In the past few decades, much attention has been focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Dahlrud, 2008; McWilliams & Siegel, 2001; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; Montiel, 2008), consumer responses to CSR initiatives (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001) and more recently, employee attitudes towards CSR (Kim et al., 2010; Michailides & Lipsett, 2012; Rupp et al., 2006; Zhu et al., 2012). Although awareness of environmental sustainability has increased over the past few decades, the current market share of sustainable products remains low. Because of their market position, large-scale and high- volume customer interactions (Vella et al., 2009), supermarkets appear to be appropriate venues for investigating perceived sustainability initiatives (Hampl & Loock, 2013). Our study examined the extent to which supermarkets are perceived to have embedded sustainability initiatives in their marketing strategies and to have taken sustainable tactical measures on the store floor. In addition, the study considered the roles played by social identification (as an indicator for intrinsic motives) and by perceived external prestige (as an indicator for extrinsic motives). Based on a literature review and semi-structured qualitative interviews with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Dutch supermarkets (n = 8), we conducted an online panel survey among the managers of these supermarkets (n = 99). The results of the qualitative study show that although CEOs’ opinions differed regarding the relevance of sustainability, the majority of CEOs indicated that the implementation of a sustainability strategy is strongly dependent on the intrinsic motivation of board members, the family business in general or local entrepreneurs (supermarket managers). Specifically, the role of the supermarket manager was recognized as important concerning sustainability initiatives on the shop floor. The results of the quantitative study show the positive impacts of managers’ social identification with a sustainable consumer group and managers’ perceived external prestige on the perceived environmental sustainability initiatives of Dutch supermarkets. The study finds that managers’ social identifications are powerful ways to engender employee loyalty. Moreover, organizations that are perceived to have more external prestige are perceived as being more capable of developing sustainability policies.

Marketers might find the task of gauging the public’s perceptions of a landfill-to-park transformation as one of the more challenging products to market. A current project is Freshkills Park in New York City. The theoretical approach was to test proximity and experience history with familiarity, attitude toward, and intent to visit the site.

This article addresses the potential of reputable brands to overcome the lack of tangibility that characterizes the process of e-commerce. In a sequential argument, the authors propose that (1) the brand becomes more important in online than in offline channels, as a consequence of the intangibility or lack of physical contact in online purchasing processes; (2) the limitations associated with the need for touch and the lack of access to the physical product during the buying process does not have equal importance across all product categories; and (3) the role of the brand in online channels thus is more relevant if the product category is associated with a higher need for touch. To provide empirical evidence regarding the hypotheses, we performed an experiment that combined three treatments: (1) leader versus non-leader brand, (2) online versus offline channel, and (3) product category with higher versus lower need for touch. We show that the most recognized brands exert a positive effect on product evaluations, regardless of the technical characteristics and other objective product attributes. This advantage may be greater in online channels, though only for product categories for which the lack of physical contact with the product during the purchase process is an important limitation. In such cases, brand associations can compensate for intangibility during purchase.We also confirm that the product categories differ in their level of need for touch and the extent to which consumers desire physical contact with the product during the buying process. These results demonstrate that building strong brands is a key competitive advantage for manufacturers. Brand reputation becomes even more crucial when selling products in electronic channels, at least if the product itself entails a greater need for touch prior to purchase. For such products, strong brands can make up for the intangibility of e-commerce, so this effort represents a key competitive strategy in such channels. Moreover, leading brands can leverage their competitive advantage to enhance their performance in the increasingly prominent realm of e-commerce. E-retailers need to make careful decisions regarding the configuration of the assortment, taking into account the nature of the product category. They should strengthen their focus on developing highly recognizable brands, because the lack of physical contact is an important purchase inhibitor in this shopping channel. However, the brand criterion may be less important if the choice between online and offline shopping is not particularly affected by the opportunity to touch or feel the products.

This is an initial work on a research project which will ultimately test a battery of hypotheses relating to the drivers of consumers’ willingness to buy of Vitamin C OTC. This initial work outlines the product category, the market, and presents the initial theoretical framework to be investigated. Dietary Supplement constitutes a very significant business market in Thailand. Consumers in Thailand consume dietary supplements on a daily, continual basis to supplement their daily dietary intake. More importantly, they consume them as a preventive measure to off-set an environment of ever growing pollution, pressure to perform and stress. The market for dietary supplements is growing, and firms operating in this market are interested to understand the factors and variables related to consumers’ willingness to buy on these dietary supplements. Consumers can also benefit from research insights as the consumption of dietary supplement is not without criticism (e.g. Braun et al., 2009; Timbo et al., 2006). Food supplements or Dietary supplements (EU1) is the official designated term for this product category in the United Stated of America (U.S. FDA 1994). Thailand (ACCSQ-TMHS, 2006), are classified as food products containing micronutrients and its intention is to supplement the normal diet (Greger, 2001). According to Kearney (2010), consumers have increasing levels of focus on the importance of health, which the increased focus on health coincides with an increased availability of health information, which in turn is fueled by the underlying demands of an aging population and an increase in lifestyle diseases. In the EU, the use of supplements is widely practiced in the general population. Statistics reveal that 47% of German women and 41% of German men regularly take supplements consisting of vitamins, and minerals (Reinnert, Rohrmann, Beckers & Linseisen, 2007). The sales ratio in the Thai market between general nutrients and vitamins is approximately 55 to 45 percent. According to the latest IMS Health Thailand report as of end September 2013 (see Table), it is noted that in Thailand alone, the domestic consumption of general nutrients and vitamins as food supplements has increased by more than four folds from 2004 to 2013 (Thai Baht 1.27 billion in 2004 to 5.46 billion in 2013). The majority of this increase occurred from 2011 to 2013. Most of these products are imported from the US. Other major producers and exporters of these products are Ireland, France, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Australia; whereas Japan, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam are major exporters of raw materials into Thailand for further refinement (Arunanondchai 2007). In Thailand, exercise used to be the main way to achieve a healthy life. There is, however, a growing belief that healthy food and food supplement consumption is important to be healthy. The present project studies the use of Vitamin C as an example of a dietary supplement, which is widely consumed in Thailand. Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid or Ascorbate) is the generic descriptor for compounds having antiscorbutic activity. Most animals can synthesize Vitamin C from D-glucose but humans and other primates, together with guinea pigs, fruit bats, some Passeriformes birds, some fish and some insects, are exceptions. Vitamin C is a reducing agent (antioxidant) and it is likely that all of its biochemical and molecular functions relate to this property. In humans, Vitamin C acts as an electron donor for eight enzymes, of which three are involved in collagen hydroxylation (including aspects of norepinephrine, peptide hormone and tyrosine metabolism) and two are involved in carnitine biosynthesis (Dunn et al (1984), Eipper et al (1993, 1992), Kaufmann (1974), Kirirkko & Myllyla (1985), Levine et. al, (1991), Procop & Kiviikko (1995), Peterkovsky (1991), Rebouche (1991)). Vitamin C is sold through various distribution channels, including the over-the-counter (OTC) market in Thailand with limited restriction from the Thai FDA. OTC drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription. The term OTC may be somewhat counterintuitive, since, in many countries, these drugs are often located on the shelves of stores like any other packaged product. In contrast, prescription drugs are almost always passed over a counter from the pharmacist to the customer. Some drugs may be legally classified as over-the-counter (i.e., no prescription is required), but may only be dispensed by a pharmacist after an assessment of the patient's needs and/or the provision of patient education. In many countries, a number of OTC drugs are available in establishments without a pharmacy, such as general stores, supermarkets, gas stations, etc. Regulations detailing the establishments where drugs may be sold, who is authorized to dispense them, and whether a prescription is required vary considerably from country to country. To simplify, any medicine that can be sold over the counter for symptomatic relief of minor or self-limiting ailments without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner is an OTC Medicine. OTC Medicines differ from Prescription Medicines in terms of Margin of Safety, Advertising and Distribution. The project will address a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic driving factors in pharmaceutical products, including vitamins that can potentially lead to a better and clearer understanding on how consumers perceive the product quality, get influenced by expert opinion, and manage perceived risk when deciding whether or not to buy. Three potential drivers will be investigated in this project for their impact on willingness to buy: Country of Origin image, brand image, and expert opinion. Further, the framework suggests that the relationship between these three drivers and consumers’ willingness to buy is mediated by their perceived risk. Basing on the requirement of developing a theoretical framework to answering these questions, it is foreseen that both practical and implicative results derived from the OTC pharmaceutical market can complete the answer from an experienced consumers’ perspective, therefore this study is adopting the questionnaire set methodology to survey among Vitamin C consumer who are experienced with this dietary supplement. Aligning the survey in respect to prior authority research, the measurement items in this survey were adapted from pre-existing scales of operationalization. A questionnaire will be constructed to assess 5 main constructs. They are: 1) Product Country Image 2) Brand Image 3) Expert Opinion 4) Perceived Risk 5) Willingness to buy. These 5 constructs constitute the main proposed conceptual model. All constructs in this questionnaire use a seven-point Likert scale. The research will draw on existing definitions and measures adapted from the consumer behavior and marketing literatures. The theoretical framework and related hypotheses will be tested using primary survey data by using a statistical analysis software package for interpretation and conclusion of findings. Questions for Product Country Image were operationalized and adapted from Roth and Romeo (1992), consisting of four items. Questions such as “How would you rate innovativeness of Cosmeceuticals products from Country of Origin” were specially designed to capture consumers’ perception of products based on their imaginative association of a product to a country. Brand Image, comprising of five items, is borrowed from Robert (2004) and Cho (2011) which are semantically designed to capture meaningfulness of brand perception to the end user. An example of a question is: “The brand adds value to my life”. Four items are asked in the Expert Opinion segment in order to analyze the pedagogical impact of experts’ persuasiveness, operationalized from Aquevegue (2006), such as “The opinion of the experts about the product is (very good to very bad)”. Perceived risk, being measured by 5 statements such as “You want to enjoy better health” in the degree of respondents’ view is heavily adapted and modified from Chang (2007). This segment is directly engineered to identify and understand expectations associated with products from a consumers’ viewpoint resulting in final purchase action. Such expectations can be understood as benefits or the avoidance of threats that are realized through consumption. Applying the hierarchy of needs model (Maslow 1954) could help to reveal and orchestrate consumers’ purchase motivations resulting in valuable marketing insights. Finally, the construct of Willingness to buy, consisting of five items such as “The likelihood of purchasing Cosmeceuticals is (very low to very high)”, is adapted from Dodds and Monroe (1991). Overall, we expect the results of this project to illuminate our understanding of how perceived risk influences consumer decisions in the dietary supplements market. Specifically the results should shed light on the effect of three key drivers of perceived risk, as well as of a key outcome of perceived risk.

In the context of M&A, how to redeploy two corporate assets is one of important organizational tasks. Among tasks, the management of intangible assets – in particular of corporate brand name is a critical element reflects consumers’ response. There has been increasing interest in the role of corporate names in academic fields. However, little attention has been paid to the different name and symbol options on M&A types. No empirical research has yet addressed branding strategies between in-market and cross-market M&A from the individual customers’ perspectives of acquired company. This paper seeks to address the research gap, by exploring acquired company customer on brand identity options in the context of post merger. Specifically, it considers the degree to which name and symbol influence acquired consumer responses. Thus, 5(brand strategy: target-dominant brand name A, acquirer-dominant brand name B, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand name BA, target-dominant synergistic brand name AB or create new brand name C) × 2(M & A types: in market or cross-market) between subject experiment design was conducted. 494 undergraduate or graduate students are the subjects from a college. Questionnaires were collected by convenience sampling. The results show that: (1). Brand name redeployment strategy has significant effect on customers’ sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention. (2). In in-market M&A type situation, target-dominant brand tend to outperform acquirer-dominant brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention when compared with cross-market M&A type. (3). In in-market M&A type situation, new brand tend to outperform acquirer-dominant brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention when compared with cross-market M&A type. (4). In in-market M&A type situation, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand strategy tend to outperform new brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation when compared with cross-market M&A type. In summary, in in-market M&A type situation, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand is the best strategy and new brand name is the second best option in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation when compared with cross-market type situation. The results should guide managers regarding post-M&A branding strategies.

The concept of customer orientation (CO) has been studied for quite a long time at first as a major part of market orientation and then as a separate construct. For emerging market the role of CO became paramount with the shift from the planned to the market economy. However, after more than two decades of transition Russian companies are still demonstrating rather a claim of being customer orientation, instead of implementing a long-term orientation towards customer. This paper focuses on reconsidering applying the Narver and Slater (1990) approach to conceptualizing and measuring customer orientation, and its empirical test and validation in the context of Russian economy. This study is based on data from two empirical studies on Russian companies, conducted during the pre-crisis (2008) and post-crisis (2010) period. Our results reveal that existing theory on customer orientation is not fully confirmed by the evidence from Russian companies.

Entrepreneurship and marketing are two disciplines whose paths have intersected frequently, because the underlying orientation of each relates to markets and customer needs (Hills and LaForge, 1992). The most common argument surrounding this relationship has been that entrepreneurs do not follow the mainstream approach taken by large corporations when performing marketing functions. Consequently, many researchers have attempted to better understand how marketing is performed differently by entrepreneurs. Interestingly, however, extant research has tended to overlook the sui generis relationship between the entrepreneur and his firm, and the impact that such relationship potentially has on both the entrepreneur and his firm/brand.The missing link in entrepreneurial branding, we believe, lies in further understanding the dynamic that exists between the entrepreneur’s roles and his firm’s growth. Our thesis is that the entrepreneur assumes different roles in order to develop and grow his firm/brand and a newly created social structure, and eventually matures into a sense of belonging and commitment to his firm/brand that potentially attracts and retains all the other stakeholders associated with the firm/brand. This may be regarded as an identity construction process which is triggered by the entrepreneur and permeates into his firm/brand. In their cross-disciplinary exploration of entrepreneurship research, Ireland and Webb (2007) identified identity construction as one of the three broad concepts around which multilevel entrepreneurship theory can develop.Qualitative data were collected through a total of 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs from the U.K., Guatemala and Colombia. Informed Grounded Theory by Thornberg (2012) was used as a data analysis approach, permitting an empirical understanding of entrepreneurial branding illuminated by extant literature on branding, entrepreneurship and identity. Data analysis revealed that entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing are involved in a variety of actions that compel them to embrace three different roles. The first role, identified as the Entrepreneur Strategist, encompasses the triggering elements through which the entrepreneur creates the foundations and key purposes of his firm. The second role, identified as the Entrepreneur Sense-giver, captures the actions that the entrepreneur undertakes to embed his central beliefs, values and personal assumptions through his daily experiences with his employees in the firm. The third role, identified as the Entrepreneur Developer, captures the various actions that the entrepreneur embraces to permeate his firm’s and brand’s essence to the outside world, including the customers. Our study also supports the notion that the identity of an entrepreneur is a co-creation of an individual identity and a social identity. Our argument implicitly bridges the two traditionally disconnected perspectives of Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory through the entrepreneurship process. More specifically, the three roles that entrepreneurs potentially need to embrace in order to grow their firm/brand in the market are embedded within a dynamic process in which the entrepreneur’s personal identity is co-created alongside his firm’s and brand’s social identity. A successful entrepreneur of each entrepreneurial firm should eventually permeate the entrepreneurial brand essence, a distinct blend of his personal identity and his firm’s and brand’s social identity, into the world.

Employing a 2 (Source disclosure: Health agency vs. Co-created) x 2 (Co-creator identity: General vs. Specific) between-subjects fractional factorial design, this research explores how the disclosure of consumer involvement in developing public health messages can increase advertising effectiveness. This effect is enhanced by revealing the co-creator’s identity and experience with the health issue.

The main purpose of this paper is to find the etic dimensions of beliefs towards comparative advertising (CA) and to test their relationship with global attitude and acceptance of CA in a cross-cultural setting. Samples from four linguistic and cultural different countries were used: Austria, Canada, China and Peru. The research instrument was an online questionnaire. Results uncovered three main etic belief dimensions: truthfulness and deceitfulness as societal (micro) variables, and product information as personal (micro) variable. Invariance tests indicate that the items comprising the scales proposed to measure CA beliefs, global attitude and acceptance of CA possess equivalence across the four countries. Our model shows that beliefs indirectly affect acceptance of CA, which is mediated by global attitude toward CA. Results reveal similarities and differences across countries on the magnitude and importance of the beliefs and global attitude total effects upon acceptance. Finally, results are analyzed vis-à-vis the Hofstede’s national cultural dimensions, which indicate that uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism help to explain the main differences across the countries.

The importance of frontline employees (FLEs) for the success of organizations is recognized by researches and practitioners alike. However, their importance for the innovativeness of companies resulting from their boundary spanning role is often underestimated and has received little attention in prior research. The present paper identifies individual and firm-level factors that explain variations in idea collecting behaviors of FLEs. To test the hypotheses, data was collected from 31 different managers from the automotive, construction, IT, machinery, and chemicals sectors. In addition, a total of corresponding 237 FLEs were surveyed and matched to the firm-level data. Results of our study show that FLEs’ idea gathering is positively influenced by job satisfaction, desire for upward mobility, and lack of resources. Role ambiguity between FLEs and the employer decreases FLEs intention to gather ideas. Dissemination behavior is enforced by inter-sender role conflicts and reduced by role conflicts resulting from a lack of resources. Both dimensions of idea generation depend on the presence of a strong internal network. On a firm-level, learning orientation and providing feedback to FLEs are found to strengthen the interrelationship between idea gathering and dissemination. Based on these findings, implications for management and research are derived.

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

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

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

Every company is buzzing “innovation” these days, while continuously developing and launching new products. However, empirical research points to high failure rates of innovations, indicating that most new products fail as they are rejected by consumers due to their resistance to innovation. Using a scenario-based experiment, we show that innovation resistance evolves from individual’s inclination to resist changes (cognitive resistance) and status quo satisfaction (situational resistance), inhibiting new product adoption. While consumers high on cognitive or situational resistance were shown to exhibit negative effects, that were similar in their magnitude, consumers high on both dimensions show the strongest predisposition to resist innovations. Thus, these consumers represent the most crucial segment when it comes to new product launches.

Prior research has investigated the consumer effects of cash and card payments in service settings, but the growing trend of innovative payment with a mobile device hasn’t been considered in the literature so fare. This article represents one of the first studies that considers the adoption of mobile as a new payment method and investigate how the ‘checkout’ phase affect the shoppers’ overall price image of retail stores (OSPI). Results from our studies show that the ‘checkout’ phase is the ‘moment of truth’ for shoppers judging OSPI. We investigate the effects of cash, card, and mobile payments and show that the less transparent a payment method, the lower OSPI judgments of shoppers. In particular, favorable comparisons of basket prices to shoppers’ mental budgets trigger lower store price perceptions. Subsequently, these results have major implications for retailers aiming to lower their OSPI in customers’ minds.

The emergence of peer to peer systems such as online auction websites is a major element in e-commerce yet relatively little is known about what influences its adoption and use in different parts of the world. Using an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), user attitudes and behaviors from three national environmental contexts, Korea, Germany and New Zealand, are examined and compared to determine the factors influencing the adoption and usage of this system. The key questions this paper addresses are: Are there national differences affecting the ability for the TAM to predict OAWS acceptance, and if so, in what way? And are differences observed between heavy and light user motivations and perceptions of the medium and how these differ across national environments? Answers to these questions will increase the understanding for future marketers and developers of peer-to-peer systems. An extended TAM model was developed from which a number of hypothesized relationships are posited. We use the Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw (1989) core TAM model extended by our arguing for two key influencing factors on a user’s attitude to using a new technology, perceived risk and computer affinity. We contend the drivers of perceived risk are: perceived enjoyment, trust in intermediary, perceived reputation system effectiveness, and positive past experience. Additionally we address the limited understanding in the literature of the national environment effects on technology acceptance. National cultural effects such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism, along with technological heritage and country innovativeness may need to be understood to determine potential differences in consumer activity and the robustness of the theoretical model. We also considered usage behavior to be important. Research for example, identifies heavy users as influencers on other potential adopters; thus important targets for developers and marketers of new technologies. Results suggest that although the core TAM is somewhat robust for the three nations along with the extended model for the respondents from South Korea, there are some key differences in the extended model between New Zealand and Germany. Specifically the relationships: Positive Past Experience and Perceived Risk are not supported in NZ or Germany, and “computer affinity” and “attitude to using” unsupported in Germany. We similarly found differences in the attitudes of light and heavy users between the samples, especially the Korean sample with the others. Our findings highlight that national environmental variations, especially between the “eastern” and “western” samples are important, which could be attributed to both uncertainty avoidance and individualism. Key conclusions and recommendations will be given.

Despite the rapid growth and potential for technology-based services from a technology and productivity perspective, the biggest challenges that managers often face are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self‐service technology show that the perceived risk is an important factor influencing the usage of service technology. Whereas research has explored different risk types that emerge in consumer settings such as functional and psychological risk, research on risk perception in B2B setting still lacks a detailed examination of the different facets risk can take on in technology-based service adoption. Some studies indicate that there might be different views and perceptions of the risk involved in technology-based services between customers and providers. Our study addresses this gap and aims to develop a holistic understanding of the types of risk customers perceive when using a technology-based service. We investigate what types of risk are emergent in technology-based service encounters and whether customers and providers perceive these risks differently. We conducted 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two industries in four countries. Our study emphasizes the importance of functional and financial risks as expected in a B2B context, but also sheds light on the fact that business customers have personal and psychological fears that hinder them from using technology-based services. Most importantly, we show that gaps in the perception and evaluation of risk exist between customers and providers: customers doubt the functionality of technology-based services; they emphasize privacy risk as a main hindrance and worry about their own role in a service, whereas only few providers are aware of the customers’ fears.

In this paper, we study the effectiveness of social labeling as a technique to promote pro-environmental behaviors in children, and examine more specifically the potential moderating effect of children’s age. We run an experiment on a sample of 115 3rd to 6th grade children and show that 1/ children exposed to a social labeling actually declare more pro-environmental behaviors and that 2/ children at an intermediate age (between 9 years and a half and 11 years and a half) are the most responsive to the technique, underlying an inverted-U relationship between social labeling effectiveness and children's age. These results contribute to a better theoretical understanding of social labeling mechanisms and suggest implications for public policy makers.