Following a series of major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it is believed that the use of AI technology can fundamentally subvert many industries and business fields, one of which is marketing. For instance, AI is likely to become a key driver of how advertising and marketing activities are conducted (Qin and Jiang, 2019) and thus dramatically change marketing strategies and customer behaviors (Davenport et al., 2020).

Every day, billions of messages about news, rumours, and experiences are shared by consumers through different kinds of social network medias (Berger, 2014). These shared messages, so called word-of-mouth (WOM), have crucial influence on the success of products and services (Dubois, Bonezzi, & De Angelis, 2016). WOM is a kind of interpersonal communication about products and services between consumers. Thus, it can be significantly influenced by interpersonal relationships. We conducted three experiments to investigate the effects of interpersonal relationships on brand evaluation. In three experiments, we examined how interpersonal relationship affects consumers’ evaluation of brands when they receive a eWOM message in the setting of closed virtual group of friends. The results make several contributions. First, we provide a framework to understand how interpersonal relationships affect the effects of eWOM in a closed virtual group of friends. Second, the effects of interpersonal relationship can be moderated by different situation of agreements, which extends the researches on eWOM. Third, the results reveal the reasons why different dimension of interpersonal relationship can play different role in the relationship between eWOM and brand evaluation.

This study explores how internal and external factors influence the design and use of marketing performance measurement (MPM) practices in Chinese firms. The results show that a firm’s MPM practice is subject to its characteristics (e.g., marketing dashboard, market orientation, marketing complexity) and its external condition (i.e., market turbulence).

Well-developed listening skills are crucial to success in the marketing profession. Poor listening skills have been rated as the most important contributing factor to salesperson failure (Ingram et al., 1992). Listening errors can result in conflicts, missed business opportunities, alienated relationships, and a waste of time and money (Bergeron & Laroche, 2009). Recognizing the importance of effective listening, organizations such as Pfizer, Ford, IBM have introduced listening training programs for all their personnel (Shepherd et al., 1997). A number of definitions exist for “listening” (e.g., Bergeron & Laroche, 2009). From the marketing perspective, this paper adopts a well-accepted listening definition as “the cognitive process of actively sensing, interpreting, evaluating and responding to the verbal and nonverbal messages of present or potential customers” (Castleberry & Shepherd, 1993, p.36). Prior research has underscored the importance of “active listening” strategies such as active empathetic listening (Drollinger et al., 2006; Bodie, 2011); adaptive selling (Spiro & Weitz, 1990); and listening across cultures (Imhof & Janusik, 2006). However, despite its importance, neither marketing students nor professionals receive coaching or instruction for situations when listening is particularly difficult – i.e., when we are required to listen carefully to another person in the presence of hindrances to communication (distractions, inattention, poor delivery). Salespeople, students, journalists, counselors … are often faced with the task of “tough listening” - when they must listen carefully to a person that is not communicating in an interesting or engaging manner, when the environment is full of distractions, or when they as listeners are fatigued. The major hindrances to effective listening have been well documented, but extant research that addresses how people might overcome those hindrances is scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of strategies that people use to improve their comprehension and empathy of others when they wish to listen carefully but find it difficult to do so. The practice of effective listening is perhaps one of the most human and fundamental components of community, commerce, and culture. Several academic disciplines such as marketing, education, communication, and psychology have closely examined the listening process in an effort to understand and improve it.

Customers are regarded as the key intangible assets of a company. It is necessary to have the capability to anticipate customer value. The study discusses the relationship among customer value anticipation, product innovativeness, and customer lifetime value from customer perspective. 178 MBA students were surveyed by questionnaire in this study. The results show that customer perceived customer value anticipation can significantly influence product innovativeness. Product innovativeness not only positively affects customer lifetime value, but also plays a partial mediating role between customer value anticipation and customer lifetime value. Both functional and emotional advertising can play a moderating role on the relationship between product innovativeness and customer lifetime value. At the end, managerial implications are discussed.