With the advent of the Internet in the United States, Japan, and other developed countries, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) consumer reviews have come into vogue. While most studies have shown that negative e-WOM has negative effects on consumer attitude, some recent studies implied that the existence of negative e-WOM on a single website can enhance consumer attitude toward the website. However, no research has not identified the conditions for the positive effects of negative e-WOM. Thus, we investigate the moderating effects of the types of receivers, reviews, and products. Also, we investigate the moderating effects of the order of positive and negative e-WOM reviews posted in a single website. The effects of four factors are investigated —product characteristic (utilitarian vs. hedonic), review characteristic (attribute- vs. benefit-centric), receiver characteristic (expert vs. novice), and the orders of negative e-WOM (top vs. bottom) when the ratios of positive to negative e-WOM reviews are 10:0, 8:2, and 6:4. A laboratory experiment with virtual e-WOM sites is utilized. Four hundred twenty students participate in the experiment. All hypotheses are supported in at least 5% levels. The results of ANOVA show that negative e-WOM has positive effects on consumer attitudes towards products in the case of hedonic products and expert consumers reading attribute-centric review. Moreover, negative e-WOM has a greater positive effect when it is at the top of the website as opposed to at the bottom. This study contributes to our current understanding of e-WOM effects on consumer behavior.

A firm’s new product success is mainly determined by how well it is accepted by the mass in a short time. Although companies have been adopting various marketing methods, word-of-mouth [WOM] has been regarded as one of the most effective means for customer acquisition (Villanueva, Yoo & Hanssens, 2008), primarily due to its reliability, social support, and support by social pressure and surveillance as Arndt (1967) has suggested (as cited in Woodside and Delozier, 1976). Moreover, online word-of-mouth is being given new significance alongside the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other online channels (Berger and Iyengar, 2013; Dellarocase, 2003; Schafer & Taddicken, 2015). For this reason, researchers have paid a close attention to opinion leaders, who are not only early adopters of innovation themselves (Goldsmith & Witt, 2003), but also information transmitters and influencers (Vernette, 2004). Therefore, this study aims to identify both online and offline opinion leaders, who could adopt new products first, and diffuse the adoption of new products to others. Thus, this study draws upon the innovation diffusion theory conceptualized by Rogers (1995). According to Rogers (1995), innovation is defined as an individual’s or an organization’s perception of an idea as new. In addition, he articulates that if an innovation is transferred through certain communication channels over time within a social system by its members, diffusion occurs (Rogers, 1995; Rogers, 2002). The main purpose of this paper is to examine the intermediary role of opinion leadership as a quintessential link between consumer characteristics (consumer innovativeness and lifestyle and values) and new product adoption behavior. The research data is collected through survey, which is conducted by distributing questionnaires to a group of users of Apple Watch by Apple, Mi band by Xiaomi, and the products by Fitbit. The model of the study will be tested through structural equation modeling approach. In particular, this paper considers not only regular opinion leadership in offline context, but also online opinion leadership in order to go with the tide of the developing online world. Moreover, this study selects wearable technology as a new product category, which makes the overall research highly fashion-oriented. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of involvement of product category on the relationship between lifestyles and values and opinion leadership. The author anticipates that fashion innovativeness and four lifestyle and values factors (sense of accomplishment, self-fulfillment, excitement, and fun and enjoyment) will positively affect online and offline opinion leaderships, which again will have a positive influence on new product adoption behavior. Moreover, this study predicts that the correlation between lifestyles and values and involvement of product category will have a positive influence on online and offline opinion leaderships and new product adoption behavior. This study may contribute both to the academia and to the managers within businesses that deal with wearable devices. Theoretically, this study is of particular value in that it adopts consumers’ lifestyles and values as predictors of opinion leadership and new product adoption behavior, which is an uncommon approach within existing research streams regarding opinion leadership and new product acquisition. In managerial terms, by revealing the significant relationships between the consumer characteristics and both offline and online opinion leaderships who are the potential customers of new products, this study enables the managers to identify their targets and differentiate their marketing strategies considering the different characteristics of consumers in offline and online environments. In particular, since this study adopted several wearable technologies as new products, businesses that deal with wearable devices may pay close attention to the results of this study and manipulate their marketing strategies in adequate terms.

The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of guilt-decreasing appeals in reducing anticipated guilt toward a luxury vacation and not comprising happiness across two cultures with different values. The results have practical implications for designing global advertising strategies and execution using this emotional appeal.

In 2015, the movie “Northern Limit Line” which based on the naval battle of South and North Korea occurred in 2002 was premiered (Los Angeles Times, 2016). This movie made a significant contribution to improve the image of the R.O.K Navy. Brand Placement (BPL) was used to promote the R.O.K Navy in this movie (Karrh, 1994; Van Reijmersdal, Neijens & Smit, 2007). The R.O.K. Navy is trying to build powerful naval forces with the slogan called “The Ocean Navy”. It is essential to acquire the elite military forces who can help the Korean Navy to accomplish its strategic goal and heighten the competitiveness. The acquired elite military forces are expected to demonstrate their own ability while they serve the R.O.K. Navy. They will have positive influences to the local communities as the supporters of the R.O.K. Navy after they are discharged. This research analyzed BPL effect in terms the recruitment of workforce. This research identified the relationship among BPL, organization image, organization reputation, employment brand equity and intention to pursue job opportunity in R.O.K Navy. In previous researches, the effect of image can be applied to corporate brands, product, individual brands, geographical areas, events and people (Balmer, 1997). The image of organization can remind people of the particular organization (Cable & Yu, 2006). The reputation is a dynamic interaction construct with the image, and defined as a subjective judgment based on the reliability and integrity about the organization in long term (Clardy, 2012). Employment brand equity is defined as outcome of applicant’s decision choices attributable to job seeker’s beliefs about the organization as employer(Han & Collins, 2002). Marketing literatures on employment brand equity can be useful in helping to understand how job seeker develops beliefs about organization as employer. Although many researches studied BPL, organization image and reputation, employment brand equity, etc., little researches have been conducted to integrate the variables mentioned above in public sector such as the military forces. Samples of this research consist of people who watched the movie called “Northern Limit Line”. SPSS and AMOS package programs are employed to analyze the data. Marketing strategy for a public sector such as Korean Navy based upon the results of the findings from this study is expected to position Korean Navy as more efficient and effective organization to recruit better quality human resources.

This conceptual essay introduces disciplined vision casting (DVC) as a new method for exploring possible futures. Drawing on scenario planning, introspection, and creative writing, DVC casts a set of future scenarios, based on a combination of guiding uncertainties found in the literature. Marketing scholars stand to benefit from leveraging DVC as it provides them with a laboratory for exploring undiscovered contexts and circumstances which may challenge widely-held beliefs. As such, this novel method of projecting into the future offers the field a stimulus for theory discovery and enrichment and a low-cost and readily-implementable method of foreseeing potential future events.

This study focuses on the effectiveness of two commercial stimuli: displays and advertising flyers. While displays work within the point of sale and trigger a more immediate and impulsive purchase decision, advertising flyers work out of the point of sale and, therefore, favor a more reasoned purchase decision. It is used the cue utilization theory that distinguish two dimensions for perceived quality, extrinsic quality (linked to the brand) and intrinsic quality (related with internal product characteristics), in order to analyze the role of quality perception in determining the effectiveness of both commercial incentives for selling products that induce high purchase involvement and perceived risk. The empirical analysis focuses on computer products sold by one of Europe’s largest computer retailers and, combines scanner, observational and survey data. The results show that both dimensions of quality perceptions moderate the influence of displays and advertising flyers on sales, but their impact differ on each commercial stimuli. Extrinsic quality perception increases to a greater extent the effect of displays which is linked to unplanned purchases. However, intrinsic quality perceptions improves to a greater extent the effect of advertising flyers, which encourage are related more closely to planned purchases.

In early 2015, L’Oréal’s luxury cosmetics brand LANCÔME launched a product called Miracle Cushion™, a sponge soaked in liquid foundation. By integrating a cosmetic formula with a sponge in a compact case, it distinguished itself from other conventional makeup products, e.g., liquid foundation in a glass bottle or pressed powder in a portable compact. On Lancôme’s website, Miracle Cushion™ is described as follows: “a foundation revolution has arrived – liquid makeup in a cushion.” LANCÔME’s “revolution” actually originated from AMOREPACIFIC, Korea’s number one beauty group which had a sales revenue of KRW 4.7 trillion (USD 3.9 billion) in 2014. By launching Air Cushion® in March 2008, AMOREPACIFIC created a new makeup product category called “cushion.” By July 2015, the total cumulative number of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion products sold in 13 countries was 63 million units. In 2014 alone, more than 26 million units were sold – one every 1.2 seconds. The sales revenue was KRW 641 billion (USD 542 million), which accounted for more than 13% of AMOREPACIFIC’s total revenue. AMOREPACIFIC launched Air Cushion® under IOPE, one of its premium brands. The company initially positioned Air Cushion® as sunscreen. Equipped with mass production facilities, AMOREPACIFIC sold 517,000 units of cushions in 2010, which accounted for KRW 14.5 billion (USD 12.2 million). Furthermore, the company started to automate the entire manufacturing process for cushions. With this automation, the sales revenue of Air Cushion® in 2011 reached KRW 33.6 billion (USD 28.4 million) - more than doubled compared to 2010. Obviously, it was a huge success for sunscreens under a single brand. From 2012, AMOREPACIFIC began to expand cushions for other in-house brands besides IOPE. Simultaneously, AMOREPACIFIC started to reposition cushion as makeup “foundation,” not “sunscreen.” HERA, AMOREPACIFIC’s luxury brand with a strong heritage in color makeup, took the initiative in repositioning cushion. This was also a strategic decision to diversify distribution channels: the main distribution channels of premium brands such as IOPE were Sephora-like specialty stores and discount stores whereas the primary distribution channels of luxury brands such as HERA were department stores and door-to-door networks. With HERA focused on domestic market expansion, LANEIGE, the most globalized brand of all in AMOREPACIFIC, pioneered the global market for cushions. Starting from its entry into Hong Kong and China in 2002, LANEIGE had already expanded its presence in more than 10 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Specifically, LANEIGE was perceived in most Asian countries as a cosmetics brand spearheading “K-Beauty” trends, part of the “Korean Wave” phenomenon. Thus, LANEIGE capitalized on its brand reputation accumulated over the years in the Asian market to expand cushions. LANEIGE designed a brand concept for its cushion as BB Cushion to make the most of the popularity of BB creams across Asia. In 2012, LANEIGE BB cushion was first launched in Singapore in January, followed by Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in March, and finally Taiwan in April, all prior to its release in Korea in May. Initially, it emphasized the brightening function to fulfill the demand for whitening products already popular throughout Asia. From 2013, LANEIGE started to offer a variety of product lines customized to different consumer needs from each country. For example, LANEIGE launched BB Cushion Pore Control for consumers in hot, humid areas of Southeast Asia and BB Cushion Anti-aging for consumers in extremely cold and dry areas of China. Starting with HERA and LANEIGE in 2012, AMOREPACIFIC continue to release cushions under other brands by stages - SULWHASOO, ETUDE HOUSE in 2013, and INNISFREE, MAMONDE in 2014, etc. Every cushion product launched under different brands was named “cushion.” For example, HERA UV Mist Cushion, LANEIGE BB Cushion, SULWHASOO Perfecting Cushion, ETUDE HOUSE Precious Mineral Any Cushion, INNISFREE Water Glow Cushion, MOMONDE Cover Powder Cushion, etc. With the consistent labeling, AMOREPACIFIC succeeded in categorical differentiation. Stimulated by the widespread popularity of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion foundations, competitors followed. Among local companies, LG Household and Healthcare was the first to enter into the cushion market in August 2012. Among the foreign brands, it was Lancôme. This paper is trying to understand how to achieve breakthrough innovation and create a new product category in the mature market such as cosmetics by analyzing the case of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion.

Although the internationalization decision making process amongst managers from developed nations has been extensively studied, this phenomenon has been sporadically explored among managers from newly opened and transition economies. Given the risks and commitment inherent in international market entry, a thorough understanding of the decision making process of managers in such dynamic markets becomes crucial in charting the firms’ future direction. Hence, drawing on concepts from cognitive science, this study aims to explore cognitive biases and mental models for international market entry decision making among managers from a transition economy, namely Myanmar. Myanmar is recognized as Asia’s last large economy to become globally linked. Myanmar has long posted a negative trade balance, with the import value nearly double that of exports. The country’s population of 54 million, its abundance of natural resources, and its economic integration in the fastest growing region of the world have attracted firms of global brands such as KFC and VISA, who strive to gain market access. After decades of military rule, Myanmar’s ‘open’ economy is dominated by state-run enterprises in heavy industries, with growing opportunities for the private sector to aid in the growth of the domestic market as well as to exploit foreign market opportunities. Scholars from a diverse range of disciplines have argued that elements of an organization’s international strategic abilities stem from managers’ cognitive processes that balance national, industry, organizational and functional issues (Prahalad & Doz, 1987). This study explores Myanmar decision-makers’ strategic cognition, which describes the information-filtering or sense-making process by which strategic issues are interpreted (Finkelstein, Hambrick & Cannella, 2009). The fact that management and marketing research in Myanmar contexts is virtually nonexistent, understanding the strategic decision making processes of managers in Myanmar is warranted, given the significant business opportunities for and within this country in transition. Strategic cognition describes the how cognitive structures relate to the decision process in terms of strategy formulation and implementation (Narayanan & Zane, 2011). Cognitive structures refer to the manager’s beliefs about the environment, the state of the organization, and the business portfolio. The strategic cognition perspective presumes that managers rely on their belief structures when undertaking a strategic decision task (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). According to Finkelstein et al. (2009), managers’ ability to deal with complex decisions is inhibited by cognitive biases as well as interpretive frames. Such biases, in part, influence which information is attended to and how it is interpreted. ‘Biases’ and ‘frames’ in decision making receive considerable attention in the strategic decision making literature because they often lead to committing decision errors. While there are a number of cognitive biases, our interest lies in framing bias (Kahneman & Tversky, 1984) because the interpretation of economic gains and losses are highly relevant for strategic decision making. Framing bias occurs when modifications in the way a decision problem is presented, focusing either on the potential gains or on the potential losses of alternatives, result in a change in the decision-makers’ initial preference, such as when a decision maker becomes risk-averse when gains are highlighted while becoming more risk-taking when losses are. Two propositions are tested in this study. First, if we assume that framing bias influences strategic decision making under complex and uncertain contexts, we should discover substantive differences in managers’ risk preferences. More specifically, differences should be found when managers are presented with alternative versions of elaborated problem scenarios that are the same in all aspects except for the fact that the alternatives have been systematically manipulated in terms of (1) the potential gains (positive presented version) or (2) the potential losses (negative presented version). Second, prior research reports that strategic cognition is influenced by personal characteristics (e.g. educational background) and values as well as organizational characteristics (e.g. firm size, firm age) (Finkelstein et al., 2009; Hambrick & Mason, 1984). With this in mind, we should observe significant differences in risk preferences between participants of different demographic and trait groups. This study implemented an experimental investigation into the potential framing and priming effects arising from a strategic marketing decision problem of whether to develop a new marketing plan to serve the home market or to commit marketing resources to the export market. The stimuli were adapted from those developed by Hodgkinson et al. (1999), which were crafted to solicit responses to a case scenario that described a convincing strategic investment decision encountered by a firm that provides innovative automotive vehicle fast paint-drying systems. This scenario was deemed appropriate for the Myanmar context given that the participants were familiar with automobiles and auto painting services. The scenario was moderately adapted to suit the Myanmar context, with a fictitious local firm, Yannawa Co., which was faced with domestic intensified competition and up-and-coming advanced technology product substitution. The case scenario was explained with about 260 words that describe Yannawa’s 10-year history, the domestic industry environment and Yannawa’s objective to achieve a profit of $3 million. A photo of a modern fast-drying automotive painting system was included in the stimuli. Participants were instructed to assume the role as one of Yannawa’s board of directors and were asked to choose one option between a ‘less-risky’ alternative (focus on the domestic market) with a higher likelihood of occurrence and a ‘riskier’ alternative (invest in overseas markets) that had two possible outcomes that had different likelihoods of occurrence. Framing effects were manipulated as positively and negatively worded versions. In the negatively framed version, participants had to choose between (A) developing a new marketing plan to serve its home market with a 100% chance this option will lead to profits of US$1 million below management’s targeted level or (B) committing its marketing to the export market overseas, with a 33% chance to reach the targeted level and a 66% chance to earn profits of US$3 million below management’s targeted level. In contrast, in the positively stated version, participants were asked to choose between (A) developing a new marketing plan to serve its home market with a 100% chance to earn profits of US$1 million or (B) committing to the export market with a 33% chance for profits of US$3 million and a 66% chance to make no profits at all. To control for potential priming effects, the presentation order of the alternatives varied, with the ‘less-risky’ higher likelihood of occurrence alternative presented first in the stimuli followed by the ‘riskier’ alternative, and vice versa in the other versions. Altogether, we developed four experimental conditions: positively versus negatively framed decision scenarios, with lower risk versus higher risk in alternate sequence. The research instrument also included items asking participant demographic characteristics. The decision task was also accompanied by a free-elicitation method to capture a mental model of the variables that the participant considered while making the decision. In other words, participants were asked in an open-ended question, “Please write in sequence the variables that you thought about while making your decision.” Unlike the stimuli of Hodgkinson et al. (1999), which provided a list of 18 variables, which participants could rely on to complete the cognitive mapping task, our free-elicitation method was deemed necessary in order to gain better insights to Myanmar managers’ thought processes. Both studies involved Myanmar professionals who were enrolled in a global MBA program being offered at campuses in Yangon and Mandalay where English is used as the medium of instruction. Study 1 comprised a sample of 118 students enrolled in the Marketing Management course, which is the first course taken in the program. The sample comprises 35 (29.7%) males and 83 (70.3%) females, with a majority (72%) within the age range of 22 to 31 years, and 62 (52.5%) with a Science education, 26 (22%) in Economics/Business and 21 (17.8%) in Arts/Language. A count of 46 (39.0%) occupy top/senior management positions, 36 (30.5%) are business owners, and the remaining 36 (30.5%) hold entry-level organization positions. Each participant was assigned randomly one of the four stimuli versions. The task was administered in class and participants were given 30 minutes to provide their responses. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings on a sample of 81 final semester MBA students in the same program. The sample composition of Study 2 is similar to that of Study 1. Data were analyzed using nonparametric approaches to test the significance of joint frequency distribution of cases. The statistical analyses indicate that the distribution of risk preferences are consistent in both Study 1 (i.e. participants new to the MBA program) and Study 2 (i.e. more experienced MBA students) (χ2 = 0.64, p = 0.27), which is similar to the findings of Bateman and Zeithaml (1989). Also, the risk preferences are consistent in both Yangon and Mandalay subgroups (χ2 = 0.00, p = 0.57). Thus, the data collected from both studies were pooled for further analyses. As for the control of priming effects, we find a significant difference in risk preferences (χ2 = 5.32, p = 0.04, 113 vs. 86), with a larger proportion of the second listed marketing alternative (i.e. more recent) being selected, irrespective of whether that alternative is higher-risk or lower-risk. With respect to a test of our first proposition of a framing effect, we found no support (χ2 = 0.32, p = 0.35) of a systematic association between framing and decision choice. The distribution of decisions shows that irrespective of whether the alternative was positively framed or negatively framed, a larger proportion of the participants chose to higher-risk alternative to focus on exporting. As for testing our second broad proposition that there would be significant risk preference differences between demographic groups in the sample, we found no support for sex (χ2 = 0.58, p = 0.27), age (χ2 = 0.29, p = 0.96), education background (χ2 = 2.40, p = 0.30), and no support for occupation (χ2 = 7.33, p = 0.11). The qualitative responses obtained from the free-elicitation section of the instrument, were analyzed by categorizing responses as either concrete, i.e. a greater focus on specific details (e.g. mention of numbers, such as ‘a 100% chance’, ‘a 33% chance’ and ‘$1 million below’, ‘profits of US$3 million’) or abstract, i.e. focus on the bigger picture (e.g. such as ‘more competition’, ‘threat of new products’). Based on this approach, we find that 138 (69.3%) of the participants began their mental model with an abstraction and 105 (52.8%) of those participants relied on a mental model that was entirely abstract, absent of specific details. In contrast, 33 (16.6) of the participants constructed mental models that were completely concrete, while the remaining 61 (30.7%) of the participants developed mental models comprising both abstract and concrete information inputs. Interestingly, a statistical test of an association between these three different mental models and risk preference show no significant association (χ2 = 2.80, p = 0.25). This exploratory study contributes to the management and international marketing literature by providing initial evidence and insights of the strategic cognition of Myanmar managers. The fact that there were no framing effects nor any differences in the risk preferences between different demographic groups suggest that participants in our study may be relying on a common heuristic (i.e. rule of thumb) that guides them towards the option to seek foreign market opportunities. The marketing doctrine concept introduced by Challagalla, Murtha and Jaworski (2014), is indicative of the influence of institution-wide principles that guide all decision-makers throughout the institution. In the case of Myanmar, national trade policies emphasizing export initiatives and increased export promotion activities may be regarded as fundamental drives for economic growth. As such, managers may be adopting this national principle to simplify their decision task and therefore prefer to pursue foreign market opportunities. Relatedly, it is worth noting that among the participants that opted to focus on the home market, nearly half were employed by a non-government organization (NGO) operating in Myanmar. This reiterates earlier findings of the influence of organizational characteristics on the strategic cognition of managers (Finkelstein et al., 2009; Hambrick & Mason, 1984). From our sample, we found that managers working for a NGO may be accustomed to adhering to their own organizational principles, which emphasize the needs of the domestic market. From a practical perspective, caution should be taken when decision managers rely largely on a heuristic approach to decision making. Although recent studies report that heuristics can be a valuable approach in the wake of overwhelming data and information (e.g. Patterson et al., 2012 ), others show that accurate mental models bring about better decision rules (e.g. Gary & Wood, 2011). To ensure that the decisions made by managers align both their personal preferences and the logic of rational choice, a deliberate model designed to compare the underlying costs and benefits of the decisions must be carefully developed in such a way to prevent decision makers from minor distractions. To date, our study is the first to gain insights on the ‘black box’ of decision making among a sample of managers from Myanmar. Despite the valuable insights provided from our exploratory study, it is not without limitations. Although our sample comprises businesspeople from two major cities in Myanmar and represents businesspeople from a diverse range of industries and demographic characteristics, the generalizability of our findings is still limited. In addition, we only designed and implemented one hypothetical business scenario in our study due to the complex nature of the decision task. Using one hypothetical case may further limit the generalizability. Moreover, our results revealing the absence of framing effects but the presence of priming effects seem inconsistent with prior studies that have reported that such effects alter individual perceptions. Based on our preliminary findings, future studies are called upon to verify, confirm, and extend this current study to other contexts in Myanmar and other emerging and transition economies.

Information technologies enable new business models to move the idea from traditional services away towards collaborative offerings allowing customers to become active participants in service delivery. Consequently, the capabilities of other customers are chiefly responsible in creating customer experience. Thus, existing customer experience quality models are extended to address today’s market developments.

As digital media empowers consumers to initiate and participate in the marketing communication process more than ever, the current study aimed to investigate whether consumer motivations to use media are associated with the concept of psychological distance. Using a general population sample (N = 291) in U.S., psychological distances of four media platforms (i.e., television, mobile, laptop, newspaper) are compared and the relationship between media usage motivations (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, usage frequency, emotional attachment, and compatibility) and psychological distance are examined. Results indicate that psychological distance varies across media types and the relationship between psychological distance and media usage motivations is mostly positive.

Background and Purpose of Study: Social commerce refers to a form of electronic commerce based on Social Networking Service (SNS) and has grown substantially since the advent of Groupon in 2008. The growth of social commerce was accelerated with the increased popularity of SNS, where consumers share product information and reviews and the information is spread to others through SNS in real time (KB financial group, 2015). Social commerce can be divided into three types: (1) online group buying, (2) online shopping linked with the SNS, and (3) online shopping in SNS. The first type of social commerce is the most common type in Korea and the current study conducted an experiment based on the online group buying format. In the group buying social commerce, consumers gather together to purchase a product with a cheaper price. Placing a large order facilitates price promotion, (Yuan, & Lin, 2004) and buyers benefit from the cheaper price through the group buying (Zeng, Huang, & Dou, 2009). Group buying websites provides consumers with two types of information: time left for the promotion (time pressure) and the number of product sold (product popularity), and the overall purpose of this study is to examine the effects of time pressure, product popularity and website reputation on purchase intention. Hypotheses Development: Consumers make a purchase on social commerce websites because they can get a product with a cheaper price through group buying. Thus, this study is based on the assumption that all products are under price promotion. According to prospect theory, consumers are more likely to be sensitive to losses than gains. Consumers initially perceive a price promotion as a potential gain, but as the expiration approaches, they are more likely to perceive the promotion as a potential loss, which consequently increase purchase intention (Inman & McAlister, 1994). Also, a statement indicating product popularity, such as ‘the best-selling item’ increases purchase intention (Jeong & Kwon, 2012). Signaling theory provides a useful insight into understanding the effects of website reputation. Since consumers use a website reputation as an indicator of quality (Kirmani & Rao, 2000), they generally respond more positively to well-known websites than unknown websites (Shamdasani, Stanaland, & Tan, 2001). Therefore, based on the literature review, the following hypotheses are developed.H1: High time pressure has a greater impact on purchase intention than low time pressure. H2: High product popularity has a greater impact on purchase intention than low product popularity. H3: Well-known website has a greater impact on purchase intention than unknown website. H4: The effect of time pressure on purchase intention differs as a function of product popularity. H5: The effect of time pressure on purchase intention differs as a function of website reputation. H6: The effect of product popularity on purchase intention differs as a function of website reputation. Method: This study’s design is a 2 (time pressure: high vs. low) x 2 (popularity: high vs. low) x 2 (website reputation: well-known vs. unknown) between-subjects factorial design. This study includes three pretests: (1) to select high versus low time pressure, (2) to select the number of product purchased (product popularity), and (3) to select well-known and unknown social commerce websites. Based on the results of the pretests, eight mock websites simulating social commerce websites were developed for the main experiment. The data were collected via a research company. Invitation emails with a URL were sent to potential participants, and they were guided to shop the website and answer the questionnaire. The measure of purchase intention was adopted from the existing literature with adequate reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha >.70), and the scale items used a 7-point scale. Manipulation checks showed that manipulations of time pressure, product popularity, and website reputation were successful. Results: A total of 453 female online shoppers participated in the online experiment. An exploratory factor analysis revealed one factor of purchase intention, and the reliability.93, indicating adequate internal consistency of the scale. Hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed main effects for product popularity [F (1, 445) = 10.34, p < .05] and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 72.03, p < .05] on purchase intention, supporting H2 and H3. With regard to H4 to H6 predicting interaction effects, ANOVAs showed significant interaction effects of time pressure by product popularity [F (1, 445) = 5.53, p < .05], time pressure and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 4.59, p < .05], and product popularity and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 9.15, p < .05] on purchase intention. Thus, H4 to H6 were supported. Conclusions and Discussion: The study offers academic and managerial implications. The findings of the study provide empirical support for the signaling theory and prospect theory. The results suggest that high popularity and high reputation are significant factors influencing purchase intention. When consumers perceive a product as being popular on a social commerce website, they have greater purchase intention than when they do not perceive the product popularity. Also, when consumers shop on a well-known social commerce website, they have greater purchase intention than when they shop on an unknown website. When the product popularity is high, high time pressure is an important factor enhancing purchase intention. When a website is well-known, high time pressure increased purchase intention. However, when a website is unknown, high product popularity increased purchase intention. These findings of the study contribute to the literature in social commerce. Based on the website reputation, social commerce websites need to incorporate appropriate marketing tactics, such as time pressure and product popularity to increase consumers’ purchase intention.

The full-fledged Japanese census of commerce was conducted in 2014 and its data were publisized recently. We have chased the census data since 1991 in order to explore the determinants of Japanese household expenditure on consumer goods specialty retailers. The purpose of this study is to add some new findings to our previous research. In this research we theoretically address, and empirically estimate, key factors that affect sales per household at three major lines of retail trade that include frequently purchased consumables (food and drink), less frequently bought non-durables (apparel, shoes and dry goods), and infrequently acquired durable goods (furniture). We examine Industrial Classifications 57-60: Dry Goods, Apparel and Apparel Accessory stores (largely clothing, shoe, linen and accessories); Food and Beverage stores (primarily grocery, liquor, and specialty food stores); and Furniture, Household Utensils, and Appliances. These three trade lines deal with the necessities and supplies of life; they consist of relatively small specialty retailers. In addition, they have been an important target of urban planning and retail distribution policy of cities in Japan. Our data, which is drawn from six successive Japanese retail trade censuses (1991, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2014) encompasses 790 cities in all 47 prefectures. It is notable that the Japanese babble economy ceased in 1991; since then it has experienced an extended period of low growth. Note also that data from the most recent census (2014) is not yet available. Our theoretical model argues that retail sales per household are determined by three fundamental factors: the Market Environment (which is beyond the control of retail managers), Intertype Competition (which is influenced, but not controlled, by managers in each line of trade), and the Marketing Mix in each line of trade (which is set by managers). The essence of our argument is that the Market Environment determines a base level of sales per household; Intertype Competition may raise or lower sales in our focal lines of trade; and, the Marketing Mix in each line of trade can augment sales by (a) doing an above average job of appealing to customers and (b) countering the negative impact of Intertype Competition. Based on our research framework, we conduct a three-stage, hierarchical multiple regression analysis in each line of trade. Within Market Environment we include nine variables in a first-stage regression model: average number of people per household, household growth rate, average home size in square meters, income per household, population ratio aged 65+, auto ownership per household, distance to the prefectural capital city, residential land prices, and daytime population ratio. We expect each of these independent variables (except for population ratio aged 65+) to increase retail sales per household – which is our dependent variable. For Intertype Competition we use General Merchandise Stores (largely department stores and supercenters) that, in Japan, directly compete with Apparel, Food, and Furniture stores. In the second-stage regression model we include GMS sales per household along with the above nine Market Environment variables. GMS is anticipated to lower sales per household in Food stores, but is expected to raise sales per household in Apparel and Furniture stores as a spillover effect. For the Marketing Mix we measure four variables: assortment (proxied as square meters of selling space per store), service (employees per square meter of selling space), access (number of stores per land surface area of the city), and advertising (newspaper subscribers per household). These variables are included in the third-stage regression model along with the aforementioned ten independent variables; each of them should increase retail sales per household in its line of trade (e.g., the marketing mix for Food stores should only affect food sales per household). Thus, in of our analysis we show the results of eighteen regressions (i.e. the six census years and three lines of trade) . Our empirical research makes five contributions. First, we incorporate five independent variables that rarely (if ever) appear in studies of sales per household: out-shopping (daytime population ratio), home size, population ratio aged 65+, distance from the prefectural capital city, and residential land price. Second, we show the impact of intertype competition on sales in specific lines of retail trade. Third, we investigate data from five censuses that span a sixteen year period; few previous studies have examined changes in retail structure over such a lengthy time span. Fourth, we examine consumer goods retailers – who are an important target of urban planning and retail distribution policies of Japanese cities. Fifth, Japan had three important characteristics during the time span we examine: it was the world’s second largest economy and it is a nation of gradually declining population. As such, it may be a harbinger of the future of retailing in other large, wealthy economies. Additionally, Japan has rarely been the focus of retail trade studies.

Pricing, especially the area of discounting, poses many practical problems and continues to generate academic interest. In this exploratory study, we proposed an analysis format based on multi-channel purchasing and a method to calculate the amount of discount. Our principal contribution is using single-source panel data to calculate the discounts for several stores. First, we presented our definition of discounts. Next, as few consumers (so-called cherry-pickers) accounted for a large portion of the discounts, we confirmed that discounts follow the Pareto principle. Further, we showed how consumers used different chains; we identified the discount-sensitive consumers. We find that consumers who tend to buy high-priced brands are of key importance for sales and revenues of some chains. In the context of shopping behavior, shopping trip type is one of the main concerns. In a relatively early study, Kahn and Schmittlein (1989) showed quick trips and regular trips; however, they did not focus on discounts. Since the 1990s, researchers have been focusing on discounts and multi-channel shopping trips. Walters and Jamil (2003) explored shopping trip type and discount; however, their data are restrictive regarding the purchase period and chain. Fox and Hoch (2005) also showed how the difference in prices across two grocery store chains on the same day was distributed and how some consumers could exhibit cherry-picking behavior. Nevertheless, their research data are not comprehensive and are rather limited to two popular grocery stores. The same limitation is applicable to other studies in the literature (e.g., Bell, Ho and Tang 1998). One of the contributions of this study is our data. We used single-source panel data, acquired through the service of Macromill, Inc. The monitors of this service can use portable code scanners to read JICFS(JAN Item Code File Service)codes anytime and anywhere. Since we focus on multi-channel shopping, we used only data on food purchases. We included 6 million purchase transactions that covered all food categories in 2012 for 6,422 individuals who live in the metropolitan area around Tokyo. There was, essentially, no gender and age bias in the data. However, the data do not provide locational information of the store and consumer. Location is a very important factor for determining a shopping trip (e.g., Arentze, Oppewal and Timmermans 2005). This is one of the limitations of our research. The first step in our analysis is defining the discounts on individual items. To mitigate the influence of extremely high unit prices, we calculated the discount as the difference between the third-quartile price and the purchase price. The next step, we identified cherry-pickers from cross table of sales decile and discount decile. We examined demographic feartures, women relatively exhibit higher cherry-picking behavior than men, and there is a distinct relationship between household income and cherry-picking. As the income level rises, the ratio of cherry-pickers decreases. As for the relationship with age, we find that the ratio of cherry-pickers is the highest among consumers who are in their 30s. However, this ratio decreases with age. Examining the ratio of cherry-pickers by chain, we find that the ratio is higher in EDLP type than in Hi-Lo type chains or High-quality type chains. To simplify the purpose of our study, we deal with the milk category. The reasons for selecting the milk category are that it is one of the most popular food categories in Japan and that the Japanese milk category is assumed as a loss leader. We present some results from a k-means cluster analysis and show how the customer segments utilize each channel in the milk category. This allows us to observe each segment is more discount-conscious in each channel. Among Japanese milk brands, there are some popular and high-priced (above 200 yen / 1 liter pack) brands that rarely offers bargain sales. And the customer who buy that high-priced brands frequently is known as a loyal one. We showed the frequency of purchases for high-priced brands and the frequency (in days) of chain visits. We compared a well-known EDLP type and low-priced supermarket chain and perceived as average or slightly expensive chain. Consumers who habitually purchase the high-priced brand are likely to be loyal customers of the supermarket chain, but this does not hold for the low-priced chain. We will present the results from further analysis and details at the conference.

Large retailers use strategic alliances with suppliers in order to obtain customized distribution services from the suppliers. Forming strategic alliances with large retailers requires suppliers to make relationship-specific investments in the retailers. Transaction cost analysis suggests that the investments create a potential of hold up and discourage suppliers from forming the alliance. This study considers that regulatory focus of suppliers is a determinant of forming strategic alliance. It hypothesizes that promotion-focused suppliers are likely to accept an uncertain alliance with larger retailers even if it requires them to make relationship-specific investments. On the other hand, it is suggested that prevention-focused suppliers are unlikely to accept the same offer under the same conditions.

This article focuses on the use of the cosmetics channel of customers. There are many papers about channel choice behavior of consumers. Blattberg et al (2008) pointed out that the consumer decide their channel by marketing action, channel attribute, social influence, channel integration, individual difference, and situation factors. Kushwaha, et al (2013) said that in the case of buying an axiomatic product, consumers who are using only Web are excellent customers, whereas consumers using many channels are excellent customers in the case of a hedonistic product. Neslin, et al (2014) implied that the channel and brand are interrelated, so the customer think about both channel choice and brand choice at same time. Valentine et al (2014) found that multi-channel user is more information sensitive than that of single-channel user, and customer who are satisfied the service of their chosen channel do not try to use new channel. From these papers, it is clear that consumer’s channel choice behavior depends on, not only channel specialty, but also product specialty. On the other hand, there are not many studies about consumer behavior of cosmetic buying. Bloch et al (1992) implied that makeup made person more active, and an evaluation from another person lead to self-satisfaction. Fabricant (1993) pointed out that the purpose of makeup is self-expression and hiding one's fault. From the research of Coulter, et al (2000), opinion leader are more interested in cosmetics and much quantity of purchasing. Because cosmetic is very image oriented products, customer’s information sensitivity and cosmetic lifestyle are important to buy cosmetics Gathering data about channel choice behavior of consumers in Japan, it becomes clear that stylish and fashionable customers are willing to buy at department stores as their priority is channel images, while non-fashionable customers tend to buy at drugstores and GMS, as their priority is low price. It imply that stylish and fashionable score, cosmetic lifestyle of customer, and channel image are important factors for channel choice behavior of customer. Some customer use both department stores and drugstores, and some customer use both GMS and drugstores. Customers who use both department stores and drugstores are almost same lifestyle of customers who use department stores only, otherwise lifestyle scores of customers who use both GMS and drugstores are, almost same as drugstore only customers. It means that customer of department stores use drugstore as the sub channel of department stores, but customer of GMS use drugstore as the main channel. We must take care about customer combination of store channels. It becomes clear that channel images and customer lifestyle are very important to explain consumer’s channel choice.

This study samples the content of posts of display-related information posted on social networking services to clarify the in-store display requirements that influence the strength of response by SNS users. The data was found using the submission history of “Minrepo,” a social networking service used for marketing research by DOCOMO Insight Marketing, Inc. In this analysis, we presented the theme “please show us displays you thought were interesting on streets or in shop windows,” and gathered posts relating to this subject in content. The theme was presented for two weeks in June and July 2015 respectively, with 91 posts gathered. These explanatory variables, which were related to the format of the comment and the photographic content (display theme), and acquisition number of “likes” were clarified using a regression model of explained variables, which in this case was Poisson regression modeling (de Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012) assuming distribution of Poisson. As a result of the analysis, the following were established as comments that easily elicited a sympathetic response and are exhibit requirements of the displays: (1) In terms of comment format, “attaching lots of photographs,” “including exclamation marks,” and “including a mixture of both negative and positive comments” easily elicited a sympathetic response from the reader, (2) in terms of the content of attached photographs, exhibits with the keywords “season,” “mass display,” “fresh foods,” “character,” “sweets,” “variety,” and “local foods” similarly gained a sympathetic response, while (3) on the other hand, the standard shelving and mass display just of packaged foods as well as specialized exhibits of particular products were not popular. These findings suggest the following two points: (1) it is possible that pre-existing forms of special displays (the mass display of specific products) will not suffice to make a product more than something that is just bought and into a topic of news, (2) while it is obvious for most retailers selling packaged foods, manufacturers and wholesalers offering products and supporting exhibits within stores, should also try to make instore displays that takes the above mentioned contents into account.

Women aged between 36 and 55 are the main players in the cosmetics market in Taiwan in recent years. Particularly, the sector of anti-ageing cosmetics has grown continually with the support of women at the ages, who have stronger purchasing power than others. Furthermore, the changes of the channel structure in Taiwan have an impact on cosmetics consumption. Department stores have been the leaders of the high-end cosmetics market for a long time. Nevertheless, Taiwanese middle-aged women no longer only purchase cosmetics products in the department stores, but also shop around the pharmacy chain stores, like Cosmed, Poya and Watsons, which expand rapidly in Taiwan recently, buying OTC (Over-the-counter) cosmetics brands and products. It is convenient for women to attach with cosmetics products since the widespread shops available for consumers to pop in and consume a wide range of cosmetics products with more affordable prices (Kantar Worldpanel, 2013). The current research examines the cosmetics shopping and consumption of middle-aged women in the Taiwanese cultural context. The phenomenological interviews were conducted with a purposive sampling with 6 Taiwanese middle-aged women ranging in age from 40 to 60, who used cosmetics on a daily basis, varied in duration, between 1 to 2 hours. The sample size is kept deliberately small as phenomenological interviews are designed to elaborate the richness (Baker et al., 1992) of individuals’ lived experiences, feelings and perceptions of cosmetics consumption. Each interview was conducted online using the social media, Skype, through a webcam. The purpose of the interview was described to the informants as an exploration of women’s cosmetics consumption and how it affected their experiences in their daily lives. They were encouraged to share their own experiences freely. The unstructured interviews started with a question, “What comes to your mind when speaking of cosmetics?” enabling participants to start the dialogue with their most familiar topics and be free to define the meanings of cosmetics in their own words (Liu et al., 2012). In the process of data analysis, 6 principal themes emerged to give more explanations in detail of how middle-aged women in Taiwan strategically manipulate cosmetic shopping to construct, maintain, change, and give meanings to the sense of self in transformational levels during their lifetime course. In addition, due to the widespread of pharmacy stores in recent days, it is found that the middle-aged women’s had changed their shopping behaviours in accordance with the change of retail stores. For example, Karen likes to shop around the pharmacy stores looking for open counter brands which are made in Japan and buying products with the signs showing that are ranked number 1, instead of shopping at the department stores, where she used to go. Moreover, Amy also likes to go to the pharmacy stores which are close to where she lives. There are many new-opened stores, such as Cosmed, Watsons, and Poya rapidly expanded in the rural area that make it more convenient for residents to shop in. She also prefers to buy facial cleansing products which are made in Japan and ranked number 1. As the structure of channel and lifestyle have changed with time, consumers’ cosmetics consumption is changing as well. The research finds that wearing cosmetics has become habits for the Taiwanese women aged between 40 and 60 since they have been using cosmetics for more than 20 years. The meaning behind their “used-to habits” with cosmetics is that consumer’s possessions - cosmetics, have become their extended self and being strategically manipulated to accompany them experiencing through every path of their lives, including pursuing their ideal, hoped-for possible selves, escaping from their negative, feared possible selves, managing their relationship with the social self, and developing their past-present-future self within the historical context.

Moral licensing is a non-conscious effect that provides a moral boost in the self-concept, which increases the preference for a relative immoral action by dampening the negative self-attributions associated with such behavior. Applied to a marketing context, moral licensing explains why a purchase of a green product (a positive moral act) is likely to increase the likelihood of subsequently purchasing a luxury good (a negative moral act). This study addresses the question how big this effect typically is and which factors influence its size by conducting a Meta-Analysis and a Meta-Regression. Based on a random effects model, the point estimate for the generalized effect size Cohen’s d is 0.365 (SE=0.047; p=0.000). Results of a Meta-Regression indicate, for the first time, that the three moderators cultural background, type of decision and type of comparison explain a substantial amount of the total variation of moral licensing effect’s size.

Place branding and city branding are multi-disciplinary rapidly growing research domains (Brown & Campelo, 2014; Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013; Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2008; Lucarelli & Berg, 2011). However, there are problems with the lack of conceptualization and theoretical shortcomings in this field (Kavaratzis, 2004; Parkerson & Saunders, 2005; Skinner, 2008). In order to fill these gaps this paper introduces a novel approach towards place branding and social responsibility of the city. In the present paper the brand attitude to living in the city (Merrilees, Miller, & Herington, 2012, 2013) is explained by four other concepts: 1) social responsibility of the city, 2) contribution of the city to the metropolitan area, 3) city brand identification, and 4) city reputation. These concepts are based on previous research in the fields of marketing and management and adapted to the context of the study. Social responsibility of the city has its background in the concept of corporate social responsibility (He & Li, 2010; Marin, Ruiz, & Rubio, 2008), which is a driver of brand loyalty (Marin et al., 2008), and brand value (Melo & Galan, 2011). The concepts of city brand identification and city reputation have been developed using the research on brand identification (Lam, Ahearne, Mullins, Hayati, & Schillewaert, 2013; Mael & Ashforth, 1992) and corporate reputation (Lai, Chiu, Yang, & Pai, 2010; Wang, Kandampully, Lo, & Shi, 2006). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the theoretical model with a data (N=400) on consumers' attitudes towards the city of Helsinki. The results of the model show that Social responsibility of the city has a very strong impact on City brand identification. Likewise, Contribution of the city to the metropolitan area has a very strong impact on City reputation. Moreover, City brand identification has a strong impact on Brand attitude to living in the city. Finally, the model demonstrates that City reputation has a very strong impact on Brand attitude to living in the city. Overall, the results show that both social responsibility of the city and contribution to the metropolitan area are strong drivers of city brand identification and city reputation. Moreover, the evidence shows that these are drivers of brand attitude to living in the city. This evidence is important as it develops and links the concepts of social responsibility and contribution to the metropolitan area to the concept of brand attitude to living in the city.

For decades, researchers and practitioners have focused on ethical and environmental consumerism that is regarded as a mainstream phenomenon in contemporary consumer culture (e.g., Doane, 2001; Low & Davenport, 2007). In this context, the ethical consumer is supposed to be concerned about a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the environment and animal welfare to societal concerns, including human rights. By “shopping for a better world” (Low & Davenport, 2007, p. 336), the ethical buyer demands products that meet his/her moral principles and boycotts companies involved in unethical practices (e.g., Muncy & Vitell, 1992; Barnett et al., 2005). Nevertheless, a critical perspective on the economic reality has led to the discussion if the ethical consumer is nothing more than a myth (e.g., Carrigan & Attalla, 2001; Devinney et al., 2010). A particular industry context where cruel production processes are widely discussed is the cosmetics industry. Therefore, from the multitude of ethical dilemmas related to consumption behavior and cruel business activities, the underlying study focuses on animal testing for cosmetic purposes. The main research focus of this study is built on the idea that anthropomorphic communication about cruel tactics in production processes has significant impacts on consumers’ perception and behavior. Besides the form of communication, the perception of anthropomorphic communication is largely determined by personal and individual characteristics of the recipient. In addition to the ability to emphasize – generally known as to encourage the perception of harmful conditions and foster the ability to experience and share another´s condition or state of mind and emotional context (Johnson, Cheeks & Smither, 1983; Cohen & Strayer, 1996) - there exists a “dark side” of consumer personality as well. The Dark Triad which is composed of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. Hence, the study additionally examines the impact of bright and dark personality traits on the perception of anthropomorphized communication and highlights the importance for the identification of diverse consumer segments.