Prior research found a firm’s strategic orientation has a key impact on product innovativeness performance (Ozkaya et al., 2015). Both marketing orientation and learning orientation help firms to develop new product designs, generate innovative ideas, and achieve a better business performance (Narver & Stanley, 1990; Chuang, Morgan & Robson, 2015; Calantone et al, 2002). In line with prior studies, the purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of absorptive capacity (ACAP) (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) on the effect of a firm’s strategic orientation (i.e., marketing orientation and learning orientation) on product innovativeness. We further investigated how environmental uncertainty moderates the effects of market orientation and learning orientation on product innovativeness. Survey method is adopted to collect data from Chinese manufacturer SMEs in the IT industry. 318 questionnaires were collected and analysed. CFA result shows that all constructs meet minimum requirements for reliability and discriminant validity test. Structural Equation Model (SEM) test reveals that both learning orientation and competitor orientation have significant impacts on product innovativeness, and ACAP plays partial meditation roles to effects from learning orientation to product innovativeness, and competitor orientation to product innovativeness. Customer orientation does not show a direct effect on product innovativeness, but is fully mediated by ACAP. We further tested whether the model is moderated by environmental uncertainty (EU) and result shows that EU only moderates the impact from learning orientation to product innovativeness. By developing a model of strategic orientation– absorptive capacity- product innovativeness, we contribute to the extant literature in strategic marketing.

The aim of this research is to improve our understanding of the success factors of the front end of innovation (hereinafter, front end) for highly innovative products. Our approach is uncommon in three ways. First, the front end is not considered as a uniform whole, but as consisting of three heterogeneous phases/outcomes, which could require a different mix of resources. Second, a comprehensive range of explanatory factors is scrutinized, including company-, people- and openness-related factors. Third, openness is represented not only by relational breadth and depth, but also relational quality. We examine information originating from two different sources: (1) an ad-hoc survey which provided information from a representative sample of 190 companies, and (2) a secondary data source compiled by the Statistical Office of a regional government in Spain. By using two information sources, we were able to triangulate data and control for validity and common method bias. We found that success in each of the three phases of the front end of new product development is explained by different factors. Relational quality, strategic flexibility and creative culture contribute to the creativity of ideas. The drivers of product definition proficiency appear to be relational quality, technical expertise and creative culture. Finally, front end and technical expertise, leadership and relational depth contribute to project plan proficiency. Overall, our research suggests that empirical studies that consider the front end as a whole and do not consider openness, and, in particular, relational quality, could be misleading.

Introduction In order to solve the information asymmetry and make full use of resources (unused goods, spare capacity and so on), the sharing economy, which based on the application of mobile internet technology and focused on the consumption of the right to use, is developing rapidly. Lack of trust is considered to be one of the important problems hindering the development of sharing economy. Möhlmann (2015) said that trust is a fundamental determinant of sharing economy development and ensuring shared satisfaction. At present, sharing economy enterprises have established product evaluation system and docked a third party credit rating system (i.e. Zhima Credit) to promote consumers’ trust. However, with most enterprises are becoming more and more consistent in evaluation and credit rating system, there is a new problem emerged: how to further deepen consumers’ trust in order to promote consumers’ intention to participate continuously (Zucker, 1986; Lewis & Weigert, 1985). Granovetter (1985) mentioned that trust is the product of social relationships. Botsman and Rogers (2011) made it clear that social networks play an important role in building trust in sharing economy. And people are always more willing to accept the opinions of people who have social relations with them (Lu, Zhao, & Wang, 2010). Hence, with the feature of participant of everyone in sharing economy, it is necessary to further strengthen consumers’ trust through the social interaction among consumers and between consumers and sharing platforms. Theoretical Development Sharing economy is based on LBS and other new technologies to realize the matching of supply and demand information across time and space. And to a certain extent, it solves the problem of information asymmetry in the era of e-commerce. Yet consumer have new requirements for product information. For example, consumers are more concerned about whether the utility of products and services can meet their needs (i.e. some consumers are more concerned about when to reach their destination than the performance of the car). But it is difficult for company to understand each everyone of consumers’ utility preference and publish product utility information based on these preferences (Xie & Gerstner, 2007). Because this kind of utility preference has the characteristic of timeliness and personalization. Therefore, consumers’ perceived uncertainty about the utility of the product will also affect the consumers’ trust. In summary, we then address these research questions:(1) can the promotion of trust between consumers and sharing platforms be achieved through the socializing of sharing platforms and then affect consumers’ intention to participate continuously; (2) if so, which type of privacy protection method and social information can promote consumer trust; and (3) does the impact of sharing platform socialization on consumer trust vary according to consumers’ concerns about the perceived utility uncertainty of the product. Research Design We then address these issues using experiment data. The first experiment was a 2 (social media: have, not have) x 2 (individual trust propensity: trust, not trust) between-subject design on the intention to trust sharing platform and participant continuously. Perceived utility uncertainty was added to this design as a moderator. Moreover, the second experiment was a 2 (social information type: hedonic, utilitarian) x 2 (degree of privacy protection: week, strong) between-subject design on the intention to trust sharing platform. Our scales come from existing scales and optimize it according to the characteristics of sharing economy (Schneider, 1999; Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000; McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar, 2002). Results and Conclusion The results of the first experiment show that whether or not the social platform has no significant impact on the consumer trust if the individual tends to trust others. And for individuals who tends to do not trust others, they are more likely to trust socialized sharing platforms. The higher the consumer perceived utility uncertainty is, the higher (lower) trust of the consumer platform in the socialized (not socialized) sharing platform. For the second experiment results, in the context of sharing economy, the utilitarian information has a greater positive impact on the consumer trust than the hedonic information. In addition, the stronger the privacy protection of sharing platforms, the higher the trust of consumes. This study makes several academic contributions. First, we extend the topic of socialization to sharing economy context. Second, we add the perceived utility uncertainty as a moderator, and supplement the role of perceived uncertainty. This research also provides several practical implications. First, sharing platform can promote their consumers’ trust by establishing their own social platform. This platform can be used as a differentiated competitive strategy for sharing platform. Second, sharing platform should guide consumers to share utilitarian information (i.e. weather for specific place or real time traffic) to improve consumer satisfaction. Third, sharing platform can access consumer preference information through this social platform for further product development and classification.

Introduction Business model (BM) research currently represents rapidly developing area of knowledge that helps businesses in finding new sources of competitive advantage and growth drivers. Multiple studies demonstrate that BM studies are multidisciplinary by their nature as this helps better understanding complex processes happening in real life that are described by BM research (Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011; Tikkanen et al, 2005). This means that BM research is built on a basis of strategic management, marketing, sociology, psychology, logistics, institutional economics and other disciplines. Regardless the growing amount of publications in this area (more than 6 times growth for the last 15 years reaching 2100 publications per year according to Scopus) the amount of successful BM in practice remains low. BM studies are primarily linked to the notion of value that is jointly created for the final consumer by multiple participants of the value chain (suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channels). Within the interaction of BM participants the key role is played by their orientation towards the interests of the final consumer who makes the decision on whether to acknowledge or not the created value. As value chain generally consists of multiple commercial organizations, their major interest is in making profits as a result of joint value creation activities. Therefore the key role in BM analysis is played by marketing that helps searching and offering such values for the customer that enable satisfying his needs. Multiple research in marketing confirms that long term customer orientation, cooperation of value chain actors offer companies better development opportunities and lead to better financial results as well as help increasing value generated for the final consumer. However, the current level of marketing involvement into the BM research remains low. This, in turn, significantly limits the opportunities of creating successful and sustainable BM that bring profits to the commercial units of the value chain and satisfy the needs of the final consumer. To address the existing gap the current paper explores the links between BM research and marketing which are then used to develop a new approach to BM innovation. The approach is based on value chains and interfirm relationships. Literature review Regardless large and steadily growing amount of BM publications the questions related to building a unified theoretical basis for BM research are still under discussion (Teece, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011; DaSilva, Trkman, 2014; Baden- Fuller, Mangematin, 2015). There is a lack of alignment between the researchers on a broad spectrum of questions (such as BM definition, BM components, the relation between BM and company strategy, BM boundaries, the impact of various BM types on company performance etc). At the same time some consolidation of researchers’ positions can be observed in relation to the domination of a value component within BM definition. The questions related to BM analysis that enable to evaluate the current state of a BM, understand its key components (Hamel, 2000; Johnson, Christensen, Kagermann, 2008; Teece, 2010) and find better opportunities for BM improvement (Osterwalder, Pigneur, 2010; Girotra, Netessine, 2014) are actively researched. Many authors come to a conclusion that a BM spans the boundaries of a single firm and includes a whole complex of interaction participants – suppliers, distribution channels, final consumers. This is because cooperation of various market participants enables to significantly increase jointly created value for the customer (Nenonen, Storbacka, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011). This understanding of a BM also leads to the need of thorough analysis of mismatches and inconsistencies between value chain participants that regularly appear in the business (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Csik, 2013; Girotra, Netessine, 2014). Regardless the existing variety of BM studies, most of the papers draw the attention to the process of value creation for the final consumer, which is a zone of marketing interests, as marketing studies the directions of identifying and satisfying customer’s needs. Therefore it is hard to imagine building successful BM oriented on the final consumer and bringing stable income to the companies participating in the BM without organic inclusion of the customer into the value chain by using methods and tools from marketing. These questions are studied within multiple relationship marketing papers (Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; Gumesson, 1999; Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; Tretyak, 2013). However, nowadays the involvement of marketing researchers in BM studies is low (only 5% of BM studies are published in marketing journals (Coombes, Nicholson, 2013)) which is also confirmed by the current study. Despite the very broad spectrum of studied questions, the importance of value acknowledgement by the customer is neglected by BM researchers. At the same time in case the value is not acknowledged, the BM loses its commercial value for the other participants as it stops bringing them profits. Therefore there is a growing need to incorporating the final consumer into the value chain, understanding its interests. This is possible in case of using the results of marketing research which is demonstrated in the current study. Research design To explore the link between marketing and BM research we review the literature on relationship marketing that is specialized on the value creation process for the customer, inclusion of the customer into the value chain, cooperation and coordination of value chain participants (Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; Gumesson, 1999; Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; Tretyak, 2013). The similarities between BM research and marketing were examined from two sides. The first examination analyzes the publications statistics of BM papers. We particularly look at the amount of BM publications in marketing journals. The classification of journals by different categories is conducted according to Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR) list. For the purpose of this analysis we use Scopus publications database and all the available articles with “business model” in title published before 2018. The relative “typicality” of these papers and journals is evaluated using citation index (number of citations per article/journal divided by total number of citations). Along with this we analyze not only journals which publish BM articles, but also the journals referring to them. The second examination looks into the actual similar attributes of marketing and BM research. The BM literature is studied through the prism of seven schools of thought that are recently proposed by (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Sauer, 2016): Activity system school (Zott, Amit), Process school (Demil, Lecocq), Cognitive school (Baden Fuller, Morgan), Technology-driven school (Chesbrough, Teece), Strategic choice school (Casadeus-Masanell, Ricart), Recombination school (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Csik), Duality school (Markides, Charitou). These seven schools provide a comprehensive outlook on major BM research tendencies that help in understanding of BM essence, structure, components, goals and objectives, BM performance evaluation, and the directions of future BM studies. Additionally to better understand BM key research trends we analyzed top 25 most cited publications according to Scopus and Ebsco publication databases (the publications with “business model” notion in title were selected). For the purpose of theoretical analysis we applied the methods of comparison, generalization, methods of grouping and classification. The basis of the current research is formed by value chains studying methods that are used in both BM and marketing studies. Results and conclusions The analysis of BM research demonstrated that BM spans the boundaries of a single firm and includes the whole complex of interaction participants that jointly create and deliver value to the final consumer - suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channels. Because of that multiple BM research papers focus on the analysis of the value chains and intercompany networks. Understanding of these specifics formed the basis of a new approach to BM innovation. It is demonstrated that the existing approaches to BM analysis and improvement don’t include the final consumer as a specific BM component, and don’t focus the attention on fulfilling his needs as well as building the mechanism of BM actors’ interaction in accordance with customer’s needs. At the same time the acknowledgement of the value by the customer defines the financial wellbeing of BM actors. Addressing these questions can significantly improve BM performance and can be done through building a link between BM research and marketing. The analysis demonstrated that only 6% of BM papers are published in marketing journals, and only 8% of studies that are citing BM research are published in marketing journals which confirms limited involvement of marketing scholars in BM research. The following similarities between BM and marketing studies were identified and explored: value chains and interfirm networks (examples of marketing studies: Tretyak, 2013; example of BM studies: Nenonen, Storbacka, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011), cooperation and partnerships between value chain participants (examples of marketing studies: Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; example of BM studies: Zott, Amit, 2008), coordination of value chain participants (examples of marketing studies: Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; example of BM studies: Girotra, Netessine, 2014), customer orientation and customer involvement (examples of marketing studies: Gumesson, 1999; example of BM studies: Johnson, Christensen, Kagermann, 2008; Teece, 2010), long term orientation of relationship marketing and sustainable BM (examples of marketing studies: Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; example of BM studies: Girotra, Netessine, 2014). To close the existing gap a three-level conceptual model (1st level – structure of the BM, 2nd level – mechanism of BM participants’ interactions, 3rd level – results of their interactions) and new approach to BM innovation are offered within the current study. The approach demonstrates a step-by-step sequence of actions within three previously highlighted levels and is targeted on increasing the jointly created value for the customer by the BM by eliminating mismatches and inconsistencies between BM participants. Comparing to other approaches, the new approach allows orienting BM participants towards the interests of the final consumer, acknowledges different abilities of BM actors to influence the value creation process and proposes analyzing the ways of coordination of other BM actors by the dominating actor in order to improve the results of the BM. The practical implementation of the approach demonstrated that it’s key provisions could be successfully applied within different market conditions and lead to improved BM performance (Klimanov, Tretyak, 2016; Lyashchuk, Sterligova, 2016). The following sequence of actions is proposed within the approach: 1st level - structure of the BM (a. Visualization of intercompany network with its key actors and description of their roles; b. Defining and highlighting the dominating actor (hypothesis); c. Analysis of BM variety, their classification), 2nd level - interaction mechanism (a. Defining the mechanism (concrete forms) and coordination directions that are applied by the dominating actor and other BM actors; b. Definition and analysis of mismatches and inconsistencies that appear between various BM actors, and also the ways to overcome them; c. Identifying the most critical inconsistencies, their ranking (where there is the biggest gap between the value created for the customer and the value captured by other BM actors)), 3rd level - results of BM actors’ interaction (a. Analysis of the indicators that characterize BM on various levels; b. Analysis of the impact of mismatches and inconsistencies between the BM actors on the flows’ characteristics: material, financial, customer flow). The new approach to BM innovation has multiple similarities with Activity system school that is based on the approach offered in (Zott, Amit, 2010), which views BM as a system of interdependent activities conducted by the focal firm and other value chain participants in order to create value for the customer and generate profits. The approach assumes that it is possible to analyze or develop a BM by considering the components, structure and control mechanism of the activity system. However, the approach offered in the current study is different from the Activity system perspective at the level at which the activity system is analyzed - these are components of a whole value creation system, rather than a single focal firm. Thus, the proposed approach develops the Activity system perspective by proposing the use of a marketing scheme that integrates certain aspects of BM analysis into an organic whole and offers a threelevel analysis of a BM. Considerable attention in the Activity system perspective focuses on the activities of BM participants and their interaction. The activity system design element related to transaction management also reflects one of the key elements of the new approach proposed in the current study - BM participants occupy different positions in the value chain and have different opportunities to influence the value creation process for the consumer. The highlighted similarities demonstrate that the new approach to BM innovation developed in the study is organically linked to the Activity system perspective proposed by Zott and Amit and elaborates on it.

In this paper we explore the concept of gamification and its business applications in the Russian companies. Gamification has been introduced in 2003 and since that time it has acquired a wide recognition as an efficient tool to enhance front-office and back-office business processes increasing performance and boosting engagement of the participants. Gamification refers to the use of game elements and designs in non-game environments. As a result customers and employees involved stay more focused and motivated to accomplish the chosen goal. We explore customer engagement practices (gamification) of the Russian companies including application areas, funding and perceived efficiency of these initiatives and their shifts over time. Our analysis is based on two waves of data collection: 2015 and 2018, as the result we outline four groups of practices based on the scope of the gamification techniques used and variety of the business processes involved. Also we provide comparative analysis and observe changes in gamification use over time.

The paper presents the longitude study of Internet technologies introduction into business model. Rapid spread of Internet technologies has a significant impact on the business models transformation. Today, information technology has become an integral part of communication with customers. In 2017 the penetration rate of the Internet in Russia reached 73%. Thus, almost 3/4 of the population is currently Internet users and be reached online. On the one hand, Internet communication speeds up and simplifies the processes; on the other hand, the key competitive advantage of direct selling business model is blurred. For ages business model was based on direct interpersonal contacts between the distributor and the customer. In this business model relationship creates more value than the product itself [Luk, Fullgrabe, Yi, 1996] and face-to-face meeting is the key descriptor [Sanan, 1997]. Direct selling is cultivated through relationships and provides customer-centric marketing opportunities [Harrison, Hair, 2017]. The question of this study is whether introduction of innovative Internet technologies into communication with customers is beneficial for traditional direct selling business model. Empirical research is based on comparative analysis of data from three survey waves (6380 respondents in 2011, 5638 respondents in 2014 and 6800 respondents in 2017). Effectiveness of Internet usage the for communicate with customers was analized in dynamics over the three waves of 2011, 2014, 2017. Using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method 15 (fifteen) hypotheses were checked. Nine (9) out of 15 (fifteen) hypotheses were confirmed. Research revealed that personalization determines the effectiveness of communication with customers via internet-based tools (e-mail, web site, social networks, professional social networks, video channels, blogs, microblogs, videoconferences and webinars, messaging applications and files). Nevertheless, face-to-face communication remains significant communication channel for success in direct-selling

Introduction Environmental problems, especially waste problem are the responsibility of the state, first of all. But in the developed countries the flexibility of the utilization system is attached to small recycling firms – ecological entrepreneurs (ecopreneurs). At the present time, a typical situation in the sphere of waste management in Russia can be characterized by total absence or minimum organization of waste selective collection (less than 5%) and almost total absence of recycling companies (Korshenko et al., 2015). Recycling companies themselves have to create a raw material market and a sales market using innovative business models. Although the literature on the entrepreneurship states that there are good openings for the entrepreneurs due to the transformation to the “green” business, ecopreneurial practices are considered to be under-investigated. The most part of the literature is focused on the identification of well-established entrepreneurs but the topic of business models received little attention. This paper investigates the characteristics of ecological entrepreneurship business models in the recycling industry in Russia. Theoretical Development The relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainable development has been addressed by various streams of thought and literature such as social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, ecological entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2011). Schaper (2010) has argued that adopting a sustainable business framework may create new opportunities for entrepreneurs, including the reconfiguration of existing business models. So far, the literature on business models for sustainable entrepreneurship has received little attention (Jolink & Niesten, 2015). It need to be answered the following basic questions that shape the business model (Morris et al., 2005). (a) How and for whom will the firm create value? (b) What is the firm’s internal source of advantage and how will this provide the basis for its external positioning? (c) How will the firm make money, and how does this relate to the firm’s scope and size and time ambitions? Jolink and Niesten (2015) have opted for those ecopreneurs that operate in the processing and retail of organic food and beverages (eco-products) in the Netherlands. They define the ecopreneurial business model and specify four varieties of this business model, which consist of different combinations of environmental scope and a focus on the mass market and profitability. Jolink and Niesten (2015) assumed that the distinguishing factor of the ecopreneurial business model is that it transforms disvalue into value, thereby creating greater customer value for environmentally concerned consumers. But in the literature, ecological entrepreneurship is understood as a wide kind of goods and services: from the development and sale of resource and energy-saving technologies, recycling, to ecotourism, the production of organic food and other products and eco-restaurants. It can be assumed that the business models, and the mechanism of transformation of negative consumer value may differ depending on the sector in which ecopreneurship is carried out. Recycling is a very specific industry, since waste itself is the source of the consumer disvalue. Given all of the above, our research question sounds like: What are the features of business models of recycling firms? Research Design Considering the research question, stage of the development of the theory of ecopreneurship, and importance of the context, we assume that case methodology are more suitable for this research. The unit of analysis – business model. Population was specific. That is Companies engaged in wastes recycling in the Primorye Territory, Russia. The sample is theoretical (nonrandom), includes the cases of two companies. Data sources include interview, documents, open sources. The interviews were subsequently coded in order to facilitate comparisons and to find a pattern or structure in the data. The data were triangulated by a variety of means according methodology of case study. Result and Conclusion The resulting business model descriptions show how business is done by the ecopreneur, and how, and for whom, the firms create value (Zott & Amit, 2007). The companies cases show that in the ecological entrepreneurship value creation can be related to what the consumer value as well as to what they don’t value. The wastes themselves are the source of the consumers disvalue. But in the case of wastes recycling the customers experiencing the disvalue and receiving the value transformed from it are quite different consumers. Abilities for solving the clients’ ecological issues due to the entrepreneurial thinking and social ideology developed as a result of the ecopreneurial practice (Jolink & Niesten, 2015) are the internal source of a firm advantages and the basis for the external positioning (Morris et al., 2005) of the recycling companies. According to Jolink and Niesten (2015) classification of business models of ecopreneurship, business models of companies combine the features of an income model and a subsistence model. So, we have drawn the following conclusions. The academic field of ecological entrepreneurship is only just developing. By combining the literature on ecological entrepreneurship with the empirical research on business models, we explore the mechanisms of value creation by green businesses, and make several contributions to the literature. First, we studied entrepreneurial practices in a specific and little explored form of ecopreneurship – in the recycling. Second, building on Jolink and Niestens’ (2015) schematic representation of replacing consumer disvalue by consumer value, we developed scheme of process of transformation of consumer value by the recycling companies. Thus, this study contributes to the conceptualization of the theory of ecological entrepreneurship.

Creativity and innovation are crucial components of new product development (NPD) and incorporating environmental sustainability adds an extra dimension to the creative process, particularly for the fashion industry, which is a key sector in the UK creative industries that form a significant part of the national economy. Fashion designers’ creativity during NPD can be facilitated by effective collaboration with roles such as product technologists and buyers. This paper discusses ways in which creative knowledge and processes can be applied to innovative sustainable product development, exploring barriers and enablers involved in widening the availability and adoption of environmentally sustainable fashion. NPD is one of the more tangible aspects of creativity that can be managed, whereas creative design thinking is less tangible and logical, thus making it potentially incompatible with managers who are often more business-orientated and risk-averse in their approach than designers (Puryear, 2014). This can create tension for teams when selecting the most appropriate products for production and sustainable product features have traditionally not been a priority for fashion companies. Making products more sustainable is one of the challenging constraints that designers increasingly need to address within NPD, due to the high sustainability impacts of clothing in both environmental and social terms (Hjelmgrem et al., 2015). This research will adopt a qualitative approach, involving semi-structured interviews with a sample of 20 product development professionals from retailers, brands and manufacturers in the UK fashion business, during August to October 2018. In conclusion, the study will build on the primary research results to develop an original conceptual framework in the form of a model to facilitate product developers’ awareness and understanding of sustainability issues within creative processes and to adopt a new vocabulary to elicit more effectual communication regarding sustainability between NPD actors.

Introduction Brand community influences consumer behavior due to the growing impact of social media in both virtual environment and in real life. Social networks for the brand - it's an opportunity to simply, accessible and round the clock talk about all the important events of its audience within an online brand community. The subject of our research is based on the type of user and the motivations for participating in the online brand community. We investigate how the brand relationship quality and online brand community engagement are related and what consumer motives influence the online brand community engagement. This study represents how brands and consumers make interactions in a virtual environment. Theoretical Development Past research demonstrates that members of brand communities are motivated to join or participate in life of brand communities for various reasons. Some scholars distinguish motives, values, drivers, stimulating the attention, activity, relationship with the online brand community or brand commitment and engagement as well. They include: information or knowledge-seeking motives, entertainment, remuneration, personal identity, integration, social interaction, sense of belonging, level of communication, self-discovery and hedonic benefits (Muntinga, Moorman, & Smit, 2011; Dholakia & Bagozzi, 2004; Yen, Hsu & Huang, 2011; Wang, Fesenmaier, 2004). The benefits gained by consumers through engaging in an OBC are obvious, which were discussed in prior studies (Yen, Hsu & Huang, 2011) such as entertainment, gratification, social – appreciation or learning (Wang, Fesenmaier, 2004). But accordingly to Tseng, Huang & Setiawan (2017) the main initial reasons why people join the online brand community are usually pragmatic, for example, they seek information or entertainment. Tseng, Huang & Setiawan (2017) focus on two pragmatic motives, knowledge- and entertainment seeking motives, that served as the members‟ initial drives to participate in online brand communities. They categorized motivations into pragmatic (functional-related) and symbolic (social-related) motives. In this case, not all of the motives are on the same level. Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh (2004) demonstrated that the crucial factor that influence on the interaction of consumers with online brand communities is that consumers are more actively involved in online communities when there are economic incentives (discounts, actions, competitions). Zhou, Zhang et al. (2012) came to a similar conclusion, that companies should provide material assistance and also deliver care and rewards to the brand community as well. Communication can relate to the necessity to receive feedback from the brand on the issues of consumer‟s interest as well as communication with community members, which may be caused by motives such as social – appreciation, creating a status or self-esteem status, sharing personal experience, self-confidence or establishing relationships (Dholakia, Bagozzi, and Pearo 2004). For brands, on the one hand, it is important to understand the motives of the community members, and on the other, to help them achieve their goals. Directly concerned the online brand community allows not only to increase brand awareness, establish brand identity to the consumer's perception, but also promotes the penetration of the brand's personality into the consumer's lifestyle. That is why such serious importance should be paid to the content (filling) of the brand pages: external events, news, which can be popular in the internet environment, or simply congratulates subscribers on holidays (Schau, Muñiz, & Arnould, 2009). Great attention is paid to the diversity of content in the brand communities of well-known cosmetic brands: video lessons, make-up instructions, contests for every new product launch, interesting facts about the brand, beauty memories for instance. In the brand communities of sports goods the content of expert materials about sports and their benefits is used, about the nuances of performing certain exercises, about proper nutrition, about new scientific discoveries concerning sports and health, and even food recipes. But qualitative content is not a frequent phenomenon, as mass borrowings of other people's materials and ideas are most often observed. If the content is really useful and qualitative, then the community will gain tremendous trust from subscribers or active members (Habibi et al., 2014). Motivational content is important for brand promotion as well. For example, motivation is often not enough for people to start a healthy lifestyle. And due to the lack of motivation many consumers throw begun half-way. If the company gives selfconfidence to the community members, then it will become a loyal friend to them and will be able to gain trust, create an emotional connection with them. This variety of content in one account is useful for different categories of subscribers. Therefore it is worth emphasizing that for communities it is important UGC (user generated content). According to Muntinga et al. (2011) the term „user-generated content‟ (UGC) is used for the content produced and uploaded by consumers rather than companies. Schau, Muñiz, & Arnould (2009) demonstrate that companies can encourage the interaction of practices to foster greater customer engagement with the brand in the process of value co-creation. Choi, Ko and Kim (2016) emphasized that value cocreation means that customer emotional, cognitive, and behavioral experiences are the basis of the value, impressions, recognition, and internalization they accord to the brand. Some people like to participate in the creation of content, give some recommendations. Accordinly to Schau, Muñiz, & Arnould (2009) if the firms give consumers the opportunity to construct brand communities and the freedom to modify their products, they will be ready to take the initiative. Different motives, values, brand trust, brand loyalty, brand identification and brand community identification are related. Martínez-López, Anaya, & Molinillo (2017) explain in their study, that members‟ OBC engagement and participation based on their relationships with other members and with the community sponsor (companies/brands). But there are points of view that determine that the relationship between motives and community commitment can be both direct and indirect. Bagozzi & Dholakia (2004), Zhou & Zhang et al. (2012) support the positive influence of brand community identification on brand identification and attachment. Previous studies find that members‟ commitment to a brand community leads to their commitment to the brand (Kim, Choi, Qualls, & Han, 2008) and consequently consumers tend to purchase the same brand consistently (Algesheimer et al., 2005). Positive aspects of the community's influence will lead to positive behavioral intentions, such as consumer recommendations for joining this community to friends and acquaintances (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, 2004). Therefore electronic positive word-of-mouth‟(eWOM) on social media is significant tool for online consumer-to-consumer interactions both about brands (Muntinga et al., 2011) and about brand communities (Pop & Woratschek, 2017): consumers can generate and spread brand related information to their friends, peers, and others without constraints (Kim & Ko, 2012). The best channel for promotion at any level is a positive experience that a person receives from the use of products, and the desire to share it arises as a consequence. Cooperation with opinion leaders has recently become a priority for many brands. In addition, collaboration with different bloggers allows to establish contact with a wider audience, because in the last few years it is the authors of popular blogs that shape the tastes and preferences of the public. Leaders of opinion help shape the brand's image in the eyes of the widest audience of consumers and, as a result, influence sales. Quite often, when bloggers become brand ambassadors, they take part in advertising campaigns. Research Design In our study we attempt to determine the influence of the type of consumer (innovators, opinion leaders, status seekers, etc.), the motives for participating in the online brand community (entertainment, information search, reward, hedonistic motives, self-expression) on online brand community engagement (interaction), positive WOM online brand community. Therefore, this study particularly addresses the following research questions: 1. What consumer motivations influence the online brand community engagement and the positive WOM online brand community? 2. Does the brand identity influence the online brand community engagement (interaction) and the positive WOM online brand community? 3. What factors influence the promotion activity of brand and online brand community? Our study suggests that consumer motivations (social interaction, knowledge seeking, hedonic motives) and type of consumers (innovators, opinion leaders, status seekers) positive influence on the online brand community engagement and WOM brand community. Accordingly, we have developed the following hypothesis: H1: Hedonic consumer motives influence online brand community engagement positively. Н2: Knowledge seeking consumer motives influence online brand community engagement positively. Н3: Creation UGC consumer motives influence online brand community engagement positively. H4: Opinion leaders influence brand relationship quality positively. H5: Innovativeness (consumer innovators) influence brand relationship quality positively. H6: Brand relationship quality influences e-WOM online brand community positively. Today in Russia, social networks reach 70% of the population (about 87 million people), and many users are active on multiple sites (http://mandmglobal.com/digital-marketing-trends-in-russia-social-networks). 87% of Internet users use social networks, including 51% have accounts in several online communities. Studies by Nielsen show that people increasingly buy online or choose goods and things on social networks, and then buy them offline. Recently most Russian and international fashion, cosmetics, clothing companies have began to use social media actively as a channel of communication with end customers. Data collection took place between March and December 2017. We developed two online questionnaires, using www.esurveycreator.com and conducted research on two topics – interaction with cosmetic and sportswear brand-communities. The popularity of a healthy lifestyle is constantly gaining momentum, and at the same time the number of new sports brands is growing. The survey questionnaires were originally designed in English then translated into Russian using a translation/ backtranslation procedure. All of the constructs used in this study were adapted or modified from extant research and multiple item statements were measured by seven-point Likert type scale. Result and Conclusion A total of 444 respondents from Russia were included in this study: 216 respondents interacted with cosmetic online brand-communities and 228 respondents from sportswear brand-communities. The survey involved young people, as the most active part of social networks users. We found that respondents are mainly subscribed to the community brand in the networks: VK (Vkontakte) and Instagram. Less popular are Facebook and Twitter. Russian social network Vkontakte has the largest audience with a monthly user-base of 82-90 million monthly users (it is most popular with younger users (ages 18-34)), then it is followed by OK, Instagram (about 30-17 mil) and Facebook (21 mil), (http://mandmglobal.com/digital-marketing-trends-in-russia-social-networks). Basically, Instagram is interesting for the audience at the age of 18-24 (36.6%) and 25-34 (34.22%). Older social media users generally prefer the social media site OK (originally Odnoklassniki – “classmates”). OK.ru has over 31.5 million viewers a month, with the majority (69%) being women. (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-8-russian-social-networks- makes-great). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), using AMOS 19.0, was first employed to assess the properties of the constructs. Relevant loadings were significant, and construct reliability values ranged from 0.6 to 0.885. Discriminant validity relies on average variance extracted (all AVEs are at level of 0,5-0,7) and it was supported. The Structural Equation Modelling was conducted for examining the model (fig. 1). Overall model fit indices are satisfactory: RMSEA is = 0.06 (according to Hu & Bentler (1999)), x2/df = 2,9 (Chi-Square=3373, df=1153), CFI =0.87, IFI = 0.819, P-value<0.001. Thus, according to the results of the research, not all hypotheses have been confirmed. We find that hedonic consumer motives, creation UGC consumer motives influence on the online brand community engagement (table 1). Social interaction benefits have significant impact on creation UGC consumer motives (ß=0.96, t=16.86, p<0.001). Knowledge seeking motives has negative influence on the Online brand community engagement (ß= - 0.96, t=-5.086, p<0.001). Finally, our findings reveal that, brand relationship quality has no significant impact on WOM Online Brand Community (ß=0.192, t=3.81, p<0.001), it is not related to the Online Brand Community Engagement. Construct of brand loyalty was completely excluded from the model due to poor findings. Online communities can follow distinctive norms of interaction, contain rituals or general agreements (Jang H., Olfman L., Ko I., Koh J., Kim K., 2008). Accordingly, our further research should include research on the influence of online brand community atmosphere (norms, rituals, traditions) on the intentions to continue to be a member of the community. In addition, we would like to pay more attention to the impact of content types on the intentions of the participants.

In the research of global marketing so far, research on the "arterial industry" that manufactures products and supplies them to the market is mainstream, and empirical studies of downstream automobile distribution service companies and automobile recycling companies are inadequate. Research on global marketing by automobile recycling companies is increasingly required due to the growing global environmental problems and the demand for providing inexpensive high quality mobility. In this research, we will clarify the trajectory of internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises in automobile recycling by using case of KaihoSangyo Co. exporting used parts to 85 countries including Africa. This company is a global advanced company of automobile recycling with headquarters in Kanazawa. He received a variety of outside awards including SDGs business awards. KaohoSangyo's automobile recycling overseas development project is an effort to combine commercial success and sustainable development. The company has established a system to export second-hand used parts of used cars in Japan to developing countries, to visualize quality, to buy and sell. In addition, we are building a system that is beneficial and necessary for emerging countries, such as nurturing overseas buyers' talent, constructing second-hand parts procurement systems in Japan, building overseas second-hand car auction systems. As a result, shortage of mobility in developing countries has been resolved through realization of low price, realizing the reuse of used parts in Japan in emerging and developing countries.

This research paper examines the role of adaptive capability and absorptive capability in the development of digital marketing capability that, in turn, influences the firm performance. The results reveal that both adaptive and absorptive capabilities have a positive influence on digital marketing capability that positively contributes to customer relationship, new product and financial performance of the firm. The adoption of new digital technologies such as smart products, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning will change markets, competitive landscapes, business models and consumer behaviors, new thinking about marketing capabilities becoming critical to succeed in today complex environment (Day, 2011; Kannan & Li, 2017). To remain competitive and survive, organizations have to develop new marketing capabilities to harness the potential of these technologies in supporting marketing functions and processes (Trainor, Rapp, Beitelspacher & Schillewaert, 2011). Despite the rapid diffusion of digital technologies in business practice, only few previous researches was focused on theoretical and empirical aspects of marketing capabilities needed in digital-empowered environment. To fill this knowledge gap, we develop the digital marketing capability construct, and explore its antecedents and consequences on performance.

Specifics of emerging markets raise some questions on the applicability of wellestablished marketing concepts and scales, widely used in the developed markets, in the context of emerging markets. Over the past twenty years emerging markets have remained one of the main focus of marketing research. The interest of the researchers to the emerging markets is not accidental, it is caused by the peculiarities of the developing markets. Specific features of the emerging markets challenge the use of approaches designed for developed markets in emerging markets. Existing research describes peculiarities of emerging markets and shows the evidence of inability to use the theories designed in the developed markets in emerging markets (Burgess, Steenkamp, 2006; Sheth, 2011). The external environment and the increasing competition force companies to rethink their marketing activities and seek new sources of competitive advantages, and one of the primary tasks for the company is the development of customer orientation (Jacob, 2006; Ellis, 2006; Frambach, Fiss, Ingenbleek, 2016). Customer orientation (CO), as one of the key concepts of contemporary marketing, requires rethinking in the context of emerging markets (Sheth, 2011; Roersen, Kraaijenbrink, Groen, 2013; Smirnova, Rebiazina, Frosen, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to develop a tool for a complex evaluation of the company’s CO adapted to the specifics of the Russian emerging market. The empirical study includes mixed qualitative-quantitative design: at the first stage a quantitative survey with representatives of 239 companies operating in the Russian market, and at the second - 62 in-depth interviews were conducted to test the CO scale’s applicability to the Russian market.

Emerging market exporters can no longer merely rely on cost/price advantages as bases for competition. They need to keep up with environmental changes and to initiate the exploitation of market opportunities in order to accelerate foreign market expansion and financial growth. Some of these exporters have begun developing strategies to manage these environmental uncertainties of foreign markets. The adoption of such strategies are consistent with the premise underlying the environment-strategy-performance (ESP) framework, which explains how environmental changes influence strategic choices. The aim of this study was to advance our knowledge of emerging market exporters’ strategic actions by examining the extent to which these exporters utilize information and communication technology (ICTU) and behave proactively under conditions of export market dynamism, which refers to the exporters’ perceived customer-related changes in foreign markets. Literature suggests that ICTU and exporter proactiveness are essential strategic postures for exporters to enhance their performance; nonetheless, an empirical investigation that simultaneously examines both of these factors is still lacking. Our conceptual model was based on the ESP framework, integrating concepts from dynamic capabilities and information processing theory. Four corresponding hypothesized relationships were tested among a diverse sample of 259 exporters in Thailand. Existing scales were adopted to measure Export market performance (EMP), Export financial performance (EFP) and Export market dynamism (EMD) and new scales were developed for ICT utilization (ICTU) and proactive export market development (PEMD). Firm size and exporting experience were included as control variables. With the presence of common method variance (CMV), CMV-adjusted correlations were used in the analyses. Scale validation and hypotheses testing were conducted using factor analyses and structural equation modeling. The results partially substantiate the ESP paradigm, as EMD had a positive relationship with PEMD, but not with ICTU. Also, consistent with dynamic capabilities theory, our findings indicate that PEMD enhanced both EMP and EFP. The pooled data results did not provide full support of the information processing theory, as we only discovered significant EMD-ICTU-PEMD-EMP relationships amongst firms with more exporting experience. Firms with less exporting experience may not be as prepared as those with more experience in processing new information and adjusting their strategies accordingly in a timely manner. These findings have meaningful practical implications for export managers.

Introduction There is ample evidence in the medical research literature to show that the harmful effects of smoking are real. As a result, most governmental agencies around the world attempt to discourage smoking among smokers and nonsmokers alike by requiring cigarette companies to print health-warning messages on their product packages as a means to deter smoking. Little, however, is known about the credibility of these cigarette-warning messages perceived by both smokers and non-smokers alike on the effectiveness of these messages. Other studies have also examined socio-psychological factors other than health warning messages such as peer pressure, bad breadth, et al., (Pechmann, et al, 2003) which can also influence consumer desires whether or not to smoke. No study to our knowledge has incorporated this factor other than just health warning messages in the same model to study this phenomenon. Furthermore, most research on this topic has focused on consumers in western industrialized countries, even though the issues related to smoking can be just as severe in developing countries and warrants more research attention. In this research, we propose to study the credibility of cigarette warning messages on the effectiveness of these messages on deterring smoking behavior and the mediating effects of the perceived health and social risks in an integrated structural equation model (SEM) framework in an emerging country- Turkey. The study should provide insights into how these factors may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently and enable public policy makers to institute programs or strategies targeting the two different segments of consumers. Literature Background and Hypotheses Copious research has reported on the efficacy of Health Warning Message (HWM) in the Health Communications and Marketing literature (for reviews see Hammond, 2011; Noar, et al, 2015; 2016). In the USA, current rules only require health warnings be printed with tiny fonts on cigarette packages. The effectiveness of this format to deter smoking has come into serious questions. Other countries including countries in the EU have long required pictorial depiction of health hazards resulting from smoking be printed on cigarette packages that must occupy a substantial portion (50% or more) of the surface area on the cigarette package. The assumption is that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. However, the results are equivocal at best (Sabbane, et al., 2009). The real impact of HWM continues to be a point for debate as there are other tobacco consumption reduction methods such as increased taxes and smoking bans (Ruiter & Kok, 2005) various governments can and have imposed. Previous research has shown that when consumers believe that smoking behavior leads to unhealthy consequences and is unwise and unattractive, they generally would refrain from engaging in this behavior (Azjen & Fishbein, 1980). However, consumers who think that they are invincible and that these health hazards will never affect them but only other people, may have engaged in the process of rationalization and may actually discount the credibility of these claims. If so, the HWM may become less effective (Kees, et al., 2006). We therefore formulate the following hypothesis: H1: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases the effectiveness of HWMs. On the other hand, the extent to which consumers may perceive that cigarette HWMs to be credible can better persuade them about the health and social risks such as yellow teeth, bad breath, bad smell, et al., leading to social rejection associated with smoking (Pechmann, et al., 2003). Hammond’s review article (2011) provided some evidence that size and the presentation format can enhance the believability of HWMs. We should expect then that a greater perceived credibility will lead to better persuasion. Similarly, Kowitt, et al. (2016) also show in their study that the believability of HWMs vary among the adolescents regarding cigar smoking. Again, the assumption is that if they perceive the messages to be more credible, they will be more effective in persuading them about the harmful effects of smoking. We thus formulate the following two hypotheses: H2: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases negative social risk perception of smoking H3: Perceived credibility of HWMs increase negative health risk perception of smoking Past research has revealed that knowledge about the negative consequences of a behavior can lead to behavior change even though this may be contingent upon how difficult it is to quit a behavior such as smoking (Nourjah, et al., 1994). Consumer behavior literature has confirmed that due to various factors, attitude may not correlate with behavior even in the context of smoking (Ruiter &Kok, 2005; Solomon, 2018). Extant literature suggests that HWMs may be more successful in influencing attitude (Cameron & Williams, 2015). This research focuses on the health risk perception’s potential impact on intention to quit smoking rather than the act of actually quitting smoking. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, other factors such as smoking ban and price increases, et al. may cause smoking behavior change. Hence we present the following hypothesis: H4: Perceived health risks associated with smoking influence the effectiveness of HWMs. Smoking has become less socially acceptable in western industrialized countries in recent years. Many nations and states have now banned smoking in public places such as colleges, restaurants and airports including second hand smokes. This creates a social stigma for many smokers. Smokers, as a result, has to bear greater social risks these days. This may also cause them to develop a negative attitude toward smoking as well as reducing their intention to smoke (Chuang & Huang, 2012). As Turkey is a country whose citizens care more about social acceptance, we postulate the following hypothesis: H5: Perceived social risks of smoking affect the effectiveness of HWMs. As mentioned earlier, the effectiveness of HWMs may vary according to subjects’ responses to such messages. They may discount the message veracity by a process of rationalization or even by the extent to which they may have been addicted to the habit. This is so particularly for smokers who may have engaged in such behavior for a long time. Hence, one should expect these messages to be more persuasive and thus more effective in dissuading non-smokers from starting the habit. Smokers, on the other hand, are likely to remain unconvinced and view these messages as exaggerations and therefore less affected by these messages (Hammond, 2009; Hahn & Renner, 1998; Pechmann & Knight, 2002). Based on this discussion, we postulate that the impacts of HWMs’ credibility on perceived health and social risks, as well as the messages’ effectiveness will vary depending on the smoking status of the subjects. We expect greater impacts for non-smokers. Therefore, we tested the SEM for smokers and the same model for nonsmokers in this study. The model is shown in Figure 1 in the Appendix. MethodologyWe designed a four parts questionnaire to measure the constructs in the model we used in this study. In the first part of the questionnaire, we first presented the 14 HWMs currently required by law in Turkey to be displayed on cigarette packages. Furthermore, each of these messages is to be rotated on the packages. We then used the semantic differential scale items comprising of five bipolar adjectives derived from previous literature (Beltramini, 1988; Renee & Cameron, 2015) to measure the perceived credibility of HWMs: (1) believable- unbelievable, (2) convincing- unconvincing, (3) reasonable- unreasonable, (4) easy to understand- hard to understand, (5) informativeuninformative. In the second part of the questionnaire, we operationalized the effectiveness construct by asking the respondents to indicate the extent to which they perceived these HWMs as effective on a 1 item semantic differential scale: “HWMs motivate me to quit or not quit smoking” for smokers and “HWMs reduce my curiosity and desire to try smoking” for nonsmokers. In the third part of the questionnaire, we measured health and social risks perceptions by using 4 statements. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement/disagreement with each of the 5- point Likert scales culled from Kim (2006): Smoking makes me “contract various diseases and become addicted (health risks); Smoking makes me look “stupid, filthy (social risks). The last part of the questionnaire asked respondents about their smoking status and demographics including age, gender and the level of education. We collected the data by posting a copy of the questionnaire online on a website dedicated to discussing higher education issues in Turkey (www.akademikpersonel.org). We obtained an effective sample size of 432 after removing those with incomplete answers. Male and female respondents constituted 50 % of the sample each. The largest percentage of respondents was in the age group of 17 to 22 (35 %). Respondents (249) who have achieved the level of a college undergraduate degree or equivalent on education constituted 58 % of the sample. We conducted Chi-sqaure analyses to test significance of demographic differences between the two groups of smokers and nonsmokers. The results revealed no significant differences on age (χ2/3df=4.83; p=0.185), gender (χ2/1df=2.70; p=0.123) and the level of education (χ2/2df= 0.873; p= 0.646) between the smoking and nonsmoking subsamples. ResultsWe used WarpPLS 5.0 to conduct the structural model analyses as this analysis tool does not require the data set to be normally distributed (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We first tested the measurement scales with respect to their convergent and discriminant validities through standardized factor loadings. We conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). We eliminated two items on the credibility scale, which did not reach at least 0.5 on factor loadings for both subsamples. The two remaining items are “believable” and “convincing”. We then evaluated reliabilities of the scales for both subsamples, results for both subsamples showed that both credibility and health risk scales achieved Cronbach’s α scores higher than 0.7. Even though the Cronbach α score for the two items scale to measure social risk only reached a value of 0.6 for each of the subsample, this is considered adequate due to the smaller number of items used (Field, 2013). We assessed the assumptions of PLS-SEM. Variance inflation factors (VIFs) are well below the recommended 3.30. Hence, both vertical and lateral collinearity assumptions were met, thus deemed to be free from the common method bias (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We then evaluated convergent and discriminant validities of the latent construct. Discriminant validity was achieved as the square roots of AVE (average variance extracted) scores were higher than and correlation of the factor with another measure (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). For each subsample, composite reliabilities of all factors were higher than 0.8 and indicators’ loadings higher than 0.5 on the latent constructs. Thus, all scales used in the model achieved convergent validities for each subsample. We then proceeded to test the structural model for each of the subsamples. The results showed that for nonsmokers, the model explained 12% of total variance in the effectiveness of HWMs and for smokers 33%. All path coefficients were significant for nonsmokers except the health risks → HWMs effectiveness (β= 0.05, p= 0.23). Other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.154, p= 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.148, p= 0.014), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.285, p < 0.01) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.148, p < 0.014). For the smokers’ subsample, the path coefficient between the perceived health risks and effectiveness was also shown to be non-significant (β= 0.06, p= 0.19). All other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.197, p < 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.247, p< 0.001), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.503, p < 0.001) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.213, p < 0.001). These results confirmed H1, H2, H3 and H5 but not H4 for both smokers and nonsmokers. Discussion and Conclusion This study reveals some useful insights about how HWMs on cigarette packages may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently in an emerging country- Turkey, which can be used by public policy makers to formulate effective anti-smoking campaigns to target the two groups. The effect sizes appeared to be greater for smokers than nonsmokers. This suggests that if these HWMs can be crafted to be perceived as more credible, the smokers can be more persuaded to quit smoking than for nonsmokers to start smoking. These results appear to be consistent across the board whether we are considering the direct effect or indirect effects through the mediating variables. This is perhaps somewhat consistent with what we would expect based on our earlier discussions. Smokers may be more resistant to HWMs due to the fact they are already engaged in such behavior and therefore more likely to discount the messages as well as the associated health and social risk perceptions. For nonsmokers, on the other hand, it may not take as much to convince them about the harmful effects of smoking and therefore greater perceived credibility of HWMs may be less critical in persuading them not to start smoking. It is important then when designing such HWMs to consider carefully whether these messages are perceived to be credible. Some of the US cigarette warning messages printed in tiny scripts are ambiguous such as smoking can be harmful to your health clearly can not be expected to be highly credible. Research has also shown that pictorial messages can be more persuasive. However, research has also shown that the results are far from being conclusive (Sabbane, et al., 2009). More research is warranted, especially in emerging countries. It is also interesting to note that social risks perceptions are more persuasive than health risks perceptions. Future communications strategies should place a greater emphasis on this factor and not just on health risks. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research Although our study is able to provide some useful insights into how perceived credibility of HWMs can influence the effectiveness in deterring smoking among nonsmokers and smokers alike either directly or indirectly through perceived health and social risks, we would like to point out several limitations of this study. First, we collected our data online using a web portal in Turkey that focuses on discussing higher education issues in general and therefore the respondents’ level of education is higher than the general population as well as the age group being younger. Future study should collect data from other age groups and education levels to produce results that are more generalizable. We conducted our study in one emerging country- Turkey. In future studies, more countries should be included. As the results revealed the prominence of social risks over health risks in influencing the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns, the issue about how to promote the social wellbeing of not smoking (promotional) versus the health risks aspects of the campaign warrants further research.

This research was conducted with the aim to reveal the influence of online travel communities on tourism destinations choice, with the focus on the Russian tourism market. The preliminary results indicated that social media has significant influence on consumer behaviour and decision-making process of Russian travellers. Still, there is additional activity of Russian tourist market actors is needed to more fully use the opportunities of online travel communities.

Attitudes toward advertising as an institution remain an important research topic in developing countries. Even in the West, the issue is currently being revisited to update for various online media contexts. This paper examines attitudes toward advertising among college students in Egypt. There was little difference in attitudes depending on whether they were thinking of traditional TV advertising or advertising on social media, although they use SM much more frequently. Generally the respondents agreed with a range of issues related to the beneficial aspects of advertising, and only slightly agreed or were roughly neutral on most issues related to detrimental effects. There is strong support for laws about ‘truth-in-advertising’ and legal responsibility for claims, but only weak support for direct government control of advertising.

Introduction Understanding political brands is a pertinent concern for the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey. Guernsey is a Channel Island, part of the British Isles yet not a member of the European Union. In addition, Guernsey currently has a nonpolitical party system and all thirty-eight Members of Parliament [otherwise known as Deputies] are independent figures. Further, deputies stand as individuals, and members often form informal alliances repeatedly referred to as collections of constantly changing coalitions of support or ‘quasi-political parties’ Guernsey is set to hold an island-wide referendum by March 2018 on the island’s electoral process, moving from seven constituencies to one island-wide constituency. The Guernsey Government believe the 2018 referendum will impact the way Members of Parliament are elected and envisage the creation and introduction of ‘political parties’, or formal alliances in anticipation for the 2020 General Election. The creation and introduction of political parties [political brands] on Guernsey would be unprecedented to the current-historic political environment of a non-party system structured by independent, individual politicians. Further, it is unknown whether the creation and introduction of political ‘party’ brands would have the same appeal, benefits and success compared with independent ‘individual’ political brands. This presents a unique opportunity for the proposed piece of research, which will have an impact as to whether political parties [political party brands] are desired by Guernsey’s elected representatives and Guernsey citizens-voters, and if so, how will new political parties be created and conceptualised. However, in order to address this we need to frame the study within the sub-discipline of political branding. The application of commercial branding theory to politics is nothing new (O’Cass and Voola 2011; O’Shaughnessy and Baines 2009; Rutter et al. 2015). There is a shared understanding that political parties, pressure groups, politicians, candidates and campaigns can be conceptualised as ‘brands’ (Guzman and Sierra 2009; Needham and Smith 2015; Peng and Hackley 2009; Pich et al. 2016; Scammell 2015; Smith 2009). Further, the sub-discipline of political branding has become a ‘critical’ and ‘priority’ issue that warrants continued attention (Speed et al. 2015). The application of branding to politics has been described as the most appropriate way to understand the political ‘product’ and a mechanism to frame the deconstruction process to understand the political promise put forward by political actors (Scammell 2015). Political brands are complex, multi-layered entities which are often difficult to unbundle (Lees-Marshment 2009; Lock and Harris 1996; Phipps et al. 2010). Further, political brands are powerful tools used as a short-cut mechanism to deconstruct the rational and irrational elements of the political offering (Scammell 2015). This is reinforced with continued calls for future research to focus on generating deeper insight into how political brands are developed and understood particularly in new settings and contexts (Needham and Smith 2015; Nielsen 2016; Ormrod and Henneberg 2011; Pich and Dean 2015; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Subsequently, the objectives of this study are to: - Investigate how current non-party political brands create, develop and communicate their brand identity from the perspective of elected representatives - Explore how current non-party political brand image is understood from the perspective of Guernsey voters - Ascertain whether elected representatives and Guernsey voters desire political ‘party’ brands for the 2020 General Election. Theoretical Background Political brands can be considered a trinity of elements including the party, leader and policy (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). The trinity of elements need to ensure clear identification and differentiation from political competitors (Ahmed et al. 2015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Smith 2008). In addition, effective political brands should be strong, appealing, trustworthy, offer resonance, act as a decision making driver which in turn will support strategy development and build awareness in the mind of voters-citizens (Ahmed et al. 2015; Baines and Harris 2011; O’Cass and Voola 2011). However, the existing literature has tended to focus on ‘party’ political systems and overlooked political brands from non-party political systems where all candidates and politicians are independent candidates and representatives. Nevertheless, what about other typologies of political brands like in non-party systems? In addition, the existing body of knowledge has not explained how political brands exist or develop without the ‘party’ element from the trinity. This proposition is supported the demand for more depth and understanding on political brands especially non-party ‘individual’ political brands [elected representatives] (French and Smith 2010; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Peng and Hackley 2009; Scammell 2015). Despite the calls for more research in this area, there are a few studies that have investigated ‘individual’ political brands. More specifically, studies have focused on politicians or candidates from political ‘parties’ in terms of brand personality, equity, identity or image and often compared ‘corporate’ and ‘individual’ political brands (Cwalina and Falkowski 2014; De Landtsheer and De Vries 2015; Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Smith and Spotswood 2013; Speed et al. 2015). For example, Smith and Spotswood (2013) comparatively considered the brand equity of the UK Liberal Democrat Party from a corporate and individual-local perspective. Smith and Spotwood (2013) highlighted that successful political brands whether corporate or local-individual) communicated clear expectations, focused values, believable promises to constituents, which is often easier at a local rather than national level. Further, Smith and Spotwood (2013) argued that successful corporate political brands would depend on consistency between corporate and local-individual political brands. However, the work by Smith and Spotswood (2013) was developed from speeches, articles and other discourse rather than from the personal perspective of internal stakeholders. Therefore, more depth and understanding from a multi-stakeholder perspective would reveal greater insight into the individual-local political brand particularly in non-party contexts. Existing political branding research primarily adopts either an internal (Busby and Cronshaw 2015; Cwalina and Falkowski 2014; de Landtsheer and Vries 2015; Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Smith and Spotswood 2013) or external perspective to frame studies (French and Smith 2010; Peng and Hackley 2009; Phipps et al. 2010). More specifically, research devoted to an internal ‘brand identity’ perspective directs its attention to the political party, candidate or politician. Brand identity can be conceptualised as the current intended projection formulated and communicated by the brand’s creator with the aim of attempting to establish a desired identity in the mind of the consumer (de Chernatony 2007; Kapferer 2008). Further, brand identity can be seen as a useful approach to generate a deep understanding from an internal standpoint and capture the ‘central ideas of a brand and how the brand communicates these ideas to stakeholders’ (de Chernatony 2007:45; Ross and Harradine 2011; Saaksjarvi and Samiee 2011). In contrast, research focusing on an external ‘brand image’ perspective considers the political offering from a citizen-voter orientation (Needham and Smith 20015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001). Brand image can be considered as the current-immediate associations perceived and formulated in the mind of the consumer, which is often out of control of the brand’s creator (Nandan 2005; Rekom et al. 2006). In addition, brand image is externally created, and manifested through unique associations and perceptions, experiences and expectations linked to physical and intangible elements of a brand (Bosch et al. 2006a; Nandan 2005). Therefore, future research should attempt to capture insight into how political brands develop and communicate identity and how political brands are understood from an internal [revealed by the politician] and external perspective [revealed by the voter] (Baines et al. 2014; Needham and Smith 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Pich and Dean 2015). However, how can we actually comprehend current political brand identity and political brand image? One study that explored an ‘internal-relational orientation’ of several individual political brands was the work by Pich and Dean (2015). Pich and Dean (2015) explored the internal brand identity of UK Conservative Party politicians prior the 2010 UK General Election with the support of Kapferer’s brand identity prism (Kapferer 2008). Further, the work by Pich and Dean (2015) not only revealed the complex related yet distinct nature of individual political brands and their relationship with their ‘corporate Conservative Party’ political brand but also demonstrated the problematic nature of applying the brand identity prism in its original form to deconstruct the internal orientation of a political brand. Pich and Dean (2015) concluded with a revised framework known as the ‘political brand identity network’ and challenged future studies to consider this as a workable tool to understand individual political brands from an internal-relational perspective. However, Pich and Dean (2015) concluded that the ‘political brand identity network’ could also support the understanding of external brand image. Therefore, could the ‘political brand identity network’ aid the exploration of internal political brand identity and external political brand image of non-party political brands? Responding to this gap in the body of knowledge, this research will explore the internal brand identity of an ‘individual’ political brand from the perspective of elected representatives and investigate the external brand image of non-party political brand from the perspective of Guernsey voters. In addition, this study will assess the operationalisation of the ‘political brand identity network’ put forward by Pich and Dean (2015). Further, responding to the challenge from Pich and Dean (2015), this study will assess the usability of the political brand identity network to understand non-party political brand identity and political brand image. This will address the limited development of ‘appropriate models’ and frameworks that can be used to assist political entities in understanding their offering and support strategy development (Nielsen 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod 2011; Scammell 2015). Confusion and advancement can be addressed by building on existing research by assessing existing models and frameworks in comparison with new settings and contexts (Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod and Henneberg 2011; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Research Design As this study aims to explore non-party political brands from a multi-stakeholder perspective, a qualitative interpretivist approach is adopted (Creswell 2007; Welch et al. 2011). This is consistent with the calls across the political branding discipline for more exploratory empirical research (French and Smith 2010; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Peng and Hackley 2009; Scammell 2015). This study will involve two stages. Stage one involves twenty-one semi-structured interviews with current elected Deputies. Deputies from across the eight districts of Guernsey namely; Vale, Vale-West, St Sampson, St Peter Port-North, St Peter Port-South, South East, West and Castel (www.gov.gg) have been selected. Interviews will last between 60-90 minutes and will be conducted by the researchers from March 2018-May 2018. Stage two involves twelve focus group discussions with Guernsey citizens-voters. Focus group discussions will be organised according to voter age group following the conventional approach adopted by research organisitions such as YOUGOV and IPSOS-MORI to explore political brand image. More specifically, this study will adopt purposive sampling framework and Guernsey citizens will be grouped from 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65+ and each group will serve to frame each focus group discussion (Gillham 2005; Malhotra and Birks 2003). Focus group discussions will be conducted July-September 2018. Pilot interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in October 2017 to assess the usability of the interview-focus group schedules and aided developmentrefinement (Gillham 2005). The ‘political brand identity network’ (Pich and Dean 2015) serves as a conceptual framework to provide some structure the interviews-focus group discussions and be incorporated into the interview-focus group schedules (Gillham 2005; Zikmund 2003).Transcripts from the semi-structured interviews and the focus group discussions will be thematically analysed with the support of Butler- Kisber’s (2010) two-stage analytical approach. Findings The findings from stage one of the study will generate insight on how current nonparty political brands create, develop and communicate their brand identity from the perspective of elected representatives. For example, the findings will highlight how non-party political brands create-develop communication strategies and tactics, the significance of individual political personality as a tool to provide differentiation and whether personal values are used to characterise the brands (Ahmed et al. 2015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Smith 2008). The findings from stage two of the study will reveal how current non-party political brand image is understood from the perspective of Guernsey voters. For example, the insights linked to political brand image will reveal consistencies and incoherencies with communicated identity and awareness of communication strategies-tactics, personality characteristics and personal-cultural values of Deputies (Pich and Dean 2015). Stage two will also reveal understanding as to whether Guernsey citizens-voters desire political ‘party’ brands. This will address the third objective of the study. This in turn will highlight the ideal conceptualised political brand for Guernsey developed from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Discussion This study will also reveal the relationships between current Deputies and constituents, personal-working relationships with stakeholders across government departments and understanding of attitudes and opinions of political issues such as the introduction of parties. This in turn will introduce first-hand accounts of current non-party political brand identities. In addition, this stage will reveal if the ‘party’ dimension is the only missing element from the triad and provide understanding of the relevance of the ‘policy’ and ‘leader-politician’ dimensions (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Further, this study will provide understanding into the relationships between voters and Deputies and highlight the perceptions, associations and imagery Guernsey voters ascribe to non-party political brands (Bosch et al. 2006a; Nandan 2005). This research will also reveal understanding as to whether Guernsey citizens-voters desire political ‘party’ brands. This in turn could result in a reconceptualization of political brands, which extends the political brand triad (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Further, a revised definition could be tailored to the unique setting of island communities and this could have implications to other jurisdictions with non-traditional political brands. Finally, the applied findings will address the challenge put forward by Pich and Dean (2015) to assess the usability of the ‘brand identity network’ as a mechanism to explore internal political brand identity and external political brand image. This will go some way in addressing the limited number of ‘appropriate frameworks’ than can be used to assist researchers to understand brands and develop strategies to address any inconsistencies or misalignment between communicated identity and understood image (Nielsen 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod 2011; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Conclusion Subsequently, this study will seek to understand how independent elected representatives currently create and develop political brand identity and explore how Guernsey voters understand political brand image of non-party brands. Further, the findings will highlight a contribution to practice. For example, this study will reveal implications of the introduction of political ‘party’ brands to the prospective of an island-wide voting environment from the perspective of internal [Deputies] and external [citizens-voters] stakeholders. This research will offer internal political stakeholders insight into the perceptions, attitudes and opinions of external citizensvoters in terms of prospective political ‘party’ brands, desired configuration of political ‘party’ brands and highlight whether political ‘party’ brands have a role to play in the reformed electoral process on Guernsey. Further, the findings will offer internal political stakeholders the opportunity to design, create and develop their political brands in line with the wants and needs of the electorate, which in turn should strengthen political engagement, maintain personal relationships between politicians-voters and allow for the establishment of a tailored approach to political brand management in non-traditional political environments. Further, the findings will have a direct impact on the debate as to how Guernsey’s electoral process develops following the 2018 Island Wide Referendum and legislates prior the 2020 Guernsey General Election. The findings will also have implications beyond non-party systems of government for example it may offer existing party-systems of government practical methods and initiatives to strengthen voter engagement and develop stakeholder relationships across jurisdictions and constituencies. This study will also contribute to academic theory. For example, the addressed objectives will offer the researchers an opportunity reconceptualise political brands particularly in non-traditional contexts based on deep insight from the perspectives of citizens-voters, which in turn will allow the sub-discipline of political branding to advance-develop as an area of study (Needham and Smith 20015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001; Pich et al. 2016; Scammel 2015). In addition, this study will address explicit calls for future research in this area by outlining how independent political brands exist or develop without the ‘party’ element from the trinity assess the applicability of the ‘trinity’ concept to new jurisdictions. Finally, this study will assess the applicability of the ‘political brand identity network’ (Pich and Dean 2015) as a tool to explore internal political brand identity and external political brand image of non-party political brands from a multi-stakeholder perspective.

This study aims to answer the following question: Does leader brand personality dimensions mediate the relationship between self-identity expression and voting intention? The notion of political leaders as brands has been examined during the last decade by several studies and the increasing importance during the electoral process is now evident. Additionally, self-identity expressiveness, as a construct, has been connected to either psychological or sociological context regarding behavioral intention. The current research intends to build a framework for incorporating the concepts of leader brand image through brand personality dimensions, self-identity expression and voting intention for a political party. A quantitative survey through online structured questionnaire is employed in Greece and several significant theoretical and managerial contributions are provided.

The aim of this paper is to give insights on the role and persuasive power of metaphor in political communication. The current paper imbibes the study of conceptual metaphors in two different forms which are the lifeline of politics, that is: election campaigns and projection of Prime Minister and the nation to a global audience. For analysing the role of metaphor, while addressing an international audience, we have picked up some famous speeches of Indian PM Modi which he pitched at several national and international forums immediately after being elected as Prime Minister. For studying election campaign communication we have examined the text of newspaper articles and the trending social media updates. We have analyzed the text using Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Some famous conceptual metaphors are analysed, such as war, nature, nation as person/body/family and the world as a community. In a valuation of public speeches, we found that speech which addressed general public has double the metaphors than those addressing limited audiences. Metaphors allow the worldwide public to grasp the meanings of political events and feel a part of the performance. They are also effective because of their ability to resonate with latent symbolic representations residing at the unconscious level.

In recent times of global turbulence, democracies in many countries have been tested for their resilience and there is a need to focus on determinants of political brand preference. For political parties, from political marketing strategy point of view, analyzing factors impacting voters’ party preference is becoming important for better understanding of voters to influence and predict voting behavior. Research studies propagate that consumers can experience a feeling of love for their brand (Albert et al., 2008; Batra et al., 2012). Carroll and Ahuvia, (2006) view that consumer feels love for the brand when a brand reaches both high real and desired level of integration with the consumer’s sense of self. Brand love is the degree of strong emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for a particular brand. Brand love includes passion and declarations of love for the brand. Though brand love has been studied in the context of consumer market, we still know little about whether voters feeling of brand love for the political party they prefer. In this backdrop, in this study, we have examined impact of political brand love on voters’ preference of the political party. As brand love is a relational construct, objective is to investigate the type of causal relationship exists among brand love and the related constructs. In this study, we have taken India, largest democracy of the world, as our focal point of study. In this paper we propose to study the mediation effects of inner self (IS) and social self (SS) while estimating the relationship between brand love (BL) and brand preference (BP) and brand trust (BT) and BP. Additionally we also look at the relationship between BL and BT. The results as a whole shows that both brand trust and brand love have significant positive impact on brand preference. Higher brand trust leads to higher brand preference both directly and when both direct and indirect effects are considered as a whole. On the other hand there is no statistically significant indirect effect of brand trust on brand preference through inner self or social self. In case of brand love on the other hand all the effects are statistically significant. Higher brand love increases brand preference directly and also indirectly through inner self and social self. This implies that higher brand inner self and social self enhances the impact of brand love on brand preference.