To stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape service firms must continually innovate their offerings and processes (Thakur and Hale 2013). Spurred by this focus on innovation, there has been a tremendous growth in service firms over the past decade. Service innovation has been recognized as the engine of renewal and reason for the growth of the services sector. Although the concept service innovation is gaining increased attention, the question of what a service innovation really is remains unanswered. Traditionally, research on service innovation has separated radical and incremental innovations (see e.g. Gallouj and Weinstein, 1997), and product and process innovations (Vaux Halliday and Trott, 2010). This suggests that there are different conceptualizations that can be used to categorize service innovation. The basis of this research is a literature review. This systematic literature review is based on 879 empirical and conceptual articles used in order to identify conceptualizations of categories of service innovation. In total, 43 categories of service innovation were identified. These conceptualizations were analyzed to show what the benefits and drawbacks are with the different categories. We identify five unique conceptualizations of categories that emphasize different traits of service innovation (1) degree of change in the offering, (2) type of change in the content of the offering, (3) degree of newness in the offering, (4) type of change in the organization and (5) alternative means to an innovative offering. Our review of categories of service innovation provides evidence that the research field is diverse and moving in a number of alternative directions The results indicate that most conceptualizations of service innovation are in-ward focus and views innovations as something that is (only) new to the firm. In addition, the view that service innovations must have an effect is neglected, both in terms of effect on customer behavior and financial performance. Furthermore, this review shows that a service innovation can be anything from an improvement of a single service characteristic to the introduction of an offering that is new to the world. By showing the plethora of conceptualizations of service innovation it is possible to create a common platform to discuss and develop service innovations beneficial for the firm.

The limited available empirical evidence indicates that consumer ethnocentrism does not have a uniform effect on consumer buying (e.g., Klein, Ettenson & Morris 1998; Suh & Kwon 2002). The paper comes to address this gap by investigating the inconsistency of ethnocentric behaviours and the factors underlying such inconsistencies. More specifically, brand, product category and country of origin (COO) effects are examined for their impact on behavioural consumer ethnocentric bias. Contrary to the main stream of research in this area, which concentrates on general attitudes towards the products or buying intentions (e.g., Balabanis & Diamantopoulos 2004; Poon et al. 2010; Sharma etal. 1995; Shimp & Sharma 1987; Verlegh 2007; Wang & Chen 2004) this paper focuses on behavioural outcomes of consumer ethnocentrism. In addition, it adopts a more focused approach and examines the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on the purchase of specific brands, rather than the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on general product categorisations or simple foreigndomestic product dichotomies. Hypotheses are developed to explain observed differences in the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 468 US consumers involving purchases in 10 product categories, 432 brands and 22 countries of origin. Results confirm that product category is an important determinant of the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to have an impact on the purchases of the most expensive product categories rather than the frequently purchase convenient items. There is also some limited evidence regarding the moderating role of globalness of brands on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase behaviour. The cultural proximity of the country of origin of foreign brands was found to have no effect on the purchasing behaviour of ethnocentric consumers.

Today all nations in the world focus on remaining competitive advantage by adding high values to their fashion businesses. The most typical example of such added value is fashion collection. In case of London Fashion Week, which is among the world’s top 4 most famous fashion collections where more than 5,000 journalists and buyers from 25 nations can be expected every season, it has great contribution to the economic wealth of London. It induces consumption of 20 million GBP and economic production effects of one hundred million GBP. According to Joo (2009), one of the main purposes of fashion collections can be defined as the invigoration of international marketing and the creation of consumption demand. Fashion collections lead to increased direct sales and consumption demand by developing new products based on leading fashion trends that are presented in the collection. The so-called Big four collections in Paris, Milan, New York and London have their own Country of Origin (COO) image, which represents each country, cities, brands, products and services. For example, Paris collection has been established as luxury image with hand-made and Haute Couture. Not only fashion collection but also fashion brands have applied specific country characteristics to their fashion brand’s image. This serves as a critical factor of competitiveness that communicates an integrated image of brands to the customers. Also, within the purchase decision-making process, consumers consider COO as an important element. Therefore, organizer of fashion collections as well as brands that engage in such should consider COO as a key factor. Most of the previous studies about fashion collections focused on content analyses. For example, Joo (2009) compared characteristics and current situations between four major overseas cities’ collections and Seoul collection. Additionally, there are studies about fashion style, trend, design and textile. Characteristics of color change in 1990s fashion collection (Kim & Kim, 2007) and an analysis of design of hats and fashion images in collections (Jeong & Jeong, 2008) have been conducted as well. Previous studies related to COO mainly focused on the product (Bilkey & Nes, 1982) and how the image of the producing country affects product evaluation. Thus, the purposes of this study are 1) to examine of fashion collection’s COO and fashion brand image effects on brand evaluation and purchase intention, 2) to analyze differentiation factors of COO image, brand evaluation, purchasing intention on Seoul, New York and Paris collection. We surveyed Korean, American and French who have experience in their own country’s fashion collection and used SPSS 21 for data analysis. Fashion collection’s COO and brand image has a great effect on brand evaluation and purchase intention. Moreover, it seems to increase the purchase intention by affecting brand evaluation. Therefore, the results of the study are as follows. First, we can confirm that the better the fashion collection’s COO and fashion brand image, the higher brand evaluation and purchase intention is. Second, when assessing fashion collection’s COO image and fashion brand image, brand evaluation and purchase intention differ according to Korea, US and French national stereotypes. This study goes beyond the general product-centric COO studies and introduces the fashion collection’s COO that can be valuable research in terms of contribution not only to academia, but also to the industrial field.

Purpose: It has been suggested that the most potent form of the country-of-origin effect is derived from a country having a perceived specialization in a particular product category. By subjecting a novel conceptualization of how products and places form images in conjunction to experimental trial the evaluative pertinence of different facets of interrelation between country image and product categories is examined. Design/Methodology/Approach: A psychometric test-series, featuring a large number of brands from various product categories and countries was conducted. The results were subjected to structural equation modeling using a partial least squares approach. Findings: The findings suggest that the country-of-origin effect can be thought of as being derived simultaneously from several different image constructs, ranging from general to category-specific. These images generate country-of-origin effects in aggregation and the evaluative influence increases with the degree of specificity of how the image construct applies to a specific evaluation situation. Originality/Value: The present study represents an attempt to discern the relative size of the country-of-origin effects derived from different facets of the relationship between a country image and product categories. The results provide a tentative answer to the question of just how much product categories matter in the context of the country-of-origin effect.

With much of the literature on business-to-business (B2B) from Eastern countries largely focused on the Chinese Guanxi and its role in developing and maintaining B2B, the expansion of B2B literature to other parts of the world has been limited. One important area of massive economic growth and influence is the Gulf region. Studies on B2B within the Gulf region are scarce. Thus this paper builds up on recent exploratory studies on Et-Moone relationships. The paper examines the antecedents (interpersonal liking, trust and commitment) and consequence (cooperation) of Et-Moone relationships. Survey data were collected from over 180 senior managers in Saudi Arabia. The findings confirm the importance of Et-Moone in B2B relationships and its impact on cooperation. Implications for managers are discussed, and a guide for future research is provided.

This research examines the influence of network position, identity construction and role playing within business to business (B2B) interactions processes. The framework used as the basis for considering interaction processes developed from the AAR model (Håkansson & Snehota, 1995) and includes: accessing resources; developing actor bonds and conducting activities. There has been little research conducted into network position (Abrahamsen et al., 2012; Schepis et al., 2014); identity construction (Huemer, 2013; Schepis et al., 2014) and role playing (Abrahamsen et al., 2012; Lowe et al., 2012). This research develops a framework for incorporating all three concepts into the interaction process, rather than investigating them individually or paired, commonly undertaken in previous research. The research is conducted within an interpretive paradigm with 20 interviews conducted within the junior mining industry in Western Australia. Interviews were analysed using Leximancer™ and a comparison of the perceptions from companies playing different roles within the network examined. Results highlight that network position is influenced through accessing resources and developing actor bonds; identity construction occurs through developing actor bonds and conducting activities and role playing occurs when conducting activities and accessing resources. A theoretical framework highlights each of the above concepts within the framework of interaction processes. The value of this paper is that the each of these concepts is influenced through different aspects of the interaction process. Thus, highlighting which aspects of the interactions processes managers can adapt to improve their network position, identity construction and role perceptions.

Economic fluctuation has a remarkable influence on firms and their performance (e.g., Deleersnyder, Dekimpe, Sarvavy, & Parker, 2004; Srinivasan, Rangaswamy, & Lilien, 2005). Given the extreme conditions and frequency of recessions (since World War II, recessions have occurred every six years; Srinivasan et al., 2005), understanding what kind of marketing is effective across the different phases of the economic cycle is a crucial question for marketers (e.g., Steenkamp & Fang, 2011; Srinivasan, Lilien, & Sridhar, 2011). In business-to-business markets, characterized by a strong emphasis on long-term customer relationships (e.g., Grönroos, 1997), the ability to gain a deep understanding of customers and their changing needs is a central determinant of firm performance. Therefore, in such markets, market orientation (MO) provides a particularly important source of competitive advantage. During an economic crisis, MO may also serve as an effective shelter against declining firm performance, particularly in industrial markets (Alajoutsijärvi, Klint, & Tikkanen, 2001). The key rationale is that highly market-oriented firms are able to rapidly and accurately identify changes in the marketplace and respond to shifting customer needs and competitors’ actions (Narver & Slater, 1990). While a vast body of literature evidences MO in general to yield performance gains for firms (Kirca, Jayachandran, & Bearden, 2005), some recent studies (e.g., Kumar, Jones, Venkatesan, & Leone, 2011) have questioned this relationship. Recent empirical studies (e.g., De Luca, Verona, & Vicari, 2010; Noble, Sinha, & Kumar, 2002) also propose that the different components of MO (i.e., customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination) may result in different performance outcomes. Furthermore, recent studies have shown the economic environment to play an important role in determining the performance outcomes and, thus, effective forms of MO (cf. Smirnova, Naudé, Henneberg, Mouzas, & Kouchtch, 2011). In this study, using panel data of 140 firms from before and after the great financial crisis, we examine the performance implications of distinct forms of MO 1) over the changing economic cycle 2) among different types of business-to-business focused firms. Employing ordinary least squares regression analysis, our findings suggest that MO and its distinct components yield varying performance impacts from economic upturn to downturn. Specifically, the impact of MO increases during downturn, with interfunctional coordination boosting performance and competitor orientation becoming detrimental. Subsequently, employing configurational analysis (fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis), our findings further indicate that the role and the most effective forms of MO vary across industry sectors, with MO having a particularly strong impact among firms operating in business-to-business services. We also conclude that, in a growing economy the role of MO has become more of a cost of competing (Kumar et al., 2011), whereas in an economic downturn MO still provides a valuable shelter against performance declines. Finally, our empirical findings are in line with contingency arguments, and suggest that the successful ways for a firm to relate with its markets depend on the dynamic firm- and industry-specific settings.

This research analyzes the effects of competitive advertising in women’s magazines on the consumer using an experiment. In addition to replicating adverse interference effects of competitive advertising on memory in a real-world media environment, this study demonstrates that it also induces an increased product category desire for the advertised product category.

In the past, particular advertisements have offended people for being controversial products or executions, and, globally, religion plays a significant role in influencing attitudes toward controversial advertising. In light of advertising controversy and the impact of social values on government regulations, this study explores how religion (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism/Taoism, Hinduism, and non-believers) influences consumers’ perceptions of government regulations on controversial advertising. Controversial advertising is defined as “advertising that, by the type of product or execution, can elicit reactions of embarrassment, distaste, disgust, offence, or outrage from a segment of the population when presented” (Waller, 2006, p. 7). Typical controversial products include gender/sex related products, addictive products, social/political groups and health and care products (Fam, Waller, & Erdogan, 2004). Controversial executions usually refer to antisocial behaviour, indecency, fear, racism, and sexuality (Wilson & West, 1981). Several examples in recent decades show that marketing communications which involve controversial products or executions can cause a large-scale boycott of a brand. Studies have found that religion becomes a crucial indicator in influencing consumers’ perceptions of marketing activities and shopping behaviours (Al-Hyari et al., 2012). When the advertised content violates the religious beliefs of the audiences, brand damage can follow. While controversial advertising offends consumers, its insufficient regulation hurts too (Christy, 2006); thus leading to calls for more attention from government regulatory bodies (Boddewyn, 1991). According to previous studies, “many general spiritual principles and actual rituals in religion are related to ethical positions” (p. 533). Consumers’ religious beliefs could affect how they expect regulatory bodies to behave as social agents (Cornwell et al., 2005). Therefore, this study extends the literature by examining how consumers affiliated with different religions evaluate the current government regulation of the advertising of controversial products and executions, and whether they perceive that the regulations have effectively restricted the advertising offense based on their religious beliefs. Based on research data collected from 1,402 university students in 11 countries from across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia (namely, (Canada, Italy, Australia, Germany, England, China, India, Turkey, Mexico, Korea, and Malaysia), the findings confirm the existing literature that different religions are identified as having different levels of tolerance toward the advertising of controversial goods and executions (Fam, Waller, & Erdogan, 2004; Morphitou & Gibbs, 2000). Also, the restrictions required by some religious groups are inadequately addressed by regulatory bodies. See Tables 1 and 2. Islamic followers are more easily offended by controversial advertising. At the same time, they perceive relatively weak government regulations on controversial advertising. This is particularly true for the advertising of addictive products, personal themes, and risky/avoidable executions. Although in some Muslim countries (e.g., Malaysia) where numerous government regulations are already instituted to protect the Islamic values and their cultural identity (Waller & Fam, 2000), the force of the regulations is still perceived as weak, thus demanding more restrictions. Buddhists/Taoists and non-believers who are moderately offended by the controversial advertisements, more frequently indicate that the government restrictions on advertising are stronger than those indicated by Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. Perceptions of Buddhists are likely influenced by their philosophical teachings, which includes teachings of “Wisdom (right view, right intention), Ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and Concentration (right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration)” (“Buddhism,” 2013). Although Non-believers do not officially commit to a religion, the 73.37% of non-believers in this study reside in China and South Korea, both societies that practice Confucian cultures (Gao & Kim, 2009). Confucianism is concerned with “morality, propriety, modesty, social harmony and human relationships” (Ching, 1997; Wilhelm, 1931 in Gao & Kim, 2009). As such, Buddhists/Taoists and non-believers perceive that the regulations strongly protect their cultural values and the harmony of the society from inappropriate commercials, but are less restrictive of freedom of choice, free speech and marketers’ creativity. Hindus are found to be less offended by the advertisements of the majority of controversial product and execution groups; at the same time they believe that the advertisements are less regulated compared to other religions. However, their negative attitudes toward the advertising of addictive products call for special attention of marketers and regulatory bodies. Compared to the other four religious groups, Hindus indicate that the regulations are weakly planned in restricting the advertising of addictive products and the advertising offense still occurs. This finding confirms Hindus’ desire to prohibit such advertising in media in order to protect health and well-being of their young population (Shastri, 2012) and control overall crime in the Hindu society (Schneider, 2013). Christians perceive the regulatory restrictiveness as being significantly lower than Buddhists/Taoists and non-believers, but not different from Muslims and Hindus. Christians indicate an overall lower extent of offensiveness on all eight groups of products and executions than the other four religions, and they also report the regulations to be acceptable. These findings validate Morphitou and Gibbs’s (2008) argument that Christians have more tolerance toward self-interest and acceptance of the diversity in marketing communications. Christians’ opinions on the restrictive effects of the regulations on hindering free speech, freedom of choice, and creativity of marketing communications are salient. This finding would remind the regulatory bodies to be cautious about not being overly restrictive in Christian-dominated countries when planning regulations. The study findings have practical value for advertisers and policy makers. The advertising practitioners need to be aware of elements in their advertising that conflict with consumers’ religious beliefs, especially when operating in international markets, and prevent advertising offense. Direct marketing strategy is strongly recommended when promoting controversial products in a highly sensitive mass media environment, especially for marketing in pluralistic societies which have multiple religions. Advertisers need to exercise special caution when promoting gender/sex-related products and social/political groups in Muslim-dominated markets (Michell & Al-Mossawi, 1999; Fam, Waller, & Erdogan, 2004; De Run et al., 2010). Advertising of those two product groups to non-believers who conform to the ethical codes of Confucianism can also be offensive (Gao & Kim, 2009). Marketers should be aware that the advertising of alcohol and cigarettes is highly offensive to Hindus and Muslims. Their promotion in mass media may evoke negative responses. Additionally, using controversial executions in advertising should be avoided, especially when targeting Muslims and Confucian consumers. These findings may also help advertising regulation planners (self-regulating advertising bodies and policy makers) to gain understanding about how different religions view the current regulations of controversial advertising. When targeting Buddhists/Taoists and non-believers, advertising regulators should consider keeping the current level of restrictions of controversial advertising. We recommend similar approach when targeting Hindus except for imposing more regulations in relation to advertising of addictive products. In Islamic societies, more restrictions or more awareness of what are the current restrictions may be necessary, in order to comply with Muslims’ sensitivities, while an easing of the restrictions on the advertising in Christian-dominated markets would be desired.

Extant research has expansively studied the effect of celebrity endorsements on consumer choice and behavior (Amos, Holmes, and Strutton, 2008) and found celebrities to positively influence the endorsed brands. According to prior literature, three fundamental ties between endorser, consumer and product influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, namely the endorser-product match-up, the consumer’s identification with the endorser and the consumer’s product category involvement. So far, these have been investigated predominantly in a positive endorser information context (Erdogan, 1999). However, the effect that negative information about the endorser hitting the spotlight has on the brand’s future and the role that these ties play in this context remain widely unknown. This research fills the gap by exploring the effect of negative information about an endorser on consumers’ attitude towards the ad, brand attitude, behavioral intentions and word of mouth. By further integrating the meaning transfer model, social influence theory, the match-up hypothesis and product-category involvement, this research offers deeper insights into the three essential ties between endorser, consumer and product. In an extensive main experiment, with two brands - Nike and Adidas - and 7 celebrity endorser the author finds that a strong fit between celebrity and product, high product-category involvement and high identification of consumer with the celebrity offer beneficial effects for consumer perceptions and intentions. However, when an endorser scandal becomes public, negated meanings get transferred to the brand, leading to less favorable attitudes towards the ad, brand attitudes, behavioral intentions and willingness to recommend the brand. This phenomenon is stronger in case of attitude towards the ad for high product involvement and low identification with the celebrity. Furthermore, a low identification with the celebrity also moderates a higher decrease in willingness to recommend the product in case of celebrity negative information. Thus, marketing managers should keep an eye especially on highly involved and low identified consumers in case of endorser scandals, as this immoral behavior can damage the endorsed brand image and hurt earlier ad expenditures.

Online advertisers use multiple channels to reach consumers on the Internet. However, little is known on the interplay between online advertising channels. To fill this gap, this study provides a comprehensive overview of interaction effects in online advertising for individual consumers, including not only site visits, but also exposures that do not directly lead to a click. Based on a large cookie-based individual-level data set the authors analyze interaction effects within and between channel groups on purchase behavior. By classifying online marketing channels along the dimensions of initiation locus and previous brand awareness, they find significant interactions between contacts within and across channel types. While clicks following contacts in customer-initiated channels that require brand awareness overall have a negative effect on purchase propensity, previous clicks in firm-initiated channels positively interact with clicks in customer-initiated channels. The results can help managers to coordinate marketing strategies, optimize campaigns, and develop individualized marketing and targeting approaches.

Using an experimental design, it is investigated how a cultural institution’s image dimensions are influenced by a sponsorship and its perceived level of sponsor-sponsee fit. Controlling for an individual’s cultural interest, results show that sponsors, depending on their level of congruency, can influence certain sponsee’s image associations.

Driven by the consumer demand for companies to be socially responsible, companies are increasingly relating their brands to causes and charities in order to accomplish nonprofit objectives and corporate sustainability. In a social marketing campaign, the consumers’ choice of the cause can influence their reactions through the processes of choice. Allowing the consumers to choose the cause may also reinforce their personal role in the donation process, which may result in a better outcome. Further, advertisers are paying increasing attention to the launch of social marketing campaigns via social media, since social media has recently become an essential part of daily life and therefore an imperative venue through which companies connect with consumers. Focusing on the rapidly evolving social media landscape, this study primarily clarifies (1) how choice influences consumers’ perceived interactivity with a social marketing campaign in the social media context, and (2) consumer involvement, as consumers’ individual differences can enhance or limit the effects of a social marketing campaign with choice. Using field experiments, this study investigates the relationships between the consumers’ choice, perceived interactivity, attitude, and purchase intention, and considers the moderating effects of involvement on those relationships. This study’s contributions are that it illuminates (1) the effects of choice on the perceived interactivity of social marketing campaigns in social media contexts, (2) the role of involvement in social marketing campaigns as a moderator, and (3) attitude and purchase intention as outcomes that can facilitate the construction of a theoretical model for social marketing campaigns with choice in the social media context and offer possible implications for advertising practitioners.

We compare American and Korean reactions to the persuasiveness of environmental advertising campaigns. Findings indicate that the effectiveness of the message assertiveness varies depending on recipients’ cultural backgrounds. Study 1 demonstrates that among Americans an assertive recycling message that contains imperatives such as should, must and ought is less effective than a non-assertive message that contains terms such as could, might and worth, yet among Koreans such reactance-driven boomerang effect is not observed. Study 2 extends the findings by conceptually replicating this finding in a different context—energy saving campaign—and further shows that perceived threat to freedom mediates the effects

The fashion industry, being energy and labor-intensive, has faced obstacles such as waste of resources, environmental pollution, and poor working conditions through the supply chain process. Because of the huge success of fast fashion, the consumption of fashion products has increased by 60% in the past ten years. At the same time, the problem of clothing waste is rearing its ugly head accounting for more than 30% of the entire garbage of the world. Providing clothes in cheaper price causes a poorer working condition. In April 2013, a deaths of 1,149 people in garment factory of Bangladesh is caused by the poor working condition without safety standard. Considering its direct effect on lives, consumers are now asking fashion companies to take on more social responsibilities and sustainability is emerging as a critical issue in the fashion industry (Ko, Hwang, & Kim, 2012; Yoo, 2012a). However despite consumers’ high interest in sustainability, they hardly ever seemed to connect with actual consumers according to various studies. Therefore, for a better understanding of consumers to foster their sustainable purchase behavior, this study attempts to identify consumers’ perception and attitude toward sustainable fashion and provide a suitable promoting strategy for consumer types. The role of consumers in driving a sustainable industry ecosystem is growing in importance, but few studies on sustainable fashion consumers have been conducted. Besides, there are two unsolved limitations, in particular, which have been pointed out multiple times in previous studies: first, the inconsistency between the findings (D’Souza, Taghian, Lamb, & Peretiatko, 2007; McDonald & Oates, 2006; Moisander, 2007; Peattie, 2001; Rex & Baumann, 2007; Straughan, 1999), and second, the failure to explain “the attitude-behavior gap.” (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006; Yoo, 2012b) In this context, this study employs Q methodology and purchase perception matrix to identify consumers. Q methodology is more effective and robust technique than self-report methods for the measurement of attitudes and subjective opinion (Stanton & Guion, 2010; Cross, 2005). And the purchase perception matrix, proposed by Peattie (1999), is known as a useful model to classify individual sustainable purchase (Peattie, 1999; Peattie, 2001; McDonald & Oates, 2006; Tan, 2011). The matrix combines two dimensions (High vs. Low confidence and compromise) to analyze four potential purchases such as win-win purchase, feeling good purchase, why not? purchase, why bother? purchase. Peattie’s matrix implies the concept of purchases but also has resonance with the concept of consumers. For example, using marketing strategy to enhance confidence and reduce compromise of each consumer makes their sustainable purchases more easy (McDonald & Oates, 2006). This study tests four types of benefit cueing using advertisement stimuli on sustainable fashion in order to suggest an effective promoting strategy to consumers. Moon et al. (2013) investigate three benefits of sustainable fashion, which are altruistic benefit (out-directed and selfless), social image benefit (out-directed and self-interested) and self-oriented benefit (inner-directed and self-interested). Hartmann et al. (2005) test two types of marketing strategy which are emotional strategy (a feeling of happiness by altruistic behavior or expression of self-identity as a green consumer) and functional strategy (excellent performance in eco-friendly function). Following the previous studies, this study investigates 2 (benefit orientation: external-oriented, internal-oriented) by 2 (benefit type: rational, emotional) benefit cueing stimuli into different types of consumer to verify four hypotheses such as first, external-oriented benefit is more effective than inner-directed benefit (Kim and Kim, 2002; Park, Oh, and Hwang, 2013). Second, based on the purchase perception matrix, high confidence and compromise consumer is more affected than low confidence and compromise consumer by external-oriented benefit. Third, high confidence and compromise consumer is more affected by external-oriented plus rational benefit (Pahbar and Wahid, 2011). And fourth, low confidence and compromise consumer is more affected by external-oriented plus emotional benefit (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006). In study 1, Q methodology is conducted to identify the types of sustainable fashion consumer with 26 participants. As the result, four types of consumer are identified; the doubtful egoist, the single-minded bystander, the wavering intellect, and the narcissistic activist. The doubtful egoist is especially interested in personal gains and distrusts so-called sustainable fashion. The single-minded bystander has his own subjective opinion on sustainable fashion and is not easily persuaded by sustainable marketing messages. The wavering intellect is obviously interested in sustainability but also shows the highest attitude-behavior gap. The narcissistic activist sets great store by his social image and for that reason consumes sustainable fashion products. In study 2, which aims to verify the four types of consumer and test different types of benefit cueing of sustainable fashion by surveying 328 participants. Each consumer type is shown to be distinctive in terms of sustainable fashion perception, sustainable fashion behavior, fashion lifestyle, cost and benefit perception of sustainable fashion, and the degree of confidence and compromise. The four types of consumer are categorized into two types based on the purchase perception matrix. The wavering intellect is located on higher degree of confidence and compromise position but the others are on an opposite side by showing lower degree of confidence and compromise. Four types of benefit cueing are suggested to two types of consumer (the degree of confidence and compromise: high, low) with regard to the consumer types’ willingness to pay for sustainable fashion. The result shows that external-oriented benefit is more effective than internal-oriented benefit (Mex=2.84, SDex=.079, Min=2.46, SDin=.093; F=9.435, p<.005, H1 is supported). Those who show high degree of confidence and compromise are affected by external-oriented benefit than low degree of confidence and compromise consumers (Mh=3.19, Ml=2.49, F=12.130, p<.005; H2 is supported) and most of all, external-rational benefit (Mex-e=3.18, Sdex-e=.85, Mex-r=3.95, Sdex-r=1.18; t=2.351, p<.05, H3 is supported). Those who show low degree of confidence and compromise are affected by external-emotional benefit but this difference did not fall within the range of statistical significance (Mex-r=2.38, Sdex-r=1.24, Mex-e=2.61, Sdex-e=1.05; t=1.176, p>.05, H4 is rejected). This study theoretically contributes to a new and holistic perspective of sustainable fashion consumer and provides better understanding by Q methodology and purchase perception matrix. This study investigates the complex attributes of benefit such as different types and orientations and it takes a step-by-step look at how different benefit cueing leads actual behavior change of consumer. Especially, this study adopted a new variable such as consumer type and it enhances the feasibility of predicting sustainable fashion acceptance of each type of consumer. From a practical point of view, this study will be useful for offering guidelines to identify a specific target to generate a specific result for sustainable fashion company. For instance, concentrating on altruistic benefit promoting strategy with fluent information about eco-friendly attributes and socially responsible activities can strengthen high degree of confidence and compromise consumers who are relatively easy to change purchase behavior and regarded as target consumers. But those strategy does not much affect to low degree of confidence and compromise consumer who are potential consumers and as well as mass consumers in terms of their actual numbers in market. It is needed a long-term approach and in such context, this study offers guidance for expanding sustainable fashion from a niche market to a mass market.

This research examines the relationship between advertising expenditures and perceptions of popular brands by children and mothers in the United States. Findings how that magazine advertising has a positive and significant relationship with brand affinity scores to children and mothers while other advertising, such as electronic advertising and other print advertising, have negative or insignificant relationships with brand affinity scores. In addition, the correlation between exposure times through product/brand placement and brand affinity scores reveals a similar pattern. Product placement does not cause positive and significant relationships with brand affinity scores for either children or mothers.

Customers are regarded as the key intangible assets of a company. It is necessary to have the capability to anticipate customer value. The study discusses the relationship among customer value anticipation, product innovativeness, and customer lifetime value from customer perspective. 178 MBA students were surveyed by questionnaire in this study. The results show that customer perceived customer value anticipation can significantly influence product innovativeness. Product innovativeness not only positively affects customer lifetime value, but also plays a partial mediating role between customer value anticipation and customer lifetime value. Both functional and emotional advertising can play a moderating role on the relationship between product innovativeness and customer lifetime value. At the end, managerial implications are discussed.

The inseparability, one of service specific characteristics, often makes it necessary and possible for customers to participate in service production and delivery process as partial employees or contributors. As customer participation may enhance or degrade the quality of services and customers’ satisfaction, many researchers have paid much attention to the concept of customer participation. Analogous to the typical classification of service employee behaviors, previous research typically categorized customer participation behaviors into customer participation behaviors and citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, past research showed that both types of customer behaviors significantly affect perceived service quality and satisfaction. However, the many criteria past research has used to classify customer participation behaviors lack conceptual rigor and generalizability beyond the specific types of services for which the criteria have been developed. The lack of conceptual rigor and consistency in classification criteria caused much confusion and incongruencies in empirical findings reported in the current customer participation behavior literature, depending on which specific criteria the researcher choose and on the specific type of service studied. Thus, it is important to develop a classification system of customer participation behaviors which is solid and generalizable to many types of services. This study proposes a customer participation behavior classification system which categorizes customer participation behaviors depending on 1) whether a customer behavior is essential and indispensable in the service production process and/or not and 2) whether a customer behavior is conducted voluntarily or upon requests by service employees. Based on the two criteria, the proposed system identifies five types of customer participation behaviors. Furthermore, this study examines whether the five types of customer participation behaviors affect the two dimensions of perceived service quality - outcome quality and process quality (Grönroos1984) and customers’ satisfaction with service experiences. Data for this study are collected through a survey of adult Korean consumers. Major findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, increasing the level of each of the five types of customer participation behaviors affects perceived service outcome quality, perceived service process quality, and satisfaction. Second, the relative impact of each type of customer participation behavior varies by the types of participating customer’s personality and depending on whether a service is outcome-oriented or process-oriented type. Finally, the actual impact of each type of participation behaviors on perceived service quality and satisfaction varies according to what customers expect when they perform the behaviors.

As mass production reaches the technical limits of industrial technology, suppliers are finding it more difficult to differentiate their products for quality and cost. Many companies in the manufacturing industry are trying diverse approaches to differentiate their products and compete with their rivals. Some companies are moving beyond hard product development to focus on soft product development such as customer solutions in the aftermarket. Some companies are enlarging their businesses to new areas such as financial services. They are also driving their employees to be more innovative in product design to lower costs and provide better quality to increase brand benefits. Companies that are less innovative in product development strive to establish closer communications with their business partners. To increase sustainable competitive advantages in the difficult business environment, they must simultaneously reinforce brand benefits and the quality of relationships. In this research, I try to verify the relationship between brand benefits and customer value and between relationship quality and customer value by introducing customer value as a new construct. The results show that better quality, committed delivery, economical cost, and new features motivate buyers to purchase products. relationship quality influences customer satisfaction as transaction value followed by relationship value. Thus the better relationship quality motivates buyer to purchase supplier’s product with psychological satisfaction or pleasure. In conclusion, for existing customer, marketer needs to develop marketing strategy which supports the reinforcement of relationship quality between buyer and supplier. This study also provides implication for academic researchers. Until now there was no research to introduce customer value when it explains the relationship between relationship quality and customer satisfaction. This customer value introduction will help for researchers to analyze the relationship between consumer and marketing activity.