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

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

In this paper we present an analytical model that studies the strategic role of fake media content in a media market. We first find the conditions under which a monopoly media platform would publish fake media content. Then we show that certain opposite patterns exist in a competitive environment. Our results suggest that media platforms may find optimal profitability in publishing apparently less credible fake media content if the fake content can resolve consumers' cognitive dissonance. We find the exact equilibrium conditions under which both the platforms in a duopoly setting will find publishing fake media content as the optimal strategy. Additionally, we show that under specific conditions both platforms publishing fake media content can turn out to be a Prisoner's dilemma equilibrium. We also compute the relevant consumer surplus. Lastly, we use experiments to validate some of the results established by the analytical model.

The purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents of repurchase intention toward fast fashion brands. Perceived quality, perceived price, deindividuation, and overly trendy styles, which are product characteristic variables, and fashion innovativeness, which is a consumer characteristic variable, were considered as antecedents. It was hypothesized that product and consumer characteristics influence repurchase intention toward fast fashion brands not only directly, but also indirectly through cognitive dissonance. Data were gathered by surveying university students in Seoul using convenience sampling. Three hundred and fifty-two questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. SPSS was used for exploratory factor analysis, and AMOS was used for confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. The factor analysis of product characteristics revealed four dimensions: “perceived quality”, “perceived price”, “deindividuation”, and “overly trendy styles”, and the factor analysis of consumer characteristics revealed one dimension. The factor analysis of cognitive dissonance revealed two dimensions, “regrets” and “perceived uncertainty.” The hypothesized path test proved that perceived quality, deindividuation, overly trendy styles, and fashion innovativeness influence repurchase intention directly. Perceived price and deindividuation influence repurchase intention indirectly through the factor of cognitive dissonance, which is the perceived uncertainty, indicating the importance of cognitive dissonance. The results indicate effective marketing strategies should be used to decrease consumers’ cognitive dissonance, and suggestions for future study are provided.

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

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