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

While market orientation is long evident to be a key contributor to firm performance (Narver & Slater, 1990; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993), firms now increasingly find that proactive market orientation (Narver, Slater & Maclachlan, 2004) may be more appropriate for the rapidly changing market. Not only can it contribute to new product development success, it is proposed that it can enhance the ability to market which is labeled marketing exploration (Kyriakopoulos & Moorman, 2004). In this study, we posited proactive market orientation together with the original market orientation named here responsive market orientation as essential to developing a firm’s marketing exploration capability. As marketing competences reside in the everyday routines and practice related to the marketing function, marketing exploration enables one to update the ability to perform various marketing tasks which is essential capability of the firm to get ahead of the competition. Entrepreneurial orientation is also introduced as a mediating factor between the above relationships with the argument that such posture is related to a firm’s propensity to innovate, take risk and be proactive (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996) which is related to a proactive market orientation. A survey was carried out in China and results show that proactive market orientation is positively related to marketing exploration while responsive market orientation has positive impact on marketing exploration only through entrepreneurial orientation. Marketing exploration in turn positively impact firm performance. Results of this study contribute theoretically in revitalizing the market orientation literature which has been research for almost three decades. While leading customers with a proactive market orientation is getting more salient in this rapidly changing market environment, the original market orientation cannot be ignored. Both orientations are essential to enhance firms’ ability to renew their marketing skills and routines. This is definitely more important than just coming up with new products/services as it enables firms to update its marketing knowledge and skills so is crucial to long term performance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how social media and user-generated content (UGC) foster consumer engagement through the development of a good city image. Special emphasis is placed on the attitudes of potential visitors, how these attitudes affect a city’s image, and the perceived social distance between users and the authors of social media content. The study adopts a 2 x 2 experimental design in which high/low green image and high/low social distance are examined. The results suggest that a green city image has a significant effect on potential visitors’ attitude towards cities. Moreover, this study found that the effects of social media content varies according to the perceived social distance between the author of the post and potential visitors.

Shopping cart abandonment of the online shopping process is a major challenge for firms. It describes the phenomenon that a potential customer starts a check out process for an online order but drops out of the process before completing the purchase. On average, 650 out of 1,000 customers do not convert (Baymard Institute 2017), which highlights the managerial relevance and impact of this phenomenon for online firms. Since shopping cart abandonment directly affects an online firm’s sales and revenue, researchers and practitioners likewise are interested in understanding why people leave a website without completing the shopping process and, more importantly, how to reduce online shopping cart abandonment. However, to date, research on these questions is scarce (e.g., Kukar-Kinney and Close 2010) and firms lack guidance how to deal with online shopping cart abandonment. The goal of this study is to investigate effective countermeasures that firms can use to reduce and prevent the likelihood of abandonment and thereby to increase the likelihood of a conversion. We conducted a field experiment in cooperation with a German accessories online retailer over three weeks (n = 8,467 shopping carts) and tested the effectiveness of a reminder pop-up window with a 10% discount vs. a reminder pop-up window without a discount vs. a control group. All online store visitors within the period were randomly assigned to one of three groups once they have put an item in the shopping cart. The pop-up windows appeared once they were about to click on the exit button. Our results indicate that a reminder pop-up window with a 10% discount significantly increases the conversion rate on the website compared to the control group, leading to an increase in revenue of approximately € 5,000. In contrast, a reminder pop up window a discount does not seem to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Further, we will investigate how this campaign affects the retailer’s overall profitability. In addition, using a laboratory experiment (n = 1,041) we replicated and extended our insights on effective countermeasures for shopping cart abandonment. People seem to be more likely to convert when there is a guest checkout option available. In sum, our research has important implications for researchers and online firms how to deal with online shopping cart abandonment.

Today, customers experience a multitude of online and offline touchpoints along their shopping journeys. A customer touchpoint is defined as a direct or indirect encounter with a firm along shopping process (Baxendale et al., 2015). Touchpoints can be oneway or two-way interactions between customers and firms (Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). Instant experiences are initiated by firms, others or by customers themselves. These experiences influence customer’s overall experience with brands, and furthermore, have impact on customers' subsequent attitude and behaviour. Another important question for managers is to decide whether to aim for creating frequent encounters: focus on volume, or creating instant experiences with stronger positive-emotional response: focus on valence. Prior research investigated different touchpoints separately and mostly focused on the effect of the volume of touchpoint encounters on attitudes and behaviour. Taking a holistic perspective, we investigate the effects of volume and valence of customers’ previous experiences of firm, others and customer initiated touchpoints on satisfaction and current purchases. We employed a real-time tracking method where respondents reported their touchpoint experiences via a mobile phones, each time they encountered the focal brand in a 4- week period in supermarket, healthcare and banking categories. We employ a twostep dynamic Heckman Probit model to investigate the impact of volume and valence of touchpoints on customer behaviour, and a multivariate regression to investigate the touchpoint effects on brand satisfaction along customer journeys. Our results reveal that brand satisfaction is mostly explained by the effect of touchpoint valence and not touchpoint volume. Our behaviour model reveals that the volume, rather than valence, of previous customer initiated purchases and transactions impacts the frequency of current purchases.

The purpose is to identify the impacts of internal and external integrations in an automotive supply chain in Thailand. Data are collected from automotive firms in Thailand and are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result indicates that both internal and external integrations are significant factors affecting market flexibility.

Export Market Orientation (EMO)- one of the most important strategic orientations of exporting firms- has received much attention in the last two decades within organization and academia alike. EMO has become an emerging issue that benefits the integration of market orientation, internationalization, and export performance literature into coherence. After the introduction of this concept in international business (IB) literature, we observed a surge of research focusing on EMO incorporating scale development for measurement as well as empirical studies that investigate the antecedents to and consequences of EMO along with moderation and mediation. This review systematically examines EMO research, analyzing 31 articles published in 19 leading journals available between 1999 and 2017. What we can conclude from the review is that EMO research is still in its infancy. We attempted to identify some research gaps and suggest some future avenues of research.

Introduction Social media continues to grow and presents in our everyday lives. Consumers can even know about celebrities’ personal lives and hear directly from celebrities through social media, such as Facebook and Instagram. Chung and Cho (2017) point out that social media provides a platform for a more open, close and frequent interaction between consumers and celebrities. According to Lee and Watkins (2016), by using social media, consumers can easily and quickly access user generated content which includes product information and reviews. People create video blog (vlog) and some have attracted a large number of followers, video bloggers (vloggers) upload videos about their personal life or reviews of product they use, therefore increasing browsing traffic from followers and other viewers. As a result, vloggers become vlog celebrities or key opinion leaders on social media nowadays. According to Horton and Wohl (1956), parasocial interaction (PSI) explains the relationship between media persona and media user, and it is referred to a media user’s reaction to a media persona, in a way that the media persona is perceived as an intimate conversational partner by the media user. The media persona may be considered by his/her audience as a friend, counselor, comforter and model, and PSI is considered as a “friendship” with a media persona (Perse & Rubin, 1989). As this “friendship” continues to grow, the media user will gradually treat the media persona as a trustworthy friend and rely on their suggestions as a trusted source of information (Rubin et al., 1985). According to Stever and Lawson (2013), PSI is an appropriate theoretical framework for studying the one-sided relationship between celebrities and fans; so the same argument can be extended to vlogger as suggested by Lee and Watkins (2016). As there is limited studies investigating the link between vlogger and marketing results in the literature, and researches examining the relationships between PSI and perceived brand quality, brand affect as well as brand preference are rare and lack empirical support, therefore, some research gaps need to be bridged. This study develops an integrated model according to the literature review. It is expected to help marketers to understand the influence of vlogger, and to develop efficient social media marketing tactics and branding strategies by using PSI as a brand management tool. Literature review and hypothesis development Parasocial interaction (PSI) explains the relationship between media persona and media user, and it is referred to a media user’s reaction to a media persona, in a way that the media persona is perceived as an intimate conversational partner by the media user. Previous studies indicate that PSI develops in ways similar to interpersonal relationships with friends (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Rubin & McHugh, 1987; Perse & Rubin, 1989), so the media persona may be considered by his/her audience as a friend, counselor, comforter and model, and PSI is considered as a “friendship” with a media persona (Perse & Rubin, 1989). Labrecque (2014) suggests that the development of PSI is not restricted to traditional media but also in an online environment. Labrecque (2014) points out that the higher the perceived level of openness and interaction in communication between consumers and brands on social media, the stronger their PSI with the brands. A direct relationship is also found to exist between social media interaction and parasocial behavior (Chung & Cho, 2017). Vloggers emerge as vlog celebrities or key opinion leaders who are active on social media, nowadays the media users can share their own thoughts with the celebrities and even comment the celebrities’ lives on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram freely, as if they have established a “friendship” with the celebrities (Chung & Cho, 2017), PSI is found to exist between vloggers and media users and is therefore fostered (Lee & Watkins, 2016). Attraction to a media persona results in enhancement of interaction or repeat viewing (Rubin & McHugh, 1987). If a person's physical appearance is considered to be aesthetically beautiful or pleasing, the degree of physical attractiveness is thus higher. Till and Busler (2000) suggest that physically attractive people are considered to possess more favorable personality traits such as intellectual competence, social competence and integrity. Both social and physical attractiveness to a media persona have been found to be predictors of PSI (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Perse & Rubin, 1989). This study thus postulates that: H1: The physical attractiveness of vlogger has a positive effect on PSI. Social attractiveness is referred to a media persona’s likability (McCroskey & McCain, 1974) and considering the media persona as a viable friend (Frederick et al., 2012). Media persona who is socially attractive leads to a stronger PSI, in both social and work context (Rubin & McHugh, 1987). Social attractiveness has been found to be a predictor of PSI (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Perse & Rubin, 1989). This study thus postulates that: H2: The social attractiveness of vlogger has a positive effect on PSI. According to Rubin and Step (2000), motivation is central to communication processes, and different motivations would lead to different behavior and communication choices. In the video sharing platform such as YouTube, YouTube users engage with YouTube for entertainment purposes (Haridakis & Hanson, 2009). Entertainment refers to any activities that provide diversions and amusements to fill time, gain pleasure, relax and have fun (Yuan et al., 2016). People not only watch vlogs for entertainment but are also widely influenced by the content of vlogs (Chung & Cho, 2017), as vloggers are viewed as more authentic and true-to-life (Lee & Watkins, 2016). This study postulates that: H3: Viewing motive with vlogger for entertainment has a positive effect on PSI. People use media not only for entertainment, but also for satisfying interpersonal needs (Armstrong & Rubin, 1989; Madianou & Miller, 2013; Rubin et al., 1985). As media user’s motivations for using media correlate with the development of PSI positively (Rubin et al., 1985) and the motivation of individuals to undertake relationship building by using social network service is found to be positivly correlated with parasocial behavior (Yuan et al., 2016), it is proposed that the more the media user’s motive to use social media involving vlog for relationship building, the stronger their PSI with vlogger. This study thus postulates that: H4: Viewing motive with vlogger for building relationship has a positive effect on PSI. More time spent with the medium encourages a participative and active culture, and higher online traffic implies more opportunities for online advertising and promotions (Hung et al., 2011). When media user is exposed with frequent messages enriched with personal information from a media persona, psychological familiarity and intimacy are enhanced, resulting in further development of friendship over time (Chung & Cho, 2017). This study thus postulates that: H5: The time spent with the medium has a positive effect on PSI. Mediating effect of PSI PSI explains the relationship between media user and media persona (Horton & Wohl, 1956) and is considered as a “friendship” with a media persona (Perse & Rubin, 1989). Previous study implicitly addresses the mediating role of PSI between the antecedents of PSI and brand perception (Lee & Watkins, 2016), however, the mediating role of PSI between the relationship of the antecedents of PSI and perceived brand quality, brand affect as well as brand preference has not been investigated. Specifically, PSI decreases uncertainty (Perse & Rubin, 1989) and consumer’s confidence has been shown to be a key component of forming positive perceived brand quality (Kayaman & Arasli, 2007). Moreover, social media strategies are often used to build positive brand attitude through enhanced consumer engagement and consumer likeability towards a brand, making brand affect metric relevant to social media marketers. Finally, Grimm (2005) suggests that attitude can predict preference and preference is influenced by emotional and personality responses to the brand. Feelings of bonding with brands are fostered by PSI, as a result positive brand attitude is enhanced (Knoll et al., 2015). Moreover, evidences show that celebrity endorsement can help to positively influence consumer’s brand preference (e.g. Kamins et al., 1989). Thus, it is predicted that PSI mediates the effects of the antecedents of PSI: physical attractiveness, social attractiveness, viewing motive for entertainment, view motive for building relationship and time spent with the medium on perceived brand quality, brand affect and brand preference, and has the following direct effects on perceived brand quality brand affect, and brand preference. H6: PSI has a positive effect on perceived brand quality H7: PSI has a positive effect on brand affect. H8: PSI has a positive effect on brand preference. H9: PSI mediates the relationship between antecedents of PSI and a) perceived brand quality; b) brand affect; and c) brand preference Methodology In this study, the measurements are adopted from well-established scales of previous literatures. Physical attractiveness was measured using a three-item scale based on McCroskey and McCain (1974), which has been applied by Lee and Watkins (2016). As homophily, or the belief that two parties share similar beliefs, is grounded in social attractiveness between the parties (Turner, 1993), attitude homophily, and social attractiveness are similar constructs. Based on the measurement scale from Lee and Watkins (2016), attitude homophily and social attractiveness were merged into one factor and was measured using a ten-item scale in this study. Viewing motive for entertainment and viewing motive for building relationships were measured using the motivation scale proposed by Yuan et al. (2016). Viewing motive for entertainment was measured using a seven-item scale while viewing motive for building relationships was measured using a six-item scale. Time spent with the medium was measured using a two-item scale from Hung et al. (2011), which assesses the average weekly frequency and the average weekly duration of browsing vlogs. Parasocial interaction was measured using an eight-item scale relating to vloggers from Lee and Watkins (2016). Perceived brand quality was measured using a six-item scale from Yoo et al. (2000). Brand affect was measured using a three-item scale from Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001). Brand preference was defined as the relative preference for selecting and using a particular brand (Yoo et al., 2000), brand preference was measured using a four-item scale based on Yoo et al.’s (2000) overall brand equity scale which was adopted by Liu et al. (2014). Besides time spent with the medium, each item was assessed on a five-point Likert-type scale. The wording of each item was altered to better suit the context of using vloggers for social media marketing. Only female and those who have watched beauty vlog previously were qualified to participate in the survey. Respondents were shown a beauty product review video by the selected vlogger from YouTube, the brand name of the beauty product in the video was eliminated so as to prevent brand bias. In the online questionnaire, the qualified respondents were only allowed to start filling in the next part of the questionnaire after watching the whole video. Data for this study were collected via online survey to simulate the environment of vlogs and social media. Convenience sampling method was utilized in this study due to its non-probability sampling technique and convenience accessibility. The online questionnaires were distributed through social media platforms, including Facebook and WeChat etc. The data collection process was conducted from August to September of 2017 in Macau, a total of 756 samples were collected. After removing the incomplete and disqualified questionnaires, 401 questionnaires were identified as eligible for formal analysis. Pearson’s correlation test was employed to test the relationships between all variables. Multiple regressions with the ordinary-least-squares (OSL) estimation was used to test the relationship between antecedents of PSI and PSI (i.e. H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5), and the relationship between PSI and brand evaluations (i.e. H6, H7, H8). To investigate the mediating effect of PSI between each antecedent of PSI and perceived brand quality, brand affect, and brand preference (i.e. H9a, H9b, H9c), the PROCESS macro bootstrapping procedure (n = 5000, model 4; Preacher et al., 2007) was performed for each variable. Bootstrapping is a nonparametric resampling procedure for testing mediation that does not impose the assumption of normality of the sampling distribution (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Moreover, a Sobel test was used to further demonstrate the significance of the mediation effect of PSI. Results Multiple regression analysis is performed to tests relationships between PSI and the antecedents of PSI. PSI as a dependent variable, the main effects of the antecedents of PSI on PSI are all significant (F (5, 395) = 87.25, p < 0.001). Specifically, physical attractiveness (β = 0.271, p < 0.001), attitude homophily/social attractiveness (β= 0.335, p < 0.001), viewing motive for entertainment (β = 0.194, p < 0.001), viewing motive for building relationship (β = 0.163, p < 0.001) and time spent with the medium (β = 0.062, p < 0.001) are positively related to PSI. Results support H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5. Moreover, results found (1) PSI fully mediates the effect of physical attractiveness (β = 0.052, p < 0.001) on perceived brand quality; PSI partially mediates the effects of attitude homophily/social attractiveness (β = 0.064, p < 0.001), viewing motive for entertainment (β = 0.037, p < 0.01), viewing motive for building relationship (β = 0.031, p < 0.01) as well as time spent with the medium (β = 0.012, p < 0.05) on perceived brand quality. (2) PSI mediates the effect of physical attractiveness (β = 0.079, p < 0.001), attitude homophily/social attractiveness (β = 0.098, p < 0.001) and time spent with the medium (β = 0.018, p < 0.05) on brand affect, while partially mediates the effects of viewing motive for entertainment (β = 0.057, p < 0.01), viewing motive for building relationship (β = 0.047, p < 0.01) on brand affect. (3) PSI mediates the effect of physical attractiveness (β = 0.110, p < 0.001), attitude homophily/social attractiveness (β = 0.136, p < 0.001), viewing motive for building relationship (β = 0.066, p < 0.001) and time spent with the medium (β = 0.025, p < 0.01) on brand preference. And PSI partially mediates the effects of viewing motive for entertainment (β = 0.079, p < 0.001) on brand preference. In this sense, H6, H7, and H8 are supported. Discussion The results of this study provide recommendations that customers’ perceived brand quality, brand affect and brand preference could be enhanced by social media marketing practices by using vlogger. Various antecedents of PSI have been proven effectively influencing PSI and the findings of this study consistently demonstrate that physical attractiveness, attitude homophily, social attractiveness, viewing motive for entertainment, viewing motive for building relationship as well as time spent with the medium are influential elements to build a stronger PSI, which are essential to foster the “friendship” between media user and vlogger. This study confirms the mediating role of PSI between the antecedents of PSI and the brand variables. Long-term relationships with consumers is a viable marketing strategy (Berry, 1995), and the overall result supports that PSI can be used as a brand management tool to establish connections with consumers. Establishing a relationship with consumers via online brand ambassadors could eventually enhance perceived brand quality, brand affect and brand preference, and may lead to increase of the likelihood of future purchases.

Introduction Showing friendly, kind, and warm endorsers in advertisement is a common strategy for companies attempting to appeal to their customers on an emotional level. However, these companies may have systematically overlooked one important factor, the perceptual fluency of celebrity recognition. According to the perceptual fluency literature (Lee & Labroo 2004; Winkielman et al. 2012), information that is consistent with one’s existing knowledge is more easily to be processed. Unlike previous endorsement research, this study explored novel pathways of celebrity recognition and examined how the perceptual fluency of the celebrity will impact celebrity endorsement. This study aimed to answer two questions: ⦁ Does perceptual fluency of the celebrity affect how a viewer reacts to an advertisement on the metrics that advertisers care about? ⦁ If perceptual fluency of the celebrity does have an effect, how can advertisers enhance the fluency when creating print advertisements? The current study undertook two studies that provided evidence for the perceptual fluency effect of a celebrity’s physical image on consumers’ recall and attitude towards the endorsement. Study 1 Study 1 aimed to test the effect of perceptual fluency in the context of banner ads on website. A pre-test is used to examine the perceptual fluency of various outlines from different celebrities under coarse visual condition, and choose the celebrity’s image with the highest deviation regarding perceptual fluency. The pre-test employed 46 grayscale pictures of 18 Chinese celebrities, with two to four images per celebrity. 29 undergraduate students (16 males) took the pre-test. The task was a forced choice two-alternative identification (celebrity: yes or no). Subjects were instructed to identify whether it is a celebrity or not, by pressing the keys “Y” or “N,” respectively. Jet Lee’s (a famous Chinese material artist in Hollywood) images were selected for the main study based on the pre-test results. Evidences (correct rate: 62.1% vs. 20.7%; response time: 0.96 seconds vs. 1.46 seconds) reveal that the respondents experienced higher perceptual fluency in the famous pose condition than in the casual pose condition. The main study used a professionally designed beer advertisement showing Jet Lee as the celebrity endorser. To enhance the external validity of this study, the stimulus advertisement was placed at the lower-left corner, with other advertisements. To ensure the validity of the target group, a representative online sample of male participants was solicited through a professional online panel provider (Erfgen, Zenker & Sattler, 2015). In total, 168 male Chinese participants completed the online survey. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions (low vs. high perceptual fluency). Erfgen, Zenker and Sattler (2015)’s approach was employed to study advertisement recall. The experimenter informed participants that their mathematical mentality was being tested. They were instructed to read an article about how to teach mathematical mentality to children. However, respondents were not explicitly asked to look at the advertisement. A filtering question was asked about the content of the article, and those who could not answer correctly were excluded from further analyses. Participants then solved four mental math exercises involving basic arithmetic operations, to distract them from the advertisement, before responding to our dependent recall items: unaided recall of the brand, the endorser, and then aided recall of the brand, and endorser (i.e., participants could choose among 10 answer options). Finally, questions about endorser familiarity and some general demographic items were asked. In total, 106 participants answered the filtering question correctly (Mage = 27.9 years, 74.4% with a bachelor’s degree or higher). The endorser familiarity is not significantly different among the two conditions (Mhigh = 5.62 vs. Mlow = 5.78, n.s.). The recall rates confirmed that the use of images with low perceptual fluency impaired endorser recall as compared to the use of images with high perceptual fluency. Unaided endorser name recall was not significantly higher for the high perceptual fluency condition (21.6% correct) as compared to the low perceptual fluency condition (10.9% correct; χ2(1, 106) = 2.23, p = .10, φ = .15). However, for the aided endorser name recall, it was significantly higher in high perceptual fluency condition (29.4% correct) than in low perceptual fluency condition (9.1% correct; χ2(1, 106) = 7.14, p < .01, φ = .26). Brand name recall was not significantly different among the two conditions, both for unaided recall (11.8% vs. 7.3%; n.s.) and aided recall (15.7% vs. 12.7%; n.s.). The results of Study 1 offer evidence for the existence of the perceptual fluency effect by using a realistic advertisement context. Participants exhibited higher recall rates of the endorser’s name for images with high rather than low perceptual fluency, which indicates that even when audiences focus on other tasks, they are more likely to process the advertisement with a high perceptual fluence celebrity image than that with a low perceptual fluence one. Study 2 Study 2 aimed to test the relationship between perceptual fluency of endorser and consumers’ attitude towards the endorsement. Donnie Yen is considered to be one of Hong Kong’s top action stars. His images were also shown as stimuli in pretest in Study 1. The result revealed that the perceptual fluency of Donnie Yen with a friendly gesture (smiling with an inviting gesture; accurate rate =24%, mean response time = 1.46 seconds) was significantly lower than it was for his image with a provoking gesture (showing a fist with cool expression; accurate rate = 40%, mean response time = 1.03 seconds, p’s < .01). The experiment used a professionally designed advertisement of a virtual “LIMA” brand electric bike showing Donnie Yen as the celebrity endorser. Similar to the method used in study 1, high and low perceptual fluency images of Donnie Yen were used. It is well known that the endorsers’ facial expressions and features have significant impact on advertisement outcomes (e.g. Kulczynski, Ilicic & Baxter 2016; Xiao & Ding 2014). Thus, to rule out the alternative explanation of facial expressions and features, the experiment used a 2 (perceptual fluency: low vs. high) * 2 (celebrity face: face only vs. face and body) between group design. This online study included 108 male Chinese consumers from Sojump (a China-based online panel site). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. They were shown a constructed print advertisement pairing Donnie Yen with an electric bike. Participants were instructed to rate the endorser on trustworthiness, likeness, competence, and attractiveness (Tanner & Maeng 2012), following which they were asked to rate their attitude towards the advertisement (Aab), brand (Ab), and purchase intention (PI). Measurement of Aab was based on Mitchell and Olson’s (1981) 5-point semantic differential scale, which includes “this advertisement is: bad/good, dislike/like, and uninteresting/ interesting” (Cronbach’s α = 0.92). Measurement of Ab was based on Carrillat, d’Astous and Christianis’ (2014) model, which includes “For the brand LIMA: I have a negative opinion about/I have a positive opinion about, I do not like/I like, it is untrustworthy/is trustworthy, and it is inferior to other brands/is superior to other brands” (Cronbach’s α = 0.88). Measurement of PI was drawn from Choi and Rifon (2012) by asking “How likely is it that you would consider the advertised brand next time you purchase an electric bike?”. In addition, they were asked to rate the matchiness of the celebrity image shown in the stimuli: “To which degree is the image in the advertisement consistent with the celebrity’s image in your mind?”. Finally, questions about gender, age, and education were asked. Trustworthiness, likeness, competence, and attractiveness were analyzed by using a one-way ANOVA. Results showed no significant differences among the conditions. Attitude towards the advertisement and brand, and purchase intention were analyzed in a 2 * 2 ANOVA with the perceptual fluency and face conditions as independent variables. Results showed main effects of perceptual fluency for attitude towards the advertisement (F(1,107) = 3.47, p = 0.06), attitude towards the brand (F(1,107) = 3.93, p = 0.05), and purchase intention (F(1,107) = 7.35, p < 0.01), but no significant interaction (F’s < 1). A follow-up analysis revealed that, when the celebrity’s face and gesture was presented, high perceptual fluency lead to a higher endorsement effect (MAad = 5.72, MAb = 5.66, MPI = 5.83) than when there was low perceptual fluency (MAad = 5.18, MAb = 5.08, MPI = 5.06; p’s < .05). However, no significant difference was found if only the celebrity’s face was shown (high perceptual fluency: MAad = 5.29, MAb = 5.37, MPI = 5.52; low perceptual fluency face: MAad = 4.94, MAb = 5.18, MPI = 4.96; p’s > 0.05). To investigate whether feelings of image matching mediated the relationship between the perceptual fluency and positive attitude related to the advertisement, the PROCESS macro bootstrapping procedure (n = 10,000, model 4) was performed (Preacher, Rucker & Hayes 2007). Trustworthiness, likeness, familiarity, and attractiveness were included as covariates. The results indicated that the high perceptual fluency produced significant feelings of image matching (β = 0.32, p=0.055), and image matching was a significant predictor of Aad (β = 0.42, p<0.001), Ab (β = 0.27, p<0.001), and PI (β = 0.42, p<0.001). Further, the 95% bootstrapped confidence interval for the indirect effect of perceptual fluency on the dependent variables through the mediator, image matching, did not include zero (Aad: β= 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02–0.30; Ab: β = 0.09, 95% CI = 0.02–0.19; and PI: β = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02–0.30). These results support the notion that the perceptual fluency of a celebrity stimulus can affect the endorsement positively. Although the traditional influence factors of endorsement (i.e., trustworthiness, likeness, familiarity, and attractiveness) did not differ among the experimental conditions, participants showed significantly different attitudes towards the endorsement. Specifically, when the stimulus contained a celebrity image with high perceptual fluency, participants had significantly positive attitudes towards the advertisement and brand, and a higher purchase intention, as compared to those when a low perceptual fluency image was presented. In addition, the alternative explanation of facial expressions and features was ruled out in this study. Theoretical contribution This study contributes to the literature concerning how celebrities on printed advertisements are processed. (1) The current study revealed that the high rather than low perceptual fluency of celebrities’ physical image had higher benefits (e.g., martial art actor showing friendly gesture). The study defined this effect as perceptual fluency of celebrity recognition, which advances the stereotypic filtering mechanism (Sherman et al. 1998) and the fluency-as-good effect (e.g., Reber, Winkielman & Schwarz 1998). (2) This study also contributes to psychology through the assertion that our perception of famous faces can be influenced by the accompanied contextual information. Study 1 demonstrated that, other than the faces, the contextual information (e.g., hairstyle, gesture, and etc.) with high perceptual fluency can facilitate the recognition of celebrities. Study 2 revealed that the effect of perceptual fluency is more salient when the celebrity’s image includes the face and gesture. This result echoes findings from Aviezer et al. (2012), who argued that people tend to combine the face and body together, to create a synergistic effect. (3) Humans have evolved with significant mental capabilities to facilitate the rapid processing of information (Downing et al. 2001). However, the possible influence of such automatic evaluations in marketing contexts has not received sufficient attention. While marketers narrowly focus on manipulating attractiveness, agreeableness, or friendliness of celebrity endorsers, this study suggests that manipulating the perceptual fluency of the endorser may have a higher influence on consumers. These initial findings may help facilitate further marketing research using neuro and visual science methods to examine the perceptual processing of celebrities’ imagery. Implications for practice This study highlights the need for marketers to pay more attention to using the perceptual fluency of celebrity endorsers to enhance the endorsement effect. With increasing competition in marketing communications, automatic and holistic processing of the celebrity’s image may influence consumer behaviors in different contexts. Enhancing the perceptual fluency of celebrity images seems to have multiple benefits, including improved recognition, recall, and consumer attitude towards the endorsement. This study also proposes practical methods for the careful selection of celebrity images when constructing print advertisements. Marketers can evaluate the congruence of celebrities’ physical image with coarse visual images of celebrities and conduct pretests to determine the image that suits their printed advertisements. Limitations and Directions for Future Research One major limitation of this study is that only action movie stars were studied in the recall (Study 1) and consumer attitude experiments (Study 2). This is because it is a common practice that endorsers are asked to convey friendly signals in the advertisement, such as smiling, friendly body gesture, etc. Such friendly gestures are more likely to lead to low perceptual fluency for action movie stars than for other celebrities. Further evidence may be required for the perceptual fluency of celebrity recognition. Future studies can examine the perceptual fluency effect for other categories of celebrities, such as athletic stars, fashion stars, etc. Second, the current study focused only on male celebrities and male consumers. However, female celebrities are very popular in printed advertisements, especially for cosmetics, personal care, fashion, etc. (Belch & Belch, 2013). Influence of the perceptual fluency of female celebrities and the possible differences in the impact of each gender’s perceptual fluency requires further research. Third, in conducting Study1, the distraction task of mental math exercises only represented a simplification of reality. Future research can use more realistic tasks to enhance the external validity of the findings.

Customer online engagement is crucial to online travel websites which depend online reviews to attract new users and maintain current ones. The distinctive features of public attractions in tourism and the unique webdesign of TripAdvisor create an empirical environment for this study to explore the influence of customer experience and satisfaction on their engagement in posting reviews regarding public goods. Based on a sample of TripAdvisor-listed attractions and considering the information from over 37,000 online reviews, the empirical findings suggest that (1) customer online engagement is stronger (weaker) on paid (public) attractions, and (2) the positive effect of satisfaction on customer engagement in posting reviews is more evident among public attractions rather than paid attractions. This study concludes by offering managerial implications to regulators of public attractions, operators of travel websites, and managers of paid attractions.

Previous studies showed that poor weather conditions lead to increased online browsing behavior, which again enhances the likelihood for consumers to see an online advertisement (Ghose & Todri, 2016; Weißmüller et al., 2017). The authors assume that these changes in media consumption behavior effect not only one but many advertising channel simultaneously. Therefore, the authors investigate in this study how weather influences the effectiveness of several advertising channels at the same time. Specifically, they use field data over two years from an online streaming provider to capture advertising-spending, and -reach, as well as subscriptions. Furthermore, weather data from different weather stations across Germany are matched with customer data. The authors analyze five different advertising channels: television, email, affiliate, online display and search engine. By applying a count regression, preliminary empirical evidence suggests that weather-induced changes in media consumption leverages advertising effectiveness.

The key objectives of the research is to examine the impacts of consumption community and underlying motivations for joining consumption communities in consuming masculine products among Korean female consumers. This study is the first to link a consumption community to social identity theory. To find an answer to our research questions, the study uses Korean Harley Davidson female riders who ride the American heavy motorcycle in a consumption community to answer the research questions. Harley Davidson is an icon of masculine products due to the size and the powerful engine of the motorcycle. A hermeneutic approach is adopted to understand Korean female consumers’ motivations in joining consumption communities and their perceptions about riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. A hermeneutic method uses personal in-depth interviews to elicit the behaviors, values, and motivations that researchers are trying to understand (Kozinets, 2001; Thompson et al., 1994). The hermeneutic method is appropriate when researchers are attempting to understand motivations, values and beliefs deeply embedded in a person’s mind (Thompson et al., 1994).

An offshore installation is built or installed for the purposes of exploration and exploitation in any part of the sea. The offshore installations that are presently in existence reflect great scientific progress in the field of marine resources. However, they become a source of concern when they are no longer in use. Due to the potential to disrupt activities conducted around their location, they interfere with navigational safety. Therefore, it is important to remove such installations. Their removal should be based on the provisions of the IMO Guidelines and Standards. Indonesia is a coastal State and should adhere to the above mentioned guidelines and standard in designing policies and regulations.

The Prep Com recommended in July that the UNGA initiate a negotiating conference on areas beyond national jurisdiction. It is widely expected to make such a decision. Then, the long haul negotiation will begin. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not regulate marine genetic resources in areas beyond the national jurisdiction of States (BBNJ). Part XIII of the Convention could accommodate BBNJ research, but not its governance. The triangulation of three factors-the interim absence of an international framework for governance of BBNJ research, an indirect reference to this issue in the on-going BBNJ deliberations on access and benefit sharing and an interim laissez-faire attitude in BBNJ exploration and exploitation-leads to a need for transparency in governance of BBNJ research activities. To address this lacuna, a United Nations Register on BBNJ Research Activities is recommended, encouraging scientists from all regions including Asia to engage in BBNJ research.

Pavement performance usually depends on the pavement’s material property, traffic and environmental conditions. Current pavement design programs such as the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide use these factors in assessing the pavement life and performance in terms of different distresses like rutting and fatigue cracking. Theoretically, the cracking and rutting behaviour of pavements are based on accumulated strains experienced by the pavement which is brought by the weight and loading speed of vehicles. A steady state loading device was used in the field to evaluate pavement deflection’s behaviour in varying loading frequencies. It was observed that the pavement deflection increases as the loading frequency also increases until it approaches a certain frequency wherein the deflection decreases thereafter. In this study, a three-dimensional finite element pavement model was established using ABAQUS wherein the effect of the vehicle’s loading frequencies was analysed. The calculated static deflection and stress from the finite element (FE) model were found to have good correlation with the KENPAVE measured deflection and stress. The deflections of different pavement conditions were further studied and analysed by generating several pavement geometries and strength from the FE model using a frequency sweep response analysis. It was found that the geometric condition and the current modulus of the pavement can amplify the pavement deflection by a factor, β, depending on the loading frequency. The peak deflection was found to be occurring when the loading frequency approaches one of the pavement’s natural frequencies. Based on the finding from this study, the natural frequency is an important factor to be considered in designing pavements. Further study is recommended to understand more on how to minimize the effect of natural frequency to pavement life.

We assessed the effects of combining bio-char with straw residue mulching on the loss of soil soluble nutrients and citrus yield in sloping land. The two-year study showed that straw residue mulching (ST) and bio-char application combined with straw residue (ST+BC) can significantly reduce soil soluble nutrient loss when compared with the control treatment (CK). The comparative volume of the soil surface runoff after each of the treatments was as follows: CK > ST > ST + BC. Compared with the CK, the runoff volume of the ST was reduced by 13.6 % and 8.5 % in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Compared with the CK, combining bio-char with the ST application reduced the loss of soluble nitrogen and improved the soil total nitrogen content reaching a significant level in 2015. It dramatically increased the soil organic matter content over the two year period (36.3% in 2014, 50.6% in 2015) as well as the carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N) (16.6% in 2014 and 39.3% in 2015). Straw mulching combined with bio-char showed a trend for increasing the citrus yield.