This paper uses the informational cascades perspectives to investigate how popularity of online service deals influences consumers’ reactions when (in)congruently presented with star rating evaluations. Previous research suggested that deal popularity and star rating are two common information cues representing past consumers’ online behavior that signal about online service quality potentially influencing prospective online consumers’ judgments and decision making (Flanagin et al. 2014; Kao et al. 2016). Hence this research aims to examine the conditions under which online deal popularity and star rating can effectively influence service quality evaluation and purchase intention. Using scenario-based experiments, we show how different combinations of information cues impact on the manner in which online deal popularity is used by consumers to shape service quality expectation and purchase intention. Findings indicate that congruency effect is highly influential when high deal popularity is paired with high star rating. Specifically, an informational cascade effect is activated by high deal popularity which overrides quality cue of low star rating. Accordingly, consumers’ service quality expectation and purchase intention are increased even when a low star rating is presented simultaneously with low star rating. Findings are useful to marketing strategists and e-retailers as they devise their online strategies, promotional campaigns and website design.

Introduction Compulsive buying refers to a condition where consumers make purchases repetitively and excessively (Ridgway, Kukar-Kinney & Monroe, 2008; Japutra, Ekinci & Simkin, 2017). Previous literature shows that two types of behaviors characterize compulsive buying: impulsive buying and obsessive-compulsive buying (Ridgeway et al, 2008). Impulsive buying refers to unplanned purchase due to consumers’ inevitable impulse (Kacen & Lee, 2002), and obsessive-compulsive buying reflects a preoccupation in buying to reduce anxiety (Ridgway et al, 2008). Compulsive buying behaviors have been analyzed under the framework of motivation theory (McGuire, 1976). Nevertheless, research is still needed to understand more on the phenomena of compulsive buying (e.g., Kukkar-Kinney et al., 2016; Japutra et al., 2017). This study aims to explore the antecedents of compulsive buying behaviors using implicit theories. According to the implicit theories, mindset shapes the motivation of consumer behaviors (Dweck, 2000; Murphy & Dweck, 2016). Mindset refers to the beliefs about the nature of human characteristics, and individuals may possess two types of mindset – fixed and growth mindset (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). People with a fixed mindset believe that individuals’ qualities such as intelligence and competence are set and hard to change, whereas those with a growth mindset tend to believe that all individuals are able to change and develop through efforts and experiences. We argue that mindsets influence compulsive buying, and we propose that deal proneness mediates the relationship between mindset and compulsive buying. In doing so, we aim to enhance our knowledge in understanding how mindset affects compulsive buying behavior. Literature review and hypotheses According to the implicit theories, consumers with fixed mindsets believe that one’s abilities are fixed and hard to improve, and thus feel the need to prove, to themselves and others, that they have the abilities and/or they are successful (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). Thus, fixed mindset consumers tend to demonstrate their worth by using image-enhancing products and brands (Park & John, 2012). Deals, such as free gifts and offer of coupons, reduce the transaction cost and increase the perceived value of these image-enhancing purchases. In particular, since fixed mindset consumers favor success with little effort (Murphy and Dweck, 2016), deals can help them achieve their goal of image enhancement with lower cost. Thus, we hypothesize that: H1 Fixed mindset is positively related to deal proneness. For consumers with growth mindsets, a major motivation for their consumer behavior is to learn and improve (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). As the research by Blackwell et al. (2007) shows, growth mindset consumers are eager to participate in the self-improving process and achieve mastery. Thus, growth mindset consumers may perceive the information of discounts, free gifts and coupons as part of the adventurous process where they make the cost-benefit analysis and improve their abilities as wiser consumers. Thus, we propose: H2 Growth mindset is positively related to deal proneness. Previous studies show that compulsive buying is associated with high deal proneness (Kukar-Kinney et al, 2012). Deals may imply perceived value of the purchase and enhanced shopping enjoyment (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998), and thus serve as an effective contextual factor in inducing compulsive behaviors (Kukar-Kinney et al, 2016). Furthermore, deals provide an excuse and rationale for the purchase, which can be used to overcome the sense of guilt compulsive buyers often experience after their compulsive buying behavior (O’Guinn & Faber, 1989). Thus, we make the following hypotheses. H3 Deal proneness is positively related to impulsive buying. H4 Deal proneness is positively related to obsessive-compulsive buying. Finally, we argue that deal proneness mediates the relationship between consumer mindsets and compulsive buying behavior. According to the implicit theories, consumer mindsets inspire how consumption goals are pursued (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). Consumers with a fixed mindset pursue a performance goal, and they tend to use brands to feel positive about themselves and improve impression on others (Park & John, 2010). In contrast, consumers with a growth mindset hold that people can always learn and improve and thus are tuned to learning goals (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). Hence, for fixed mindset consumers, deal offers suggest lower costs for image-enhancing purchases, and provide an excuse for the compulsive buying behavior. For growth mindset consumers, deal offers can imply a learning and adventurous process .These consumers may feel that they can make better purchasing decisions by taking advantage of various deals. We thus hypothesize that: H5 Deal proneness mediates the relationship between fixed mindset and impulsive buying (H5a), between fixed mindset and obsessive-compulsive buying (H5b), between growth mindset and impulsive buying (H5c), and between growth mindset and obsessive-compulsive buying (H5d). Method A questionnaire was developed to gather responses and test the hypotheses. All of the items to measure the constructs were developed from existing scales based on previous research. Fixed and growth mindsets were measured using scales developed by Park and John (2012). Deal proneness was measured using items following Lichtenstein et al. (1997). Impulsive buying and obsessive-compulsive buying were measured using items developed by Ridgway et al. (2008). All items were rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (7). The questionnaire was administered using an online survey (N=421 respondents). Of these, 57.7% were female, 71.5% had a university degree, 50% were 31-40 years old, 41% were 26-30 years old, and 46.3% had a monthly income of 5,001-10,000 RMB. Results and discussion To test the hypotheses within the research model, a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was employed, using AMOS 18.0. First, a measurement model was created to assess the validity and reliability of the scales. The distribution of the data was checked. The absolute value of the skewness and kurtosis of each items were within +/- 1, suggesting normal distribution was achieved. The measurement model produced good fit (Hair et al., 2010): χ2(109) = 281.21, χ2/df = 2.58, GFI = .93, NFI = .93, CFI = .96, and RMSEA = .06. All values representing the AVE were greater than 0.5 and greater than the squared inter-constructs correlations, indicating convergent and discriminant validity were achieved (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Cronbach’s alpha values exceeded .70, indicating the constructs were reliable (Hair et al., 1995). The results of the checking common-method variance problem through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) test revealed 3 factors with Eigen values greater than 1. The results accounted for 64.67% of the total variance, where the first factor accounted for 27.55% of the total variance, suggesting that common-method variance did not pose a significant problem since there was no general factor in the un-rotated structure (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Next, a structural model was created. The structural model produced good fit (Hair et al., 2010): χ2(114) = 476.15, χ2/df = 4.18, GFI = .89, NFI = .89, CFI = .91, and RMSEA = .09. Table 1 displays the results of SEM. The results support H1 and H2. Both fixed and growth mindsets are positively associated with deal proneness. The results support H3 and H4, which shows that deal proneness are positively associated with impulsive and obsessive-compulsive buying. The results support H5a, which states that deal proneness mediates the relationship between fixed mindset and impulsive buying. However, the results do not support H5b, H5c and H5d. Conclusion Using the implicit theories, this research aims to gain better insight into compulsive buying behavior. Our findings, obtained from a sample of respondents in China, show that deal proneness serves as a mediator between fixed mindset and compulsive buying behaviors. According to the implicit theories, consumer mindsets inspire how consumption goals are pursued (Murphy & Dweck, 2016). For instance, consumers with a fixed mindset pursue a performance goal. They tend to use brands to feel positive about themselves and improve impression on others (Park & John, 2010). Thus, it is likely that fixed mindset consumers buy compulsively to signal and communicate their “self” to others. In particular, for fixed mindset consumers, deals may increase the perceived value of image-enhancing purchases. Thus, deals provide an excuse for the compulsive purchase where fixed mindset consumers can improve self-image and demonstrate their worth with lower costs. Given this mediating role of deal proneness between fixed mindset and compulsive buying, it will be interesting to test further how consumers with a fixed mindset respond to different types of deals in future research. For firm managers and public policy makers, our findings imply that, to lessen consumers’ overspending, firms should reduce excessive number of deals, and governments should also regulate firms’ advertisement so that it will not overly promote deals.

Understanding why individuals behave unethically is an important topic for both theory and practice, especially in the current environment where people experience much more stressful events. The current research aims to examine the relationship between peoples’ experienced stress and their attitude towards unethical consumption behavior, as well as the underlying mechanism. Empirical findings from a survey of 451 participants suggest perceived stress serves as an important indicator of people’s tolerance of unethical activities, and that this relationship is mediated by chronic construal level and materialism value. Specifically, stressed individuals tend to develop low-construal mindsets and more materialism values, both of which further increase their tolerance of ethically questionable behaviors. The present research highlights the importance of stress on consumer ethics and contributes to prior literature in three ways. Firstly, the current study adds to the literature on consumer ethics by examining a new predictor of consumers’ ethical beliefs, which enriches the understanding of why some consumers act more ethically than others do. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, little prior literature has examined the effect stress on ethical beliefs. The current research for the first time examines the effect and the mechanism and reveals the mediating roles of construal level and materialism value. Thirdly, the present research finds that stress increases low-level construal, leading to unethical beliefs. This finding broadens the scope in construal level theory by suggesting that chronic construal level predicts individual ethical judgments.

Introduction With awareness of the importance of environmental protection, encouragement of green consumption has been an important part of the Chinese government's efforts to promote sustainable development. Green consumption is similar to the concept of environmental responsible consumption, which refers to individual’s behavior with a consideration of the environmental impacts in the process of purchasing, using and disposing of various products, or use of various green services (Stern, 1999). Previous studies tried to predict pro-environmental behavior with social-psychological factors, such as values, attitudes and beliefs. However, researches about the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviors do not produce consistent results. Some prove that they are positive related, and others argue that their relationship is very weak. Studies have testified that lots of consumers declare that they concern about the environmental situation, but hesitate to pay for green products due to this affect (Chang, 2011). Advancing knowledge about the motivations and obstacles that shape intention and behavior of green consumption is important. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) is appropriate as an initial framework for studies investigating consumers’ pro-environmental behaviors. With the inclusion of a new construct perceived behavioral control, the explanatory ability of this model is strengthened. However, simple adoption of this model does not give us deep insight into consumers’ behavior. Later studies apply TPB in different contexts (e.g. Paul, Modi, Patel, 2016; Mancha & Yoder, 2015; Han, Hsu, Sheu, 2011). The mechanism of how attitude, norms and perception of behavioral control are formed may differ in different circumstances, which is still under research especially in China. The purpose of this paper is to (a) identify applicability of TPB model in predicting green purchasing intention and behavior in China and capture which factor including attitude, perceived behavioral control and norm is the most influential determinant; (b) to examine the most useful psychological and situational antecedents, which indirect influence consumers’ green purchase behavior through the factors in TPB framework. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development Green products refer to those produced with consideration of less harm to the ecological environment such as air, water and land. Green purchase behavior should be considered as a typical socially conscious behavior that is different from other types of consumer behaviors, which can deliver instant personal gain and gratification (Kim & Choi, 2005). Most of the time, pro-environmental purchasing is future-oriented and benefits society as a whole (Author, Mccarty, & Shrum, 2001). Previous research models seek to explain green purchase behavior from two aspects of causal factors. Some emphasize intra-personal determinants from within and others may stress that from outside. However, a single consideration of any one set of these factors will weaken the interpretation of consumers’ green consumer behavior. The research model of this study is based on the most influential TPB framework. Some significant psychological and situational factors are integrated into the framework with the purpose of further understanding Chinese consumers’ purchase behavior. Theory of planned behavior According to the TPB model, individual’s decision making is oriented by a rational evaluation of behavioral consequences (Bamberg & Moer, 2007). The intention to perform a behavior, is considered as the central factor in the TPB model (Tarkiainen & Sundqvist, 2005). Attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm about the behavior, and perceived behavioral control regarding the performance of the behavior are three principal factors that determine behavioral intention. H1: Intention to buy green product has a positive relationship with the green purchase behavior. Attitude refers to individuals' beliefs about the outcomes of the behavior together with an evaluation of the importance of these outcomes. Consumers who feel positive toward green products and have agreement on their environmental goodness will most likely to consider buying products with pro-ecological features. H2a: Attitude toward buying green product is positively associated with the intention to perform green purchase behavior. Subjective norm refers to the responses of important reference group (e.g. family members, close friends) to a particular behavior. Some scholars argue that “subjective norm” is the weakest component in the TPB model when predicting behavioral intentions due to its feature of both self and social interest (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Bagozzi et al., 2000). In this study, “moral norm” instead of “subjective norm” is proposed as a direct predictor of intention toward green purchasing. Moral norm indicates individual’s perception that whether performing a certain behavior is morally correct or not (Ajzen, 1991). H2b: Moral norm regarding buying green product is positively associated with the intention to perform green purchase behavior. Perceived behavioral control is an individual’s perception about if performing a particular behavior is easy or difficult. People tend to be more involved in behaviors that are considered to be easier to realize than what they think is difficult and have less control (Bamberg & Moer, 2007). H2c: PBC of buying green product is positively associated with the intention to perform green purchase behavior. Psychological antecedents of attitude Environmental concern indicates consumers' awareness about environmental issues and people’s worry that the human intervention will have threat to the environment (Kim & Choi, 2005). Literatures reveal an indirect relationship between ecological affect and actual behavior. Bang et al. (2000) concludes that environmental concern has indirect effect on purchase intention through the influence of consumer’s attitude toward paying a premium for renewable energy. The emotional responses to ecological problems help consumers to create a positive attitude toward green purchase behavior. H3a: Environmental concern is positively associated with the attitude toward green purchase behavior. Environmental knowledge represents consumers’ understanding of the environmental conditions, as well as fundamental factors that contribute to environmental change and crucial ecological effects (Pagiaslis & Krontalis, 2014). Knowledge has impact for individual’s cognitive processing. Zhao et al. (2014) confirms knowledge as one of the factors that form people’s attitudes toward environment-friendly behavior. Compared with less knowledgeable consumers, those who have more environmental knowledge incline to be more concerned about the environment, which in turn leads consumers to take attention to products’ ecological features while purchasing (Kim, Park, & Schwarz, 2010). H3b: Perceived environmental knowledge is positively associated with attitude toward green purchase behavior. In the pro-environmental behavior domain, PCE indicates to what extent consumers feel that every single person can contribute to solve environmental problems through their own efforts and their everyday purchase behavior (Straughan & Roberts, 1999).With the absence of belief that individual’s actions have observable outcome in making different solution to a problem, people will hesitate to take into action. Kim and Choi (2005) conclude that PCE has indirect effect on green purchasing through the role of ecological sensitive attitudes. H3c: PCE is positively associated with attitude toward green purchase behavior. Moral norm and subjective norm Bamberg and Moer (2007) suggest that people make use of subjective norms to determine whether a specific behavioral choice is easy to perform or whether it is beneficial. The opinions from “important others” deliver the standards for people to conform when they encounter the same situation. That is, the views about what is right or wrong from reference group will be absorbed and transformed as one’s personal moral norms (Bamberg & Moer, 2007). H4: Subjective norm is positively associated with moral norm regarding green purchase behavior. Situational factors influencing PBC Perceived availability indicates if consumers feel they can easily obtain or consume a certain product. If green products are not easy available, most consumers will not spend too much time and effort for searching. The limited availability and inconvenience in obtaining products is bound to hamper green products purchasing (Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). H5a: Perceived availability of green product is positively associated with PBC regarding green purchase behavior. Perceived price is one of the most important factors that have impact on consumers’ decision-making of green consumption (Osterhus, 1997). Green products are generally priced higher than conventional products. However Chinese consumers who would like to pay a large premium are still in the minority. The perceived high price is a barrier that influences consumers’ perceived capability over green purchase behavior. H5b: Perceived price of green product is negatively associated with PBC regarding green purchase behavior. Information has an impact on individual’s cognitive process. It is an influential factor that leads consumer behavior change (Bator & Cialdini, 2000). Atkinson and Rosenthal confirm that eco-labels have effects on consumer’s trust and purchase intention. If consumers feel hard to recognize eco-labels and cannot understand their difference with regular ones, their perception of control will be highly influenced and the green purchase may be hindered. H5c: Perception of information provided by eco-label is positively associated with PBC regarding green purchase behavior. Methodology This research adopted the survey approach for data collection. A questionnaire that consisted of 46 items was designed according to relevant previous studies. All the items in the questionnaire use five-point Likert scale, which ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5). The target group of this study was consumer who is over 18 years old in the urban areas of Mainland China. An online survey was conducted for collecting data in the mid-October, 2017 and 500 samples were collected totally. After removing the disqualified questionnaires, 485 questionnaires were identified as eligible for further analysis. To testify the proposed hypotheses, the simple and multiple linear regression analyses using IBM SPSS Statistics was primarily adopted in the study. Meanwhile, the structural equation modeling (SEM) was also conducted as an alternative approach to examine the arguments. Results Firstly, the theory of planned behavior suggested by Ajzen (1991) was proved to be applicable in the green purchasing circumstance. Attitude was identified to play the most significant role in predicting the intention. The construct “moral norm” was resulted to be more predictable for green purchase intention compared with the original “subjective norm”. It indicates that in certain contexts, personal feeling of moral obligation or responsibility is more crucial and direct reason for consumer conducting ethical behaviors. Perceived behavioral control was testified as the third prediction of purchase intention. The proportion of variance explained (R2=0.546) for intention was even better compared with previous studies, which claimed that the three determinants account for between 40% and 50% of the variance in intention (Ajzen, 1991; Amireault et al., 2008; Conner & Armitage, 1998). This model revealed consumers’ mental development of their purchase intention before enacting the buying behavior. Secondly, the results testify that PCE plays as the central role in predicting attitude. Respondents who believe that their consumptions can help to reduce environmental deterioration will be much likely to hold positive attitudes toward green purchasing. Environmental concern and perceived knowledge have a considerable, but only indirect impact on consumers’ attitude. Implications for practice The results of this study suggest that consumers’ intentions to buy green products are directly predicted by attitude, moral norm and their perceived behavioral control. Firstly, enterprises in the green market need to adopt effective communication strategy to inform consumers about the advantages of environmentally friendly products in order to help consumers to develop a positive attitude to pro-environmental products. Moreover, due to the significant effect of PCE on consumer attitude, it's necessary for the government to quantify the effect of green consumption by real cases and data, so that people can perceive the effectiveness of green buying behavior in a more intuitive way. Meanwhile, companies should take more emphasis on consumer’s ability to solve the problem in a positive manner in marketing communications. Secondly, personal moral norm is also found to have direct effects on purchase green products. Thus, normative appeal is needed for creating consumers' emotional connection and should be presented in the promotion programs to stimulate green consumption. Thirdly, this study reveals that the availability is the main factor that affects consumers’ perceived behavioral control over green purchasing.

Past service recovery research is dyadic in nature, focusing most prominently on bilateral relationships between the firm and the individual customer. However, customers rarely make use of services alone, thus creating a failure context where another customer (i.e., bystander) is socially present, and switching from a dyadic to a triadic perspective. A phenomenon, idiosyncratic to triadic relationships, is coalition forming, which refers to the temporary alliance among individuals to pursue a specific goal. In service recovery, customers may form coalitions to increase compensation likelihoods and service employees may form coalitions to strengthen their position against roaring complainants. Prior research suggests that relationship strength between people drives coalition forming, which can be explained by emotional contagion processes. Therefore, we seek to answer: (1) Are coalitions formed in service failure situations, and (2) do they follow predictable patterns? To answer our research questions we conducted a 2x2x2 experiment (N=1242), using video and photographic material to manipulate relationship strengths (high vs. low) between the complainant, the bystander, and the service employee. The trilateral dimension was incorporated as another between-factor by illustrating the eight different relationship-strengths versions in the perspectives of the three parties. Manipulations and variable measurement were checked successfully. T-tests confirm that the likelihoods of the complainant-bystander and the service employee-bystander coalition are significantly larger than zero (p’s < .01). Specifically, the likelihood-values ranged from 4.5% to 33.1%. For the complainant-bystander relationship, results reveal a significant and positive indirect effect of relationship strength on the complainant’s coalition forming intentions with the bystander, mediated by his emotional contagion with the bystander. The same holds true vice versa for the bystander’s coalition forming intentions with the complainant. Accordingly, data reveal a positive indirect effect of relationship strength on the likelihood of the complainant-bystander coalition, mediated by both party’s emotional synchrony (i.e., measured as the product of both party’s emotional contagion with each other). Likewise results were obtained for the service employee-bystander relationship, where relationship strength eventually increased the likelihood of the service employee-bystander coalition, mediated by both party’s emotional synchrony. Our results show that there is value in considering service failure and recovery situations from a triadic perspective, which so far has received considerable research attention outside service recovery, for instance in social-psychological domains such as family therapies.

The growth of capitalism plays the crucial role in consumers’ consumption that drive businesses to employ new technologies to increase the efficiency of production process. It is inevitable that consumers have to take responsibility for this movement, because they are the central of market system in which most businesses have to provide choices of purchasing. It causes the impacts to overconsumption in natural resources and also affects to social and environment problems. Sheth et al. (2011) provide alternative framework for developing sustainable consumption through the concept of mindful consumption. It is in line with the Consumer Culture Theory which consumers co-create the meaning of consumption, experience, or activity in all cycles of consumption – acquisition, consumption, possession, and disposition (Arnould and Thompson, 2005). Sheth et al. (2011)’ mindful consumption is demonstrated as the strategy how consumers can control their desires, behavior, and consumption. However, there is little interest to study how to develop mindful behavior. Therefore, this paper has shed the light on how consumption provides less impact to society whereby consumers are conscious and concerns the results of their consumption. The qualitative research was employed to collect data in regarding to mindful consumers who live in harmony with nature, environment, and mind. Participant observations and in-depth interviews were conducted to make understanding of mindful consumption in Thai culture. Practice of mind and body were found in Thai culture that play an important role in co-creating well-being and sustainable society.

Introduction Consumer ethical behaviors regarding social impact, environmental concern, and ethical practices for the buyer/seller dyad has become a vital issue. A large number of consumers have the willingness to be activists to address potentially threatening environmental problems with foresight (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014). Consumers with environment awareness have begun to consider the environmental claims of products, such as environmental protection certification (do Paço & Reis, 2012) and production process with environmental protection regulations (Yoon & Kim, 2016). All such information effectively spreads the environmental protection knowledge to help consumers identify the environmental features of the product (Leonidou, Leonidou, Palihawadana, & Hultman, 2011), and then to conduct consumption behaviors with ethical/moral concerns. However, the related research to examine the relationships between consumer ethical behaviors and their attitudes toward environmental information disclosure in advertising in Asian countries is few. This study’s main purpose is thus to understand how environmental information disclosure in advertising influences consumers’ attitudes toward the brand and their ethical behaviors. Literature Review Mitchell, Balabanis, Schlegelmich, and CornWell (2009) argues that all direct or indirect consumer actions that could make businesses or other stakeholders to lose money or reputation are viewed as consumer unethical behaviors. Consumers’ (un)ethical behaviors would be influenced by their moral principles and standards as they obtain, use, and dispose of goods and services (Muncy & Vitell, 1992). First, according to the equity theory, brand equity will increase the relationship intention between sellers and buyers. Those consumers with a high perception about product value or brand equity would tend to build a positive relationship with sellers, and thus their ethical behaviors would be influenced (Chang & Lu, 2017). Consumers’ ethical consumption depends on the equity of the profitability of the seller and this study proposes that brand equity has significant positive effects on consumer ethical behavior (H1). Second, environmental advertising claims refer to the classification of environmental claims in advertising with various environmental protection information about products (do Paço & Reis, 2012). Chan, Leung, and Wong (2006) state the two types of environmental advertising claims. Substantial environmental claims focus on the substantial benefits of products for the environment and the positive impacts of enterprises on the environment in order to substantially maintain or enhance consumers’ understanding of products with environmental awareness (Chan, 2000). Associated environmental claims feature advertising that do not have a direct connection with the products or production of enterprises; instead, they reveal an enterprises’ concern about environmental protection topics through environmental protection activities or topics regarding the conservation of the ecosystem, in order to indirectly trigger the consumers’ positive image and reactions to the enterprises or brands (Chan, 2000). Different environmental advertising claims would have different extents of impact on consumers’ attitude towards advertising and the product (Chan et al., 2006). Chan (2000) states that substantial environmental claims are more persuasive than associated claims, as the advertising of the former could directly publicize the specific environmentally-friendly measures in products or production process. The hypotheses are thus submitted: environmental advertising claims have significant positive effects on brand equity (H2.) and the impact power of substantial environmental claims on brand equity is stronger than those of associated environmental claims (H3). Third, eco-labels provide the information of products toward the environment influence during their life cycles (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014; Chekima, Wafa, Igau, Chekima, & Sondoh, 2016) and the claims regarding the eco-features, production, and constituents of the products (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014). Maniatis (2016) argues that eco-labels could clearly reveal the economic and ecological benefits of products and help consumers make purchase decisions. Specific claims, such as marks, pictures, or signs, could clearly convey information about the products, which make it easy for consumers to understand. Therefore, hypothesis 4 is submitted: environmental advertising with eco-labels has a significant positive effect on brand equity (H4). Method This study used the 2x2 factor experiment to create four situations through two types of environmental advertising claims (substantial and associated environmental advertising claims) and two types of eco-labels (available/unavailable). The manipulation checks with regards to the constructs of environmental advertising claims and eco-label were shown to be successful through a pilot test. On the other hand, this study selected 14-items of Muncy and Vitell’s (1992) scale to measure consumer ethical behaviors. The measuring items of brand equity were taken by Yoo and Donth’s (2001) three-dimensional scale, containing brand awareness/associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Moreover, 294 valid questionnaires were retained in the formal survey via electronic questionnaire survey. Females accounted for 50.7%. Those aged less than 25 occupied a larger proportion (50%), followed by those aged from 26 to 35 (21.8%). The samples with a college education or above accounted for 92.5%. Additionally, the component reliability, convergent and discriminant validity were also confirmed (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988; Fornell & Larcker, 1981) due to the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by Lisrel 8.7. Results and Conclusion Based on the ANOVA results, first, environmental advertising claims had significant effects on awareness/association, perceived value, and loyalty. The effects of substantial orientation on brand equity were significantly stronger than that of associated orientation claims. H2 and H3 were fully supported. That is to say, substantial environmental advertising claims could reveal enterprise efforts to protect the environment and inform consumers that the substantial benefits for the ecosystem are embodied in their products. If enterprises want to disclose information about their social responsibility or to convey the contribution of their products toward environmental protection, direct environmental advertising claims related to product features and production processes should be considered. Second, eco-labels significantly affected on awareness/association, perceived value, and loyalty; hence, H4 were supported. Eco-labels verified by a third-party public notary office could enhance brand equity. As eco-label information regarding environmental protection enterprises and products want to convey, consumers can comprehend and evaluate such environmental advertising through the mark of eco-labels in triggering their positive attitude and value toward the brand. Third, this study also found that the interactive effect of environmental advertising claims and eco-label on the awareness/association dimension of brand equity was significant. Consumers are more likely to receive information from the environmental advertising with a substantial claim and eco-label than other sets, and then their perceptions toward that brand awareness and brand association could be improved. Forth, each dimension of awareness/association, perceived value, and brand loyalty had a significant positive effect on consumer’s ethical behaviors by using structural equation modeling (SEM) via Lisrel 8.7; H1 therefore were supported. That is, consumers’ perceived enterprise efforts related to protecting the environment would improve consumers’ ethical behaviors. If advertising could fully and effectively convey the environmental protection information embodied in products, consumers would know that the products are beneficial for society and ecosystems, and thus they would enact ethical activities in the marketplace. Finally, future studies can use random sampling to improve the sample representative. Product type can also be included into the research model in future studies to consider the different product features how to influence the effects of environmental advertising claims and eco-labels on the consumers’ attitudes and behavior decision.

In this paper, we investigate whether and how morality irrelevant inspiration can influence consumer’s own morality behavior. Thrash & Elliot (2003) conceptualized inspiration as a psychological construct with three core characteristics: evocation, transcendence, and motivation. Morality behavior include prescriptive morality (e.g., prosocial behavior) and proscriptive morality (e.g., immoral behavior), which have different antecedents. We propose a common antecedent for both faces of morality and found that morality-irrelevant inspirational experiences (triggered by others or oneself) could decrease proscriptive morality and increase prescriptive morality, via emotional and cognitive transcendence. This is the first paper to explore the roles played by the emotional and cognitive transcendence resulted from the inspirational experiences and the consequences of transcendence on a source-irrelevant context.

Fast fashion brands gain their competitive advantages through launching new products to the market quickly in order to adapt to consumer’s rapidly changing preferences. Despite of these advantages, the fast fashion business model, in which accelerated process of product design, production, and launch is implemented, inevitably generates ethically controversial issues in fashion industry, such as intensifying environmental pollution during the production process, exploiting designers and workers, or excessively wasting resources. One possible solution to these problems might lie in reducing demand towards fast fashion products. Thus, this present study intends to explore potential means to reduce demand. It will begin with a review of literature regarding ethical concerns raised by fast fashion business model, consumers’ views towards buying fast fashion products and these concerns, and existing methods employed to reduce harm derived from fast fashion brands. Content analysis of articles and online posts addressing fashion and ethics related topics will also be conducted to collect first-hand information regarding these aspects. As a result, potential strategies or practices aiming at solving problems generated by unethical fast fashion business practices could be discovered and derived. Findings of this study are expected to provide more organized thoughts regarding ethical issues associated with fast fashion business model and how these issues concern the industry and consumers. Specifically, results of the preliminary examination will help us understand how general public and consumers perceive fast fashion business models and brands, their business practices, ethical concerns associated with these practices, and their proposed solutions. It is expected that consumers might be more willing to reduce unnecessary purchases of fashion goods if they are more aware of unethical business practices generated by practicing fast fashion business model. These results are expected to offer insights into potential strategies that (1) can be employed by policy makers to reduce waste and promote green consumption, (2) help raise consumers’ awareness regarding the negative impact of fast fashion business model, and (3) assist to return to a healthier fashion industry.

Around the world, debates about the need to regulate bloggers’ activities when they promote branded content arise. Some countries have decided to impose disclosure. Yet, disclosure by a third party and celebrities’ self-disclosure have been shown to reduce influencers’ effectiveness (Boerman, Willemsen, & Van Der Aa, 2017; Colliander & Erlandsson, 2015). Social Media Influencers (SMI) such as bloggers are therefore reluctant to disclose the sponsored nature of their posts, as in other contexts, it has been shown to reduce effectiveness (Charry & Tessitore, 2014). Furthermore, controls that would enforce compliance seems very complex to implement, particularly in a global media environment in which not all countries apply the same regulations. Through a between-subjects experiment (N=139), we explore whether self-imposed disclosure may be an effective and appropriate alternative to regulations. Interestingly, results indicate that although self-disclosure may indeed negatively impact the attitude towards the recommended brand, intentions to buy are not impacted. Followers’ perceptions of the SMI’s motivations explain these results. Self-disclosure restores trust and in turn, followers’ intentions to adopt the SMI’s recommendations. It may therefore be SMI’s most effective response and in their best interest to disclose, to maintain their influence while increasing their followers’ literacy, hence, empowerment. Beyond offering guidance for SMIs, this study therefore provides recommendations to public policy makers.

Consumer ethics (CE) is defined by Muncy and Vitell (1992) as the moral standards to guide consumers’ behaviors in obtaining and disposing of goods and services. Regarding ethical issues, consumers have concerns on human, animal or environmental welfare (Gregory-Smith, Smith, & Winklhofer, 2013). As Liu, Yang, and Zeng (2015) describe, unethical consumer behavior (UCB) may cause underlying damage to society, reflecting the dysfunctional, dark or sinister side of consumer behavior. In consumer ethics literature, early studies focus on discussing the dark side of consumer behavior or unethical consumer behavior (UCB), such as returning goods you damaged, taping a movie off the television, shoplifting, etc. (Vitell & Muncy, 2003), counterfeit consumption (Tang, Tian, & Zaichkowsky, 2014; Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009). In last few decades, more attention has been given to the study of the bright side, for instance, green purchase (e.g., Lee, 2008 & 2009; Chan, 2008); sustainable consumption (Lee, 2014), or fair trade (Chatzidakis, Kastanakis, & Stathopoulou, 2016). Within the studies on the bright side of consumer ethics, some of them investigate consumers’ attitude towards green purchase and its relationship with green purchase intention and behavior (e.g., Chai & Chen, 2009; Chen & Chai, 2010; Cherian & Jacob, 2012; Han, Hsu, & Lee, 2009; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). Among these studies, the semantic-differential scale of attitudes towards green purchase (AGP) developed by Taylor and Todd (1995) is more commonly adopted (e.g., Chai & Chen, 2009; Chan, 2001, Chen & Chai, 2010; Mostafa, 2006 & 2007). This AGP scale contains three items, namely i) I dislike/like the idea of purchasing green products, ii) Purchasing green products is a bad/good idea, and iii) I have a/an unfavourable/favourable attitude towards purchasing a green version of a product. Some other studies on the bright side of consumer ethics investigate consumers’ intention to purchase different green products, such as organic skin/hair care product (Kim & Chung, 2011), organic food (Paul & Rana, 2012), the relationship between environmental concern and green products purchase (Kangun, Carlson, & Grove, 1991), ecologically packaged products purchase (Schwepker & Cornwell, 1991) or organic vegetables (Sparks & Shepherd, 1992). There are several green purchase intention (GPI) scales asking if respondents will buy product of green version, less polluting for ecology or environmental concern (Chan 2001; Chen & Chang, 2012; Taylor & Todd, 1995). Vitell and Muncy (2005) develop a consumer ethics scale with four categories of (un)ethical consumer behaviors, they are i) ethical consumer behaviors (i.e., recycling and doing good), ii) unethical consumer behaviors (i.e., actively benefiting from illegal activities [e.g., returning damaged goods when the damage was your own fault]; passively benefiting at the expense of others [e.g., lying about a child’s age to get a lower price], iii) questionable but generally legal practices [e.g., using a coupon for merchandise you did not buy], and iv) no harm/no foul activities [e.g., returning merchandise after buying it and not liking it]. In this scale, the ‘recycling’ and ‘doing good’ categories are similar to the Taylor and Todd’s (1995) AGP scale. It is quite surprising that there seems no research putting them together in studying green purchase intention. This conceptual paper attempts to fill this research gap. Conspicuous consumption, another type of consumption, also reveals some aspects of consumer ethics. It has been clearly defined that conspicuous consumption involves extravagant consumption (Veblen, 1899/1915), purchase of luxury goods (e.g., O’Cass & Frost, 2002; Shukla, 2008) or scarce products (Gierl & Huettl, 2010) to display wealth or to demonstrate personal taste (e.g., Blumer, 1969; Bourdieu, 1979/1984; Trigg, 2001). Extant literature illustrates that some terms are associated with conspicuous consumption behavior, such as ‘materialism’ (e.g., Podoshen, Li, & Zhang, 2011), ‘unnecessary expenses’ (e.g., Veblen (1899/1915), ‘conspicuous waste’ and ‘overconsumption’ (e.g., Carr, Gotlieb, Lee, and Shah, 2012; Chaudhuri, Mazumdar, & Ghoshal, 2011), ‘luxury consumption’ (Kwek & Lee, 2013), and ‘conspicuous taste’ (Bourdieu, 1979/1984). A relatively more complete scale of conspicuous consumption orientation developed by Chaudhuri et al. (2011) contains 12 items, which explicitly covers all items related to wealth, status and taste. With a closer look on the definition and the terms to describe conspicuous consumption, it is not hard to find out explicit remarks or implicit comments that various kinds of conspicuous consumption can be unethical, creating negative impacts in economical, socio-culturally and environmental contexts. First, conspicuous consumption can be a waste of economic resources. For instance, in conspicuous consumption feasting in Chinese communities, ordering more foods than enough would create wastes. Besides, conspicuous consumption is associated with impulse/impulsive buying (Zhang & Shrum, 2009). In modern economies with higher materialism, conspicuous consumption is highly related to expenditures of visible goods like high fashion clothing (O’Cass, 2001), jewelry, cars (Bloch, 1981; Charles, Hurst, & Roussanov, 2009), housing or mobile phones (Spero & Stone, 2004). Impulsive conspicuous consumption of new fashion in every season is another type of consumption creating more wastes. Second, conspicuous consumption can be harming to environment. For example, to demonstrate wealth or status, some people eat endangered species or killing wild animals, e.g., shark fin (Eriksson & Clarke, 2015), monkey or turtle. conspicuous consumption of clothing, ornaments or decorative items made of endangered species (e.g., ivory from elephant, skin from fox are also harming the nature. Given the ethical feature of conspicuous consumption is obvious, it is surprising that ethical issues of conspicuous consumption have yet been discussed prominently. Moreover, seldom of the studies in conspicuous consumption or CE discuss the bright side of conspicuous consumption. In fact, some types of consumption can be ethical and conspicuous. For instance, Griskevicius, Tybur, and Van den Bergh (2010), when they study conspicuous conservation, they prove that status competition can help promote pro-environmental behavior. Alike, Sexton and Sexton (2014) reveal the green buying of energy saving vehicles. There are in fact more examples of ethical and conspicuous consumption, like consumption of eco-friendly clothing, accessories or dining, etc. In this regard, if there are more conspicuous and green consumptions, e.g., eco-friendly vehicles, decoration material, clothing or cuisines, conspicuous consumption can facilitate the development of a greener and harmonious societies on the contrary. Nowadays, amid the proliferation of environmental protection ideology, more consumers are willing to have green purchase. If the purchases are also ‘socially visible’, we may call them as ‘conspicuous green purchase’. Following this logic, if consumers have a higher tendency in consumer ethics and conspicuous consumption, they may have a higher green purchase intention (GPI). This proposition may be particularly valid for branded fashion, visible consumer electronics, or vehicles. In conspicuous GPI, consumers can show off their wealth, fashion taste and conservation virtue through displaying green products or green purchase publicly. Recently, a sustainable consumption report published by the Consumer Council in Hong Kong (Consumer Council, 2016) reveals that Hong Kong people has a high level of awareness and purchase intention of sustainable products, but they have a low level in action taking. In this regard, perhaps, the conspicuousness in the consumption of green products can be an additional motivation to enhance consumers' purchase intention. Surprisingly, there seems no research to explore to find out the mediating effect of conspicuous consumption on the relationship between AGP and GPI. This conceptual paper tries to fill this research gap. To sum, this conceptual paper aims to explore the relationship between these four constructs, attitudes towards green purchase (AGP), consumer ethics (CE), conspicuous consumption (CC) and conspicuous green purchase intention (CGPI). More specifically, this paper tries to examine the mediating effects of CE or CC on the relationship between AGP and CGPI. Considering the discussion above, the following propositions are generated. P1: A person with positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with negative AGP. P2: A person with a higher CE orientation (recycling and doing good) and positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with a lower CE orientation. P3: A person with a higher CC orientation and positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with a lower CE orientation. This conceptual paper has both theoretical and practical implications. It helps integrate four constructs, namely attitudes towards green purchase, consumer ethics, conspicuous consumption and green purchase intention in one study, building better theories in these areas. This paper also helps marketers of green products to pay more attention to the market segment that consumers are both ethical and conspicuous consumption oriented, hence conveying more appropriate promotion messages and selecting right channels of distribution. Finally, more green purchase would help us to make better societies with higher moral standard in consumption.

Research on service innovation suggests that involving customers in the development of new services is a major contributing factor to the success of new services (e.g. Carbonell et al., 2009; 2012; Melton & Hartline, 2010; 2015; Zhihong et al., 2015). The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the literature on customer involvement (CI) in new service development (NSD) both offline and online and to identify the major current issues faced by researchers and future research challenges. This paper approaches CI from the perspective of “co-creation for others” (Witell et al., 2011), that is participating in developing services that can benefit other customers. A search was done on three major databases, EBSCO; Emerald, and ScienceDirect, using various keywords (CI; NSD; service innovation; user involvement; co-creation, and customer participation) from 2002 (first CI paper published (Carlborg et al., 2014) to 2016. Relevant studies start with mainly qualitative inquiries whereas in the last 5 years there are more surveys and new types of qualitative research such as netnography and action research. The most important questions addressed are who is involved and how. Various studies investigate the role of different types of customers such as close; lead; ordinary or guided; their characteristics such as proactiveness; knowledge or experience; motives; emotions, or dissatisfaction, and their capabilities such as knowledge absorptive capability or relational capability. Furthermore, the way customers may be involved is analysed from many perspectives including the stages of involvement; the modes and intensity of involvement in each NSD stage (e.g. Melton and Hartline, 2010; Paasi, 2014) as well as the characteristics of effective CI. Moreover, studies in the online environment look at the web based tools for CI such as social media or virtual communities (Ryzhkova, 2012); the nature of customer contributions on social networks (Sigala, 2012); the role of lead users in developing online services (Schuhmacher & Kuester, 2012; Mahr & Lievens, 2012) and the drivers of customer participation in virtual brand communities (Zhilong et al., 2015). Major current issues include which customer or firm actions should be included in each stage and why; what is the role of relationships in effective CI; how we can select customers for NSD and what is the role of virtual environments in CI. Future research challenges include developing guides for customer selection for NSD; analyzing the nature of CI (modes; intensity; types of contributions; customer roles and actions in each stage; communication types and skills); using virtual environments for CI and determining the link of various relationship concepts with CI.

The authors propose that consumers’ shopping styles influence online perceived benefits and risks in online shopping. An empirical test of the models provide support for the majority of the hypothesized relationships and a better understanding of the effects of consumers’ shopping on perceived benefits and risks in online shopping.

Europe’s unfavorable economic environment demands extensive innovation from the services sector. Despite the benefits that innovations (i.e., constant emphasis on new ideas, risk-taking and proactiveness) may accrue, such as superior performance and competitive advantage, they can also bring about increased workload, work-related pressures and high levels of overall job stress for service employees. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of internal-external fit (Huselid, 1995) and the involvement approach (Boxall and Macky, 2014), and by adopting a service employee-centered perspective that is currently missing from the innovation, services, and management literature (Messersmith and Wales, 2013), we examine the impact of innovation on different types of job stressors in the services industry. Data was collected from 293 employees working in various managerial positions in the hospitality sector. All measures used were based on prior studies and were assessed for reliability using composite reliability (CR) and for validity using factor loadings and average variance extracted (AVE). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tested the measurement of the model and Structural Equation Modeling was employed to examine the proposed relationships. We find that, in a highly innovative service work setting where employees are carefully selected, job positions are carefully designed and high-involvement employee practices are employed, service employees are less likely to report unclear job responsibilities, lack of resources and excessive work demands. While the effects of innovation on organizational performance have been extensively examined, there is scant evidence on the influence of organizational level innovativeness on non-financial outcomes such as employee outcomes (Wales, Gupta, and Mousa, 2013). This is despite the calls within the literature for more studies considering the central role of service employee attitudes and work behaviors in regard to productivity, job performance and turnover (Levy, 2003).

Brand equity (BE) previously focused on consumers’ perceptions under brand marketing stimuli, they often used financial performance indicators for evaluating brand value (Aaker,1996;Keller,1993). However the primary stakeholders of a service brand are employees (Brexendorf & Kernstock,2007).Thus, the enhancement of employee- based BE could be an important topic for in-depth investigation in the fields of brand and internal marketing. Morhart (2009) was the first to introduce the concepts of brand-specific transformational leadership (TFL) and brand-specific transactional leadership (TRL) based on employees’ brand-building behavior. Theory asserts that leaders should endeavor to influence employees through the internalization of brand values and a brand-based role (Morehart,2001) . In the process of brand internalization, leaders with brand experience and brand knowledge should also uphold and constantly reaffirm brand values because they're more capable than ordinary leaders to clearly convey brand values (Hoffman,1999). For this reason, brand-specific leadership based on employee brand-building behaviors is the focus of this study. This study adopts hierarchical linear modeling for individual and organizational-level analyses. This research to investigate (1)whether TFL and TRL have directly affect employee-based individual-level BE.(2)whether TFL and TRL have indirectly affect employee-based BE as an individual-level mediator.(3)how managers use brand-specific leadership to elicit employees’ perceived brand value congruence for improved employee-based BE.

In line with previous research calls for greater alignment of the public with the private sector practices, this study highlights the significance of investigating organizational service orientation in public organizations, incorporating also internal customer and internal supplier satisfaction. The study incorporates a detailed statistical analysis (Instrumental Variables approach) to examine the relationship between Organizational Service Orientation and Job Satisfaction. This study utilized responses from 511 front-line employees in the public sector. Given the fact that Instrumental Variables approach controls for endogeneity, we can safely infer the existence of an interactive relationship between Organizational Service Orientation and Job Satisfaction. As with any study, several limitations may apply, including other factors that could intervene in the relationship between OSO and JS, greater sample size, and investigation among individuals of a single nationality. The findings of this study highlight the need to take initiatives towards enhancing public front-line employees‟ satisfaction as internal customers, and in turn their job satisfaction for improving delivery of services in public organizations. Our findings extend the line of research in service related theory within the public sector. Interestingly, the interactive relationship between Organizational Service Orientation and Job Satisfaction is also new to the private domain.

Global ecommerce continues to flourish and consumers across the world are constantly connected to the Internet. This poses growing opportunities for the digital transformation of businesses and their expansion to international markets succeeding to reach and engage with potential customers abroad. The objective of this paper is to study the internationalization process of digital enterprises and to explore business challenges and opportunities arising from the use of innovative technologies and tools. More specifically, we aim to review the recent related literature and propose a conceptual framework introducing tools and practices regarding strategy, infrastructure technology and on- line marketing & communication needed to assure increased chances of success when digitally expanding abroad. Each country has specific features associated with the business environment, the penetration of ecommerce, as well as, specific cultural and social characteristics. These peculiarities require specific internationalization strategies and dictate parallel adjustments in IT infrastructure, as well as a suitable digital marketing & promotion that need to be followed which are thoroughly analyzed and can become a valuable tool for digital enterprises.

During the last decade, customer complaint management received considerable attention in marketing literature, e.g., researchers examined the consequences of a negative incident on customer attitudes towards the provider and the associated behavioral intention such as self-reported repurchase intentions ( e.g. Evanschitzky, Brock, and Blut, 2011; Smith and Bolton, 2002; van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008). However, this stream of research has not examined actual purchase behavior after the complaint (e.g., de Matos, Henrique, and Rossi, 2007). Hence, it is unclear whether service recovery only affects self-reported outcomes (i.e., purchase intention) or actual purchase behavior. Moreover, recent research has indicated that customer inertia explains a large proportion of the variance of a customer’s repurchase behavior (e.g. van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008). So far, no research has assessed the impact of inertia in the service recovery context. It is indicated that the relationship between the provider and the customer is strongly affected by the service failure (van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008), but as of now, the role of past behavior has not been investigated. This study contributes to the complaint management literature by (1) analyzing the effects of service recovery on actual purchase behavior after recovery and (2) by assessing the role of inertia in situations of service recovery. Results indicate that complaint satisfaction has a significant positive impact on post complaining purchase behavior while overall satisfaction has no such effect. Furthermore, past purchase behavior has the strongest impact; thus, inertia plays a substantial role in complaint management.

The channel transformation to omni-channel is currently in progress in the retail industry. For the progress to occur, facilitating meaningful experiences of customers in their customer journeys, capturing such experiences through various channels and touch points, and then analyzing the information acquired as big data are required (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). With the increase in the number of customer experiences being observed through the internet and mobile communication, the focus is now on engagement. However, there have not yet been many studies conducted to deliberate comprehensively on how the engagements of behavioral aspects captured through various channels and the evaluation indicators of customers, as represented by the RFM or LTV, are related in a broader sense. The purpose of this research is to clarify the relational structure from a comprehensive perspective that are not constrained by monetary amounts. This paper showed results using data from the retailer. This research is divided broadly into two stages. The first stage identifies the engagements of behavioral aspects and the relationship between the respective behaviors, as well as the typification of behavioral patterns. The second stage involves clarifying the relationship between the customer’s evaluation indicators and engagement behaviors. The engagement behaviors are basically correlated with RFM, however authors found that there is no relationship between specific engagement behavior and RFM in the group of low rank customers. On the other hand, using different types of services or shops from the core business strengthens the customer relationship. Finally, the relationship between the types of engagement behaviors and the respective customer evaluation indicators is presented in the conclusion.

In branding literature, the customer based brand equity (CBBE) model developed by Kevin Lane Keller finds many applications. The CBBE model (Keller, 1993) involves six brand building blocks out of which the brand resonance block is considered to be the most valuable helping firms to reap a host of benefits like higher brand loyalty, greater price premiums and more efficient and effective marketing programs. This research focuses on the factors that influence brand resonance among past customers (alumni) with the objective of building competitive and innovative service strategies that would help in building strong educational brands. The proposed framework for brand resonance includes existing sub dimensions (behavioral loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community and active engagement) along with two additional dimensions (sense of belonging and gratitude) and aims to identify the key drivers of brand resonance. Since brand resonance characterizes the bond shared by past consumers (alumni) with the brand (educational institute) identifying the significant sub dimensions would provide input while devising strategies to engage with past customers (alumni). The present study provides initial empirical evidence that behavioural loyalty and sense of community create feelings of gratitude which impacts brand resonance; alumni who do not have strong feelings of gratitude limit their interaction with their alma mater on all parameters. Since higher education is an experiential service, it is imperative to understand the construct of gratitude that creates brand resonance and use it to develop relationships and competitive service strategies. The ultimate objective of all marketing activity is to build strong and well differentiated brands that would stand the test of competitive forces over time. Building emotional relationships with alumni as past customers rather than maintaining transactional relationships would be possible only if alumni feel emotions of gratitude and sense of belonging with their alma mater.