Sponsored search advertising is the largest form of the Internet advertising in terms of advertising expenditure. Although researchers have studied various issues in the sponsored search advertising, they have mainly focused on managing each keyword separately without considering the relationship between different keyword queries. However, this is not consistent with the industry practice, and fails to account for the consumers’ search patterns. Online retailers carry various brands and products from competing manufacturers and their advertising strategy needs to include multiple keywords consistent to their product line. Similarly, consumers sequentially search and click on a number of different keywords at different stages of their decision journey. While it is important to understand advertisers’ bidding strategy and consumers’ search behavior in an integrated manner, the previous research in marketing has less explored the interplay between advertisers bids and consumer searches in a multiple keyword setting. We address these issues and offer practical implications on how advertisers should optimally and simultaneously bid on multiple keywords, incorporating consumers click behavior on multiple keywords. This study empirically examines the relationships between consumers’ clicks and online retailers’ bidding strategy on multiple keywords of competing manufacturer brands of 242 retailers. Our data contain daily information of the most popular keywords in a running shoes category on different search advertising metrics. Based on the consumer decision journey and purchase funnel framework, we classify the keywords into different groups following a hierarchical structure of the generic, brands, and models levels and examine the relationships between different keyword groups. Our main findings show that consumers usually click on multiple keywords of each manufacturer brand in a manner consistent with the consumer decision journey or purchase funnel framework, and that consumers are less likely to click on keywords across competing brands. However, online retailers’ bidding pattern is different from consumers’ click behavior in that they simultaneously bid on multiple keywords of competing manufacturer brands at the different hierarchy levels. In sum, our results provide online retailers useful insights to improve their keyword management practice, based on the relationship we identified on the consumer clicks and advertiser bids.

Introduction The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings a great change in the retail market through combining new digital technologies, such as data clouding, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality(VR) technology. The Alibaba group, which is in charge of 90% market share in China, announced a new Virtual Reality (VR) shopping mall, Buyplus, and Alibaba expected that VR will improve shoppers’ engagement and will experience the joy of shopping mall at home. The potential power of VR shopping mall in Korea is recently acknowledged by the Korean government and Korean government developed the full scale VR shopping mall for the first time in Korea. The VR shopping mall is expected to be a new paradigm of distribution channel industry by incorporating some advanced digital technologies. Conceptual Background In previous study, Pelet et al. (2017) investigated the optimal flow experience enhanced by the telepresence in social media. The overall flow provides a unique immersion experience for social media users, also the frequency of use and time distortion were affected during the use of the system. Choi and Choi (2016) conducted a study and they showed that telepresence was one of the important factors in the new technology-based marketing environment. Limioid Theory is explaining a psychological process when user enters into a new situation. Users have to decide how to expand and act on their own in a new situation, so users quickly fall into new situation and want to transit successfully (Huang & Liao, 2017). Virtual Reality shopping with new technology will bring a new marketing paradigm in the future. The purpose of this study is to analyze users’ telepresence and other underlying factors of behavioral intention of VR shopping. To achieve this primary goal, first, we investigated the factors of VR shopping psychology—such as telepresence, challenge, body ownership, and control for VR shopping. We also tried to investigate the factors of perceived value VR shopping - such as playfulness and usefulness by applying the Flow Theory and Virtual Liminoid Theory. Second, we analyzed the relationships between the factors of perceived value and the behavior intention VR shopping by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study suggests the moderating effects of technology readiness and time distortion between telepresence and playfulness. Model Testing and Conclusion In this study, we developed the virtual reality supermarket which is operated by headmounted VR glasses and body sensors with the help of VR technology start-up company. Total 120 university students participated and experienced the VR shopping. By using the structural equation model, research hypotheses were tested and most research hypotheses were statistically significant and accepted. The final research model also showed the statistical significance with the goodness-of-fit indices. We tried to analyze the moderating effects of time distortion and technology readiness between telepresence and playfulness. We also found that there is a moderating effect of time distortion between body control and playfulness. As a result of model testing, we found that playfulness and usefulness are the major mediators between the underlying factors of VR shopping and behavioral intention of VR shopping. The results of this study about VR shopping explain how retail and marketing managers can operate VR shopping store in the technology-based future retail environment. The managerial implications of the study results for the corporate marketing managers and the limitations of the study were also discussed.

As brands’ use of social media to connect with customers becomes increasingly important, there is a need to continually monitor and examine activities in social networks. An important aspect of the social network communications is its unique ways of concentrating and dispersing information among participants (actors) – density and centrality of the network. By looking at both density and centrality, the relationships among actors and their ability to influence others are revealed, allowing deeper understanding into networked behaviors. In this manner, examining whole and ego network patterns, the unique roles of individual actors, can provide brands significant insight in understanding how influencers form and how users connect and spread information. Based on the social network analysis, which represents a combination of theory and analytical methods of networked relationships, this study analyzed Twitter networks of two multi-brand cosmetics and beauty retailers, Sephora (global brand) and Ulta Beauty (U.S. domestic brand). Using NodeXL, daily Twitter data for both brands were gathered to investigate network activities. By examining both ego-networks and the whole networks, the results showed that while ego-networks for brands were quite similar to one another, there was a big difference between the ego-networks and whole networks in regards to the number of actors, type of connectivity, as well as the prominence of brands. Sephora was often not an important part of its hashtag network, and thus was not able to maintain strong control over communications and messages in these networks whereas Ulta maintained its control over its networks. The findings from analyzing these network patterns, the unique roles of individual actors, and the brands within the networks provide significant insights in understanding how influencers form and develop the ability to connect and spread information.

Celebrity endorsement is defined as an agreement between a publicly recognized celebrity and an entity to use the celebrity’s fame to promote a brand or product. Generally, a celebrity is defined as a famous singer, actor, or athlete who frequently appears in public. The celebrity uses his/her public recognition to persuade consumers to purchase a specific product by the endorsement, and the celebrity accepts remunerations from the firm. Celebrity endorsement has been prevalent as an advertising strategy and many advertisers invest enormous amount of money for the celebrity endorsement. Prior research has examined the economic benefits or effectiveness of celebrity endorsement and found that celebrity endorsement attracts attention from consumers and polishes a tarnished brand image, and the celebrity may help advertisements stand out, thus improving their communicative ability. Apart from a general celebrity endorsement advantage, previous studies have found the factors that affect the success or failure of celebrity endorsement. An attractive celebrity can positively influence advertising evaluation, and a celebrity with expertise can increase consumers’ purchase intention through product. In addition, consumers prefer a product endorsed by a highly trustworthy celebrity. Specifically, on the economic worth of celebrity endorsement, most studies have indicated a positive effect. An announcement of a celebrity endorsement contract can bring a positive abnormal benefit to a firm’s stock price. Celebrity endorsement also helps increase the intangible value of a firm, which is the source of competitive edge and sustainable growth. However, despite recent interest in the return on advertising investment, it is not known how and which source factor of the celebrity endorsement can be explained with the firm value. By using text mining and sentiment analysis, the results of this study explain that the sustainable firm value is impacted by various sources of celebrity endorsement. First, the number of words regarding celebrity attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness has an impact on the sustainable firm value. Among the three sources, trustworthiness has the biggest impact on the sustainable firm value, which is Tobin’s Q. Second, regarding attractiveness and expertise, increasing proportion of positive words has impact on the firm value. On the other hand, regarding trustworthiness, the number of negative words on occupational issues is important. Third, different celebrity expertise has different impact on the sustainable firm value depending on the degree of job uniqueness and replaceability. Fourth, once the celebrity has lost his/her trustworthiness, the negative impact is hardly recovered as the negative interaction effect between positive impact of celebrity expertise on the sustainable firm value and the loss of trustworthiness is over seven times higher than the positive effects from the expertise. This implies that if an advertiser carefully manages other effects except for the loss of trustworthiness, he/she cannot offset the failure.

Drawing from signaling theory (Rynes, 1991) and social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989), this investigation examines how a company´s CSR communication, especially the liking of the company’s CSR advertisements, their message credibility, as well as their cause-company-fit, influences employees´ evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement, and how the evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement relates to employees´ job satisfaction, organizational pride, and word-of-mouth. An experimental study was carried out with the employees (n = 432) of a large European energy provider in order to test the model assumptions. To illustrate comprehensively the CSR engagement of the company four collages were developed including either customer-oriented CSR appeals, employee-oriented CSR appeals, environmental-oriented CSR appeals or philanthropic-oriented CSR appeals. Empirical findings suggest that the developed model is largely confirmed. Interestingly, results show that the liking of the CSR advertisements is not found to be a significant determinant of employees´ CSR evaluation. Instead, findings reveal that message credibility and perceived cause-company-fit are significant determinants of employees´ CSR evaluation. In addition, results indicate that the more employees perceive their organization as socially responsible, the more likely they feel satisfied to work for their company, the more likely they feel proud of being a member of this company and the more likely is their willingness to praise their company. This study contributes to the advancement of CSR research in several ways: First, the conceptualized model can be used to explain how CSR communication influences employees´ evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement and how this relates to employees´ attitudes and behavior at the workplace. Second, by drawing on signaling theory (Rynes, 1991) and social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989) in order to explain CSR communication effects, this investigation adds theoretical foundation to CSR communication research. Third, the investigation demonstrates that CSR communication effects may go well beyond traditional effects such as fostering customers´ purchase. A company´s CSR communication is also able to influence favorable employees´ outcomes.

This research provides insight into how socialisation and learning aids consumers to form their ecological self. Past research establishes that ecological self, expressed as environmental identity, positively drives responsible consumption, but there is a lack of understanding of how consumers form their ecological selves and environmental identities. The aim is to provide a broader motivational structure that drives the formation of nature identity and its influence on responsible consumption behaviour. The ethnographic data uncovers the cognitive thoughts, affections, symbolic inferences and nature experiences of participants guiding the formation of the ecological self, attachment to nature and ecological worldviews, which then drives responsible consumption behaviour. The conceptual framework outlines the overall motivation driving ecological self and identifies emotional, religious and spiritual attachments to guide the development of ecocentric, theocentric and transcentric ecological worldviews. This research mainly contributes to theory development and social marketing efforts.

Based on behavioral psychology theory this conceptual paper analyzes specific versus non-specific corporate social responsibility (CSR) to deal with specific versus nonspecific latent corporate sustainability crises, with only rumors of allegedly problematic company behavior starting to emerge. The focus is on shaping immediate consumer reactions, in particular perceptions of risk and responsibility as well as expectations towards further crisis management, which are predominantly formed in the early crisis stages. Consumer involvement and perceived CSR credibility are considered as potential moderating variables. Based on the derived propositions and with reference to the CSR concept, various management implications are discussed. It has emerged that the management of specific sustainability crises must also prioritize specific CSR activities in order to reduce or avoid immediate negative consumer reactions.

While conspicuous consumption received much attention from marketing scholars, the focus has largely been on what motivates consumers to engage in these types of behaviors rather than on what prevents conspicuous consumption. Yet, psychological research shows that the individuals who purchase conspicuous products may suffer low subjective well-being overall because there are never-ending discrepancies between the actual and ideal self. Simply put, excessive conspicuous consumption can be detrimental for the consumers’ well-being. Accordingly, from the perspective of cause-related marketing, it is equally important (if not more) to understand how such behaviors can be discouraged. Informed by the literature on the self-concept, selfcongruence, and psychological distance, our study addresses this issue by establishing a novel psychological mechanism that discourages consumers to engage in conspicuous behaviors. Specifically, we establish that: Because self-transformation motivation induces individuals to pursue their ideal-self, this will lead them to seek conspicuous products that reflect an ideal-self. On the contrary, because selfexpression motivation induces individuals to pursue their actual-self, this will lead them to seek non-conspicuous products that more closely represent their actual-self. This research provides important insights for cause related marketing campaigns that want to help people to control the purchase of conspicuous products.

Using the framework of social support, we aim to examine factors influencing social Word-of-Mouth (WOM) adoption. The proposed research model will be tested among customers who are active in the existing active social media platforms and have had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications. Introduction Today the most promising communication environment for reaching and interacting with stakeholders is the social media ecosystem (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). The social media has grown so rapidly in the past years that now impact the business processes and models (Henning-Thurau, Hofacker and Bloching, 2103). Many Brands begin to take advantage of the fluidity between social media and WOM for creating brand experiences that merge real and digital conversations, cutting through in incredibly powerful ways. However, the recent research (Godey, Manthiou, Pederzopli, Rokka, Aiello, Donvito and Sigh, 2016) suggest that luxury brands performing well in social media engagement. However, they are often lagged behind in WOM performance. Despite growing interest in examining the influence of social media marketing on consumer’s responses through brand equity creation (Godey et al., 2016; Jim and Ko, 2012), studies about social media in luxury brand communications remain to be scarce. An investigation of customer’s motivation behind participation in social media is timely and relevant which can help luxury brands unleash its potential. Moreover, development of an effective social WOM adoption model can help to provide a better picture of consumer interactions in online luxury brands communities, thus strengthen customerfirm relationship in longer term. Specifically, this research intends to answer the following two questions: 1) What are the major determinants of social WOM adoption in luxury brands communications? 2) Whether social support affects a. perceived source credibility; b. perceived information quality; c. user experience? Literature review Social media interactivity The concepts of social exchange (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) have long been used by Marketing researchers to describe the motivational basis behind customer behaviours and the formation of positive relational attitudes (e.g., Wulf; Gaby; Iacobucci, Dawn, 2001; Rafiq; Fulford and Lu 2013). More recently these concepts have been used to explain why customers enjoy interacting with each other in social media (Liang, Ho, Li and Turban 2012; Godey et al., 2016). Social media interactivity is social interaction of people in social networking sites by Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, Instagram (Hajli, 2016). For instance, Facebook has more than two billion monthly active users which is a great example of a platform. In fact, people love to interact with each other. When they favourite and like each other’s posts that would reinforce the closeness. Online social support Recent research has found that social interaction can bring social value to their users and that the social media is a powerful vehicle for an individual to build close relationships with others and to enhance the individual’s well-being (Liang et al., 2012; Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Shaw and Grant, 2002; Xie, 2008). Social support has been found to be a major social value that social media users can obtain from an online interactions (Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Huang, Nambisan and Uzuner, 2010). Social support is a multidimensional construct which refers to an individual’s experience of being cared for, being responded to, and being helped by people in that individuals’ social network (Cobb, 1976). Schaefer, Liang et al.(2012) claim that , online social support consists both tangible (e.g. instrumental and appraisal support) and intangible elements (e.g. informational and emotional support). Given the specific context, this study mainly focuses on the latter. Informational support refers to providing messages, in the form of recommendations, advice, or knowledge that could be helpful for solving problems. By contrast, emotional support refers to providing messages that involve emotional concerns such as caring, understanding or empathy. These two types of messages are the major support mechanisms for social interactions (Hajli, 2016). Antecedents of social WOM adoption Information adoption can be defined as the process of engaging purposefully in consuming information (Cheng and Thadani, 2012). Informational support provided through social interaction of individuals in social media can be in the form of ratings, review, recommendations or referrals. Therefore, when consumers search for information provided by other users to make a better decision for their purchasing, they are adopting information. From a marketer’s perspective, this process also helps to build long-term advocacy. This research argues that social media provides more opportunities to the individual to adopt WOM. The existing literature has identified several antecedents of social WOM adoption and most of these studies focused on travelling websites (Filieri; Alguezaui and McLeay,2015; Hajli, 2016). Beldad, De Jong, Steehouder (2010) have categorized the major antecedents of social WOM adoption in the literature into three categories namely customer-based antecedents (e.g. user’s experience during the social interactions); website based antecedents (e.g. perceived information quality) and company based antecedents(e.g. perceived source of credibility). Source of credibility is considered as fundamental predictors of consumers’ acceptance of a message in traditional WOM adoption (McGinnies and Ward, 1980). To facilitate the evaluation of credibility of a source, more and more social platforms require contributors to create a web profile upon their registration. Customers need to provide personal information (e.g. profile picture, personal preference). Furthermore, many social media website utilise reviewer reputation systems to enable customers to assess the credibility of reviewers. Zhang and Watt (2008) argue that the higher source credibility of message perceived in online social media, the higher level of information adoption would be. Moreover, the quality of information in online reviews is perceived as a very important cue for consumers to assess the website (Filierri, et al., 2015). Krishnan; Biswas and Netemeyer (2006) point out that concrete information provided by the website such as detailed features of the product/service is likely to be perceived as more credible than those from abstract information like peripheral description of the product/service. Finally, in marketing literature user experience is strongly related with trust (Yoon, 2002). In an online context customers’ negative experience is likely to affect their trust about the company. As a consequence, they are likely to engage in negative WOM. Research shows that user experience has a strong impact on the social WOM adoption (Liang et al., 2012). Method Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be employed for examining the research objectives of this research. The questionnaire for this study will be created through a professional online-based survey tool. As this research focuses on the factors influencing social WOM adoption in relation with luxury brands communications, the proposed research model will be tested among customers who is active in the existing active social media platforms and has had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications such as posting review or comment other’s post). Result and conclusion This research has adopted the electronic WOM theory and the social media support theory along with a social media perspective to investigate how customer’s interaction in social media affects their behaviour in relation to luxury brands consumption. The results show that social WOM facilitates the evaluation by customers about the luxury products using social media. Moreover, WOM has emerged with broad accessibility and the capability to be evaluated and measured easily by other consumers. This study gives practical implications on how to use social media to develop online communities for luxury brands. In conclusion, when going online, luxury brand should consider the importance of converting the online brand strategy into an interactive and engaging experience for their users and online communities.

Introduction Luxury industry, in addition to feelings, started to provide reasons for consumers to justify their consumption. Also, it helps them to avoid social risks by offering inconspicuous luxury products. For example, ‘Mandarin Oriental Barcelona’ suggests luxury holiday package for people running Barcelona marathon, London cocktail bar ‘Bart’ serves cocktails designed to 'facilitate focus and encourage relaxation', ‘Tiffany’ has dropped the spelled-out brand name from its fashion jewelry line in favor of simple “T”. (Trend watching 2017) Then, what changed consumers' interest? Interestingly, the current expectations of luxury consumers have a lot in common with the features of interdependent self-construal. The "we" effect of social media can explain this trend. Literature review and Conceptual framework Social Media usage and Interdependent Self-Construal Although earlier research in cultural psychology conceptualized self-construal as culturally determined (Markus and Kitayama 1991), more recent research suggests that independent and interdependent self-construal can also be made temporarily accessible. The most frequently adopted priming procedure to induce self-construal is the procedure by stories about we or I. (Gardner, Gabriel, and Lee 1999; Mandel 2003; Krishna, Zhou, and Zhang 2008; Hong and Chang 2015). We suggest that Social media usage can induce interdependent self-construal because social media users read stories and watch videos of others. Prior findings indicated that participants in interdependent self-construal condition have an equivalent number of thoughts about themselves and others. (Lee, Aaker, and Gardner 2000). Social Media, Interdependent Self-construal, and Consumers’ Luxury Value Perception Consumers’ perceptions of luxury value appear to be determined mainly by Functional, Individual, and Social aspects (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels 2009). Recent luxury marketing researchers compare conspicuous consumption and inconspicuous consumption, two types of social aspect consumption (Han, Nunes, and Dreze 2010; Eckhardt, Belk, and Wilson 2015). They are interested in Functional luxury value, added to Individual luxury value because small utilitarian additions to a hedonic luxury are often valued more than their stand-alone value (Keinan, Kivetz, & Netzer 2016). These two trends seem to have nothing in common. But when the concept of self-construal is adopted, they have something in common. Namely, interdependent selves, which focuses on others, are the one who cares about both inconspicuousness and utilitarian aspects. We suggest that because of the features of interdependent self-construal, consumers more using social media tend to have a different priority regarding luxury value perception than consumers less exposed to social media. We explore the mediating role of relational interdependent self-construal in this model (Triandis 1989; Cross, Bacon, and Morris 2000). Also, luxury brand company’s social media marketing efforts (Kim and Ko 2012; Godey et al. 2016) have different features. We expected that each social media marketing activity has a different impact on luxury value perception. Interdependent Self-Construal, Reason, Functional luxury value We propose that because of interdependence priming effect of social media, participants who are exposed to social media (social media priming group) tend to rely on both reason and feeling, which in turn set an equivalent value on Functional luxury value (cognitively superior) and Individual luxury value (affectively superior) (Hong and Chang 2015). Interdependent Self-Construal, Social Risk, Inconspicuousness The authors propose that because of interdependence priming effect of social media, participants who are exposed to social media (social media priming group) tend to avoid social risk than participants who are not exposed to social media (no priming group). Study 1: The effect of social media on the balance between self and others. A total of 709 respondents (389 females) participated in this study via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) They were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (with social media manipulation vs. No manipulation) The impact of ‘one-time social media use’ Following the previous study (Hong and Chung 2015), we conducted a 2 (social media manipulation: No vs. Yes) x 2 (thought type: self vs other) mixed ANOVA with social media manipulation as a between-subject factor and thought type as a repeated measure. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =293.54, p<.000). However, the interaction between social media manipulation and thought type was not significant. (F (1,707) = 0.128, p<.721). So, the result shows that one-time social media use doesn’t manipulate interdependent self-construal. The impacts of ‘chronic social media use’. To check whether chronic social media use can manipulate interdependent self-construal, we conducted a 2 (time spent on social media: Low vs. High) x 2 (thought type: self vs. other) mixed ANOVA. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =293.81, p<.000). The interaction between time spent on social media and thought type was significant. (F (1,703) = 6.65, p<.000). Also, we conducted a 2 (communication on social media: Low vs. High) x 2 (thought type: self vs. other) mixed ANOVA. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =300.76, p<.000). The interaction between communication and thought type was significant. (F (1,704) = 5.764, p<.000). So, the result shows that chronic social media use manipulates interdependent self-construal. Also, we computed three types of groups, the others-dominant, the balanced, and the self-dominant by modifying past research (Kitayama et al. 2009; Wu, Cutright, and Fitzsimos 2011, Hong and Chang2015). A chi-square test revealed that participants who spent more time and had more communication on social media had more balanced thought type (32.6%, 31.0%) than participants who spent less time and had less communication on social media (24.8%, 24.0%) Study 2: The effect of using social media on luxury value perceptions (SEM) A total of 255 respondents (85 females) participated in this study through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The participants were between 18 and 65 years old and lived in the U.S., and the modal age group was 25-34 (43.9 %), followed by 35-44 (25.5%). We conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood estimation with Promax rotation. The goodness of fit statistics is: 𝒙𝟐=707.14, df =377, P<0.0005, 𝒙𝟐/df =1.876, CFI=0.95, and RMSEA =0.059. The final CFA model fits well with the data (Hu and Bentler, 1999; Hair et al., 2010). After confirming the measurement model, SEM with maximum likelihood extraction was estimated to test Hypothesis. The goodness of fit criteria of the model meets the proposed thresholds in previous studies: 𝒙𝟐=677.97, df =374, P<0.0005, 𝒙𝟐/df =1.813, CFI=0.95, and RMSEA =0.057 (Hu and Bentler, 1999; Hair et al., 2010). The SEM model showed each social media activity has a different effect on each luxury value. Interaction positively impacts the functional luxury value (β=0.38, p<.000) but negatively impacts the individual (β= - 0.27, p<.000) and social luxury value (β= - 0.34, p<.000). Entertainment/WOM has a positive effect on individual luxury value (β=0.39, p<.000) and on social luxury value (β=0.32, p<.000). Customization positively impacts the social luxury value (β=0.26, p<.000). We could also find Entertainment/WOM and Customization did not influence the functional luxury value. Only Entertainment/WOM positively impacts relational interdependent self-construal (β=0.32, p<.000) Relational interdependent self-construal positively impacts on individual value (β=0.24, p<.000) and social value (β=0.27, p<.000). We conducted a mediation analysis. Among social media activities, only Entertainment/WOM had a significant positive effect on Relational Interdependent Self-Construal. Study 3: the effect of social media on self-construal and choice between functional value and individual value superior options 454 Responses (304 females) collected via Mturk to stimulate the environment of social media. Respondents are primed on interdependence by social media usage while control group respondents are not primed. The authors checked the validity of the self-construal manipulation effect of social media. Respondents were given a choice task, designed by adopting previous method (Hong and Chang 2015). They were told to imagine that they were going to buy a hand bag. Handbag X is superior on functional (cognitive) dimensions whereas handbag Y is superior on all individual (affective) dimensions. Participants are asked to indicate their choice between two Handbags Choice. A chi-square test revealed that the effect of social media manipulation is not significant on the handbag choice (𝑥2(l) 0.371, p<.309). However, the effect of interdependent self-construal on the participant's’ handbag choice was significant (𝑥2(l) 5.85, p<0.01). As predicted, participants with a higher Interdependent self-construal primed by social media have a smaller preference gap between Functional luxury value and Individual luxury value (F:73.2%-I:26.8%=46.4%), than participants with lower Interdependent self-construal participants (F:82.7%-I:17.3%=65.4%) Study3 supports the results of previous two studies. As individuals communicate more and spend more time on social media, they are more likely to prefer equally for Functional luxury value and Individual luxury. Study 4: the effect of social media on self-construal and choice between conspicuous and inconspicuous options. After the self-construal manipulation with social media, respondents were given a choice task. The choice was designed by adopting previous method (Han, Nunes, and Dreze 2010). Respondents were told to imagine that they were going to buy a handbag. One option has an inconspicuous design whereas the other option is conspicuous design. Participants are asked to indicate their choice between two handbags. Social media manipulation and Handbags Choice. All three chi-square tests revealed a significant or marginal effect of social media manipulation on participants handbag choice with the same pattern. ( 𝑥2(1) = 6.328, p > .032; 𝑥2(1) = 3.086, p > .079; 𝑥2(1) = 1.933, p > .098) As predicted, participants in social media manipulation group prefer the inconspicuous option to the conspicuous option (59.3%>40.7%; 58.9%>41.1%; 60.4%>39.6%) than participants in control group (47.3%, 52.7%; 50.5%, 49.5%, 53.8%, 46.2%). Interdependent-self construal and Handbags Choice. All three chi-square tests revealed a significant effect of interdependent self-construal on participants handbag choice with the same pattern. ( 𝑥2(1) = 4.2, p > .047; 𝑥2(1) = 4.79, p > .029; 𝑥2(1) = 6.11, p > .013) As predicted, participants with higher Interdependent self-construal primed by social media have a equivalent preference about the inconspicuous option and conspicuous option (50%, 50%; 50.8%, 49.2%; 52.4%, 47.6%) than participants with lower Interdependent self-construal(59.6%, 40.4%; 61.1%, 38.9%, 63.9%, 36.1%). Study4 shows that one-time social media exposure can reduce conspicuous consumption. However, as individuals communicate more and spend more time on social media, they become more likely to prefer equally for conspicuous option and inconspicuous option. Contribution In luxury brand marketing, this study sheds light on the balance between two motivations, luxury for self and luxury for others (Kapferer, Jean-Noël, and Vincent 2009) using the concept of self-construal. This research also contributes to the literature on consumers’ luxury value perception (Hennigs et al. 2012; Wiedmann et al. 2009). In general marketing subjects, it adds to the increasing literature on consumer risk and choices between affective and cognitive options. For the luxury brand industry, this study can give marketers a practical idea about choosing social media marketing activities and designing new products. For example, if luxury brand companies promote customers posting opinions on websites, they should know that their activities might advertently affect their sales because interaction negatively influences on individual and social luxury value.

Effect of product message type (novelty and meaningfulness) on new product evaluation with spendthrift and tightwad consumers New product development is one of key strategies that firms can use for survival and growth alike. Well-developed new products can generally provide much needed values for consumers, which in turn provide reasons and bases for firm’s growth and sustainable competitive advantages. Given this importance of new product development and launch, the understanding of what factors influence consumer’s new product purchase behavior is extremely critical for firms' success and just as important as the new product development itself. Previous research shows that many factors - such as perceived risk of new products (Ross 1975; Stone and Gronhaug 1993), consumer innovativeness as a personality (Midgley and Dowling, 1978; Steenkamp et al., 1999), and type of new products, e.g., discontinuous new product (Veryzer 1998) - influence the evaluation of new products. The current study contends that firm’s communication efforts for new products, in particular, the contents and types of message for new products, are as important as any other factors (often, even more critical than others). A consumer’s awareness of new product in the form of actual product launch or preannouncement of new product (Eliashberg and Robertson 1988) is important. Then, a naturally rising questions will be: (1) how should firm develop the contents of messages to consumers to spread the words? (2) who should be the target audience? In other words, depending on consumers and their individual differences, the message development for new product should be accordingly changed or modified to maximally generate consumer’s purchase behaviors. The goal of the message content is how to frame new products so that consumers seek to purchase the products. Two main approaches to frame advantages, strengths, or unique selling propositions of a new product would be (1) novelty and (2) meaningfulness (Im and Workman 2004). However, the framing message should be different depending on consumer’s individual differences. Given the complexity of modern consumers, firms need to understand not only the effect of situational factors such as product involvement (De Wulf, Odekerken-Schröder and Iacobucci, 2001), but also the influence of consumer’s different orientations in personality such as need of cognition (Cacioppo and Petty 1982) and need for uniqueness (Tian, Bearden, and Hunter 2001). Formally, in this study, not only message type, but also spending orientation of individual consumers will be explicitly examined to identify possible interactions effects on the new product purchase. In sum, the purpose of the current study is to examine the effect of message types and consumer’s spending orientation on the new product purchase decision. Specifically, the current study aims to suggest a significant interaction effect of message types of new product introduction (novelty or meaningfulness) as well as the format in which information is provided and individual consumers with opposite spending orientations. Theoretical background The development of the spendthrift-tightwad scale was created by Rick, Cryder, and Loewenstein (2008). In their scale, the authors define tightwads as individuals that have difficulty spending money whereas spendthrifts are individuals who have difficulty controlling their spending. Tightwads and spendthrifts do differ in levels of self-regulation (Tangney et al 2004). Tightwads are unable to free themselves from self-control even though their situation would become more favorable by spending money and spendthrifts have issues with exerting self-control even though it is in their best interest to limit their spending. Based on Rick et al (2008), spendthrifts are three times more likely than tightwads to carry debt as well as more amount of debt. Spendthrifts carry more debt and save less than tightwads. Spendthrifts are significantly more likely than tightwads to carry credit card debt at each income level. With respect to consumption purchase, spendthrifts are nine percent more likely than tightwads to buy a utilitarian massage and 26 percent more likely to buy the hedonic massage Rick et al (2008). Tightwads are significantly less likely to buy a massage in general. In sum, there will be a clear distinction between spendthrifts and tightwads in terms of utilitarian and hedonic purpose of consumptions. Thus we predict that, H1: Spendthrifts are more likely to have a higher purchase intention score than tightwads Meaningfulness and novelty are the two dimensions of new product creativity(Amabile 1983). Novelty is defined as the degree to which a new product is perceived as new and uniquely different to competitors, while meaningfulness is defined as the extent to which a new product is perceived as appropriate and useful. Consumers value novelty or meaningfulness depending on their level of product involvement and knowledge Rubera, Ordanini, and Mazursky (2010). However, products must have a wow or coolness factor to be accepted. Consumers do not appreciate a new product's creativity for its own sake but try to relate a product's meaningfulness and novelty to its utilitarian and hedonic value respectively(Im, Bhat, and Lee 2015). Therefore, we expect that H2 (a): Spendthrifts have higher intentions to purchase a product if presented as a message with a novelty message than meaningful message. H2 (b): Tightwads have higher intentions to purchase a product if presented as a message with meaningfulness than novelty. Study design The purpose of study is to see whether or not the manipulation of the message type describing a new product will lead to a higher purchasing intention. Framing the message with novelty shows that the product is new and unique, while framing the message with meaningfulness emphasizes a product's usefulness and ability to fulfill needs. We predict that the message type significantly influences the intentions a new product changes based on their tendencies of money use. The pretest is designed to check to see if the perceived value from both meaningfulness and novelty framing are be similar as well as the strength of attributes. Participants had been randomly assigned to one of two groups: a flyer with a meaningful message, a flyer with a novelty message. Participants were asked on a single item (7-point scale) of how much value the new product provides them. A second question asked the participants to rate on a 7 point scale asking how strong or convincing the message was given the provided attributes. A total 158 undergraduate students from a Midwestern land-grant university participated in this experiment, all provided with extra credits for class. Participants were randomly assigned to a group based on a 2 (Message type: Meaningfulness vs. Novelty) x 2 (individual difference: tightwad vs. spendthrift) x 2 (advertisement only vs. advertisement + customer review) between-subjects experiment. The dependent variables are attitude toward new product and purchase intentions. Participants were classified either as spendthrifts or tightwads. The spendthrift-tightwad scale provided by Rick, Cryder, and Loewenstein in (2008) came out to be reliable with a Cronbach alpha of .75 as stated in their development and validation section. With this reliability check, it will be safe to use their scale to differentiate participants as either spendthrifts or tightwads. This scale is used to measure an important individual trait of spending behavior which we believe is to interact with the message type. We also tested the effect of message vehicle (either advertisement or customer’s review), given the importance of source credibility. In the meaningfulness message type, participants are provided an advertisement flyer about a new product. There are six attributes about a new product (3 meaningful attributes and 3 novel attributes) and a message in the bottom half of the flyer describing the how this product will satisfy the customer's needs, useful, and or life changing. In the novelty message type, participants receive a similar flyer with the same product attributes as in the meaningfulness condition. The difference is in the message provided in the bottom half of the flyer. The message for novelty include phrases that indicate how new, unique, or revolutionary the product is. After the participants look over the flyer, they were asked if they would buy this new product. Then participants answered a follow-up question for the manipulation check. Participants in their respective message types were asked if how meaningful they think the product is they if they are in the meaningful condition and how novel they think they product is if they are within the novelty condition. For the customer review condition, a similar manipulation was used and the difference is that participants read customer reviews (emphasizing either meaningfulness or novelty of new product) Measures Advertisement novelty and meaningfulness are composite scales from six items respectively, with Cronbach alpha of 0.874 and 0.923. Product attitude are measured using four items (outstanding quality, reliable, consistent, and dependable) (Cronbach alpha = 0.919). Purchase intention measure is based on two items (how likely, how probable to purchase this product) using 7-point scales (Cronbach alpha = 0.827).Individual difference of spendthrift and tightwad measure is adopted from Rick, Cryder, and Loewenstein (2007). They used four items and simply summed scale responses (range from 4 to 26), and then divide respondents into three equally sized groups of sums (tightwad, unconflicted, and spendthrift). In our analysis, we followed the same approach, and used two groups (tightwad and spendthrift). The reliability (Cronbach alpha) was 0.756. However, for the manipulation check neither the novelty nor meaningfulness variable was significant. In the novelty condition, the participants did not experience a higher level of novelty in the message (t=.46, p=.65) while in the meaningfulness condition, participants did not experience a more meaningful focused message (t=-.485, p=.63). We must redesign the stimuli so that survey participants are properly manipulated to their allotted conditions. Initial results Attitude and purchase intention were higher for the advertisement plus customer review condition, compared to only advertisement groups. Also, there is a significant interaction effect among the message type and spending orientations influencing purchase intention. The spendthrifts to have higher intentions to purchase the product than tightwads similar to Rick, Cryder, and Loewenstein (2008) study with utilitarian and hedonic variables. There should be a significant effect of message type. The ANOVA results showed that overall model was significant (F =2.23, p=.048). ST-TW trait showed a significant effect on purchase decision (F= 7.454, p=.009). Thus, spendthrift respondents are more likely to purchase new products than tightwad ones, which is a consistent result to the existing literature. Implications and conclusions Message strategy for new product will be of critical criterion, because a convincing and creative advertising campaign will capture the attention of consumers. It will be important for firms to incorporate customer reviews in juxtaposition with the advertisement message, as it is much more likely for a consumer to purchase a product when a review is present based on the results above. Essentially, providing customer information becomes important, when you develop a message in advertisement that also provides a complimentary consumer review. However, depending on consumer’s characteristics regarding spendthrift-tightwad orientation, the choice of either advertising or specific promotion, encouraging encourage consumer to purchase. In sum, the results strongly suggest that using both advertisement and customer review information provision would increase purchase decision, but complementary focus of information provision will be the most effective way to deliver message to audience. In addition, individual different in spending orientation can be an important moderator, which suggest a series of further research.

China, with its rapid growing wealthy consumers, is increasingly becoming a major market for luxury brands and products. It is believed that the growing consumption of wildlife products in China is one of the key factors in the acceleration of global extinction of endangered species. It is certainly not an easy task to reveal consumers’ true motivations behind their purchase, but is even tougher to change their behavior. In the field of wildlife conservation, despite many efforts so far have been made to de-market the consumption, the results are not encouraging. This study is designed to fill the research gap by treating ivory purchase as a type of luxury product purchase in China. Through studying the behavior and its underlying values and motivations, this research is aimed to identify effective communication strategies to curve the ivory consumption in China. Pretest among small groups was first conducted for the purpose of scale validity evaluation. A random stratified sample was obtained from an online panel in China in January 2018. Total 600 usable samples were obtained. The data analysis showed a strong and positive relationship between power distance and materialism; power distance and negative attitude toward social media. Materialism/collectivism is found a strong predicator of positive attitude toward social media and social media usage. While ivory likely buyers associate uncertainty avoidance with materialism and positive attitude toward social network, ivory purchase rejecters demonstrate a positive relationship between long term orientation and materialism; long term orientation and positive attitude toward social media. Based on the strong relationships between materialism and social media usage we found form this study, it is recommended to design a social media campaign to dissociate ivory products from social status; and to associate social status with healthier, greener alternatives (e.g., Tesla car). Advocating desired behavior (e.g., charitable works to save elephants in Africa) in social media and de-advocating the undesired behaviors by celebrities on TV (e.g., ‘No Trading - No Killing’ campaign by YaoMing) is likely to work for likely ivory buyers.

The aim of the paper is to present an analytical approach that combines netnography with text-mining to build consumer brand knowledge in terms of brand associations deriving from social media contents. More specifically, it is based on the multi-vocal nature (Gensler et al., 2013) of the brand related to the participatory, collaborative and socially-linked behaviors by consumers that serve as creators of brand stories thus determining brand associations. It identifies and explores user-generated contents (UGC) as expression of brand associations emerging from different categories of actors in social media (consumers, influencers and other online prescribers), and measures their alignment with the company-defined brand associations. The rise of social media and the associated possibilities of large-scale consumer-to-consumer interaction and easy user generation of content shed light on the importance of the consumer-generated brand stories through social media, which have a high impact due to their characteristics of being digital, visible, ubiquitous, available in real-time, and dynamic (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Methodologically, the paper proposes a two-pronged methodological approach integrating qualitative market research techniques with the quantitative ones, respectively netnography, used to explore consumer interactions in virtual communities through computer-mediated discourses, and text mining, used to extrapolate information from relatively large amounts of electronically stored textual data by means of computer applications. More specifically, the paper proposes an analysis of the 10 top luxury fashion brands in terms of brand associations emerging from UGC in social media through the voices of consumers, bloggers and other online prescribers, in line with the multi-vocal nature of the brand. Such associations are then compared to those generated by the company, in order to identify a possible alignment. The paper provides an analytical tool that allow managers to actively understand how different “online market brand players” interact with their brands, and eventually redefine their branding strategies together with their brand communication.

Even though luxury brands embraced social media (Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko, 2012), research on the use of social media for luxury brand marketing is limited. Given the increasing popularity of social media, it is imperative to examine social media-based communication strategies for luxury brands to achieve desirable consumer evaluations of brands and advertising. This research explored the role of brand anthropomorphism strategies in social media in enhancing consumers’ advertising and brand evaluations. Specifically, this research investigated (1) the effects of verbal-based brand anthropomorphism in the luxury goods brand context (Study 1), (2) the effects of verbalbased brand anthropomorphism in the luxury service brand context (Study 2), and (3) the effects of verbal-based brand anthropomorphism cues (Study 3) on consumers’ luxury brand and advertising evaluations. Studies 1 and 2 both collectively examined the role of self-focused anthropomorphized brand effects in two different contexts. Consumers easily connect themselves with an anthropomorphized advertising, compared to an objectified advertising for luxury brands. Study 3 identified the fit between luxury brand type and an anthropomorphized brand cue to explore the effectiveness of brand anthropomorphism. Depending on the type of luxury brands, consumers processed anthropomorphized brand cues differently. Consumers favorably perceived the fit between luxury good brands and partner cues; on the other hand, consumers favorably perceived the fit between luxury service brands and servant cues. Results of this research contribute to the social media advertising and luxury brand marketing literature by clarifying the role of brand anthropomorphism in consumer-brand relationships as well as in brand-advertising relationships. Results also provide industry suggestions for delivering personified brand messages to have desirable consumer brand and advertising evaluations.

While market orientation is long evident to be a key contributor to firm performance (Narver & Slater, 1990; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993), firms now increasingly find that proactive market orientation (Narver, Slater & Maclachlan, 2004) may be more appropriate for the rapidly changing market. Not only can it contribute to new product development success, it is proposed that it can enhance the ability to market which is labeled marketing exploration (Kyriakopoulos & Moorman, 2004). In this study, we posited proactive market orientation together with the original market orientation named here responsive market orientation as essential to developing a firm’s marketing exploration capability. As marketing competences reside in the everyday routines and practice related to the marketing function, marketing exploration enables one to update the ability to perform various marketing tasks which is essential capability of the firm to get ahead of the competition. Entrepreneurial orientation is also introduced as a mediating factor between the above relationships with the argument that such posture is related to a firm’s propensity to innovate, take risk and be proactive (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996) which is related to a proactive market orientation. A survey was carried out in China and results show that proactive market orientation is positively related to marketing exploration while responsive market orientation has positive impact on marketing exploration only through entrepreneurial orientation. Marketing exploration in turn positively impact firm performance. Results of this study contribute theoretically in revitalizing the market orientation literature which has been research for almost three decades. While leading customers with a proactive market orientation is getting more salient in this rapidly changing market environment, the original market orientation cannot be ignored. Both orientations are essential to enhance firms’ ability to renew their marketing skills and routines. This is definitely more important than just coming up with new products/services as it enables firms to update its marketing knowledge and skills so is crucial to long term performance.

Introduction Kotler (2015) warned that, if we only pursue economic growth and revenue/profit expansion, we will end up with overconsumption and wastes, bringing serious damage to our planet. He advocated the transition from the growth-oriented economy to the steady-state economy. Steady state economy is defined as an economy that maintains desired sufficient level of throughput with the lowest feasible flows of matter and energy from production to consumption (Kotler, 2015). As Kotler mentioned, this idea is somewhat utopian as most companies are still living in the growth-oriented economy. The purpose of this research is to extend Kotler’s idea by conceptualizing a more concrete model to visualize the marketing in the steady state economy. The model consists of five major elements; customers, stakeholders, employees, suppliers and community. The authors also present twelve propositions that explain promoting factors for the marketing in the steady state economy based on the multiple case studies conducted in Japan. Literature review The steady-state economy itself is actually not a new idea in economics. For example, typical classical economists (e.g., Adam Smith and John Stewart Mill) advocated the transition to the steady-state economy after saturation of economic growth. Neo-classical economists have also postulated the concept of steady state economy with regard to the law of diminishing returns (Tellis, 2008). Many previous studies have continuously put efforts on developing theories and practices to meet with economic, social and environmental needs simultaneously, since Kotler and Zaltman (1971) proposed the concept of social marketing. Although social marketing is closely related to marketing in the steady-state economy, its ethical egotism remains a problem (Crane and Desmond, 2002). Lerman and Shfrin (2015) and Gopaldas (2015) claim positive marketing which creates value for the firm, its customers, and society at large. In short, these concepts suggest the possibility that individual, self-seeking, and short-run behaviors can be consistent with aggregate, altruistic, and long-run behaviors. Besides above exceptions, however, most marketing researchers have evaded the question: What is marketing in the steady-state economy? The purpose of our study is to develop a conceptual framework to analyze “steady-oriented” companies and their marketing strategies based on the case studies in Japan. Research methodology In order to answer the above question, we adopt qualitative heuristic approaches (Kleining, 1994), because our question has not been addressed enough in previous studies mentioned above. First, we collected primary and secondary data from various information sources including company websites, press releases, online business journals, academic case studies, public seminars, presentations at academic meetings and so on (Yin, 2014). As stated by Eisenhardt (1989), we used a theoretical sampling to identify the informants for our multiple case studies. We intentionally chose companies from different industries, locations, length of history, manufacturing technology, etc. Based on the review and data collection, we developed a basic framework and series of theoretical propositions (Yin, 2014). For our study, we selected Japanese companies respecting “sanpo-yoshi” [good for three parties] philosophy. It is a belief that business should be good for sellers, buyers, and society. In fact, positive marketing is similar to this concept of “sanpo-yoshi” which is based on the family precepts of “Ohmi region merchants” in the Edo period (1600-1857) (Ogura, 1991; Usami 2015). Our selected “sanpo-yoshi” oriented companies aim for a harmonious relationship with all the concerning stakeholders and community (see Appendix for the list of selected companies). Figure 1 identifies five key parties covered in the “sanpo-yoshi” management and shows bilateral relations between the company and the five parties. First, “sanpo-yoshi” oriented companies try to build good long-term relationships not only with their customers by selling high-quality products at fair prices, but also with suppliers by buying a stable volume of products at fair prices. In addition, some companies provide their loyal customers with special experience concerning their own brands and their suppliers with technical assistant. In return, customers feel strong loyalty to the brand and suppliers offer a stable supply of high- quality raw materials at fair prices. Moreover, “sanpo-yoshi” companies take an active interest in their employees and the community where they operate because their confidence contributes to sustainable development of the companies. Shareholders for short-term returns, however, are unlikely to give heavy weight to social activities by their investee companies. Therefore, companies whose stocks are unlisted or occupied by long-term shareholders are more favorably inclined toward “sanpo-yoshi” management. Research propositions Based on the case studies of “sanpo-yoshi” companies in Japan, we argue that the enforcement of marketing in the steady-state economy can be tied to three factors: (1) management factors, (2) competitive factors, and (3) financial factors. Within these factors, twelve research propositions are developed for testing in the future research (Eisenhardt and Gaebner, 2007). These factors and propositions are summarized in Figure 2. Management factors are divided into two subcomponents: decision-making and employment factors. First, decision-making factors basically mean that the independence of management from the investors seeking short-term profits enables the management to enforce steady-oriented marketing. The most feasible method is corporate governance by founders or his/her family, although it is not a requirement. For instance, Kagome Co., Ltd. ended the family business operation in 1996, and around 180,000 individual “fan shareholders” accounting for 55.4% (Nikkei, 2017) are supporting the management with a long-term perspective. Second, employment factors indicate that the companies are likely to enforce steady-oriented marketing when they maintain high labor productivity and excellent human resources. In particular, it is more important for companies having many female employees with accumulated experience and know-hows to prevent those employees from quitting the job because of pregnancy or child rearing. Competitive factors are associated with the conditions of the steady state economy surrounding the companies. If the companies have maintained high market share in a mature market for many years, they can afford to enforce “sanpo-yoshi” oriented marketing for sustainability. In terms of financial factors, equity ratio shows the soundness of management, which has positive effects on the enforcement of marketing in the steady state economy. Moreover, ROE measures a company’s profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money which its shareholders have invested. Finally, payout ratio provides valuable insight into a company’s dividend policy. Higher payout ratio indicates that the company is sharing more of its earnings with the shareholders. Implications The findings of this research contribute to the academics by providing a new framework for the marketing in the steady state economy. Further research can empirically test the proposed model in various countries to investigate if this framework is culturally specific to Japan or not. This research also provides practical implications for managers. For sustainable business and better society, companies should keep their eyes on the five elements presented in our research. Thus we can take the very first step for the marketing in the steady state economy.

Customer participation (CP) refers to customers’ contribution of effort, knowledge, information or other resources to service production and delivery (Dong & Sivakumar, 2017). A key management challenge is to ensure that after customers’ initial acceptance these service formats, customers continue to use them, by the provision and management of CP quality as perceived by the customer. In a CP context, shaping customers’ quality perceptions is complex. First, these perceptions are the result of multiple parties (i.e., customer, employee, and firm). Secondly, customer performance is difficult to control and forms a preeminent source of variability and operational inefficiency (Groth, 2005). Against this backdrop, two research objectives guide this study. First, to propose and test a quality typology that takes a comprehensive view on the CP quality dimensions. Second, to assess whether organizational socialization -consisting of role clarity, self-efficacy, and motivation- is able to influence the customer in service formats that rely on CP. To address these issues survey data were collected from 138 customers. PLS-SEM results indicate that stimulating continued usage of CP formats involves managing an intricate mix of customer quality perceptions (i.e., employee functional and technical quality; firm functional and technical; customer technical quality. In addition, the results show that socialization techniques can be useful to influence customer quality contributions in CP service formats.

Many firms see organizational learning systems as critical to facilitating competitive advantage. However, until now, few tourism studies have empirically investigated and identified how the different characteristics of highly competitive organizations, such as travel agencies, influence competitive advantage in a dynamic environment. This study uses a mediation-moderation analysis for such an empirical examination. A total of 288 travel agencies from Taiwan were analysed. The authors found that travel agencies’ shared goals may influence competitive advantage through characteristics of dynamic capability development, differential strategy implication and social capital accumulation. Greater levels of organizational learning may positively strengthen the relationships between (a) shared goals and dynamic capability, (b) shared goals and social capital, and (c) social capital and competitive advantage. Implications of these findings for managerial and theoretical frameworks are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to assess the role of marketing to the area of strategic alliances. We suggest that marketing capability – the ability to deploy resources to serve customers better- is a key determinant that facilitates value creation in strategic alliances. Specifically, we investigate the interaction effects of marketing capability on performance of strategic alliance experience and types of strategic alliances (introducing three types: SI-SF alliance, AI-SF alliance and AI-DF alliance), and whether these interaction effects are moderated by high vs. low technological industry. This study analyzed the panel data from 39 international firms and their 2,158 alliances during the period 1994 - 2014, 21 firms from computer industry (high-tech industry) and 18 firms from food industry (low-tech industry), respectively. The results indicate that the contribution of marketing capability on the relationships between alliance experience, types of strategic alliances and firm value varies with environmental contexts. First, when a firm has strong marketing capability, the effect of strategic alliance experience on firm value is greater than those of firms with low marketing capability. Also, the strength of its interaction effect is lower in high-tech industry than low-tech industry. Second, when a firm has strong marketing capability, the effects of three different types of strategic alliances on firm value are greater than those of firms with low marketing capability. However, their interaction effects to firm value were significant only in high-tech industry. Specifically, when a firm has strong marketing capability, the stock market reacts most favorably to the AI-DF alliance than those of SI-SF alliance and AI-SF alliance in high-tech industry. In contrast, even a firm has strong marketing capability, the stock market reacts favorably only to AI-SF alliance in low-tech industry. In sum, our research suggests that the interactive performance impact of marketing capability to the strategic alliance experience and the types of strategic alliances can be obtained in particular environmental contexts.

Despite significant research and progress in examining the effects of loyalty programs on consumer behavior and firm performance, it is still unclear the firm value implications of these programs. The main goal of this article is to investigate whether announcements related to the loyalty program introduction affect firm value. In addition, the current research examines the moderating role of program, firm, and market factors in order to present a complete picture. The authors test the hypotheses empirically by conducting an event study of 134 announcements which cover a set of firms in the United States in five industries for 17 years from 2000 to 2016. We find that on average, the introduction of a loyalty program is positively related to firm value. Findings of this study will help managers understand how and under what conditions, they should introduce a loyalty program in order to affect firm value positively.