Introduction In the context of online interactions, social media has becoming a crucial part of people‟s everyday lives, where they converge to exchange, debate, communicate and participate in any form of social interaction (Ryan & Jones, 2009). They post and share new content but also review and rate products/services and/or brands, share experiences and expertise and exchange opinions (Ryan & Jones, 2009). As a result, the growing popularity of social media, the competitors‟ presence on social networking sites and the cost reduction pressure derived from the financial crisis and consequent necessity to find cheaper solutions for brand promotion, motivated companies to use social media as part of their marketing and brand building activities (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014) and to create brand fan pages in different social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, among others. Due to this attractiveness, social media is becoming the media channel of choice across the world (Dong-Hun, 2010). However, traditional media still plays an important role for both consumers and marketers, being a central component of brands‟ communication strategies. Yet, several questions still remain unanswered regarding social media effectiveness and influence on consumer engagement. In the current study we intend that we intend to contribute to fulfil the second. Thus, the objective of the current study is to explore how brands create and maintain online relationships with consumers through their Websites, Facebook and Instagram brand pages . Theoretical development The concept of engagement was originally employed in different fields of study including psychology, sociology and organizational behaviour. Now is attracting marketers‟ attention especially in the field of relationship marketing (e.g., Brodie et al., 2011; Hollebeek, 2011). Accordingly, two central concepts consumer engagement and online brand engagement need to be defined. First, consumer engagement, refers to the intensity of a person‟s participation and connection with company‟s offerings and activities that can be initiated by the consumer or the organization (Vivek, Beatty, & Morgan, 2012). Online brand engagement, on the other hand, can be defined as a consumer‟s cognitive and affective commitment to partake in an active relationship with a brand on a website or other computer-mediated platform designed to communicate brand value (Mollen & Wilson, 2010). Online brand engagement measures how much and how frequently users interact with a firm‟s page and its social media content. When consumers make the effort to like, favourite or comment a brand‟s post, they are vigorously engaging with that content. Engagement metrics display audience action, an important feature for social media health and growth (Dunham, 2014). As social media provides numerous ways for users to get involved with organizations (Waters, Burnett, Lamm, & Lucas, 2009), marketers must find rightful strategies to nurture relationships with the public. Dialogue has been one of the topics under research by several scholars. Including this two-way form of communication is crucial to “understand how organizations can build relationships that serve both organizational and public interests” (Kent & Taylor, 2002: 21), thus several studies use dialogic communication to investigate the influence of online strategies for relationship building (Loureiro & Gomes, 2016). Three crucial strategies have been used in numerous studies (Waters et al., 2009; Loureiro & Gomes, 2016; Men & Tsai, 2012) to build and maintain relationships online: disclosure or openness, information dissemination, and interactivity and involvement. First, disclosure or openness refers to the companies‟ willingness to be transparent in their online communication activities. Waters et al. (2009) suggest that companies must provide information such as company‟s full description, its history and mission. Organizations should use hyperlinks connected to their websites and use logos and visual cues to enhance brand recognition. Information dissemination concerns posting photos and videos, announcements about products, as well as answering questions to address stakeholders‟ needs, concerns and interests (Men & Tsai, 2012; Loureiro & Gomes, 2016). Posting links to external news content related to the company and its business and including press releases and campaign summaries can maximize the impact of a company‟s online presence (Waters et al., 2009). Finally, interactivity and involvement can be seen as the most important strategy, out of the three, since it is essential to foster relationships with the public and represents one of the main advantages of using different social media platforms (Haigh, 2014). This strategy is often analysed as a whole, with no distinction between the two terms (Men & Tsai, 2012; Loureiro & Gomes, 2016) however, interactivity can be analysed separately from involvement according to research done by Haigh (2014). Involvement regards connecting with consumers. Providing information such as organizational contacts, giving users the ability to stay in touch with the company is one way to involve them. Interactivity, on the other hand, is often defined as “the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and content of the mediated environment in real time.” (Steuer, 1992: 84). When considering computer-mediated environments, Liu (2003) also studied interactivity, developing a scale to measure interactivity on websites. According to the study, interactivity should be defined as "the degree to which two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communication medium, and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized” (Liu & Shrum, 2002: 54) and three dimensions should be included when discussing this topic: active control, two-way communication and synchronicity. Active control regards users‟ capacity to voluntarily participate and usefully influence communications. Two-way communication concerns the bifacial flow of information. Synchronicity evaluates the speed of the interaction. This led to the definition of interactive communication: “communication that offers individuals active control and allows them to communicate both reciprocally and synchronously” (Liu, 2003: 208). Finally, human-to-content interactivity refers to the ability to contribute to the organizational online content by commenting on organizational posts and to reply to other users‟ posts. (Loureiro & Gomes, 2016; Men & Tsai, 2012). Thus, considering the above-mentioned, the following research question is proposed: RQ1: What strategies are Portuguese companies incorporating to create and maintain relationships with publics on their Websites, Facebook and Instagram pages? Research design We conducted an exploratory content analysis to investigate online relationship cultivation strategies by Portuguese brands (RQ1). Following Loureiro and Gomes (2016), first we retrieve a list of the 50 most valuable Portuguese brands of 2016 provided by Brand Finance, “…the world’s leading independent branded business valuation…” (The Brand Finance Group, 2016). This list is made with regards to the brand value (USD $ millions) and the brand rating in the year under analysis, therefore raking the top 50 Portuguese brands. Afterwards, from this initial sample of 50 companies, brands are analysed in terms of their presence in social media by verifying if they have an official website and brand fan Pages on Facebook Instagram. After examining their social media presence, the sample included 47 companies with a website, 28 companies with a Facebook page and 19 with an Instagram account. Pages without information or not maintained by the organisation were not considered. Coding categories used in this analysis are adapted from previous research (Waters et al., 2009; Men & Tsai, 2012; Haigh, 2014; Loureiro & Gomes, 2016). The categories coded are the same for Website, Facebook and Instagram pages. Based on Waters et al.‟s (2009) method for coding online relationship cultivation strategies, the website and social media pages are examined to identify the presence of items representing organizations‟ strategies of disclosure, information dissemination and involvement. The units of analysis are the website corporate profile page on Facebook and Instagram page. We evaluate whether each strategy and item occurred, hence categories are coded with „yes‟ or „no‟ depending if the information was present (Haigh, 2014). On websites, the first step is to go to the homepage and see if the website provided a site map to easily find the items belonging to each strategy. When site maps are not available, each tab inside the website would be inspected to look for the information needed for each strategy. Since websites are more complex, with information spread across them instead of reunited in one single page as in Facebook and Instagram the following analyses were simpler. On Facebook the first page of each corporate profile is studied. This is the page that users see after signing in and where they have access to all the main elements, including the photo album and the message board. The details examined on each page are items that are readily observable (Men & Tsai, 2012). On Instagram, the analysis is similar to Facebook. Here, most of the page is visually-based (photos and videos) with the exception of to the brief description below the profile picture or logo (where usually companies also insert the URL to the Website). Thus, we look to photos‟ descriptions to get more insights about the content shared and the cultivation strategies implemented. Users‟ comments are also considered to evaluate, whether or not companies reply to them and initiate conversations with consumers. Intercoder reliability was tested using Perreault & Leigh‟s (1989) formula. Main results and conclusions Websites perform better in the first two strategies (disclosure and information dissemination) by frequently displaying a brief description about the business as well as brand history, logo and visual cues, news links and information about achievements and awards. However, in what concerns the last strategy, interactivity and involvement, websites lack interactive features that allow firms to engage with consumers such as commenting and sharing opportunity. Generally, actions to foment online participation are not implemented. This could be explained by the fact that Websites‟ main purpose is, according to Keller (2009), to express ambitions, history, products as well as the firms‟ vision therefore they act more as sources of information than as sources of interaction. However they still have to be attractive enough to encourage repeated visits (Keller, 2009). By contract, brand fan pages on Facebook and Instagram disclose and disseminate less information about firms and their activities (more evident on Instagram) and perform better in the interactivity and involvement strategy. In accordance with (Jahn & Kunz, 2012), brand fan pages main goal is to promote a communicative and interactive channel that creates a bond between the user and the brand, therefore it is expected that the main strategy used to nurture relationships on these social networks is the one that enables interaction and encourages involvement. Finally, comparing the three SNS‟s, Facebook seems to be the more consistent channel to combine and implement the three strategies altogether, since it displays a better overall performance. However, each social networking site has its own role, therefore companies should consider which network works best for each strategy and for each type of consumer and build an overall plan that maximizes the potential to connect with consumers, remembering that the image they build online should present an accurate representation of the brand and should align with other marketing efforts to present consistent messages to customers. Regarding consumer engagement, brands should focus on creating interesting and captivating content instead of posting too regularly just to have an active online presence. Posting more often does not necessarily lead to online brand engagement. Moreover, having more followers is not necessarily good on its own. Fans need to feel connected to the brand and its content and usually, smaller audiences are more engaged with brands. Therefore, brands should work on strategies that allow them to grow their audience while keeping the perks of interacting with smaller audiences. Also, audience growth rate is a helpful measure to evaluate performance on each network, identify which one is generating the highest rates and investigate how to gain more followers on all networks. Additionally, it may be useful in tracking specific campaigns‟ success.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among the service quality, professional competence and loyalty of China tourists visiting Taiwan. A crosssectional survey was used to collect usable data from the China tourists who participate in group tourism to Taiwan. The result indicate that the China tourists felt the service quality of “meal” in Taiwan is the best and good feeling in “professional knowledge” of tour guide. In addition, this study found that the professional competence of tour guide has an intermediary effect between the quality of tourist services and tourist loyalty. The quality of tourism service can positively influence the loyalty of China tourists to Taiwan, meanwhile, the quality of tourism service can positively affect the professional competence of tour guide and the professional competence of tour guide can positively affect the loyalty of China tourists travel to Taiwan. According to the results, the study found that travel agencies should focus on the training of tour guide, which help travel agencies to raise the value of travels product and attract more tourist.

Introduction Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in sharing service businesses. In B2C sharing-service businesses such as Zipcar, customers share goods and services provided by a service firm with other customers and perform the roles played by service employees in traditional service businesses. Consequently, how well one customer carries out expected tasks influences the quality of service provided to other customers. Extant studies have emphasized the importance of a governance system to prevent such a social dilemma as the personal interest of an individual being pursued at the sacrifice of the interest of the community. However, few studies have empirically examined the effect of different design of a governance system. To fill this gap in the research, this study examines the framing effect of customer messages on customer intention to cooperate by complying with the request by the firm. Theoretical development For customers to be willing to cooperate with a firm, they have to be first motivated to do so. The framing effect of on customer motivation has been well demonstrated (Ganzach & Karsahi, 1995) in diverse service contexts such as healthcare (Christensen, Heckerling, Mackesy, Bernstein, & Elstein, 1991), education (Fryer Jr, Levitt, List, & Sadoff, 2012), and consumer behaviors (Ganzach & Karsahi, 1995; White, MacDonnell, & Dahl, 2011) In the context of service consumption, motivation is defined as the inner driver that triggers an individual to cooperate with the service providers (Tsai, Wu, & Huang, 2017). Whether messages were framed as a gain versus a loss exerted a significant impact on consumer motivation. In the consumer behavior contexts, consumer reactions to frames were mixed (Ganzach & Karsahi, 1995). In this study, we will examine the framing effect in the context of sharing service consumption. H1: In the B2C sharing service context, the framing of customer message (gain vs. loss) will affect customer motivation to comply with the request of the service firm. Customers tend to behave different depending on the value they pursue through consumption (Hwang & Griffiths, 2017). Even in the same consumption context, values of customer pursuit can vary widely. Hence, we intend to examine the moderating effect of customer value perception of sharing service on the effect of message framing on motivation. Studies showed that customers pursuing utilitarian values consider monetary savings and convenience as important, while customers pursuing symbolic value consider status and self-esteem as important and those pursing hedonic values consider entertainment and exploration as important (Rintamäki, Kanto, Kuusela, & Spence, 2006). The framing effect was shown to differ by the emphasized value of the product in the context of advertisement. A gain frame was more effective than a loss frame when the ad highlighting the hedonic attributes of a product while a loss frame was more effective when the ad stressing the utilitarian attributes of the product (Lin, 2007). Taken together, we conjecture that customers pursing different values will react differently to the same frame of messages and the level of motivation triggered by the same message frame will also differ. H2: Customer value perception of sharing service will moderate the framing effect of customer messages (gain vs. loss) on motivation. Specifically, customers pursuing utilitarian values will react more strongly to the messages framed as a loss (H2a), while customers pursuing hedonic or symbolic values will react more strongly to messages framed as a gain (H2b). The effect of motivation on customer behaviors and behavioral intentions have been well demonstrated (Ganzach & Karsahi, 1995). In the service context, customer cooperation behaviors induced by motivation significantly influence the efficiency of service operations (Mills & Morris, 1986). We propose that the motivation enhanced by customer messaged influence customer willingness to cooperate. H3: In the B2C sharing service context, motivation affects customer willingness to cooperate. Methodology Data will be collected from American consumers who have used a car sharing service at least once in the past one year through an online scenario-based survey using a 2 (message frames: gain vs. loss) x 3 (values of sharing service: utilitarian vs. hedonic vs. symbolic) between-subject experimental design. Hypotheses will be tested by an analysis of variance and a regression analysis. Implication The findings of this study will help P2P service firms better design customer messages in inducing customer cooperation and how to customize the design by customers’ value perceptions of sharing service.

This research analyzes the influence of children on their parents’ personal purchases. Prior research focuses on children’s influence on family purchases and products consumed by children themselves. There is a knowledge gap in whether and how children influence personal purchases of their parents. Building on reciprocal theory, this research proposes that children have influence on their parents’ personal item purchases because of attitude exchange. This reciprocal influence and attitude exchange should be derived from co-shopping frequency. That is, the greater the interaction between the two parties – especially at the point of purchase, which is co-shopping – the greater the reciprocity. Additionally, this influence increases as parents age. In order to test the research questions, mothers were chosen as respondents because they are the primary caregivers for children, and as a result, there should be high reciprocal influence between mothers and their children. A sample of 304 mothers with a mean age of 46.6 years participated in this study. The results support the first hypothesis that the co-shopping frequency between parents and children positively influences parents’ personal purchases. The results also support the second hypotheses that the parents’ age positively influences the children’s influence on parents’ personal purchases. This is in line with prior research which determined that children become more influential as they grow older. To my knowledge, this paper is the first to extend the knowledge of children’s influence on family-decision making – beyond selecting products for the children and products for the family – to the influence on personal purchases of parents.

How do consumed objects move through the journey from possession to dispossession? Where do consumers find happiness in this process? Prior research seems to focus on the two extreme ends: on one end, happiness can be found in consumption; on the other end, mindful consumer behaviour such as conscious dispossession has also proven to influence consumer happiness. However, little is known about how the consumed items moving through different stages from ‘possession’ to ‘dispossession,’ and how happiness is generated and influences the decisions during the practices. More importantly, consumption patterns are often heavily influenced by cultural contexts. Focusing on a decluttering approach, KonMari Method, this research aims to yield insights on object-subject relationships beyond what is currently available in the literature via the lens of multicultural comparison. The analysis of 10 English and 10 Mandarin blog narratives reveal that it is an interactive process to redefine the place of an object in one’s heart and one’s house. In line with the prior study, our results suggest that the classifying method and the object-subject relations seem to be an essential element in defining consumer happiness. However, while the KonMari steps are linear with a rigid procedure, depending on participants’ symbolic classification and how flexible it can be, they may experience a different level of challenges; hedonic, eudaimonic and spiritual well-being are differently activated during the decluttering process. Contrary to the previous belief that organizing can be daunting and tedious, the setup of the KonMari method creates an extraordinary experience that often results in a high level of happiness activated differently in the Eastern and Western cultures. In particular, Western English speaking consumers mostly experience a feeling of excitement. For Eastern Mandarin speaking consumers, the peacefulness of the experience is underlined.

In a virtual world, firms and individuals are connected through multiple devices and channels, whereby both act as content creators. The relevance of customer co-creation for brand-building in digital environments requires further research (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2016). From a growing body of research, a stream suggests that technology is changing the way consumers and firms interact, whereby consumers perceive brand image to be the sum of all brand online and offline information. Another stream assumes that consumers perceive brands as having personality characteristics, which are used to differentiate them from competitors. For this latter approach, Aaker’s (1997) model is widely used to analyse brand personality (BPS). However, no evidences has been found regarding to what extent firms and customers communicate the same brand values. We accomplish this by analysing the brand personality dimensions communicated online by two international hotel chains (Pestana & FourSeasons) and their clients, using two different digital channels, namely: 12 websites and 600 TripAdvisor comments. A content analysis was carried out using the BPS dictionary of WordStat software, created by Opoku et al. (2006), which contains 833 words, divided into the five BPS categories. The results show that most of the content was created by clients (89% of messages). FourSeasons hotels communicate Excitement and Sophistication, whereas Pestana hotels communicate Sincerity and Sophistication. Sincerity is the highest tagged dimension of the BPS references, both for FourSeasons and for Pestana, which suggests that clients tend to perceive both brands as being reputable. In summary, although clients and hotels converge with regards to hotel brand personality traits, distinctive brand personalities emerge.

This conceptual paper drew on the uses and gratifications theory to theorize about what drives consumers to engage in social media activation campaigns. This paper proposed that satisfying the needs for integration and social interaction, personal identity, information seeking, entertainment, and utilitarian reward through a social media activation campaign can enhance consumers‘ engagement with it. Finally the way in which cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement with such campaigns affect brand image was explained theoretically. The developed conceptual framework can help marketing managers to create engaging social media activation campaigns, thereby improving the image of their brands.

Over the last decade, the sharing economy that covers systems of organised sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping among communities of peers on Internet platforms has emerged as a major disruptive pattern in capitalist economies (Botsman and Rogers, 2010). Prior research on the sharing economy has mainly concentrated on young, well-educated urban users and therefore particularly underlined “noble” motivations for participation, such as hedonic, environmental, and political reasons. This research looks beyond this “hipster” view of sharing entrepreneurs and focuses on French deprived mothers who use peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms to survive. Drawing on the literature on subsistence markets in developing countries (e.g., Viswanathan et al., 2014), it investigates Facebook buy-and-sell groups as a new form of subsistence markets in developed countries. Using a multi-method approach involving in-depth interviews, netnography, and participatory observation on Facebook buy-and-sell groups, it more particularly explores how Facebook specific digital features participate in these emerging markets. The findings indicate that subsistence markets’ emergence in developed countries on Facebook is founded on new digital features that (re)create structural, cognitive and relational forms of social capital. This research thus offers interesting contributions and implications for public policy makers engaged in the regulation of the sharing economy.

Reports indicate that in 2017, social commerce had become a 20 billion dollar industry. Given the developing world’s fatigue with social media, social commerce growth will likely be fueled by consumers from developing economies. While literature has investigated social commerce in the context of established brands in developed economies (e.g. Kim and Ko, 2012), it cannot yet explain consumers’ engagement with the uniqueness of social media commerce in developing economies. Social commerce in Southeast Asian economies are largely conducted amongst individuals or micro businesses. Since social media platforms largely do not provide commerce security nor support, consumers are more vulnerable to fraudulent practices. What factors motivate these purchases despite such risks? This study offers insights into how consumers’ motivated reasoning influences their willingness to purchase over social media. We focus on the social media store’s ease of use and perceived security as antecedents of trust. Specifically, we argue that perceiving a lack of ability to purchase from other channels would induce higher trust towards a social media store, despite low perceptions of ease and security of transaction. Data was collected from 224 Indonesian social media users who have been exposed to social media stores on Instagram. The findings suggest that when consumers perceive high control of how they could obtain desired goods, trust becomes a logical function of the perceived safety and ease of use of the shops. However, under low perceived control, consumers display high trust in social media shops despite not being convinced that they are safe nor easy to use. The findings extend our understanding about the antecedents of value creation in social commerce (Stephen and Toubia, 2010). Our results enrich prior literature by showing how motivated reasoning leads to biases in judgment to be in favor of desired goals (Blanton and Gerrard, 1997), and extends it in the novel context of social media commerce. Furthermore, by incorporating the literature on perceived behavioral control and motivated reasoning, the current study provides important empirical evidence for the presence of perceived control over alternate channels as a significant driver for trust towards social media shops. The current research also has a number of implications for social commerce providers in developing economies. This study shows that it is advantageous for managers to cultivate trust using interactivity and reliability to elicit a sense of security and ease of use. However, our findings also offers a caution for firms to not be lulled into a false sense of comfort by taking consumers’ trust at face value.

This paper examines the impact of thanks from the sellers on consumer satisfaction in the tourism industry. Study 1 shows that thanks from the sellers (vs. no thank from the sellers) will decrease consumer satisfaction. In this process, perceived fairness and perceived value play a serial mediation role. Study 2 shows that the pricing type (the fixed price vs. the flexible price) plays a moderate role on the impact of thanks from the sellers at the end of a transaction on consumer satisfaction. This paper introduces transaction utility theory and culture difference to explain the seemingly inconsistent phenomenon. Introduction The present studies focus on retailers expressing gratitude and, especially, how the communication of retailer expressing gratitude or not affects consumer satisfaction under the tourism purchase environment. Image that you encounter a seller is selling the souvenirs in the tourist spot you just visit, you would like to buy one of the souvenirs, such as a special cup with the souvenirs logo, you conclude a deal with the seller eventually, after that, the seller thanks for your purchasing and you leave. One question arises, will consumers feel less satisfaction when sellers say nothing than when they say “Thank you” at the end of a transaction? Theoretical Background Thanking is one of the speech acts or communicative acts frequently and abundantly utilized in human interactions, even though, most of these studies have focused on a western perspective, little is known about the experience of tourists from Asia. In western countries, people are accustomed to saying "thank you" after the benefit of others. Some behavioral responses may resemble the expression of gratitude (e.g., saying thank you to a waiter in a restaurant), but may instead be an automatic polite response not grounded in emotion (Buck 2004; Emmons and McCullough 2003; Fazalehasan et al 2017). However, in Somali and China culture, people are not used to expressing thanks, which makes many Americans or Australian feel rude or impolite (Chiu and Hong 2013; Robertson 2014). Here we test the prediction that gratitude from retailers may affect consumer satisfaction in a potentially counterintuitive manner. In other words, we hypothesize that gratitude from the retailer may lead to lower consumer satisfaction. This prediction draws from both the existing literature on gratitude as well as from research on culture difference and transaction utility theory from the response to gratitude. Research Design Two experiments have been conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 will provide support for the three central hypotheses regarding perceived fairness inference (hypothesis 1), perceived value inferences (hypothesis 2), and consumer satisfaction (hypothesis 3). Study 2 will test an important boundary condition. This study shows that the proposed negative effect of saying thank you (vs. saying nothing) holds only if the price of product is fixed. Result and Conclusion In the study 1, we found that sellers saying thank you after the transaction leads to less consumer satisfaction. Therefore, an important contribution of our work emerges from our melding of the literature on perceived fairness and value and demonstrating that gratitude from the sellers dictates which literature is more applicable in relationship marketing. Furthermore, we also examined the mechanism in study 2 and explore a boundary condition. We discovered that when the price of a souvenir is fixed, consumers feel more satisfaction when sellers say nothing than when they say “Thank you” at the end of a transaction. Conversely, when the price of a souvenir is not fixed, which is to say when consumers can bargain in the store, consumers feel less satisfaction when sellers say nothing than when they say “Thank you” after the transaction

As blogs continue to grow in importance, they have quickly become one of the largest and most established forms of non-traditional media (Onishi and Manchanda, 2012; Stephen and Galak, 2012). Due to this popularity, brands are striving to connect to consumers through the blogosphere. One of the most popular approaches is incentivization, whereby the brand incentivizes the blogger to write a review of a given product (Uribe, Buzeta and Velásquez, 2016; Hwang and Jeong, 2016). However, incentivization may pose significant risks for bloggers, who are perceived to be independent from corporate interests and a credible source of information. We employed three experimental studies to show that intrinsic, as compared to extrinsic, incentivization acceptance motives mitigate the negative effect of positive incentivized reviews on perceived independence, credibility and ultimately, blog loyalty. In our final experiment, we find that that followers who are attached to a blog are more likely to continue to browse, revisit and recommend the blog, regardless of incentivization acceptance motives.

This research examines the impact of closing versus opening eyes on consumers’ decision making as to whether the decision context is driven by utilitarian versus hedonic motivation. The findings from three studies show that consumers processing advertising messages with their eyes closed are likely to use high-level, abstract processing, and thus more positively evaluate the utilitarian products (vs. the hedonic products). On the contrary, consumers with their eyes open are likely to use low-level, concrete processing, and thus more positively evaluate the hedonic products (vs. the utilitarian products). Implications for consumers and marketers are discussed.

Inspired by the success of the Dove real beauty campaign, companies such as Amazon Fashion, Nike and Walmart have started to adopt authentic branding strategies, i.e., strategies based on the use of ordinary looking models to reflect real consumers in brand communications (e.g., Zombeck, 2015). Authentic branding is an alternative to the strategy of aspirational branding, where companies use “attractive” models to communicate that consuming their brands will bring consumers closer to an idealized view of themselves (e.g., being an attractive person like the models in the ads; D'Alessandro and Chitty, 2011). However, the body of evidence on their superiority over aspirational strategies is inconclusive. We expand knowledge on aspirational vs. authentic branding strategies by focusing on a new context of major economic importance for brand marketers, China, as well as by testing the moderating effect of a to date not considered contingency: local vs. foreign brand origin perceptions (i.e., low vs. high perceived brand foreignness). Data was gathered through an online survey of non-student consumers based in China recruited through Qualtrics online survey panels (n=623). Tests of reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement models deliver overall satisfactory results. R2 and Q2 values demonstrate that the tested models show good explanatory power and predictive relevance of emotional brand attachment (R2 = 0.699 to 0.759; Q2 = 0.527 to 0.696). Results support H1, as authentic branding has a positive effect on emotional brand attachment (β = 0. 293, p < 0.001), thus adding support to the efficacy of authentic branding strategies across West and East. Results also support H2, as aspirational branding has a positive effect on emotional brand attachment (β =0.598, p < 0.001). These findings support recent evidence from the UK and USA (e.g., Japutra et al., 2017) yet are out of line with recent studies in Switzerland and India, which fail to support this link (e.g., Malär et al., 2011). Results support H3, as aspirational branding has as stronger effect on EBA than authentic branding (t = 4.603, p < 0.001). Our findings question recent evidence suggesting a generic superiority of authentic over aspirational branding (e.g., Japutra et al., 2017). Results support H4, as for brands perceived as local, the effect of aspirational branding on EBA is significantly stronger than that of authentic branding (t= 4.125, p < 0.001). Thus, results support the notion that brands low on social signalling value, i.e., those perceived as local, can develop stronger attachment with consumers when they employ aspirational strategies. Finally, results do not support H5, as the data shows that for brands perceived as foreign, aspirational branding (β = 0.536, p < 0.001) still has a significantly stronger effect (t= 2.123, p < 0.05) on EBA than authentic branding (β =0.339, p < 0.001). In other words, brands perceived as foreign can still benefit from conveying aspiration over authenticity.

The present study contributes to the international literature on brand personality and congruence. There is still a general lack of clarity regarding the measurement of the self-brand congruity construct. Moreover, in the light of international branding research cross-national validation of this measurement is needed. Previous empirical evidence also suggests a positive relationship between brand-self congruity and consumer-brand relationships (i.e. brand attachment) across nations and cultures, but the strength of these relationships requires deeper investigation. The present study therefore aims to test and validate a personality congruence scale at an international level and to measure the effect of congruence on brand attachment with specific reference to the luxury sector. A survey of nearly 1,500 international luxury customers has been conducted. Results confirm that personality congruence is based upon five dimensions (Prestige/Emotion/Trust/Anxiety/Order). In addition, the results highlight the existence and relative importance of the link between “personality congruence” and “brand attachment”. Finally, findings suggest similarities and differences across countries regarding specific dimensions of congruence scale and the personality congruence and attachment relationship. Both theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

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

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

Introduction Luxury industry, in addition to feelings, started to provide reasons for consumers to justify their consumption. Also, it helps them to avoid social risks by offering inconspicuous luxury products. For example, ‘Mandarin Oriental Barcelona’ suggests luxury holiday package for people running Barcelona marathon, London cocktail bar ‘Bart’ serves cocktails designed to 'facilitate focus and encourage relaxation', ‘Tiffany’ has dropped the spelled-out brand name from its fashion jewelry line in favor of simple “T”. (Trend watching 2017) Then, what changed consumers' interest? Interestingly, the current expectations of luxury consumers have a lot in common with the features of interdependent self-construal. The "we" effect of social media can explain this trend. Literature review and Conceptual framework Social Media usage and Interdependent Self-Construal Although earlier research in cultural psychology conceptualized self-construal as culturally determined (Markus and Kitayama 1991), more recent research suggests that independent and interdependent self-construal can also be made temporarily accessible. The most frequently adopted priming procedure to induce self-construal is the procedure by stories about we or I. (Gardner, Gabriel, and Lee 1999; Mandel 2003; Krishna, Zhou, and Zhang 2008; Hong and Chang 2015). We suggest that Social media usage can induce interdependent self-construal because social media users read stories and watch videos of others. Prior findings indicated that participants in interdependent self-construal condition have an equivalent number of thoughts about themselves and others. (Lee, Aaker, and Gardner 2000). Social Media, Interdependent Self-construal, and Consumers’ Luxury Value Perception Consumers’ perceptions of luxury value appear to be determined mainly by Functional, Individual, and Social aspects (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels 2009). Recent luxury marketing researchers compare conspicuous consumption and inconspicuous consumption, two types of social aspect consumption (Han, Nunes, and Dreze 2010; Eckhardt, Belk, and Wilson 2015). They are interested in Functional luxury value, added to Individual luxury value because small utilitarian additions to a hedonic luxury are often valued more than their stand-alone value (Keinan, Kivetz, & Netzer 2016). These two trends seem to have nothing in common. But when the concept of self-construal is adopted, they have something in common. Namely, interdependent selves, which focuses on others, are the one who cares about both inconspicuousness and utilitarian aspects. We suggest that because of the features of interdependent self-construal, consumers more using social media tend to have a different priority regarding luxury value perception than consumers less exposed to social media. We explore the mediating role of relational interdependent self-construal in this model (Triandis 1989; Cross, Bacon, and Morris 2000). Also, luxury brand company’s social media marketing efforts (Kim and Ko 2012; Godey et al. 2016) have different features. We expected that each social media marketing activity has a different impact on luxury value perception. Interdependent Self-Construal, Reason, Functional luxury value We propose that because of interdependence priming effect of social media, participants who are exposed to social media (social media priming group) tend to rely on both reason and feeling, which in turn set an equivalent value on Functional luxury value (cognitively superior) and Individual luxury value (affectively superior) (Hong and Chang 2015). Interdependent Self-Construal, Social Risk, Inconspicuousness The authors propose that because of interdependence priming effect of social media, participants who are exposed to social media (social media priming group) tend to avoid social risk than participants who are not exposed to social media (no priming group). Study 1: The effect of social media on the balance between self and others. A total of 709 respondents (389 females) participated in this study via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) They were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (with social media manipulation vs. No manipulation) The impact of ‘one-time social media use’ Following the previous study (Hong and Chung 2015), we conducted a 2 (social media manipulation: No vs. Yes) x 2 (thought type: self vs other) mixed ANOVA with social media manipulation as a between-subject factor and thought type as a repeated measure. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =293.54, p<.000). However, the interaction between social media manipulation and thought type was not significant. (F (1,707) = 0.128, p<.721). So, the result shows that one-time social media use doesn’t manipulate interdependent self-construal. The impacts of ‘chronic social media use’. To check whether chronic social media use can manipulate interdependent self-construal, we conducted a 2 (time spent on social media: Low vs. High) x 2 (thought type: self vs. other) mixed ANOVA. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =293.81, p<.000). The interaction between time spent on social media and thought type was significant. (F (1,703) = 6.65, p<.000). Also, we conducted a 2 (communication on social media: Low vs. High) x 2 (thought type: self vs. other) mixed ANOVA. The main effect of thought type is significant (F(1,707) =300.76, p<.000). The interaction between communication and thought type was significant. (F (1,704) = 5.764, p<.000). So, the result shows that chronic social media use manipulates interdependent self-construal. Also, we computed three types of groups, the others-dominant, the balanced, and the self-dominant by modifying past research (Kitayama et al. 2009; Wu, Cutright, and Fitzsimos 2011, Hong and Chang2015). A chi-square test revealed that participants who spent more time and had more communication on social media had more balanced thought type (32.6%, 31.0%) than participants who spent less time and had less communication on social media (24.8%, 24.0%) Study 2: The effect of using social media on luxury value perceptions (SEM) A total of 255 respondents (85 females) participated in this study through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The participants were between 18 and 65 years old and lived in the U.S., and the modal age group was 25-34 (43.9 %), followed by 35-44 (25.5%). We conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood estimation with Promax rotation. The goodness of fit statistics is: 𝒙𝟐=707.14, df =377, P<0.0005, 𝒙𝟐/df =1.876, CFI=0.95, and RMSEA =0.059. The final CFA model fits well with the data (Hu and Bentler, 1999; Hair et al., 2010). After confirming the measurement model, SEM with maximum likelihood extraction was estimated to test Hypothesis. The goodness of fit criteria of the model meets the proposed thresholds in previous studies: 𝒙𝟐=677.97, df =374, P<0.0005, 𝒙𝟐/df =1.813, CFI=0.95, and RMSEA =0.057 (Hu and Bentler, 1999; Hair et al., 2010). The SEM model showed each social media activity has a different effect on each luxury value. Interaction positively impacts the functional luxury value (β=0.38, p<.000) but negatively impacts the individual (β= - 0.27, p<.000) and social luxury value (β= - 0.34, p<.000). Entertainment/WOM has a positive effect on individual luxury value (β=0.39, p<.000) and on social luxury value (β=0.32, p<.000). Customization positively impacts the social luxury value (β=0.26, p<.000). We could also find Entertainment/WOM and Customization did not influence the functional luxury value. Only Entertainment/WOM positively impacts relational interdependent self-construal (β=0.32, p<.000) Relational interdependent self-construal positively impacts on individual value (β=0.24, p<.000) and social value (β=0.27, p<.000). We conducted a mediation analysis. Among social media activities, only Entertainment/WOM had a significant positive effect on Relational Interdependent Self-Construal. Study 3: the effect of social media on self-construal and choice between functional value and individual value superior options 454 Responses (304 females) collected via Mturk to stimulate the environment of social media. Respondents are primed on interdependence by social media usage while control group respondents are not primed. The authors checked the validity of the self-construal manipulation effect of social media. Respondents were given a choice task, designed by adopting previous method (Hong and Chang 2015). They were told to imagine that they were going to buy a hand bag. Handbag X is superior on functional (cognitive) dimensions whereas handbag Y is superior on all individual (affective) dimensions. Participants are asked to indicate their choice between two Handbags Choice. A chi-square test revealed that the effect of social media manipulation is not significant on the handbag choice (𝑥2(l) 0.371, p<.309). However, the effect of interdependent self-construal on the participant's’ handbag choice was significant (𝑥2(l) 5.85, p<0.01). As predicted, participants with a higher Interdependent self-construal primed by social media have a smaller preference gap between Functional luxury value and Individual luxury value (F:73.2%-I:26.8%=46.4%), than participants with lower Interdependent self-construal participants (F:82.7%-I:17.3%=65.4%) Study3 supports the results of previous two studies. As individuals communicate more and spend more time on social media, they are more likely to prefer equally for Functional luxury value and Individual luxury. Study 4: the effect of social media on self-construal and choice between conspicuous and inconspicuous options. After the self-construal manipulation with social media, respondents were given a choice task. The choice was designed by adopting previous method (Han, Nunes, and Dreze 2010). Respondents were told to imagine that they were going to buy a handbag. One option has an inconspicuous design whereas the other option is conspicuous design. Participants are asked to indicate their choice between two handbags. Social media manipulation and Handbags Choice. All three chi-square tests revealed a significant or marginal effect of social media manipulation on participants handbag choice with the same pattern. ( 𝑥2(1) = 6.328, p > .032; 𝑥2(1) = 3.086, p > .079; 𝑥2(1) = 1.933, p > .098) As predicted, participants in social media manipulation group prefer the inconspicuous option to the conspicuous option (59.3%>40.7%; 58.9%>41.1%; 60.4%>39.6%) than participants in control group (47.3%, 52.7%; 50.5%, 49.5%, 53.8%, 46.2%). Interdependent-self construal and Handbags Choice. All three chi-square tests revealed a significant effect of interdependent self-construal on participants handbag choice with the same pattern. ( 𝑥2(1) = 4.2, p > .047; 𝑥2(1) = 4.79, p > .029; 𝑥2(1) = 6.11, p > .013) As predicted, participants with higher Interdependent self-construal primed by social media have a equivalent preference about the inconspicuous option and conspicuous option (50%, 50%; 50.8%, 49.2%; 52.4%, 47.6%) than participants with lower Interdependent self-construal(59.6%, 40.4%; 61.1%, 38.9%, 63.9%, 36.1%). Study4 shows that one-time social media exposure can reduce conspicuous consumption. However, as individuals communicate more and spend more time on social media, they become more likely to prefer equally for conspicuous option and inconspicuous option. Contribution In luxury brand marketing, this study sheds light on the balance between two motivations, luxury for self and luxury for others (Kapferer, Jean-Noël, and Vincent 2009) using the concept of self-construal. This research also contributes to the literature on consumers’ luxury value perception (Hennigs et al. 2012; Wiedmann et al. 2009). In general marketing subjects, it adds to the increasing literature on consumer risk and choices between affective and cognitive options. For the luxury brand industry, this study can give marketers a practical idea about choosing social media marketing activities and designing new products. For example, if luxury brand companies promote customers posting opinions on websites, they should know that their activities might advertently affect their sales because interaction negatively influences on individual and social luxury value.

This research provides insight into how socialisation and learning aids consumers to form their ecological self. Past research establishes that ecological self, expressed as environmental identity, positively drives responsible consumption, but there is a lack of understanding of how consumers form their ecological selves and environmental identities. The aim is to provide a broader motivational structure that drives the formation of nature identity and its influence on responsible consumption behaviour. The ethnographic data uncovers the cognitive thoughts, affections, symbolic inferences and nature experiences of participants guiding the formation of the ecological self, attachment to nature and ecological worldviews, which then drives responsible consumption behaviour. The conceptual framework outlines the overall motivation driving ecological self and identifies emotional, religious and spiritual attachments to guide the development of ecocentric, theocentric and transcentric ecological worldviews. This research mainly contributes to theory development and social marketing efforts.

This paper develops a conceptual model of international social media marketing strategy that describes how culture shapes consumers’ use of social media around the world. Drawing from cultural psychology, marketing, and computer information systems, we use Kietzmann et al.’s (2011) functional building blocks of social media to organize social media functions, then explicate how various dimensions of culture affect the way such social media functions are used across cultures. By delineating these complex relationships, our model and the propositions that stem from it offer directions for future research and advance understanding of cross-cultural differences with implications for businesses that provide social media or capitalize on social media for global reach in the international marketplace.

Innovation in technology has led to the growth of hybrid products, which demonstrate features of more than one product category (Rajagopal & Burnkrant, 2009). This trend is evident in the luxury market (e.g., the Tag Heuer Connected wearable, a hybrid of a luxury watch and a computing device. The combination of technology and luxury can pose challenges in the design and marketing of such devices. This could be a problem for new hybrid luxury products, which consumers typically evaluate in terms of symbolic meanings rather than functional utility. In this research we build on and contribute to the product design literature as we propose a model in which the characteristics of aesthetics, symbolism, functionality, monofunctionality (how many different tasks a product delivers on), and ergonomics are antecedents that drive usage intention for luxury hybrids, specifically wearables. First, we find that perceived ergonomics and perceived multi-functionality influence perceived overall functionality of wearables, which then has a positive effect on intention to use those products. Perceived aesthetics appears as an important characteristic for wearables, as mediation analysis shows it has an indirect effect on use intention, both through perceived symbolism and overall functionality of those hybrids. Such order of effects within product design characteristics has not been explored before and our findings yield implications for academics and practitioners.