Environmental pollution, especially particulate matter, is a significant problem in many large cities around the world. Globally, studies have found a larger incidence of skin problems in the more polluted areas of the world (Lefebvre et al., 2015; Lefebvre et al., 2016). Currently, anti-pollution cosmetics are the hot new trend emerging from Asia. Therefore, this study examines the relation between anti-pollution cosmetics purchase and the perceived risk to skin health owing to particulate matter. The results of study 1 partially support our hypothesis about consumers with higher perception of the risk about particulate matter. Among them, those who saw the product advertising felt response-efficacy, and further, this response-efficacy mediated the relationship between perceived risk and purchase intention. However, there was no significant mediating effect of self-efficacy between perceived risk and purchase intention. Study 2 demonstrates that consumers who have higher perceived risk about particulate matter show higher purchase intention for anti-pollution cosmetics (e.g., POLLUAWAYTM day cream) when they are exposed to prevention-focused message advertisement. In addition, the results of study provide support for our argument that this effect is driven by a process involving response-efficacy. The present research provides evidence for a relationship between perceived risk and regulatory-focused messages on purchase intention. In particular, it reveals a boundary condition for these effects to occur, that is, the extent to which consumers have a higher purchase intention because of response-efficacy. These results provide promising evidence to support the growing field of health-product-related marketing communication.

The research study explores the concept of storytelling as a method to facilitate the communication of the art of the traditional upholsterer to add value to professionally restored chairs and sofas within the context of design and sustainable practice.

This research was conducted to examine the national identity and consumer behavior of the Hungarian minority’s young generation in Romania3. We may use the results for interpreting groups as segments with different type and level of national identity and forming of marketing-mix that fits to their national identity consciousness.

Omotenashi is the Japanese term for a conception of service hospitality rooted in the Japanese tea ceremony. This research explores the ways in which contemporary hospitality executives have drawn on the historical tradition of omotenashi in the tea ceremony, as well as older Japanese cultural and spiritual traditions underlying omotenashi, to re-envision encounters between service employees and customers. In high context cultures like Japan, information is widely shared, which reduces the amount of information that must be shared verbally. The nature of Japan‟s high-context culture is manifested in two important principles of the philosophy of the tea ceremony. One important principle is mutual understanding, which arise from the process of “consideration,” which involves “putting oneself in the position of others to anticipate their desires” (Surak, 2012, p. 51). A second important principle involves ritualized social interactions. As Kondo explained (1985), “… the Japanese tea ceremony is a highly ritualized version of the host/guest interaction, and a heightened expression of the emphasis on etiquette in Japanese culture in general.” He continues: “The theory is that mere good intentions are insufficient; one must know the proper form in order to express one‟s feelings of hospitality effectively (Kondo 1985, p. 288). The importance of ritualized behavior also emerges in the kata of Kendo and other Japanese martial arts, where the term kata refers to a sequence of stylized movements that are designed to cultivate “speed of movement, dynamic execution, and realistic character” (Kiyota, 2002, p. 24). Similarly, Zen discussions of secular work emphasize the value of ritualized behavior. According to Musimi (1990, p. 821), “Deeply ingrained in the minds of the Japanese people is the belief that „work‟ makes for moral culture, and man‟s character is formed through the process of working.” Arai (2006, p. 110) observed that domestic work also can be viewed as “ritualized [Zen] activity done in accord with wisdom and compassion.” We argue that current attempts to implement the spirit of omotenashi in employee training have emphasized the spiritual, attitudinal, and behavioral dimensions of omotenashi. The meaning of these dimensions reflect the ways in which executives understand and interpret the high-context nature of Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism on the Tea Ceremony and Japanese martial arts such as Kendo.

The paper provides a context to the reasons why there may be benefits in revitalising the original method of teaching costume construction for performance, reporting on reflections from personal experience and a relevant literature review to support the concept. It outlines the research to date and the following research stages.

This paper analyses consumers’ perception of the country image of Italy across 7 emerging countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey. Drawing from the international marketing and tourism literature (De Nisco, Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2017; Roth and Diamantopoulos, 2009), 4 main structural dimensions of the Italian country image were chosen as focus of investigation: general country image, product-country image, tourism destination image and cultural heritage image. The empirical research was based on a survey conducted on a sample of 4,550 respondents intercepted through an online panel. Two preliminary exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were ran to refine the scales and to summarize the data into structural factors. The first EFAs grouped measurement scales in 7 components: tourism destination image; general country image; product country image; product accessibility; evaluation of hedonic products; evaluation of utilitarian products; and evaluation of Italy as a tourism destination. The second EFA identified 3 distinct components of the cultural heritage image construct, i) art, literature, history, movies, ii) sociality, cooking, handcrafts and iii) traditions, expression, celebrations. Using the dimensions resulting from the EFA as data input, a latent class analysis was then employed. A 4-cluster solution emerged and the four segments reveal how the general country, product, tourism and cultural heritage components of place image are related and of how they jointly affect consumers’ intentions. Moreover, the study provides additional evidence of country of origin effects from the perspective of consumers from emerging markets, where both the

Introduction: Country of origin has long been of interest to many researchers (e.g. Phao, 1993; Kalicharan, 2014; Yunus and Rashid, 2016). In part, this is because consumers evaluated the quality of a product based on where it was manufactured, and this became an important issue with the majority of fashion product production taking place in developing countries. Consequently, country of origin as a branding tool became an important factor in the fashion industry (Lee et al., 2013). Previously, numerous studies have suggested that consumers’ perception of, and association with, country of origin are influenced by different factors, such as social, environmental and political factors and the workmanship of the country in question (e.g. Insch and McBride, 2004; Jiménez and Martín, 2012; Lee et al., 2013; Mostafa, 2015). For example, Rashid and Barnes (2017) identified the influence the media industry has on the perception of a country’s image, i.e. the influence of a factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 (Bolle, 2014). In the same vein, studies on the country of origin effect have also found the influence that the halo and summary effects have on the product evaluation. For example, if consumers were less familiar with fashion products made in Indonesia, they would naturally infer the product attributes using the general image of Indonesian-made products, and thus rate the product based on their perception of the country as a whole (see also Kotabe and Helsen, 2009). In contrast, when consumers are familiar with a country’s products (i.e. fashion designers in Paris), a summary construct model operates in which consumers develop a country’s image from its product information, which then indirectly influences product perception (Han, 1989). In other words, a product naturally receives a positive attitude because of the perception of a country’s products. Moreover, studies have also examined the impact of patriotism and ethnocentric behaviour on association with country image. More recently, authors, e.g. Rashid et al. (2016) and Barnes and Rashid (2017), have also made a contribution towards managerial perspectives and issues relating to the country of origin impact on the fashion industry. However, no research to date has examined the influence of country of origin on purchase intention with specific reference to apparel fitting. Apparel fitting: Over the past two decades, authors have shown increasing interest towards the fit of apparel (e.g. Otieno et al., 2005; Apeagyei et al., 2007; Holmlund et al., 2011). For example, Shim and Bickle (1993) examined women 55 years and older as catalogue shoppers and their differences in satisfaction with the fit of apparel purchased through catalogues and found that the satisfaction level was relatively low for the entire sample of 872 respondents. Some of the key issues identified were that garment fits did not accommodate body proportions for the older market, especially those who did not fit sizes that were tailored for petit or plus sizes. Consequently, it is evident that age is an important factor in apparel fitting. Furthermore, Alexander et al. (2007) pointed out the issue of personal judgement on how a garment looks on the body. Finally, other factors have also been raised, such as fit association with comfort, body-cathexis (feelings about one’s body) and symbolic meanings in social interactions. Adding to this, Rahman et al. (2017) has also added how consumers often evaluate the product on the basis of descriptive, inferential, informational and/or visual cues, and these can be classified as extrinsic or intrinsic cues. “Extrinsic cues” are a product’s physical structure or appearance, such as price, brand name and country of origin, whereas intrinsic cues are inherent to the physical composition of a product such as fabric, fit, colour and style. Moreover, authors have very recently also looked at apparel fitting issues in online fashion retailing (Miell et al., 2017) and technologies linked to fitting, such as 3D body scanners in a retail store (Lewis and Loker, 2016). However, the apparel fit and size association with country of origin remains an under-researched area. Research design: As this study aims to explore country of origin association from an apparel fitting perspective, a qualitative interpretivist approach is adopted (Creswell, 2007; Welch et al., 2011). This is a significant contribution to the country of origin study, as previous country of origin studies from consumer perspectives have prominently been quantitative in nature (e.g. Insch and McBride, 2004; Jiménez and Martín, 2012). Participants for study will be chosen using a judgemental approach, in particular female shoppers who consider fitting an important factor when deciding on the brand from which to purchase a product. To carry out the study, the project will use face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interview questions derive from the country of origin literature and are influenced by theory planned behaviour model (TBP) (Azjan, 1991), taking into account both individual and social factors that may influence customer intention and attitude towards apparel fitting and its association and or perception of a country. Interviews will last between 60 and 90 minutes and will be conducted by the researchers from March 2018 to September 2018. To analyse the data, a thematic analysis approach will be utilised to develop an understanding of the meaning, as interpreted by participants. Discussion and conclusion: The data collection for this study will help address the gap regarding how consumers deem fit as one of the important factors influencing purchasing behaviour, but also their perception of how they associate a fit of a product with the country of origin of different fashion brands. The findings will make a contribution to the literature on country of origin, fashion branding and product management. The study may also introduce practical implications on how to make the service better in a fashion retail setting, where apparel fit is becoming an issue. Thus, the study may also add knowledge to the literature on service marketing.

Globalization has coined cultural flows across national borders, resulting in different behaviors towards foreign products. Different approaches explain consumption in multicultural contexts such as consumer disposition. Based on literature review, this study organizes different dispositions constructs in relation to one’s own country and to foreign countries proposing a conceptual framework.

Racism has changed its form over the decades and has become more subtle and indirect than the blatant forms in the past (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2005; Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Tropp & Molina, 2012). As a result, it is becoming more difficult for minority groups to identify and call them out (Sue et al., 2007). Subtle racism can be detrimental to minority groups in that they can deteriorate performances and when accumulated, they can have negative consequences such as mental and physical health problems (Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Ong et al., 2013). Recognizing the issues regarding subtle racism, the research questions were the following: (1) Are there differences in the experience of indirect discrimination in a retail context between racial minorities and majorities?; (2) Do minorities use different strategies to solve these situations and why?; and (3) What are the consequences of subtle discrimination in the retail environment? To test the research questions, a total of 599 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to read either a racial microaggression scenario or a control scenario (a scanner unable to read a discount coupon) and they were asked to select why the incident happened to them. Further, they were asked to answer how they felt after reading the scenario and then respond to the outcome variables repatronage intention, word of mouth, and complaint intention. The findings of the study showed that Asians tend to attribute their racial identity as to why retail employees maltreated them. While Caucasians would simply state that an employee was busy or would not put much thought as to why a service failure occurred, Asians were more burdened by the thought that their race was an issue. After an employee showed subtle discriminations, Asians experienced less positive emotions than Caucasians, which resulted in them deciding to avoid the retail store. This may be due to their belief that they have less control over the situation and would rather not confront the employee or a manager on the issue. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to find out the key to success of the photographs in Instagram through content for tourist destination. While there are several studies in the tourism industry about the impact of Social Networks such as Facebook or virtual collaborative communities like TripAdvisor, there are very few studies about Instagram (Hanan & Putit, 2014). This study focuses on “Beautiful Destinations” as the leader on Instagram and an example of destination management organization (DMO), where they have more than 3,100 publications and 4 million followers in 180 countries, becoming the world’s largest travel influencer on Instagram. The dependent variables are taking from several studies (Dagostar & Isotalo, 1992; Stabler, 1987; Timothy & Groves, 2001). Ordinary least squares models were estimated to assess the relationship of characteristics of the photo with the number of likes among photos published on Instagram. If a photograph has people, water, took during afternoon, self-centric and other centric have effects in the number of likes and comments. While if a destination has the purpose of the engagement of the consumers with several comments, people appearance has a positive impact in the number of comments and if the pictures is doing in the afternoon has a negative impact. By analyzing the contents of information provided by the uploaded photographs, this study provides clues for destination in order to enhance the engagement with potential customer and users of Instagram.

The revitalisation of a craft economy: the case of scottish knitting In the 1980s, Vivienne Weir knitted for money at home, her skills – little remunerated – realising in luxurious yarns the fashionable imaginings of a local designer. In 2018 Kate Davies knits at home, her skills the foundation of a successful eponymous knitwear design and yarn production business. What separates these women is more than time – in contemporary Scotland, knitting is a valid and valued entrepreneurial pursuit, and so-called home knitters form part of a vast network of crafters whose turn from home craft to design-focused entrepreneurship represents a significant contribution to the £1billion per annum that the fashion and textile industries generate for Scotland. Through analysis of the business activities of both women, collected through personal testimony interviews, this paper examines the revitalisation of knitting in Scotland as a viable and lucrative entrepreneurial activity. It compares and contrasts the historical case study of Vivienne who was not afforded the opportunity to realise her potential and make a business from her skills, with the contemporary story of Kate who has translated her skills in hand-knitting and passion for design into a profitable enterprise. It argues that the revitalisation of the craft economy of knitting in Scotland has been galvanized by the rise of a new generation of knitters determined to rewrite the Scottish aesthetic lexicon in knitwear design, a new appreciation for the heritage and tradition of skilled knitting, and a new-found understanding of the economic, social, and cultural value of knit craft. In an age of increasing automation in fashion and textiles, and concerns around the social and environmental impacts of massmanufacturing, this paper demonstrates the importance of a dynamic craft economy in knitting to the Scottish fashion and textile industries.

This research was conducted to examining the mainland Chinese tourists‟ behavior on and credibility perception of travel websites. According to the data collected from the online questionnaire survey, mainland Chinese tourists tend to share negative experiences on the web; and consider more on review information than on reviewers‟ information.

This study relies on Gustafson’s (2001) self-environment-others framework to investigate Asian millennials’ cosmopolitan discourse in the context of Taiwan night market. In the eyes of Asian millennial cosmopolitans, the local Taiwan night market experience not only represents local consumption pattern, but also reflects the global appropriation of local consumption meaning. Introduction Asian millennials are those who were born in the early 1980s until 2000s. They are the “lucky” generation to grow up in the economic resurrection in Asia. They possess distinguished characteristics from the previous generations (Chu & Welsh, 2015). Therefore, they emerge to become the influential change agents. Their cultural consumption behaviour and preference has significant influence on local cultural experience design. Cosmopolitanism in consumer culture refers to an identity discourse in respond to globalization. Cosmopolitan identity inspires ones to seek personal enrichment through consumption of cultural diversity (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). The concept of cosmopolitanism can be traced back to two parallel perspectives: Greek Stoicism (Appiah, 2010) and Chinese Confucianism (Chun, 2012). The western cosmopolitanism conceptualizes cosmopolitans as the citizen of cosmos. Showing loyalty toward the worldly community and against the community where ones had been born is the major conduct that these cosmos citizens are oriented toward to (Delanty & He, 2008). In contrast, the eastern cosmopolitanism originates from the concept of Tianxia (天下) (Chun, 2012), which is based on the natural geography, the concept of political control from the central power to all the remote areas, and the concept of ethical conduct within the regime of the common area. Recent research on cosmopolitanism recognizes the possible variations of cosmopolitanism in different cultural context (Chun, 2012), and perpetuates the need to investigate cosmopolitanism as socio-cultural specific forms(Delanty & He, 2008). Enlighted by this notion, this study investigates an alternative form of cosmopolitan discourse specific to the rising Asian millennials, and its implications in local night market culture experience design. Night market as the venue for cultural experience study Night market is a common marketplace in Asia. Over 1,000 years (since Sung Dynasty A.D. 960 – 1279) night market has already existed in China. Night market has dispersed to other Asian countries along with the regional migration of Chinese ethnic group (Pottie-Sherman & Hiebert, 2013). Despite its Chinese origin, night market has evolved to a cosmopolitan consumption space providing local cultural experiences. It was found that there are seven dimensions of cultural experiences (Yu, 2004): night time (Zerubavel, 1985), shi (市/market), xiaochi (小吃/ small food), vending/vendor, temporality, renao (熱鬧/ lively and crowded condition), and renqingwei (人情味 / human touch). Night market provides local experience for global visitors (Chen, Lee, Chang, Hou, & Lin, 2008). Therefore, this study chooses night market as the consumption venue for investigation. Methodology This study relies on Gustafson’s (2001) tri-polar model of self-environment-others to guide the post-structuralist reading of field observation scripts. Self is the agent to interpret the meaning of the place; environment refers to the socio-cultural aspects of the physical place; others refer to the dynamic social aspects in the place. The informants were all Indonesians. The two authors went with two Indonesian MBA graduates to Huayuan Night Market in the first trip. The first author went with six Indonesian MBA students to Dadong Night Market in a second trip. The two night markets visited in this study were Huayuan Night Market (花園夜市) on November 3rd 2016, and Dadong Night Market (大東夜市) on November 22nd 2016. Both of the night markets were located in Tainan, Taiwan. Result In this session, we synthesized the qualitative data, and integrated the result with existing literatures to discuss the characteristics of Asian millennial cosmopolitans. 1. A cosmopolitan identity rooted on confucianism’s tianxia (天下) The notion of tianxia has already emerged starting in Xia Dynasty (Chun, 2012). Tianxia is rooted from Confucius (551 – 479 B.C) from the traditional literature of liyundatong (禮運大同). Since then, the concept has been embedded in the historical development of Chinese geographic expansion experiences, and in the fusion of the invading alien culture in China. The cosmopolitan ideology of tianxia can be found in the night market. Night market is a place that open for all. The visitors were diverse. Not only the local people (the Taiwanese) but also foreign people can enjoy the lively atmosphere of the night market. Those who had money and status also can come to enjoy the night market, not only limited for those in the “low social class”. Even though night market perceived as the marginal place, but in the night market all people are the same. Everyone can enjoy. 2. A transient cosmopolitan identity based on mass media, global brand consumption, and tourism international travel The Asian consumer cosmopolitanism mostly spawned from the popular culture disseminated from mass media, global brand consumption, or tourist traveling. People relying on mass media and global brand consumption as venues for exchange of identities, ideas, images, religion, language, music, lifestyle, sport, etc (Huang, 2006). The usage of English as the second language, household living standard, years of schooling, and economics of internalization are the greatest aspect of high level of cosmopolitanism in Asia (Brown & Baogang, 2012). In addition, because of the increasing tourists traveling around the world, the cosmopolitan lifestyle characterizes the Asia millennials as moving out of their locals temporarily. Tourism and international travel are related to lifestyle cosmopolitanism and critical cosmopolitanism. Those characteristics differ from those cosmopolitans of the diaspora moving permanently out of their home countries. Similar to European counterparts with several identities simultaneously (Ong, 1999), however, the Asian millennials’ identities are more transient and fluid. Night market provides a temporary consumption space for the locals to indulge in authentic lower social class experience, and for the foreign visitors to sample local experience. 3. An imagined cosmopolitan identity Because of the low social class, who are the major visitors at night market, have lower disposable income, the visitors of night market choose to consume counterfeits as long as they can be seen as “wealthy class”, which often associated with a cosmopolitan image (Huat, 2004). Counterfeits provide them imagined experience to participate in material consumption beyond their affordable income. The Asian millennials also are capable of relied on the images of lower social class from mass media to appropriate their night market experience, which results in an imagined cosmopolitan experience. The night market is an evidence of a space depicting the imagined cosmopolitan consumption experience. 4. Double marginality The primary marginality comes form night market itself. Night market is perceived as the marginal place since the patronages are mostly from the lower social class in the society (Yu, 1995). Night market is regarded as a place selling the counterfeits and low quality items, which are accessible to those who cannot afford to buy the originals. The secondary marginality comes from the cosmopolitan identity. Cosmopolitans orient their mind to a broader identity like the nation or the world. The cosmopolitans are rootless who do not belong to any one community, and hence, marginal (Merton, 1957). In addition, the Asian cosmopolitans are perceived as marginal in the global cosmopolitan context since they are peripheral to the core of the global or western dominated cosmopolitans. 5. A sense of one community identity The other way to see the Asia cosmopolitanism is based in the civilizational crossfertilization. This civilizational is the result of cross-cultural fertilization as against to separate and autonomous civilizations. The hybrid cultural form of Asia provides fertile ground to develop cosmopolitanism. The Asian millennials emphasize the “we” cosmopolitans as an opposed to “I” cosmopolitans. The Asian millennials went in a group either with friends from the same ethnic background, or with their local Taiwanese friends. Asia profess collectivism, which is tending to strong community orientation (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). The Asian cosmopolitans believe that they are in the same state or level of development state or in the same time zone other part of Asian, and later they made the imagined community. They also believe there is a cultural relationship in the various Asian countries (Funabashi, 1992), that is the Confucianism (Delanty & He, 2008). Evidence from night market study showed the strong sense of belonging as a group. When some members from the group were in trouble, someone would offer to be a “savior” to help. 6. Cautious cosmopolitans Although similar to the European counterparts of having a penchant to consume the authentic product or service, looking for variety and the exotic simulation, and relying heavily on the social media, the Asian millennial cosmopolitans tend to show a follower characteristic when exploring new experience. Also, they are mostly like a passive participants or mere observers in the foreign experience. conclusions and implications to cultural experience design This study relies on the framework of self-environment-others (Gustafson, 2001) to investigate Asian millennials’ cosmopolitanism in Taiwan local night market context. This research finds that in addition to the same characteristics of their western counterparts, Asian millennial cosmopolitans exhibit five unique characteristics. Although the local Taiwan night market is expected to render authentic local consumption, it is experienced as an imagined global practice. Or, alternatively, the imagined global culture consumption is experienced as authentic local. While the Aisan millennials eager to experience the local night market cultural authenticity, they also constantly refer to their similar home night market culture meaning framework. For the Asian millennials, the Taiwanese local experience is framed in both an imagined global meaning context, and an authentic other locals, i.e. the idiosyncratic home culture meaning frameworks of the cosmopolitans’. However, the Asian millennial cosmopolitans are capable of appropriating the gaps in these cultural meaning discourses. The appropriation process is where local, and global cultural meaning has the opportunity to be redefined, and reorganized. The implications from this study can be applied to local cultural experience design. The results also provides valuable perspectives for culture institutions, such as night market managing organizations, in their communication strategy to these Asian millennial cosmopolitans.

Self-construal refers to how people define themselves in relation to others (Brewer & Gardner 1996; Markus & Kitayama 1991; Singelis 1994) and this concept is relevant to a range of consumer behavior’s (Mandel, 2003; Escalas & Bettman, 2005). Most importantly, self-construal can be used to understand behaviors in which the influence of others may play a significant role in influencing uptake of risky behaviors, such as tobacco smoking. This research examines the role of self-construal in resisting tobacco smoking among Tongan and New Zealand European women. While previous work on self-construal has primarily used a quantitative approach, this study argues that a qualitative approach, specifically using images to represent scale items of self-construal is more effective in capturing the nuances of self-construal in the context of minority groups. This study contributes methodologically to the self-construal literature by demonstrating how a qualitative approach enables the complexities of self-construal to be captured in a way that a quantitative approach would not have allowed.

A predominantly positive view is shown in engagement literature in terms of positive actor engagement (PNE) expressions and outcomes. However, business practices indicate that the understanding of actors being negatively engaged is important. Yet a few studies in marketing, which attempt to conceptualise negative actor engagement (NAE), do not have a consensus as for whether NE and PE are reciprocal or NE is a distinct construct with a different nomological network and process. The purpose of this study is to conceptualise and operationalise NAE. Built on Li et al.’s (2018) conceptualisation of actor engagement valence, this paper follows Churchill’s (1979) methods of scale development and operationalises the construct of NAE. By developing and validating a NAE scale in specific online learning servcie platforms, we address this identified literature gap. Specifically, this study derives four NAE dimensions, including annoyance, anxiety, futitlity and failed expectation, which we proceed to validate within a nomological net of conceptual relationships in relation to the engagement behaviours (learning, sharing and endorsing). We conclude with an overview of key managerial and scholarly implications arising from this research. This marks the first study in the marketing discipline to operationalise NAE.

This paper investigates the impact of the scarcity information (Lynn, 1991) of a brand in its originating market on the pre- and post-taste evaluations of an imported food brand. We expect a positive effect of scarcity information on food brand evaluations, mainly based on naïve economic theory and the ‘scarce product is good’ heuristic. Four experimental studies confirmed this expectation. Study 1 shows that pre-taste evaluations and price judgment are higher when a new food brand is scarce (vs. when it is not) in its originating foreign market. Study 2 finds that both pre- and post-taste evaluations are higher in the scarce (vs. non-scarce) information condition. Study 3 supports the effect of the scarcity effect (vs. the popularity effect) and supports the mediating role of perceived scarcity. Study 4 replicated study 3 using a different sample and target food. Finally, a single-paper meta-analysis confirmed the strong effect of scarcity information on the evaluation of a food product. This research has several theoretical and practical implications. First, it can extend our understanding of how a nonfood- related characteristic determines food evaluation and preference (Wansink, 2004). Second, we separate the impact of scarcity information from popularity information on food evaluations. Finally, we extend the role of scarcity information to taste evaluation and suggest that the type of information can differentially influence pre- and post-taste evaluations.

Marketing research shows that long-term customer-supplier relationships can reduce consequences of service failures in the hospitality industry. In addition to a long-term, continuous relationship, other types of long-term relationships are also conceivable as influencing factors. This raises the question of whether interactions with a company, based on customer engagement during childhood (childhood engagement) can influence the effect of a service failure. Similar to general child experience, it can be assumed that early engagement in the customer relationship can significantly affect later relationship perception. Furthermore, perceived controllability of the failure also plays a role. If the customer attributes responsibility to the company, negative reactions can arise. To examine this questions, an experimental study with 152 participants was performed. A moderating effect of perceived controllability and childhood engagement on repurchase intention as a consequence of disappointment was found. Previous customer engagement and a credible communication can thus prevent the termination of a relationship after a service failure. Contrary, early engagement does not generally prevent a company from customers’ disappointment. The article contributes to marketing research by integrating 1) the customer disappointment, 2) childhood engagement and its consequences for future interactions with the company as well as 3) the transfer of negative emotions from an employee to the company.

Previous research has found that taking photos during travel for the purpose of sharing with others via SNS (social networking sites) induces self-presentational concerns, which can decrease engagement and enjoyment of the experience. However, the previous studies have defined travel engagement and enjoyment too narrowly and failed to consider the heterogeneity in terms of the importance of photo-taking. While some travelers are reluctant photo takers and regard taking photos as a bother, others place more importance on photo-taking than sightseeing, and may therefore find it difficult to enjoy the travel experience without taking photos. To address these deficiencies, we modeled not only negative, but also positive relationships between photo-taking and travel engagement and enjoyment. The results showed that when taking photos, travelers who regard photo-taking as important were more engaged in the experience and enjoyed it more than travelers who regarded photo-taking as less important. Thus, this study provides a theoretical contribution to research on travel engagement.

Companies are increasingly faced with a growing number of social enterprises entering the market, as well with an appealing business model for many customers. However, the role of social enterprises as a driver of customer well-being has not been examined so far. Given the relevance of customer well-being for company success, this paper seeks to identify whether buying products from social enterprises leads to a different degree of customer well-being compared to the purchase from other organization types. The findings reveal that buying products from social enterprises leads to a higher degree of customer well-being than buying products from for-profit companies. In contrast, purchasing from non-profit organizations leads to a slightly higher customer well-being than buying from social enterprises. Furthermore, the results show that the organization type has an influence on customers´ company perceptions, which, in turn, guides the perception of customer well-being.

In a virtual world, firms and individuals are connected through multiple devices and channels, whereby both act as content creators. The relevance of customer co-creation for brand-building in digital environments requires further research (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2016). From a growing body of research, a stream suggests that technology is changing the way consumers and firms interact, whereby consumers perceive brand image to be the sum of all brand online and offline information. Another stream assumes that consumers perceive brands as having personality characteristics, which are used to differentiate them from competitors. For this latter approach, Aaker’s (1997) model is widely used to analyse brand personality (BPS). However, no evidences has been found regarding to what extent firms and customers communicate the same brand values. We accomplish this by analysing the brand personality dimensions communicated online by two international hotel chains (Pestana & FourSeasons) and their clients, using two different digital channels, namely: 12 websites and 600 TripAdvisor comments. A content analysis was carried out using the BPS dictionary of WordStat software, created by Opoku et al. (2006), which contains 833 words, divided into the five BPS categories. The results show that most of the content was created by clients (89% of messages). FourSeasons hotels communicate Excitement and Sophistication, whereas Pestana hotels communicate Sincerity and Sophistication. Sincerity is the highest tagged dimension of the BPS references, both for FourSeasons and for Pestana, which suggests that clients tend to perceive both brands as being reputable. In summary, although clients and hotels converge with regards to hotel brand personality traits, distinctive brand personalities emerge.