The aim of the present study is to propose a model to examine the relationships among social Website interactivity, brand experience, brand choice, and behavioral intentions in the context of online travel agencies brand websites, as well as to examine the ultimate moderating role of the age of the traveler in the dynamic of this model. Drawing on website interactivity and brand development theories, current research suggests that the inclusion of social website interactivity in the design of online travel agencies brand websites helps to directly and indirectly create a positive brand experience and to enhance the perception of online travel agencies brand websites as valuable. These perceptions may consequently impact the behavior of travelers to pay higher prices and to continue buying from the online travel agencies brand websites. However, while this existent research mostly considers the positive and causal relationships among the aforementioned constructs, there is also some indication that the perceptions of travelers in relation to the proposed relationships change with age, suggesting that older travelers (age above 25) may perceive distinctively the relationships among these constructs in the context of online travel agencies brand websites as compared to younger travelers (aged 18-25). The study attempts to analyze on this relevant and under-examined research topic. This research is mainly based on a sample of travelers who have used an online travel agencies brand websites in China. The empirical findings suggest that social website interactivity, brand experience, and brand choice are essential factors for travelers to be willing to pay higher prices and to continue buying. The empirical findings also suggest that the proposed theoretical framework is adequately adjusted, therefore confirming that the age of the traveler moderates the proposed relationships first between social website interactivity and brand choice, second between brand choice and price premium, third between brand choice and buying intention, and lastly between brand experience and buying intention. Overall, the theory-driven framework accomplishes an acceptable model fit. Additionally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Social Website Interactivity (SWI) construct is defined as the reciprocal communication between individuals and technology. Research shows that SWI exerts a positive impact on the user that eventually causes an e-loyal behavior (Cyr et al., 2010). Voorveld et al. (2009) conclude the design of a theoretical model that includes SWI and branding elements is required to brand Websites. The theory explains SWI as a branding tool and its influence on travelers’ perceptions and behaviors in the travel context. Given these findings, the authors of this study predict that OTA Websites that incorporate features of SWI may have a remarkable competence to build a brand online. Based on the given review, it is rational to expect that SWI might influence user perceptions of value and positive brand experience of the OTA branded website. A favorable experience is what reduces perceived risks when buying online and what influences users to revisit the website. Brand selection and brand experience (Morgan-Thomas & Veloutsou, 2013) are key elements to influence consumers’ behavior therefore must have a significant influence on behavioral intentions and willingness to pay premium prices. The current perception in social sciences and behavioral marketing is that age is a critical demographic variable that has direct and moderating role in the impact of interactivity and brand selection, brand selection and willingness to pay higher prices, brand selection and behavioral intentions, and online experience on behavioral intentions (Kirk et al., 2012).

Trusting beliefs are playing an increasingly important role in building customer-based brand equity (CBBE) in the business arena. The present study examines the mediating effect of trusting beliefs on the interactivity-brand equity relationship. An online survey was administered to collect data from randomly selected consumers. The results show that system interactivity impact brand equity directly and indirectly through trust integrity. The present theory-driven model contributes to a better understanding of online brand equity. Therefore, allocating resources to influence the perception of system interactivity and trusting integrity beliefs is valuable to develop online brand equity. This research contributes to the interactivity theory and the relationship marketing theory and it also offers implications for practitioners.

The present study focuses on the construct of entrepreneurial alertness, investigating the external antecedents of the construct, responding to the call for more research pledged by Tang, Kacmar, and Busenitz (2012). Namely, we examine how receiving feedback, awards and collaboration offers in relation to an individual’s hobby activity influences the development of entrepreneurial alertness dimensions. Additionally, we make a contribution by testing the effect of these external factors in a non-entrepreneurial context of homebrewing communities, that is individuals producing beer at home as a hobby. In line with other form of craft activities, this context has demonstrated a high potential for business start-up development due to the increasing number of new small brewing businesses in North America run by entrepreneurs that were previously homebrewers (Carroll & Swaminathan, 2000). We test our tenets within the complexity theory, where configurations of antecedents are examined in order to gain deeper understanding of the possible outcome (Woodside, 2014), using 213 completed questionnaires. We apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA, Ragin 2000; 2008) to achieve a holistic overview of the examined interrelationships (Ordanini, Parasuraman & Rubera, 2015). We find that high feedback is a sufficient condition for high scanning and search, association and connection, as well as evaluation and judgement activities of entrepreneurial alertness. Without feedback, people at the hobby stage engage in their leisure activities solely because they like it. However, receiving feedback in relation to their hobby outcomes provides an opportunity for individuals to develop and experience additional motivations beyond enjoyment, where they understand that the hobby could be commercialized and bring monetary rewards. Moreover, we find that an individual receiving low amount of awards but high amount of collaboration offers may also have high entrepreneurial alertness. Since individuals receive rewards related to the excellent performance in their leisure activity, it may not provide any cue for a potential transformation into a business. However, the more collaboration offers people receive, the more likely they get involved in scanning and search, association and connection, and evaluation and judgement activities of entrepreneurial alertness. Therefore, they are likely to conduct additional search, connect bits of available information and evaluate this business opportunity (Gaglio & Winter, 2009). The findings of this study could help entrepreneurs reflect on their decisions and behaviours during the business start-up planning process, and measure their entrepreneurial alertness and the extent of readiness to engage in business venturing.

While in recent years much research attention has been directed towards China and its various industries, the Chinese diamond industry has been largely neglected. China is the world’s second-largest diamond processing center after India, and the second-largest consumer market for polished diamonds following the United States. It is also predicted to surpass both countries in the near future. We identify a paradox in the Chinese diamond industry, namely, that while Chinese businesses often follow a relational governance model, China’s diamond industry tends to employ rational mechanisms of governance and exchange. We discuss the main challenges for business ethics in China, with a focus on the paradox in the Chinese diamond industry as a case study using the GRX (Ganqing, Renqing and Xinren) scale. We used interview protocols and a two stage research process to examine the influence of the GRX constructs on relationship satisfaction and performance. Due to the complexity of gathering data on a relatively secretive industry, we complemented the fieldwork by collecting further evidential artifacts from journals, books, magazines and government officials. We ultimately identify five interrelated themes that help explain why exchange in the Chinese diamond industry is frequently more transactional than relational. Furthermore, we show how weaknesses in China’s governance systems have allowed fraud and corruption to permeate this industry and explain why business ethics appear poorly developed. The current study offers a new look at this under researched industry. Particularly, the manuscript illustrates a model of trust building based on relational exchange and explains the paradox through the business model presented. The research also helps to provide some rationale for the pervasiveness of corruption and identifies issues affecting the maturation of business ethics in the Chinese diamond industry and in some sense, China’s industries in general.

A firm’s new product success is mainly determined by how well it is accepted by the mass in a short time. Although companies have been adopting various marketing methods, word-of-mouth [WOM] has been regarded as one of the most effective means for customer acquisition (Villanueva, Yoo & Hanssens, 2008), primarily due to its reliability, social support, and support by social pressure and surveillance as Arndt (1967) has suggested (as cited in Woodside and Delozier, 1976). Moreover, online word-of-mouth is being given new significance alongside the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other online channels (Berger and Iyengar, 2013; Dellarocase, 2003; Schafer & Taddicken, 2015). For this reason, researchers have paid a close attention to opinion leaders, who are not only early adopters of innovation themselves (Goldsmith & Witt, 2003), but also information transmitters and influencers (Vernette, 2004). Therefore, this study aims to identify both online and offline opinion leaders, who could adopt new products first, and diffuse the adoption of new products to others. Thus, this study draws upon the innovation diffusion theory conceptualized by Rogers (1995). According to Rogers (1995), innovation is defined as an individual’s or an organization’s perception of an idea as new. In addition, he articulates that if an innovation is transferred through certain communication channels over time within a social system by its members, diffusion occurs (Rogers, 1995; Rogers, 2002). The main purpose of this paper is to examine the intermediary role of opinion leadership as a quintessential link between consumer characteristics (consumer innovativeness and lifestyle and values) and new product adoption behavior. The research data is collected through survey, which is conducted by distributing questionnaires to a group of users of Apple Watch by Apple, Mi band by Xiaomi, and the products by Fitbit. The model of the study will be tested through structural equation modeling approach. In particular, this paper considers not only regular opinion leadership in offline context, but also online opinion leadership in order to go with the tide of the developing online world. Moreover, this study selects wearable technology as a new product category, which makes the overall research highly fashion-oriented. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of involvement of product category on the relationship between lifestyles and values and opinion leadership. The author anticipates that fashion innovativeness and four lifestyle and values factors (sense of accomplishment, self-fulfillment, excitement, and fun and enjoyment) will positively affect online and offline opinion leaderships, which again will have a positive influence on new product adoption behavior. Moreover, this study predicts that the correlation between lifestyles and values and involvement of product category will have a positive influence on online and offline opinion leaderships and new product adoption behavior. This study may contribute both to the academia and to the managers within businesses that deal with wearable devices. Theoretically, this study is of particular value in that it adopts consumers’ lifestyles and values as predictors of opinion leadership and new product adoption behavior, which is an uncommon approach within existing research streams regarding opinion leadership and new product acquisition. In managerial terms, by revealing the significant relationships between the consumer characteristics and both offline and online opinion leaderships who are the potential customers of new products, this study enables the managers to identify their targets and differentiate their marketing strategies considering the different characteristics of consumers in offline and online environments. In particular, since this study adopted several wearable technologies as new products, businesses that deal with wearable devices may pay close attention to the results of this study and manipulate their marketing strategies in adequate terms.

The Internet is considered as a competitive marketing instrument in advancing business-related information and real-time transaction opportunities (Kumar, 2013). Several brand managers are questioning whether the existent marketing approaches to position their brands, with the purpose to operate in a traditional and online setting, may be enhanced (Liu, 2012). The Internet is recognized as an influential instrument that has changed the manner brands conduct business and the way consumers and businesses interact (Boyland et al., 2013). The distinctive value that the Internet offers over conventional media is the capacity to interact with consumers. This permits practitioners to adjust their presentation to adapt specific consumers’ needs. Contrary to other forms of media, the Internet assists companies to create long-term relationships with its consumers as it allows a distinctive reciprocal communication. This reciprocal communication that distinguishes the latest marketing channels from conventional media is website interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). a mechanized environment the same way as a company does in a traditional environment. It includes communicating with consumers directly, generating an exclusive and individual interaction with them. As a central aspect in technology-mediated communication, Website interactivity has been identified as a critical component to create strong brands (Voorveld et al., 2013). Regardless of the significance of Website interactivity, very limited research was identified in the branding and marketing literature that investigate the influential role of interactivity on brand equity. To this date very few researchers have devoted efforts to investigate the influential impact of Website interactivity on branding constructs. Therefore, this study closes this gap with the conceptualization and the impact of the two dimensions of Website interactivity namely social interactivity and system interactivity on brand equity. Additionally, another contribution is to examine the mediating effect of brand image and brand awareness in the formation of brand equity in the online environment. The study propose a theory-based model of Website interactivity as a precursor to build online brand equity and to examine the relationships among Website interactivity, bran image, brand awareness, and brand equity in the context of branded Websites. Leaning on the fundamentals of branding literature and the Website interactivity theory, a theoretical framework is designed and seven hypotheses are examined. A two-phase analysis is considered, first a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and then a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the dimensions of Website interactivity impact significantly on the brand awareness and brand image which in turn influence online brand equity. As today limited research has been focused on studying the impact of Website interactivity as a branding instrument. In this study, the authors consider Website interactivity to be the interaction between Websites and individuals. In this sense, Website interactivity is viewed as an essential high-tech capability for building brands (Voorveld et al., 2013) as it allows a reciprocal communication with the system and other users. Current literature indicates that for a more real illustration of the dual dimensions of Website interactivity, studies devote user control as an expression of system interactivity and two-way communication as an expression of social interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). Two-way communication (social interactivity) refers to reciprocal communication between individuals. The dimension is perceived as the interaction between the users and the system (e.g. Website) (e.g. through e-mail, chat or toll-free telephone access to customer service, etc.). The user control (system interactivity) perspective is more concerned with the ability of the user to select content and guide the interaction (Lowry et al., 2006). User control is manifested when individuals are granted the opportunity to select the content and influence the communication. For instance, Web users may feel themselves as possessing user control because they have the capacity to select without restrictions (through an internal search engine).

Major changes are challenging the tourist industry, such as new entrants, suppliers’ direct sales without intermediaries, and customers’ bargaining power due to Internet services, among others. In this context, the aim of this research is to assess the influence of two emerging constructs, eWOM adoption and customer engagement, jointly with consumer trust and brand equity, on travel agency loyalty. There is a huge amount of research available regarding the variables considered in this study: (i) brand trust and equity, and brand loyalty, have always been considered in the marketing literature; (ii) engagement and eWOM adoption have aroused interest from researchers since online comments gain popularity and usefulness. But their consideration in literature has been based, in most of the analyses, on symmetric relationships and it then fails to recognize the occurrence of causal asymmetry. In the present research a novel methodology is adopted, fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which uses Boolean algebra to show how causal conditions combine to bring about outcomes. On a sample of 520 travelers and through a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, data shows that brand trust and brand equity are key drivers of loyalty, measured as a repurchase intention. In fact, jointly both variables lead to travel agency loyalty and when no engagement-enthusiasm dimension exists, for individual repurchase intention, brand equity or brand trust are also needed. Moreover, just engagement in terms of interactions also leads to brand loyalty, but engagement-enthusiasm dimension needs support of eWOM adoption to impact travel agency repurchase intentions. This finding highlights the specific importance of each analyzed variable as key drivers of travel agency loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided based on results.

Given the increasing competition in the hospitality industry, a key question is to investigate how consumer-generated reviews affect the consumption decision of tourism services. Online reviews are regarded as one form of electronic word of mouth communication (Banerjee & Chua, 2016). While researchers have demonstrated the benefits of the presence of customer reviews on company sales, an issue scarcely investigated is how to assess the impact of informational cues on eWOM adoption for consumer decision-making and how individuals process and integrate conflicting opinions from other consumers. Drawing on dual process theories, this paper analyzes: (1) the impact of systematic information cues (informativeness, credibility and helpfulness of reviews) on eWOM adoption; (2) the moderating effect of conflicting reviews on the impact of eWOM adoption on behavioural intentions. The heuristic-systematic model HSM (Chaiken, 1980) is a widely recognized communication model that attempts to explain how people receive and process persuasive messages. As Zhang et al. (2014) advocated, the HSM provides broader explanations of individuals’ information processing behaviour in the context of online communities than do other models, such as ELM (elaboration likelihood model). We build up and test an expanded HSM model anchored in dual process literature, which includes the influence informativeness, credibility and helpfulness of mixed valence online reviews (systematic information cues) have on eWOM adoption which, in turn, influences behavioural intentions. In order to test the hypotheses of the model an experimental subjects-design was carried out using valence order: positive-negative vs. negative-positive as a condition. Data was collected in January 2016 using a sample of 908 Tripadvisor heavy-users. 461 interviewees answered in the POS-NEG condition and 447 in NEG-POS condition. Participants were instructed to imagine a situation where they were going out for dinner to an Italian restaurant with friends and they were told to read a total of 10 reviews about the restaurant in the same order they were displayed and answer the questions that followed. We used an experimental design. All variables were measured with seven point likert scales. Data analysis shows informativeness activates both review credibility and review helpfulness, which in turn influence eWOM adoption. When the sequence of Tripadvisor reviews begins with positive commentaries, eWOM is a significant driver of intention to visit the restaurant, but when the user reads negative commentaries followed by positive ones, the effect becomes non-significant. This study is novel because it examines the factors that drive consumers to adopt consumer generated content (eWOM) in tourism services and to make consumption decisions. This study demonstrates how systematic information cues and sequence of reviews influence on eWOM adoption and behavioural intentions. Firstly, consumer intentions to visit a restaurant are determined by the consumer's eWOM adoption, which, in turn, is determined by three information cues: informativeness, perceived credibility and helpfulness of the online reviews. Understanding the specific effects of different information cues on eWOM adoption seems to be particularly important given the tremendous competition in the tourism sector. Secondly, this study shows conflicting reviews affect the user in a complex way. When consumer reviews conflict, if the consumer reads positive reviews before the negative ones, eWOM adoption has a stronger influence on behavioural intentions. It seems that users attribute an opportunistic view to the negative comments mainly attributed to the lack of their informativeness, credibility and helpfulness. User behavioural intention to visit a restaurant is directed by systematic and heuristic information cues. Therefore, users examine content of online reviews carefully and they also are influenced by the sequence of comments.

This paper assesses the moderating role of consumer dispositions for global branding research. We introduce a mediation model studying the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on brand-related responses, followed by several moderated mediation analyses. Our findings yield surprisingly sparse evidence for the moderating role of well-established consumer dispositions.

In many countries, domestic tourism is important in terms of both size and economic contribution (Massidda & Etzo, 2012). This study aimed to develop a measurement scale for place authenticity for domestic destinations. Moreover, the objective was to offer insights regarding the consequences of place authenticity while travelling within borders. Empirical literature on the authentic travel experience “within borders” is quite scant and the attention of policy makers is not adequately focused on its outcomes such as attitude, values and positive WOM. A very small body of literature has primarily focused on domestic tourists’ destination experience yet omits measuring authenticity perceptions (Chi & Qu, 2008; Massidda & Etzo, 2012; Milman & Pizam, 1995). Empirical data were collected from 456 American consumers who had travelled to domestic tourism destinations. This paper provides a new measure for place authenticity that destination marketers can use to gauge what consumers think of their domestic travel experience. In addition, the findings of this study suggest that place authenticity shapes key consumer outcomes such as attitude, values and positive WOM. Furthermore, place authenticity has significant indirect effects on value and WOM, consistent with the role of place authenticity’s effects being mediated by consumer attitude toward the destination. Finally, this study discusses the managerial implications for tourism destination marketing and positioning strategy.

A paradox exists in our understanding of consumer psychology and behavior. There is a strong positive relationship between familiarity and liking that resides at the core of consumer psychology and behavior (e.g., Monahan, Murphy, & Zajonc, 2000; Monin, 2003; Monin & Oppenheimer, 2005; Zajonc, 1968; 2001). Yet, consumer also prefer novelty (e.g., Bornstein, Kale, & Cornell, 1990; Gillebaart, Förster, & Rotteveel, 2012; Rubera & Kirca, 2012; Talke, Salomo, Wieringa, & Lutz, 2009). For instance, they favor brands more after repeated exposure (Fang, Singh, & Ahluwalia, 2007; Ferraro, Bettman, & Chartrand, 2009), but excessive exposure results in satiation and boredom (Bornstein et al., 1990). Similarly, consumers are both neophiliacs and neophobics who hold a dualistic tendency to approach and avoid innovations, respectively (for a review, see van Trijp & van Kleef, 2008). In fact, recent research on the psychology of familiarity failed to coincide on whether people prefer familiarity or novelty (Norton, Frost, & Ariely, 2011; 2013; Norton et al., 2007; Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, & Finkel, 2011; Ullrich, Krueger, Brod, & Groschupf, 2013). In this theoretical paper, we propose that a missing piece to this paradox is our understanding of people’s affective motivations to approach novelty. Interest is an emotion that motivates people’s curiosity to approach novel, complex, but not necessarily pleasant stimuli (e.g., Turner & Silvia, 2006). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relevance of interest to our understanding of consumer psychology and behavior. Specifically, liking (contentment and joy) motivates people to favor familiarity, whereas interest motivates consumers to favor novelty. Specifically we use an appraisal theory perspective to differentiate the emotional and motivational quality of interest from liking (contentment and joy). Furthermore, we show how interest and its related appraisal may explain the boundary conditions of the familiarity-liking association that are not yet explained in the existing literature. Practical and theoretical implications of the differentiation between the familiarity-liking and interest-novelty association in consumer psychology and marketing are discussed.

We develop a concept of the face in the consumer behavior discipline and contribute to the theory of lookism defined as bias toward people because of their perceived physical appearance (Tietje & Cresap,, 2005). “What is the face?” –is our fundamental research question. What makes the face become the site of voluntary alteration? How do marketing forces drive the mainstream embrace of surgical correction of facial features as a commercial commodity, similar to shoes? While the latest medical advances have handed some control over appearance to consumers and provided them with a product (plastic surgery) designed to correct one’s genetic make-up, the designer face as a new consumer commodity hasn’t been addressed academically yet. Presumably, the face is the most distinctive human body element that sets a person apart from others, but academic studies that incorporate the phenomenon of treating people in a way biased by their perceived physical attractiveness have largely focused on the entire physique. To fill the academic gap, we specifically study the normative function of advertising as it presents itself in the format of street billboards. Examining this advertising language in the context of an emerging pattern of consumer behavior—designing one’s face through surgery—we theorize how the marketing channel normalizes this novel pattern, fitting it into historical, philosophical, social, and cultural contexts; how it legitimizes plastic surgery as a mainstream consumer commodity; and how it makes the face an object of alteration. Moreover, we perform the study in the specific cultural domain of Asia that places a strong metaphorical value on the face and has historically developed the honor-centered concept of “saving face” as a guiding principle of life (Lee, 1999). Driven by the fundamental question “What is the face?” and its examination in the context of the face-saving culture of South Korea, we developed a working research question to guide our inquiry: what makes a culture rooted in conservative beliefs and respect for the elderly so openly question and surgically correct the “quality” of the body received from one’s parents?

E-commerce has become an irreplaceable sales channel for businesses of any size all around the globe. It is a major source of revenue and sales through this channel continue to gain momentum with an annual growth rate of 20%3). The ubiquity, flexibility, and convenience associated with e-commerce has undoubtedly changed the consumption patterns. However, consumers’ preferences and considerations when making purchasing decisions are not static either. In a global competition, businesses have to adopt quickly to respond emerging trends in retail. An important and persistent trend in this regard is ethical consumption, a development which has been widely researched in an offline context. The present experiment demonstrated that online shop-related ethical labeling positively influences consumers’ willingness to pay and purchase intention across a broad range of products. While any type of ethical labeling showed a positive effect in these regards as compared to no ethical labeling, there was no pronounced difference between the various types of labels used. Accordingly, we assume that consumers make inferences from a specific ethical label about the higher–level ethical “trait”.

As well as all other branches of trade, so retail trade itself undergoes various changes and trends with regard to the development of information and communication technologies which affect not only traders themselves but also their customers. It is the retail store environment itself which is one of the decisive aspects of purchase because more than 70% of consumer decisions take place directly at the point of sale. It is the last place which can reverse the purchasing decision. A final customers´ decision is influenced not only by price, quality but also by in-store communication and visual aspects of each store. That is the reason for continuous gathering of feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these means of communication in real environment. Besides traditional research techniques there are situations which require the involvement of relatively new research methods. Thanks to the innovative interdisciplinary approach with the use of neuromarketing, it is possible to create effective marketing strategies and thus stimulate the customer attention and emotions. By these emotions, it is possible to achieve better motivation toward purchase and an increase in the number of sales and subsequent raise in income. The paper deals with a complex, interdisciplinary examination of the in-store communication impact on customer visual attention, emotions and related spatial behaviour of customers in grocery stores. Research integrates measurements of mobile eye camera (Eye tracker), mobile electroencephalograph (EEG), face reading technology (FA) and internal position system in real conditions of retail store. The purpose of this research is to recognise the attention, emotional response and spatial customer preferences by means of selected in-store communication tools. At the end of the paper we explain how the neuromarketing methods can be used for better understanding of consumer behaviour at the point of sale.

Luxury watch manufacturers open boutiques around the globe. A branded boutique is a promise to customers and much of the responsibility of keeping it weighs on frontline employees. However, not much is known about the “moments of truth” in monobrand boutiques. This study explores the “front reality” of sales staff and besides a theoretical and a managerial contribution provides a critical reflection of the methodological approach.

Luxury brands are explicitly marketed to appear rare, exclusive, prestigious, and authentic (Phau & Prendergast, 2000; Turunen & Laaksonen, 2011; Tynan, McKechnie, & Chhuon, 2010). The glamour and distinction that these brands generate appeal to consumers’ desire to signal their accomplishments, success, or social superiority (Mandel, Petrova, & Cialdini, 2006; McFerran, Aquino, & Tracy, 2014). It is, therefore, unsurprising that the marketing communication of many luxury brands explicitly portray images of successful, sophisticated, and confident people expressing their social superiority. However, the empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of such portrayal in luxury communication is scant. Only a pilot study showed that exposure to a story of a similar successful other may increase desire for luxury goods (Mandel et al., 2006). In the present research, we propose that envy is a key determinant of how consumers perceive display of pride and social superiority. Our findings from two studies showed that benign (malicious) envy predisposes consumers to perceive portrayal of social superiority on luxury marketing communication to be an expression of authentic (hubristic) pride. This relationship between benign (malicious) envy and authentic (hubristic) pride enhances (reduces) the luxury perception and positive brand attitude toward the luxury brand in the advertisement. These findings were replicated in a correlational study on genuine advertisements (Study 1) and an experiment that successfully manipulated consumers’ experience of benign envy (Study 2). Separate studies have recently shown that experience of benign envy can increase consumers’ willingness to pay toward the envied product (Van de Ven et al., 2011) and that the experience of authentic pride increases luxury consumption (McFerran et al., 2014). However, no existing research has explored the complementary effect of envy and pride on consumers’ response toward luxury marketing communication. The current research is therefore the first to demonstrate the differential effect of benign and malicious envy on: (1) consumers’ interpretation of social superiority as an expression of authentic and hubristic pride; (2) consumers’ response toward the portrayal of social superiority in luxury marketing; and (3) how portrayal of social superiority enhances or reduces luxury perception and brand attitude of a luxury brand. These findings also provide insights into the complementary relationship between envy and pride in consumer psychology. Lange and Crusius (2015) suggested that other’s authentic and hubristic pride expression may evoke the experience of benign and malicious envy, respectively. The current research, however, shows that the Luxury brands are explicitly marketed to appear rare, exclusive, prestigious, and authentic (Phau & Prendergast, 2000; Turunen & Laaksonen, 2011; Tynan, McKechnie, & Chhuon, 2010). The glamour and distinction that these brands generate appeal to consumers’ desire to signal their accomplishments, success, or social superiority (Mandel, Petrova, & Cialdini, 2006; McFerran, Aquino, & Tracy, 2014). It is, therefore, unsurprising that the marketing communication of many luxury brands explicitly portray images of successful, sophisticated, and confident people expressing their social superiority. However, the empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of such portrayal in luxury communication is scant. Only a pilot study showed that exposure to a story of a similar successful other may increase desire for luxury goods (Mandel et al., 2006). In the present research, we propose that envy is a key determinant of how consumers perceive display of pride and social superiority. Our findings from two studies showed that benign (malicious) envy predisposes consumers to perceive portrayal of social superiority on luxury marketing communication to be an expression of authentic (hubristic) pride. This relationship between benign (malicious) envy and authentic (hubristic) pride enhances (reduces) the luxury perception and positive brand attitude toward the luxury brand in the advertisement. These findings were replicated in a correlational study on genuine advertisements (Study 1) and an experiment that successfully manipulated consumers’ experience of benign envy (Study 2). Separate studies have recently shown that experience of benign envy can increase consumers’ willingness to pay toward the envied product (Van de Ven et al., 2011) and that the experience of authentic pride increases luxury consumption (McFerran et al., 2014). However, no existing research has explored the complementary effect of envy and pride on consumers’ response toward luxury marketing communication. The current research is therefore the first to demonstrate the differential effect of benign and malicious envy on: (1) consumers’ interpretation of social superiority as an expression of authentic and hubristic pride; (2) consumers’ response toward the portrayal of social superiority in luxury marketing; and (3) how portrayal of social superiority enhances or reduces luxury perception and brand attitude of a luxury brand. These findings also provide insights into the complementary relationship between envy and pride in consumer psychology. Lange and Crusius (2015) suggested that other’s authentic and hubristic pride expression may evoke the experience of benign and malicious envy, respectively. The current research, however, shows that the