A new high-tech product - lab grown meat (LGM), has been gaining media attention while initiating public discourse on social media (SM) platforms. This netnographic study is based on a dataset of selected SM public posts, comments and discussions collected during 30 days in early 2023. The findings indicate that LGM is highly contradictory, while not being fully understood how it is produced or when it will become commercially available. The findings indicate that this novel food requires carefully designed marketing strategies: when naming a new product category; must allow transparency and sensibly explain all product’s attributes; and invest time and efforts to educate consumers, leading to higher adoption rates when launched on mass consumer markets, as an alternative to conventionally grown foods.

Digital channels are becoming increasingly important in consumer purchase decisions. Yet, the availability of several different channels present consumers the opportunity to switch between one and another, such a phenomenon is called cross-channel free riding. This research aims therefore at exploring whether cognitive dissonance and opportunistic behavior are relevant antecedents of cross-channel free riding.

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.

오늘날 오프라인뿐만 아니라 온라인에서도 집단을 형성하고 집단 활동이 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 오프라인 집단의 경우 인지부조화 이론에 따라 초기 가입절차가 집단에 대한 태도에 어떤 영향을 미치는지에 관한 연구들이 진행되어온 반면, 아직 온라인 집단에 관해 가입절차가 집단에 대한 태도에 미치는 영향은 연구된 바가 미비하다. 따라서 본 연구는 온라인 집단으로 대표되는 온라인 커뮤니티를 대상으로 가입절차로 인해 유발되는 인지부조화가 온라인 커뮤니티에 대한 태도에 어떤 차이를 유발하는지 살펴보았다. 더 나아가 기존 회원과의 지각된 유사성이 큰지 작은지 정도에 따라 인지부조화로 인해 유발되는 태도 변화가 어떻게 달라질 수 있는지 알아보았다. 가입절차는 가입절차 없음, 간단한 가입절차, 복잡한 가입절차의 세 수준으로 나뉘었으며, 지각된 유사성은 참가자의 현재 BMI와 목표 BMI간의 차이로 측정하였다. 또한 지각된 정보 원천의 신뢰성, 지각된 정보의 질, 만족도, 정보 유용성, 지속 사용 의향을 종속변 인으로 태도의 차이를 살펴보았다. 연구 결과, 기존 집단에 관한 인지부조화 이론과는 반대로 지각된 정보 원천의 신뢰성, 지각된 정보의 질, 만족도에 관해서는 가입절차 조건에 따른 차이가 없었으며, 정보 유용성과 지속 사용 의향의 경우는 가입절차가 가장 복잡할 때 가장 부정적인 태도를 보였다. 또한 지각된 유사성이 높을수록 더 긍정적인 태도를 보였다. 흥미로운 점은 지각된 유사성에 따라 가입절차로 유발된 인지부조화의 영향이 달랐다는 것인데, 지각된 유사성이 높은 집단에서는 가입절차가 있을 때 더 긍정적인 태도를 보인 반면, 지각된 유사성이 낮은 집단은 가입절차가 아예 없을 때 더 긍정적인 태도를 보이는 경향이 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과를 바탕으로 이후 온라인 커뮤니티의 특성에 따라 보다 알맞은 회원가입 절차를 디자인 할 수 있을 것이다.

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.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the post-purchase behavior of customers who experienced cognitive dissonance after exposure to a franchise foodservice advertisement. The study adopted cognitive dissonance theory to explain the dissonance resulting from the combination of advertisements and actual product that consumers received. In detail, the research hypothesized that cognitive dissonance will affect consumers’ post-purchase behavior as well as their efforts to reduce dissonance. Exactly 274 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The results showed that more than 80% of respondents were influenced by advertisements when purchasing menus, and 50% were unsatisfied when the provided menu “was not the same as the advertisement shown.” It was found that advertisement type did not significantly affect either group that experienced dissonance. In terms of satisfaction, however, the former group showed greater dissatisfaction when dissonance occurred (p<.001). Finally, there was a significant difference between the two groups regarding post-purchase behavior (p<.05). Customers with dissonance were likely to ‘express dissatisfaction directly to the store’, ‘leave negative reviews’, and ‘participate in negative word-of-mouth’. Thus, the results revealed that cognitive dissonance could significantly influence customer satisfaction and consequently lead to negative post-purchasing behaviors.

The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer’s post-purchase psychological state by examining the influence of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance, taking into account the mediating role of impulse buying behavior. The current study addresses several gaps in literature. Firstly, it is hard to find the direct impact of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the mediating role of impulse buying behavior in consumer research. A sample of 256 respondents was collected from Pakistani retail consumers. The statistical findings of this study show that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the impulse buying behavior and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, results indicate that emotional brand attachment has a negative influence on impulse buying behavior but has a significant positive impact on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, impulse buying behavior is a potential mediator between sales promotion, emotional brand attachment, and post-purchase cognitive dissonance relationships. The moderating role of Gender describes that the positive relationship between sales promotion and post-purchase cognitive dissonance will be stronger for women as compared to men at a higher level of sales promotion.