This study was conducted to develop a healthy functional food material using mycelial extract of Phellinus sp. Jangsoo and GMPL48007 were selected as suitable strains because of good mycelial growth and high functionality. The highest total polyphenols and reducing power were observed in the Jangsoo strain and the radical scavenging was shown in GMPL48007. Among grains media, whole-grain wheat had the highest extraction yield from mycelia of selected strains; especially, the GMPL48007 strain showed the highest content of beta-glucan.

The research employs factor analysis, followed by a MANOVA procedure to explore relationships between fashion consumption and social media usage behavior based on data collected from 447 individuals. Findings suggest that social media usage and apparel consumption motivations interact, particularly for whom use social media for instant-self presentation.

In this paper we present an analytical model that studies the strategic role of fake media content in a media market. We first find the conditions under which a monopoly media platform would publish fake media content. Then we show that certain opposite patterns exist in a competitive environment. Our results suggest that media platforms may find optimal profitability in publishing apparently less credible fake media content if the fake content can resolve consumers' cognitive dissonance. We find the exact equilibrium conditions under which both the platforms in a duopoly setting will find publishing fake media content as the optimal strategy. Additionally, we show that under specific conditions both platforms publishing fake media content can turn out to be a Prisoner's dilemma equilibrium. We also compute the relevant consumer surplus. Lastly, we use experiments to validate some of the results established by the analytical model.

When social media users post their opinion on social media, they might expect to receive a favorable evaluation from others (e.g., ‘like’ on Facebook and ‘heart’ on Instagram). On the contrary, when users read and evaluate other’s posts, they are less likely to care about others. What’s more, if users spend more time on social media, posting would make them more care about others. This research answers the question ‘Does social media interaction alter the way we perceive value and affect different choice? Three studies show 1) how social media interaction affects consumers’ luxury value perception and the mediating role of social media self-view (interdependent vs. independent self), 2) how main effect and mediated relationship are different between two groups divided by participants’ time spent on social media (high vs. low: ±1 SD) and 3) how the type of social media interaction (post vs. “like”) affects handbag choice between social and functional luxury-superior option.

The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that affect a celebrity’s perceived authenticity on social media sites. In total, 653 Taiwanese consumers were recruited to examine the proposed model. The findings generally support our model. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.

Using an experimental design, we investigated whether the relationship between apparel product novelty and consumers’ curiosity depends on perceived fashion influencers’ socioeconomic status. In addition, we investigated mediating role of curiosity in the product novelty effect on purchase intentions and intention to use a social shopping service.

Advanced web technologies enable consumers can create and exchange the content in various social media platforms (SMPs). As an interactive communication channel, SMPs serve as a new and updated form of online community where consumers and companies benefit from each other. Due to its minimal threshold in cost and skills necessary for accessing these SMPs, consumers use SMPs to acquire information in addition to seeking for socialization, which affect a purchase decision making process (Wang, Yu, and Wei, 2012). With various benefits of using SMPs among consumers, product reviews and photos posted by the customers in SMPs perform as an emerging type of endorsement to other users of SMPs. Individuals who actively share and disseminate the such product/service related-contents often become micro-celebrities among SMPs users. According to DiSilvestro (2016), customers no longer trust advertising created by brands, but they prefer to reply on reviews via SMPs, and in fact, 67% of consumers visit SMPs to reviews generated by other customers. In this regard, increasing number of brands tries to find influential micro-celebrities to build positive brand image and provide meaningful customer engagement which potentially increase sales in the end (Khamis, Ang, and Welling, 2016). Despite the increasing popularity of SMPs and influencers to brands, marketers struggle to measure their returns on investment, such as customer retention and increased customer lifetime value (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Thus, a focal interest of this study is the role of a sense of community in building participants’ positive relational outcomes for a given brand that implementing the promotional activities via SMPs (Hudson et al., 2016).

This research aims to identify the main drivers behind consumers’ connection with fashion brands on social media. With a sample of 29 in-depth interviews with French individuals the study analyzes why and how consumers connect with fashion brands on social media platforms. Our results disclosed three categories of drivers: information with characteristics of information seeking, need for “staying in”, public self-consciousness and tracking promotions; aspirational with characteristics of entertainment, visual enjoyment, and dreaming; and last social with characteristics of need for belonging to brand community, social contamination, and benchmark with reference groups. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed as well.