Commercial condom advertisements usually emphasize the sexual pleasure of branded products, which leads to controversial public views. Some people agree that commercial condom advertisements can also benefit public health, whereas others disapprove of such commercial condom advertisements because their contents are usually offensive, low-tasted, and pornographic. Despite controversy over commercial condom advertising, we know little about the spillover effect of commercial condom advertisement. On one hand, sexual-related content in the commercial condom advertisement may have an arousal effect. That is, it can evoke sexual arousal, leading to more sex intercourses. More frequent sex behaviors, especially casual sex behaviors, may then lead to a risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). On the other hand, commercial condom advertisements may have an educational effect. That is, it can persuade people to use condoms, helping people get in the habit of using condoms, thus reducing the STD trends. In the short term when condom commercials are aired, the arousal effect and educating effect coexists, which motivates the net short-term effect as an open empirical question. In the long-term when the condom commercial no longer aired, the educating effect remains, which decreases the STD trends.

Algorithms are rapidly altering the way society operates (SIOP, 2020). Algorithms are used in modern businesses for tasks such as hiring, advising investors on financial matters, recommending new products to customers (Shankar, 2018). However, lay people frequently oppose them, a phenomenon known as algorithm aversion (e.g., Dietvorst et al., 2015). While prior research tries to address this issue by identifying cognitive and affective predictors of algorithm aversion, we seek to contribute to the algorithm aversion literature by investigating an understudied antecedent of people’s support for algorithm adoption—their cultural values (Dietvorst & Bartels, 2022).

In recent years E-commerce platforms recommend some products for consumers based on their shopping history and user persona. However, sometimes, unfamiliar products or styles would be recommended to consumers unintentionally or intentionally. Curiosity drives consumers to try but this idea would be declined with the consideration of product fit uncertainty. Augmented Reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user‘s environment in real-time (Hilken et al. 2018), it can deal with issues related to physical apprehension that hinder consumers’ online shopping (i.e, clothes, cosmetics), especially for the unfamiliar style. This study aims to investigate whether AR technology could improve consumers' purchase likelihood. Augmented Reality (AR) can enhance customer experiences in a multichannel environment (Hilken et al. 2017). AR Integrates online experiences into the offline experience (Hilken et al. 2018), such as virtual try-on or magic mirrors. Customers often find it difficult to imagine how firms’ products and services fit them personally or fit with their environment (Hilken et al. 2018). Drawn on AR, consumers can easily evaluate the fitness between themselves and the selected products. Prior studies have explored the different underlying processes of why AR technology could improve consumer purchase intention and customer experience. For instance, according to the situated cognition theory, AR creates a feeling of spatial presence (Hilken et al. 2017). The usage of AR benefits mental imagery, improving decision comfort (Heller et al. 2019). AR can compensate for consumers’ need for touch and offer hedonic and/or utilitarian benefits (Gatter et al. 2022). Based on media richness theory, AR offers more information for customers (Hoffmann et al. 2022), which represents a fitting concept for customers to evaluate the product (Javornik 2016).

The development and application of NFTs has gained great attentions. Especially, with the eyes on the potential of Metaverse and Web 3.0, NFTs are regarded as one of the foundational parts of the future internet. The main contribution of NFTs is the innovative solution for creating digital uniqueness through its property of non-fungibility. With this property, the ubiquity caused by replicable data on the current internet can be advanced with NFT-backed uniqueness, which can assist in certifying authenticity, authorship, and possessions of contents, products, and assets online. This has tremendous meaning for the luxury brand industry, which has been struggling with the ubiquity of the internet for years. The emergence of NFTs, however, represents hope and a potential mean to represent scarcity in a digital context. By the use of NFTs, luxury brands’ conservative digital marketing strategies and their ways of production design, marketing, consumer management could be fundamentally changed. This study aims to discuss the NFT marketing strategy from the perspective of luxury brands. Particularly, the study will investigate the desirability strategies in these luxury NFT cases. To do so, the study uses a socio-technical perspective to understand how luxury brands embody the desirability strategy through NFTs, by considering the technical factors of NFTs (i.e., design, issuance, and ecosystem functioning) and social factors of desirability (i.e., exclusivity, rarity, prestige, and creative leadership). The study explores applicable strategy of how to realize luxury desirability through NFT technics. As a result, this study investigates 39 luxury NFT cases from 2021 to 2022, including the NFTs launched by famous luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and KARL LAGERFELD. The study showcases three within-case analyses to exhibit vivid examples of NFT innovations. Besides, the study generates a common framework by a complete cross-case analysis. The framework contains three domains and seven dimensions to guide further luxury NFT innovations and contributes to theory development in the field of NFT marketing and branding.

Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Robotics are emerging as a new way of improving services, readjusting and impacting all business industries and relationships among people (Loureiro et al., 2021; Makridakis, 2017; Mingotto et al., 2020). The hospitality industry is no exception to this (Mingotto et al., 2020) since a quick growth in the use of robots and AI in this industry has been seen, registering a turnover of 249 million U.S. dollars (International Federation of Robots, 2021). This demonstrates that these technologies have a huge potential to grow, being relevant to deeply study them. Since very few of the existing studies highlight the robot-human interactions, further studies on the enhancement of human well-being through transhumanistic technologies, close relationship marketing capabilities, and the evolution of the engagement process between humans and AI-enabled machines are needed (Loureiro et al., 2021). To address the existing gaps and consider Susan Fournier’s (1998) study on customer-brand relationships, the main goal of this study is to find support for this researcher by associating customer-brand relationship studies with a customer-robot relationship. It also aims to understand individuals’ attitudes towards different types of social robots and the relationship process between social robots and humans, in the hospitality industry, and the influence of identification in the creation of attachment, connection, and commitment. The possible contributions of the customer-robot emotional relationship on customers’ feelings of wellness were also studied.

The Metaverse is a digital space that utilizes the internet and augmented reality to blend real-life and virtual experiences. This emerging environment offers opportunities for individuals to purchase goods and services, enjoy entertainment, and participate in virtual events. By utilizing Direct-to-Avatar (D2A) and Metahuman (D2M) approaches, brands can create more seamless and immersive customer experiences, representing a progression in omnichannel evolution. Despite this growing interest in the Metaverse, there is limited research on how it impacts consumer perceptions. To address this gap, a qualitative study was conducted involving semi-structured interviews with C-level executives in the fashion industry, alongside two experimental studies that examined hypotheses related to the Metaverse experience. The results revealed that customer experiences in the Metaverse enhance perceived seamlessness and customer engagement. These findings can assist managers in identifying innovative ways to improve customer experiences, including developing new paradigms for the phygital world, combining elements of both physical and digital reality, and creating distinctive brand-customer interactions.

Livestreaming commerce is a form of e-commerce that embedded real-time video presentation and social interaction. It provides immersive shopping experience reinforced by high levels of interactivity and instant bidirectional communication. China, as one of the biggest livestreaming markets, has reached 2.3 trillion (CNY) livestreaming commerce market value in 2022. In a 2020 survey, two-thirds of Chinese consumers experienced livestreaming shopping in the previous year. Accordingly, luxury brands, such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton have started to implement livestreaming commerce in China. However, for years, luxury brands have struggled with online commerce as it may impact upon perceptions of exclusivity and dilute brand value. Research on the efficacy of live commerce emerged in recent years and mostly focused on non-luxury brands. However, luxury brands cannot simply copy digital marketing strategies that proved to be effective for non-luxury brands. To date, limited academic attention has been devoted to the luxury commerce in a livestreaming context.

A new type of food created in laboratories – lab grown meat (LGM) is an alternative to traditional animal farming and attracting attention of media, industry experts and consumers. Why is this new product so controversial? It is claimed that cell-based meat production is more environmentally friendly, ethical and sustainable than traditional methods that involve animals. Hence, being less harmful and potentially slowing down environmental degradation that leads to climate change. However, consumers have concerns regarding product quality, sourcing of cells used for production and use of growth serums. So many differing views are present, even before LGM is introduced as a marketable product. This paper examines what drives public discourse regarding how this new industry can be regulated, technology and how social media posts, fake news and publicly available rhetoric address consumer concerns and consumer acceptance regarding this new food category.

The luxury fashion industry is facing increasing scrutiny due to its negative environmental impact and unsustainable production methods. However, new business models in the form of second-hand commerce and renting are emerging as attractive options for consumers, reshaping the luxury fashion landscape. This paper examines the current state of second-hand luxury fashion and explores the business models adopted by companies in this sector. A review of existing literature reveals key themes pertaining to second-hand luxury, including consumer motivations and attitudes towards recycled luxury fashion, the evolving meanings and consumer identities associated with second-hand luxury, the impact on the traditional luxury fashion industry, the environmental benefits of recycled luxury fashion, and the business models and sustainability strategies of companies operating in this sector.

Central to retail therapy is the notion that stress can be eased by simple browsing, which produces immediate and positive psychological effects through shopping. In the Philippines, retailers are slowly adopting omnichannel strategies as a response to the fundamental shift to online retailing. However, during the pandemic, shoppers resorted to retail therapy to appease emotions and senses. This might explain how the Filipino deserve ko ‘to (I deserve this) mindset can be a form of self-gifting that may relate to retail therapy.

Negative brand events can significantly harm the brand, affecting consumer cognitions, emotions, and behavior, leading to negative brand evaluations, negative emotions, brand avoidance, and retaliation. Thus, it is critical for brands to design and implement strategies that promote consumer forgiveness to mitigate those negative consumer responses. Despite the growing literature on the determinant factors of consumer behavior in a brand failure context, there is still scarce evidence regarding the impact of brand type on consumer responses, including consumer forgiveness, following a negative brand event. Considering that consumers tend to react differently to a brand perceived as arrogant (making them feel inferior), as opposed to a brand they strongly identify with, this paper focuses on failures of equal vs. higher status brands and investigates their impact on consumer forgiveness. Following the above, we expect that differences in brand status can shape consumer behavior following a failure or transgression.

With the popularity of live streaming commerce, the characteristics of streamers and products subtly influence consumer behavior through visual live streaming form. Based on dual-process theory, this paper develops a comprehensive theoretical model to examine how consumer perceived streamer characteristics and product characteristics influence streamer attractiveness and product attractiveness, and explore how consumer behavior inertia is affected by streamer attractiveness and product attractiveness. An online survey consisting of 300 participants was recruited to empirically examine the proposed research model. The results indicated that consumer perceived streamer characteristics and product characteristics are important factors affecting the streamer attractiveness and product attractiveness, which in turn positively affect consumer’s shopping experience memory, which further influence consumer behavior inertia. In addition, the moderating effects of mindfulness are also examined.

The present study choose to conduct consumer behavioral research in Metaverse situation, explores factors that influence consumer shopping enjoyment and purchase intention from product, service and technology perceptive. The research team gathered the primary data through questionnaire subjecting to Chinese consumers (n=300) who know about TaoBao future city which themes on virtual buying in Metaverse. In addition, structural equation modeling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationship among the variables. The result shows that all the driving factors positive effects consumer shopping enjoyment and then influence purchase intention positively. The finding is significantly fundamental to establish theoretical framework future about virtual shopping in Metaverse, and help marketers realize how to set virtual stores in Metaverse to enhance consumer shopping experience so that they could improve consumer purchase intention in the context.

The sharing economy claims for research on its particularities and implications for management. This paper explores the way hosts of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation (P2P) develop relationship marketing with their guests and how it influences the business. The researchers conducted 30 semi-structured interviews to hosts of Airbnb, in order to obtain their perspective on the importance and application of relationship marketing in this context. Hosts with a B2C and a C2C business perspective were interviewed, and cultural differences in the relationship approach were also considered. The results show that the hosts are aware of the importance of interactions and personal contact with guests. Different results were identified depending on the type of business, accommodation, the culture and nationality of guests. Findings show that relationship marketing is highly explored in P2P sharing accommodation, exploring the interactivity of digital platforms to deepen those relationships.

Marine industry generates tons of waste, which is usually discarded or used for production of fish feed and low-value silage. However, marine residual raw materials (e.g., skins, heads, liver, and roe after fish gutting and processing) contain lipids rich in omega-3 fatty acid, which has several beneficial physiological effects such as maintenance of normal cardiac function, normal brain function, and normal vision. Food fortification with omega-3 fatty acid derived from marine residual raw materials can therefore provide health benefits and contribute to a circular food system. The current research explores consumer acceptance of the food fortified with microencapsulated fish oil derived from marine residual raw materials. Consumers may be hesitant to try these products due to food neophobia associated with tendency to eat foods with familiar ingredients. The idea of ingredients from normally discarded food parts may seem disturbing. However, there is a growing concern about low utilization of bioresources. Thus, conflicting goals may be in place and there is a need for research on motivations and barriers for consumption of this type of food. To address this, focus group interviews were conducted with 42 Norwegian consumers (7 groups, 4-7 participants each). The sample represented different age groups (20-55 years), genders, educational backgrounds, and income levels. Each participant received a compensation of ca. USD 30. The focus groups discussed food habits, attitude towards the fortified food and utilizing residual raw materials, and reasons for intake/no intake of such food. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative method. The results indicate that the informants have limited experience with fortified food. However, they demonstrate positive attitude towards the foods fortified with microencapsulated fish oil and appreciate the utilization of residual raw materials. Health benefits are one of the important motivations. Still, the informants are concerned about the fishy taste, as the flavor is also quite crucial. Another barrier is an expected high price for such food. Adding fish oil may also be a problem for vegetarians and consumers with allergies. Thus, transparent information about the food ingredients is essential. The results also highlight the importance of food’s sensory characteristics. The current study advances understanding of the consumer acceptance of the food with residual raw materials (so far under investigated in the literature), and thus provides a basis for finding an efficient strategy for communicating its benefits to consumers. It also provides societal health benefits and positive environmental effects due to the increased intake of omega-3 and better utilization of unused bioresources.

Some well-known luxury fashion brands log off social media or deliberately keep their accounts empty. The article investigates how consumers of high-end fashion brands react to this social media strategy through a series of experiments. This study provides managerial implications for social media strategy of luxury fashion brands.

The challenge of adjusting to new travel trends has led to a quest to find ways to motivate people to travel again and to make the industry more resilient long term. The implementation of phygital marketing as an information source seems promising. This is the first study considering phygital marketing initiatives as an approach to trigger people’s travel intentions. An online questionnaire incorporating a scenario-based 2x2 factorial designed experiment with a longitudinal prospective (2 waves) explored the impact of a technology-based peer-to-peer versus human-machine interaction phygital marketing initiatives as an innovative approach to trigger travel intentions for long-distance and short distance destinations. Study 1 (n=330) shows that the experience of using phygital initiatives not only builds trust but also encourages people to visit destinations, leading to a dynamic experience. Study 2 is currently in the field which means after all most of the pandemic related restrictions have been removed to compare to Study 1’s results. Alongside theoretical contributions, this study presents practical implications on how destinations could implement phygital marketing initiatives.

To successfully expand their business activities in overseas markets, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must first acquire a thorough knowledge and understanding of prevailing environmental and market conditions. This study examines the crucial role that a learning orientation can play in the generation of relevant foreign market knowledge. It also investigates the impact of foreign market knowledge on strengthening internationalizing SMEs’ operational adjustment agility and market capitalizing agility, which in turn enhance firms’ international venture performance. Our empirical effort is based on data collected from 209 Nigerian industrial SMEs which internationalize their efforts. To test our research model and hypotheses we collected data by means of a survey conducted among Nigerian small- and medium-sized firms (i.e., employing 250 or less people) which internationalize their efforts and launch their products in B2B markets. The positive role of learning orientation, foreign market knowledge and organizational agility is confirmed by our results on driving international venture performance.

Customer value co-creation behavior (CVCB) has been regarded as a strong predictor of firm performance in many industries for decades. CVCB—the customer’s direct and indirect contribution of resources to enhance the offering of the focal agent/object—is ubiquitous in service industries. Recently, customer engagement has been identified as a determinant of the value realized by customers and businesses. Customer psychological engagement (CPEngagement) is a multidimensional customer-firm relationship marked by customer satisfaction and emotional connectedness to the firm. Although there is concurrence that customer engagement and CVCB are linked, scholars diverge as to the precise nature of the relationship. Marketing and hospitality literature have not yet developed an integrated model of customer engagement with the digital and physical components of hospitality services. Given the increasing managerial interest in digital customer engagement and value co-creation behaviors, it is essential to enhance our understanding of the interplay between these concepts and their implications for both consumers and businesses. This research investigates the relationship between CPEngagement and value co-creation in the digital and physical aspects of hospitality services.

There is a growing trend towards consumption of meat alternatives. In response to rising demand, many brands add meat alternative options to their offerings (e.g., Impossible Whopper from Burger King, McPlant from McDonald’s). Consistent with this trend, a growing literature explores how to encourage consumers to reduce meat consumption and increase acceptance of meat alternatives. However, there are two major limitations in literature. First, most studies in this area do not employ real behavioral outcomes as the focal dependent variable. As a result, we cannot be certain that such findings can be extrapolated into real-world settings. Second, the majority of studies have focused on cognitive factors in investigating acceptance of meat alternatives. Hence, there is a need to attend more to affective factors when investigating how we can advertise meat alternatives. Against this backdrop, the present research investigates the interactive effect between regulatory mode (a motivational factor) and positive emotion (an affective factor) for driving social media engagement in advertising meat alternatives. Regulatory mode theory posits that consumers engage in goal pursuit by adopting locomotion (a motivation to “just do it”) and assessment orientations (a motivation to “do the right thing”). We propose that different, discrete positive emotions could interact with regulatory mode to create “fit” effects. Specifically, the fit between assessment orientation and the emotion of awe, and between locomotion orientation and the emotion of love will lead to increased social media engagement.