Judging by the volume of marketplace failures, it seems that consumer innovators make biased assessments about the value of the innovativeness of new products (Gourville, 2006; Mugge & Dahl, 2013). Research suggests that consumer evaluate offerings based on form (i.e. visual appeal) and function (i.e. utilitarian appeal) (Gourville, 2006; Talke, Salomo, Weiringa & Lutz, 2009; Mugge & Dahl, 2013). In relation to innovative new products, the consumer decision-making path is unclear and the optimal mix of continuity and discontinuity across form and function is unknown. The lack of information regarding how marketers should appropriate resources to maximise returns thus, is an issue that requires resolution. To help resolve this gap, we seek to address two important practical marketing questions in the context of innovative new product introductions: (Q1) What is the impact that discontinuity and continuity across form and function have on new product adoption, and (Q2) What if any, are the underlying mediating mechanisms for different markets? To address these, we collected data from participants based in the United States of America through an online experiment. The participants were presented with four products, comprising variations of a digital camera based of continuity and discontinuity across form and function. The findings revealed that the same product could lead to differing perception of value based on the participant being an innovator or an adapter. The differing perceptions were explained by differences in assessments of potential costs and benefits from the product. Based on the findings of the study managerial recommendations on targeting the right segment for the right product were offered.

This paper presents a way of classifying qualitative online consumer reviews (OCRs) in terms of functional and emotional dimensions and measures the direct and indirect impact of both volume and valence of OCRs on product sales. Utilizing four million online postings across 342 mobile games for thirty months, the authors use text analysis and word classification and identify 74 representative words to describe the various levels of functional OCRs consisting of product quality, product innovativeness, price acceptability, and product simplicity, and emotional OCRs including anger, fear, shame, love, contentment, and happiness. They combine the resulting OCR volumes with weekly sales, resulting in 1,835 observations for analysis with hierarchical Bayesian methods. Results suggest that the volume and valence of aggregated functional OCRs and the valence of aggregated emotional OCRs have the positive effects on sales. The volume and valence of functional OCR subcategories have mixed effects on sales and the link is moderated by the share of emotional OCR subcategories. Further, a sales forecasting model which includes 13 variables of OCR subcategories shows the best predictive validity.

Marketers increasingly develop strategies to benefit from the potentials of the mobile internet and related technologies. Digitally enhanced product packaging is one prominent example for this evolution and QR (quick response) codes currently give this trend an appearance. QR codes enable manufacturers to provide consumers - despite the limited space on the product package - with comprehensive product information. And consumers increasingly request additional product information, for instance, to monitor environmental factors before purchasing products. Hence, while marketers nowadays regularly use QR codes on product packages to provide consumers with additional product information, they complain about the low usage rates and finally about the effectiveness of QR codes. Extant literature provides little guidance on consumer responses towards these marketing stimuli and, in particular, on how the mere presence of QR codes on product packages affects consumer behavioral and behavior-related responses. Existing research unexceptionally explores how marketers can motivate consumers to scan QR codes (Okazaki et al., 2012; Okazaki et al., 2017) and thus draws a one-sided picture of how marketers can benefit from QR codes. To enrich extant knowledge, this research uses information processing and environmental theory to offer insights into whether and how QR codes on product packages affect consumer product purchasing. The findings of an experimental study illustrate that QR codes affect consumer product purchases by inducing product- and vendor-related cognitive beliefs. In particular, the presence of QR codes on product packaging strengthens consumers’ perceptions about product quality and vendor innovativeness which then positively translate into purchase intentions. Hence, QR codes displayed on product packaging indirectly shape product purchasing. In sum, this research broadens the previous focus on usage-related outcomes by considering how and why QR codes affect consumer purchasing.

The study is aimed to find out the influencing factors when consumers decide to choose products with low quality. The result indicates that major considered factors should be short life cycle, low quality, design, price and purchase intention, while price be considered as the one which has significant effect on consumers’ choices of accepting low quality, as well as product design. Most companies put the market share at the vital position, in traditional commercial thinking, high quality always means that products will be accepted by most customers; but now it is totally different. We take fast fashion industry and mobile phone industry as examples and choose fsQCA as the methodology to analyses the relationship between variable and result. Most of the customers are pursuing for high quality with low price (Dodds et al., 1991; Alfred, 2013; Shirai, 2015). But the companies are difficult to make the high quality products have low price. The companies can have the high quality advantage. However, quality is not the only factor to make the products with high price, design, corporate culture and brand can also be the factors (Homburg et al., 2015). How to make the consumers accept the low quality in short lifecycle product (e.g. fast fashion or high-tech industry), which means consumers may purchase new product to replace the old one before it has problems. In our study, we collect these data from customers via questionnaire. And use fsQCA to analyze the relationship between price, design and short lifecycle, all these influencing factors and customer purchase intention on low quality product. And we have some findings. Sometimes, low quality products can help companies achieve success by bringing income and satisfy consumers’ needs of goods and services in affordable price. From company’s aspect, low quality products are more affordable than those of high quality, so these products will win larger market share and promote fast fashion items to sell fast. While customers sometimes demand more products with good design, at the same time, they cannot bear the expensive items, low quality products can achieve balanced between demands and consuming ability. This means both companies and customers can get win-win situation.

As fashion and distribution companies have increasingly turned to implementing marketing activities that use omni-channel strategies, it is imperative to explore consumer-oriented evaluations of omni-channel shopping for fashion products. Through contributing to the growing research flow of consumer behavior within omni-channel contexts, the current study explores consumer motivations for omni-channel fashion shopping and their impacts on the decision-making stages of fashion products. The authors first performed in-depth interviews with six Korean consumers and confirmed the four types of consumer motivation for omni-channel shopping, and how decision- making processes react to fashion companies’ omni- channel marketing strategies. These findings were used to set survey items for the main study. Based on the results and findings of previous literature, an online survey was conducted with 300 participants who had actual experience with omni-channel shopping for fashion products. The statistic results from the survey revealed the following: First, the in-depth interviews allowed the authors to confirm four factors of omni-channel shopping motivation (ubiquity, efficiency, convenience, and impulsiveness). Second, the survey showed the authors that among the four factors of omni-channel shopping orientation, impulsiveness had the greatest effect on consumer behaviors at the preand on-purchase stages, while the ubiquity factor had the greatest effect at the post-purchase stage. As such, the study empirically tested the omni-channel-specific factors of shopping orientation and motivation. In addition, it showed the effect of omni-channel marketing on various stages of the decision- making process and the study’s limitations and implications were discussed.

The purpose of this study was to identify the consumers’ demands on functional design of sports climbing pants. Data were collected through a field survey. 82 male and 70 female amateur sports climbers in Seoul participated. The questionnaires measured aspects of functional design in sports climbing pants, specifically motion adaptability, comfort and aesthetic value of the climbing pants. The results of this study show that comfort during climbing postures was the most important value of the climbing pants. The subjects sought motion adaptability at the hip, crotch, thigh and knee. The preferred style and degree of fit of climbing pants were differed according to gender. Men preferred loose or semi tight fit style climbing pants but women preferred the leggings style of the sport pants. The soft touch seam line and body shaping function were also important for women. The type of pants preferred for sports climbing also differed by the climbing experience period. Men began to wear the outdoor mountaineering style pants when they had experienced sports climbing for 6 months and to wear the climbing expert style pants when they had experienced sports climbing for a year. Most women wore leggings style sports pants from the beginner stage. This study also analyzed Korean market trend in 2016~2017 F/W for sports climbing pants design. The men’s pants were more likely to be designed to improve mobility compared to the women’s pants, even though the aesthetic value of the sports climbing pants was important for women.

Along with the rapid development of China’s economy, the consumption of China’s consumer has also been increased. This research explores whether China’s consumers concern about product’s packaging as much as product’s quality and brand influence. It also discusses whether the product packaging is marked with recyclable logo on it and whether the packaging is harmful to human health. China’s express industry is taken as an example in this research. According to the statistics by State Post Bureau, the total amount of China’s express business was 14 billion packages in 2014, and the volume was substantially increased to 20.67 billion packages. If each package was estimated as 0.2 kg, more than 4 million tons of packaging waste would come from 20 billion packages. Recyclable packaging material would reduce the amount of waste and alleviate environmental pollution. However, whether customers are willing to pay for it is a problem. Product packaging can’t only attract customers from the visual perspective, but needs to be developed through multi-dimensional sensory conveying method. The product itself can be expressed directly through simple packaging. For instance, the Apple Inc. does not only shift consumer’s thoughts on mobile phone, meanwhile, it makes a change on high-end brand mobile phone packaging for China’s consumers. Prior to the emergence of Apple mobile phone, high-end mobile phone brand was adopted luxurious and sophisticated packaging method. With the entrance of Apple into China’s market, the unique style of Apple’s simplicity is followed by other mobile phone brands. This research is elaborated on China’s consumer’s reaction on innovative ecological packaging and their cognition to food packaging security. It also gives inspiration to enterprises how to catch consumer’s eyeballs through innovative ecological packaging and further make enterprises access to benefits.

Introduction As many as 44 million people cannot read a newspaper or fill out a job application and another 50 million more cannot read or comprehend above the eighth grade level in the U.S. (Kirsch, Jungeblut, Jenkins, & Kolstad 1993). While basic literacy rates may increase, the percent of adults who have sufficient literacy skills to function adequately in that society may decrease. But a more serious problem that the US is experiencing is the increasing number of people who are aliterate. The aliteracy phenomenon is “increasing numbers of capable readers who are regularly choosing not to read”(Mikulecky, 1978, p.3). Aliteracy is on the rise internationally (Merga, 2014). Less than 66% of Hong Kong’s citizens (Anon., 2011) and less than 50% of Italians (Istat, 2010) reported reading a book in 2010. Aliterate consumer can read. However, while aliterate consumers are capable readers, they may display similar reading outcomes (i.e. poor comprehension) to illiterate or low-literate consumers (i.e., consumers who are not capable readers). We explore underlying reading processes of aliterate consumers from a level of processing perspective (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984). Conceptual Background and Hypotheses Level of processing ranges from shallow to deep. Shallow processing consists of attending to phonetic and orthographic components. Deeper processing involves using semantic processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). Greater depth of processing thus entails a higher degree of cognitive involvement for the purpose of comprehension. Deeper processing at the semantic task level results in longer processing time and better memory performance (Gardiner, 1974). Conversely, when readers engage in shallow processing, memory performance is reduced (Treisman, 1964, 1969). For instance, in an advertising context, Saegert (1979) finds that deeper processing of ads resulted in greater recall and recognition. As detailed, literature on reading suggests that aliterate processors do not process written texts at a deep level, preferring instead to skim and scan (Duchei & Mealy 1993). In the domain of consumer behavior in general, and product warnings in particular, consumer aliteracy suggests a shallow level of processing of written marketing materials that will be observable from both a process and an outcome standpoint. In terms of process, aliterate consumers lower level of processing will be manifest in less time spent processing product warnings. As an outcome, comprehension of written product warnings should decrease as consumer aliteracy increases and time spent processing decreases. These baseline differences between more- and less- aliterate consumers is formalized as Hypotheses 1-3. H1. Consumers with higher consumer aliteracy levels will spend less time processing written product warnings. H2. Consumers with higher consumer aliteracy levels will have lower comprehension of written product warnings. H3. Time spent processing written product warnings will mediate the relationship between consumer aliteracy and comprehension of product warnings. Method Sample and Procedure One hundred sixty-one students from a large Southeastern university participated in an online survey. The sample was 51 % female and 57% white/Caucasian. Participants were asked to review an ad for fabric softener and then asked to respond to ten comprehension questions regarding the product warning that was prominent in the ad. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the extent to which they agreed (i.e., seven-point scale) with each of the five-items of the aliteracy scale (Jae & Ferguson 2010). Finally, participants were asked to complete a reading ability scale (Reading Level Indicator, 2000) and demographic information. Stimuli Two versions of ads for a fictitious laundry softener product called “Visatia”were used as the experimental stimuli. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the ad conditions. Both ads featured a picture of a product package a statement about the product’s performance (e.g., you can have a fresh feeling every day with Visatia), and product warning information. The ads differed only in the amount and complexity of information provided regarding product performance. A longer and more difficult version of the product claims and a shorter and less complex version of the product claims were used to ensure that differences between more- and less-aliterate consumers did not arise only for ads of a certain length or complexity. Measures Ten comprehension questions were designed to test how well participants understood the product-warning statements in the ads. Each question offered four answer choices. To measure overall comprehension, each question was scored 1 for the correct answer and 0 for the incorrect answer. The five-item aliteracy scale (Jae & Ferguson, 2010) was measured with seven- point Likert scales (strongly disagree/strongly agree). Participants a reading ability test comprised of twenty vocabulary and twenty sentence completion questions (Reading level indicator, 2000). Participants’time spent in reviewing the ads containing the product warnings was measured electronically. Results The average participant spent 30.29 seconds reviewing the stimuli (e.g., product warning), earned 7 out of 10 on product warning comprehension, and achieved 35 out of 40 on the reading ability index. The Consumer Aliteracy Scale demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .822). Data were collapsed across ad length/complexity conditions after failing to observe differences in processing across the two ads (p > .1). Path analysis was used to test Hypotheses 1-3. Path analysis allowed us to test multiple relationships consecutively and to test for mediating relationships (Iacobucci, Saldanha, & Deng, 2007). The model was estimated with direct and indirect paths included. The fit statistics were acceptable (i.e., χ2= 10.65, df = 13, p = 0.64, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.00, SRMR = 0.03) (Hu & Bentler, 1999). To test Hypotheses 1-3, including the mediating effect of time on the aliteracy—product warning comprehension relationship, we estimated the direct effects of aliteracy on product warning comprehension, as well as, the indirect effects of aliteracy on time and of time on product warning comprehension simultaneously. Hypothesis two is supported as aliteracy has a direct, negative effect on product warning comprehension (γ21=-0.245, p <.01). The indirect path of aliteracy to time and time to product warning were also significant. Specifically, Hypothesis three is supported in that consumers who reported higher levels of aliteracy spent less time viewing the product warnings (γ11=-0.191, p <.05), and consumers who spent less time viewing the product warnings scored lower on product warning comprehension (β21= 0.294, p <.01). With significant indirect paths, a significant direct path, and a significant Sobel z (i.e., z =2.013, p <.05), we conclude that time spent viewing product warning partially mediates the relationship between aliteracy and product warning comprehension. The Hypothesis three is supported. Correlation analysis indicates that aliteracy level is not correlated with reading ability level (i.e., r = -.03, p =.70). This suggests evidence that aliteracy is not a function of reading ability. Discussion While aliteracy may be a growing phenomenon, the extant research on the topic is limited. From the viewpoint of consumers, aliteracy could lead to unwise product selection, dangerous misuse of products, product dissatisfaction, and wasted time and money. Aliteracy, by definition, is not an ability issue rather motivation issue. Even though capable readers, aliterate consumers reading comprehension is significantly below non-aliterate consumers, a similar outcome pattern observed for low-literate consumers relative to high-literate consumers (Jae & DelVecchio 2004). Due to their lack of reading habit, aliterate consumers do not take full advantage of available information in the marketplace. The current study demonstrates that aliterate consumers display significantly different reading outcomes relative to non-aliterate consumers; differences that are not driven by reading ability. Aliterate consumers spend less time reading and, in turn, achieve a lower level of comprehension of written product warnings relative to non-aliterate consumers. Thus, the study reveals that aliterate consumers may mirror the reading outcomes of low-literate consumers in reading product warnings who demonstrate poor comprehension relative to literate consumers.

Increasing consumer scepticism about corporate behaviour has led companies to actively manage and advertise their corporate brands. However, it remains unclear how receptive consumers across different markets have been to such efforts. This study examines (i) consumer involvement (a motivational state activated by personal relevance of a stimuli) levels and (ii) processes with corporate advertising to demonstrate differences and similarities with product advertising across multiple markets. Using between subject experimental design, the study was conducted across three different markets with varying degrees of economic development i.e. USA (n = 285), France (n = 217) and Pakistan (n=311). Results demonstrate that consumer involvement levels with corporate advertising is higher in USA than in France and Pakistan. American consumers tend to be involved with corporate advertising as much as they are with product advertising, whereas, French and Pakistani consumers are more involved with product advertising. Apart from differences in involvement levels, study findings demonstrate substantial similarities in involvement processing and how they impact ad attitude and consumers’ behaviour across both the markets. The study holds importance for corporate communication and product managers with cross national responsibilities as it establishes differences and similarities for corporate and product ad involvement across developed and emerging markets.

This research examines how consumer ethnocentrism and global social bonding affect consumer appreciation for foreign products in the home country. Our research findings show that consumer ethnocentrism lowers diversity appreciation; global social bonding enhances diversity appreciation; and global social bonding moderates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and diversity appreciation.

The purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents of repurchase intention toward fast fashion brands. Perceived quality, perceived price, deindividuation, and overly trendy styles, which are product characteristic variables, and fashion innovativeness, which is a consumer characteristic variable, were considered as antecedents. It was hypothesized that product and consumer characteristics influence repurchase intention toward fast fashion brands not only directly, but also indirectly through cognitive dissonance. Data were gathered by surveying university students in Seoul using convenience sampling. Three hundred and fifty-two questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. SPSS was used for exploratory factor analysis, and AMOS was used for confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. The factor analysis of product characteristics revealed four dimensions: “perceived quality”, “perceived price”, “deindividuation”, and “overly trendy styles”, and the factor analysis of consumer characteristics revealed one dimension. The factor analysis of cognitive dissonance revealed two dimensions, “regrets” and “perceived uncertainty.” The hypothesized path test proved that perceived quality, deindividuation, overly trendy styles, and fashion innovativeness influence repurchase intention directly. Perceived price and deindividuation influence repurchase intention indirectly through the factor of cognitive dissonance, which is the perceived uncertainty, indicating the importance of cognitive dissonance. The results indicate effective marketing strategies should be used to decrease consumers’ cognitive dissonance, and suggestions for future study are provided.

This study was to identify the effect of the satisfaction of certification, the educational use of the company offering certificate, the system of confirmation of the same model and the demographic aspect on the companies to see if compulsory certification(KC certificate) has negative effects on company management. First, the satisfaction of certification could reflect positive influences on company management. Second, there is no statistical significance in the education from the company offering certificate as a result of analyzing relationships but education is required and has an effect on improving quality according to the result of frequency analysis. Last, the system to declare by identifying the same model has a difference in significance in sales account, the development of products and warranty service for products.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship that exists between salesperson appearance and consumer behavior in the context of in-home product demonstration parties. Researchers (Kim, Ju, & Johnson, 2009; Klassen, Clayson, & Jasper, 1996) have found that the way in which a salesperson dresses has an impact on consumers’ perceptions of the store’s image. Furthermore, consumers intend to purchase more from salespeople who are dressed formally than those dressed informally (Shao, Baker, and Wagner, 2004). Additionally, Cho (2001) suggested that consumers tend to be more satisfied with salespeople who are dressed in a manner (i.e., formal, informal) that is comparable to the way they would dress. Extrapolating from research based in bricks-and-mortar stores, it seems likely that in-home product demonstrators’ appearance would have a similar impact on both consumers’ perceptions of their companies’ image and purchase intentions. To examine these relationships, 155 U.S. female consumers completed an online survey. Participants were first asked to look at one of four randomly assigned photographs of an in-home product demonstrator who was dressed either formally or informally and respond to items designed to measure their perceptions of the business’ image and their purchase intentions (Klassen, Clayson, & Jasper, 1996). Then participants viewed all four photographs and were asked to indicate which of these outfits looked the most similar to one that they would wear if they were going to host a party at their home and attend a party at someone else’s home. A series of t-tests revealed that consumers perceive the in-home product demonstrator’s business’ image to be more positive and express greater purchase intentions when the salesperson is dressed more formally than when she is dressed less formally. Additionally, when similarity exists between the way in which the in-home product demonstrator is dressed and the way in which consumers would dress to host or attend a party, both impressions of the business and purchase intentions are greater than when dissimilarity exists. The results of this investigation may assist non-store retail salespeople. Information gleaned from this study could help these entrepreneurs achieve their goals by using appearance management techniques. By presenting an appropriate, formal, professional appearance to new customers whose individual style they do not know and/or matching their appearance to that of the host and party attendees, the salespeople could increase sales during in-home product demonstration parties.

This study was conducted to analyze the differences in consumer behavior of coffee product according to monthly income in franchised coffee shop's consumer in Korea. A total of 293 questionnaires were used out of the 330 that had been distributed for analysis; those that lacked reliability were excluded. Frequency, ANOVA, and Duncan's multiple range test was conducted to analyze the hypotheses of the study. The findings are summarized as follows. There were significant differences in consumer behavior with regard to seeking health, eco-friendly products, product brand, and product taste as well as preferred coffee menu and coffee consumption expenditures. High income consumers rather than low income groups showed much higher score for concerning health, concerning diet, concerning calorie, concerning instant, concerning caffeine and concerning nature, organic in coffee consumer behavior. In amount spent on purchasing coffee products according to income, low income consumers rather than high income groups had much higher financial expense burden.

기본 연구의 목적은 스마트 의류에 대한 감성 요인을 분석하여 종래 의류와의 감성 차이를 비교하고 제품과 의류 간의 융합으로 인한 소비자 감성의 변화를 고찰하는 한편 스마트 의류와 종래의 의류 간의 선호도 및 구매 의사 차이에 대해 조사함으로써 소비자 감성을 만족시키는 소비자 중심의 스마트 의류 디자인 및 애플리케이션 개발을 위한 상품기획 방안의 기초 자료를 제공하는데 있다. 연구 결과 스마트 의류에 대한 감성 요인은 총 6개 의 요인으로, ‘테크니컬한’, ‘컴포트한’, ‘심미적인’, ‘모던한’, ‘펀’, ‘복합적인’ 감성 요인으로 분석되었는데, 이 중 ‘컴포트한’을 제외한 5개의 감성 요인에서 종래의 스포츠, 캐쥬얼 의류와 스마트 의류 간에 유의미한 감성 차이 를 보였다. 또한 스마트 의류와 종래 의류 간에 선호도는 스마트 의류가 약간 높았던 반면, 구매의사는 종래의 의류보다 스마트 의류가 더 낮은 것으로 나타나 선호도가 소비자의 즉각적인 구매로 연결되는 것은 아니며 좀 더 다양화된 애플리케이션의 스마트 의류 개발과 상품화 전략이 요구되는 것으로 분석되었다. 또한 스마트 의류 개발 및 상품화에 관한 자유 응답식 설문 분석 결과 소비자들은 심박, 심전도 등을 측정할 수 있는 헬스케어용 스마트 의류 뿐 아니라 신체 동작으로부터의 에너지 수확 기능, 발열과 발한 기능, 운동량 측정 및 칼로리 소모 등 다이어트에 도움을 주는 스마트 의류 개발에도 관심이 많은 것으로 나타났으므로 이러한 소비자의 요구를 반 영하여 향후 스마트 의류의 개발 지침으로 활용해야 할 것이다.

This research studied the effect of underwear’s product cues (style, fabric and price) on consumer choice by using conjoint and consumer neural response (EEG). The results reveal that female prefers bikini style and silk fabrics while male likes brief and boxer. In addition, male more relies on price than female.

This study of Product Placements examines cross-cultural differences in the UK, Germany and Mexico using an online survey of 338 respondents. Although product placement can still be used as a standardised global marketing strategy significant cultural differences were found, Marketers must therefore pay attention to such differences for international product placement decisions.

Extant research has expansively studied the effect of celebrity endorsements on consumer choice and behavior (Amos, Holmes, and Strutton, 2008) and found celebrities to positively influence the endorsed brands. According to prior literature, three fundamental ties between endorser, consumer and product influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, namely the endorser-product match-up, the consumer’s identification with the endorser and the consumer’s product category involvement. So far, these have been investigated predominantly in a positive endorser information context (Erdogan, 1999). However, the effect that negative information about the endorser hitting the spotlight has on the brand’s future and the role that these ties play in this context remain widely unknown. This research fills the gap by exploring the effect of negative information about an endorser on consumers’ attitude towards the ad, brand attitude, behavioral intentions and word of mouth. By further integrating the meaning transfer model, social influence theory, the match-up hypothesis and product-category involvement, this research offers deeper insights into the three essential ties between endorser, consumer and product. In an extensive main experiment, with two brands - Nike and Adidas - and 7 celebrity endorser the author finds that a strong fit between celebrity and product, high product-category involvement and high identification of consumer with the celebrity offer beneficial effects for consumer perceptions and intentions. However, when an endorser scandal becomes public, negated meanings get transferred to the brand, leading to less favorable attitudes towards the ad, brand attitudes, behavioral intentions and willingness to recommend the brand. This phenomenon is stronger in case of attitude towards the ad for high product involvement and low identification with the celebrity. Furthermore, a low identification with the celebrity also moderates a higher decrease in willingness to recommend the product in case of celebrity negative information. Thus, marketing managers should keep an eye especially on highly involved and low identified consumers in case of endorser scandals, as this immoral behavior can damage the endorsed brand image and hurt earlier ad expenditures.

The limited available empirical evidence indicates that consumer ethnocentrism does not have a uniform effect on consumer buying (e.g., Klein, Ettenson & Morris 1998; Suh & Kwon 2002). The paper comes to address this gap by investigating the inconsistency of ethnocentric behaviours and the factors underlying such inconsistencies. More specifically, brand, product category and country of origin (COO) effects are examined for their impact on behavioural consumer ethnocentric bias. Contrary to the main stream of research in this area, which concentrates on general attitudes towards the products or buying intentions (e.g., Balabanis & Diamantopoulos 2004; Poon et al. 2010; Sharma etal. 1995; Shimp & Sharma 1987; Verlegh 2007; Wang & Chen 2004) this paper focuses on behavioural outcomes of consumer ethnocentrism. In addition, it adopts a more focused approach and examines the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on the purchase of specific brands, rather than the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on general product categorisations or simple foreigndomestic product dichotomies. Hypotheses are developed to explain observed differences in the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 468 US consumers involving purchases in 10 product categories, 432 brands and 22 countries of origin. Results confirm that product category is an important determinant of the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to have an impact on the purchases of the most expensive product categories rather than the frequently purchase convenient items. There is also some limited evidence regarding the moderating role of globalness of brands on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase behaviour. The cultural proximity of the country of origin of foreign brands was found to have no effect on the purchasing behaviour of ethnocentric consumers.