Introduction Marketing research habitually claims that customers are willing to pay a price premium for fair-trade products, for environmental-friendly production and other environmental or social matters. We question this paradigm by asking for contextual variables. We identify under which circumstances consumers perceive price increases caused by social reasons as more fair. In particular, we examine the role of individualism as a key trait influencing price fairness perception. Our empirical study (n>400) shows that the subdimensions of individualism differently impact perceptions of price increase fairness: consumer competition decreases fairness perception for social price increase reasons, uniqueness increases fairness perception caused by environmental-friendly production and consumer independence has a neutral effect. Theoretical Development In our study, we reason that different types of individualism differently influence fairness perception of price increase reason because of different social reasons. First, independence reflects an individual’s value of autonomy in judgment, decision making, and actions (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991). We expect that people who feel independent put more emphasis on their person’s freedom and do not feel strong connections to others. Consumer competition represents an interpersonal comparison between the self and others and the individual’s desire to get ahead of others and striving for individual achievements (e.g., Triandis & Gelfand, 1998). Consumers also compete for the costs and benefits of higher prices. Thus, we expect that consumer competition reduces fairness perception for all subdimensions of individualism. Uniqueness is the perceived importance of developing the self’s unique identity and expressing characteristics that are different from others (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991). People who feel unique typically strive for lifestyles to show their uniqueness by purchasing items, which are socially visible and symbolic of identity (Berger & Heath, 2007). They might also be willing to pay more for products and services, which support this uniqueness such as a more environmental-friendly production of products. Research Design We test the hypotheses using a paper-and-pencil survey approach in Germany because in Germany, price increases for CSR topics were very common in many industries in the past few years. We measured the three dimensions of individualism using the scale by Chen and West (2008). The fairness measurement of three types of price increase justifications follows the study by Homburg, Hoyer and Koschate (2005) using established 7-point Likert scales. The sample consists of more than 400 respondents. Results and Conclusion As assumed, results show no significant impact of consumer independence on fairness perception of price increases caused by higher payments for suppliers and environmental-friendly production. Furthermore, the effect for price increases caused by better employee payment is positive, but only small and marginally significant. These results support our hypotheses, assuming a neutral effect of independence. As expected, consumer competition decreases price fairness perception for all price increase reasons, which supports our hypotheses. Perceived uniqueness has no influence on fairness perceptions of price increases caused by higher payment for suppliers and better payment for employees, but increases fairness perception of price increases caused by environmental-friendly production. Age and gender as control variables have mainly no influence on price fairness perception. Our work contributes to marketing theory by originally showing that differences in cultural orientations within a country can explain fairness perceptions of socially justified price increases. Simple country comparisons often neglect heterogeneity in the population. Nevertheless, our results should also be generalizable for country comparisons. Secondly, consumer competition has a negative impact on price fairness for all price increase justifications, while independence has mostly neutral influences and, uniqueness partly even positive effects. This suggests to differentiate dimensions of individualism. Thirdly, the effects differ across social price increase justifications. Thus, consumers seem to evaluate carefully what benefits they personally get from a specific price increase reason. For example, uniqueness increases fairness perceptions if the company refers to an environmental-friendly production, but not for better payment of suppliers and employees. Hence, customers might perceive a higher signaling benefit from buying and consuming environmental-friendly produced products. These findings deepen our knowledge on effects of price increase justifications.

With the rapid development of network economy and information technology, customers through the internet platform to participate in product development and innovation, dominant the spread of value proposition engagement spread, etc., has become an important part of the creation of customer assets, as well as a profound change in brand management. This paper constructs a model of how the brand experience affects customer assets in the virtual branding community under the perspective of value co-creation, analysis the impact of value co-creation of customer participation (sponsored value co-creation and autonomous value co-creation), the motivation of value co-creation on brand experience, and then on customer assets. This paper also explores the regulatory effect of value proposition engagement in brand experience and customer asset. This study will use the involvement theory and the theory of stimulus-response for empirical research, and through the questionnaire survey of consumers, using SPSS20.0 and AMOS20.0 statistical software on the relevance of relevant variables to grasp, and carries on the analysis using structural equation model. The research of this paper will enrich the exposition and explanation of building a brand experience better through value co-creation in virtual brand community, and provide theoretical support and practical advice for the implementation and management of customer assets.

Customer participation (CP) refers to customers’ contribution of effort, knowledge, information or other resources to service production and delivery (Dong & Sivakumar, 2017). A key management challenge is to ensure that after customers’ initial acceptance these service formats, customers continue to use them, by the provision and management of CP quality as perceived by the customer. In a CP context, shaping customers’ quality perceptions is complex. First, these perceptions are the result of multiple parties (i.e., customer, employee, and firm). Secondly, customer performance is difficult to control and forms a preeminent source of variability and operational inefficiency (Groth, 2005). Against this backdrop, two research objectives guide this study. First, to propose and test a quality typology that takes a comprehensive view on the CP quality dimensions. Second, to assess whether organizational socialization -consisting of role clarity, self-efficacy, and motivation- is able to influence the customer in service formats that rely on CP. To address these issues survey data were collected from 138 customers. PLS-SEM results indicate that stimulating continued usage of CP formats involves managing an intricate mix of customer quality perceptions (i.e., employee functional and technical quality; firm functional and technical; customer technical quality. In addition, the results show that socialization techniques can be useful to influence customer quality contributions in CP service formats.

Drawing from signaling theory (Rynes, 1991) and social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989), this investigation examines how a company´s CSR communication, especially the liking of the company’s CSR advertisements, their message credibility, as well as their cause-company-fit, influences employees´ evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement, and how the evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement relates to employees´ job satisfaction, organizational pride, and word-of-mouth. An experimental study was carried out with the employees (n = 432) of a large European energy provider in order to test the model assumptions. To illustrate comprehensively the CSR engagement of the company four collages were developed including either customer-oriented CSR appeals, employee-oriented CSR appeals, environmental-oriented CSR appeals or philanthropic-oriented CSR appeals. Empirical findings suggest that the developed model is largely confirmed. Interestingly, results show that the liking of the CSR advertisements is not found to be a significant determinant of employees´ CSR evaluation. Instead, findings reveal that message credibility and perceived cause-company-fit are significant determinants of employees´ CSR evaluation. In addition, results indicate that the more employees perceive their organization as socially responsible, the more likely they feel satisfied to work for their company, the more likely they feel proud of being a member of this company and the more likely is their willingness to praise their company. This study contributes to the advancement of CSR research in several ways: First, the conceptualized model can be used to explain how CSR communication influences employees´ evaluation of the perceived organizational CSR engagement and how this relates to employees´ attitudes and behavior at the workplace. Second, by drawing on signaling theory (Rynes, 1991) and social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989) in order to explain CSR communication effects, this investigation adds theoretical foundation to CSR communication research. Third, the investigation demonstrates that CSR communication effects may go well beyond traditional effects such as fostering customers´ purchase. A company´s CSR communication is also able to influence favorable employees´ outcomes.

Investigation concerning the presence of customer-brand relationships in online communities is recent and scarce and might offer potential (Moraes et al., 2014; Huber et al., 2015; Vernuccio et al., 2015). The purpose of this investigation is to understand and analyse how brand love can influence brand loyalty among millennials generation, considering engagement constructs and social networks. It bridges an academia gap in the context of the consumer brand relationship literature. This research aims to answer the following questions: (1) Is brand love effective in building true brand loyalty? (2) Does interactive engagement with brands and brand love contribute to build brand loyalty? and (3) Does interactive engagement on social networks reflect millennials love of brands? To collect data we conducted two online surveys, covering two different brand categories: Fashion and Electronics/Technology. We have in total 1278 inquiries. The analyses of data and hypotheses test were made by using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and a multi-group factor analysis. The proposed structural equation model was validated and all hypothesis were accepted. So, consumers’ Brand Related Social Media Content was proved to have a direct impact on Social Interactive Brands and Brand Loyalty. Social Interactive Brands were proved to have a direct impact on Emotional Attachment and Self Expressive Brands which also proved direct impact on Brand Love. Brand Love for instance was proved has been directly connected with Brand Loyalty and Word of Mouth and Brand Loyalty also, directly impacts Word of Mouth. The model behave well in the previous research so we wanted to test it with a smaller sample and different brand categories the results would maintain. The results of the multi-group factor analysis showed that we have configural and metric invariance in both different studies, covering Fashion and Technological brands. As though for management purposes it might be of no disagreement to state that marketing alone is no longer enough to influence purchase motivation and intention for consumers. This investigation advance and valid a new theoretical framework in the consumer brand love approach

This paper develops a conceptual model of international social media marketing strategy that describes how culture shapes consumers’ use of social media around the world. Drawing from cultural psychology, marketing, and computer information systems, we use Kietzmann et al.’s (2011) functional building blocks of social media to organize social media functions, then explicate how various dimensions of culture affect the way such social media functions are used across cultures. By delineating these complex relationships, our model and the propositions that stem from it offer directions for future research and advance understanding of cross-cultural differences with implications for businesses that provide social media or capitalize on social media for global reach in the international marketplace.

Human beings are intrinsically social. How social interaction among tourists affect their experience remains under-represented. Drawing on S-O-R theory, social integration theory and social penetration theory, this study proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model that integrates self-disclosure, perceived cohesion, perceived intimacy, tourist engagement and tourist satisfaction with the experience. Also, the tie strength is theorized as a moderator in the relationship between self-disclosure and perceived cohesion as well as perceived intimacy. A field experiment was undertaken to collect data. The results from the structural analysis suggest that self-disclosure influences perceived cohesion and perceived intimacy, which in turn influence their engagement and satisfaction with tourism experience. Moreover, the initial tie strength has moderation effect on the relationship between self-disclosure and perceived cohesion as well as perceived intimacy. Overall, findings of this study contributes to the development of tourism experience research from the perspective of tourist-to-tourist interaction, and broadens the research on tourist engagement. Discussions and implications for tourism operators, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also provided.

Despite important theoretical implications seldom research exist regarding the impact of luxury parent brand status signaling on the evaluation of horizontal line extension through the moderating role of extension authenticity, quality and fit. The luxury literature review revealed that despite important theoretical implications seldom research exist regarding the impact of luxury parent brand status signaling on the evaluation of horizontal line extension through the moderating role of extension authenticity, quality and fit. Research has examined how consumers use luxury goods to signal their status or relative position in social hierarchies (Berger & Ward 2010; Dubois et al., 2012; Geiger-Oneto et al., 2013; Kastanakis, & Balabanis, 2014) but until the current study the luxury literature could not support the extent to which status signaling impact line extension’s evaluation through the moderating role of extension authenticity (Spiggle, Nguyen, & Caravella, 2012; Beverland & Farrelly, 2010; Morhart et al., 2015; Guèvremont & Grohmann, 2016). Previous studies have found that authenticity can be to emotional attachment (Morhart et al., 2015), help pursue personal goals (Beverland & Farrelli, 2010), or relevant to brand identity, status and equity (Guevremont & Grohmann, 2016). Surprisingly, none of these studies has empirically tested this important relationship. This study’s contribution to the literature is important as it empirically confirms that in launching a new line extension, a luxury parent brand’s status signaling will directly impact the extension’s evaluation. In the process, the perceived authenticity of the extension proves to affect the evaluation significantly if the perceived quality and fit of the extension are taken into consideration in the measurement framework.

The purpose is to identify the impacts of internal and external integrations in an automotive supply chain in Thailand. Data are collected from automotive firms in Thailand and are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result indicates that both internal and external integrations are significant factors affecting market flexibility.

The relationship of parasocial Interaction is one of the important contents of marketing research in recent years. With the rise of internet economy in the world, more and more enterprises' marketing practices are involved in the marketing process of SNS based on social networks. The interaction between medium and audiences has broken through the non-face-to-face one-way communication mode and forms a twoway communication mode of the relationship of parasocial Interaction in the SNS environment. Based on the signaling theory and the social exchange theory, this dissertation clarifies the driving factors and mechanism between Fashion web celebrity and attributes and relationship of parasocial interaction through the literature review, In the South China, Middle and North China, there were N audiences who used SNS experience as survey target to conduct a survey. And analyzed these data with SEM software. The research found that between Fashion web Fashion web celebrity and attributes and SNS participation motivation show a positive correlation with relationship of parasocial interaction, and there is a positive correlation between relationship of parasocial interaction and identification, relationship of parasocial interaction and identification have positive correlation with customer equity. E-WOM on customer asset-driven process has a clear intermediary role in the relationship of parasocial Interaction. This not only enriches and develops the existing research results of relationship of parasocial Interaction, but also provides guidance for enterprises to manage relationship of parasocial interactions. In addition, it also provides valuable theoretical guidance for enterprises to promote SNS marketing management practices.

To lead a movie to success, managers must understand why consumers buy tickets. Some go to the movies due to trailers or movie posters, others watch movies triggered by their friends’ recommendation. Using Bass (1969)’s terms, we may categorize the former type of consumers into innovators who are influenced by external factors such as advertisements and media reports. We may label the latter type as imitators who are affected by internal factors such as word-of-mouth (WOM). Consumers in the digital era, regardless of their motivation types, easily obtain information related to movies through webpages or social networking services. Therefore, marketers should focus on how online information influence the diffusion of products. Additionally, each country has a unique cultural background, thereby resulting in different consumer behavior. Based on the prior arguments, we expect that the US movie market would show higher innovation effect and lower imitation effect compared to the Korean movie market. Opposite to the hypothesis, there are no significant differences in the innovation effect between the two markets. However, as expected, the imitation effect of US is significantly lower than that of Korea. In both markets, the advertising level and the publicizing level do not show any significant effect on the innovation effect. However, the two variables have significant and positive effect on the market potential. As predicted, the gender and the age heterogeneity of WOM are revealed to affect the imitation effect in the hypothesized direction. Product availability, measured with the number of screens, has a positive relationship with the innovation effect in the US market and with the market potential in both markets. Lastly, seasonality shows a positive association with the imitation effect in the US market and with the market potential in the Korean market. The current research tries to explore key differences in the diffusion patterns of movies between the US and Korean markets by applying Bass diffusion model. Further, this study aims to discover the factors that bring about the innovation and the imitation effects in both markets. By employing data available online, the current study could provide practical implications on how to manage information delivered through online channels.

This study discusses how firm-customer interactions impact customer engagement behaviors in the area of hospitality and tourism services. In the current study, two research questions are raised to answer: 1) what values are perceived by customers through firm-customer interactions during various service encounters? 2) how customer engagement behaviors are led by the customer perceived values? To test the proposed model, a quantitative approach is adopted. Amazon Mechanical Turk is used as data collection platform to collect responses with the aid of Qualtrics as questionnaire development tool. To reach the maximum scope of hospitality and tourism services, hotel guests, restaurant patrons, travelers, airline customers, and theme park travelers are included in the sample. This study adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the factors that contribute to the varied customer engagement behaviors (i.e. online ratings, online reviews, online blogging, and customer-to-customer interactions). Successful industry practices demonstrate that customer engagement brings many benefits and opportunities to maintain business sustainability and profitability.

본 연구는 도로변 선형의 가로녹지 조성이 고밀시가지 대로와 건물 사이에 조성한 보행로 및 오픈스페이스의 미세먼지 농도에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고자 부산시 중앙대로와 부산광역시청 건물 사이에 폭 약 70m로 조성된 오픈스페이스를 대상으로 연구를 진행하였다. 조사결과 가로녹지가 없는 지역의 경우 주중과 주말 모두 차도와 인접한 오픈스페이스의 농도차이가 미미하였으나, 반대로 가로녹지가 조성되어 있는 지역은 차도에 비해 오픈스페이스의 농도가 현저히 높음을 확인할 수 있었다. 특히 가로녹지가 조성된 지역은 차도와 보도 모두에서 미조성지역보다 미세먼지량이 높게 나타나고 있어 차도와 건축물 사이가 넓은 공간의 경우 가로녹지의 조성이 전체적으로 도로 밖 오픈스페이스의 미세먼지농도를 높이는 효과를 보였으며, 특히 차도보다 오픈스페이스에 미치는 영향이 더 큰 것으로 확인되었다. 이러한 현상은 차량에 의해 발생한 미세먼지가 빠른 바람흐름에 의해 가로변 관목림을 통과하지만 바람흐름이 줄어든 보행공 간에서는 확산이 이루어지지 않아 발생하는 것으로 판단되었다. 본 연구에서와 같이 넓은 오픈스페이스를 확보하고 있는 도심 도로변 지역의 경우에는 가로녹지가 오히려 바람에 의한 확산을 억제하여 하여 차량이동에 따른 부유 미세먼 지를 녹지 내부에 가두어 보도를 포함한 오픈스페이스의 미세먼지 농도를 높이는 것으로 확인되었다. 도로에서 발생하는 미세먼지를 줄이기 위한 가로녹지의 조성에 있어 도로와 건물의 거리는 매우 중요하게 작용하는 것을 확인하였다.

Corrosion inhibitors including calcium hydroxide have been used to prevent corrosion in the pipes for tap water supply. The corrosion index (i.e., Langelier Index) differs by area and water quality. The corrosion indices of the areas studied differed by more than 2.0. The ‘homogenized’ calcium hydroxide was added to the treated water at the K water treatment plant, in order to increase the value of the corrosion index and the concentration of calcium. As the result, the concentration of calcium was increased while the turbidity and pH changed little. The corrosion rate of the tap water with the 'homogenized' calcium hydroxide could be slowed down pretty much. The results suggested that the technology of 'homogenization' of calcium hydroxide can applied to tap water and desalinated water to prevent corrosion in water pipes even in corrosive pipes.

Each municipality is promoting signboard improvement projects, but the effectiveness is not great. The main reason for this is that when the signboard is manufactured the location of the shop is only dependent on the visual aspiration effect and it is not harmonized with the building by applying uniform design. The signboard are installed almost everywhere in the city, such as residential, natural and commercial environments. And the signboard provides various services such as traffic information and life safety to customers. Also, by applying design and functional elements, we can enhance the competitiveness of companies and improve the urban environment by enhancing the mutual connection effect of customers and space. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of design elements and functional elements of the signboard on customer preference. In other words, we conducted surveys and analyzes of 152 specialists and non-experts (customers, self-employed). As a result of the study, the following conclusions were drawn. First, the functions and design elements of signboards are important factors that have a positive effect on customer preference. Second, the function of the signboard has a positive(+) influence on the customer preference, and the information providing function and the corporate image side function directly affect the customer preference. Third, color elements have a positive(+) meaningful effect on customer preference. Especially, similar color sign affects customer preference positively. Fourth, the signboard design component has a positive(+) significant effect on customer preference. In particular, typefaces have a positive effect on customer preference.

최근 급격한 기업 환경의 변화와 새로운 일 방식으로의 전환은 인적자원관리 영역에 있어 대안적 접근방식을 요청하였다. 대안적 접근의 형태는 인적자원관리를 통한 조직 구성원의 웰빙 향상으로 변화에 대한 선제적 대응과 조직의 지속적 성장을 담보하는 것이다. 특히 조직 구성원 웰빙 요소인 일 몰입은 일터 현장 내 긍정적 가치를 확대하고 조직의 성과증진 및 경쟁우위 확보를 위한 핵심 요인으로 각광받고 있다. 따라서 일 몰입에 대한 선행요인을 탐색하고 이를 실증하는 것은 노동시장과 일터 변화에 효과적으로 대응하고 조직의 생존과 지속적 성장에 필요한 요인을 구명한다는 차원에서 중요한 의의를 지닌다. 이러한 배경에서 이 연구는 일 몰입 관련 변인을 탐색하고 변인 간 영향관계를 실증하여 인적자원관리 차원에서 의미 있는 시사점을 도출하는데 목적을 두었다. 이 연구에서 독립변인의 경우 리더가 긍정심리역량과 진정성을 바탕으로 영향력을 행사하는 리더십인 진성리더십을 선정하였고, 이것이 일 몰입에 미치는 영향경로에서 있어 조직학습역량을 매개변인으로 설정하였다. 설정된 연구모형을 실증하기 위하여 이 연구에서는 대기업 조직에 근무하고 있는 사무직 근로자를 대상으로 286부의 설문응답 자료를 수집하였다. 이후 수집된 자료를 토대로 통계분석을 진행하였다. 분석결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 진성리더십은 일 몰입에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 진성리더십은 조직학습역량에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 조직학습역량은 일 몰입에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째 진성리더십과 일 몰입 영향관계에서 조직학습역량은 매개효과를 갖는 것으로 나타났다. 리더의 진성리더십이 조직 구성원들의 일 몰입에 직, 간접적으로 영향을 미치며, 조직학습역량 또한 일 몰입에 직접적인 영향을 미친다는 결과를 통해서 일 몰입을 향상시키기 위해 진성리더십과 조직학습역량이 중요하게 고려되어야 한다는 사실을 확인할 수 있었다. 따라서 이 연구에서는 해당 연구결과를 바탕으로 이론적, 실천적 시사점과 연구의 한계점 및 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다.

This study analyzed the impact of FTA tariff elimination on the export prices for Norwegian fresh and chilled salmon, of which Korean import has significantly increased since the Korea-EFTA FTA implementation. Korea's fresh and chilled salmon market is almost monopolized by Norway, and Korea's price level is higher than other countries, so it is highly likely that price discrimination occurs. This study theoretically explained that exporters could adjust their prices by market power when tariffs are eliminated in imperfectly competitive markets. And the empirical analysis provided evidence that the exporters have made price adjustments since the FTA took effect, and similar results were found in the relative price comparison with trade statistics and Nasdaq Salmon Index. Therefore, in order to increase consumer welfare in Korean salmon market, it is required to transform the monopolistic market structure into a competitive one.