Nowadays, customers have become increasingly dissatisfied with accepting products and services offered by suppliers. Instead, they are involved in product development as co-productor (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). There are diverse types ranging from online discussion to virtual design enabling customer involved in co-creation activities related to product support. “Customer design” enables the firm to have possibilities enhancing the whole value of product design during development process (Fuchs & Schreier, 2011). However, some of scholars have found that customers cannot always play a useful role in luxury product design. Fuchs and Schreier (2011) studied that buyers can easily observe the source of design, which damage the image of co-designed product. That is because luxury product always played as a specific label of wealth and states to some extend (Ko & Phau, Aiello, 2016). Thus, this study draws from co-creation theory to investigate the specificity of online luxury design, using an experimental method. We analyze and discuss the diverging affection of luxury design held by co-creation idea innovativeness and behavior intensity, and the role played by sponsoring firm and community members.

New product crowdfunding has become an emerging method for start-ups to finance their innovative ideas. Since driving participants’ engagement is crucial to successful fundraising, it is important to study the factors that affect participants’ motivation to back the crowdfunding projects. In this paper, we first examine the impact of goal proximity on backing motivation and then we focus on investigating how group size affects perceived personal impact and resulting motivation to back a project. To test our hypotheses, we collected backing records and creativity ratings of smart wearables projects from a crowdfunding platform in China−Demohour.com. We used daily backers added as our dependent variable to capture potential backers’ motivation to back a project and modeled it using a negative binomial model with project and time fixed effects. Our empirical analyses suggest the following. First, consistent with existing research on the goal gradient effect, the funding ratio of a project is positively related to daily backers added while the positive effect becomes insignificant after reaching 100% funding ratio. Second, group size of backers has a negative effect on potential backers’ motivation. We explain that this is because individuals exert less effort due to decreased perceived personal impact when group size grows (social loafing effect) (Karau & Williams, 1993). Finally, creativity negatively moderates the effect of group size on backing motivation that the negative effect of group size especially calls for attention when the creativity level of the project is high.

Online review sites such as Booking.com or Tripadvisor are considered to be the most accessible and valuable feedback platform in the hospitality industry (Verma et al., 2012; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Yoo & Gretzel, 2008). To keep pace with customers’ use of social media, hotels have recently begun to use customer-generated content or online reviews to assist in decision-making (Chan & Guillet, 2011; Leung et al., 2013) since reviews can affect customer satisfaction and ultimately hotel sales and profitability (e.g. Ye et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2016; Berezina et al., 2016;). However, limited research efforts have been made to understand customers’ satisfactory and unsatisfactory experiences by analysis of online reviews (Kim et al., 2016; Berezina et al., 2016; Rhee & Yang 2015 a;b; Levy et al., 2013; Li et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2015; 2016; Kwok & Xie, 2016). Furthermore, the effect of different service characteristics on hotel performance is expected to be assymetrical and non-linear (Mikulic & Prebežac, 2008; Füller et al. 2006; Kim et al., 2016; Zhang and Cole, 2016). The objective of this study is to analyse online reviews and determine whether different hotel service characteristics have assymetrical or symmetrical effects on hotel customer satisfaction. A total of 8.540 online customer reviews (from Booking.com) for 42 4 and 5 star hotels in Athens, Greece were analysed in terms of the overall score of the hotel and the individual service characteristics (cleanliness; location/access; personnel quality; installation quality; room quality; food quality; service process quality, and perceived value) for a 2-year period. Data was analyzed using penalty-reward analysis (Mikulic & Prebežac, 2008) and the three factor (satisfiers, dissatisfiers, hybrid) theory of customer satisfaction (Matzler & Sauerwein, 2002; Matzler et al., 2003). Results show that there are indeed asymmetric effects on customer satisfaction. The most powerful frustrators are cleanliness and perceived value and the highest impact dissatisfier is room quality, followed by installation quality and food quality. Only personnel quality and location/access are hybrid factors, meaning that they can have symmetric effects on customer satisfaction. Also, no characteristic was found to be a satisfier or delighter showing that delighting customers is very difficult. Results also differ according to reason for travel (leisure / business) and type of traveller (solo, groups, families, friends). The results of this study can serve as a guide for customizing hotel services for each type of customer. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and higher perceived overall performance of hotels as expressed in online reviews. Also, higher review ratings can influence overall profits.

Background In this research, we want to explore the role of experiential marketing in improving patients’ satisfaction through valuable hospitality management in hospital experiences. The impact of three experiential marketing dimensions on overall Satisfaction is assessed: Physical Environment, Empowerment & Dignity and Patient-Doctor Relationship. Methods 259 structured interviews were performed with patients in private and public hospitals across Italy. The research methodology is based in testing mediation and moderation effects of the selected variables. Results The study shows that: • perceived quality of Physical Environment has a positive impact on patient’s overall Satisfaction; • perceived quality of Empowerment & Dignity and perceived quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship partially mediate this relationship; • educational level is the only relevant moderator in the relationship between perceived quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship and overall Satisfaction. Conclusions: Physical Environment items are enablers of both Empowerment & Dignity and Patient – Doctor Relationship and play a significant role in offering a strong value proposition to patients. Designing a hospital, beyond technical requirements that modern medicine demands and functional relationships between different medical departments means dealing with issues like the anxiety of the patient, the stressful working environment for the hospital staff and the need to build a sustainable and healing building.

Due to the explosive growth of peer-to-peer transportation sharing services offered by micro-entrepreneurial travelers, investigating how their quality cues affect demand is of paramount importance. The goal of this study was to identify what types of intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues affect the demand of peer-to-peer transportation sharing services. Based on the rich data set of 414,292 transactions from a leading peer-to-peer ridesharing platform, it was identified that intrinsic quality cues – car status and driver status – and extrinsic quality cues – price and offering duration – significantly affect the peer-to-peer transportation demand independently and interactively. Although the lower price and longer offering duration of a transportation sharing service positively affect its demand, the higher price or shorter offering duration can increase its sales when combined with better intrinsic cues. Implications for vulnerable segments such as female and minority drivers are provided

As Internet use has increased, customers have become more active at sharing their travel opinions through social media regarding their experiences with service organizations. Social media has become a ubiquitous tool that enables customers to share their travel experiences. In particular, members of Generation Y are more likely to be active on social media and more likely to share their experiences online. Understanding Generation Y’s online customer engagement preferences on different social media platforms may help to enhance brand loyalty. Customer engagement (CE) has been attracting the attention of both practitioners and academics because it may help to enhance both brand loyalty and purchase decisions. Social media platforms have become a significant communication tool for both customers and service providers, creating an opportunity to engage with customers. Interacting with active customers on the right social media platform can increase direct bookings, building brand loyalty. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine Generation Y’s brand loyalty preferences through its members’ engagement with social media. The results of this research will expand understanding of Generation Y customers’ online engagement through social media. This research may also suggest how hotels are able to utilize social media platforms in order to encourage online engagement with Generation Y by building brand loyalty.

There has been a heated discussion worldwide over tourist deviances that disrupt lives of local residents and cause damage to companies, city authorities, and the natural environment. Previous studies primarily turn to discrepancies in the cultural and educational background between tourists and local residents to explain such phenomena. Nonetheless, the possibility of people inclining to misbehave simply because they are away from home has rarely been investigated. In this study, we seek to examine factors rooted in the nature of tourism that are accountable for such phenomena. According to the definition by UNWTO (1995), one of the key characteristics of tourism is the displacement of usual environment. Tourism, therefore, is inevitably associated with surroundings of unacquainted others residing in the unfamiliar environment. Following the social control paradigm, previous studies have revealed that people are more likely to enforce social control on in-group members than on out-group members (Nugier, Chekroun, Pierre & Niedenthal, 2009). We further propose that psychological closeness between people and surrounding others would have an impact on their expectation to receive others’ social contrail and consequently their intention to engage in the counternormative behavior. Using an experimental study, we found that participants in the travel condition, compared with those in the home condition, feel less close to surrounding others and are more likely to misbehave. Such effect is mediated by the perceived social control. Implications for organization and companies in the tourism sector are drawn to prevent the spread of tourist misbehavior. Limitations and future directions would also be discussed.

Hospitality and tourism industries have recognized that engaging with customers via social media is now a critical element of their marketing strategy. Given the high variability of success with which firms have been attracting customer interest online, businesses are clearly struggling to determine exactly the right methods to use the newest technologies. This study presents a predictive model of attributes for online posts that evoke a high level of customer engagement. The contribution to the literature is a unique set of features that have significant impact on customer engagement, using a big-data set to support findings. In accordance with theories originating from Social Belongingness and Brand Community Marketing, findings indicate that appeals to a sense of community belonging have a significant impact on customer engagement in social media. Specifically, communities have idiomatic vocabularies consisting of “activation words” that are especially effective for engaging customers on social media. This has both theoretical implications in that it constitutes a large-scale, real-world confirmation of belongingness hypotheses, and managerial implications in that it suggests best practices for maintaining an online presence.

Introduction The retail environment, which is offering special experience to consumers based on customized consumer lifestyle, creates customer value from voluntary customer engagement. In recent study, it is shown that customer engagement is becoming an important factor which determines the characteristics of customer behavior in the retail and hospitality industries. However, the study of customer engagement has mainly focused on its performance in marketing field ( Hapsari, Clemes, and Dean, 2017; Kumar and Pansari, 2016) and most researches have handled the concept of customer engagement from the perspective of online environment(Shin and Byun, 2016; Jeon, 2016). Theoretical Development This study aims to investigate the psychological motivation for customer engagement and to examine the underlying factors of customer behavior in offline retail environment based on experience economy theory and Self-Determination Theory(SDT). First, this study investigates the relationship between perceived psychological benefits (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and intrinsic motivation. Also, this study tried to analyze the relationship between intrinsic motivation and customer engagement (conscious participation, enthusiasm, and social interaction). Second, we tried to examine the relationship between customer engagement and customer creation value (functional value, hedonic value, and social value). Thirdly, we suggested the effect of customer creation value on customer purchasing behavior (shopping memories, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and revisit intention). In addition, we attempted to find the mediating effect of the hedonic value between customer engagement and shopping memories; customer engagement and customer satisfaction. Futhermore, we investigated the mediating effect of shopping experience between hedonic value and customer satisfaction. Finally, We discussed the managerial implication for differentiated competitive advantage in the experience-based retail environment. Research Design and Model Testing To test the research hypotheses and our research model, we conducted questionnaire survey from the respondents who have ever been to the major experience-based shopping malls within 6 months. Through the confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the study constructs were verified. By using the structural equation model, research hypotheses were tested and most research hypotheses were statistically significant and accepted. The final research model also showed the statistical significance with the goodness-of-fit indices. Result and Conclusion As shown in the results of this study, the experience-based retail environment leads to higher customer engagement and increase the customer’s hedonic value and reinforce positive shopping memories. Specifically, the experience-based retail environment is offering psychological benefits and customers enjoy experience itself. During the shopping experience, the customers are motivated for customer engagement. The managerial implications of the study results for the corporate managers in the retail and/or hospitality industries were also discussed.

We aim to determine the level of Image Interactivity Technology which can create an optimal engagement on the online consumer’s experience while surfing on hotel websites. Our model includes three personal traits as moderating variables and will be tested through a mixed approach (i.e. experiment, interview and questionnaire).

Marketing academics and practitioners have discerned the evolution in the prominence of digital, social media and mobile marketing based on technological innovations. Digital marketing has evolved over time from a specific marketing of products and services using digital channels to activities, institutions and processes facilitated by digital technologies. From an inclusive perspective, digital marketing refers to an adaptive, technology-enabled process by which firms collaborate with customers and partners to jointly create, communicate, deliver and sustain value for all stakeholders. Digital technologies allow the new adaptive process, institution and processes in marketing communication. The adaptive process creates value in new ways in new digital environments. Institutions build foundational capabilities to create such value jointly for their customers and for themselves. Processes create value through new customer experiences and through interactions among customers. The purpose of the assessment is to establish the current status of research evaluating digital marketing communication and to show how digital technology has shaped marketing communication evaluations. This study provides a broad disciplinary review of key cited works in digital marketing communication research and examines the effectiveness of various evaluation approaches, including new directions designed to capture meaningful insights and marketing communication value in digital marketing communication.

E-WOM is described as all informal communications directed at consumers through Internet-based technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2008). In contrast with conventional WOM, e-WOM has unique characteristics. For instance, it often occurs in strangers or fellow consumers, and can be and can be anonymous (Goldsmith & Horowitz 2006; Sen & Lerman 2007). In this regard, people feel free to express opinions without identity disclosure (Goldsmith & Horowitz 2006). INTRODUCTION In a word dominated by social media, the diffusion of e-WOM is undoubtedly speeding up. Plus the international trade prevailing, people can experience products from all over the world at home, and they typically collect both positive and negative e-WOM for domestic and foreign brands with the aim of comprehensively evaluating the brands and their products. It is worth mentioning that in reality consumers often adheres to consumer ethnocentrism (CE) to counter the significant effects of imports on domestic economies and defend against foreign products in local markets. So far, there has been relatively little research on the effect of e-WOM on CE. In our study, we employ social media to discover the impacts of e-WOM on CE with respect to domestic and foreign smart phone brands from the Chinese e-WOM receiver’s perspective. Simultaneously, we test consumer pride and prejudice toward mature industries in the home country. Drawing on survey data from 302 consumers, our study reveals several significant findings. First, positive e-WOM regarding local brands may enhance CE, whereas positive e-WOM regarding foreign brands may reduce CE. Second, Negative e-WOM may break the advantage of CE for domestic brand, which result in the dominance of foreign brand. Third, positive e-WOM may enhance brand equity for both domestic and foreign brands. By contrast, negative e-WOM has no significant influence on Chinese consumers’ attitude toward brand equity. Finally, CE has positive influence on brand equity for domestic brand but not effect on foreign brand. To our best of knowledge, our paper is the first to study the effect of e-WOM on CE, which enriches the relevant theory with regard to CE.

Consumers have enjoyed shopping via the web for over a decade, but the emergence of shopping through social media or social commerce is slowly gaining traction Instagram is one of the largest interactive photo-sharing sites that retailers, specifically apparel and accessory companies, are utilizing to sell their merchandise. Consumers are increasingly using this platform to engage, discover and get inspired; therefore, it is critical for retailers to understand how this platform influences purchase intention. This paper focuses on analyzing the impact of Instagram on consumer’s purchase intention based on an adapted model of Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Reasoned Action. Using multi-group analysis, consumers (n=317) were divided into two groups: shopped for fashion products (including browsing, making a one-time purchase, or making repeat purchases) or not shopped using Instagram for apparel specific brands. The participants were surveyed using an online instrument with questions related to attitude, subjective norms, normative beliefs, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and purchase intention. Frequency statistics were obtained for the demographic variables. Overwhelmingly (approximately 78%), respondents used Instagram daily with 82.6% following an apparel brand. 40% of the respondents had shopped previously on Instagram (i.e. browsed as well as purchased products), with 13% of these respondents spending more than $100. An exploratory factor analysis using principal component with varimax rotation and a minimum eigen value of one was used to identify the latent variables in the model: PEOU (α = 0.82); PU (α = 0.81); Normative Beliefs (α = 0.81); Attitude (α = .87); Subjective Norm (α = 0.88); Purchase Intention (α = 0.79). Results indicated that subjective norms did not influence purchase intention for both the groups indicating that consumers do not follow “groupthink” mentality while intending to purchase via Instagram. Furthermore, it was found that PEOU influence on attitude for the two groups of consumer were different, with no impact for the group who had shopped on Instagram. All the other relationships were supported in the model. These results provide both implications and limitations for retailers and academia.

This study investigates the effect of high-level customization experience delivered via information and communication technology (ICT) on consumers’ patronage behavior toward a brand. The results indicate that customization experience increases purchasing intention for it enhance the level of happiness about the product. The relationship between customization experience and happiness is found to be mediated by autonomy (i.e., feeling of being in charge of one’s own action), competence (i.e., feeling that one effectively utilize one’s skill and abilities) and the pride of authorship (i.e. feeling of pride when creating an artifact of one’s own). Introduction The advancement of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has led the paradigm shift in managing a producer and consumer relationship in the fashion industry. In particular, it has blurred the boundaries between the role of a producer and the role of a consumer. For example, Adidas, one of the biggest sportswear companies in the world, has built SpeedFactory, which offers a special customization service for their users to build sneakers according to their own design specifications. There it takes only five hours for a customized design put together by its users to be produced in a real pair of sneakers and ready to be delivered to their home (Wiener, 2017). The term, prosumer (i.e., producer and consumer) indicates such people who not only purchase and use a product a company offers but also actively participate in the production process by communicating and reflecting their preference (Toffler, 1980). This phenomenon is particularly evident with millennial consumers who desire customer-centric experiences with which they feel wanted and valued. They are willing to engage with brands through producing consumer-generated contents and suggesting their ideas during the production process (McGee, 2017). Such desire has driven the growth of customization services and the rapid development of technology further enabling companies to provide customization more easily and at lower costs (Mitrea, Werner, & Greif, 2010). Despite its increasing significance, not much attention has been paid to understanding the psychological underpinnings as to how and why customization services may enhance consumer patronage behavior toward a brand. This study fills this void by examining the underlying mechanism of the relation between personalization experiences and purchasing intention. Literature review and research questions Customization Experience and Happiness “Experience” has emerged as an important keyword for marketing professionals in the last couple of decades (Pine & Gillomore, 1999; Schmitt, 1999). Consumers wanted and were willing to pay for unique, personalized events that are not the same as anyone else’s, and those that can surprise and impress them beyond providing mere satisfaction (Pine & Gillomore, 1999). Customized services thus have a great impact on consumer patronage behavior such as purchase intention and brand loyalty. Recently, marketing and psychology research has also observed that customized experiences bring happiness (e.g. Bhattacharjee, & Mogilner, 2014; Guevarra & Howell, 2015). Happiness refers to a cognitive and emotional evaluation of one's own life (Diener, 1984). While, to some extent, happiness can be assessed by external criteria such as socioeconomic level or objective indicators, subjective well-being is argued to be important for individuals to assess their own psychological states (Diener, 1984). In general, studies have found that material goods provide lower level of happiness than life experiences, since consumers tend to evaluate happiness through specific events. However, Guevarra & Howell (2015) illustrated that the dichotomous distinction between material items and life experience is ambiguous at the boundary, and in the middle of continuum from material items to life experiences exists “experiential products,” which give consumers the same level of happiness as life experiences. Offering consumers the ability to reflect their preferences in product designs is a way to tap into this psychology. Customization can be a unique experience in that consumers themselves participate in production processes. It is expected that the experience of designing one’s own good will positively affect consumer's happiness level. What Drives Happiness from Customization Experiences? Self-determination theory of Deci & Ryan (2012) (e.g., Maltby & Day, 2001; Wilson, Rodgers, Fraser, & Murray, 2004) is used as the conceptual framework to identify the underlying psychological mechanisms for this study. In particular, the selfdetermination theory posits that people feel happiness when they are satisfied with such psychological needs as autonomy (i.e., engaging in behaviors that express one’s true identity and feeling of being in charge of one’s own action), competence (i.e., feeling of fulfillment that one effectively utilize one’s skill and abilities), and relatedness (i.e., feelings of closeness to a desired social group) through experience (Deci & Ryan, 2012). Given the focus of this study is the customized service delivered online, the variable of relatedness is less relevant since our study focuses on independently designing a product to a user’s unique preferences. The variable of relatedness is excluded in our research model. Instead, we include the “pride of authorship” (Trentin, Perin, & Forza, 2014), which refers to the feeling of pride generated when creating an artifact of their own and a sense of being the creator of it (Schreier, 2006). Customized services can enhance the sense of accomplishment as an author which is also found to affect happiness (Schreier, 2006). We thus formulated the following hypotheses. Hypothesis 1-3. Perceived customization experience will have a positive influence on autonomy (H1), competence (H2), pride of authorship (H3). Hypothesis 4-6. Autonomy (H4), competence (H5), pride of authorship (H6) will have a positive influence on happiness. Hypothesis 7. Happiness will have a positive influence on purchase intention. Method The data were collected via an online experiment in May 2017 with women in their 20s and 30s residing in South Korea, nationwide. Procedure The target site we used as an experiment stimulus was a shoe retail site (http://www.shoesofprey.com) that offers customization options (e.g., shapes, colors, and heel height). The data were collected for a week with 180 participants in total. After entering a designated computer lab, participants were given a detailed instruction of how to use the customized services of this brand. Experiment assistants provided real-time help to participants for any technical difficulties. We asked respondents to visit an online website of this brand. The participants were asked to explore the site and to design customized shoes to their liking. After spending some time on the site and finish customization, they were asked to answer questions in our questionnaire. Measures/Data Collection and Analysis The measures of our constructs were developed based on previous literature. All items (except for demographic characteristics) were measured using a 7-point Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree;” 7 = “strongly agree”). About 12 responses were deleted from a total of 180 responses due to incomplete data, thus168 were used for final analysis. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0. Results Underlying Mechanism of the Relation between Personalization Experience and Happiness: Autonomy, Competence, and Pride of Authorship With the pooled data (n=168), the results of the confirmatory factor analysis on the entire measurement model showed that our measurement model had a reasonably good fit (χ2(df=145)=300.546, p=.000; Normed χ2(CMIN/DF)=2.073; GFI=.847; CFI=.924; NFI=.864; TLI=.910; RMSEA=.080). The measurements of reliability yielded Cronbach’s α coefficients above 0.7. The convergent validity and discriminant validity were confirmed between the measurement variables, and the measured values were found to be appropriate. Customization experience had a significant influence on the path of autonomy, competence, and pride of authorship at the .001 level. Specifically, the results showed that the coefficient of the path from “customization experience to autonomy” to be .71***, that from “customization experience to competence” was .81***, and that from “customization experience to pride of authorship” was .68***. We thus accept Hypothesis 1, 2, and 3. These mediation variables were found to have a positive influence on happiness at the .001 level. The coefficient of the path from “autonomy to happiness” was .38***, that from “competence happiness” was .29***, and that from “pride of authorship to happiness” was .25***. We thus accept Hypothesis 4, 5, and 6. It was identified that happiness was positively related to purchase intention with coefficients, 0.49***. Thus, Hypothesis 7 was supported. Discussion and implications Previous research found that offering customization service positively influences purchase intention and willingness-to-pay. This paper extends the current understand as to the effect of customization service experience on consumer patronage intention by identifying underlying psychological mechanism. The customized products allow and demand consumers to engage in the designing process. This distinctive experience generates psychological reactions that are linked to personal happiness. In particular, we find that a heightened sense of autonomy, competence, and the pride of authorship are critical mediators linking the customization experiences to happiness. The results also indicate that feeling of happiness is a significant driver for consumer patronage behavior. Our results imply that millennial consumers want to experience consumer-centric events and to engaging in creating their own contents to feel fulfilled with consumption experiences and that customized services can be a power tool to meet this desire.

This paper presents a way of classifying qualitative online consumer reviews (OCRs) in terms of functional and emotional dimensions and measures the direct and indirect impact of both volume and valence of OCRs on product sales. Utilizing four million online postings across 342 mobile games for thirty months, the authors use text analysis and word classification and identify 74 representative words to describe the various levels of functional OCRs consisting of product quality, product innovativeness, price acceptability, and product simplicity, and emotional OCRs including anger, fear, shame, love, contentment, and happiness. They combine the resulting OCR volumes with weekly sales, resulting in 1,835 observations for analysis with hierarchical Bayesian methods. Results suggest that the volume and valence of aggregated functional OCRs and the valence of aggregated emotional OCRs have the positive effects on sales. The volume and valence of functional OCR subcategories have mixed effects on sales and the link is moderated by the share of emotional OCR subcategories. Further, a sales forecasting model which includes 13 variables of OCR subcategories shows the best predictive validity.

Introduction Recently, the popularization of mobile devices has been changing the pattern of customers’ life. In the online market, the distribution market has been also expanding from PC-based online to mobile shopping using smart phones. As the shopping market using mobile has grown rapidly in the developing smart age, the interest of home shopping is moving toward mobile media. Through the home shopping company's web site and mobile application, live broadcasting, real-time communication service, and other customers’ review are performed at the same time. Home shopping customers who have questions or inquiries about products are meeting salespeople through home shopping mobile application and real-time communication service. The significance of this study is to present effective strategies for connecting live home shopping and real-time communication of mobile application, thereby enabling customers to make smart consumption. Through this service, home shopping company can perceive customers’ needs as well as form cocreation value with customers. In addition, home shopping company aims to provide a more useful and effective method in the process of providing real-time communication service by checking the form of customers participating in real-time communication service. Theoretical Development Although there are many prior researches on adaptive selling on salespeople in offline, research on effective sales strategies of live home shopping and real-time communication using application has not yet been conducted. Nowadays, many customers' purchasing methods are moving from offline to online. Therefore, by referring to similarities between virtual world and actual society in Internet space studied in many previous studies, we would like to find out whether the offline advantage of "adaptive selling tactics" in the sales field can be applied to on-line. Adaptive selling means changing sales behavior throughout the interaction or interaction with the customer based on perceived information about the sales situation. Salespeople need to change their sales behavior in order to meet each sales situation or individual customer's desires. Adaptive selling can be said to modify the communication style and content according to the customer's desire (Weitz, Sujan & Sujan, 1986; Spiro & Weitz, 1990). The main reason for the co-creation value activities of companies and customers is that the marketing paradigm is shifting from good-dominant logic to service-dominant logic (Lusch & Vargo, 2006). This means that new value creation areas of new product development are expanding as customers participate in various decision-making related to the companies (Payne, Storbacka & Frow, 2008). To realize the value proposition, a firm must co-create value with its customers by means of direct interaction (Grönroos & Voima, 2013). Research Design The contents of this study are as follows. First, we divide the adaptive selling strategies of salespeople in real life into live home shopping and mobile application roles, and then examine whether live home shopping and mobile application affect customer trust. In previous study, Frazier and Summers (1984) proposed six tactics – information exchange, recommendation, request, threats, promises, and legalistic pleas, and Richard et al. (2006) proposed another six tactics. Anderson and Weitz (1989) define trust as one party’s belief that its needs will be fulfilled in the future by actions undertaken by the other party. Second, we investigate the effect of customer trust on home shopping commitment relationship. Ganesan (1994) defined relationship commitment as the desire to develop stability of relationship, the belief that the relationship is sustainable, and the willingness to make short-term sacrifices to maintain the relationship. Through this process, we are able to confirm the possibility of replacing actual meeting with tool called online real - time communication. Third, we want to find out the effect of home shopping commitment relationship on brand commitment relationship. Even if the same brand product, we can know the effect of commitment relationship depending on home shopping company. Finally, we are going to find out how to create co-creation values with customers by real-time communication service to solve the questions and problems of customers immediately. The creation of co-creation values between customers and companies can increase the success rate of new product development that reflects the core needs of customers and reduce resources such as corporate marketing and R & D, which can ultimately serve as a driving force for creating sustainable competitive advantage (Vernette & Hamdi-kidar, 2013).

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between perceived value, ethnic identity and purchase intention of ethnic apparel. This study examines how Hanfu (traditional costume of the Han Ethnic Group of China) customers perceive certain types of values (emotional value, social value, uniqueness value, conditional value and perceived value). Then this study determined how customers’ perceptions of these values and ethnic identity were correlated with perceived value, and intention to buy Hanfu. Findings from this study indicated that perceived value and ethnic identity were generally associated with purchase intention of ethnic apparel. Hence, ethnic identity moderated the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention. Finally, compared to emotional value, social value, and uniqueness value, conditional value showed the most influential impact on the perceived value. The findings provide an insight in recognizing factors which play an important role in wearing ethnic apparel. More specifically this research provides insight for traditional apparel marketers to design apparel products and reposition the existing products.

Consumers tend to relate to brands in similar ways as they relate to individuals and groups. However, relatively little is known about the attribution of human traits to brands in online contexts. The current research focused on whether perceived interactivity of CSR advertising leads to the attribution of moral, sociable, and competent brand traits, and which of these traits could in turn promote positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions on Facebook. A Facebook CSR advertisement was presented to participants (N=174), after which perceived interactivity, perceived traits, and eWOM intentions were assessed. Higher levels of perceived interactivity were associated with stronger attributions of morality, sociability, and competence traits to brands. Yet, only perceived brand morality was associated with consumers’ willingness to endorse the brand and its CSR message on Facebook. These findings underline the importance of brands’ openness to dialogue regarding the promotion of CSR activities. Furthermore, these findings suggest that consumers are most likely to feel that brands can represent their identity when brand morality is considered to be high. Despite the importance of eWOM for corporate outcomes, few studies have addressed which processes might underlie the relation between interactive advertising and consumers’ eWOM intentions. The current research contributes to the literature in this field by considering the attribution of humanlike personality traits to brands as possible explanatory variables.

Immersive Virtual Environment Technology (IVET) has emerged as a relevant technology in the marketing environment, with increased use in the retail context (O’Brien, 2016). As its use increases, there is a need to better understand its impact on consumer behavior and the experience that it delivers. Therefore, this study proposes a research model that captures the key constructs in understanding consumer acceptance behavior of the innovative technology used in marketing and how it impacts the brand experience. The objective of this study is to examine 1) antecedents (i.e., message fit and personal innovativeness) that may impact user’s attitude toward the IVET advertisement and self-image congruence, and 2) the transfer of positive or negative IVET advertisement attitude to behavioral intention. Survey was distributed at a large Southern university in USA. Out of 213 survey completed, 143 was usable. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model (SEM) analysis with maximum likelihood method (AMOS 23). The results showed that message fit had no significant impact on ad attitude and self-image congruence. Personal innovativeness had positive impact on ad attitude, but not on self-image congruence. Ad attitude had no effect on self-image congruence while having significant positive impact on offline store and online store visit intentions. Lastly, self-image congruence influences both offline and online store visit intentions. The results demonstrate that evaluation of the virtual world brand experience (i.e., attitude toward the IVET advertisement) is a strong predictor of user behavior toward the brand. A consumer’s interactions with a brand in the virtual environment may provide important information about the consumer’s desire to develop a relationship with the brand in other marketing channels, and serves as an opportunity for the marketer to assist in the buying process. Further, personal characteristic such as personal innovativeness may have a significant impact on a their attitude toward the IVET marketing which further leads to consumer’s decision to visit the online and offline store. In addition, self- image congruence were found to positively affect user’s intention to visit the stores, such that consumers who perceive their brand experience as more consistent with their self-image are more likely to consider purchasing the brand in the real world. The results suggest that some consumers may tend to behave in ways that are congruent with their self-identity across marketing channels.

Introduction Many extant studies in the strategic management literature show that a firm’s network influences its innovation outcomes (Ahuja, Lampert, & Tandon, 2008). Networks are characterized by strong and weak ties in terms of the combination of the amount of time, intensity, intimacy, and reciprocal services (Granovetter, 1973). There is, however, a continuing debate about the relative advantages of strong and weak ties. These equivocal findings suggest that the relationship between tie strength and a firm’s innovation outcome is complex, and call for a more detailed examination of this relationship. The implications of networks for a firm’s innovation outcomes are quite significant. Nevertheless, the majority of research studies still examine networks using simple dyadic relationships (e.g., Capaldo, 2007). In reality, a firm’s networks are composed of more than a single dyadic relationship and are much more complex. Thus, dyadic approaches are limited in providing understanding of networks on a firm’s innovation performance. As such, we will take the perspective of a focal firm in a triad network. While still relatively simple, the triad network approach allows us to identify key relationships previously unexplored in network tie configuration, and to shed light on the equivocal results in the extant literature. Specifically, we will examine the position of the strong or weak ties among the firms, and also whether the strong or weak ties are adjacent or non-adjacent to the focal firm. Breakthrough innovation is defined as the basic invention, which leads to the evolution of many subsequent technological developments (Ahuja & Lambert, 2001). This definition suggests that novel and unique knowledge is required to create breakthrough innovation. Indeed, recent research shows that firms need novel knowledge created by network partners to create breakthrough innovation (e.g., Srivastava & Gnyawali, 2011). As such, we investigate how different levels of novel and diverse knowledge arising from the position of network ties impact a focal firm’s breakthrough innovation. Nevertheless, obtaining diverse and novel knowledge from networks does not guarantee the creation of successful breakthrough innovation. A firm needs a capability to learn, absorb and integrate the new knowledge into its works, which is its absorptive capacity. Thus, we examine the moderating role of a firm’s absorptive capacity on the relationship between the impact of the configurations arising from the position of strong/weak ties and a firm’s breakthrough innovation in a triad network relationship. Conceptual Framework We posit six different types of network configurations based on tie strength and position of strong/weak ties that are adjacent or non-adjacent to the focal firm in a triad (Figure 1). For example, Configuration 1 has three strong ties and Configuration 6 has three weak ties. Configuration 2 has two strong ties that are adjacent to a focal firm and one weak tie that is non-adjacent to a focal firm in a triad. Importantly, we use two theories (i.e., network theor and relational theory) to elaborate the impact of six configurations on a firm’s breakthrough innovation, considering the tie strength, the position of strong/weak ties, and whether the strong or weak ties are adjacent or non-adjacent to the focal firm. The first of these is network theory. Network theory and relational theory assert different effects of strong versus weak ties on a firm’s breakthrough innovation. To resolve the ambiguities in the literature on this issue, we combine network theory and relational theory and investigate the implication of the position of the strong or weak ties. We argue that the position of strong/weak ties must be considered to explain the impact of tie strength on firm breakthrough innovation in a triad context. For example, Configuration 2 has two strong ties adjacent to focal firm and one weak tie non-adjacent to focal firm (Figure 1). The non-adjacent weak tie provides potential for diverse and novel knowledge and reduced knowledge redundancy. Also, adjacent two strong ties provide the benefits of commitment and trust, and rich information flow. Additionally, these adjacent strong ties facilitate the transfer of novel knowledge generated from the non-adjacent weak tie. Thus, we argue that Configuration 2 has a potentially positive influence on firm breakthrough innovation. Configuration 5 has two adjacent weak ties and one non-adjacent strong tie. The non-adjacent strong tie has high knowledge redundancy and high trust and commitment between the two actors B and C (Figure 1). The non-adjacent strong tie between B and C induces potential opportunistic tendencies toward focal firm and inhibits information sharing with the focal firm. This indicates that the two firms form an alliance to the detriment of the focal firm. Further, adjacent weak ties provide novel and diverse information while maintaining less commitment and trust with the focal firm. Importantly, diverse information from adjacent weak ties is degraded because of the knowledge redundancy generated by non-adjacent strong tie between B and C. Thus, we argue that Configuration 5 has potentially negative influence on firm breakthrough innovation. The above discussion suggests that one cannot determine which type of network ties will tend create a firm’s breakthrough innovation simply by counting the numbers of weak and strong ties in the configurations. One must also consider the position of the strong and weak ties within the network and the focal firm’s absorptive capacity. For example, though there is a high level of knowledge redundancy created by the non-adjacent strong tie in Configuration 5, if the focal firm has strong ability to learn, the focal firm can still capture and use the limited new knowledge, depending on its absorptive capacity. Next, we explain how firm’s absorptive capacity influences the relationship between six configurations and breakthrough innovation. Methods We will collect a full sample of data from three main data sources: alliance data from the Securities Data Company (SDC) on Joint and Alliances, patent data from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) U.S. Patent Citation 1997-2016, and financial data from COMPUSTAT. The initial sample will consist of all firms that announced a triad of strategic alliance firms across industries from 1997 to 2016 in the United States. Implications Our study makes two key contributions. First, we investigate the impact of various triad strong/weak tie network configurations on a firm’s breakthrough innovation. We test various effects accrued from the position of strong/weak ties that are adjacent or non-adjacent to a focal firm on the focal firm’s breakthrough innovation in the triad network. By examining these relationships, we uncover critical implications of the tie strength previously unexplored in the network literature. We provide conceptual advancement of Granovetter’s notion of the strength of weak ties, showing the importance of the position of strong or weak ties as a critical driver to influence a firm’s breakthrough innovation. Second, we investigate how a focal firm’s absorptive capacity moderates the impact of network configurations on a firm’s breakthrough innovation. This provides a more precise and fine-grained understanding of how a firm’s capability to absorb outside knowledge influences the relationship between network configurations and a focal firm’s breakthrough innovation. Combined, our two contributions help to resolve some of the equivocal results in the extant literature regarding the effects of strong or weak ties on breakthrough innovation.