This study investigated the effects of social responsibility activities on consumer attitudes, product evaluation, corporate support, and corporate trust through structural equations and path analysis. Corporate social responsibility activities were divided into five areas: consumer and environmental protection, social contribution, cultural business, and economic responsibility, and the relative impact on consumer attitudes was considered. The results and strategic implications of this study are as follows. The same results as in previous studies confirmed that the performance of corporate social responsibility activities induces positive attitudes and behaviors of consumers. It proved that the performance of corporate social responsibility activities leads consumers to form a positive attitude, which can eventually be transferred to products and corporate images by a halo effect, leading to product evaluation, corporate support and trust. In addition, the composition dimension and measurement items of corporate social responsibility activities were re-verified, and from a consumer point of view, it was confirmed that social responsibility activities include not only economic activities, but also activities that contribute positively, such as social contribution, support for local and cultural projects, and actions that do not harm society as a whole, such as protecting consumer rights and protecting the environment.

Despite the orientation towards online retailing journey accelerated by the application of new-age technologies in the pandemic context, the role of the physical store still has a central role in luxury shopping in the digital omni-channel perspective. Digital technologies have increased their impact on consumers (Evanschitzky et al., 2020; Klaus & Zaichkowsky, 2020; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020; Davenport et al, 2020; Huang and Rust, 2021a; Pantano et al, 2022). In today’s digital age, AI is one of the new-age technologies raising growing interest for their potential disruptive impact on marketing and retailing in different sectors (Forbes, 2022).

This study examined the effects of user interactivity with VR in a digital retail setting on mental imagery and sensory brand app experience and its consequential impacts on perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using VR, and behavioral intent. Mental imagery is understood in relation to quantity, vividness, and valence. The user involvement with the device is employed as a moderator to fully understand the impact of VR in connection with consumer engagement. An IKEA VR application was utilized for this study. A convenient sample of college students was recruited from a large research university in the US. The findings of the study show that user interactivity impacts mental imagery, and it subsequently influences sensory brand app experience, perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using VR, and behavioral intent. Overall, this study provides meaningful and practical information to academicians and practitioners.

Although influencers establish their reputation and gain popularity by demonstrating expertise toward a specific topic, there is a huge potential to extend their market by tapping into different topics. Specifically, by promoting different types of product categories. However, previous studies tend to have different predictions about the success of this practice. Such that, according to the match-up hypothesis, it is unlikely that the influencer can successfully promote different product categories. On the other hand, Stereotype Content Model (SCM) suggests that influencers might be perceived as competence that overgeneralized to other domains. By conducting a survey to 302 online consumers in Indonesia, this study aims to test two competing routes toward influencer’s success in promoting product categories other than their initial expertise within the fashion context. The findings of this study revealed the primacy of match-up hypotheses, even when the influencers are perceived as competent, it does not mean that consumers are willing to follow their recommendation if it is outside their expertise domain. Only when there is an influencer-product fit, consumers are willing to accept their recommendation. However, perceived competence of the influencers can promote acceptance to follow recommendation on different product categories only when it established trust on the influencer.

With the increasing popularity and attention towards virtual stores, the present study examines how consumers' perception of spatial and human crowdedness affects consumers' behavioral and attitudinal intention to shop at the virtual store through positive emotional arousals. Using two between-subject experiments (crowdedness: low spatial x high; low human x high), 171 participants were randomly assigned to each condition. The results demonstrated highly crowded virtual space with more merchandise creates a consumer’s positive emotional arousal, which leads to a positive attitude and satisfaction. Further, consumers perceive positive social crowdedness (i.e., when other shoppers are present) develops excitement among consumers who may entice positive attitude and satisfaction. Findings suggest that retailers should develop stimulating virtual stores.

Companies frequently rely on pricing algorithms to automate their price-setting in online markets; thereby, algorithmic dynamic pricing (ADP) has become a common pricing practice in the digital era, with retailers regularly tweaking products’ prices in their online shops. On Amazon.com alone, millions of price changes occur within a day, which corresponds to a price change approximately every ten minutes for each product. Yet, so far, the effects of such pricing algorithms on consumers are unclear. Since ascertaining consumer reactions is essential for retailers’ pricing strategies and retailers need to know how to mitigate negative reactions, our focal research questions are: How do consumers respond to ADP? How can retailers mitigate negative consumer reactions to ADP?

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of firms’ repeated use of crowdfunding on consumer responses and the funding success, focusing on compensatory crowdfunding that provides products and services when funding is successful. The result indicates that the number of crowdfunding round and achievement rates are related to parabolic forms. These results suggest that investors can recognize the number of crowdfunding round as a important signal for crowdfunding investment. In addition, this research aims to present practical implications for crowdfunding firms and platforms to attract ongoing investments.

Intelligent machines (e.g., artificial intelligence, algorithms, and robotics) with the capability to make decisions autonomously either augment or substitute human employees due to rapid evolution in technology (Man Tang et al., 2022; Larivière, et al., 2017). Therefore, studies have shown that in consumer services, the role of intelligent machines falls into two categories: augmentation or substitution of human employees (McLeay et al., 2021; Larivière, et al., 2017). Specifically, human employee augmentation means that the role of intelligent machines is to assist and complement human employee, with the two used together to produce better outcomes (Larivière, et al., 2017). For example, in a retail bank in Japan, collaborative robots work side by side with bank employees to serve customers (Marinova et al., 2017); IBM’s Watson can assist doctors with diagnosis (Larivière, et al., 2017). Human employee substitution reflects the role of intelligent machines to replace human workers (McLeay et al., 2021). For example, restaurants such as Spyce, where robots are replacing human employees to take orders for customers (Wang et al., 2022). However, there are still a lot of unexplored aspects concerning consumers’ specific reactions toward this new form of a service provider. The study examines customers responses when human employees are augmented or substituted by intelligent machines, including responses that promote beneficial consumption (e.g., join a health program) and those that promote harmful consumption (e.g., pursue high return-risk offerings, enhance preferences for risk-taking behavior). In this article, we attempt to answer the following questions:

Purpose of the study is to explore the effect of the types of mobile coupons(textvs. image-focused coupons; free-gift vs. discount coupons) on characteristic perception of mobile coupons, and the causal relationships among characteristic perception, attitude, and use intention of mobile coupons. A total of 140 university students participated in experiments with questionnaires including one of the four stimuli. Important findings are as follows. First, image-focused mobile coupons generated more enjoyment than did text-focused coupons. However, the text/image-focused coupons were not different in perception of informativeness and credibility of mobile coupons. Second, enjoyment perception was significantly increased when image-focused contents were combined with discount coupons whereas enjoyment perception was decreased when text-focused contents were combined with free-gift coupons. This interaction effect reflects that the level of enjoyment of consumers can be changed in terms of the combination of the value-provision types of coupons and the text-image focused contents. Third, it was found that consumer perception of coupon characteristics formed attitudes toward mobile coupons, and use intention of mobile coupons was determined by attitudes toward mobile coupons. Study findings may fill the void of research investigating the effect of text-image contents and the types of coupons on consumer reponses toward mobile coupons. Mobile coupons have limited quantity of information within a small size of mobile phone screen, therefore, the results were not consistent with prior research tested with mobile advertisements indicating the effect of text-image contents on perception of informativeness and credibility.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of combinations of diverse methods notifying price discounts (i.e., reference price, odd price, and discount rate signs) and the relationships among product attribute perception, discount perception, attitude toward product, and purchase intention of product. Experiments were conducted where 12 stimuli of different price discount information notifications regarding T-shirt advertisements were presented to 352 informants. The results showed that notification of each type of discount information increased discount perception, whereas no effect due to the size of letters used in the discount rate notification was found. As more price discount information notifications were used, discount perception tended to become stronger. The results of ANOVA analysis show that both product attribute perception and discount perception affected attitude toward the product. In addition, product purchase intention was determined by attitude toward the product as well as price discount perception. Based on these findings, marketers may want to use a combination of methods of price discount notifications in advertisements to deliver price discount information clearly to consumers. Confirmation of discount information using multiple cues would help consumers to notice and perceive price discount information provided by retailers more effectively. Discount information is crucial for increasing both purchase intention and favorable attitude, therefore, diverse strategies regarding discount information presentations should be developed, tested and applied in the real world of retailing.

The present study investigated fashion Instagram marketing, applying the concept of gamification. It set out to examine the following specific issues: 1) perceptions of flow, pleasures, dimensions of game dynamics (challenge, competition, achievement, reward, relationships among participants, and relationships between brands and consumers), and consumer responses based on frequency and involvement in exercise; 2) the effects of game dynamics dimensions on flow and pleasure; and 3) the effects of flow and pleasure on consumer responses. An online survey was used to gather data and the study analyzed a total of 200 responses. The results of the study were as follows. Perception differences were found only in relation to exercise involvement. Competition, relationships among participants, and relationships between brands and customers positively predicted flow. Among the dimensions of game dynamics, challenge, competition, reward, relationships among participants, and relationships between brands and consumers positively influenced pleasure. In addition, the study also found that pleasure and flow had positive effects on intention to participate and brand loyalty. Meanwhile, only pleasure predicted word-of-mouth. These findings suggest that fashion brands implementing Instagram as a marketing channel should seek to stimulate pleasure and fun to provoke positive consumer responses. Furthermore, the findings of the study provide practical and useful insights for fashion brands implementing Instagram marketing.

Recently, brand managers have widely adopted brand anthropomorphism as positioning strategies to differentiate from other competitors. Aggarwal and McGill (2012) anthropomorphized brand as two specific roles. Brand-as-partner refers its role as “the co-producer of benefits”, a relationship in which the brand and consumers work together to co-create the benefits as equals. However, brand-as-servant represents its role as “the outsourced provider of benefits”, a hierarchical relationship in which the brand works for consumers to create benefits. Our research extends prior literature by investigating how a brand can improve consumers’ responses with the anthropomorphization of being either a collaborative partner or a supportive servant, depending on consumer’s mind-set  aptly termed implicit theories. Implicit theories are the beliefs that people have about the nature of human characteristics. In specific, entity theorists believe human traits are relatively fixed and stable; and incremental theorists believe human traits are substantially changeable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). These two implicit theories trigger many distinctive cognitive and behavioral patterns. For example, entity theorists prefer effortless success and receiving assurances to signal their abilities. In contrast, incremental theories emphasize on self-improvement through high effort to realize their self-enhancement and intentions (Park & John, 2014). We generalize this theory to anthropomorphic brand positioning and adopt consumer’s efficacy (confidence) to explain the underlying mechanism. We hypothesize a servant brand is more appealing to entity theorists, because they prefer situations in which they are guaranteed of being satisfied effortlessly (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Therefore, they are more confident about their abilities when a servant brand acts as an assurance for providing benefits. In contrast, a partner brand may be more attractive to incremental theorists, because they believe their abilities can be improved through working with the partner brand. Thus, they should be more self-assured about their abilities, and increase their perceived efficacy to realize their intentions. Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses by both manipulating and measuring implicit theories. The consistent results revealed the significant interactions between brand roles and implicit theories on brand evaluation as well as the mediation effect of consumer efficacy. In sum, this research contributes to brand managers by advising them to cultivate appropriate brand role position in accordance with the target and potential consumer’s distinct mind-set.

Insensitivity to racial issues has long been one of the main causes of controversy in marketing, and its significance has recently resurfaced due to the current political and social climate caused by events such as the American presidential election and Brexit. In the marketing field, current cases such as advertising from Kellogg’s and Dove have caused outrage across social media. This has shown that even experienced marketers can still find themselves being accused of insensitivity or even racism. With the help of social media, the cases such as those may lead to negative consumer-generated brand stories online and could damage the brand (Gensler et al., 2013;Grégoire, Salle, & Tripp, 2015). This paper has chosen to address the recent case of H&M, which has faced online criticism and consumer protests due to its UK website showing a boy of African descent wearing a hoodie bearing the words “coolest monkey in the jungle”. The aim of this study is to understand consumers’ initial responses on social media to this case, in order to provide further recommendations to marketers in today’s complex society. A netnography approach was used to collect qualitative data from Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis through Nvivo 11. The results show that this case has demonstrated the stages of “Hashtag activism”, explained by Bonila and Rosa (2015): 1) eyewitness report, 2) hashtag accompanied by the photos of individuals or groups of people, then finally, 3) widely circulated meme. The main discussion on social media focused on individual opinions regarding racism, which can be explained by the assertion that contents on social media are generated by individual users to present and construct new self-identity through social interaction, and politics is becoming a personal expression of ideas (Gil de Zúñiga, Molyneux, & Zheng, 2014; Vromen, Xenos, & Loader, 2015; Lindgren, 2017). The results have also raised new questions concerning several marketing-related themes including the effect of media coverage, brand trust, intentionally controversial marketing, social climate, and direct recommendations for H&M. The findings will provide practical recommendations for marketers, including in relation to managing diversity issues, constantly building a brand image, and identifying and acting upon the sensitive issues within different cultural contexts. As a preliminary study, the limitation of this study lies in the timeline of the research and the amount of data. Further research is recommended to conduct a longitudinal study to gain a more complete view of how the incident may affect consumers and brands over time.

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.

Brand threats are unexpected, widely spread negative brand occurrences that are manifest in various forms such as rumours (Einwiller et al., 2008), negative publicity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000), ethical scandals (Huber et al., 2010; Lisjak et al., 2012; Trump, 2014) and product failures (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Ahluwalia et al., 2001). They are quite common in the marketplace with adverse effects on brand reputations and brand equity (Duttta and Pullig, 2011) by thwarting consumers` expected benefits from the brand (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dutta and Pullig, 2011). Due to the frequency and seriousness of brand threats, academic interest in studying the effects of brand threats as well as predicting consumers responses has been rising in the past decade (Swaminathan et al., 2007; Cheng et al., 2012; Lisjak et al., 2012; Trump, 2014). Brand threat literature has evolved over the years from few case studies focusing on organizational response strategies to empirical work documenting cognitive and attitudinal responses by consumers to different types of threats. However, there are still a number of inconsistencies within this loose body of work that requires further research attention. The following section will highlight some of the most imminent controversies within the brand threat literature and thus paving the way for the current review paper to synthesize different streams of research and offer some conceptual clarity on brand threats. First, with regards to the conceptualization of brand threats, there appears to be no broad agreement on a precise definition of what constitutes a threat at the brand level. Over the past few years, scholars have expressed this notion using words such as negative brand publicity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000;2001; Pullig et al., 2006), brand scandal (Roehm and Tybout, 2006), brand failure (Roehm and Brady, 2007; Cheng et al., 2012), brand-related crisis ( Dawar and Lei, 2009; Dutta and Pullig, 2011), brand misconduct (Huber et al., 2010) and brand transgression (Trump, 2014). While these definitions can be used interchangeably as they reflect the overall characteristic of brand threats; they draw upon different theoretical foundations. As a result, competing views and understandings of brand threats have materialised, resulting in perennial dissensus within the extant literature. In addition, there is a debate in the literature with regards to the differential effects of brand threat types. The majority of prior research on brand threats has predominantly focused on two types of threat which is product–related brand threat (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; 2001; Cheng et al., 2012; Swaminathan et al., 2007) and values-related brand threats. Product-related threats usually involve defective or dangerous products and reduce a brand's perceived ability to deliver its functional benefits (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Pullig et al., 2006; Roehm and Brady, 2007; Dawar and Lei, 2009). Values-related threats, on the other hand can be defined as unexpected events that threaten a brand's perceived ability to deliver expressive or symbolic benefits (Dawar and Lei, 2009; Pullig et al., 2006). They do not involve the product but rather the social or ethical values of the brand (e.g., Pullig et al., 2006). Both types of threats have negative impact such as brand equity, satisfaction and choice likelihood (Dutta and Pullig, 2011), however existing work offer contradictory findings with regards to the degree of damage caused by either type of brand threat. While some studies implicate the product related threats are more damaging to the brand, other studies indicate that values related threats have more negative impact. For instance, product related threats have been reported to damage brand image and trust (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000), lead to consumer brand switching and consequently cause financial losses (Cleeren et al., 2008). On the other hand, Huber et al. (2010) report that a brand's moral threat can be more damaging for consumers` relationship quality with the brand as well as repurchase intention. In addition, Folkes and Kamins (1999) indicate that negative ethical information is perceived as more diagnostic than product attribute information. Additionally, Trump (2014) compared both types of threats (product vs. ethical) in the same study and reported that ethical-related brand threats can be more damaging than product-related threats. This in turn has contributed to growing inconsistencies within the brand threat literature and elaborated the need for more empirical work to reconcile these conflicting streams of research. An additional layer of controversy within the brand threat literature pertains to the impact of consumer brand relationship in predicting consumer responses. The general assumption is that the stronger the relationship between the consumer and the brand, the more insulated the brand remains from the negative impact of brand threats, however research yield mixed results. While some studies indicate the positive role of strong consumer brand relationship in mitigating the negative impact of brand threats (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; 2001; Einwiller et al., 2006), studies by Roehm and Brady, (2007) and Cleeren et al., (2008) suggest that these positive impacts are only shortlived. While other researchers show that high quality brand relationship may actually result in more negative consumer responses following threat (Hubler et al., 2010). Lastly, there has not been a unified conceptual framework to predict consumer responses to brand threat; different studies have used different theoretical underpinnings to examine the phenomenon reporting different results. Earlier studies on the subject were quite sparse, apart from a few attempts limited to case studies from public relations and publicity literature, there has been no systematic study of how consumers respond to brand threats (Ahluwaia et al., 2000). A common assumption in that literature was that brand threats in the form of negative publicity is considered more credible and influential than the brand`s marketing communications and therefore will always lead to serious adverse consequences (Bond and Kirshenbaum, 1998). Moreover, consumers were assumed to always respond in a uniform manner (Mgrconi, 1997; Pearson and Mitroff 1993). Although these studies have offered insights into how people process negative information and form evaluations, their findings were limited to experimental contexts in which subjects have to evaluate unfamiliar individuals. Although, several theoretical models have been proposed to understand consumers' responses to different types of brand threats (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dawar and Lei, 2009; Huber et al., 2010; Roehm and Tybout, 2006; Cleeren et al., 2008; Dutta and Pullig, 2011), the findings of these studies reported mixed findings. Additionally, this body of work failed to present a unifying theoretical framework that predicts how consumers respond to negative information about commercial brands that they are familiar with nor did they identify the factors that could moderate the response strategies (Ahluwalia et al., 2000). Therefore, the current study seeks to review the existing literature on brand threats to propose an integrative classification framework that predicts consumer responses to different types of brand threats. Specifically, this review will offer four important contributions. Firstly, the review will offer a holistic conceptualization of brand threats and its different forms. Secondly, it will highlight existing studies that demonstrate consumer responses to brand threats and the important moderating factors captured in previous studies clustered around four main categories: corporate responses, threat-related characteristics, consumer characteristics, and consumerbrand relationships. Thirdly, the review will propose a theoretical framework and a number of propositions that predict the conditions under which consumers pursue specific responses to brand threat. The proposed framework will also identify a number of situational factors and individual traits that moderate may consumer responses. Lastly, the review will conclude by highlighting underdeveloped theoretical intersections pertaining to the long term effects of brand threats and suggesting potentially fruitful directions for future inquiry. The above contributions will integrate brand threat research in marketing and management theory within a single organizing framework. Moreover, by consolidating past results and setting the stage for further efforts, this review will seek to foster greater integration of fresh perspectives from other disciplines such as social psychology, sociology, consumer research and management to broaden the scope of research on band threat.

The rapid growth of the Chinese tourism has stimulated competition within tourismrelated industries, such as the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese consumer reaction to different promotional tools used by hotels in China and, thus, to provide a deeper understanding for marketers of how to use sales promotion effectively to generate appropriate consumer responses. An experimental survey was administered yielding a total sample of 319 Chinese customers, who were probed using different types of sales promotion tools. Data analysis indicates that bonus packs (e.g. a 3-night stay at a hotel for the price of 2) induced the highest consumer perceived value, brand switching, and purchase acceleration intention, whereas price discounts resulted in the highest intention to spend more. Although this study has its limitations given its reliance on a convenience sample, it offers insightful practical implications for hotel business owners in Asia regarding targeting the right customers with the right promotional tools, where it is proposed that bonus packs successfully attract new Chinese customers and price discounts support in generating more sales.