A ‘brand’ metaverse is a virtual space where customers experience the brand via digital avatars. With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies, a brand metaverse is an important medium for communicating the brand with customers. In this study, we focus on the resemblance between a customer’s self and his/her avatar (i.e., self-avatar resemblance) in the brand metaverse and examine its influence on brand attitude. Prior studies examine self-avatar resemblance exclusively in non-brand-related virtual gaming platforms and test its effect on identity perception and immersion in the platforms. However, few studies probe the extent to which self-avatar resemblance influences customers' exploration in a brand metaverse and their attitude toward the brand. We fill this research gap by uncovering the positive effects of self-avatar resemblance on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Moreover, we proffer that the customers’ engagement toward the brand metaverse platform mediates the relationship between self-avatar resemblance and brand attitude. In addition, based on the interactive nature of metaverse, we hypothesize copresence―the number of avatars exploring the brand metaverse at the same time―to be a moderator, which strengthens the mediation. We conduct an experiment using a fashion brand’s virtual world positioned in a popular metaverse platform. In this experiment, participants create an avatar and freely roam around in the brand metaverse with their avatars. By reviewing the screen recording of each participant’s brand exploration in the metaverse, we measure self-avatar resemblance and other constructs. We also collect responses from questionnaires designed to measure attitudinal and behavioral variables. With the accumulated data, we test the hypotheses using partial least square structural equation model and find the results largely consistent with the hypotheses. With the findings, we provide important and interesting implications to marketing practitioners considering and doing ‘metaverse marketing.’

마케팅과 R&D의 상대적 비중으로 측정되는 전략적 강조(strategic emphasis)가 기업 성과에 어떠한 영향을 미치는 지는 주로 미국 상장 기업들의 자료에 의존하여 연구 되어 왔다. 하지만 이 머징마켓의 중요성이 증대되고 국가간 경제의 상호의존성이 높아지고 있음을 고려할 때, 전략적 강 조가 기업 성과에 미치는 영향이 선진국 뿐만 아니라 이머징마켓에서도 나타나는지를 살펴보는 연 구는 중요하다고 할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 중국 시장에 상장된 기업들의 자료를 분석하여 전 략적 강조가 중국 상장 기업들의 성과에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 살펴보고 더 나아가 그 영향이 선진국인 미국과 이머징 마켓인 중국에서 어떻게 다른지 비교하고 있다. 또한 상당수의 중국 기업 들이 국영기업들임을 감안할 때, 국영기업에서 전략적 강조의 효과가 감소 또는 증대되는지를 살펴 본다. 중국과 미국 기업들의 자료를 분석한 결과, 중국 시장에서 전략적 강조가 기업 성과에 긍정 적인 영향을 미치며, 그 영향은 미국에서 보다 중국에서 더 크게 나타났다. 또한, 전략적 강조의 기 업 성과에 대한 긍정적인 영향이 중국의 국영기업일수록 줄어드는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 같은 연 구 결과는 기업들이 한정된 자원을 가치 창출 활동과 가치 전유 활동에 어떻게 배분하는지에 따라 기업 성과가 달라지고, 또한 시장 환경에 따라 자원배분 효과가 달라진다는 점을 의미하여 다국적 기업의 글로벌전략 수립에 중요한 시사점들을 제시한다.

The present research examines how a CEO exposed to the public through social media (e.g., Facebook) influences the trustworthiness of the CEO and his/her firm. In particular, we focus on and measure the consistency of a CEO’s fashion style across different occasions, and test the impact of the ‘fashion’ consistency on respondents’ perception on the CEO’s trustworthiness. Based on the previous literature on impression management, we define the consistency of a CEO’s fashion style as how similar (rather than different) the style of his/her clothes across multiple media exposures. We then manipulate the similarity of a CEO’s fashion style, which is the focal independent variable, and measure the subjects’ trust toward the CEO, which is the focal dependent variable. Study 1 is a scenario-based study in which participants read the description of either a fashion-consistent or -inconsistent CEO, and indicated the CEO’s perceived trustworthiness. We find that perceived trust is higher for the fashion-consistent CEO. Study 2 is an experiment in which participants read four news articles of a CEO featured on a social media (i.e., Facebook). Unbeknown to participants, fashion consistency was manipulated such that half of participants saw the news on a fashion-consistent CEO whereas the other half saw the news on a fashion-inconsistent CEO. Interestingly, the interaction between CEO gender and fashion consistency becomes significant, suggesting that for a male CEO, fashion consistency increased trust whereas for a female CEO, fashion inconsistency increased trust. The present research complements to the literature on the roles of fashion of employees including top managers on impression management. We also discuss other interesting and important implications of the results on the mechanism of the ‘fashion consistency’ effects.