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

Digital channels have been rising to the major shopping paths from the past few years, yet it is interesting to notice that more and more digital retailers advance into offline channel nowadays due to the benefits. For example, the digital retailing giant Amazon opened its first bricks-and-mortar bookstore in 2015. Dell, which distributes its products only in the catalog and digital channels, entered the leading retail stores such as Best Buy and Walmart. The digital retailers’ strategy trend that moves into the real world reveals the unique and powerful capabilities of the offline distribution channel and the importance of launching products in the offline channel. Previous studies in marketing have investigated various complement and substitute impacts of offline channel introduction (i.e., Avery et al. 2012, Wang and Goldfarb 2017). However, most of the literature focus on the pc-based online channel and catalog, there is little research about the impact of offline channel introduction on smartphone-based mobile channel. Although mobile channel is similar to online channel in many ways (i.e., internet access and convenient shopping), it can be distinguished from online channel in terms of search and access, leading to a different interplay with offline channel. This research, therefore, aims to investigate how product launching in offline channel affects purchases in mobile channel versus online channel, and deepen the understanding by exploring the moderating effect of offline store intensity. Besides, we also explore the interaction between two digital channels: online channel and mobile channel. As most of the multi-channel retailers offer products in both online and mobile channels, it is incremental to know the interplay between these two digital channels. Using data from a representative multichannel retailer selling beauty products, we find the following three empirical results. First, product introduction in offline channel has a positive effect on online and mobile sales, and the effect is greater for mobile. Second, as offline store increases, the positive impact of offline product launch weakens on online channel, and even turns to negative once the number of offline stores reaches a threshold. However, the influence on mobile channel stays the same. The results reflect that the complementary interplay between offline and mobile channel is relatively stronger than between online channel. Finally, within the digital channels, online purchases only increase with the growth of sales performance within online channel, whereas mobile purchases are positively affected by both within mobile channel sales and across online channel sales. Our findings contribute critical academic and managerial implications for multichannel retailing.

Public transportation companies often classify customers into only two classes, i.e. first and second class. This segmentation largely ignores travelers’ needs and may leave heterogeneity within classes. Using a discrete choice experiment, this work investigates if the introduction of dedicated sections based on travelers’ characteristics can provide them additional value.

Theming has become a powerful strategy in hospitality industry to enhance customer engagement and to serve as a competitive advantage in a saturated market. Based on the resource-based theory (RBT) of sustained competitive advantage (SCA), this qualitative study is an exploratory attempt to investigate 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. Introduction As hospitality industry is facing the increasingly intense competition and saturated markets, theming is continuously gaining importance of hotels strategy to survival and growth. In addition, strategy planning determines the future of firms and discover the method to achieve success (Yong & Oh, 2004). Holjevac (2003) predicted that at the beginning of the 21st century, hotels with themed strategy which characterized by a synthesis of esthetics, quality and functionality would become the future trend. Theming has created the differentiation in hospitality market, using the creation of experience-centric service. Pine & Gilmore (1999) once pointed out that the shaping of experience stems from simple and powerful thematic transmission. Moreover, experience marketing can bring preference to the product and service of the enterprise, which in turn leads to a positive value experience (Milman, 2013). The results of theming strategy will positively influence the satisfaction and return rate (Wu, M. Li, & T. Li, 2018). Theming strategy with the advantage of pursuing innovation and uniqueness was extensively used to firms in the competitive hospitality market, like hotels in Las Vegas and Macao. However, some scholars concerned about the sustainability for the strategy due to the high-capitalized cost and the customers sensitive taste (Wassler, Li, & Hung, 2015). Although hotels with themed strategy has flourished in Chinese market more than decade, market research has lagged behind to support the industry’s growth. Researchers still adopted a rather normative paradigm by either identifying the superficial issue focused on experiential market concept or pointing out problems without providing more sustainability related solutions (Zou & Peng, 2008; Xiao, Zhang, & Huang, 2013). Barney (2007) indicated that internal resources could lead to the competitive. Therefore, this study aims at understanding the factors that lead theming strategy to be sustainable in hotels, based on the resource-based theory of sustained competitive advantage. The article has the following structure. The first section establishes a theoretical foundation through a review of strategy literature on theming. The second section proposes a conceptualization of theming strategy’s sustained competitive advantage (SCA) consisting of firms intrinsic resources based on resource-based theory (RBT), also, describe the assessment of key sustainable factors of theming strategy through interview the superior manager of 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. The final section discusses the study’s findings, implication, and suggests directions for future research. As this research is one of the first studies in the hospitality field that identifies the resources and capabilities of the hotels’ theming strategy from the inside viewpoint, the contribution of this study will, and can conceptualize and discover the key factors to sustain the competitive advantage of themed hotel managing strategy Literature review Theming strategy for hotels Theming is a complete and ubiquitous way of impressing consumers and improving brand awareness (Olson, 2004). From theme parks, casinos, department stores, aviation, restaurants to hotels, thematic construction has the dominant influence on most customer engagement (Muñoz, Wood, & Solomon, 2006). Hotel theming strategy, based on the theme of cultural material (history, city story, etc.) either from surrounding area or develop within hotel, display the core value of theme from physical resources, as buildings and facilities, to invisible resources, as atmosphere and service, which would, in the end, create a valuable and unforgettable customer stay experience(Zins, 1998). Xiao, Zhang, & Huang (2013) noted that the distinctive consumer experience at the theme hotel can impress customers, and, ultimately enhances brand recognition, customer engagement and repurchase intention. On the other hand, Wassler, Li, and Hung (2015) has indicated the pros and cons for the China themed hotels, which are the uniqueness to create competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate. On the contrary, the gaining of customers’ sense of demand can lead to the difficulties to fulfill customers’ taste and the ingrained capital with the narrow development is hard to recapitalize once invested. Importance of sustainability for theming strategy. Due to the strong specific image of the themed hotels, some cases developed as a passing fad in the hospitality field. Although prior study has indicated the importance of theme selection for themed hotels (Xiao et al., 2013), seldom literature focus on the overall implementation and application within hotels’ ins and outs, also the SCA issue of hotels management. Xiao & O'Neill (2010) pointed out that the analysis of internal resource is enable manger to realize and build sources of competitive advantage, which is emanated from the resource-based view of strategy. In Resource Based Theory (RBT), scholars thought that resources and capabilities from firms could bring lasting competitive advantage to the organization, and companies that have SCA (Wernerfelt, 1984). Organization have SCAs can reach outstanding performance by constantly creating and delivering the core value through price, trust, aesthetics and functionality to its target markets (Barney, 1991). Thus, in order to observe the SCAs for themed hotels management, this research will employ on internal resource view based on RBT to explore the SCAs from the internal aspect of themed hotels. Methodology We illustrate the key factors and analyze the importance of internal resources for the SCA of hotels’ theming strategy by means of a qualitative study in which 10 hotels applied theming strategy in Mainland China and Taiwan were surveyed using semistructured interviews. For the research question, a qualitative approach offers the advantage to allow an adequate, in depth analysis of the complex relations between internal recourses and SCA of theming strategy. These 10 hotels adapted theming strategy are chosen by non-probability snowball sampling method, below Fig.1 is the hotels list for 10 interviews in Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, because China with a vast territory is limited to cover all area, the research focuses on Zhejiang province and Shanghai city, which have well-developed economy and rich tourist resources. All interviewees of the hotels will be the superior manager who decides the core value and leads the hotel’s future. The interview will be three part to proceed. First, in warm-up period, interviewer will frame an informal and trust environment, first step is to confirm interviewees’ background. The second part will be identify period; there will be a questionnaire, which adopted Chuang (2000), whose survey to prioritize the 5 dimension of internal resources that essential to hotel theming strategy management. Finally, we will confirm the competency, competitive advantage, and the strategy to achieve the sustainability for hotels theming strategy. We present conclusions for research and practice, as well as deriving practical recommendations for hotels’ theming strategy in Chinese market based on our findings. Preliminary findings The preliminary findings of the research will base on the key themes that emerge from in-depth interview to understand perceptions of hotel managers regarding theming. The result will be presented and discussed in three period. First, based on the questionnaire result from the interviewees, we will recognize that what the priority degree about the five dimension of internal resources is regarding perception of theming in hotel strategy. Second, 10 interviews will transcribe from voice recordings to pages of text, then the text will go through the coding technique, in which the raw and efforts data will be identified as the themes and subthemes. All the analyzed process will be carried by expert triangulation. Finally, through the experts examining on the links of themes and quotations, we will create a view of framework that would explore the relationships between theming strategy and SCA, the result will find the formula for hotels adapted theming strategy to possess competitive advantage of being sustainable. Although space limitations of the conference preclude the detailed explanation of this research work, the authors believe this study will broaden the theoretical domains used in understanding internal resources and competency of hotels’ theming strategy and practical information can be observed from the findings.

Climate change is expected to become a considerable threat to life on earth and it already affects certain tourism destinations like mountain regions and costal destinations. For instance, Switzerland is regarded as one of the most popular ski destination worldwide, but today’s ski resorts in Switzerland is facing significant difficulties as weather condition has been particularly harsh for the ski industry in the last years. While ski resorts start to use various rate fences to implement differential pricing, there is relatively little research how their customers perceive these new pricing approaches. Therefore, this study tried to identify how various rate fences adopted in ski resorts, including the use of weather forecasts in differential pricing, are perceived by customers and consequently which of them could be successfully implemented to provide the industry with long-term benefits. In particular, this study focused on the effect of framing and gender on price perception. The study found that female are generally more sensitive to differential pricing and have the tendency to perceive it as less fair.

An increasing number of Internet users use hotel booking websites and online travel agencies to arrange trips and search for information related to their travels. This study investigates the impact of customer engagement on user perceptions of the quality and value of an online hotel-booking website, as well as whether such perceptions further influence user trust in online websites (eTrust) and result in behavioral intention of eLoyalty. The empirical results of structural equation modeling analysis of 400 questionnaire results collected in Taiwan reveal that customer engagement has a positive impact on perceived website quality (i.e., usability, ease of use, entertainment, and complementarity), which in turn influences perceived value. The results do not show a direct impact from customer engagement on perceived value. Finally, the results verify that eTrust mediates the relationship between consumers’ perceived website quality and behavioral intention of eLoyalty toward an online hotel-booking website; eTrust also mediates the relationship between consumers’ perceived value and behavioral intention of eLoyalty toward an online hotel-booking website. The findings provide both academic researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of customer engagement and facilitate development of more effective customer engagement strategies for online booking platforms.

This is a cross-culture study looking into how organization’s customer orientation and empowerment influence hotel employees’ three types of OCBs (OCB-O, OCB-I and OCB-C). Using data collected from US and Australia employees, the study found that customer orientation was a significant predictor of employees’ three types of OCBs, while empowerment was only a significant predictor for employees’ OCB-C. Culture was found to moderate the proposed relationships, with stronger relationships observed in US than in Australia.

With the development of e-commerce, firms have now a greater interest than before in investing in intangible assets, especially their e-reputation. The literature review shows that studies in the field of e-reputation are still limited. Furthermore, existing studies (e.g. Walsh et al., 2009) tend to focus on antecedents and consequences of reputation that are associated with the offline context, but do not analyze variables related to e-consumer behavior. The objectives of this paper are hence twofold: (1) examining the dimensions of the customer-based online reputation; (2) introducing a causal model that associates online reputation with some key antecedents and consequences. Our results show that a high level of trust positively impacts the online reputation. The same is true for heritage, but with less impact, maybe because the online commerce is relatively new, and e-commerce websites do not have a heritage yet compared to well-established brick and mortar companies. In terms of consequences, a favorable reputation increases the customer commitment toward the website, meaning that online customers will have a higher desire to maintain this valued relationship. In addition, the positive influence on WOM is very important especially in our digital era where brand choices and personal influences are increasingly taking place online. As for the measure of e-reputation, our results confirm that it can be assessed through 8 specific factors: Customer orientation, Reliable Delivery, Innovativity and Singularity, High Standard Offerings, Price, Social and Environmental Responsibility, Good employer, and Financially Strong Company. From an operational point of view, the customer-based e-reputation scale could be used repeatedly as a barometer enabling to periodically asses the e-reputation of diverse online companies. Our results also point out some potential managerial implications as far as improving customer-based online reputation is concerned. From the perspective of antecedents, increasing trust should be the choice in order to improve online reputation. With regards to the consequences, online reputation is a significant indicator of customer commitment to the website and spreading a positive word-of-mouth. Hence, and in order to have a positive e-WOM, managers should focus on enhancing their online reputation.

Newly extended brands may use the retailers as a channel for new products in order that consumers can become familiar with them, since retailers as an initial contact point of transactions have become empowered to supply products to consumers. Related research has suggested that horizontal or vertical extensions enable brand companies to introduce new products by collaborating with retailers to offer a one-of-a- kind product line to differentiate their products and to gain the attention of consumers. Even though brand companies often produce different products through more than one extension, the effects of multiple extensions in a brand are not clearly investigated. In this regard, the current study aims to focus on how consumers evaluate extended brand products depending on the brand extension types (vertical and horizontal) when a brand collaborates with a retailer. Drawn from the attitude accessibility theory (Fazio, 1986), the conceptual framework was developed. The hypothesized relationships were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques with survey data of 218 responses for the vertical extension and 226 responses for the horizontal extension. The results show that the image fit between a brand and retailer has a significant relationship with attitude toward brand and consumers’ evaluations of brand extensions. However, the results highlight that the quality fit is only directly related to retailer attitude in the case of horizontal extension. Overall, the findings provide empirical evidence on how perceived fit between brand and retailer influences consumers’ attitude and brand extension evaluations. The current study makes several key contributions to both academia and industry practitioners by explaining how new products from extended brands may have different evaluative processes depending on the types of brand extensions when collaborating with a retailer.

This research aims to examine the different types of consumers' dispositions towards nostalgic advertising. Furthermore, it is proposed that brand heritage moderates the relationship between nostalgia intensity towards the ad and purchase intention.

Recently, brand managers have widely adopted brand anthropomorphism as positioning strategies to differentiate from other competitors. Aggarwal and McGill (2012) anthropomorphized brand as two specific roles. Brand-as-partner refers its role as “the co-producer of benefits”, a relationship in which the brand and consumers work together to co-create the benefits as equals. However, brand-as-servant represents its role as “the outsourced provider of benefits”, a hierarchical relationship in which the brand works for consumers to create benefits. Our research extends prior literature by investigating how a brand can improve consumers’ responses with the anthropomorphization of being either a collaborative partner or a supportive servant, depending on consumer’s mind-set  aptly termed implicit theories. Implicit theories are the beliefs that people have about the nature of human characteristics. In specific, entity theorists believe human traits are relatively fixed and stable; and incremental theorists believe human traits are substantially changeable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). These two implicit theories trigger many distinctive cognitive and behavioral patterns. For example, entity theorists prefer effortless success and receiving assurances to signal their abilities. In contrast, incremental theories emphasize on self-improvement through high effort to realize their self-enhancement and intentions (Park & John, 2014). We generalize this theory to anthropomorphic brand positioning and adopt consumer’s efficacy (confidence) to explain the underlying mechanism. We hypothesize a servant brand is more appealing to entity theorists, because they prefer situations in which they are guaranteed of being satisfied effortlessly (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Therefore, they are more confident about their abilities when a servant brand acts as an assurance for providing benefits. In contrast, a partner brand may be more attractive to incremental theorists, because they believe their abilities can be improved through working with the partner brand. Thus, they should be more self-assured about their abilities, and increase their perceived efficacy to realize their intentions. Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses by both manipulating and measuring implicit theories. The consistent results revealed the significant interactions between brand roles and implicit theories on brand evaluation as well as the mediation effect of consumer efficacy. In sum, this research contributes to brand managers by advising them to cultivate appropriate brand role position in accordance with the target and potential consumer’s distinct mind-set.

Internet of Things (IoT) research is devoted to the idea that a wide array of devices, including appliances, vehicles, buildings, and cameras, can be interconnected to collect and share their abundant sensory information to use for intelligent purposes. IoT technologies are universally seen as transforming the manufacturing and services sectors. Service-Dominant (S-D) logic focuses on a dynamic, ongoing way to co-create value through resource integration and service exchange. Based on research data from business-to-business and business-to-government customers, as well as feedback from employees and managers of two different manufacturers, our study addresses four questions: (1) In the light of the IoT-does the second axiom of the S-D logic—value is co-created by multiple actors, always including the beneficiary—still hold true for B-to-B and Business-to-Government (B-to-G) customers? (2)With reference to the IoT—is there a difference in the acceptance of digital services between B-to-B and B-to-G groups? Does the age group of the customers have to be considered? (3) Are there digital customer services already perceived as being ―co-created‖ in the sense of the S-D logic? (4) Marketing management in the digital age—how to implement IoT projects in buyer-manufacturer relationships considering the abovementioned chances and challenges. Discussing a background of disruption management and S-D logic, we examine factors that influence IoT buyer–manufacturer project success in organizational networks, and compare the attitude of different customer groups towards these projects. Our findings show that in the IoT-driven digital projects even long term customers that trust in their manufacturers have very strong reservations with regards to data safety. We propose a modular concept of a relationship alignment model to enhance trust in manufacturer's credibility in the context of disruptive IoT projects. The evaluation of our empirical studies revealed serious reservations of managers and service employees towards an active integration of customers into digital product maintenance. If manufacturers are not willing to incorporate customers in digital platforms and networks and provide them with digital services they are interested in, this will hamper A-to-A co-creation of value in digital IoT projects.

When consumers are faced with various discounts, they are likely to find some easier to comprehend than others and this degree of difficulty will impact purchase decisions. This study explains complexity as a dimension of psychological distance using different types of discounts. Current research examines that easy-to-process discounts appear near and difficult-to-process discounts appear far. Applying construal level theory, this research investigates that the dollar discount leads to higher likeability of the attribute-appeal message and the percent discount lead to higher likeability of the benefit-appeal message. The dollar discount is low-level construal, as is an attribute message (i.e., how approach) whereas the percentage discount is high-level construal like a benefit message (i.e., why approach).

The literature suggests that the adoption and use of social media can derive a number of benefits to B2B firms (see Siamagka et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2016). Despite the benefits however, the adoption and use of social media in B2B setting is slow (Lacka and Chong, 2016), so is research examining social media adoption by B2B firms (Iankova et al, 2018). To date, only a handful of studies explored factors driving social media use for B2B marketing purposes (Siamagka et al, 2015; Lacka and Chong, 2016). Lacka and Chong (2016), for example, revealed that practical acceptability (perceived usefulness, usability and utility) drives adoption decision. They ignored however the role of social acceptability, referred to social factors, which according to Nielsen (1993) is crucial in the technology adoption decision. Social factors are conceptualised as subjective norms or group norms, which motive persuasion of specific behaviour (e.g. technology use). The importance of assessing social acceptability has been most recently highlighted by Brink (2017), who recognises the key role of leadership from senior managers in the adoption and use of social media by B2B firms. Empirical research is however yet to verify such an impact. In addition to limited research on B2B social media adoption, there is lack of research on the role culture plays in the adoption decision. Previous research has showed hat culture impacts adoption of social media and its use (e.g. Hsu et al, 2015). Yet, there is lack of research on the impact of culture on the social media adoption in B2B setting. This study aims to address this research gap. Specifically, in line with this conference call this study aims to examine the impact of Chinese culture on social media adoption by B2B marketing professionals. This will be achieved though exploratory quantitative study.

This paper examines the mechanisms and the determinants of cross-border partnerships formed by Japanese companies and their foreign partners. The result of the analysis suggested that four key variables, equality, fit, trust and commitment, empirically influence the outcomes of the partnerships. The research sheds additional light on the mechanism and the determinants for materializing successful cross-border partnerships.

Value creation is the purpose and end result of business relationships. However, there has been little research on the sources of relationship value in cross-border interfirm relationships. This is surprising given that value creation and delivery is arguably a more complex and difficult task in international markets than in domestic ones due to the differences in culture, language, management styles, and economic, social, and legal systems between exchange partners. This study investigates the drivers of relationship value in manufacturer–foreign distributor relationships. The focus is on distributor-perceived relationship value because it is typically the customer firm the final arbiter of value. The study develops a research model that consists of four different groups of predictors of relationship value: (1) exporter capabilities (i.e., marketing and technological); (2) importer capabilities (i.e., market-sensing and customer relationship management); (3) relational factors (i.e., relationship learning and cultural compatibility); and (4) market factors (i.e., competitive intensity and market growth). The identification and specification of these prognostic factors of relationship value formation was based on the review of extant literature and exploratory interviews with import and export managers. The study employs partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test model relationships. The results indicate that exporter marketing and technological capabilities, importer market-sensing and customer relationship management capabilities, relationship learning, cultural compatibility, and market growth are potent determinants of relationship value in manufacturer–foreign distributor relationships, while competitive intensity has no detectable effect. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as suggestions for future research.

Introduction User-generated online reviews have become an essential part of consumer decisionmaking process (Mayzlin, Dover, & Chevalier, 2014) affecting product attitudes (Schlosser, 2005), purchase intentions (Ba & Pavlou, 2002), sales (Babić Rosario, Sotgiu, De Vlack, & Bijmolt, 2016), as well as price and quantity of transactions (Berger, Sorensen, & Rasmussen, 2010). For instance, 58% of consumers prefer sites with peer reviews, and nearly all consumers (98%) reported reading peer review before making purchases online (eMarketer, 2010). Given the reach and influence of user-generated content (UGC), it is unsurprising that companies offer numerous incentives such as coupons, rebates, free samples, and monetary payments to encourage user-generated online reviews. In 2012, Tesco, a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, ran a “Share & Earn” scheme where the retailer gave loyalty points to Facebook fans sharing products. Since such reviewers are more like friends than random strangers, how does the review source and incentives affect reviewer trustworthiness and purchase intentions? Would these effects differ across individualistic and collectivistic cultures? Our research examines the cross-cultural differences in the effects of review source and incentives on reviewer trustworthiness and purchase intentions between Americans and Taiwanese. Review Source and Trustworthiness Extant research has shown that reviews from friends are usually more persuasive than reviews from strangers (Huang, Zhang, Liu, & Liang, 2014). Dubois et al. (2016) revealed that high levels of interpersonal closeness increased the negativity of reviews shared, whereas low levels of interpersonal closeness increased the positivity of reviews shared. Correspondingly, individuals tend to perceive friendly review sources as being more trustworthy and honest (Ben-Ner & Halldorsson, 2010). The circulation for UGC online reviews on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram could also make the review source appear like a friend. Since user-generated online reviews appear on the user’s own profile page as well as newsfeeds of each friend connected to that user (Chatterjee, 2011), individuals could easily perceive review sources as friendly and trustworthy. Given that online trust often increases purchase intention (Bart, Shankar, Urban, & Sultan, 2005), we posit that reviews from friends increase reviewer trustworthiness, which, in turn, increase purchase intentions. Incentives While online reviews from friends could be deemed as more trustworthy, incentives could muddy the waters. Sterling (2013) showed that over 40% of consumers in a survey reported some level of doubt in the credibility of UGC, fueled by reports of firms posting “fake” positive reviews, deleting negative reviews, or manipulating consumers into making positive statements that might not be a true representation of their options (Mayzlin et al., 2014). Given the level of distrust, the Federal Trade Commission sent out more than 90 letters reminding influencers and marketers that they required to clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationships with brands when promoting or endorsing products on social media (FTC, 2017). Relatedly, in 2012, the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that travel website TripAdvisor must cease claiming that it offers “honest, real, or trusted” reviews from “real travelers” since they are unable to assure consumers that all review content was genuine. Even when incentives are disclosed, incentivized reviews are often viewed with suspicion and are discounted as a means of correcting for presumed reviewer bias, even if the reviewer was not biased by the incentive (Du Plessis, Stephen, Bart, & Gonclaves, 2016). Taken together, we argue that incentivized reviews will decrease reviewer trustworthiness, and consequently, purchase intentions. Cultural Differences Existing work on the effects of review source and incentives have, at least implicitly, assumed that its effects hold globally and failed to consider individual or cultural moderating factors. In particular, individualistic and collectivistic cultures differ in their perceptions of trust violations: collectivists tend to become less trusting after experiencing a violation from in-group rather than out-group members; individualists’ trust levels are less affected by violations from in-group members (Fulmer, Gelfand, 2010; van Hoorn, 2015). In the context of our research, incentivized reviews could be regarded as trust violation, where reviewers no longer act altruistically to provide honest reviews. Thus, we posit that incentives could moderate the effects that reviews from friends have on perceived trustworthiness, and consequently, purchase intention in collective cultures (i.e. Taiwanese participants). In contrast, we expect to replicate the results of previous research where reviews from friends increases reviewer trustworthiness and purchase intentions; while incentivized reviews decreases reviewer trustworthiness and purchase intentions. Formally, we hypothesize that: Hypothesis 1a (H1a): Reviews from friends will be considered as more trustworthy than review from strangers amongst American participants. Hypothesis 1b (H1b): American participants will be more likely to purchase products reviewed by friends than strangers. Hypothesis 2a (H2a): Amongst American participants, reviewers providing incentivized reviews will be perceived as less trustworthy than reviewers providing non-incentivized reviews. Hypothesis 2b (H2b): American participants will be less likely to purchase products from incentivized reviews than non-incentivized reviews. Hypothesis 3a (H3a): Amongst Taiwanese participants, when reviews are not incentivized, reviews from friends will be considered more trustworthy than reviews from strangers. The effect will be attenuated when reviews are incentivized. Hypothesis 3b (H3b): Taiwanese participants will be more willing to purchase products reviewed by friends than strangers when the reviews are not incentivized. The effect will be attenuated when reviews are incentivized. Method Participants and Design Three hundred and sixteen participants (50% female, 18-85 years old) were recruited on Qualtrics for nominal payment. Half of the participants were American and completed the survey in English while the rest were Taiwanese and completed the survey in Mandarin. A 2 (review source: stranger vs. friend) x 2 (incentive: no incentive vs. incentivized review) x 2 (nationality: USA vs. Taiwan) mixed design was adopted with source and incentive manipulated within-subject and nationality manipulated between-subjects. Procedure All participants were instructed to assume that they were travelling to London, and was searching for a hotel to stay for a couple of days. They were then presented with four hotel reviews. Both source and incentive were manipulated within-subjects. Source of the reviews was either a friend or a stranger. Reviews were either not incentivized or incentivized where the reviewer was given discount on their stay for leaving a review. To prevent order effects, the reviews were presented in random order. All reviews were 4 out 5 stars reviews, were generally positive, and were dated at a similar time. Measures After every review, participants indicated purchase intention on two items (e.g. “After reading this review, I feel like booking this hotel.”; “If there is a chance, I will book this hotel.”) on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)(Kim, Park, & Lee, 2013). Participants also rated how much they trusted the reviewer on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) on three items (e.g. “I trust this reviewer to choose a hotel for me.”; “I have confidence in this reviewer.”; “I believe this reviewer is being honest.”) (Smith, Menon, & Sivakumar, 2005). Individualism/collectivism as well as uncertainty avoidance was assessed using a 3-item measure (e.g. “Individuals should stick with the group even through difficulties.”; “It’s important to closely follow instruction and procedures.”) (Yoo, Donthu, & Lenartowicz, 2011) with a 7-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) Results Outliers were removed using Stem and Leaf plots, leaving 295 participants, 148 Taiwanese participants and 149 American participants (50% female, 18 to 85 years old). Contrary to previous research (Hofstede Insights, 2018), American participants (M = 6.07, SD = 0.96) scored significantly higher on the uncertainty avoidance scale than their Taiwanese counterparts (M = 5.56, SD = 1.01). In addition, American participants (M = 5.00, SD = 1.35) did not score significantly higher on the individualism/collectivism scale than their Taiwanese counterparts (M = 5.08, SD = 1.23). As predicted in Hypothesis 1a, a 2 (review source: stranger vs. friend) x 2 (incentive: no incentive vs. incentivized review) on reviewer trustworthiness revealed a significant main effect of review source, F(1, 146) = 25.34, p =.00, where friends (M = 5.34, SD = 1.19) were significantly more trustworthy than strangers (M = 4.97, SD =1.24) amongst USA participants. In line with H2a, there was also a significant main effect of incentive, where non-incentivized reviews (M = 5.24, SD = 1.21) were considered more trustworthy than incentivized reviews (M = 5.07, SD = 1.22), F(1,146)=6.43, p =.01. There was no significant interaction effect, F <1. Amongst the Taiwanese participants, a 2 (review source: stranger vs. friend) x 2 (incentive: no incentive vs. incentivized review) on reviewer trustworthiness revealed a significant main effect of review source, F(1, 147) = 13.02, p =.00, and incentive, F(1,147)=6.43, p =.01, qualified by the predicted interaction, F(1,147)=3.77, p =.05. Consistent with our predictions (H3a), when reviews were not incentivized, friends (M = 5.41, SD = 1.08) were significantly more trustworthy than strangers (M = 5.15, SD = 1.10), F(1,147)=15.63, p=.00. However, when reviewers were incentivized, friends (M = 5.20, SD = 1.05) were just as trustworthy as strangers (M = 5.09, SD = 1.15, F(1,147) = 1.85, p =.18. As predicted (H1b), amongst USA participants, a 2 (review source: stranger vs. friend) x 2 (incentive: no incentive vs. incentivized review) on purchase intention revealed a significant main effect of review source, F(1, 146) = 4.46, p =.04, where reviews from friends (M = 5.40, SD = 1.20) elicited higher purchase intentions than reviews from strangers (M = 5.27, SD =1.20). Contrary to Hypothesis 2b, there was no main effect of incentive, F(1,146) = 1.34, p =.25, nor interaction, F<1. Amongst Taiwanese participants, a 2 (review source: stranger vs. friend) x 2 (incentive: no incentive vs. incentivized review) on purchase intention revealed a significant main effect of incentive where non-incentivized reviews (M = 5.49, SD = 0.94) elicited greater purchase intentions than incentivized reviews (M = 5.39, SD = 0.98), F(1,147) =3.74, p=.06. There was no main effect of source, F(1,147)= 2.31, p = .13 nor an interaction effect, F(1,147) = 1.81, p =.18. In line with our hypothesis (H3b), planned contrasts revealed that when reviews are not incentivized, friends (M = 5.55, SD = 0.96) elicited significantly higher purchase intention than strangers (M = 5.42, SD = 0.95), F(1,147) = 5.73, p =.01. In contrast, when reviews were incentivized, friends (M = 5.40, SD = 0.94) elicited as much purchase intention as strangers (M = 5.38, SD = 1.02), F<1. Discussion Given the ever-important role of user-generated online reviews in consumer decisionmaking, it is necessary to understand how review sources and incentives affects perceptions of trust and purchase intentions, especially across cultures. Our study demonstrates how review sources and incentives affect reviewer trustworthiness and purchase intentions differently across individualistic versus collectivistic cultures. Specifically, review source and incentives affect reviewer trustworthiness independently in Americans. Friends are considered more trustworthy than strangers, and non-incentivized reviews are considered more trustworthy than incentivized reviews. In contrast, the effect of review source on reviewer trustworthiness is moderated by incentive in Taiwanese participants. In particular, friends are considered more trustworthy than stranger only when reviews are not incentivized. When reviews are incentivized, trust seems to be violated, and friends are regarded as just as trustworthy as random strangers. Our contributions to the UGC literature are twofold. To date, research on UGC have largely ignored the role of culture and nationality (as well as individual differences, more broadly) can play. This potentially concerning since the proliferation of UGC are not limited to a Western sample. Our work highlights how culture can complicate findings in the UGC literature, and suggests a need to better consider the role culture plays. In addition, our research specifies the specific mechanism through which culture might influence the effect of review source and incentives affect purchase intention, trustworthiness. Additional studies will be conducted to examine how and why incentives are deemed as trust violations and reduce purchase intentions when accepted by friendly reviewers in collectivist cultures. Moreover, we will attempt to detangle trust in the reviewer versus review.

Energy is a major input for overall socio-economic development. With fossil fuels expected to get exhausted in another 40 years or so, renewable sources of energy have emerged as an alternative to fossil fuels. India with an area of almost 328 million hectares is the 7th largest country in the world producing 450-500 million tonnes of biomass per year as per EAI. As per a recent report almost 200 million tonnes of household and agro processing waste annually generated in India are disposed-off in a dispersed manner. Also, there are about 63 million ha waste land in the country, out of which about 40 million ha area can be developed for use. Additionally Urban, municipal and industrial wastes alone have a roughly 1700 MW potential of cheap and affordable power generation. The research work illustrates a specific case for North East India as to how this can be achieved through an innovative entrepreneurial approach for generation of green energy from biomass waste.

Green crowdfunding – fundraising for green initiatives – has become a growing source of alternative finance for sustainable entrepreneurs. The current paper explores the business model of green crowdfunding from three perspectives, i.e. funders, founders and platform. We pay special attention to how green crowdfunding extends consumers‘ involvement in sustainable economy.

Introduction This research was conducted in order to examine the influence of corporate innovation such as product innovation and profit model innovation towards sustainable competitive advantage and marketing performance. In B2B, the two biggest concerns of a manufacturing company are to provide products suitable for customer's business and to secure profitability of company business. Especially in an age when customer needs are diverse, companies need a lot of investment and effort to differentiate their products. Even though it is doubtful whether products that achieve such differentiation can achieve successful business results. Unless it is a monopoly, there are limitations in satisfying individualized and customized market trends and diverse customer needs with the technology and product competitiveness of companies alone. Therefore, corporate innovation requires a comprehensive approach in terms of product innovation and business model innovation. And product innovation and continuous profit model innovation for improving the company's profit is a very important factor. In order to achieve these two core values, the company conducts efficient operations internally to continuously develop products that meet customer needs and to conduct close customer relationship management to maintain a firm brand position in the market. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate how the innovation efforts of companies in B2B affect the sustainable competitive advantage development and market performance. Unlike previous researches on corporate innovation which included product innovation, this study included profit model innovation as corporate innovation to investigate the effects of profit model innovation on the actual marketing performance of firms. In addition, it is distinguished from the existing customer-oriented competitive advantage study (Porter, 1985) by studying the effects of sustainable competitive advantage on market performance by defining and applying sustainable competitive advantage variables from the perspective of internal marketing efforts. Theoretical Development Firms' needs and efforts for technological innovation and product innovation are very important for sustainable growth through securing economic benefits of firms (Hauser et al., 2006, Dave et al., 2013). In order to achieve competitive advantage (low cost, product differentiation), companies pursued technological innovation and product innovation through R & D investment. However, in terms of providing a total solution that satisfies the needs of various customers in the global competitive environment and improving the profitability of the company, it is difficult to explain the innovation area of the company only by technological innovation and product innovation. Therefore, in this study, it defines the corporate innovation including the business model innovation such as profit model from the perspective of the system operation to the innovation area of the company according to the claim that the business model mediates the firm and business performance (Markides, 2006; Baden -Fuller & Haefliger, 2013). And using sustainable competitive advantage in terms of product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy, this study analyzes the effects of these firm innovations on the sustainable competitive advantage and business performance. Corporate innovation is broadly categorized into three categories: process innovation, product innovation, and operational management innovation (Lee et al., 2013). And the Oslo manual classifies them as product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation (OECD, 2005). In the past, where product-centered markets and external competition were stable, changes in product technology made business models largely changeable, so corporate innovation could be described as technological innovation and product innovation. However, the development of advanced technologies such as information and communication technology (ICT) requires that the field of corporate innovation activities be analyzed from a new business model perspective. This is because existing product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation are insufficient to explain the birth and change of new business types occurring in the same industry. In addition, we can find examples of business model innovation as a type of corporate innovation in existing studies (Christensen, 1997; Christensen and Raynor, 2003; Markides, 2006; Taylor et al., 2012). Therefore, this study reflects these changes and includes business model innovation such as profit model as a type of corporate innovation. In addition, Porter (1985)'s traditional competitive strategy (low cost, product differentiation) has limitations in evaluating the impact of corporate innovation and analyzing its relationship with business performance. In order to compensate for this, we introduce three main variables: product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy, which can segment the value domain of sustainable competitive advantage and measure strategic performance capability, as a sustainable competitive advantage (Treacy and Wiersema, 1995). Research Design In previous researches, it has focused on technological innovation and product innovation to achieve the competitive advantage of product for better business performance in competitive market. However, these studies do not adequately suggest corporate innovation direction for corporate’s sustainable growth in complex and evolving business environment. Therefore, this study redefines the domain of corporate innovation and sustainable competitive advantage and then analyzes the effect of corporate innovation and sustainable competitive advantage on business performance. The hypothesis to be analyzed through the research model is as follows: H1. Product innovation has a positive impact on sustainable competitive advantage. H2. Profit model innovation in Business model has a positive impact on sustainable competitive advantage. H3. Sustainable competitive advantage has a positive impact on marketing performance. H4. Product innovation has a positive impact on marketing performance. H5. Profit model innovation in Business model has a positive impact on marketing performance. <Figure 1 research model> To analyze this hypothesis, it surveyed 300 machinery manufacturing companies producing intermediate goods in Korea through questionnaires with 5 point Likert scale. And the results were analyzed using SPSS (ver. 24.0) and AMOS (ver. 24.0). Result and Conclusion The findings show that profit model innovation of business model has a positive effect on the sustainable competitive advantage. However, product innovation has only a positive effect on product leadership of sustainable competitive advantage. And the sustainable competitive advantage has had a positive impact on market performance. Profit model innovation of business model also has an impact on market performance but product innovation has not a positive effect on market performance. It is meaningful that the company has confirmed the importance of the profit model innovation as well as the existing product innovation as the corporate innovation direction to pursue continuously. A practical implication of this study is that rapid technological advances, market changes, and globalization, as Bashir and Verma (2017) argue, should change profit model of a business model in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in B2B of manufacturing industry. In order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, business model innovation with a clear profit model is highly needed as a new management strategy for the future. The theoretical implication of this study is that the existing studies on corporate innovation are focused on technology innovation, and the effect of product innovation on business performance is relatively small. In particular, empirical studies on the effect of business profit model innovation on marketing performance were not enough. Therefore, it can be said that the fact that product innovation and business profit model innovation have an influence on market performance expands empirical research.