team. This issue has important implications for design of compensation schemes for marketing managers. Yet, few marketing management researchers have studied this phenomenon. How do performance-linked rewards influence the decision making styles of marketing managers who have to be innovative in dealing with competition? Does the promise of attractive performance-linked rewards help or hinder performance of a marketing unit? We sought to answer these questions via a simulation study in which we examined decision making processes and performance changes under different levels of performance-linked incentives. We find evidence to support that the practice of performance-linked rewards may benefit the low performers more than the high performers and that the high performers may not push themselves hard for the performance-linked rewards, thus lowering the performance levels. The findings are counterintuitive specifically for the high performers. Contrary to the popular notion and practice, we find that team performance including risk taking tendencies and innovative efforts actually dip in response to the high performance-linked rewards. Findings from our study provide new insights into the link between performance-linked rewards, decision making processes, and the actual performance of the managers. Our research also contributes prescriptions for calibration of compensation structures in order to promote more prudent decision making processes and to drive greater performance.

The organizational learning concept is used to develop the skill base of employees and create knowledge that can be used to improve the capability of an organization. The objective of this paper is to explain how the process of organizational learning, which is underpinned and reinforced by a specific organizational value system, produces interactive communication that incorporates information sharing, teamwork, individual learning and fosters the development of knowledge which ultimately results in the implementation of a marketing strategy. The research question we pose is: How can marketing managers use the organizational learning concept to improve the organization’s marketing performance? A qualitative research strategy, incorporating an open ended, structured questionnaire was used to obtain insights into how organizational learning supports the development of knowledge and the implementation of marketing strategy in three Korean companies in three separate industries. The research findings indicate that managers in the participating Korean companies embrace the strategic marketing concept, implement knowledge based marketing decisions, are committed to sharing information and are keen to adopt innovatory processes that result in change. In addition, they utilize the organizational learning concept to enhance the capability of the organization, ensure that individual learning is placed in the context of institutional learning, develop and implement innovative marketing strategies, and reinforce the strategic marketing planning process through interactive communication in order to achieve value creation.

Corporate reputation is a central source of strategic competitive advantage. So far, studies regarding this topic have solely focused on the measure’s level, disregarding heterogeneity in the ratings among constituents. This study reveals that dispersion of reputation judgments is another crucial information which has the power to drive firm value.

How to manage these marketing and R&D functions is very important in the new product development (NPD) process. Which function should have more power to make more decisions? Previous study seldom touched this question. Further, according to strategic contingent theory, perceived uncertainty is very important determinant for power structure in the NPD process (Hickson, Hinings, Schneck, & Pennings, 1971). However, Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) argued that there is indeterminacy between environment and power structure. Thus, is external environmental uncertainty related to power structure in the NPD process? Resource dependence theory gives us a hint to solve this puzzle, that is, the concept of institutionalization (Pfeffer, 1981; Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978). The current study tends to adopt NPD duration reflected institutionalization (Pfeffer, 1981) to examine the moderating effect of NPD duration on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and marketing-R&D power structure in the NPD process. In general, power is defined as that the relation among social actors in which a specific social actor can potentially influence the decision to achieve his or her desire outcomes (Dahl, 1957; Emerson, 1962; Pfeffer, 1981; Salancik & Pfeffer, 1977). This definition also suggested that power is the structure in human aggregates like complex organization (Pfeffer, 1981). Thus, the power structure in the NPD process is defined as the proportion of decision making by marketing and R&D functions in the NPD process. When a NPD team faces the high market uncertainty, marketing function can gather more resources because of its special ability. A new product team has the limited resources, so another important function like R&D will have fewer resources than marketing function. Thus, our first hypothesis is that the higher market uncertainty, the more power marketing function has. R&D members have background knowledge to overcome the difficult of processing technological language and decide the main resolutions. The team will tend to allot more resources to deal with the problems of technological change as such the R&D members can buy the license of new technologies to apply it on their new products and to create the disruptive innovation like smartphones or tablets successfully. Therefore, the second hypothesis is that the higher technology uncertainty, the more power R&D function has. According to resource dependence theory, however, the relationship between environmental uncertainty and power structure does not always exist (Pfeffer, 1981; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978). Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) indicated that the perceived environmental uncertainty of a subunit is weakly related to subunit’s power structure when an organization is highly institutionalized. When one subunit has more power than others, it tends to maintain the current power structure. So, the subunit makes rules or norm to formalize its power legally. This process is so called institutionalization (Pfeffer, 1981; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978). In general, as time goes by, organizations will form their own social norms, and some of these norms will become the principles or rules in organizations (Pfeffer, 1981). As a result, when NPD time is long, marketing and R&D functions form norms or official rules. Then, the relationship between their perceived environmental uncertainty and power structure in the NPD process is weaker than the relation in the shorter duration of NPD. Therefore, our hypothesis is that the relationship between environmental uncertainty and power structure in the long-run project time is weaker than the relationship in the short-run project time. The current study used questionnaire survey and purposive sampling method to collect data. In order to eliminate the bias of common method variance (CMV), this study conducted multiple sources including project managers, the member charging marketing, and the member charging R&D to administrate questionnaires differently. In order to avoid selection bias, this study, moreover, asked the informants select the most recent new products developed and launched for minimum of twelve months. We sent three types of questionnaires to project managers, the member charging marketing, and the member charging R&D respectively. The current study sent questionnaires to 112 firms, and 69 firms are returned. The response rate is 61.61%. At new product level, there are 207 new product projects, and 100 firms are returned. The response rate is 48.31%. We also do tests of bias due to nonresponse which were conducted by using a comparison of early to late respondents’ all variable means (Armstrong & Overton, 1977). No evidence of a bias was found. Our variables are included market and technology uncertainty, and power structure which the left side is totally decided by marketing and the right side is totally decided by R&D. Moreover, NPD time is from star-up projects to launch it. In order to rule out other effects, we controlled industrial category, firm age, the number of marketing and R&D members involved in the NPD process, environmental hostility, and NPD process formalization. Every overall fit index in our measurement model is shown that χ(55)^2=71.5259,p-vaule=.066，χ^2/df=1.30<2, goodness of fit index=.90，adjusted goodness of fit index=.84，comparative fit index=.97，normed fit index=.87，non-normed fit index=.95, and root mean square error of approximation=.06. In general, all fit indexes in our measurement model are acceptable, and the average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR), and Cronbach’s α of all constructs are acceptable. Their ranges are .45-.70, .70-.93, and .75-.93 respectively. The overall model showed that the higher market uncertainty, the more power marketing has (β=-.279, t-value=-3.11, p-value<.050) but technology uncertainty is not significantly related to power structure. We used the mean of the NPD time as the cutting point to split short-run and long-run project time, and the mean is about one year and half in our sample. The result showed that in the short-run group the higher market and technology uncertainty, the more power marketing and R&D function have (β=-.355, t-value=-2.53, p-value<.050; β=.296, t-value=2.23, p-value<.050) . However, in the long-run group the relationship between environmental uncertainty and power structure is statistically insignificant. Additionally, in the long-run group the more NPD process formalization, the more power R&D function has (β=.277, t-value=2.33, p-value<.050). Back to the original puzzle, that is, does external environmental uncertainty determine power structure in the new product development process? The empirical evidence is shown that it is dependent on how long an organization develops new products to the market. Because the dominant subunit involved in the NPD process tends to maintain it power, it institutionalizes rules or norms to have legitimacy in the organization, and this argument is consistent with resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978). We also found that in short-run perceived environmental uncertainty are positively related to power structure in the NPD process. Consistent with strategic contingent theory’s proposition, the one subunit enable to reduce or respond external environment pressure, and it can have more power in the organization (Hickson, et al., 1971; Hinings, et al., 1974). We additionally found that in long-run group process formalization is positively related to R&D power. R&D function plays a main role in the NPD process as especially in the manufacturing industry; therefore, R&D function has much motive to maintain its power (Workamn, 1993). So R&D function can use formal rule to maintain its power when R&D function formalize the NPD process. As a consequence, formalizing the NPD process helps R&D function to gain more power in the long run. The contribution of our study is that we tested the proposition in strategic contingent theory, and the empirical evidences supported our hypotheses. Furthermore, our study also is the first study to test and find the support evidence with the institutionalization proposition in resource dependence theory. We not only explored the relationship between environmental uncertainty and power structure in the NPD process, but also extended strategic contingent theory and resource dependence theory to the NPD research. The further study can follow our definition of power structure to find what strategy marketing and R&D function will used to take back or maintain their power (Eisenhardt & Bourgeois, 1988; Li & Atuahene-Gima, 2001; Pfeffer, 1981).

Partnerships have become an important research topic. However, the amount of empirical attention devoted to determining how firms intensively co-produce with alliance partners to improve their innovation performance is lacking. In response to the growing importance of co-production in the partnerships, this study addresses how firms integrate their alliance partners as co-creators into the innovation process. Specifically, this study not only integrates the three dimensions of social capital and examines their separate effects on co-production but also incorporates the roles of absorptive capacity and self-efficacy and investigates their influences on innovation. That is, co-production may operate through absorptive capacity and self-efficacy to increase innovation because knowledge is exchanged and utilized and firms are willing to select challenging goals and remain firmly committed to fulfill them within the network. The proposed model is tested with a structural equation model(SEM). Findings indicate positive relationships between social capital and co-production. Moreover, co-production has positive effects on innovation, absorptive capacity, and self-efficacy. Absorptive capacity and self-efficacy enhance innovation. As such, we suggest that co-production should be considered explicitly in the management of a partnership and should be developed through mentioned above platform, encouraging and enabling both parties to work together for the implementation of innovation.

This study seeks to understand how the interplay between Market Orientation, Firm strategy and Performance is developed over time. In order to study the interplay, I build a model on industry and company evolution by adopting a Variation, Selection and Retention (VSR) analysis of a telecom company and industry 1980-2010 in Finland market. The evolution of telecom industry and a case company is manifested in innovations and strategy in a company and respectively in the basis of competition in the market. In addition, what capabilities and resources a company can use successfully when innovating and developing products and services, and how those capabilities and resources change over time are of interest. A longitudinal (1980-2010) abductive case study of a telecom company’s offerings and strategy was made. Company’s spearhead innovations, managerial cognition and strategy were studied in a longitudinal setting. The theoretical contributions of the study are to discover Market Orientation payoff is context and industry life-cycle specific. Secondly, Market Orientation has potential adverse effects on Firm Performance, and what is the most important, Market Orientation as a sole source of innovation activity has a permanent influence on company’s comparative advantage in the market.

Although cross-functional conflicts occur between marketing and research and development departments, empirical research on the inherent mechanism remains scant. This study examines the hierarchical relationship among various cross-functional conflict types. Trust moderates conflict resolution in a sample of 135 Chinese high-tech companies. Results show an inverted U-shaped relationship for cross-functional task conflict and a negative relationship for cross-functional relationships on team effectiveness and innovation performance. Trust moderates the relationship between cross-functional task conflict and team effectiveness; however, the results do not show trust’s link to the relationship between relationship conflict and team effectiveness. When trust is high, the U-shaped relationship between cross-functional task conflict and team effectiveness becomes positive. This study offers executives new guidelines for managing conflict and trust to improve high-tech firm’s innovation climate.

Sustainable marketing, as recently noticed by academics and practitioners, refers to a form of marketing that makes a net positive contribution to society in terms of environmental, social, and economic developments. Firms’ interest in sustainability as part of business performance beyond mere financial goals has been increased. Various sources, including societal mandates incorporated into regulations, concern about loss of sales, and a potential decline in corporate reputation pressures companies into implementing proper sustainability management. The purpose of this study is to clarify measures of perceived sustainability from the marketing perspective, analyze the effects of perceived sustainability on customer equity, and develop the recent theoretical frameworks and implications that will enable sustainable marketing concepts to be globally competitive. The measures of perceived sustainability items enable researchers to examine relationships among perceptions of sustainability and other key customer equity variables, such as value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. For this and other reasons, the MPS may have value to practitioners. By understanding perceived sustainability, they can develop economic, social, environmental and communication performances that effectively utilize sustainability. The measures of perceived sustainability offers researchers a tool for measuring perceived sustainability that is consistent with the literature on sustainability, while recognizing the reality that sustainability is a multidimensional construct. The rigor reflected in the multiple methods for generating scale items and the multiple stages in the scale development process results in a scale that should be useful to both researchers and practitioners.

Marketers might find the task of gauging the public’s perceptions of a landfill-to-park transformation as one of the more challenging products to market. A current project is Freshkills Park in New York City. The theoretical approach was to test proximity and experience history with familiarity, attitude toward, and intent to visit the site.

There is scarce research in the domain of sustainable marketing and renewable energy, despite the importance of this area. The consumers should adopt and increase the use of renewable energy (RE) because renewable energy sources contribute to reduce the dangerous gas emissions and resource depletion. Therefore, the understanding of what drives the consumer demand for RE is essential. Sustainable marketing has an important role in creating and promoting sustainable patterns and levels of consumption of the end users. In this study, considering the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the knowledge about renewable energy (RE_KNOW), the attitude toward RE (RE_ATT), the willingness to pay more for RE (RE_WPM) and the predisposition to ecological consumer behaviour (ECCB) were analysed as determinants of the intention to use RE (RE_INT). Moreover, the effects of RE_KNOW on RE_ATT and on ECCB and the effects of RE_ATT on ECCB and on RE_WPM were also assessed. Based on an online survey, the reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs were assessed presenting good values. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed relations. The results confirm all the determinants of RE_INT except the RE_WPM. The ECCB is the stronger determinant of the RE_INT, followed by the RE_ATT. The beliefs – attitude – intention link was found which supports the TRA. The effect of RE_KNOW is stronger on ECCB than on RE_ATT, and the effect of RE_ATT is stronger on ECCB than on RE_WPM. Furthermore, the moderator effects of sex and age were evaluated through multi-group analysis. For women and men, the proposed relations do not have significant differences. However, for the younger group, RE_ATT is the only significant determinant of RE_INT whereas, for the older one, ECCB and RE_WPM are the significant ones. For younger individuals, RE_KNOW has a direct, positive effect on RE_ATT which in turn has a direct, positive and strong effect on RE_INT, in accordance with the theory of reasoned action; RE_ATT has a direct, positive and stronger effect on ECCB than RE KNOW has. For older individuals, the relation RE_KNOW– RE_ATT – RE_INT is not significant. This research offers insights that help the electricity companies to develop sustainable marketing strategies in order to increase the use of RE. The results of this study indicate that the theory of reasoned action broadly support the attitude-behavior link for consumer RE use. However, for specific groups, the older one, this is not the case. To capture younger consumers it is important that companies develop marketing strategies to increase RE_KNOW and consequently to strengthen RE_ATT to obtain strong RE_INT and RE use. However, to conquer older consumers the effort should be putted more on the reinforcement of ECCB and on the RE_WPM. Therefore, the marketers need to develop different strategies for different target groups to promote the electricity products. Campaigns about renewable energies, their advantages and impact on the environment should be targeted to younger consumers in order to increase the knowledge and attitude toward RE However, to attain more willingness to pay a price premium for green electricity by the older consumers, the companies should document and communicate well the environmental benefits of their green offers. Moreover, for this older group, the promotion of other consumer sustainable behaviors will be desirable since they will have a positive impact on the intention to use RE.

Consumers are increasingly willing to consider ethical aspects in their buying decisions, while organizations strategically respond to consumer needs in this respect by focusing on their ethical reputation in their branding strategies (Singh et al., 2012). Moreover, brands are increasingly switching to natural ingredients in their products or adding an organic option to their current product line (Johri & Sahasakmontri, 1998; Prothero & McDonagh, 1992; Todd, 2004). Although the majority of the growth of green and ethical products is found within the organic food (Organic Monitor, 2011; Willer & Kilcher, 2010) and fair trade products (FLO, 2011) categories, there also seems to be constant growth in the demand for organic personal care products (PCPs) (Smitson, 2006). In contrast, scientific research on organic Personal Care Products (PCPs) seems to be scarce (Kim & Chung, 2011). The current study investigates the effect of brand associations on consumer perceptions considering organic PCPs. More specifically, we focus on the role of corporate ability (CA) versus corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations in brand equity (Yoo et al., 2000) and brand trust (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001) perceptions. To test the effects of CA and CSR associations on consumer brand equity and trust, we first conducted a pretest, in which we included brands with the highest market share in the Dutch PCP market (Nielsen Market Analytics, April 2013). Based on the results of the pretest the following brands were selected for the main study: L’Oréal, Rituals and Palmolive. For the main experiment respondents were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions in a between-subjects design: L’Oréal (N=42), Palmolive (N=42) and Rituals (N=37). Based on the results of the experiment we can draw the following conclusions. Brands may be associated with both CA and CSR characteristics. Even though possible benefits induced by introducing an organic PCP are higher for brands that are currently associated with CSR, other brands may benefit still from introducing an organic PCP, as the effects of CSR associations and an organic product launch merely seem to be complementary. When a brand considers the introduction of a green variant of its current PCP line, the brand does not seem to need a specific “green” reputation or image. More important, the producing company behind the brand should communicate its innovative characteristics as a market leader as well as a sense of responsibility toward the environment and society. Combining CA with CSR characteristics seems to be the most profitable strategy for attracting more consumers than one’s competitors. Although one should constantly aim to remain competitive in the market, the overall effects of sustainable initiatives will be much lower for brands with a weaker reputation in general than for brands that already induce multiple positive associations. In sum, an organization that decides to introduce a new organic product should be aware of the strong positive associations of their current brands on a variety of product characteristics. In the end, investing in improving multiple positive associations instead of focusing on either CSR or CA will be the most profitable strategy.

Traditional textiles -- especially hand-woven ones -- have long been items of trade throughout the world. Notably, the Chinese shipped only finished textiles or cloth over the Silk Road to multiple trade centers en route to Europe. As early as the 16th century textile designs were customized to suit market needs; i.e., trading companies had Indian hand-woven naturally dyed textiles customized with motifs and colors that appealed to their Thai or Indonesian customers. These marketing and product development practices were demonstrated in "Interwoven Globe", the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recent large exhibition and catalog (Peck, 2013). What are Traditional Textiles? Textiles were considered precious before they were machine produced. Today, people seldom understand how difficult it is – the time, effort, and cost – required to make hand-loomed textiles. The industrial revolution allowed textiles to be produced rapidly for the mass market at relatively low price points. Traditional textiles include a variety of textiles using historical or traditional production techniques. This paper examines hand-woven textiles using traditional hand-looms either backstrap or floor. Traditional textiles also encompasses felts, embroidered textiles, and batik textiles which are resist dyed -- the base cloth in this case is commercially produced. Some textiles – as cloth or those made into garments – are imbued with significant cultural meanings such as protection, luck, familial relationships, tribal membership, etc. These often have religious and magical meanings. Such textiles are often reverently passed down to descendants and can be required parts of ceremonies, such as the geringsing double ikats worn in many of their sacred rituals i.e. Sabah Usamba held in Tenganan Pergerinsingan, Bali (Crippen & Mulready, 2001, 2012). Traditional textiles continue to be used for lifecycle and religious ceremonies throughout Southeast Asia (SEA) including the many island cultures of Indonesia; these created some ongoing demand for continuation of textile traditions. Over the past few decades increased scholarly activities followed by increased cultural tourism expanded demand for newly made authentic contemporary traditional textiles. The paradox of increased demand simultaneous with few weaver made traditional textiles more valuable and created new opportunities for reviving traditional weaving. More newly woven traditional textiles were produced and generally sold in the locales where woven. In the 1980’s, increased tourism to Asia, Southeast Asia (SEA), and other areas as well as a larger expatriate community in SEA brought a much greater awareness of textile traditions to people previously unfamiliar with them. Many tourists wanted something more than a T-shirt to remember their trip so souvenirs diversified in type and quality/price points (Crippen & Mulready, 1995). The sale of authentic contemporary textiles woven using traditional techniques started to increase. Many organizations supported continuation of such traditions. Today more traditional textiles -- both antique and contemporary -- are for sale on the internet. This has the potential to expand the market for contemporary traditional textile products. A web-enabled global audience interested in traditional textile end products such as scarves, wall-hangings, pillows, etc., has the potential to expand demand. Lee and Littrell (2003) discuss potential problems when expanding from local to web-based global markets for cultural products. Traditional textiles would be considered a cultural product. Today, a global revolution is in progress which allows small companies – including cooperatives and others – to directly market to the global consumer. Telling their stories via the Internet brings attention and authenticity to their products, hopefully increasing sales and keeping textile traditional alive. The purpose of this exploratory research is to examine websites selling traditional textile products to determine how they demonstrate authenticity for contemporary traditional textiles. Two case studies from Southeast Asia (SEA) are presented to illustrate how storytelling techniques support such authentication efforts when marketing traditional textiles on the Internet. Authenticity Concepts of "authenticity" range from subjective producer/consumer evaluations -- sometimes with no basis in reality-- to highly technical specifications set by law or manufacturer's associations. A textile example of the first one is a so-called batik dress which in actuality has a surface printed design meaning that it is not authentic batik. Authentic batiks use wax or other substances to resist or prevent dyeing in covered areas when dyed. The terms batik tulis is used in Indonesia and Malaysia when the resist wax is drawn by hand; whereas batik cap (chop) designates stamped wax process. Machine printing requires no waxing and is faster and cheaper. Today, there is a market segment interested in authentic textiles and crafts (Anderson & Littrell, 1995). Textile study groups, tours, publications, and internet websites help to educate consumers interested in authentic textiles. Consumers vary in what aspect/s of authenticity they find interesting (Littrell et al, 1995). Uniqueness, workmanship, aesthetics, use, cultural and historical integrity (including age and documented provenance), creativity, and genuineness are all important. "Spinning a Yarn" Storytelling -- sometimes called "spinning a yarn" - is used to help demonstrate/create authenticity when marketing products. It is frequently used to explain the complex production processes of traditional crafts and textiles. This is often augmented by personally observing and/or viewing photos and/or videos of how traditional textiles/products are made. Many people contributed to the resurgence of traditional textile weaving. Most are unknown and often worked collectively in development efforts. Individuals travelled to remote areas and fell in love with the traditional textiles and the people who made them. Some of these individuals then found ways to monetarily support the people making the textiles -- globalization has made cash necessary to pay for such things as mandatory education and school uniforms. In the 1950s, Jim Thompson, an American, founded his company which continued to expand after his disappearance in Malaysia in 1967. The website Jimthomspson.com uses his romanticized personal history to promote an international market for luxury hand-woven Thai silk textiles. Carol Cassidy, an American found the Lao weaving traditions while serving as a UNDP (United National Development Programme specialist in an apparel factory in Laos. Carol, a weaver, started her business and trained local weavers, developed new products, and maintained quality control standard for her company Lao Textiles. Her website Laotextiles.com is informational only; she does list retail stores that carry her products and her contact information. Internet Marketing Internet marketing allows sellers to tell stories -- actually to tell many stories. Different websites or links within websites can target various consumer market segments. Specialty categories, including various aspects of authenticity can be demonstrated in different ways which can stand alone and/or mutually support one another and the website as a whole. For the consumer who values cultural and historical integrity, a story or page/s can be built around this aspect. With increased interest in fair trade, compensation, and working conditions some companies -- especially co-operatives and non-profits -- often focus on this aspect. Sustainability including environmental aspects often linked to Fair Trade can be easily addressed. The Internet allows consumers to read all of the story or only the parts that interest them the most. It offers a convenient way for sellers to broaden their reach to new customers who might not have the opportunity to travel to the craft or textile production site. This potential must be supported with good website design and operations (Lee and Littrell, 2003). Case Studies: Using Storytelling to Establish Authencity for Internet Marketing of Traditional Textiles This is an exploratory study which attempts to determine what storytelling methods are effective in internet marketing of authentic traditional textiles. The two chosen websites attempt to duplicate the experiences of tourists visiting weavers where they work. The two websites selected for analysis Ock Pop Tok (Laos) and Threads of Life (Indonesia). Criteria for selection included vetting by experts who had visited the in-country facilities and confirmed the websites accurately represent the facilities and their work. Websites were selected that actively support women in development efforts such as training and support-- financial and otherwise -- for women to earn living wages while being able to live near family, support for continuation of authentic traditional weaving, sustainability, environmental sensitivity, etc. Ock Pop Tok Ock Pop Tok (OPT) translates to “East Meets West”; their website Ockpoptok.com uses a banner to describe itself as having Lao Textiles with a tag line of "keeping it alive for the next generation". Lao characters in the background tend to give some Lao authenticity. The home page photographs rotate between a team picture (taken September 2013) of women and men workers -- who all look very happy and excited -- and other photographs. Some have spinning wheels or other tools they use in their work; their textiles are displayed in the background. This page describes their activities and programs as being a Laos based social enterprise working primarily in the field of textiles, handicrafts, and design. They work with women artisans, rural producer groups, and students who can work in their shops. They opened the Living Crafts Centre in 2004 which includes a weaving and dyeing studio, craft school, and an exhibition area. Their website also describes on-site lodging where themed rooms are decorated using their textiles. Their catchy categories for web pages are divided into learn, create, shop, stay, and eat. OPT has a non-profit gallery -- Fibre2Fabric -- which focuses on using textiles as a way to explain Lao culture. Their activities are well documented and the village weaver projects for rural development are described; its goal is to alleviate poverty. Laos has multiple ethnic groups and OPT, in combination with other partners, works training many rural area women to produce handicrafts for poverty alleviation. Their work in 11 rural areas is described and includes photographs. The website also includes a photograph of all their weavers. It would appeal to people who only want to purchase products as well as those who would like to plan a trip where they could not only visit the learning center but also take a class and even stay. OPT discusses their sustainable development policies in depth. Threads of Life Threads of Life (TOL) is described as a privately funded organization dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and marketing of traditional woven, natural dyed, and handmade ritual textiles. Their home page rotates and focuses on nature and culture. Their website Threadsoflife.com includes a list of associates who assist Threads of Life, as well as Balinese employees, with a quote from each. Under the "What We Do" section, they list revitalizing traditional textile traditions, field work, conservation efforts, and supporting women’s cooperatives. The description of supporting the cooperatives is as follows: “Threads of Life works directly with over 1,000 women in more than 35 cooperative groups on the Indonesian islands from Kalimantan to Timor. The common question among these cooperatives is, ‘How do we maintain our culture and identity, and make a living at the same time?’” “Threads of Life helps to answer this question. Our business model uses real markets to reward cultural integrity, promote conservation of the environment, and empower families in some of the world's poorest places to lift themselves out of poverty.” This site is rich in content and photographs which support the written materials. For example, the complete descriptions of the ikat, a technique which ties and dyes yarns before weaving include details such as not only who wove the textile but also who tied the resist yarns and who dyed it. The Threads of Life Textile Arts Center in Ubud, Bali, is their main store. Photographs of textiles with good descriptions and a code number are included from various locations; however, it is unclear how or if these can be ordered. TOL also offers accommodations and small group tours, including those related to traditional textiles. They too offer a newsletter and have a foundation which supports environmental issues. Commonalities and differences between the two websites will be presented including their use of storytelling, photography, ease of purchasing product, pricing, fair trade information, sustainability, and ecological issues.

The Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) literature has, in recent years, introduced various CBBE models and measurement scales. This study aims to compare the external validity of the two prominent CBBE models in the fashion retail industry; those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2011) based on Aaker (1991)’s CBBE concept and Nam et al. (2011). In order to make this comparison, the study collected data from 285 respondents in Turkey. Research findings show that Nam et al.’s (2011) CBBE model is, in the fashion industry context, the more reliable and valid. When the concept of “brand awareness” is included in this model, the psychometric properties of the model are improved.

Introduction E-retailers take advantage of apparel products which are viewed as a constantly changing experiential product rich that lead to various kinds of hedonic consumption, like impulse buying (Park and Kim, 2008). Apparel purchases are often affected by irrational and emotional attraction making them one of the most frequent impulsively purchased items online (Rhee, 2007). The e-shoppers are more spontaneous due to marketing stimuli which makes it easier to purchase impulsively and reduces risk aversion (Madhavaram and Laverie, 2004). In fact, shoppers are more likely to overspend when e-shopping because it does not feel like spending money (Dittmar, Long, and Meek, 2004). Apparel retailers need to pay special attention to converting web browsers to impulse purchasers—a capability that plays an important role in the growth of e-business. Despite the vast amount of data available online, few efforts have been made to identify the relationship among services attributes, browsing, urges to buy, and e-impulse buying of apparel products. This study explores a model of e-impulse buying for strategic e-business management in apparel products by understanding critical factors of e-store service attributes over the shopping websites and its impact on browsing and urges to buy for apparel in Korea. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to (a) identify underlying factors of online service attributes related to apparel products; (b) estimate structural equation model for causative relationship among service attributes, browsing, urges to buy, and e-impulse buying; and (c) examine mediating effect of browsing and urges to buy on e-impulse buying for apparel. By focusing on apparel products, this study will shed light on complex issues surrounding online service and provide opportunities for strategic development and promotion in fashion merchandising online. Also, this study could help mangers to identify successful global applications of e-marketing for apparel products. Methods A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous literatures. The instrument consisted of the main variables; e-service attributes of apparel stores, browsing, urge to buy, and e-impulse buying of apparel products. Participants responded to questions on a 5-point rating scale (1=very unlikely to 5=very likely). The questionnaire was administered during a regularly scheduled class in universities. Usable data were obtained from 319 students aged between 18 and 25 residing at the metropolitan areas in Korea. More than half of the respondents (65.5%) were 18 to 21 years old. Nearly 65.5 percent of the subjects were women, and more than half of the respondents (63.8%) were below the sophomore. For data analysis, exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to determine dimensions of perceived service attributes of the apparel online store. Cronbach's alpha established inter-item reliability between items. The structural equation model analysis was conducted by AMOS 18.0 using a correlation matrix with maximum likelihood approach. The overall fit of the model was assessed by various statistic indexes: chi-square (χ2), goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), and root mean squared residual (RMR). Results An exploratory factor analysis revealed three types of e-store service attributes: Ease of Use, Accuracy, and Reliability. The structural equation model, which was estimated to examine causal relationships among variables (i.e. three types of service attributes, browsing, urges to buy, and e-impulse buying), was relatively acceptable (chi-square value = 168.23, df = 157, p = .026; GFI = .95, AGFI = .93, RMR = .05). The model demonstrated that the two factors of service attributes (i.e. ease of use, accuracy of service) were significant variables to influence the browsing, which influence the urges to buy and e-impulse buying for apparel stores. E-impulse buying of apparel products was influenced by browsing and urges to buy. In addition, the urges to buy and browsing mediated the casual relationship between service attributes and e-impulse buying for apparel products. This result suggests that browsing and urges to buy perceived by shoppers were important predicting e-impulse buying of apparel products. Especially, urges to buy apparel products was the most important mediator to trigger e-impulse buying of apparels. Conclusions & Implication This study explores a structural equation model for understanding e-impulse buying in conjunction with browsing, urges to buy and service attributes of apparel store perceived by shoppers in Korea. The findings suggest that the browsing and urges to buy perceived by shoppers play important roles as mediators of the e-impulse buying for apparel stores. Especially, service attributes of apparel e-store perceived by shoppers had indirect effects on e-impulse buying through the browsing and urges to buy, implying that the consumers perceived the ease to use of e-store was the more browsing at e-store and then the more perceiving the urges to buy apparel products. However, the more browsing at apparel e-store was the less the e-impulse buying of apparel products and the more perceiving urges to buy at e-store is the more e-impulse buying of apparel products. This study provides retail managerial implications for stimulating e-shoppers' impulse buying of apparel products. They could increase shoppers' unplanned purchases by developing the service program for convenience (e.g. easy to use the structure of contents, wide ranges of products/service packages, various menu options of website) to stimulate the browsing at e-store.

Launched in 2008 and 2010 respectively, Instagram and Pinterest are two of the fasted growing social media platforms with 220 million users combined (Leverage 2014, Techcrunch 2014, Loren & Swiderski 2012). Their success is due to their simplicity and a focus on visuals rather than text, furthermore they are described as platforms with strategic potential for fashion brands (Wired 2012). Despite this, many fashion brands have been slow to engage with them. However the Huffington Post (2012) suggests that the visual social media has a wide appeal with respect to both brand positioning and increasing awareness. Recent research by Mashable (2014) highlights that referral traffic and spend is higher from Pinterest users than Facebook users, and this contributes to the rationale for study. The aim of this reseach is twofold, firstly it is to explore the reasons for the utilisation of visual social media platforms within a fashion brands marketing planning cycle, and second it seeks to identify the strategic and operational ways in which fashion brands can use them. For the purpose of this paper only Instagram and Pinterest are investigated. Using a qualitative and inductive approach, the study will use in-depth elite interviews with 6 UK fashion brands (2 Luxury, 2 mid-market, 2 value) alongside content analysis of their platforms. This will enable the research to also consider how each platform can be harnessed at different levels of the market therefore contributing to the lack of empirical applied research in this area.

This paper integrates scholarly work and industry practices in fashion design, marketing, and consumer behavior as the basis for presenting six principles of fashion design and marketing for sustainability and social change. Criteria for effective marketing strategies are offered.

This study focuses on consumer knowledge which is one of the determinants of consumer behavior, referring to difference in consumer knowledge at each stage of the purchase decision making-process. Thus, for that reason, the consumer behavior specified by consumer knowledge is difference at each stage of purchase decision making-process.

In this research, the factors determining the purchase of a product that has been launched as the line extensions of different retail business formats are clarified not only through the purchases of competitor brands, but also through the views of the webpage of the parent brand.Research on the evaluation of line extensions has clarified such relationships as the success or failure of an extension brand and the strength of the parent brand (Reddy et al., 1994), trial and repeat purchases of the extension brand and purchase frequencies of the parent brand (Kim and Sullivan, 1998), the cannibalization of the parent brand by the extension brand (Lomax and McWilliam, 2001), and the interdependence of the extension brand and the parent brand (Sinapuelas et al., 2010). Previous analyses of the factors determining a line extension and their evaluations assumed that consumer purchasing behavior took place within the same retail business format and within a store; as a result, these analyses focused on consumer purchase history data. In this research, in addition to data on the purchase histories of consumers, an attempt was made to ascertain the factors determining a line extension for the horizontal actions of consumers across different retail business formats and stores by applying single-source data, supplemented by data on the access histories of targeted consumer webpages. Specifically, with the specialty coffee shops of Tully’s Coffee (subsequently, TS) and Starbucks Coffee (subsequently, SB) as subjects of the analysis, a binominal logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the question of whether the purchase or non-purchase of products that these shops launched for convenience stores could be explained by the types of views of the webpages of each of the coffee shops that became the parent brands. The analysis employed single-source data on purchase histories and webpage access histories within i-SSP (Intage Single Source Panel), provided by Intage Inc. The investigation period was the 10 months, from October 2012 to July 2013. As a result of this analysis, the following were established: (1) For both TS and SB, purchases of the extension brands could not be promoted only from the views of the webpage of the extension brands; (2) for both TS and SB, the views of the product webpages of the parent brands promoted purchases of the extension brands; and (3) for SB only, the views of its shop webpage promoted purchases of its extension brand. These are findings that cannot be established using only data on either consumer purchase histories or webpage-access histories. In an analysis of a line extension, they can be ascertained only from webpage access that is related to the parent brand from the direction ascertained for past purchases of competitor products.

This study examined differences in brand attitude bases between Japanese and Americans. ‘Pride’ was a universal predictor of brand attitudes among both Japanese and American participants. However, Japanese consumers strongly emphasized ‘emotional attachment’, whereas Americans’ brand attitudes mostly derived from product functionality. The reason was discussed in light of Cultural-psychology.

Consumer decision making and behaviour happen largely under the radar of the conscious mind. In order to market brands and products effectively, the limbic system in the brain holds many clues as to how to segment consumers and increase impact with key target groups.