The war in Ukraine found numerous global brands publicly taking stances on the issue. They turned to their social media channels to disclose their initiatives, which ranged from simple statements through to actions of greater substantiality such as donations and divestments and triggered a lively conversation and opposing consumer reactions. The phenomenon of brands advocating for crucial but polarising socio-political matters is known as brand activism and is a concept still under-conceptualised. Our study extends the knowledge of brand activism in two ways. First, we address literature calls for investigating the ways through which the marketplace endorses peace by exploring how brand activism serves as a peace marketing tool. We, therefore, term brands’ stance-taking promoting peace or in relation to war as “peace brand activism” and embark on fully unpacking it as a concept. Second, extending the understanding of the concept of brand activism that stands as mostly unidimensional, we proceed in developing a comprehensive conceptualisation of peace brand activism that tracks the range of forms it can take and accounts for its different types and characteristics. Our work employs an exploratory qualitative analysis to unravel how global brands become peace activists, as disclosed in their social media channels across different platforms. Our data captures the activities of a sample of global brands across social media channels. Our findings reveal the range of brand activism forms that can be employed by brands. We also unearth the types of peace brand activism approaches that can be adopted when disclosing peace brand activism initiatives on social media channels. Our work contributes to theory by providing a holistic understanding of the concept of brand activism for peace and explicates important implications for managers and policy makers alike.

In the rapidly changing online shopping environment, resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are implementing sales promotions, such as offering various discount coupons, to increase consumers' product purchase volume. They are also attracting consumers through low-price appeals, with the expectation of improving sales. However, sales promotions issued by companies have numerous usage conditions, and consumers need to make appropriate efforts to meet the stated conditions. Previous research on promotions and consumer behavior has primarily focused on analyzing monetary promotions (such as full discounts) or non-monetary promotions (such as reward points) individually, with little attention paid to a comparative analysis of the two. Additionally, the type of promoted product can impact consumer behavior.

This study investigated the impact of sustainable perceived value (SPV) on fashion consumers. The results revealed that SPV significantly affects customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the positive relationship between satisfaction and loyalty were confirmed, implicating SPV as a valid approach in measuring consumption value of sustainable fashion products.

Previous research has compared still images employing the actor’s perspective to those employing the observer’s perspective and found that the former increases service evaluations if the consumers are promotion-focused, whereas the latter increases service evaluations if the consumers are prevention-focused. The research compares three kinds of vlogs, i.e., vlogs employing the actor’s perspective, vlogs employing the observer’s perspective without the actor’s face, and vlogs employing the observer’s perspective with the actor’s face. The results show that the highest service evaluations are induced by the actor’s perspective in case of promotion-focused consumers, whereas they are induced by the observer’s perspective without the actor’s face in case of prevention-focused consumers.

The integration of Live streaming and E-commerce, also known as Live commerce, has been widely used in Asia. The live commerce market in China, which leads the live commerce business, reached 2.36 trillion yuan (about 340 billion dollars) at the end of 2021. While revenue is an important indicator for a company, customer engagement in live commerce, which can acquire potential customers through brand loyalty formation, community building, and information sharing, is also a crucial indicator in consideration of long-term development.

Some leading manufactures vertically integrate wholesale functions in order to control those functions. Based on transaction cost analysis (TCA) and capability approach, this research proposes a conceptual framework why manufactures integrate wholesale functions or not. Specifically, it is suggested that human asset specificity and teachability positively related with vertical integration, while outside wholesaler know-how negatively related with vertical integration. Empirical analysis shows that decision on integration of wholesale functions are influenced by TCA and capability factors.

This study investigated which factors impact esports viewership for League of Legends matches through Live and highLight streaming video. This research anaLyzed League of Legends viewership factors' differences between the three Leagues (LCK, LCS, and LEC) where viewership factors infLuence esports viewership demand through LOL’s Live and highLight streaming video. League of Legends not onLy has the highest audience among different various esports, aLso has formed a huge market from diverse countries. In order to soLve each League's unbaLance viewership trend issue between the three Leagues, and facing worLdwide viewership decrease, this study examined viewership impact factors from three Leagues with the highest viewership ratings: Korea's LCK, North America's LCS, and Europe's LEC. After that, differences in viewership impact factors for the research were anaLyzed and compared to each League. SpecificaLLy, this study investigated which factors impact esports viewership for League of Legends (LOL) matches. Data (N=1581) of reguLar season matches from the LCK, LCS, and LEC Leagues (2020 spring to 2021 summer) were coLLected and anaLyzed. This study anaLyzed the average number of visitors per minute of Twitch Live streaming and the number of views on YouTube highLights. Five main viewership factors(the uncertainty of match, consumer preferences, match importance, team attributes, match content, and controL variabLes), and seventeen independent variabLes were verified by muLtipLe regression anaLysis using STATA 15. As a resuLt of the anaLysis, the modeL with the number of reaL-time audience as the dependent variabLe demonstrated different trends between Leagues in terms of the uncertainty of match factors (rank difference, win rate difference, goLd difference, kiLL difference, object difference), and consumer preference factors(fan, operating period of both teams, number of worLd championship wins, the number of championship semifinaL advances). WhiLe the match importance factors(week, top-rank matches) and match content factors (the sum of kiLLs, the sum of assists, the sum of objects) indicated somewhat simiLar tendencies between Leagues. In the modeL with the number of highLights views as the dependent variabLe, consumer preference factors and match importance factors tended to be somewhat simiLar, but match content factors prone to be sLightLy different between Leagues. In addition, the uncertainty of the match factors did not show a significant infLuence across the three Leagues. Findings from this research expand and appLy the variabLes derived from the demand determination theory of traditionaL sports to e-sports demand research. This study heLps stakehoLders understand various esports cuLtures from different regions. Furthermore, it is meaningfuL in that it provides information that wiLL contribute to the growth of the entire League of Legends market through baLanced deveLopment between Leagues.

The FIFA world cup is one of the most popular and widely viewed sporting event, where millions of viewers across the globe tune in to support their country every four years for the chance to win the ultimate football tournament. According to FIFA, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 recorded over 5 billion cumulative views, with the final match estimated to have been watched by more than 1.5 billion viewers live on television. In South Korea, a total of 11.14 million viewers watched the opening match against Uruguay, which was estimated to be a 97% increase in Korean viewership compared to the previous World Cup.

This study aimed to investigate the viewing experience of Taekwondo competitions, compare and analyze the viewing experience according to the type of Taekwondo competition, derive the viewing experience structure of Taekwondo contents, and confirm the potential of Power Taekwondo as a sustainable sports content developed for the purpose of popularizing Taekwondo.

The growth of OTT internet and mobile video streaming services is a major development in consumption of global media sport. The online streaming of sporting events has become the important way of copyrights holders to engage sport fans, especially young fans. The most popular live streaming platforms in South Korea, such as NAVER and Africa TV are intervening in coverage rights markets and changing how live sport is experienced and shared across television, computer, tablet and smartphone screens. At the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, NAVER's live streaming service reached 121,173,945 cumulative viewers in 64 matches, including the opening ceremony and the final between France and Argentina. Based on suspense theory, this study aimed to examine the factors that influence sport fans’ watching intention to stream online sport. The current study collected the number of cumulative viewers of live streaming from NAVER and Africa TV, for the matches broadcasted across the KBS, MBC, and SBS, a total of 64 matches in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The results suggest that a measure of the unfolding nature of suspense is a stronger predictor of watching intention than those used previously. The additional measures of suspense that take into account the unfolding events of the contest will be stronger predictors of watching intention than either disposition toward the winning team or closeness of final score.

Fashion companies develop initiatives in the Metaverse, especially through Gamification, Non-Fungible Tokens or Shopping experience. Through a Systematic Literature Review in Metaverse and Fashion Communication and Systematic Content analysis in Vogue Business and The Business of Fashion we highlight the best actions in the metaverse and their future application.

In this research, given the recent spurt of luxury brands featuring their products in the metaverse, we examine if the use of luxury brand items to enhance one’s virtual avatar augments the gamer’s sense of confidence, empowerment, and actual performance. We conduct two studies to test the same. In our first study, we simulated a gaming environment on an online survey portal and asked participants to choose their avatar features. We provided them with a branded item (luxury/regular). Consequently, we asked them to indicate their level of confidence, and empowerment. They were asked to play a game to record their actual performance. In our second study, we asked participants to choose their avatar on an online game on their mobiles and similarly provided them with a branded item (luxury/regular). We then measured their confidence, and empowerment and observed their actual performance.

This research examines how voluntary simplicity lifestyle can mediate the tourists’ COVID-19 anxiety and the tourism motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrates how resilience can moderate the effect of the anxiety and pull motivations. The results show the effects of mediation and moderation on the relationship between anxiety and tourism motivations.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented crises to societies and economies around the world and has brought drastic changes in the way consumers behave. Fashion business is one of the industries that has been significantly affected by Covid-19 as many consumers reduced their discretionary spending during the pandemic. While the world is entering the post-pandemic era and recovering from the pandemic, it is important to uncover and reflect on the reasons behind varying patterns of consumers’ coping behaviors associated with fashion shopping. However, current research on consumer fashion behavior during the pandemic primarily focuses on a particular type of shopping behavior, without addressing varying patterns of fashion consumption behaviors. In addition, most of these studies attributed such changes in behaviors to motivations toward protection against health-adverse threats based on the Protection Motivation Theory, which mostly focuses on protective behaviors and has limited power in understanding varying internal reasons toward various coping behaviors. Considering the varying adaptive and maladaptive patterns of fashion consumption behaviors observed in the market, it is important to address the psychological mechanism behind varying adaptive and maladaptive patterns of fashion consumption behaviors. Thus, drawing from the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, this study aims to investigate how cognitive appraisal of threats affects the affective/emotional state of consumers and consequently their intention to engage in various coping behaviors in the context of fashion shopping. Specifically, this study aims to investigate how individuals’ cognitive appraisals on risks and uncertainty induce varying emotional feelings (i.e., fear, anxiety, and hope), which further leads to their decisions to engage in problem vs. emotion-focused coping through fashion shopping during the pandemic.

This study aims to integrate the protection motivation theory (PMT) model and attitude to explore the factors influencing consumers’ usage behavior toward online food delivery platform services (OFDPSs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The utilitarian value and hedonic value of OFDPSs, which may influence consumers’ attitude, were also included in the integrated research model. This study collected a total of 384 participants who are with experience in using OFDPSs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan for analysis

Customer loyalty is tested every day in the retail sector and the past years have been challenging for retailers to keep their existing, loyal customers. Covid-19 outbreak caused significant changes in consumers’ purchasing behavior because during the pandemic, consumers were forced to adapt new patterns of shopping which is likely to reflect also in customer loyalty. To better understand the temporal development of customer loyalty, we investigate how cognitive, affective, and social drivers of loyalty differ between 10,044 Trustpilot reviews before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. We investigate customer loyalty in the retail sector using an objective and a novel approach; thus we based this study on user-generated content in the form of online reviews in contrast to the traditional survey-based measures of customer loyalty.

We can be expected that the experience of damage caused by COVID-19 has had a negative impact on consumers' perceived quality of life. This study identifies factors that governments can positively impact the lives of consumers facing financial difficulties. We consider policy proposals to improve the quality of life of consumers at financial risk when situations like COVID-19 reoccur in the future

Digitalization and the emergence of online video platforms changed the way people communicate and made new marketing opportunities. As mobile short-form video has unique characteristics, more people tend to consume and produce diverse content in the digital environment. The purpose of this study aims to better understand the influence of short-form videos from a fashion marketing standpoint and delineate the driving factors through story types. Specifically, by adopting common traits of short-form video content and story types based on Greimas’ narrative theory, this study explores customers’ intention toward fashion purchases and electronic word of mouth. In this context, this paper contributes to activating short-form video content as a tool to promote fashion brands and products but also opening up the possibility to further study short-form videos.

The growing trend of companies using digital platforms for internationalization has raised the important issue of how companies on such platforms develop unique abilities, but few academic studies have focused on this field. This study develops a theoretical framework of the drivers and outcomes of multinational corporations’ organizational generativity on digital platforms. This study explores how companies effectively convert and integrate resources for generativity, and further improve firm performance during the process of internationalization. Our empirical results show that companies’ big data analytics capability, customer agility, platform openness, and network centrality have significant positive effects on organizational generativity. Furthermore, organizational generativity has a significant positive effect on firm performance. This study ultimately discusses theoretical and practical implications.

This study examines the impact of price transparency—specifically the disclosure of cost breakdown—on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The findings suggest that pricing transparency generally has a positive effect on attitudes and purchase intentions. However, pricing transparency might backfire, and thus reverse the effect, for luxury products originating from a high equity country (e.g., a fashion brand from Italy), but not for luxury and non-luxury products originating from a low equity country (e.g., a fashion brand from China). Luxury retailers in a high equity country should take extra caution before adopting price transparency