Worldwide, more than 1/3 of all e-commerce transactions in business-to-consumer industries are nowadays executed via mobile devices (Criteo, 2015). Despite its increasing importance, it can be noted that mobile commerce does not seem to “take-off” equally across diverse goods and services contexts. We observe, for instance, that mobile commerce is quite common in service industries for purchasing tickets (e.g., for flights, public transportation, and sport events), while it is less common for services such as financial products. Balasubramanian et al. (2002) addressed this issue and proposed that contexts of m-commerce differ from each other with regard to several characteristics. For example, they propose that location sensitivity (among other characteristics) differs for various m-commerce applications, and that this characteristic may impact acceptance of m-commerce across industries. It may be that acceptance of m-commerce is higher in some industries since use of location sensitive data is appreciated by customers, while it is not valued in other purchasing contexts. Against this background, we propose that examining (1) risk perception related to mobile commerce and (2) different types of mobile commerce applications are essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of differing relevance of m-commerce across industries. In particular, our study acknowledges the differential roles of the financial, performance, and security facets of risk. In addition, we assume that the role of value and risk dimensions differs subject to three mobile commerce application characteristics which are location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control. Based on a dataset of 800 respondents, results of our models demonstrate that especially security risk can act as a critical inhibitor of acceptance. The extent to which performance risk and financial risk impact perceived usefulness was found to be moderated by the three contextual characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors should deliberately be considered in the development of m-commerce applications, and in which different application contexts they matter.

The rapid growth of the Chinese tourism has stimulated competition within tourismrelated industries, such as the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese consumer reaction to different promotional tools used by hotels in China and, thus, to provide a deeper understanding for marketers of how to use sales promotion effectively to generate appropriate consumer responses. An experimental survey was administered yielding a total sample of 319 Chinese customers, who were probed using different types of sales promotion tools. Data analysis indicates that bonus packs (e.g. a 3-night stay at a hotel for the price of 2) induced the highest consumer perceived value, brand switching, and purchase acceleration intention, whereas price discounts resulted in the highest intention to spend more. Although this study has its limitations given its reliance on a convenience sample, it offers insightful practical implications for hotel business owners in Asia regarding targeting the right customers with the right promotional tools, where it is proposed that bonus packs successfully attract new Chinese customers and price discounts support in generating more sales.

Organisations encourage shareholders to invest in the place and the place audience relies on place reputation when making investment decisions and product choices. Given the significance of the place branding and place heritage and building upon the evidence discussed, this research is one of the first attempts at collecting empirical evidence that seeks to prove that a favourable place branding and place branding heritage influence a favourable place image and favourable place reputation. This study aims to explore employees and visitors/consumers’ perceptions and practices regarding the place branding and the main factors that influence place branding suitability at a visitor/consumer/employee level. By achieving these objectives, it is expected that the investigation will add to current knowledge about the place branding and provide practical insights to managers and decision-makers. Based on the research objectives of this study, three overall research questions are: (i) What are the factors that influence place branding favourability, (ii) What are the main influences of place heritage favourability on favourable place branding?, and (iii) What are the main influences of place branding favourability on favourable place image and favourable place reputation? This research addresses the general goals: first, it explores the concept of the place branding and its dimensions. Second, it identifies the factors that are most likely to have a significance influence on the favourable place branding (antecedents of the favourable place branding). Third, it develops and empirically assesses a model concerning the relationships between favourable place branding, its antecedents and its consequences. Fourth, it examines the influence of the favourable place heritage on place branding. Finally, it investigates the impact of the favourable place branding on favourable place image and favourable place reputation (consequences of the favourable place branding). Despite the potentially significant role of the favourable place branding, little empirical research has examined how the favourable place branding exposes corporations and their members to far greater scrutiny. Creating a employee/consumer/visitor level model based on attribution theory demonstrates the issues retailers face in relation to place branding: (i) the association between the place branding concept and its elements that foster or discourage; (ii) its benefits or outcome for place; (iii) the relationships between other theoretically and empirically identified variables. In order to fill this gap in the academic literature, prior studies and the insights gained from current field research were reviewed. The model and various propositions developed thereafter, merit further study.

Research efforts to explain the buyer-seller transaction have evolved from economic utilitarian approaches to ones incorporating social and psychological approaches. Earlier research, for example, relied on transaction cost analysis to help and explain the firm’s engagement in business relationships with a focus on minimizing the direct and opportunity costs of exchange (Lambe, Wittmann, & Speckman, 2001; Rindfleisch & Heide, 1997). Transaction cost analysis, however, is limited in explaining many relationship-based exchanges, of longer terms in particular, that have become more recent business goals and strategies across industries. Such limitations motivated researchers to adopt social and psychological perspectives that could enrich explanations of the exchange relationship. Social exchange theory (hereafter, SET) is one such approach that has resulted in widespread applications in more recent marketing research (Lambe et al., 2001). In addition to economic outcomes of an exchange, SET allows marketers to model non-economic, social and psychological outcomes in understanding and predicting whether the exchange relationship will continue or not.

Construal Level Theory (CLT) has been explored and researched in many different contexts. In an academic setting, the areas of CLT in time (temporal distance), physical space (spatial distance), and interpersonal/social distance are frequently revisited for the implications they may and often do have. High-level construals are associated with abstract thinking, while low-level construals are associated with more concrete thinking (Trope & Liberman, 2010). In today’s media-saturated world, it is important to understand how the branded messages the world receives affect the cognition of society as a whole. This project aims to explore what role, if any, branding and/or product placement has in the cognitive and performance abilities for various tasks. This will be tested by utilizing branded products in a task-completion challenge and measuring through both task performance and collected survey data from participants. This project will focus on the construal levels of individuals and how the use of and/or the engagement with a socially proximal branded item will affect perceived spatial distance. A study from Van Kerckhove, Geuend, & Vermeir (2014) found that construal levels impact behaviors. The results of their 2014 published study showed that individuals with a high construal (i.e. they thought more abstractly) were linked to a strong inclination to look up, whereas when individuals had lower-level construals (i.e. thinking more concretely) they were more likely to have a behavior of looking down. This ties into their paper’s title quite nicely – “the floor is nearer than the sky” – in that looking down at what is perceivable and spatially proximal is less likely to be viewed as ambiguous or abstract.

Introduction The over population of wild and feral animals is increasing as an environmental problem in many parts of the world due the pressure on native flora and ecosystems. (BBC, 2013; Hall, 2015; Kaji, Saitoh, Uno, Matsuda, & Yamamura, 2010). Examples include deer in Northern Japan and Northeast USA, the urban fox in England, possums in New Zealand and the crown of thorns starfish in the Great Barrier Reef. This phenomenon is also happening in Australia. Recent news reports of huge kangaroo populations devastating grazing land in western Queensland (Arthur, 2015) and a spike in Koalas eating away their habitat in the Cape Otway area of Victoria (Paul, 2015) have highlighted this problem. While the overpopulation of koalas is causing environmental damage to natural gum trees, to the point that they will not regenerate, it is difficult to enforce population control because these animals hold such as positive place as an Australian symbolic animal. Hence, there is some controversy whether they should be culled by environment advocates as part of an ongoing population/environmental management program. To help facilitate appropriate wildlife management in light of the controversial environmental problems, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) play an essential role as a conduit between government and local citizens. For example, Australian Koala Foundation contributes to the conservation and management of the wild Koala through conducting strategic research for Koala management, conservation and community education in Australia (Australian Koala Foundation, 2015). However, NGOs are currently faced with challenges, such as acquisition of funds to support such work and gathering supporters for volunteer activities. This is because the competitiveness in the not-for-profit-sector has intensified due to an increase in the number of NGOs and oligopoly of donation share by high-profile NGOs (Foster & Fine, 2007; Sunder, 2015). To deal with these challenges NGO’s are resorting to more commercial types of marketing communications such as the use of celebrity endorsement or using celebrities as spokespeople. Although using celebrities as spokespeople for the NGO sector has become a common advertising strategy (De los Salmones, Dominguez, & Herrero, 2013; Wheeler, 2009), research into what kind of characteristics of spokesperson would lead effectively to change customer's attitude and behavioural intentions is limited. This celebrity/cause match is especially important for many environmental NGOs who have to deal with controversial environmental problems (e.g. wildlife management for overpopulated animals). This research examines the differences between the relevant expertise and perceived attractiveness of the celebrity spokesperson and its effect on the public’s perception of trustworthiness of the NGO. As the role of the celebrity spokesperson to encourage the public’s intentions to donate increases another issue arises: can the same strategy be used to solicit the donation of time (by volunteers)? This latter dilemma is something that is rarely experienced in the for-profit or commercial sector. This study presents a conceptual model that may help to identify answers to these questions and will extend the current research on celebrity endorsement. It should also bring out new academic insights about the process of building source credibility and a detailed evaluation of the spokesperson’s role in creating a two dimensional approach to behavioural intentions. Literature review Celebrity endorsement is a common advertising technique used by many organisations to build an association between a well-known and well-liked personality and the company’s brand in order to increase consumer’s awareness and liking for the brand (Spry, Pappu, & Bettina Cornwell, 2011). By utilizing the endorsement of a celebrity spokesperson, the product/service, band and/or company is able to leverage the positive attributes and characteristics of the spokesperson to the advantage of that product, band and/or company image (Erdogan, 1999; Ohanian, 1990). Recently, this strategy of utilizing celebrities as credible spokespeople has been adopted by many socially purposed organisations and NGOs (De los Salmones, et al., 2013; Samman, Auliffe, & MacLachlan, 2009; Wheeler, 2009). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the spokesperson, source credibility is used as a key measure. The source credibility is defined as ‘a communicator's positive characteristics that affect the receiver's acceptance of a message’ (Ohanian, 1990, p. 41). The concept of source credibility has been established through the development of two important models: source credibility model and source attractiveness model. The source credibility model, proposed by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953), suggests that the effectiveness of a message depends on perceived level of expertise and trustworthiness in an endorser (Erdogan, 1999). Hovland, et al. (1953) analyze the factors which lead to the perceived credibility of the spokesperson and defined that two essential items of source credibility namely, expertise and trustworthiness. Moreover, the source attractiveness model, takes a social psychological perspective (McGuire, 1985) and is defined as another important factor that is likely to affect customers’ perception of the brand. The source attractiveness model explains that the effectiveness of a message depends on source's 'familiarity', 'likability', 'similarity', and 'attractiveness' to the respondent (Erdogan, 1999). This model brings about the idea that attractiveness is also a factor determining source credibility. Ohanian (1990) combines these two models and defines the construct of endorser source credibility as consisting of three sub-dimension items (i.e. expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness). By adopting the source credibility model, researchers have studied the effects of spokesperson on customer's attitudes and behavioural intentions in various research settings and conditions (Amos, Holmes, & Strutton, 2008; Erdogan, 1999; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999; Ohanian, 1991). However, a comprehensive review of the literature reveals that some gaps still exist in the work that has been undertaken in this field. Firstly, rather than source credibility consisting of three independent variables (expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) Busch and Wilson (1976) and Johnson and Grayson (2005) suggest that for trust building within service marketing and sales research, the constructs of expertise and attractiveness are regarded as antecedent factors of trustworthiness. This approach has not been used in research into celebrity endorsement. Secondly, although most studies have dealt with concept of behavioural intentions as a unidimensional concept, this unidimensional way could make the actual effects of spokesperson unclear because different behavioural intentions may hold different meanings, for different potential sponsors resulting in different forms of donation. In service quality research Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1996) confirm that different types of service quality may influence differently any one of five different behavioural intentions (i.e. loyalty, switch, pay more, external response, and internal response). Thus, different types of celebrity endorser (expert or attractive) could also influence different types of behavioural intentions. For example the attributes of celebrity endorser may have an influence on whether someone would be more inclined to donate money, to donate time (volunteer for the organisation), and/or spread positive word of mouth. Conceptual framework & hypotheses development Although this study investigates the effects of the various combinations of endorser's characteristics on customer’s attitudes and behavioural intentions, research shows that different endorser’s characteristics do affect different customer attitudes and behaviour (Eisend & Langner, 2010; Lord & Putrevu, 2009). Lord and Putrevu (2009) find that attractiveness drives customer's behavioural intentions when customer's motivation is transformational (i.e. affective), whereas expertise and trustworthiness are influential when their motivation is informational (i.e. cognitive). Eisend and Langner (2010) reveal that attractiveness is a determinant of positive customer attitudes in the immediate condition (i.e. ad effects after just 60 seconds), whereas expertise is effective in the delayed condition (i.e. ad effects after one or three days). They also found that a high-expertise and high-attractiveness endorser is particularly effective towards customer attitudes in both conditions. Thus, considering the different effects on customer’s attitudes by different endorser’s characteristics our research objective is to examine which type of spokesperson is more effective in influencing a customer's attitudes and behavioural intentions for NGOs dealing with controversial environmental problems. In addition to solving the research objective, the research will also fill the research gaps indicated through the literature review. Our model (See Figure 1) shows that both the expertise and attractiveness of a celebrity spokesperson will lead to consumers’ perception of the trustworthiness of that spokesperson. Considering the insights from the perspective of trust building processes in the services marketing and sales literature, the celebrity’s expertise and/or attractiveness as antecedent factors of trustworthiness should also have an effect on organisation credibility through trustworthiness as a mediator. Moreover, we propose that the effects of a spokesperson’s expertise and/or attractiveness will influence differently the organisational credibility depending on the level of issue controversy they deal with. For example, Wheeler (2009) found that a celebrity endorser that showed a logical connection with the organisation increased organisational credibility and behavioural intentions. Therefore it is expected that for an environmental NGO that has to deal with controversial issues (such as reducing numbers of animals in habitats under stress from overgrazing) an expert spokesperson may well be a better fit and gain more trust and therefore more credibility for the organisation than an attractive one. However, where the issue the spokesperson is dealing with is not controversial this pattern may well reverse with an attractive celebrity being the more effective spokesperson. From this point of view, the level of issue controversy that the NGO deals with is hypothesized as a moderator between both expertise and attractiveness and trustworthiness. The customer’s perception of both the trustworthiness/credibility of the celebrity chosen as spokesperson and the credibility of the organisation will influence their (the customer’s) attitudes toward the organisation. In the model we follow Amos, et al. (2008) and Erdogan (1999) in asserting that positive organisational credibility will positively influence attitudes toward the firm. From the view that a unidimensional behavioural intention could make actual outcomes unclear, three behavioural intentions (i.e. donation of time, donation of money, word of mouth) options are proposed. This distinction is especially important when considering that many NGOs unlike for-profit organisations have a need to both increase financial resources and human resources. The NGO/celebrity endorser conceptual model is presented in figure 1. Conclusion & future research direction The conceptual model developed in this study research has implications for both academics and managers. Firstly, as an academic contribution, the idea that expertise and attractiveness contributes to trustworthiness, which is reported in trust building in service marketing, should raise new considerations about source credibility building process in celebrity endorsement research. Moreover, the moderating influence of the degree of controversy will play an important part in that relationship, especially for NGOs having to deal with controversial issues such as culling wildlife to protect the environment. The approach that multiple types of behavioural intentions are important outcomes may also enable a more detailed evaluation of the effects of celebrity spokespeople. The interactions between spokesperson characteristics (e.g. expertise, attractiveness) and the three behavioural intentions should be further investigated within the celebrity endorser field of research. Secondly, since the literature which evaluates the effect of celebrity endorsement for NGOs in the context of controversial social issues has been still under-researched, the outcomes of this research will be valuable for most NGO managers struggling with same issues. Moreover, by applying multiple behavioural intentions, more detailed insights how to increase each behavioural intention (i.e. donation of money, donation of time, positive word of mouth) through assigning different spokesperson with different characteristics (i.e. attractiveness and expertise) may enable NGOs to more flexible in assigning a suitable spokesperson. The characteristics of the spokesperson may need to change depending on the resource acquisition requirements the NGO has at that time. Hence, this research will provide meaningful insights from the both academic and managerial perspectives. As a future research direction, in order to validate this conceptual model it is suggested that a between subjects experiment be conducted. The experiment could consist of a scenario whereby a spokesperson is trying to gain public support for the activities of an environmental NGO. Here one could manipulate the expertise (high vs low) and the attractiveness (high vs low) of the spokesperson and the message (controversial vs non-controversial) to establish if differences in the spokesperson characteristics would have an effect on the different behavioural intentions of the respondents.

Based on the reciprocity theory, a dynamic reciprocal behavior model is verified by sampling the US and French group tourists in Tibet. Result shows that the US group tourists have only negative reciprocity, and French ones have both positive and negative reciprocity, indicating that tourists are more willing to sacrifice their interests to revenge hostile persons.

As social media platforms (e.g., Facebook) and related online communication channels (e.g., review websites and community forums) grow in quantity and commercial orientation, marketing practitioners and scholars alike have recognised the importance of understanding and influencing online consumer communication processes. Specifically, it is suggested that online opinion leaders (‘Epinion leaders’) can be utilised as a target group to manage negative e-word-of-mouth (‘e-WOM’) and e-complaints. This study identifies and targets Epinion leaders and explores three central personality characteristics – altruism, self-confidence and the need for uniqueness – as a means of understanding Epinion leaders’ motivations to communication and tailoring corporate communication campaigns. The study focusses herby on the rapidly growing and increasingly influential 50-years+ e-commerce segment (i.e., ‘silver surfers’). Based on an online survey of 1,700 e-consumers aged 50 years and older, the proposed structural equation model verifies the positive influence of Epinion leadership on the propensity to spread negative e-WOM and e-complaints while demonstrating the applicability of personality characteristics as means of influencing consumers’ online communication strategies. The findings demonstrate that addressing consumers’ self-confidence can be an essential way of reducing negative e-WOM and encouraging e-complaints, which show opposing effects on customer satisfaction. For practitioners, this study emphasises the usefulness of negative Epinion leaders as a target group and recommends fostering consumers’ self-confidence in order to prevent negative online opinion-cascades and increase overall satisfaction.

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.

In today’s global marketplace, few consumers would bat an eye at a Central European retailer selling products manufactured in the US from raw materials purchased in Asia and Africa. Recently, Finnish connoisseurs of local craft beer were shocked to discover that even their local microbreweries were getting in on the act, albeit somewhat involuntarily. Strict regulations that govern the sale of alcoholic beverages in Finland essentially prevent the smallest breweries from distributing their products in the local market. Ironically, the only way for these small businesses to reach their local customers is through internationalization – setting up an online store across the border and serving the Finnish market from abroad. Drawing on the context of alcohol policy in Finland as an illustrative example, this study demonstrates how global markets can offer small businesses a way to counter unfavorable or discriminative local public policy. The study also illustrates the potential impact that businesses can have on policy by drawing public attention to its shortcomings, and offers implications for practitioners by highlighting the importance of thorough evaluation of policies for possible inconsistencies and outlining possible indicators that such inconsistencies may be present.

Reverberation is a cue to manipulate psychological distance and an acoustic parameter often used in the sound design of commercials. Prior research has demonstrated that psychological distance increases the relative weight people place on decontextualized, and aggregate (statistics) versus individualized, context-specific (testimony) information. In the present study we investigated whether reverberation that is added to an announcer’s voice can affect consumers‘ information processing. Participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to listen to product information about a sleeping pill with or without added reverberation. As hypothesized, participants increasingly relied on statistical product information as compared to testimonial product information when reverberation was added to the announcer’s voice. This effect influenced product evaluation, willingness to pay, and product choice. The results suggest that reverberation can affect consumer’s cognition and extend its functionality beyond mere aesthetics.

Black Friday (BF) is the day after Thanksgiving when U.S. retailers offer “doorbuster” promotions. BF shopping has become a tradition for 48.5% of U.S. shoppers and their families (NRF, 2015). However, BF has a dark side gaining notoriety as shoppers compete for bargains, even at others’ expense. Many incidents of consumer misbehavior (CMB) have been reported: fighting, pepper-spraying, and throwing oneself on desired products to keep other shoppers at bay (Black Friday violence, 2011; Lisa, 2015). BF promotions have expanded outside the U.S. to the U.K.; related CMB (e.g., fighting) was reported in several U.K. locations (“Black Friday,” 2014). Using an online experiment, this study investigated antecedents to CMB from a psychological perspective. Specifically this study examined (1) how positive and negative emotion evoked on BF as a result of varying levels of goal blockage impacts CMB; (2) how personality traits such as self-control and public self-consciousness impact and moderate the relationship between negative emotions evoked on BF and CMB; and (3) how women and men differ in terms of antecedents driving BF CMB and the role personality traits play in impacting CMB. 576 BF shoppers completed the experiment; 411 (M=129, F=282) had shopped in stores on BF were included in analyses. Mean age was 25.8 (SD=8.2) and over half had shopped in stores and online on BF. All scales had adequate reliabilities and EFA confirmed the dimensionality of the original scales. Two emotion factors were named anger and thrill. To assess CMB, shoppers indicated the extent to which they engaged in a series of misbehaviors on BF. A second measure of misbehavior, dysfunctional severity of one’s behavior, evaluated the extent to which one’s own behavior on BF was unacceptable and inappropriate. Multi-group path analysis was used to analyze the data. Results found a significant difference between the sexes (Δdf= 8, Δχ2=32.48, p < .0001), suggesting that women and men do differ in the personality traits impacting CMB. To determine specific paths that differ between the sexes, a series of the χ2 difference tests were performed by imposing equality constraints on each of the path coefficients. The χ2 difference tests showed that women and men significantly differed in four paths; (1) how anger impacted dysfunctional severity (2) how self-control moderated the relationship between anger and CMB, (3) how public self-consciousness moderated the relationship between anger and CMB and (4) how public self-consciousness impacted CMB. For both sexes, both negative emotion such as anger and positive emotion such as thrill led to CMB. Additionally, dysfunctional severity had a positive influence on CMB for both women and men. However different personality traits moderated how anger impacted CMB. For women, public self-consciousness had a direct positive and moderating effect on CMB. When women experienced a mild level of anger, public self-consciousness appears to suppress CMB. However contrary to common beliefs that public self-consciousness may help manage behavior in public, after a certain threshold in terms of the intensity of anger, public self-consciousness had an opposite effect in women. High public women exhibited more CMB than low public women. Public self-consciousness had no direct or moderating effect on men. For men, self-control had a direct, indirect and moderating effect on CMB. In the context of intense anger, men with higher self-control exhibited less CMB than those with low self-control. Self-control also had an indirect effect on CMB by mitigating dysfunctional severity. For women, self-control had no impact on CMB. BF is part of the U.S. Thanksgiving tradition and has been adopted in other countries to kick off the holiday shopping season. Extreme deals (doorbusters) and heightened consumer anticipation as a result of such promotions have led to incidents CMB on BF (Lisa, 2015). With observations of CMB on BF across different countries and extant research findings about the role of emotion on CMB (Bedi & Schat, 2007), this study revealed (1) emotion as a motivator for CMB, (2) that personality traits moderated the impact of emotion on CMB, and (3) differences exist in these relationships between women and men. Both negative (anger) and positive emotion (thrill) led both sexes to misbehave on BF. Whereas most media highlight how angry customers misbehave on BF, positive emotion also contributes to CMB on BF. How personality traits moderated the relationship between anger and CMB significantly differed between the sexes. For women, public self-consciousness mattered, whereas self-control mattered to men in moderating the effect of anger on CMB. The findings of this research shed new light on CMB on BF and also give new insights into the CMB literature. Prior CMB research often assumed that the sexes behave similarly. This research provides empirical evidence that women and men are indeed different in how personality moderates the effect of anger on CMB. Future research is needed to determine the level of anger and public self-consciousness that lead to CMB for women.

Increasing consumer scepticism about corporate behaviour has led companies to actively manage and advertise their corporate brands. However, it remains unclear how receptive consumers across different markets have been to such efforts. This study examines (i) consumer involvement (a motivational state activated by personal relevance of a stimuli) levels and (ii) processes with corporate advertising to demonstrate differences and similarities with product advertising across multiple markets. Using between subject experimental design, the study was conducted across three different markets with varying degrees of economic development i.e. USA (n = 285), France (n = 217) and Pakistan (n=311). Results demonstrate that consumer involvement levels with corporate advertising is higher in USA than in France and Pakistan. American consumers tend to be involved with corporate advertising as much as they are with product advertising, whereas, French and Pakistani consumers are more involved with product advertising. Apart from differences in involvement levels, study findings demonstrate substantial similarities in involvement processing and how they impact ad attitude and consumers’ behaviour across both the markets. The study holds importance for corporate communication and product managers with cross national responsibilities as it establishes differences and similarities for corporate and product ad involvement across developed and emerging markets.

Introduction Shorter innovation cycles, the huge cost of R&D and dearth of resources compel firms to search for new innovation sources (Gassmann and Enkel 2004). Current research argues that firms need to open up their solid boundaries and seek valuable knowledge from external partners so that firms can extend the innovation function beyond their four walls (Chesbrough 2003). In this context past research has identified universities, or higher education institutions (HEIs) as an important source of innovation (e.g., Lambert 2003). Indeed, universities undertake a “third mission” in addition to their core mission of research and teaching, by focusing on “technology transfer” that engages in the process of the commercialization of science (Etzkowitz et al. 2000). Thus, firms can take huge advantages through the collaboration with universities. While relationships between firms have the risk of opportunism embedded in them, support provided by universities are hard to imitate by competitors due to the novelty and uniqueness in the ideas they provide their partner firms. Despite this important role that universities play, no systematic theoretical treatment has been attempted in academia. Ironically, university and industry links have been studied much less frequently and have been valued lesser than other sources (e.g., suppliers and customers) in terms of knowledge transfer for firm innovation (Hughes 2011). Extant research examines collaborations between universities and firms using simple descriptive analysis (e.g., Laursen and Salter 2004) and illustrates the relationship with anecdotal evidence (e.g., Cosh and Hughes 2010). Thus, extant literature provides little-to-no empirical evidence regarding firm performance, such as a firm’s innovation outcomes, when the firms are supported by universities. Our broad-based investigation makes several key contributions. First, our study is the first to demonstrate empirically what types of HEIs’ activities enhance a firm’s innovation outcomes. Because the two different types of HEI activities have different features, it helps us get a more precise understanding of which specific type of HEI-supported activity influences which firm innovation outcome. Second, our research finds that a firm’s absorptive capacity influences the relationship between HEI-supported activities and a firm’s innovation outcomes. This finding helps to identify how firm capability to absorb outside knowledge influences the relationship of HEIs’ involvement on a firm’s innovation outcomes. Conceptual Framework The most frequent form of a firm’s interaction with universities is people-based activities (Hughes 2011). Universities transfer knowledge through people-related activities such as conferences, special lectures, education programs, and social networks supporting firm innovation. Such people-based activities can influence firm innovation performance. People-based activities involve the activities conducting by firms to increase their business competitiveness. Since a firm’s employees are key to discovering new products and processes, special training programs provided by universities will help supplementing knowledge towards specific firm innovation outcomes. Additionally, other people-related activities such as placing university staff on a firm’s board of directors can also encourage exchange of knowledge and information resulting in cutting-edge new product and process innovation. Tether and Tajar (2008) found that firms that have participated in professional meetings or conferences held by HEIs have a better chance of surpassing their current innovation performance. A firm can improve its innovation performance by making human assets supported by its partners. As partners work together, this helps increasing work efficiency by improving communication, knowledge sharing, and their relative capacity to absorb knowledge for innovation. Research suggests that universities may have lower barriers to engagement with firms by removing bureaucracy, lowering transaction costs and speeding up reaction times (Mateos-Garcia and Sapsed 2011). Therefore, universities have an important role in transferring new knowledge through people-based activities, resulting in new products and processes for the firm. Thus, we hypothesize as follows: Hypothesis 1A (H1A). A firm’s people-based activities with HEIs are positively related to the introduction of new products in the firm. Hypothesis 1B (H1B). A firm’s people-based activities with HEIs are positively related to the introduction of new processes in the firm. Universities have a distinct role in affecting a firm’s innovation performance through problem-solving activities. Firms that acquire knowledge from universities improve their competitive position that helps firm acquire a competitive advantage over other firms that do not collaborate with universities (Gassmann and Enkel 2004). Universities provide problem-solving activities such as joint research, contract research, consulting services, informal advice and provision of access to specialized instrumentation, equipment or materials and of product prototyping. For example, in 2009, US firms sponsored more than $4 billion worth of university research (Kurman 2011), as a result of which U.S. universities own nearly one-quarter of new U.S. patents in the fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Thus, firms that collaborate with universities can achieve cutting-edge product and process innovation (Kurman 2011). Hosting workshops and performing joint research with universities are core problem-solving activities. For example, IBM, one of the most successful and established enterprises in the IT market, hosted 350 workshops per year and has had 50-100 ongoing research projects with universities, helping IBM to successfully launch new products into the market (Gassmann and Enkel 2004). Further, firms can also integrate partners (i.e., HEIs) to combine their different competencies to enrich their own innovation process (Gassmann and Enkel 2004). Based on the above, we hypothesize as follows:Hypothesis 2A (H2A). A firm’s problem-solving activities with HEIs are positively related to the introduction of new products. Hypothesis 2B (H2B). A firm’s problem-solving activities with HEIs are positively related to the introduction of new processes. Shorter time-to-market strategies, increasing R&D costs and a dearth of resources cause firms to search for new innovation strategies. This phenomenon is reinforced by a rapid churn in technology and customer demands. In this competitive environment, HEIs’ involvement is increasingly important for a firm’s innovation success because integrating external sources of knowledge from HEIs can result in major advantages for firms (Rappert et al. 1999). Further, people-based and problem-solving activities supported by HEIs do not replace a firm’s internal innovation activities and, as a result, the firm undertakes a great deal of its own innovation activities. Also, scholars argue that collaboration with other partners does not always provide better innovation performance because of the lack of a firm’s capability to processing valuable knowledge from the outside partners (Cohen and Levinthal 1990). This indicates that the mere acquisition and exploitation of knowledge from universities do not guarantee successful firm innovation outcomes. To create successful firm innovation, the firm should possess absorptive capacity, which is the learning capability to processing knowledge acquired from the HEIs into their internal work. Thus, firms can be expected to invest in their absorptive capacity in this situation (Tether and Tajar 2008). Further, Keller (1996) argues that successful R&D spillover (i.e., absorptive capacity) effects are dependent on the activities of human capital (i.e., people-based activities). Also, Cohen and Levinthal (1990) argue that firms can increase their absorptive capacity directly, as when they send personnel for advance technical training (i.e., people-based activities). Further, Kim (1998) argues that absorptive capacity is the major factor in developing problem-solving skills that allow a firm to create new knowledge that influences firm innovation performance. As such, absorptive capacity stresses the internal capability to acquire and assimilate outside knowledge into a firm while HEIs’ involvement is a resource that is created by external source enhancing a firm’s innovation outcomes. Therefore, identifying the role of absorptive capacity is a useful tool to explain the relationship of HEIs’ people-based activities and problem-solving activities on firm innovation performance. However, Nooteboom and colleagues (2007, pp. 1031) argue that “while there may be increasing returns in absorptive capacity, improving the general ability to understand and appreciate novelty value in collaboration, there are decreasing returns to knowledge in finding further novelty: the more one knows the further away one has to look for novelty.” This indicates that too much absorptive capacity in a firm negatively affects the impact of people-based activities on a firm’s innovation performance. While people attending conferences or lectures supported by universities may acquire novel knowledge that can influence a firm’s innovation performance, their activities may have negative impact on a firm’s innovation outcomes when a firm has greater absorptive capacity, due to diminishing impact of a firm’s absorptive capacity to create novel idea. Extant research suggests that the greater a firm’s absorptive capacity, the lesser the firm can find further novelty (Noteboom et al. 2007), which suggests that absorptive capacity makes firm innovation activities less efficient. Based on the above discussion, we hypothesize as follows:Hypothesis 3A (H3A). People-based activities with HEIs positively related to the introduction of new products and/or processes will become weaker at a higher level of absorptive capacity. Hypothesis 3B (H3B). People-based activities with HEIs positively related to new product radicalness will become weaker at a higher level of absorptive capacity. Hypothesis 4A (H4A). Problem-solving activities with HEIs positively related to the introduction of new products and/or processes will become stronger at a higher level of absorptive capacity. Hypothesis 4B (H4B). Problem-solving activities with HEIs positively related to new product radicalness will become stronger at a higher level of absorptive capacity. Methods We test the hypotheses presented across two studies. The purpose of Study 1 is to validate our prediction about how HEI activities affect firm innovation performance (H1A to H2B). Study 2 expands this initial research frame by validating the moderating effects of a firm’s absorptive capacity on firm innovation outcomes (H3A to H4B). Implications There is an argument to transfer knowledge from HEIs to firms due to the cultural differences between them (Lambert 2003). Nevertheless, universities are playing an increasingly strategic role in stimulating innovation in firms though the transfer of technology (Hughes 2011). Scholars have largely disregarded the more specific activities performed by HEIs such as people-based and problem-solving activities. Little attention has been paid to how people-based and problem-solving activities affect firm innovation performance. Further, firm innovation outcomes can be affected differently by some specific HEI activities because each activity supported by HEIs plays a different role in impacting certain types of firm innovation outcomes. Based on our results, problem-solving activities are related to new product innovation while people-based activities are related to new process innovation. Additionally, absorptive capacity had a negative moderating effect with people based activities and a positive moderating effect with problem solving activities on a firm’s innovation outcomes. This is important to theoretical and practical implications because a firm is able to know which activities are required to improve their new product or process innovation. This leads a firm to save huge costs to achieve successful innovation.

Due to the widening social gap, creation of social acceptability has become a key factor of success in luxury brand-building for automotive companies. We develop and apply an acceptability scale in the context of luxury cars. The empirical results confirm strong influences of brand associations, socio-demographic characteristics and materialistic preferences.

Retail therapy occurs when consumers shop to improve negative feelings rather than merely acquire a needed product (Kang & Johnson, 2011). Retailers in all channels enable consumers to have positive emotional responses by providing them with positive experiences. Pine and Gilmore (1999) identified four types of experiences sought by consumers: entertainment, education, escapism, and esthetics (i.e., 4Es). It is not known which, if any, of the 4Es motivate offline and online retail therapy shopping trips. Retail therapy shoppers may seek different benefits in open, online stores (where they have a great deal of freedom) versus closed, brick-and-mortar stores (where they are limited by time and space) (Bhate & Hannam, 2014). When retail therapy shoppers have experiences they desire, they should experience positive emotional reactions (i.e., pleasure, arousal) (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). Furthermore, consumers who experience positive emotional reactions tend to display impulse buying behavior (Chang, Eckman, & Yan, 2011). Engaging in impulse buying while retail therapy shopping may encourage compulsive buying behavior (Kang & Johnson, 2011), the most severe form of which is shopping addiction (Edwards, 1993). Based on this collection of previous research, the following hypotheses were developed: H1: Among retail therapy shoppers, the amount of a) entertainment b) education, c) escapism, and d) esthetics sought will be significantly different between 1) offline stores and 2) online stores. H2: Retail therapy behavior will be positively related to level of a) pleasure and b) arousal experienced while shopping. H3a: Level of pleasure experienced while shopping will be positively related to impulse buying behavior. H3b. Level of arousal experienced while shopping will be positively related to impulse buying behavior. H4: Among retail therapy shoppers, impulse buying behavior will be positively related to shopping addiction behavior.Method Using Amazon’s MTurk, 409 consumers (62.6% female; 72.0% Caucasian; 36.5% 30-39 years old) were recruited for an online survey. Participants were first asked to indicate if they had experience shopping for clothing to improve their mood. Clothing was selected as the focus of the study because it is a gender-neutral product frequently purchased during retail therapy (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). Only participants who had engaged in retail therapy behavior were asked to complete the rest of the questionnaire. The next five sections of the questionnaire contained multi-item, 7-point, Likert-type scales previously used to assess the variables in the study. Demographic information was also collected. Results To test H1, a series of t-tests was conducted to compare the benefits sought by retail therapy shoppers in open and closed settings. The means for each of the 4 Es were significantly greater for the closed setting of the store than the open setting of the website. Therefore, H1 was supported. Two regression models were created to test H2a and b. The coefficients for retail therapy were positively and significantly related to pleasure (β = .87; t = 35.70; p < 0.000) and arousal (β = .85; t = 32.52; p < 0.00). Thus, H2a and b were both supported. To examine H3a and b, another regression model was created. The coefficients for pleasure (β = .25; t = 4.51; p < 0.00) and arousal (β = .64; t = 11.69; p < 0.00) were positive and significant. Thus, H3a and H3b were both supported. Lastly, to test H4, a final regression model was created. The coefficient for impulse buying behavior (β = .93; t = 51.49; p < 0.00) was positive and significant, supporting H4. Discussion The results of the present study shed light on retail therapy shopping behavior. Consumers do seek the 4Es when therapeutically shopping for clothing, and they seek the 4Es to a greater degree in closed, offline environments. Perhaps the need to delay gratification in offline stores raises expectations of experiences that can be received immediately in online stores. Participants experienced pleasure and arousal when engaging in retail therapy behavior, thereby supporting researchers (Kang & Johnson, 2011) who conceptualized retail therapy behavior as mood-alleviative consumption behavior. The positive emotions experienced while clothing shopping were related to retail therapy shoppers’ impulse buying behavior, which was positively related to shopping addiction. The success experienced by individuals who engage in shopping behavior to improve their mood seems to encourage future shopping trips to enhance positive emotions. Thus, a troubling pattern of overconsumption may develop if retail therapy shoppers do not find additional methods for mood-alleviation.

The concept of retail therapy which refers to “the phenomenon in which consumers buy things to make themselves feel better” (Kacen, 1998) has been used by the U.S. retail firms in marketing (Kang & Johnson, 2010). Previous studies found that retail therapy concept was associated to consumption behaviors including compulsive buying (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992; O’Guinn & Faber, 1989). Frost et al. (1998) found that compulsive hoarders show compulsive buying tendencies. O’Guinn and Faber (1989) found that compulsive buyers are more likely to confirm compulsivity as a personality trait with a low self-esteem. Lack of research into association of retail therapy to compulsive consumer behaviors motivated us to pursue this study which investigate relationships among retail therapy, compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding, and to examine the moderating effect of consumers’ personality traits on the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding. Our research questions are: (1) How retail therapy is related to compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding? and (2) Which personality traits moderate the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding? Based on the literature review, the following hypotheses were proposed. H1: Retail therapy is positively related to compulsive buying; H2: Compulsive buying is positively related to compulsive hoarding; H3: Retail therapy is positively related to compulsive hoarding & H4: Personality trait moderates the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding. The researchers used 12 items to measure retail therapy (Kang, 2009), 6 items to measure compulsive buying (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992), 9 items to measure compulsive hoarding (Frost, Sketekee, & Grisham, 2004) 8 items of Big Five Inventory (Rammstedt & John, 2007) and 15 item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) (Ames, Rose & Anderson, 2006) to measure personality trait based on 7‑point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The online survey was conducted with college students enrolled at a major Midwestern University. A total of 354 undergraduate and graduate students’ responses were used to analyze data. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to evaluate the measurement of each construct. The factor loadings were above of 0.60, indicating acceptable convergent validity. Reliabilities with Cronbach’s alphas for retail therapy,compulsive buying, compulsive hoarding and personality trait construct were 0.96, 0.81, 0.90 and 0.81 respectively, exceeding the suggested level of 0.70. Simple linear regression was performed to test hypotheses. The results revealed that F statistic (F(1, 352)=126.53, p =.000) was significant and regression coefficient was statistically significant. Therefore, H1 was supported and consistent with previous findings (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992). The regression coefficient for the path from compulsive buying to compulsive hoarding was statistically significant (F(1, 352)=77.15, p=.000). Therefore, H2 was supported and consistent with Frost et al. (1998)’s study. The retail therapy contributed significantly to the prediction of compulsive hoarding with the statistically significant regression results (F(1, 352)=20.28, p=.000), supporting H3. From the principle component analysis with varimax rotation, four factors were extracted from 23 personality trait measurement items which are labeled as “authority-leadership narcissism”, “self-esteem narcissism”, “positive disposition”, and “negative disposition”. All factor loadings were above 0.60 for their respective factors. Then, the researchers divided one single group into four personality trait groups, using these four factors. 4%, 27.1%, 53.7% & 15.3% participants represented “authority-leadership narcissism”, “self-esteem narcissism”, “positive disposition” & “negative disposition” group respectively. Simple regression analysis was performed to test H4. The regression coefficients for positive disposition group (F(1, 188)=13.19, p=.000) and negative disposition group (F(1, 52)=5.01, p≤.05) were statistically significant. H4 was partially supported. The results indicated that people from two groups characterized by positive/negative personality tend to engage in compulsive hoarding to alleviate their negative feelings or mood. Anyone with narcissistic personality with a high self-efficacy may not be engaged in compulsive hoarding even when a therapeutic treatment is made through shopping. They tend to purchase products for changing their moods, but their therapeutic behavior doesn’t lead to compulsive hoarding, which causes sufferings in the end. The low self-esteem has been presented with people being engaged in compulsive behaviors (Marlatt et al., 1988). These findings can help apparel marketers develop the strategies to upgrade their sellingenvironment entertaining so that their customers’ moods are repaired and customers feel satisfied through therapeutic shopping behavior. This study has a limitation that prevents us from generalizing the results to the young consumer population due to sample size to college students.

Brand equity, “the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand” (Keller, 1993, p. 1), is at the heart of competition in the luxury goods market (Keller, 2009). While firms competing in this segment have come up with sophisticated ways to build brand equity, they are currently challenged by the increasing importance of the internet in consumers’ journeys (Kapferer & Bastien, 2012; Okonkwo, 2009). With online sales of luxury goods showing a twelvefold increase over the past 11 years (D’Arpizio et al., 2014), it is evident that luxury brands have to be present somehow in the digital environment today (Heine & Berghaus, 2014). The strategic purposes, business potentials, and consequences for brand equity of this presence, however, are still largely unexplored and remain a paradoxical topic. As a luxury brand’s website is the brand’s most valuable digital asset (Heine & Berghaus, 2014) and as there appears to be a consensus that luxury brands can use their websites to present their products in the digital environment, at least for purposes of communication, the question arises which products are most suitable for reinforcing the brand’s image. The roles a luxury brand’s products can play in relation to brand management can be classified between four poles spanning two dimensions, which this research terms ‘accessibility’ and ‘contemporariness’, in relation to Kapferer and Bastien’s (2012) luxury brand architecture map. Empirical evidence of these dimensions is, nevertheless, scarce, and yet no prior research has investigated these product roles in an e-commerce setting. The current study develops a model to test how an online purchase option and the contemporariness as well as the accessibility of the product assortment offered on the websites of luxury brands affect specific brand equity dimensions of luxury brands. Data of a 2x2x2-online scenario experiment were analyzed, showing that prestige and uniqueness value are non-significantly affected by offering an online purchase option, while functional value increases significantly. Regarding the displayed product assortment, the brand equity dimensions of functionality, prestige, and uniqueness are found to be significantly affected by the inaccessibility of the products, while their contemporariness elicits significant changes in uniqueness value. The study also assesses the mediating role of the brand attributes of availability, price premium, aesthetics, and innovativeness, as well as the moderating role of consumers’ prior brand ownership, for these effects.