Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming healthcare, yet little is known about how consumers experience and make decisions regarding follow-up care with medical AI. We take an interdisciplinary approach combining behavioral research and neuroscience to examine how anthropomorphism and personalization influence well-being and follow-up decisions. Study 1 found that consumers felt well-being after interacting with a highly personalized interaction, whether human or AI doctor. However, they preferred follow-up visits with the human doctor. Empathy mediated these effects. Study 2 used fMRI to show that the anterior cingulate cortex had greater activation when interacting with the human doctor, indicating more emotional processing and conflict resolution. These findings suggest that medical AI cannot currently replace human doctors, who remain vital for actual medical consultations and treatment. However, consumers viewed AI doctors positively and expressed a belief that AI will enhance well-being. By integrating neuroscience, this research provides biological evidence complementing behavioral findings.

Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model, we examine how CSR impacts brand stereotypes and, in turn, drives consumers’ behavioral intentions towards the stereotyped brand. We do so in the context of (a) varying combinations of brands’ warmth and competence and (b) varying types of CSR activities (i.e. environmental and social).

Although the majority of prior literature has suggested the key reasons for consumer complaining in service failures are to vent negative emotions (e.g. anger, dissatisfaction) and to seek redress (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax 1997; Nyer 1997), some research has also pointed out that customers will give constructive suggestions to firms through complaining (Groth, 2005; Liu & Mattila, 2015). In this regard, consumer complaining can be classified into two types, namely, positive complaint (i.e., with constructive suggestion) and negative complaint (i.e., without constructive suggestion). Understanding what situations would dissatisfied consumers choose to give constructive suggestions in service failures would be of utmost important to firms. We suggest that a firm’s brand image may affect consumers’ intention to choose what types of complaint in service failures. In general, consumers may perceive a brand as having a competence image (e.g., professional and efficient) or having a warmth image (e.g., friendly and approachable) (Kervyn, Fiske and Malone, 2012). Comparatively speaking, a warmth image is associated with friendship and caring, whereas a competence image is associated with expertise. Therefore, it is possible that consumers would have a higher empathy and intention to help a firm with a warmth (vs. competent) image, and be more likely to choose positive complaint when a failure happens to this firm. An experimental study confirmed this prediction. In addition, we found that although a firm’s competence (vs. warmth) image does not affect the likelihood to give constructive suggestions in service failures, it leads to a higher level of return intention. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.

Measuring consumers’ emotion with self-report methods has remained a challenge in luxury marketing. In comparison to self-report measure, psychophysiological methods promise to provide a scientific, objective and sensitive measure of the neurophysiological basis of emotional processes. The objective of this paper is to: (1) examine the feasibility of using psychophysiological methods in luxury marketing; (2) compare the capability of psychophysiological methods to capture emotion beyond those measured by self-report methods; and (3) better under luxury consumers’ emotion processes. In this study, brain wave analysis, heart rate, skin conductance, and facial expression were used to investigate consumers’ emotional response toward luxury marketing stimuli. The psychophysiological findings identified anger, interest and arousal as key emotional processes that affect consumers’ reaction to luxury branding. These findings show that psychophysiological methods are not only feasible in informing luxury branding practices but also provide insights into luxury consumers’ emotional experience beyond those captured by self-report methods.

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.

The objective of this paper is to understand consumers’ responses (attitude, perception of quality and luxury) to production delocalization in the luxury industry, based on brand origin matching consumers’ origin or not, in order to understand the interaction brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on those responses.Two experiments were conducted. Study 1 exposes 166 respondents (French, Italian and other European) to a message of delocalization of either a French or Italian brand supposed to delocalize production to China. Study 2 assesses, among 62 French women, the implicit preference toward French luxury brands (through the Implicit Association Test, Greenwald et al. 1998) and the level of consumer ethnocentrism (through CETSCALE, Sharma et al. 1995). Then, the group is exposed between subjects to 2 delocalization messages X 2 country of delocalization (China, Poland EU) Although brand origin is not salient when consumers evaluate brands (no explicit preference for French brands over Italian brands across studies), it is nonetheless present below awareness, as part of the brand heritage and the brand identity (measured through an implicit preference for French brands over Italian brands among our French respondents). It manifests in context of brands delocalizing out of the home country. Across studies, the attitude toward the brand, the perception of quality and perception of luxury is affected negatively post-exposure to a message of delocalization. Yet, this result is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism and message framing. When the message induces positive consequences for the brand and for the national economy, French respondents (and Italian respondents in study 1) are less affected by the delocalization of their home brands than other respondents. In turn, when the message highlights a loss in national employment, respondents judge the brand more negatively. The effect is stronger for respondents higher in ethnocentrism. The country of delocalization does not influence those results. There is scarcity of papers investigating the CoO effect for luxury brands, although the luxury business model and luxury brand identity are rooted into brand origin. This paper is the first to our knowledge to investigate the effect of brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on brand delocalization.

시간과 돈 효과는 시간이라는 개념이 돈보다 소비자의 제품에 대한 태도 및 의사결정에 긍정적인 역할을 한다는 것을 의미한다. 시간과 돈을 어떻게 사용하는가는 각 개인의 정체성과 밀접한 관계가 있다. 기존 연구에 의하면, 시간은 경험으로 존재하기 때문에 시간은 물질적 제품보다 경험적 제품에 대해 좀 더 긍정적인 소비자 반응을 유발하는 반면, 돈은 소유로 대표되는 물질주의적 가치와 관련되어 있으므로 경험적 제품보다는 물질적 제품에 대해 좀 더 긍정적인 소비자 반응을 유발한다. 본 연구에서는 기존의 제품유형에 스마트폰을 더하여 시간과 돈의 효과가 소비자의 반응에 어떤 영향을 주는지를 알아보고자 하였다. 실험 1에서는 기존에 자신이 사용하였던 제품에 대한 평가를 실시하였다. 연구 결과, 소비자의 만족도에 대해 시간과 돈 활성화 조건과 3 가지 제품유형(패밀리 레스토랑, 스마트폰, 고급브랜드청바지)간의 상호작용이 관찰되었으며, 스마트폰에 있어서는 시간활성화가 돈활성화보다 높은 만족도를 유발하였다. 실험 2에서는 실험1에서 사용된 제품유형에 대한 이미지 광고를 사용하여 시간과 돈 효과를 살펴보았다. 제품에 대한 태도, 만족도, 구매의사, 개인적 관련성 변인 모두에서 시간돈활성화 조건과 제품유형간의 상호작용이 관찰되었으며, 역시 스마트폰에서만 유의미한 활성화조건간 차가 관찰되었다. 아울러 활성화조건의 주효과도 관찰되어 시간활성화 광고가 돈활성화 광고보다 훨씬 효과적인 것으로 나타났다. 연구결과에 대한 이론적, 실용적 함의점이 논의되었다.

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of VMD image appropriateness in apparel shopping contexts. Two competing models are utilized. The first model is developed from the emotion-cognition theory which explains that environmental cues(i.e., VMD image appropriateness) generate consumers' emotion, and in turn, consumers' behaviors. The second model is developed based on the cognitive theory of emotions and posits that environmental cues stimulates consumers' cognitive perceptions of retail environments, subsequently influencing consumers' emotional and behavioral response. A 2(VMD image appropriateness: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design experiment was conducted. Female college students(n=592) participated in the experiment. Using structural equation modeling the study found that the emotion-cognition model better explains the effect of VMD image appropriateness on consumers' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses.

디자인에 대한 중요성에도 불구하고 제품디자인에 대한 소비자의 행동적 반응과 관련된 연구는 상당히 부족한 실정이다. 특히 제품디자인에 대한 소비자의 심리적 반응에 대한 실증적 연구는 매우 부족하다. 따라서 제품디자인에 대한 반응과 브랜드 이미지나 브랜드 자산간의 관계에 대한 이해가 매우 제한적이라 할 수 있다. 본 연구는 제품 디자인에 대한 소비자의 심리적 반응을 통해 형성되는 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 이미지와 브랜드 자산에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 두 가지 제품 범주(효용제품과 상징제품)를 이용하여 검증하였다. 연구결과 두 가지 제품 범주 모두에서 제품 디자인 이미지는 브랜드 이미지에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 상징적 제품에서 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 자산에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 효용 제품의 경우에는 제품 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 자산에 유의적인 영향을 미치지는 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 두 제품군 모두에서 브랜드 이미지는 브랜드 자산에 유의적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.