With the buzzword "conversational marketing", especially in the course of a further technological upgrade of marketing management via chatbots, messaging apps etc., the central idea of dialogue-oriented marketing, as has been required since the late 1970s/early 1980s, has received a significant upgrade. However, mostly with a quite narrow focus on the management of transactions and in the sense of a customer-centric and dialogue-driven approach for driving customer engagement, improving customer experience along a very narrowly interpreted customer journey, and growing revenue. There is no question that the consistent use of all available technological options to optimize the exchange processes with customers represents an important challenge. However, conversational marketing should not be interpreted too narrowly. On the one hand, it is important to expand this approach with reference to all stakeholders and not only to refer to 1:1 interactions, but also to explicitly include complex exchange processes within and between relevant stakeholder groups in the consideration. On the other hand, the focus should not be solely on the management of transactions. At the same time, targeted relationship and reputation management as well as consistent context management must be explicitly included in the consideration. This is not least because firstly Marketing measures always tend to have corresponding effects in all three areas, i.e. possible transaction, relationship and reputation as well as context effects must be taken into account and controlled in a targeted manner. Secondly, the developments in market and society are increasingly contributing to the fact that the demands on companies are constantly increasing. On the one hand, this affects the expectations of all stakeholders that companies make significant contributions to the sustainable development of society as a whole through not only the economically successful handling of all their business processes but also consistently pursuing ecological, social and cultural goals. In order to meet these demands, companies must also try to exert a targeted influence on the relevant framework conditions in the market and society and their further development. The range here is extraordinarily large and colorful: from the creation of infrastructural conditions for smart problem solutions (e.g. smart mobility) up to ensuring the sustainable development of social value systems. The latter found its expression, e.g. in various approaches of brand activism ("black lives matter", "everyone is awesome" or the conveyance of a new self-understanding of men in the case of Gillette’s “we believe” campaign).

This research aims to understand how academic articles stimulate knowledge progress by addressing two questions: Does the level of contribution vary between different methods of research (e.g., conceptual, theoretical, and empirical)? How do we assess the potential of scholarly articles to impact and further innovate the field?

The economic harm and survival fear caused by environmental conflicts are most likely to become the psychological lever to drive individuals to adopt environmentally friendly behaviours. From the perspective of environmental conflict, this paper will explore the transmission mechanism of environmental conflict on individuals’ pro-environmental behaviour through three experiments.

Marketing research in hospitality and tourism has been rising continuously. This study provides a systematic review on marketing research and air transport. It identifies key themes and tracks the changes in scholarly researchers’ perspectives pre and post pandemic. By approaching this review not only from the tourism and air transport perspectives, but also from the marketing perspective, this allows the transfer of theories between disciplines, an added value that provides the basis for a field of research to expand and further evolve. Finally, a conceptual framework and an agenda for future research based on emerging research topics are provided.

This paper investigates the (presently unexplored) relationship between a peculiar kind of performing art, i.e. opera (as in the Western musical tradition), and the fashion and luxury business within the context of fashion cities. In particular it investigates, on the one hand, how the relationship with opera production may benefit the marketing strategy of luxury companies and, on the other hand, how opera houses may profit from the relationship with the luxury industry. As a preliminary work, introducing a new research project, its aim is to provide a tentative systematization and clarification of the research questions and to stimulate an early discussion of their consistency and relevance. Three sets of research questions are proposed for discussion and further exploration, concerning: a) the audience segmentation of opera as experiential luxury (based on self-congruency theory) and its implications; b) the luxury industry as opera sponsor; c) integrating opera in luxury marketing strategy (brand heritage vs. opera heritage).

There are two purposes of this paper. One is to present a brief introduction to item response theory in conjunction with marketing research. The other is to present a review of current use of item response theory in representative marketing research journals. Several item response theory relevant papers were recently published in various marketing research journals. Because models under item response theory from simple to complex were used without any systematic introduction in marketing research, this paper briefly presents main concepts in item response theory. An encyclopaedia entry (Kim, 2015) and two graduate-level textbooks (Baker & Kim, 2004, 2017) are mainly referred and used for the first purpose. A content analysis was done for the second purpose with 28 item response theory relevant articles on marketing research journals. Articles are sorted based on the classification framework by Thissen and Steinberg (1986). Many articles reviewed relied on some type of unidimensional dichotomous item response theory models. Articles published recently within 10 years that used item response theory models were more complicated both mathematically and statistically than other previously published articles in marketing research journals. The taxonomic tabulations in this study should aid marketing researchers who are planning their continuous training in item response theory, and faculty who design or teach courses on marketing research methods for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

The present paper is an addition to the relevance debate in marketing literature. Research is said to be ‘relevant,’ if it leads to change, alteration or validation of how managers think, talk or act. However, the majority of the literature on relevance debate talks about the decline in relevance, yet no study has scientifically measured it. The present study uses content analysis to analyze the trends in different types of relevance across three different eras of marketing eras (i.e., commoditization, generalization and post-debate era). We also conducted a second study to check the relative importance of different types of relevance to the managers using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results reveal a U-shaped curve of the relevance across these different eras. They also reveal the influence of the relevance debate on the research conducted by academicians. Out of the eight types of managerial relevance identified, “Forecasts” was ranked the highest, followed by “Rhetoric devices” and “Uncovering causal relationships.” Finally, the study also presents a view for an academician to shape his/her research concerning the current needs of the industry.

Augmented reality (AR) generates a enhanced and augmented reality by coupling virtual and real worlds. AR facilitates primary features: a permutation of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction and an exact 3D process of virtual and real objects. AR offers a new level of interaction between their products and consumers by engaging them in a totally new environment. This study identifies the current state of AR marketing and future research directions. Concentrated on the marketing value of AR, the study enlightens the concept of AR marketing value, the role of value sharing, and opportunities and challenges creating customer value in the AR platforms.

Introduction Business model (BM) research currently represents rapidly developing area of knowledge that helps businesses in finding new sources of competitive advantage and growth drivers. Multiple studies demonstrate that BM studies are multidisciplinary by their nature as this helps better understanding complex processes happening in real life that are described by BM research (Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011; Tikkanen et al, 2005). This means that BM research is built on a basis of strategic management, marketing, sociology, psychology, logistics, institutional economics and other disciplines. Regardless the growing amount of publications in this area (more than 6 times growth for the last 15 years reaching 2100 publications per year according to Scopus) the amount of successful BM in practice remains low. BM studies are primarily linked to the notion of value that is jointly created for the final consumer by multiple participants of the value chain (suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channels). Within the interaction of BM participants the key role is played by their orientation towards the interests of the final consumer who makes the decision on whether to acknowledge or not the created value. As value chain generally consists of multiple commercial organizations, their major interest is in making profits as a result of joint value creation activities. Therefore the key role in BM analysis is played by marketing that helps searching and offering such values for the customer that enable satisfying his needs. Multiple research in marketing confirms that long term customer orientation, cooperation of value chain actors offer companies better development opportunities and lead to better financial results as well as help increasing value generated for the final consumer. However, the current level of marketing involvement into the BM research remains low. This, in turn, significantly limits the opportunities of creating successful and sustainable BM that bring profits to the commercial units of the value chain and satisfy the needs of the final consumer. To address the existing gap the current paper explores the links between BM research and marketing which are then used to develop a new approach to BM innovation. The approach is based on value chains and interfirm relationships. Literature review Regardless large and steadily growing amount of BM publications the questions related to building a unified theoretical basis for BM research are still under discussion (Teece, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011; DaSilva, Trkman, 2014; Baden- Fuller, Mangematin, 2015). There is a lack of alignment between the researchers on a broad spectrum of questions (such as BM definition, BM components, the relation between BM and company strategy, BM boundaries, the impact of various BM types on company performance etc). At the same time some consolidation of researchers’ positions can be observed in relation to the domination of a value component within BM definition. The questions related to BM analysis that enable to evaluate the current state of a BM, understand its key components (Hamel, 2000; Johnson, Christensen, Kagermann, 2008; Teece, 2010) and find better opportunities for BM improvement (Osterwalder, Pigneur, 2010; Girotra, Netessine, 2014) are actively researched. Many authors come to a conclusion that a BM spans the boundaries of a single firm and includes a whole complex of interaction participants – suppliers, distribution channels, final consumers. This is because cooperation of various market participants enables to significantly increase jointly created value for the customer (Nenonen, Storbacka, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011). This understanding of a BM also leads to the need of thorough analysis of mismatches and inconsistencies between value chain participants that regularly appear in the business (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Csik, 2013; Girotra, Netessine, 2014). Regardless the existing variety of BM studies, most of the papers draw the attention to the process of value creation for the final consumer, which is a zone of marketing interests, as marketing studies the directions of identifying and satisfying customer’s needs. Therefore it is hard to imagine building successful BM oriented on the final consumer and bringing stable income to the companies participating in the BM without organic inclusion of the customer into the value chain by using methods and tools from marketing. These questions are studied within multiple relationship marketing papers (Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; Gumesson, 1999; Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; Tretyak, 2013). However, nowadays the involvement of marketing researchers in BM studies is low (only 5% of BM studies are published in marketing journals (Coombes, Nicholson, 2013)) which is also confirmed by the current study. Despite the very broad spectrum of studied questions, the importance of value acknowledgement by the customer is neglected by BM researchers. At the same time in case the value is not acknowledged, the BM loses its commercial value for the other participants as it stops bringing them profits. Therefore there is a growing need to incorporating the final consumer into the value chain, understanding its interests. This is possible in case of using the results of marketing research which is demonstrated in the current study. Research design To explore the link between marketing and BM research we review the literature on relationship marketing that is specialized on the value creation process for the customer, inclusion of the customer into the value chain, cooperation and coordination of value chain participants (Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; Gumesson, 1999; Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; Tretyak, 2013). The similarities between BM research and marketing were examined from two sides. The first examination analyzes the publications statistics of BM papers. We particularly look at the amount of BM publications in marketing journals. The classification of journals by different categories is conducted according to Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR) list. For the purpose of this analysis we use Scopus publications database and all the available articles with “business model” in title published before 2018. The relative “typicality” of these papers and journals is evaluated using citation index (number of citations per article/journal divided by total number of citations). Along with this we analyze not only journals which publish BM articles, but also the journals referring to them. The second examination looks into the actual similar attributes of marketing and BM research. The BM literature is studied through the prism of seven schools of thought that are recently proposed by (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Sauer, 2016): Activity system school (Zott, Amit), Process school (Demil, Lecocq), Cognitive school (Baden Fuller, Morgan), Technology-driven school (Chesbrough, Teece), Strategic choice school (Casadeus-Masanell, Ricart), Recombination school (Gassmann, Frankenberger, Csik), Duality school (Markides, Charitou). These seven schools provide a comprehensive outlook on major BM research tendencies that help in understanding of BM essence, structure, components, goals and objectives, BM performance evaluation, and the directions of future BM studies. Additionally to better understand BM key research trends we analyzed top 25 most cited publications according to Scopus and Ebsco publication databases (the publications with “business model” notion in title were selected). For the purpose of theoretical analysis we applied the methods of comparison, generalization, methods of grouping and classification. The basis of the current research is formed by value chains studying methods that are used in both BM and marketing studies. Results and conclusions The analysis of BM research demonstrated that BM spans the boundaries of a single firm and includes the whole complex of interaction participants that jointly create and deliver value to the final consumer - suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channels. Because of that multiple BM research papers focus on the analysis of the value chains and intercompany networks. Understanding of these specifics formed the basis of a new approach to BM innovation. It is demonstrated that the existing approaches to BM analysis and improvement don’t include the final consumer as a specific BM component, and don’t focus the attention on fulfilling his needs as well as building the mechanism of BM actors’ interaction in accordance with customer’s needs. At the same time the acknowledgement of the value by the customer defines the financial wellbeing of BM actors. Addressing these questions can significantly improve BM performance and can be done through building a link between BM research and marketing. The analysis demonstrated that only 6% of BM papers are published in marketing journals, and only 8% of studies that are citing BM research are published in marketing journals which confirms limited involvement of marketing scholars in BM research. The following similarities between BM and marketing studies were identified and explored: value chains and interfirm networks (examples of marketing studies: Tretyak, 2013; example of BM studies: Nenonen, Storbacka, 2010; Zott, Amit, Massa, 2011), cooperation and partnerships between value chain participants (examples of marketing studies: Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; example of BM studies: Zott, Amit, 2008), coordination of value chain participants (examples of marketing studies: Juttner, Christopher, Baker, 2007; example of BM studies: Girotra, Netessine, 2014), customer orientation and customer involvement (examples of marketing studies: Gumesson, 1999; example of BM studies: Johnson, Christensen, Kagermann, 2008; Teece, 2010), long term orientation of relationship marketing and sustainable BM (examples of marketing studies: Parvatyar, Sheth, 1995; example of BM studies: Girotra, Netessine, 2014). To close the existing gap a three-level conceptual model (1st level – structure of the BM, 2nd level – mechanism of BM participants’ interactions, 3rd level – results of their interactions) and new approach to BM innovation are offered within the current study. The approach demonstrates a step-by-step sequence of actions within three previously highlighted levels and is targeted on increasing the jointly created value for the customer by the BM by eliminating mismatches and inconsistencies between BM participants. Comparing to other approaches, the new approach allows orienting BM participants towards the interests of the final consumer, acknowledges different abilities of BM actors to influence the value creation process and proposes analyzing the ways of coordination of other BM actors by the dominating actor in order to improve the results of the BM. The practical implementation of the approach demonstrated that it’s key provisions could be successfully applied within different market conditions and lead to improved BM performance (Klimanov, Tretyak, 2016; Lyashchuk, Sterligova, 2016). The following sequence of actions is proposed within the approach: 1st level - structure of the BM (a. Visualization of intercompany network with its key actors and description of their roles; b. Defining and highlighting the dominating actor (hypothesis); c. Analysis of BM variety, their classification), 2nd level - interaction mechanism (a. Defining the mechanism (concrete forms) and coordination directions that are applied by the dominating actor and other BM actors; b. Definition and analysis of mismatches and inconsistencies that appear between various BM actors, and also the ways to overcome them; c. Identifying the most critical inconsistencies, their ranking (where there is the biggest gap between the value created for the customer and the value captured by other BM actors)), 3rd level - results of BM actors’ interaction (a. Analysis of the indicators that characterize BM on various levels; b. Analysis of the impact of mismatches and inconsistencies between the BM actors on the flows’ characteristics: material, financial, customer flow). The new approach to BM innovation has multiple similarities with Activity system school that is based on the approach offered in (Zott, Amit, 2010), which views BM as a system of interdependent activities conducted by the focal firm and other value chain participants in order to create value for the customer and generate profits. The approach assumes that it is possible to analyze or develop a BM by considering the components, structure and control mechanism of the activity system. However, the approach offered in the current study is different from the Activity system perspective at the level at which the activity system is analyzed - these are components of a whole value creation system, rather than a single focal firm. Thus, the proposed approach develops the Activity system perspective by proposing the use of a marketing scheme that integrates certain aspects of BM analysis into an organic whole and offers a threelevel analysis of a BM. Considerable attention in the Activity system perspective focuses on the activities of BM participants and their interaction. The activity system design element related to transaction management also reflects one of the key elements of the new approach proposed in the current study - BM participants occupy different positions in the value chain and have different opportunities to influence the value creation process for the consumer. The highlighted similarities demonstrate that the new approach to BM innovation developed in the study is organically linked to the Activity system perspective proposed by Zott and Amit and elaborates on it.

Introduction In the modern society, online shopping has been expanding and become part of people's lives. With the development of online shopping, people's online shopping awareness have increased. In the purchase process, people focus on the information, especially online evaluation. Online shopping population is becoming more aware of the negative online evaluation, businesses are more and more attention to the negative comments, but sellers lack strategies and methods to deal with negative evaluation, and the reply function offered by site are rarely used. Compared with traditional Mouth Marketing, Internet Word of Mouth Marketing(eWOM) has such characteristics as anonymity, non confrontation, wide spread and fast spread. However, it is difficult to imagine the impact of all the internet word-of-mouth information on the consumer's willingness to buy. They need to criticize and screen the information before they are used because of the large amount of information that consumers have come into contact with. Online product evaluation (abbreviated evaluation) is a kind of internet word-of-mouth. As a new means and platform for network communication, it has its own unique characteristics. With the rapid development of electronic commerce in China, the content of evaluation has become an important basis for the purchase decision of Internet consumers. In the field of marketing, Gao Xiang finds that consumers usually think that negative information is more judgmental value than positive information, so they will rely more on the negative information when buying decisions. Therefore, it is of great significance to the research of negative online evaluation. In the field of marketing, Gao Xiang found that consumers generally think that negative information is more judgmental than positive information, so they rely more on negative information for decision making in purchasing. Therefore, the research of negative online evaluation is significance. Whether the business can deal with negative evaluation effectively becomes the key to success in sales volume. Burnkrant and Consineau believes that the herd effect is the process of psychological change that people consciously and unconsciously take the opinions of the majority as the criterion to make judgments and make impressions. Group characteristics, such as scale, and the proportion of others' opinions, will affect the herd effect. The current research shows that the more people hold the same view, more people will agree with this view. In other words, the individual will be affected by the majority of the group's opinions. Businesses reply with negative evaluations in various ways as a result of the negative impact of negative reviews. It takes the C2C's largest platform, Taobao, as an example. Some seller cooperate with illegal companies to harass buyers who do not modify the review, and coerce buyers to modify the evaluation. This kind of problem has been a hot issue in society for some time. At the same time, the C2C network platform provides a function that the seller can respond to the buyer's evaluation. But few seller use it. Theoretical Development Businesses reply with negative evaluations in various ways as a result of the negative impact of negative reviews. It takes the C2C's largest platform, Taobao, as an example. Some seller cooperate with illegal companies to harass buyers who do not modify the review, and coerce buyers to modify the evaluation. This kind of problem has been a hot issue in society for some time. At the same time, the C2C network platform provides a function that the seller can respond to the buyer's evaluation. But few seller use it. This study further deepens the related research on the negative evaluation of the network. More attention has been paid to the negative evaluation itself and the analysis of its content, publisher characteristics and evaluation results. There are few studies on how to respond to negative evaluations and to use the business response function of a website. This paper studies the relationship between the response of the merchant to the negative online reviews and the customer's purchase intention and the internal influence mechanism, and deepens the previous research. At the same time, it provides some inspiration for the follow-up internet word-of-mouth research. This study also enriches the related research on consumer perceived risk. Previous studies have shown that consumers' purchase behavior and willingness to purchase will be affected by perceived risk. And communication with the seller can reduce perceived risk to a certain extent. Research Design Based on the above background, this paper make a study about the sellers’ reply of negative evaluation and potential purchasing intention. Based on the online reviews of consumer perception of risk, the basis of relevant literature consumer consumption and purchase willingness, combined with consumer behavior theory, service recovery theory, empathy theory and attribution theory, build research model in this paper. On this basis, this paper collected and analyzed the data through literature research, experimental scenarios, questionnaires and statistical analysis, and verify hypothesis based on data analysis. Results and Conclusion Through data analysis, the main conclusions are as follows: The reply to the negative comments can affect consumers' perceived risk and purchasing intention; consumers' perceived risk plays an intermediate role between the reply to the negative and purchasing intention. Product type plays a regulating role between the way of reply and consumers' perceived risk. For Search goods, external and internal attribution explanatory reply made no significant difference in affecting consumer consumers' perceived risk. Perceived risk under external attribution is lower than under the internal attribution. On the basis of research, this paper put forward online communication strategies for C2C business and help sellers do business better.

Marketing and market research are centered on the need to explore consumer experiences to inform management decisions. Heuristics and biases are of interest to marketing practitioners as these influences can impact data that is delivered to inform decisions. Existing research listing heuristics and biases alongside management strategies is limited to five reviews presenting frameworks and/or detailing heuristics and biases, none of which have been extended to a marketing context. This research 1) details the heuristics of interest to marketing practitioners by presenting n=7 core heuristics and the mechanisms of their operation and 2) examine solutions and proposed frameworks reported within the literature to avoid or acknowledge biases which may be present.

The major paradox in research in marketing: Can the researcher construct models that capture firm heterogeneities and achieve accurate prediction of outcomes for individual cases that also are generalizable across all the cases in the sample? This study presents a way forward for solving the major paradox. The study identifies research advances in theory and analytics that contribute successfully to the primary need to fill to achieve scientific legitimacy: Configurations that include accurate description, explanation, and prediction (i.e., predicting outcomes accurately of cases in samples separate from the samples of cases used to construct models having high fit validity.) The solution here includes philosophical, theoretical, and operational shifts away from variable-based modeling and null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST) to case-based modeling and somewhat precise outcome testing (SPOT). The study here provides examples of research contributing to knowledge and theory that advance prediction and control in business-to-business contexts. Shifting beyond linear model construction and symmetric tests (i.e., multiple regression analysis (MRA) and structural equation modeling (SEM)) and embracing complexity theory and asymmetric tests (i.e., constructing and testing algorithms by “computing with words,” Zadeh, (1996, 2010)) includes taking necessary steps away from examining “net effects” of variables to useful screening modeling of case configurations. Researchers embracing this shift in marketing benefit from recognizing that the current dominant logic of performing null hypothesis testing (NHST via MRA and SEM) is “corrupt research” (Hubbard, 2015) and from recognizing that predicting by algorithms via somewhat precise outcome testing (SPOT) advances business-to-business research toward achieving scientific legitimacy.

This contribution focuses on fitting between heuristic rules and the task environment in business to business market. The subject is about evidence-based business decision-making process in the business actors‟ perspective. The empirical setting of fashion business to business markets is considered, focusing on adaptive behavior situated in the interaction processes in customer-supplier relationships emerging from empirical researches. The paper considers two key aspects of the process: (1) the origin and diffusion of the heuristic rules adopted by the actors (adoption) and (2) the fields in which the rules can be used (scope) are discussed. The central research questions are: How heuristics are adopted and diffused in the fashion business to business environment (adoption)? How wide is the context in which the heuristic rule is applied by the actors (scope)? Fashion business to business markets is our setting of analysis. First of all we have to define what are heuristics. Studies of decision-making processes generally divide them into two, mutually exclusive types: rational decision making versus rule-based decision making (March 1994). In the case of rational decision making the approach is to evaluate the consequences of any decision in terms of either pure (maximizing) or limited rationality (satisficing). In rational decision making, consequential choices are adopted, hence an evaluation of preferences and expectations is necessary and decisive to the final outcome. Instead, in rule-based decision making, what counts most is following the rules, the aim being to satisfy and/or define an identity. In rule-based decision making, rules deemed appropriate are adopted, and what then counts are the rules and the identity, which form the basis for taking well-thought-out actions. Rationality requires less „specific‟ knowledge, since it relies on abstract rules. In this approach, following the rules may instead involve understanding them in relation to the specific context in which they are to be applied. The relations between heuristics and interaction in business networks provide a means to study other aspects of the evolution of the relationship between enterprise and business market environment (Artinger et al. 2015; Guercini et al. 2014, 2015). In fact, the network of relationships the actors adopt images of the relationships to be cultivated with the precise aim of formulating an effective representation of the market, enable other phenomena to be examined, not so much in their qualitative aspects, but rather as regards their importance as perceived by business decision-makers. In light of these relations between heuristics and setting, the essential properties of heuristics that we propose to examine herein are: (1) specificity, intended as the field of application and setting in which any heuristic rule is generated and routinely applied; (2) convergence, which concerns how widespread, at least in appearance, any given heuristic rule is amongst actors in a given market setting (Guercini 2012). In other terms, the heuristics of entrepreneurial marketing can be considered specific to this particular setting, in that they concern the degrees to which such rules are generated, are successful, and are confined to the specific setting or context. Looking more closely at the two above-mentioned properties, specificity is high when, for instance, a heuristic refers to a specific, circumscribed matter (for example assessing the opportune moment to purchase certain semi-finished goods) and finds no application in any other setting. Conversely, a rule‟s degree of specificity is low when its field of application is broad: a rule may, since its inception, be applicable to many different fields, or it may be initially applicable only to a limited range of decisions, but subsequently find fruitful application in other, broader matters (Guercini et al. 2014). The degree of convergence instead regards the frequency with which a given heuristic rule is adopted within a population, a community or, in our case, by entrepreneurs. Such adoption may only be apparent, in the sense that what seems to be a single rule may actually represent various, subtly different rules for each individual, given the supremely personal, individual nature of fine mental processes. Evaluating the degree of convergence of a given heuristic within a population obviously involves measuring its dissemination in terms that are recognized as such by the researcher. Convergence is high for rules adopted by everyone, or at least by a large segment of the population in question. Other heuristic rules are instead developed by individuals in forming their personal judgments and seem to be unique to such individuals, in that they do not arise in others. This implies that heuristic rules may be the source of a relative advantage for the entrepreneur, in so far as the heuristic in question proves itself successful, that is, an element that determines a good choice when other methods are ineffective or may even produce negative effects. Specificity and convergence are thus general properties of the heuristics adopted by entrepreneurial marketers, and are strongly tied to the interpersonal relationships and consequent interactions within business decision-makers‟ personal contact networks (Guercini et al. 2015). Heuristic procedures are easily detectable in the descriptions of enterprise top management of the processes they utilize in assessing possibilities and forming judgments. Some of these procedures are highly abstract and applicable to various different settings, for instance, regarding problems typically facing firms as well as purchase decision-makers. In the following we shall briefly present some of the heuristics encountered in our research; a more detailed description and more rigorous modeling of their characteristics will be addressed in future work. Let us consider now a fashion business to business settings, and more precisely the situation in which the decision-maker of a fashion firm is tasked with formulating a judgment regarding the best choice of colors to keep up with the fashion trends of coming seasons. From interviews with representatives of styling divisions, what repeatedly emerged was their conviction that “strong” colors periodically and forcefully come back in fashion. Some even went so far as to specify the duration of this cycle: seven years – that is, the same as the number of strong colors –, which also turns out to be coherent with long-standing observations on the limits of human cognitive function (Miller 1956). No clearly defined explanation was offered of the reasons for, or origins of, this rule, although some hypotheses were advanced: simply that a sort of “law” was first noticed and then became consolidated as its predictions were repeatedly verified over time. A second example is that of the textile firm entrepreneurial marketer called on to provide a forecast of the fabrics that will be most widely utilized in the market over the next few seasons. From the marketer‟s perspective, the price of natural fibers is one element on which to base any judgment regarding future fabric usage trends. Clearly, there are technical time constraints on the purchasing of fibers for spinning, which must naturally precede the sale of the fabric, and may even take place already in the stage of drafting the fabric sample book. Thus, a specific assessment rule is applied: those fibers whose price increases during certain periods of the year are deemed to be those that will be in most widespread use the following season. However, for some years now this rule has begun to seem less reliable than in the past. Workers in the sector speak of greater complexity in the wool market, where supply factors, such as international manufacturers‟ policy of stepping up fiber tops production, have had the effect of upsetting traditional market dynamics. The heuristic rules in these examples can be regarded in the perspective of the attributes they present, in particular, their “specificity” (or field of application) and their “convergence” (or degree of dissemination). A rule that is highly specific to a certain application setting looses much of its value when applied to judgments other than the one for which it has been developed. On the other hand, a rule that is in widespread use in many firms can hardly become a distinctive resource for entrepreneurial marketers. The widespread dissemination of a given heuristic rule amongst the rules “in stock” or the “adaptive toolbox” of firms may influence its effectiveness. Indeed, the fact that a rule is shared by many may justify its adoption in light of the validity that the decision-makers seem to attribute it, even if it is less probable that its use impart a distinctive competitive advantage. The examples of heuristic processes presented in the foregoing seem to enjoy different degrees of specificity and convergence. The association of certain heuristics to specific settings takes on the significance attributed to them by Simon (1979), as rules bound by the task environment and not clearly referable to relatively abstract mechanisms or endowed with autonomy. Mechanisms applicable to less specific settings are instead referable to the heuristics described by Tversky and Kahneman (1974), including representativeness, availability and adjustment/anchoring, identified in relation to the possible distortions and errors associated to them. The heuristics modeled by “building blocks” by Gigerenzer et al. are seemingly cannot be captured by a few categories, given the variety of formal models identified. Briefly, these include (1) recognition heuristic; (2) fluency heuristic; (3) take-the-best; (4) tallying; (5) satisficing; (6) 1/N equality heuristic; (7) default heuristic; (8) tit-for-tat; (9) imitate the majority; (10) imitate the successful; (11) hiatus heuristic; (12) fast and frugal trees; (13) mapping models; (14) averaging the judgment; (15) social circle; (16) moral behavior (Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier 2011, Gigerenzer and Brighton 2009). In the approach proposed by Gigerenzer and his “adaptive behavior and cognition program”, formal models are necessary to evaluate the real contribution of heuristics to cognition, decision-making and behavior. For details, refer to the publications of the adaptive-behavior-and-cognition program (Gigerenzer 2007; Todd and Gigerenzer 2012). Rule-based decision making implies the availability of rules to follow and consistency with an established identity as the driving factors in the decisionmaking process. If the rules satisfy an ecological rationality approach, are such rules then the result of a process of rules selection with which the decision makers are endowed innately or they are formed through a process of learning? And, if the latter is true, what are the characteristics of the decision-making process during the stage that the rules formation schemes are more open? And lastly, when the rules have already been defined, are they necessarily stable or can they be questioned and, if so, in what terms? These research questions are part of the future research stimulated by this first exploration based on case study research.

Chinese economic develops fast and have became the second economic entity all around the world. The development of economic pushes the popularize of mobile clients. Accordingly, whenever and wherever the consumers are, they can acquire and share information about productions directly, e-word-of-mouth (eWOM) becomes one of the important part of online marketing. Customers prefer to trust opinion leaders and real users’ feedback rather than the advertisements which are made by companies. The choice preference of information source accelerate the development of social media. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, have grown rapidly and have advocated for the burgeoning new industry. (Robert V. et al., 2010) Marketers and sociologists have recognized the importance of the phenomenon of word of mouth, for more than half a century, proposing, for example, that WOM affects the majority of all purchase decisions (Brooks 1957; Dichter 1966).They find that the “friend who recommends a tried and trusted product” rather than the “salesman who tries to get rid of merchandise” (Dichter 1966, p. 165). Marketing scholars has evolved from a transaction orientation to one based on relationships (Vargo and Lusch 2004) Consumers are regarded as active coproducers of value and meaning, whose WOM use of marketing communications can be idiosyncratic, creative, and even resistant (Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry 2003; Kozinets 2001; Muñiz and Schau 2005; Thompson and Sinha 2008) Therefore, when the behavior is on/off, impact measured as probability of purchase can differ substantially from impact measured as attitude change (Robert East 2015). This study will select significant respondents from Chinese social media users as sample. The WOM communication is send information to marketers from the market-based message interaction community ,gathering consumers with same interests. In this study, not only structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to test research model. But also using the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and SPSS, the first method attempts to find a new configuration to verify the finding and the SPSS can be used to make reliability analysis and validity analysis. WOM of the research model will also be tested by fsQCA and SPSS to obtain the conclusion about what extent do two communication ways influence consumers’ purchase preference. We want to explore different results between opinion leaders and the real users in different communication ways. Based on the results we will give some implication to both marketing scholars and practitioners.

Understanding the types and dynamics of drivers on customer equity has been the subject of marketers’ attention for decades, however it is only recently been suggested that cultural or national contexts play a role in this understanding. Much of this research has been centered on the differences between the West and the Asia with many differences being found. Confucianism is often used to explain these differences. This comes as no surprise as Confucianism is argued to be the dominant cultural philosophy, or mode of thought, influencing East Asian individuals’ and entities’ roles in society and with each other. The philosophy has spread from its foundation in China to influence many other key societies in East Asia, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The general assumption in most of the literature is Confucianism will act similarly in every society it has spread to, but is this the case? What is not understood, therefore, is if the influence of Confucianism is equal among different East Asian societies? This exploratory study therefore seeks to contribute to knowledge by identifying if Confucianism is an influential force on customer equity drivers? And if so, are there differences between East Asian societies? Given the growing economic clout and importance of East Asia and the rising East Asian diaspora, marketer’s adherence and understanding of Confucian principles may be key to their success of managing their customer relationships, underscoring one of their key assets, their customer equity. With most cross-national research taking an umbrella view of the role of Confucianism as an explanatory variable on the behaviors of East Asian consumers, such as the Chinese and South Koreans (e.g. Bond, 1996; Hofstede, 1980), they are ignoring the behavioral and attitudinal variations that exist between East Asian Societies (e.g. Kim & Leung, 2007; Zhang et al., 2013). There is debate suggesting that Confucianism is having less effect now due to globalization, digitalization and capitalism (Leidner, 2010) potentially creating new hybrid value systems (Ralston, 2008). In China, arguments suggest Confucian influence is lessening due to the systemic philosophical changes in the nation’s society over the twentieth century, with the move from traditional Confucius philosophy to Maoism to socialist capitalism (Chiu 2002, Whitcomb et al., 1998). Other East Asian societies however may have moved away from Confucianism much quicker than China, due to their much earlier global exposure than China’s open door globalization policy in the late 1970s. In spite of this, there is wide agreement that Confucianism remains a strong influence in both China (e.g., Zhao & Roper, 2011) and other East Asian societies,such as Korea (Sung & Tinkham, 2005; Lee et al, 2009). The nexus of our paper therefore is that Confucianism does still have an influential role, but what this role is, and how this role differs between societies should be explored. In its purest form, Confucianism is composed of five constant virtues (e.g. Zhang et al., 2005): Benevolence: kind, sympathetic, compassionate, tolerant and respectful of others; Righteousness: the power to protect justice and goodness; Propriety: following societal regulations and laws; Wisdom: having good knowledge, intelligence and systems to provide excellence; and Trustworthiness: fulfillment of promises. Although the foundations of Confucianism goes back millennia, the use of the virtues to guide commercial operations stems from the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). How adherence to each of the virtues by modern marketing organizations influences their relationships with the modern customer however, has not been explored fully. We argue that each of the virtues will have a positive effect on the key customer equity drivers; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity (Lemon et al., 2001; Rust et al., 2004), and thereon customer lifetime value. Using a sample of young Chinese and Korean consumers, the Confucian five constant virtues, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, trustworthiness and wisdom are measured and their relationships explored on the three dominant drivers of customer equity; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity. The results show that the benevolence, righteousness and wisdom virtues have significant positive relationships on the three drivers. Trustworthiness and propriety virtues however have negative significant relationships. Chinese and South Korean results are then compared. The results show that the Confucianism constant virtues drive different customer equity drivers in these two societies. The five constant virtues have stronger effects for young Chinese customers than their Korean counterparts. The equity drivers of CLV also vary, with brand equity significant in the Chinese sample and value equity significant in the Korean sample. Additionally, some significant paths to the equity drivers differ between Korea and China. Benevolence has a significant negative effect on value and relationship equity drivers (opposite to China) and righteousness a significant effect on value equity (not observed in China). These results support our proposition that a national effect on the manner and influence of the Confucian drivers may vary by society.

A conceptual paper is developed in regards to the influences of institutional research, word-of-mouth (via internal students and faculties), quality signaling (to external prospect students and stakeholders as potential customers), and customer relationship management, on student recruitment performance as a special form of customer decision. Grounded on the marketing communication perspective, we propose that the student recruitment performance is largely affected by word-of-mouth, quality signaling, and customer relationship management as strategic marketing communications, which are facilitated by institutional research. Institutional research is interpreted as a strategic marketing tool that can help identify, communicate, and visualize the strengths of a university. The conceptual model contributes to the search for marketing mechanisms through which institutional research can generate impact to external stakeholders. Formal propositions and their implications for future, larger-scaled surveys were discussed. From a non-profit organization’s marketing perspective, higher education institutions (HEIs) promote itself by actively communicating the strengths, features, unique positions, and so forth, to its internal and external “customers,” including existing and prospect students and parents, the surrounding community, and governmental units (Kotler, 1982; Licata & Frankwick, 1996). For example, the decision making of that a prospect student in determining if s/he is attending a college can be treated as a cognitive psychological process involving the interaction between a college’s quality signaling and a customer’s evaluation of that signaled quality. Put differently, the “customer decisions” of whether accepting services sold from an university can depend on the result of university-stakeholders communications. With the extant progress in educational theory and practices by adopting a marketing perspective, there are significant unresolved issues in research and practices that warrant more systematic investigation. Knowing the importance of marketing communication, for example, what is the foundation for universities to communicate with internal and external stakeholders? Through what mechanisms and occasions can universities communicate with and signal to stakeholders? To respond to such gaps in the literature, WE propose that institutional research of a university (Knight et al., 1997; Jedamus & Peterson, 1980) plays a role of strategic communication in facilitating internal and external stakeholder communication, engagement, and cognition building. Overall, the propositions include the following. Proposition 1. Institutional research outcomes (i.e., created knowledge) generates significant impacts on students recruitment performance Proposition 2. The impacts of institutional research on student recruitment performance is mediated by strategic marketing mechanisms, including quality signaling, word-of-mouth, and customer relationship management Proposition 3. Quality signaling, word-of-mouth, and customer relationship management intervene interactively on the effects of institutional research on student recruitment

Evidence indicates that lower levels of obesity among school-age children can be achieved through active school travel modes which include walking. This research aims to empirically investigate the explanatory potential of the Ecological and Cognitive Active Commuting (ECAC) model to explain walking to school behaviour among Queensland children. The results from an online survey of 537 carers in Queensland, Australia indicate that the ECAC explained 53.4% of the variance in walking to school. Distance to school moderates the associations among walking to school behaviours, perceived risks, and social norms. Data indicates that changing carers’ social norms and lowering the perceived risks carers associate with walking to school will increase the incidence of walking to school in Queensland.

Reviewing survey research published in the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management during the years 2010 – 2014, we highlight two areas where theory testing in global and cross-cultural fashion marketing would benefit from improvement. In particular, cross-sectional, single-source research designs and alternative explanations threaten the internal validity of the literature. Our aim is to discuss how a series of well-established survey preparation techniques and post hoc tests can overcome these threats and strengthen the findings stemming from global and cross-cultural fashion marketing research. At the core of our recommendations are recent advances in common method variance testing and covariate analysis. We discuss how these prescriptions can be used to advance theories related to large-scale global and cross-cultural fashion marketing research efforts.

The aim of this paper is to understand which are the most effective social media strategies for gaining customer engagement for fashion companies. The study has been conducted using the empirical research methodology and the information has been collected with the use of an online survey distributed among companies belonging to the fashion industry. 42 questionnaires have been collected and therefore discussed. The analysis led to the definition of a list of strategies used by fashion companies on the adoption of social media tools. Subsequently, activities and the social tools able to improve customer engagement have been analysed. Finally, according to the size of the companies and to their positioning on the market, a descriptive analysis of the results have been carried out, comparing companies with similar characteristics. The research shows that companies of the same segment adopt the same approach to social media as well as a similar set of social media marketing strategies. The findings of this paper confirm the growing interest both from academics and practitioners for Social Media Marketing tools and they will suggest implications to fashion brands to manage their customer engagement and their social media activity.