The tourism sector globally is reaping dividends from an upswing in outbound leisure traffic from emerging economies as their growth rates continue to outpace their developed counterparts. Simultaneously, digital leapfrogging and innovation in these markets is providing further impetus to economic growth and increasing numbers of outbound tourists from BRIC nations.

The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets for destinations, with Chinese tourist arrivals grown from 10 million to 83 million from 2000 to 2012 and their expenditures abroad reaching US102 billion in 2012 to position China as the world’s largest tourism source market in spending (CTA, 2012; UNWTO, 2013). Investigations into how Chinese tourists behave in comparison to their Western counterparts will have tremendous potential for developing insights into tourism literature, especially if previously developed Western theoretical models can interpret Chinese tourist behaviour. Practically, a better understanding of the Chinese outbound tourism phenomenon benefits destinations, which seek to effectively promote economic and social development associated with the ever-growing Chinese outbound market. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic, quantitative review of 118 articles published in 15 top tourism and hospitality journals between 2000 and 2012 to determine the status of research on Chinese outbound tourism. This study adopted a hybrid design that incorporated the characteristics of both the narrative and systematic quantitative review methods. The review outlines current achievements and future directions for Chinese outbound tourism research, and is pertinent to both theory building and professional practice. Based on Weaver and Lawton’s (2009) model of multi-disciplinary linkages, the 118 articles were classified into: psychology (38 articles), marketing (33), business management (16), economics (6), history (4), sociology (3), political science (1), and others (17). Credit shall be given to research efforts manifested in several areas such as travel motivation, expectations, travel barriers, destination image and preference, market segmentation and business management issues. However, much of existing literature focuses on one specific domain of sustainability – economic, reflecting an initial excitement about the development potential of this market, promoting it as an ideal source for economic growth at the destinations. The majority of studies are within the positivistic/post-positivistic paradigm. Few studies take a platform beyond advocacy to dialectically evaluate Chinese outbound tourism phenomena and impacts. In general, these studies applied existing theories to the Chinese market but fall short of making a significant breakthrough beyond the widely adopted Western models. As such, knowledge generated is to some extent fragmented and context-confined. Long-term strategic development requires recognition of the complexity and reality of the Chinese outbound tourism phenomenon as well as a need for sustainable and responsible development. In response, research needs to move toward the sustainable, knowledge-based and ethics platforms that adopt a holistic view of tourism as an integrated and interdependent system.

The branding concept has been burgeoning from product branding and extending to service, corporate, and further nation branding (Papadopoulous & Heslop, 2002). The concept found in the tourism literature has been mostly adapted to a tourism destination (e.g., Gartner & Konecnik Ruzzier, 2011; Im, Kim, Elliot & Han, 2012). However, unlike characteristics of a manufactured product, a tourism destination has difficulties in terms of definition, measurement, and conceptualization (Murphy, Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2007). As a consequence, there has been a shortage of empirical research relating to the application of the branding concept to tourism destination management organizations spanning from national to local tourism organizations (Blain, Levy & Ritchie, 2005; Pike, 2010). To understand tourism destination branding, recently, studies have been conducted in the context of destination branding as a part of destination marketing strategy (Morgan, Prichard & Pride, 2001), brand identity and personality (Morgan et al., 2001; Murphy, Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2007), and brand logos and slogans (Blain et al., 2005; Hem & Iversen, 2004). The concept of the destination brand equity will be applied to Hong Kong tourists who are traveling to Switzerland. Switzerland is becoming a hot spot for Chinese long-haul trips following European destinations like UK, France, or Italy. Since a decade the core countries of the European Alps Switzerland concentrates more specifically on the Chinese market and with a time lag of a few years the overnight stays have started growing (Schmid, 2012). Since 2008 the overnight stays of Chinese touristsindicated a double- digit jump over the last five years and resulted in an accumulated growth rate of 246.9 percent, that is, the overnight stays per year climbed from 214,000 (2008) to 744,000 (2012) (BFS, 2009 & 2013). The Swiss Tourism Board estimated 2 million overnight stays from China in 2020. In this case China would overturn the neighboring country Italy as one of the key source markets for Switzerland (Schmid, 2012). The high increase in Chinese tourists led to marketing efforts of Switzerland Tourism and the Swiss Hotel Association hotelleriesuisse with their initiative “Hallo China” (Switzerland Tourism, 2004). At first, the main purpose of this study is to conceptualize destination brand equity. Second, it is to propose a destination brand equity model. Third, it is to test the model using a sample of Hong Kong tourists who travel to Switzerland. Fourth, it is to investigate characteristics of tourism products preferred by Hong Kong tourists. Fifth, it is to explore how their preferences for tourism products are different according to their travel-related or demographic variables. This study expects those outcomes and benefits. Frist, components consisting of destination brand equity model and conceptual model will be generated. Second, brand equity of Switzerland as perceived by Hong Kong tourists will be tested. Third, better understanding of Hong Kong tourists regarding their perception of Swiss image, level of awareness, overall quality, loyalty, and overall brand equity will be facilitated. Fourth, most previous studies focused only on preference, behavior or attitudes of Hong Kong tourists who travel in a short-haul distance. On the contrary, this study attempts to understand Hong Kong tourists to a long-haul tourism destination, here Europe. Fifth, according to specialization theory, more specialized tourists tend to select more far-way and more risky destination because their knowledge is growing and a range of their selection is diverse. In an increasing future trend in demand of overseas Chinese tourists, this study attempts to identify long-haul Hong Kong tourists’ preference, attitude or behavior in Europe.

Foreign firms often bear additional costs when conducting business abroad (Hymer, 1976), which was later referred to the liability of foreignness (LOF), described as “all additional costs a firm operating in a market overseas incurs that a local firm would not incur” (Zaheer, 1995). This paper proposes a new construct, consumers’ perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD), which expresses consumers’ willingness or desire to support domestic firms. We first examine whether PISD represents a kind of LOF; if yes, we investigate what kind, if any, firm-specific advantages of foreign firms can overcome this discrimination by consumers. We found that PISD is a kind of LOF, which has a negative effect on consumers’ choice of foreign retailers. Value-for-money factors rather than doing CSR would moderate this effect. This study adds to the literature of LOF in three ways. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine LOF within an international retailing context. Second, we provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of PISD on consumers’ actual store patronage behavior. In comparison to many previous studies that adopted firm-level data, focusing on consumers’ behavior will provide a fine-grained perspective of the functioning of the LOF, and help open the ‘black box’ of it. Third, we propose a possible way of overcoming the discrimination hazard of LOF in Chinese market. A key proposition of the institutional theory is that within a given socially constructed value or belief system, a firm will seek ‘legitimacy’ in order to gain the support of social actors (Suchman, 1995). The process of legitimation is complex especially for foreign firms as they often face the challenge of establishing and maintaining legitimacy in the host environments Kostova & Zaheer, 1999). Social actors such as consumers in the host countries tend to perceive foreign firms lack of legitimacy due to their foreign identity, which result in consumers’ bias. In relation to this, Shimp & Sharma (1987) developed the concept of consumer ethnocentrism (CE), referring to “consumers’ beliefs about the appropriateness and morality of purchasing foreign products”. This consumer bias, measured by CETSCALE, is proved to have a negative effect on consumers’ behavior towards foreign products, and thus can be regarded as a kind of discrimination hazard that foreign firms have to face. In this study, we suggest an extension of Shimp & Sharma’s (1987) idea and an empirical test of the effect of a similar construct on consumer behavior. The construct is defined as the perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD). PISD is similar to Foreign firms often bear additional costs when conducting business abroad (Hymer, 1976), which was later referred to the liability of foreignness (LOF), described as “all additional costs a firm operating in a market overseas incurs that a local firm would not incur” (Zaheer, 1995). This paper proposes a new construct, consumers’ perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD), which expresses consumers’ willingness or desire to support domestic firms. We first examine whether PISD represents a kind of LOF; if yes, we investigate what kind, if any, firm-specific advantages of foreign firms can overcome this discrimination by consumers. We found that PISD is a kind of LOF, which has a negative effect on consumers’ choice of foreign retailers. Value-for-money factors rather than doing CSR would moderate this effect. This study adds to the literature of LOF in three ways. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine LOF within an international retailing context. Second, we provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of PISD on consumers’ actual store patronage behavior. In comparison to many previous studies that adopted firm-level data, focusing on consumers’ behavior will provide a fine-grained perspective of the functioning of the LOF, and help open the ‘black box’ of it. Third, we propose a possible way of overcoming the discrimination hazard of LOF in Chinese market. A key proposition of the institutional theory is that within a given socially constructed value or belief system, a firm will seek ‘legitimacy’ in order to gain the support of social actors (Suchman, 1995). The process of legitimation is complex especially for foreign firms as they often face the challenge of establishing and maintaining legitimacy in the host environments(Kostova & Zaheer, 1999). Social actors such as consumers in the host countries tend to perceive foreign firms lack of legitimacy due to their foreign identity, which result in consumers’ bias. In relation to this, Shimp & Sharma (1987) developed the concept of consumer ethnocentrism (CE), referring to “consumers’ beliefs about the appropriateness and morality of purchasing foreign products”. This consumer bias, measured by CETSCALE, is proved to have a negative effect on consumers’ behavior towards foreign products, and thus can be regarded as a kind of discrimination hazard that foreign firms have to face. In this study, we suggest an extension of Shimp & Sharma’s (1987) idea and an empirical test of the effect of a similar construct on consumer behavior. The construct is defined as the perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD). PISD is similar to the concept of “involvement”, which is defined as the individual’s perceived importance of the product or the act, just as PISD is defined in this study. The similarity of the PISD with the concept of involvement provides support for the necessity of examining the effect of PISD on consumers’ shopping behavior. The definition of PISD differs from CE in that CETSCALE has been weighted heavily toward consumers’ beliefs about buying foreign products for national people, whereas PISD is an individual-specific construct. For example, many items of the scale that measures CE (see Shimp & Sharma, 1987 for detail,) are designed as “American people should always…”; “We should purchase…” ; In contrast, PISD leans more heavily on individual desire or willingness to support domestic retailers. To put it simply, even if an individual strongly agrees that it is not right for locals to purchase foreign products or visit foreign retail stores, it may not influence his or her actual store choice behavior, when no desire or willingness to support domestic retailers exists. Therefore, PISD, indicative of a desire or willingness to support domestic retailers, is an individual-level construct that is believed to be a better predictor of those decisions. The theories of foreign direct investments (FDI) deal with the questions, why MNEs or FDI exist and why they invest abroad. One of the theories is the specific-advantage hypothesis, which argued that the existence of MNEs hinges on the nature of the specific advantage of the firm, which would compensate for the disadvantages faced by foreign firms (Dunning, 2000). In international retailing, the advantages of foreign retailers in transitional economy are usually related to retail mix such as the uniqueness of products, merchandise assortment, and competitive pricing. Furthermore, Luo, Shenkar, & Nyaw (2002) suggest that foreign firms might be able to improve their moral legitimacy by ‘doing good’ through CSR activities. In this study, we test about whether foreign retailers can overcome the LOF of PISD by retail mix advantages or doing CSR activities. Data in this study were collected by means of a self-administrated survey in Dalian city of China. The survey was conducted in four urban districts of Dalian during November 9–30, 2011. In the process of data collection, sub-district units (residential streets) in each district were identified, of which 5–10 streets were selected. From these, 3–5 communities were selected, and households were selected from each community by simple random sampling. The person responsible for most of the household shopping was asked to answer the questions. A total of 590 respondents participated in the survey, of which 90 samples were excluded due to incomplete responses, and so we were left with a final sample of 500. Respondents were between 20 and 65 years old; those between 20 and 29 accounted for 29.8% of the sample; 31.4% were between 30 and 39; respondents between 40 and 49 accounted for 17.0%; and 21.8% were over 50. Respondents earning a monthly income of 2,000–8,000 RMB (Chinese yuan), 8,000–10,000RMB, and more than 10,000RMB accounted for 62%, 15%, and 11.8% of the sample, respectively.Regarding the measures of retail mix, we included a list of store attributes based on the list provided in studies such as Lindquist (1974-75) and Pan & Zinkhan (2006). All the items were measured on a scale from 1 to 5, anchored by “not important at all” to “very important.” Factor analysis was first utilized to investigate the structure impact on foreign retailers will be weaker for consumers who attach more importance to quality and promotion. Therefore, we argue that it would be more effective for foreign retailers to emphasize value-for-money retail mix elements in order to mitigate or overcome the LOF of PISD. CSR was positively significant in both Model 1 and Model 2, implying that consumers who attach more importance to CSR are more likely to shop at foreign retail stores. However, the interaction effects between CSR and PISD were insignificant. This indicates that for consumers with higher level of PISD, the importance attached to CSR will not weaken the negative effect of PISD. These results imply that, in a general sense, foreign firms’ effort on CSR performance is rewarded by those consumers who attach more value on CSR. However, for those who have higher level of PISD, foreign firms do not seem to be able to gain their support just by doing ‘good deeds’ (CSR).

This study examines the determinants of the member customer’s decision of redeeming versus accumulating loyalty program (LP) points by focusing on the effects of the different channels of transaction (online versus offline) and the demographic information of member customers. Our study is based on customer-level demographic and transaction data on a major partnership LP in Korea, the OK Cashbag (OCB) program. This study differs from the existing literature in three aspects. First, the dataset employed for this study enables us to compare member customers’ point redemption behavior between online and offline channels, whereas previous studies demonstrate coupon redemption behavior either in an online (Chiou-Wei and Inman 2008) or an offline setting (e.g., Cronovich 1997; Kwon and Kwon 2007; Mittal 1994; Reibstein and Traver 1982; Ward and Davis 1978). Second, the current study investigates not only the main effects of demographic variables, but also a series of interaction effects between the online channel and each demographic variable. Clear empirical evidence of an interaction effect would provide an LP provider with significant managerial implications. Third, rich data on customers’ transaction behavior with matching demographic information for each member customer enable us to conduct both transaction-level and individual customer-level analyses. Therefore, an individual customer’s transaction behavior can be analyzed in more detail for robust results and richer implications. We find that transactions that occur through online channels and those made by younger customers demonstrate a greater tendency of redeeming LP points as opposed to accumulating them. We also find that online channels exhibit a moderating role by mitigating the demographic effects on member customers’ point redemption behavior. These findings allow the LP provider to predict the future LP point balance by analyzing its main channel of transaction and the demographic profiles of its member customers.

Research on new product development has emphasized the importance of integrating customers, employees, and suppliers in an organization’s innovation processes. While several studies evaluate respective participatory processes, there is, surprisingly, no consensus on which dimension participation quality consists of, and how to measure them consistently. The present study contributes to the literature by identifying the dimensions of participation quality and by constructing a participation quality scale that includes six dimensions, namely (1) project-related resources, (2) early involvement, (3) degree of influence, (4) transparency of processes, (5) incentive mechanisms, and (6) voluntariness of participation. Furthermore, a 24-item measure of participation quality is developed using a mixed-method design. Results of our study show that the developed measure impacts important innovation-related outcomes such as innovation performance, acceptance of the innovation, and intention to participate in future innovation projects. Given that the six identified dimensions of participation quality differentially affect these outcomes, the scale provides the opportunity to better design participatory innovation projects, and thus helps managers to integrate stakeholders more successfully in these projects.

The objective of this study is to test how five theory-driven adoption barriers and three key consumer demographics influence consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in two seemingly similar service innovations. The earlier literature on innovation diffusion recognizes two streams of research: one focusing on innovation adoption and acceptance of innovations, and the other stream, though less traveled, calling attention to innovation resistance. All innovations face a certain degree of resistance among consumers depending on consumer characteristics and the innovation itself. The literature argues that consumers can simultaneously express views that are both favorable and unfavorable towards the innovations (Ferreira, da Rocha, & da Silva, 2014) and thus both resistance and adoption can coexist during the lifetime of an innovation (Ram, 1987). Thus it is reasonable to explore how innovation resistance influences consumer decisions in different service innovations. Initially scholars explained resistance to innovations through two constructs, habit or satisfaction with an existing behavior and perceived risks associated with innovation adoption (Sheth, 1981). Ram and Sheth (1989) provide a more comprehensive view to the phenomenon by explaining consumer resistance through functional and psychological barriers that they further divide into five distinct barriers, namely usage, value, risk, tradition and image. This study tests how these five adoption barriers as well as three consumer demographics, gender, age, and income, influence consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in Internet and mobile banking. An effective total sample size of 1,736 consumer responses were collected from Finland. Logistic regression analysis finds that the value barrier is the strongest inhibitor of Internet and mobile banking adoption. In addition, while the image barrier slows down mobile banking adoption, the tradition barrier explains the rejection of Internet banking. In addition, age greatly explains this behavior and the results show that younger segments have a significantly greater likelihood of Internet banking adoption than their older counterparts. Contrary to Internet banking, it appears that gender significantly contributes to mobile banking adoption and the intention to use it. The results predict that males have nearly two times greater likelihood towards adoption compared to females.

The multiplicity of channels and the ubiquitous access to product information represent major service innovations that new technologies have incorporated into the purchase process. This research analyzes how consumer and seller recommendations affect the consumer’s purchase decision and confidence in a multichannel service context based on an online-offline sequence.

This study addressed service innovation as a process of co-construction and sense-making by companies, customers and other partners. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of communication in fostering service innovation as a process of social construction. Five key communication practices intervening in service innovation were identified.

The ongoing growth in US and European markets along with the increasing demand for luxury goods in emerging economies leads to a substantial growth in the global appetite for luxury. A necessary precondition to improve marketing strategies for luxury brands is a better understanding of the different reasons why consumers across nations buy luxury products: Do similar luxury attitudes exist across countries, or are there significant differences in luxury attitudes internationally? Drawing from prior findings in cross-national studies and based on a three-dimensional framework of consumer attitudes toward luxury, the present study analyzes this research question by using a cross-national data set. Based on the empirical study, referring to the main research question and initial hypotheses, the assessment of the measurement models and the structural relations give evidence for the existence of similar luxury attitudes across countries that can be distinguished along the three dimensions of knowledge-related, affect-related and behavior-related luxury themes. Nevertheless, there are cross-national differences in the evaluation of statements that are associated with these luxury themes and in the structural relationship between these components.

Recently, luxury markets have been flourishing in East Asian and Western cultures.. At the same time, there is a shift from consumption motives like prestige and conspicuousness towards hedonism, experience and individualization. Based on the demand for appropriate marketing strategies, we develop a framework which links one-to-one marketing to luxury.

Storytelling is a genuine field of interest of narratology and the philologies. While it becomes important to both managers and researchers, these origins in analysing and discussing seem to be underrated in contemporary approaches. This paper seeks to close this gap by introducing theories from the humanities regarding qualitative methods for a conceptual frame that covers the core elements of storytelling and the possibilities of transmitting certain issues on the purpose of specific effect. For values are a typical issue in brand management, we offer an example of a qualitative approach towards values in storytelling. Finally, we offer an outlook on a following consecutive research combining both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Despite the recent economic downturn, the worldwide sales of luxury fashion brands have increased. The luxury fashion market may have become more profitable and yet, at the same time, more competitive. The relationship between consumers and a luxury fashion brand is the type of relation that starts with an affinity towards a particular brand name and is manifested through the purchase of the goods (Okonkwo 2007).Luxury consumption generally involves purchasing luxury products and brands which can symbolise luxury values to an individual. Even though luxury consumption has always been associated with prestige-seeking behaviour, it goes beyond that. Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands and goods that are able to fulfil their own functional and emotional values or, specifically, perceived luxury values. Advertising is essential in selling luxury brands and most luxury brands are willing to invest in advertising. One of the main objectives of luxury brand advertising is to help consumers develop a good understanding of the perceived values that luxury brands can offer as compared to non-luxury brands. Only after perceived luxury values are well understood, will consumers be persuaded to purchase the brands. Luxury fashion brands are one of the most profitable and fastest-growing luxury sectors, yet at the same time most researchers tend to agree that the value perceptions associated with luxury fashion brands are poorly understood and under-investigated. Values in general can be regarded as beliefs that guide the selection or evaluation of desirable behaviours or end states (Schultz & Zelezny 1999). Luxury values explain why consumers desire and purchase one luxury brand rather than another. This is because luxury values associated with a specific luxury fashion brand influences consumers’ preference over another brand. There is a wealth of models for perceived luxury values and many researchers have attempted to measure perceived luxury values. Previous research has revealed that luxury values may consist of multiple dimensions. For example, luxury values may involve exclusivity, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand identity (Phau & Prendergast 2000). Vigneron & Johnson (2004) proposed five perceived luxury values which comprise conspicuous value, uniqueness value, quality value, hedonic value, and extended self-value. Subsequent to the study done by Vigneron & Johnson (2004), Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels (2007) extended and summarised nine perceived luxury values in relation to luxury fashion brand consumption which are: price value, usability value, quality value, uniqueness value, self-identity value, hedonic value, materialistic value, conspicuousness value and prestige value.Gender, in particular, has not been carefully examined in the luxury context. Since many luxury fashion brands are purchased as gifts for the opposite gender, good understandings of the gender differences in perceptions towards key luxury values becomes essential in this luxury market. Extended from Wiedmann et al.’s study (2007) and using a two (male and female endorser) by two (male and female consumer) factorial and quasi-experimental design, this study examines the impact of gender on consumer responses to seven key luxury values, including the appearance, quality, uniqueness, materialistic, hedonic, conspicuous, and prestige value. The sample included more than three hundred young consumers in Australia. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the validity and reliability of each value construct. T-tests were conducted to examine the difference between the male and female consumers with regards to each of the luxury value. The study found that, when exposed to the male-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have significant different perceptions towards only three key luxury values including appearance, hedonic and prestige value. However, when exposed to the female-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have different perceptions on all of the key values examined except the materialistic and quality value. The results reveal that gender is a key consideration in luxury brand marketing, particularly in the context of new luxury brand advertising. On one hand, the same advertisement may lead to different consumer perceptions on the luxury values of the advertised brand. On the other hand, some key perceived values (such as quality or materialistic) may not be influenced by gender (neither the gender of the endorser or the consumer). The findings of this study are important as they enable luxury marketers to understand the impact of gender in luxury brand marketing. The implications go beyond luxury fashion brands to other sectors of the luxury market.

Perceived risk associated with online shopping has a critical effect on consumer decision making. Cultural values provide a good theoretical basis for understanding perceived risk. Given the rapid globalization of online shopping, an understanding of the mechanism of perceived online shopping risk and consumer repurchase intention in different cultures is crucial. The research question furnishing the main impetus for this study is: What are the different effects of various determinants of perceived risk in the context of online clothing shopping. We will study this question through the lens of Chinese and French cultural differences. A total of 195 and 221 questionnaires used for the analysis were collected from Chinese and French respondents respectively. Structural equation models with the maximum likelihood estimation method were employed to test all the hypothesized relationships. The research produced the following findings. Privacy concerns, security protection, and website retailer reputation have different effects (too large) on consumer perception of non-personal risk and personal risk as a result of cultural differences. Additionally, for both the Chinese and French samples, non-personal perceived risk significantly effects intention to repurchase. We found personal perceived risk has a significant effect only on Chinese consumer intention to repurchase.

Learning-orientation and trustworthiness are two important components of corporate image in Asian societies. This paper examines consumers’ perceived learning-orientation and trustworthiness of retailers in Hong Kong with a survey of 909 respondents. The results of a structural equation model show that learning orientation and trustworthiness are two distinctive attributes of a positive corporate image. Advertising creativity correlates positively with building a learning-oriented corporate image, while advertising believability correlates positively with building a trustworthy corporate image. The two perceived corporate images in turn positively associate with brand awareness and purchase intention respectively. Corporates which are perceived as learning-oriented recorded higher awareness, while consumers reported that they are more likely to patronize in companies which they found trustworthy. In summary, this research demonstrates the influence of advertising and promotion strategies (i.e. creativity vs. believability) on the perception of corporate’s image, and subsequently, on brand persuasiveness (i.e. brand awareness and purchase intention).This research has both theoretical contributions and managerial implications. It contributes to the existing corporate image literature by establishing the antecedents and consequences of building a learning-oriented and trustworthy corporate image. The research also provides practical implications to marketers. Specifically, the findings suggest that if a company aims to enhance consumers’ awareness about its branding, more attention should be put on developing creative advertising so as to build a learning-oriented corporate image. Alternatively, if a company aims to increase consumers’ purchase intention, more effort should be put on developing advertising with high believability so as to build a trustworthy corporate image.

This study empirically investigates how four individual-level characteristics impact the effect of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. A widely used practice among marketers focuses on communicating that using their brands will bring consumers closer to how they would like to see themselves, their ideal self-concept (e.g. being a slim person like the models in the ads), instead of how they actually see themselves, their actual self-concept. However, recent research shows that there is no “universality” of a superior self-congruity effect. Specifically, individual-level characteristics (e.g. self-esteem levels, product involvement levels) determine if actual or ideal self-congruity impact brand perceptions more strongly (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer & Nyffenegger, 2011). This study extends that research by (a) considering all four self-congruity types (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social) and (b) four additional individual-level characteristics, which are valuable for segmenting consumer markets within and across countries. The four individual-level characteristics are a dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan orientation and local orientation. Considering these individual-level characteristics offers marketers insights on which of the four self-concept types they should try to match with their brand communications when targeting these specific consumer groups. Survey data from a non-student sample was collected in the US. After performing data cleaning procedures, 800+ usable responses were analysed with the use of PLS-SEM (Lohmöller, 1989). The measurement models demonstrate satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results suggest that the data is not compromised by non-response bias and common method variance. The structural models display satisfactory predictive capabilities of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. The findings show that as expected an individual’s dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan and local orientation impact which of the four self-congruity types has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant local orientation or interdependent self-construal, actual self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant cosmopolitan orientation or independent self-construal, ideal self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. The findings of this study extend self-congruity theory by considering the effect of these four individual-level characteristics. Managerial implications are also presented.

Various forms of consumer gatherings have been increasingly recognized to collectively organize new marketplaces where consumer value arises from shared experiences of social belonging and togetherness. One such rapidly globalizing retail phenomenon is Restaurant Day, where everyday citizens, in a form of tempered civil disobedience, suspend the rules and regulations of commercial retail to create a one-day restaurant carnival that takes the form of copious pop-up restaurants located throughout city-spaces. An ethnographic exploration of this retail spectacle allows us to reconsider many conventional notions of the retailing discourse and problematize the notion of consumer activism in such contexts.