Create, develop, maintain and nurturing the passengers-airline relationships is crucial in a very competitive market in Europe. Relationship quality and behavioural intentions to fly again in the same airline carrier and recommend to others are core outcomes which may result from a favourable travel experience over time. However, the complexity and the multidimensional phenomenon lead us to develop a holistic framework, which posits that relationship quality and behavioural intentions do not depend on individual air-flight attributes and other individual demographicpsychological variables but on specific configurations of such attributes and variables. Thus, the framework of this study is investigated using qualitative comparative analysis and a sample of 304 passengers. Accordingly, the property space consists of all combinations of binary states, that is, presence or absence, of the 7 in-flight attributes (air quality, temperature, odour, noise, crew, layout and equipment/amenities), frequency of fly in an airline carrier, the type of airline carrier and demographic-psychological variables (age, gender, mindful) (that is, 212 combinations or configurations). Data from both Portuguese and non-Portuguese passengers, who have air travel experiences through Europe in both low cost carriers and legacy airlines (also called traditional or flag airlines) are used to test the hypotheses. The Lisbon airport agreed in helping to conduct the survey during October 2015. Research Question: Which configurations of in-flight attributes, demographicpsychological variables, frequency of fly in an airline carrier and type of airline carrier lead to relationship quality and behavioural intentions? The findings of the current study highlight the importance of coaligning the multiple attributes of air-flight attributes and other individual demographic-psychological variables, also including the frequency of fly in an airline carrier and type of airline carrier, for increasing relationship quality and behavioural intentions. Here the findings point out that complexity theory and QCA are useful tools for understand that simple antecedent conditions relate to an outcome condition of interest positively, negatively, and not at all, which of these three relationships occur depends on the observed complex antecedent conditions in which the simple antecedent conditions occur. Positive outcome (relationship quality or behavioural intention) is not the mirror opposite of negative outcome. By employing QCA, airline managers in Europe can identify whether and under what circumstances individual attributes and other variables will increase (or decrease) the relationship quality and behavioural intentions. QCA can also help managers uncover alternative ways for combining the attributes in order to induce behavioural intentions. Overall it is possible to see that crew and equipment & amenities, particularly for mindful passengers, emerge in several configurations as essential elements for the four outcomes: satisfaction, trust, affective commitment and behavioural intentions. For passengers not affectively committed to an airline, satisfaction plays an important role in their behavioural intention to fly again in the same airline carrier and recommend it to others. The combination of trust and affective commitment may also generate the intention to fly again in the same airline carrier and recommend it to others, particularly for mindful passengers. The findings contribute to managerial practices by providing new insights for improving the in-flight service provide and process. The findings also contribute to theoretical advancing of how passengers’ in-flight evaluations and their experience with an airline relate to their assessments of relationship quality and behavioural intentions.

The target of this paper is to introduce a general brand experience measurement scale that can be used to measure brand experiences of the stakeholders of a company. It is proposed that also stakeholders’ brand experiences can be measured with a measurement scale developed for consumer marketing research. In literature, there are various different kinds of individual brand constructs and measurement frameworks that have been developed for tracking consumers’ brand perceptions; however, these models have not been frequently used to measure brandrelated aspects outside consumer-centric situations. The tracking of stakeholders’ brand experiences can help companies to position their brands better in the tightening global competition where also stakeholders have a critical role and can influence the performance of the company (Hult, Mena, Ferrell, & Ferrell, 2011). Brands are experienced via stimuli that can be either controlled by the company, including, for example, advertisements, logos, sales environments, sales packages, and services, or then they are out of their control, for example, brand related information can spread freely on the social media or by word-of-mouth (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009; Keller, 2013). Thus, it can be said that the measurement of brand experiences can give valuable information to the company on what is the status and reputation of the brand. However, it is not only the customers or consumers that have brand experiences, also stakeholders encounter brands and the way they experience them on the personal level can have a major impact on how they interact and promote the brand in other contexts. Some B2B marketing theories have brought up the importance of understanding long-term relationships between buyers and sellers, including experiences associated with the relationship (Hadjikhani & LaPlaca, 2013) as well as purchase risks (Brown, Zablah, Bellenger, & Johnston, 2011). Brands are experienced via stimuli that can be either controlled by the company, including, for example, advertisements, logos, sales environments, sales packages, and services, or then they are out of their control, for example, brand related information can spread freely on the social media or by word-of-mouth (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009; Keller, 2013). Thus, it can be said that the measurement of brand experiences can give valuable information to the company on what is the status and reputation of the brand. However, it is not only the customers or consumers that have brand experiences, also stakeholders encounter brands and the way they experience them on the personal level can have a major impact on how they interact and promote the brand in other contexts. Some B2B marketing theories have brought up the importance of understanding long-term relationships between buyers and sellers, including experiences associated with the relationship (Hadjikhani & LaPlaca, 2013) as well as purchase risks (Brown, Zablah, Bellenger, & Johnston, 2011). Brand experiences can be measured, for example, with a measurement scale (Brakus et al., 2009) that has been extended with an eco-friendliness dimension (Saari, 2016). This model has been tested with consumers, and this paper argues that the same scale can be useful for monitoring the brand experiences of other stakeholders as well. The extended brand experience scale can be used to monitor whether consumers and stakeholders experience a certain brand to be ecofriendly, and how positively or negatively they are inclined towards the eco-friendliness of the brand experiences. With the raising focus on stakeholders’ important role in solving environmental problems, the role of stakeholder marketing becomes more critical for a company (Homburg, Stierl, & Bornemann, 2013). And in this situation it becomes also more crucial to follow up what are the brand experiences of stakeholders. The stakeholders’ brand experiences can give a strong indication is the company implementing its strategy correctly and are all the essential elements transparently and authentically communicated to the stakeholders, especially with regard to the environmental development activities that are reflected in the eco-friendliness dimension of brand experiences.

Although there has been much conceptual evidence of the positive link between customer equity and firm’s performance, comparison of relationships between two firms based on customer equity and firm profitability is limited. However, there is an increasing demand for research that investigates the relationship between firms in the competitive market structure. Therefore, the goal of this research is to examine the role of customer equity on firm profitability by comparing two firms, in a customer equity setting. The result shows that the effect of newly acquired CE of the second top company is stronger than that of the top company while the effect of retained CE of the top company is stronger than that of the second top company. Overall, the results offer strategic implications for firms to implement a different customer equity strategy in this competitive market structure.

The Internet is considered as a competitive marketing instrument in advancing business-related information and real-time transaction opportunities (Kumar, 2013). Several brand managers are questioning whether the existent marketing approaches to position their brands, with the purpose to operate in a traditional and online setting, may be enhanced (Liu, 2012). The Internet is recognized as an influential instrument that has changed the manner brands conduct business and the way consumers and businesses interact (Boyland et al., 2013). The distinctive value that the Internet offers over conventional media is the capacity to interact with consumers. This permits practitioners to adjust their presentation to adapt specific consumers’ needs. Contrary to other forms of media, the Internet assists companies to create long-term relationships with its consumers as it allows a distinctive reciprocal communication. This reciprocal communication that distinguishes the latest marketing channels from conventional media is website interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). a mechanized environment the same way as a company does in a traditional environment. It includes communicating with consumers directly, generating an exclusive and individual interaction with them. As a central aspect in technology-mediated communication, Website interactivity has been identified as a critical component to create strong brands (Voorveld et al., 2013). Regardless of the significance of Website interactivity, very limited research was identified in the branding and marketing literature that investigate the influential role of interactivity on brand equity. To this date very few researchers have devoted efforts to investigate the influential impact of Website interactivity on branding constructs. Therefore, this study closes this gap with the conceptualization and the impact of the two dimensions of Website interactivity namely social interactivity and system interactivity on brand equity. Additionally, another contribution is to examine the mediating effect of brand image and brand awareness in the formation of brand equity in the online environment. The study propose a theory-based model of Website interactivity as a precursor to build online brand equity and to examine the relationships among Website interactivity, bran image, brand awareness, and brand equity in the context of branded Websites. Leaning on the fundamentals of branding literature and the Website interactivity theory, a theoretical framework is designed and seven hypotheses are examined. A two-phase analysis is considered, first a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and then a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the dimensions of Website interactivity impact significantly on the brand awareness and brand image which in turn influence online brand equity. As today limited research has been focused on studying the impact of Website interactivity as a branding instrument. In this study, the authors consider Website interactivity to be the interaction between Websites and individuals. In this sense, Website interactivity is viewed as an essential high-tech capability for building brands (Voorveld et al., 2013) as it allows a reciprocal communication with the system and other users. Current literature indicates that for a more real illustration of the dual dimensions of Website interactivity, studies devote user control as an expression of system interactivity and two-way communication as an expression of social interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). Two-way communication (social interactivity) refers to reciprocal communication between individuals. The dimension is perceived as the interaction between the users and the system (e.g. Website) (e.g. through e-mail, chat or toll-free telephone access to customer service, etc.). The user control (system interactivity) perspective is more concerned with the ability of the user to select content and guide the interaction (Lowry et al., 2006). User control is manifested when individuals are granted the opportunity to select the content and influence the communication. For instance, Web users may feel themselves as possessing user control because they have the capacity to select without restrictions (through an internal search engine).

Cross-buying refers to the customer action of buying additional products and/or services from the same provider (Valentin 2004). With the belief that cross-buying enables firms to increase profit from existing customers, firms have steadily placed greater emphasis on cross-selling strategies for profitability. To date, numerous studies show that cross-buying behavior of customers has a positive effect on firm profitability. Business reality, however, offers a different perspective; namely, that high levels of cross-buying may not always be linked to firm profitability. For example, Best Buy (an electronics retailer in the United States) has identified approximately 20% of its customers as unprofitable in spite of them purchasing multiple items (McWilliams 2004). Shah, Kumar, Qu, and Chen (2012) found that customers who persistently exhibit certain types of behavior (e.g., excessive service requests, high levels of returning products, lower levels of revenue growth, promotion maximizers) are unprofitable even though they purchased more than one product category.The aforementioned research implies that cross-buying can exert a negative impact on profitability, thereby calling for further examination of cross-buying behavior. It is conceivable that a repeated purchase propensity (contrasted with a cross-buying propensity) concentrated on a single brand is more profitable. Therefore, our primary objective in this paper is to identify a more beneficial type of customer among those who tend to patronize a limited number of brands versus those who tend to patronize a variety of brands, using a one-dimensional model (brand dispersion index). In addition, the second goal of this research is to investigate the boundary conditions where cross-buying will not lead to an increase in sales (unprofitable cross-buying conditions). As two moderating factors that weaken a customer’s crossbuying propensity and a firm’s sales (frequency and transaction size of firms), we consider (1) promotion dependency and (2) spending limiter condition. We use transaction data that include partners in various industries such as gasoline stations, convenience stores, banks, restaurants, and online shopping malls, covering forty-seven categories. Because multiple partners in many categories are available, this allows us to study whether a customer’s cross-buying level in the current period (t) affects the customer’s purchase frequency and transaction size in the subsequent period (t+1). The observation period for the data set extends over three years. Findings from this study indicate that a high level of cross-buying at period t has a positive impact on increasing customer frequencies and transaction sizes in the subsequent (t+1) period. This means that cross-buying has the potential to increase the firm’s profitability. Customers who show a high level of cross-buying propensity tend to exhibit higher levels of loyalty than customers who concentrated on limited brands. Firms should find ways to induce customers with low cross-buying propensity to increase crossbuying. Regarding moderating effects, promotion dependency and spending growth (decline vs. stagnation), spending growth has a considerable moderating effect on the relationship between cross-buying propensity and a customer’s transaction size. Specifically, the effect of cross-buying on transaction size weakens when spending is shrinking. This result makes an important contribution to cross-buying research. If customers showing a high level of cross-buying do not increase their spending level, they may be merely switching to other brands in the program under a fixed budget. So while the rate of crossbuying seems to increase, profit might not increase. The findings from this study imply that it is crucial to target and motivate customers who tend to use various brands and contribute to sales to do more cross-buying instead of suggesting cross-buying to random customers. The promotion dependency, however, turns out to not have significant moderating effects on the relationship between the customer’s propensity to cross-buying and the customer’s purchase frequency and transaction size. For marketing purposes, it is important to consider which customers are more profitable among those who tend to do cross-buying among multi-brands versus those who tend to purchase repeatedly in a limited number of brands. This research provides a solution with a one-dimensional index, the brand dispersion index. Whether cross-buying is shown to be a positive or negative impact on sales, the results are meaningful in implementing customer relationship management. Regardless of the direction in the level of crossbuying, both directions provide a solution to allocate marketing resources. For instance, if the propensity for cross-buying increases sales, the firm should implement marketing strategies to encourage people to use a variety of brands by adding new brands. If repeat purchases increase sales, the company should concentrate on certain brands that customers use most frequently. In addition, by finding the conditions that do not increase sales (e.g., spending limiter condition), it makes marketing practitioners think that cross-buying does not always bring positive results. Overall, the findings from this study are that it is crucial to motivate and target customers who tend to use various brands and contribute to sales to do crossbuying activity, instead of promoting cross-buying to random customers. Conceptual Framework Figure 1 provides an overview of our framework for the relationship between brand dispersion and visiting frequency and transaction size of customers. Specifically, we hypothesize how customer frequencies and transaction sizes in time t+1 will be influenced by customer brand dispersion levels (the extent that customer transactions occur across a broad range of brands) in time t. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of two customer specific variables: (1) degree of promotion dependency and (2) spending limits.

To the extent that luxury products and services become more easily accessible, luxury brand marketers must make luxury even more exclusive by making the consumer feel special and unique. Art lends itself willingly to this mission, because its accessibility is complex and its comprehensibility difficult. From an in-depth analysis of the practices of the major worldwide brands in the luxury industry we identified that four main types of collaboration between a luxury brand and art exist, which are Business collaboration, Patronage, Foundations and Artistic mentoring. The underlying mechanisms of these modes of connection between art and luxury brands are presented. A model is presented which allows assessing the relevance of each of the ‘art to luxury brand’ binding modes, in accordance with the brand time perspective and the intensity of its engagement.

City branding is a strategic instrument to publicize a city’s competitive advantages by highlighting distinctive characteristics of the city. This study uses cinema as a discursive lens to examine city branding and explicates a framework for implementing city branding through cinema. An analysis of 81 Hong Kong films produced between 2008 and 2015 reveal the modalities by which city officials and media producers affect a city brand that distinguishes Hong Kong from other East Asian cities. Specifically, Hong Kong filmmakers 1) use local color as backdrops for stories, 2) emphasize freedom of expression, 3) highlight regional localities, and 4) claim historical figures associated with the city. The findings reflect strategic attempts by Hong Kong city officials and media producers to negotiate the city’s postcolonial identity, even two decades after Hong Kong’s reunification with China. The results suggest that Hong Kong uses cinemamediated city branding as a form of subversive resistance to China. More broadly, the implementation framework could be deployed by other emergent cities (e.g. Dubai), which are looking to increase their profile and cultural footprint in the global stage through creative markets.

Design innovation is acquiring greater importance as consumers’ emotional needs grow ever greater and the cycle of technological innovation grows ever faster. Apple in particular led and strengthened this trend, achieving incomparable business success in the technology-driven electronics industry. However, although the importance of design innovation has increased, very little research has been done to explain the influence of design innovation on business success. This study aims to investigate the influence of design innovation attributes on perceptions, attitudes, and purchase intentions among designers and consumers. 408 designers and 464 consumers participated in an online survey that presented as stimuli four different smart watches. Design innovation attributes were evaluated based on the criteria of features, aesthetics, and ergonomics; consumer-perceived values were categorized as emotional, social, and functional. Regarding consumers attitudes, attitude toward product and attitude toward brand were measured separately. Overall results indicate that purchase intention among designers and consumers alike is influenced by their attitude toward product as well as brand. However, in the case of designers, these attitudes are most influenced by emotional value, while consumers are influenced by emotional as well as social values. Moreover, all three innovation attributes - namely, features, aesthetics, and ergonomics - affect designers’ perception of emotional value, but only aesthetics and ergonomics affect consumers’ emotional and social value. The study demonstrates three significant differences in the responses of designers and consumers. First, there is correlation of aesthetics and ergonomics to functional (price) value among designers, but not consumers. Second, there is correlation of functional (quality) value to attitudes toward product and brand for consumers, but much less or none at all for designers. Third, the influence of features on perception of emotional value is more pronounced among designers as compared to consumers. In conclusion, aesthetics and ergonomics are important design innovation attributes for consumers as well as designers, but the latter also attach significance to features. While perception of emotional as well as social value is important to consumers, designers consider only emotional value. It is anticipated that the relative importance of design innovation attributes will vary according to product categories and price ranges; therefore, further comparative studies will be meaningful in investigation of design innovation.

This research was conducted in simulated art scenarios to explore the effects of three treatment variations of music on the visualization of art (not only its presence/absence was tested, but also its fast/slow perceived rhythm) and it employed a sample of 234 potential art consumers. Findings suggest that music is not able of enhancing the art experience. Actually, the study found empirical evidences of its negative influence on consumers’ emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses.

This research aims at analyzing the role of digital technologies for communication in the personalization of cultural heritage visitors’ experience and the potential of such technologies in valorizing cultural heritage sites. In order to explore such a phenomenon through a pilot study, a conceptual framework has been developed in the attempt to better conceptualize the modern notion of digital cultural heritage. The theoretical foundations are experiential marketing (Schmitt, 1999), authenticity in visitors’ experience (Neuhofer et al., 2014), and engineering studies on successful application of technologies in cultural heritage sites (Sparacino, 2004). From the proposed conceptual framework some relevant insights have emerged. In particular, main findings deal with digital technologies being characterized by three particular kinds of artificial intelligence, namely (a) perceptive intelligence, (b) interactive intelligence, and (c) narrative intelligence. Specifically, perceptive intelligence allows a digital technology to seize visitors’ movements inside the museum (Barrera et al., 2013). Interactive intelligence is the kind of intelligence that permits a digital technology to elaborate visitors’ preferences (Sparacino, 2004). Narrative intelligence, finally, enables a digital technology to communicate with visitors (Karaman et al., 2014). Technologies with such features, then, may potentially stimulate positive feelings and emotions in visitors. Particularly, the storytelling of digital personalization of cultural heritage sites can effectively personalize visitors’ experience and uplifts the visit toward an authentic and unique experience (Frow and Payne, 2007; Sani, 2011). Since these technologies could help visitors in fully understanding their personal interests towards arts and cultural heritage, they can also act as instruments of cultural heritage sites promotion. Specifically, these technologies can suggest visitors’ successive cultural heritage sites and also stimulate visitors to suggests others to visit particular sites due to their positive experience (Sweeney et al., 2012).Finally, this study stresses the importance of digital technologies as instruments of experiential marketing by improving visitors’ experience. Moreover, digital technologies for cultural heritage may be interpreted as a key competitive advantage for cultural heritage sites. In particular, digital technologies may be interpreted as strategic levers in order to stimulate the diffusion of word-of-mouth marketing in cultural heritage.Finally, this study stresses the importance of digital technologies as instruments of experiential marketing by improving visitors’ experience. Moreover, digital technologies for cultural heritage may be interpreted as a key competitive advantage for cultural heritage sites. In particular, digital technologies may be interpreted as strategic levers in order to stimulate the diffusion of word-of-mouth marketing in cultural heritage.

This research was conducted in order to examine the reverse effect of brand loyalty on the emotional attachment to the place-of-origin. Results indicate that consumers that are highly loyal to a brand tend to be more emotionally attached to the place-of-origin; the effect is mediated by affective place image. Affective place image also partially mediates the brand loyalty–place attachment relationship in cases when the brand is authentic in the place. Human beings tend to extend their affect towards one object based on another object related to the first one. Building on this notion researchers have been trying to understand two related concepts—a place, and a brand originating from that place. In this endeavor, one literature stream has been focusing on place-based branding from the perspective of international marketing, including work on country-of-origin (COO) or product-country image (Baldauf et al., 2009; Hong & Wyer Jr, 1989). Another stream focusing on place branding adapts traditional marketing theory to market a place (Kotler 2002), and focuses on destination image (Bramwell & Rawding, 1996; Lee & Lockshin, 2012; Qu, Kim & Im, 2011), and place attachment (Gross & Brown 2006). Notwithstanding the above, there is a dearth of research combining these two aforementioned streams. One of few exceptions is Lee and Lockshin (2014), who explored the reverse COO effect of product perceptions on destination image. However, they focused on consumers’ cognitive beliefs and, thus, the underlying mechanism of the relationship is yet to be examined. Hence, the current research aims to answer the following questions: can brand loyalty be leveraged to consumers’ relationship with the place-of-origin as a tourism destination? And, if so, what is the mechanism underlying the effect? We present a global survey with consumers of place-based wine brands as a means to understand whether consumers’ loyalty to a brand will influence their emotional attachment to the place where the wine brand origins. A moderated mediation model is proposed. Affective destination image mediates the positive effect of brand loyalty on place attachment, which is positively moderated by authenticity of the brand-place associations. The study contributes to the tourisms marketing field by identifying the emotional linkage between brand loyalty and place attachment. It serves as a starting point for further investigation of how company or product branding could benefit place marketing and branding theory. Affective components are suggested to play a vital role in the relationships between a place and a brand. It further enriches understanding of the role of brand authenticity. Place marketers need to understand the role of brand loyalty in the decision-making process of tourism consumption.

The past decades showed an increase in the number of meals consumed away from home. Restaurants could therefore play a pivotal role in improve diet quality by offering healthier food on their menus (Glanz and Hoelscher, 2004). One of the instruments that restaurants can use to increase healthier food intake is by making use of portion size. When people are served larger portions, they eat more (Steenhuis & Vermeer, 2009). In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of increased portion sizes of vegetables and lower portion sizes of meat (or fish) in a restaurant setting. Three restaurant locations from a restaurant chain in the Netherlands were selected for a field experiment. A cross-over design was used in which each restaurant was randomly assigned to a sequence of two conditions (i.e., intervention and control condition). In the intervention period, portion sizes of vegetables on plates were doubled (150 grams versus 75 grams) and portion sizes of meat and fish were cut on average with 12.5%. Consumption was calculated by subtracting the residues from the plates from the average served amount. Additionally, p3rticipants received a questionnaire in which a number of questions were asked, i.a., about their satisfaction with the meal and restaurant. In total, 536 participants in the control condition and 470 participants in the experimental condition were obtained. Vegetable consumption was higher in intervention weeks (M = 115.5 grams) than in control weeks (M = 61.7 grams; p < .001). Meat consumption was lower in intervention weeks (M = 183.1 grams) as compared to control weeks (M = 211.1 grams; p < .001). Finally, satisfaction with the restaurant visit did not differ between intervention weeks (M = 4.27) and control weeks (M = 4.35; p > .05). The results are robust given that we found the same effects across the three restaurants. An important implication of this study is that portion sizes could indeed be used as an effective instrument in stimulating healthy consumption behavior without affecting customer’s satisfaction.

The rapid growth of the Chinese tourism has stimulated competition within tourismrelated industries, such as the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese consumer reaction to different promotional tools used by hotels in China and, thus, to provide a deeper understanding for marketers of how to use sales promotion effectively to generate appropriate consumer responses. An experimental survey was administered yielding a total sample of 319 Chinese customers, who were probed using different types of sales promotion tools. Data analysis indicates that bonus packs (e.g. a 3-night stay at a hotel for the price of 2) induced the highest consumer perceived value, brand switching, and purchase acceleration intention, whereas price discounts resulted in the highest intention to spend more. Although this study has its limitations given its reliance on a convenience sample, it offers insightful practical implications for hotel business owners in Asia regarding targeting the right customers with the right promotional tools, where it is proposed that bonus packs successfully attract new Chinese customers and price discounts support in generating more sales.

Medical tourism has becoming a topic of increase interest for both researchers and practitioners all around the world. The current article intends to propose a conceptual framework that presents antecedents and outcomes of consumers (patients) desires to undergo medical tourism practices, as well as moderators that can strengthen or weaken the established relationships. In the future the model should be tested in cross cultural context and so contribute to give more insights for researchers and mangers of medical tourism.

Social media as an online channel for sharing and participating can play an important role for many marketing activities. Social media can be especially influential in word of mouth (WOM) communication as the focus of it is the sharing of information regarding consumers’ product experiences. To use social media as a marketing tool, identifying the relationship between message sender and receiver (the strength of social tie) is important in the viral marketing campaign context. Also, the effects can be influenced by message type, and consumers’ situational context. Therefore, the study examines the consumers’ intention to share advertising message with others in social media focusing on the strength of social ties (strong vs. weak tie) between message receivers and senders. The authors hypothesize that participants’ intention for sharing will be higher for the message recipients of strong tie than of weak tie. Especially, the sharing intention, for strong tie than for weak tie, will be higher when there is a match between message type (visual vs. text) and consumers’ purchasing context (close vs. far distance). The study used 2(temporal distance: close vs. distant) x 2(message type: text vs. picture) x 2 (close friends, vs. general public) design with the first two factors as between –subject factors and the last factor as a within-subject factor. A total of 107 student subjects participated in an experiment. They were recruited from a private university, in Seoul, in exchange for extra credit. The participants’ average age was 22 (SD=2.72) and 58 percent of them were males.

China has been the biggest factory in the world, most of products are marked “made in China”. With the rapid grows of consumption in China, it is also the biggest market. However, Chinese consumers with deep-rooted Confucian value system may different from Western countries (Ramasamy & Yeung, 2009). Do they still have strong consumer ethnocentrism? Or they can accept all the things they made but with the foreign brands? The power of WOM to influence customer attitude toward one brand is well known to all the marketing researchers. But the fast development of internet and social media network changed consumers’ behavior, word-of-mouth has acquired electronic WOM (e-WOM) as a new name (Goyette et al, 2010). Customer use E-WOM to evaluate product and make purchase decision. Ethnocentric consumers are against foreign brands as they believe that purchasing these brands will hurt domestic economy and brands, cause loss of jobs and increase the power of capitalist companies and dependency of poorer economies to them (Kaynak & Eksi, 2013). But customers are will to searching the better products. Such as Chinese mainland consumers hire purchase agent to shopping aboard. The purchase agent post information in the social media network as eWOM. This research wants to explore the young Chinese still have high ethnocentric tendency or not influenced by eWOM. If E-WOM can be a marketing method to reduce the ethnocentrism when foreign brands entry a new country. And also the domestic brands can use E-WOM to enhance ethnocentrism to against foreign brands. In this research, study 1 tests positive E-WOM or negative E-WOM to test if it can enhance Chinese consumers’ ethnocentrism or reduce their ethnocentrism for their own country products. This research also tests if consumer ethnocentrism can influence on brand equity and purchase intention. Based on the literature review, researchers establish concept model was shown in Table 1. This study uses SPSS and AMOS to analysis the sample. Based on the results this research gives suggestions to both academic and practice.

World Advertising Research Center forecasts that internet advertising will overtake on TV advertising in 2016. The internet will become the largest advertising platform. The form of advertising is continually changing as time changes and technological progress, but the essence of advertising which widely inform information needs have never changed. With declining of advertising credibility, more and more young people prefer to get product information from friends or virtual friends online. Providing a good opportunity for enterprises to employ e-WOM when they making the marketing strategy. Prior to the initiation of new marketing activities, the majority of companies make great efforts to figure out a means of collecting all-round information on overseas target markets and global consumers for the purpose of strengthening competitiveness and then further increasing market share and enterprise benefits. The concept of customer equity has been introduced as a tool to continuously secure customers and create profits in the future. Globalization trends have attached great importance to altering the structure of the fashion industry. In particular, with expectation of conducting innovative marketing, companies engaged in SPA brands are gradually developed into global companies. Furthermore, corporate profitability is very sensitive to consumers’ attitudinal changes due to the short trend cycle of SPA brands. Most of our behaviors are predicated on the attitudes and behaviors of the others. The influence of loyal customers may turn potential customers into loyal customer owing to high customer equity. That is to say, companies may obtain more profits through higher customer equity. The study aims to explore the relationships among social influence, social learning, e-WOM and customer equity. The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, the study elaborates on the relationships among social influence, social learning, e-WOM and customer equity. Second, by comparing the economic and cultural differences between South Korea and China, the study found the social influence has a positive influence on customer equity in different ways between the two countries.