As the popularity of gaming has increased, the importance and effectiveness of in-game advertisements have become more relevant to marketers. However, despite this development, both marketing academics and practitioners do not fully comprehend how consumers respond to in-game advertisements. This study focuses on the dynamics associated with in-game advertisements, considering the privacy concerns and ad relevance expectations of consumers/gamers.

Due to the rapid development of technology, the environment is rapidly changing, and new regulations are emerging in the global society. In addition, environmental and social problems such as the pandemic and deepening social polarization have intensified, and the international community and investors have begun to regard ESG as a key factor in decision making. Regulations and systems reflecting ESG elements, such as the Carbon Neutral Act to cope with environmental problems and the Serious Disaster Act to cope with social problems, have already been enacted and implemented in major countries such as the EU and the Republic of Korea. In particular, the EU is pushing to publish ESG disclosure standards and make ESG disclosure mandatory next year. Given this trend, companies should consider ESG management as their business key strategy, as well as consumer characteristics and regulation.

With the rapid growth of the Chinese cosmetics market and the continuous introduction of new products into the market, beauty videos generated by other consumers, that are by beauty vloggers, have become a major source of information for cosmetics consumers. With the popularity of beauty vlogs in China, beauty vloggers have become influencers who affect consumers’ information processing and attitude development regarding cosmetic products and beauty routines. The current study aims to explore the characteristics of beauty vloggers that affect consumers’ attitudes toward both the beauty vlogs and the products featured in those vlogs. Based on parasocial interaction theory, the study examines whether perceived characteristics of beauty vloggers influence consumers’ perceived parasocial interaction, which in turn influences their attitudes. The study employs an online survey, which was administered to female consumers in China. Data from a total of 372 responses was used for analysis. Findings show that the perceived similarities to and perceived trustworthiness of vloggers have a significant impact on parasocial interactions, which influences consumer attitudes toward both the vlogs and the products shown in them. Perceived reliability and perceived attractiveness are shown to have a positive impact on consumer attitudes toward vlogs. Perceived expertise, attractiveness, similarity, and trustworthiness have all been shown to affect product attitudes. These results show that while beauty vlogs have a significant impact on consumers’ decision-making processes, the perceived characteristics of beauty vloggers themselves are important to consumers in the development of their attitudes toward both vlogs and products.

Introduction A private label (PL) is defined as a brand owned, sold and distinguished by retailers (Lincoln & Thomassen, 2009). Therefore, most PLs display only their brand name on their product labels or packages. However, in the Japanese consumer goods market, an increasing number of manufacturers’ names are now being displayed on PL product packages. For example, the “Seven Premium” PL, by Seven & I Holdings, displays the manufacturer’s name on its product labels using the phrase “This product is a joint development product with manufacturer X.” This indicates that retailers are utilizing the brand of the national brand (NB). This type of branding strategy can be classified as co-branding or a brand alliance. In Japan, expansion of PL co-branding may have improved consumers’ attitudes toward PLs and contributed to their development. Theoretical Background Most prior research on co-branding has focused on brand alliances between two NBs. Therefore, studies on alliances between PLs and NBs are very limited. Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2000) focused on ingredient branding, which merged elements of PLs with NB ingredients. Based on the combination theory (Park, Jun, & Shocker 1996), attitude accessibility theory (Fazio, 1986), and attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Kelly, 1973), they found that the association of brand name ingredients with private brand products could positively impact consumers’ evaluations of unfamiliar products. Also, the use of a brand name ingredient in a PL did not negatively affect consumers’ evaluations of this product. Arnett, Laverie, and Wilcox (2010) focused on brand alliances of retailers and manufacturers in the clothing category. Based on the attitude accessibility theory and the information integration theory (Anderson, 1971; Smith, 1993), they found that consumers’ attitudes toward alliances can influence retailer equity, manufacturer brand equity, and shopping intentions. They also found that pre-alliance retailer equity significantly affects attitudes toward alliances. Except for post-alliance retailer equity, perceived fit moderates all relationships between consumers’ attitudes toward the outcome of an alliance. Prior research on co-branding indicates that the attitudes and attributes of co-brands are influenced by the attitudes and attributes of constituent brands. In addition, a constituent brand’s familiarity moderates the effect (Park et al., 1996; Simonin & Ruth, 1998). As another notable finding, attitudes about co-brands influence constituent brand attitudes, with the effect being moderated by brand familiarity (Simonin & Ruth, 1998). Based on prior findings, this study examines whether co-branded PLs are influenced by their constituent NBs and by the familiarity of constituent brands in the case of Japanese co-branded PLs. This study also examines whether a spillover effect exists for constituent brands. Methodology An Internet survey of 798 women living in the Greater Tokyo area was conducted in August 2017. Subjects were assigned to one of four groups, grouped by PL and NB brand familiarity (Figure 1). The familiar “salad dressing” category was selected. While this category includes several large and popular manufacturers, many small, unknown manufacturers also exist within it, a fact that is relevant to the purpose of this study. High-familiarity PLs and NBs were selected based on their market shares in the category. However, Seven Premium, the most popular PL in Japan, was not selected as it had already adopted a co-branding strategy. Aeon’s Topvalu was chosen as a high-familiarity PL. While Topvalu is one of the most popular PLs in Japan, it has not yet taken a co-branding strategy. All measures were assessed through a seven-point, semantic, differential scale. Attitudes toward constituent brands (PLs and NBs), co-brands, perceived quality of constituent brands, and brand familiarity of constituent brands were measured. Using covariance structure analysis, we examined factors influencing attitudes about co-branding and the spillover to constituent brands after considering co-branded formations. Regarding familiarity, a multi-group analysis was conducted. Results Attitudes toward constituent brands (PLs and NBs) positively influenced attitude toward co-branded PLs. In addition, the influence on the co-branded PLs was greater for PLs (Table 1). From the multi-group analysis, the influence of familiarity on the attitude toward co-branded PLs can be found in some cases (Table 2). In the case of high-familiarity PLs with high-familiarity NBs (Group 1), the attitudes about co-branding by NBs were not significant. On the other hand, a positive co-branding attitude by NB was found in other cases. In cases of low-familiarity PLs with low-familiarity NBs (Group 4), the co-brand’s influence was greater for NBs. Moreover, since the attitude toward co-branding positively influenced differences of attitude between post-alliance and pre-alliance toward PLs and NBs, the spillover effect is confirmed (Table 3). Discussion Our results, which suggest that co-branding with NBs can be an effective strategy if PLs have low familiarity, are consistent with prior research. PLs in Japan, which have a lower penetration ratio than those in Europe and the United States, are still in a developmental stage (Kumar & Steenkamp, 2007). Since PLs in Japan are less familiar than leading NBs, co-branding with an NB can be an effective strategy for a PL. On the other hand, when a PL is already established as a brand and has high familiarity, co-branding with a NB might have little effect. In this case, it might be necessary to devise a different strategy, such as changing a PL’s brand name. Seven Premium, the most popular PL in Japan, was introduced in 2007. From the beginning, when its brand had low familiarity, it opted for a co-branding strategy, and our findings suggest that this decision significantly improved overall attitudes toward PLs.

Attitudes toward advertising as an institution remain an important research topic in developing countries. Even in the West, the issue is currently being revisited to update for various online media contexts. This paper examines attitudes toward advertising among college students in Egypt. There was little difference in attitudes depending on whether they were thinking of traditional TV advertising or advertising on social media, although they use SM much more frequently. Generally the respondents agreed with a range of issues related to the beneficial aspects of advertising, and only slightly agreed or were roughly neutral on most issues related to detrimental effects. There is strong support for laws about ‘truth-in-advertising’ and legal responsibility for claims, but only weak support for direct government control of advertising.

Introduction How to evaluate quality of advertising? Previous behavioral studies have mainly focused on subjective reports of survey and interview containing social and cognitive bias, or objective data of sell changes suffering huge temporal and monetary cost. Recently, increasing researchers have proposed that techniques of neuro-imaging could provide an objective and effective way to examine cognitive neural mechanisms underlying consumer behavior (referred to as consumer neuroscience) (Karmarkar & Yoon, 2016), and several studies have measured consumer's brain responses to advertising and movie trailer in both single- and two-brain frames (Barnett & Cerf, 2017; Venkatraman et al., 2015). However, still little is known about cognitive neural mechanisms underlying comprehension of advertising. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive technique of brain-imaging measuring changes in the hemodynamic properties of human brain. Compared with fMRI and EEG, fNIRS is portable, has few physical constraints on participants with reasonable spatial and temporal resolution, and is tolerant to electromagnetic noise and motion artifact. Therefore, fNIRS is a suitable tool for research of human behavior in daily-life contexts (Liu et al., in press), which is a trends in neuroimaging (Hasson & Honey, 2012) and consumer neuroscience as weill. Methods To examine the neural responses to different quality of advertisings, in the present study we measured 14 undergraduate students' frontal activations while watching 20 advertisings in Study 1 and listening 30 music demos in Study 2 using a portable fNIRS device, and analyzed interpersonal neural network across all participants based on graph theory. Figure 1 shows positions of the fNIRS channels. Positions of the fNIRS channels were measured by a 3D magnetic digitizer. In a pilot study, another group of participants were recruited to score 30 advertisings from three dimensions: degree of liking, degree of willing to pay (WTP), and degree of understanding, and finally top-10 and bottom-10 scored adverting were remained for the final experiment in Study 1. Concerning the music demos used in Study 2, we selected the top-15 and bottow-15 ranking music in the ‘Billboard 2014 hot 100’. During the experiment, participants were asked to score their degree of liking and WTP to the advertising or the music immediately after each stimulus was displayed. After the experiment, they were also instructed to score and report their understanding on each advertising or music. Results and Discussion In Study 1, the intra-brain activations revealed higher medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation when participants watched low-scored advertisings than watched high-scored ones (Fig. 2), and the mPFC activations showed a positive relationship with participants’ understanding on the meaning of the advertisings. This result only suggests that low-scored advertisings were relatively hard for participants to understand the intentions of the adverting, requiring more cognitive resources of mentalizing (Lieberman, 2007). Importantly, when we considered all participants' brains as a network, and then calculated the interpersonal neural connectivity (INS) across the network (defined as the number of participant pairs who showed significant positive inter-brain neural synchronization across them indicating shared understanding) (Hasson et al., 2012), only the network connectivity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) had significantly positive relationships with participants' scores of attitude towards the advertisings (defined as mean of the scores of liking and WTP) (Fig. 3). Study 2 confirmed the result showing significantly positive relationship between the network connectivity across all participants' brains and their scores of attitude towards the song demos. More importantly, the network connectivity in the right IFG of the small group of participants also significantly predicted the public's attitude towards the songs assessed by the rating scores on Douban website (Fig. 4). Conclusion The right IFG is a core area of mirror neuron system and is closely associated with empathy (Lamm et al., 2007). Thus, the present results suggest that high-scored advertisings may activate consumer's empathic response to simulate and experience their contents and intentions. And the network connectivity across consumers' brains in the right IFG may be a critical index evaluating quality of experiential advertisings. Practically, advertising should invite consumers to experience their products, and then could convey information and emotion more effectively.

Over time popular media has used the idea of Italian Mafia and the related image of mobsters in TV series, movies, and cartoons. The overall image surrounding Mafia is so powerful that nowadays many people associate the name Mafia to The Godfather movie or other fictional images. In addition to this, there are also businesses that offer products and services branded with names that remind the idea of Mafia, despite, in reality, the Mafia is a violent criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, murders, etc. However, marketing research has never studied consumers’ attitudes towards the use of these stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use them. This research tries to fill this gap and, by adopting Forsyth’s (1980) ethical ideologies questions, it studies the links between consumers’ ethical ideologies and: 1) consumers’ attitudes towards these products and services; 2) consumers’ willingness to buy them in order to understand whether there are differences between relativists and ideologists consumers. This research is based on an online survey made up of open and closed-ended questions. Section one of the survey was made up of closed-ended questions aimed at studying ethical ideologies; section two was made up of a mix of open- and closedended questions aimed at understanding the perceptions that respondents had towards the Mafia; their degree of acceptance towards the use of the Mafia for commercial purposes; and their willingness to buy Mafia-inspired products; the last section included some demographic questions. The survey was made available via Qualtrics and respondents were recruited through Prolific. In the end 152 responses from UK participants were collected. Data analysis has not been carried out yet, but it is expected to analyse data through the Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), a new data analysis technique that is aimed at identifying necessary, but not sufficient conditions within data. In addition to this, analysis of group differences will be carried out through ANOVA, in conjunction with regression analysis. Through this research it is expected to be able to understand whether consumers’ attitudes towards the use of Mafia stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use these stereotypes differ according to whether consumers are classified as relativists or ideologists. With this study it is expected to analyse an area of consumption that so far has been neglected by research, i.e. consumers’ attitudes and willingness to buy products and services that use Mafia-related stereotypes.

Introduction Smartwatches are mini devices that are worn like standard watches, which allow installation and use of mobile apps enabling connectivity and interactivity (Chuah et al., 2016). Park et al. (2016) regard smartwatches as multi-category products and are considered to be the first commercialized wearable technology for consumers (Jung et al., 2016). Wearable technologies refer to high-tech devices that are integrated into clothing, accessories or the human body to provide personalized functions to users, regardless of the types of usage (Choi and Kim, 2016). Thus, the smartwatch is recognised as an important and pioneering sub-category of broader smart-fashion. Wearable technology has become more readily available and widespread in the market. A recent industry report (IDC, 2017) indicates that worldwide shipments of wearable devices are expected to increase by 132% from 102.4 million units to 237.5 million units between 2016 and 2021, driven by the proliferation of new and various types of smartwatches. In the past, high-tech and fashion were considered as two separate industries. However, recent years have witnessed a trend towards fashion and high-tech collaborations (Zimmermann, 2016). For example, “Hermès Apple watch” and “Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon” (O‟Connor, 2017). Millennial consumers are often perceived as the first high-tech generation. This young generation is increasingly attracted by the innovativeness of smartwatches (Shotter and Bradshaw, 2014). According to PwC (2016), millennials are more likely to use smartwatches than older generations. Gartner‟s (2017) research also highlights that millennials represent the largest user group of wearable technologies. Considering the increasing magnitude of millennials‟ interest in luxury wearables, this study takes factors affecting millennial consumers‟ new technology acceptance, and luxury consumption into account. Despite increasing attention from industry, scholarly research on wearable technology has been limited to technological uses. Extant studies are focused in the fields of information systems, computers in human behaviour (Chuah et al., 2016) or electronic textiles (Berzowska, 2005). They concentrate on how these devices might be utilized for healthcare and safety monitoring, fitness or biometric purposes (Choi & Kim, 2016). Academic research to date therefore tends to be more technology rather than consumer driven (Choi and Kim, 2016). As discussed, although the fashion and technology industries are converging (Zimmermann, 2016), most existing research into smartwatch adoption (Choi & Kim, 2016; Chuah et al., 2016; Kim & Shin, 2016) utilizes standard or fitness-centric smartwatches as the research objects. Researchers generally fail to see smartwatches as a hybrid of high-tech wearable and luxury products. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1986) is a frequently cited model in predicting consumers‟ intentions to adopt an emerging technology. It depicts that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are two critical variables influencing users‟ beliefs, attitudes and intentions to embrace a new information system (Legris et al., 2003). An extension of TAM, TAM 2 (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) denotes the influence of subjective norm on behavioural intentions. In this model, technology adoption is regarded as a process of social influence. TAM has been extensively applied to explain consumer acceptance of e-commerce (Pavlou, 2003), mobile payment (Schierz et al., 2010), smart glasses (Raushnabel and Ro, 2016), mobile learning systems (Park et al., 2012) and standard smartwatches launched by IT brands (Kim and Shin, 2015; Choi an Kim, 2016). Yet, despite considerable research on the application of TAM, studies incorporating TAM 2 to explain consumers‟ perceptions, attitudes and intentions towards using luxury fashion wearables is still scarce. While Choi and Kim (2016) provide a first step towards understanding consumers‟ perceptions of smartwatches, the authors consider only the functional (perceived usefulness and ease of use) and personal (need for uniqueness and vanity) variables. The influences of other factors like emotional and social factors are neglected. Within the context of consumer behaviour, watches are consumed primarily for aesthetic appeal, as well as providing a means for constructing one‟s self-identity. Thus, psychological and social motivations may also be considered as antecedents to luxury fashion smartwatch adoption. In addition, luxury fashion wearable technology products embrace both high-tech functionality and fashionable design. These smartwatches are marketed as luxurious accessories, rather than solely functional digital devices, as self-expressive use of them has become more commonplace (Mintel, 2016). Furthermore, millennial consumers generally consume luxury for social-oriented purposes (Eastman & Liu, 2012). Hence, values that drive millennial consumers‟ luxury consumption, along with factors proposed in TAM 2, are perceived to play a critical role in affecting the adoption of these smart accessories. The premise of this paper is based on Wiedmann et al.‟s (2007) model of luxury values, employing individual values (self-identity and perceived hedonism), social value (perceived conspicuousness) and functional values (perceived usefulness and perceived quality) to investigate the key factors affecting luxury fashion smartwatch adoption. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975) provides a framework for understanding consciously intended consumer behaviour (Yousafzai et al., 2010). It posits that the impact of consumer attitudes and subjective norms on actual behaviour are mediated by behavioural intentions, which is considered the most powerful predictor of human behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005). In TRA, the roles of personal and social factors in forming behavioural intentions are considered. This attitude-intention-behaviour association has been extensively validated in various contexts like ethical consumption (Paul et al., 2016), Green Information Technology (Mishra et al., 2014) and online banking (Yousafzai et al., 2010). Yet, nascent research exists on the attitude-intention link in luxury fashion smartwatch adoption. Purpose In order to address the research gaps elucidated, this study aims to examine the relationships between key value propositions of luxury fashion smartwatches, consumer attitudes and their purchase intentions, and to explore millennial consumers‟ overall perceptions of using these luxury wearable technologies. Specifically, this study critically reviews and links the theories of technology adoption and luxury consumer behaviour to investigate and explore consumer behaviour towards luxury fashion smartwatches in order to offer compelling academic and managerial implications. Design/Methodology/Approach A conceptual framework (see Figure 1) was developed grounded in luxury consumption, technology acceptance and consumer behaviour literature, from which 9 research hypotheses and 3 research questions ensued. The model posits that millennial consumers develop attitudes and purchase intentions towards luxury fashion smartwatches in 3 stages. In line with the tri-component attitude model (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), consumers learn about luxury fashion smartwatches at the first phase (cognition). The second phase (affective) involves the formation of consumers‟ attitudes towards using luxury fashion smartwatches. At the final phase (conation), consumers develop intentions to buy consistent with their overall evaluations. Drawing on the TRA, relationship between consumer attitudes and purchase behaviour in terms of learning, feeling and doing (Solomon et al., 2010) is depicted. To offer a detailed understanding, mixed methods were employed (Creswell, 2014). An online self-administrated questionnaire was conducted and 230 valid samples were collected. The sample profile were millennial consumers, born between 1980 and 2000 (Young and Hinesly, 2012), who have seen or tried any luxury fashion smartwatch. This study recognizes millennial consumers as the research subject because this generation is described as the next prominent consumers of global luxury and are the largest user group of wearable devices (Higgins et al., 2016; Gartners, 2017). The proposed hypotheses were tested using SPSS 23.0 and subject to 5- statistical tests: reliability, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. In addition, two face-to-face semi-structured focus-group discussions with 10 participants were conducted aiming to better understand the millennial consumer perceptions of using luxury fashion smartwatches. Quantitative content analysis and thematic analysis were employed to produce a more organized and comprehensive summary of the qualitative data. << Insert Figure 1 about here >> Findings The findings indicate that functional, individual and social factors influence millennial consumers‟ adoption intention of luxury fashion smartwatches. Empirical results reveal that perceived hedonism and usefulness are the most important factors that motivate adoption intentions, followed by subjective norm and perceived conspicuousness, indicating luxury fashion smartwatches are perceived as both an IT device and luxury fashion accessory. Other factors that might affect adoption are also discussed. A positive association between attitudes towards using luxury fashion smartwatches and purchase intentions is identified. Implications This study addresses a scholarly research gap by examining factors affecting attitudes and intentions towards using luxury fashion smartwatches, from millennial consumers‟ perspectives. It also offers strategic recommendations for luxury fashion brands in launching and growing luxury wearable opportunities specifically aimed at millennial consumers – a substantial and strategic segment for luxury brands. Research limitations and directions for future research are further elucidated. Originality and Value Given extant research on luxury fashion smartwatches is limited, this study contributes to this unique research stream by exploring millennial consumers‟ perceptions towards using these new generation smartwatches. To the authors‟ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the application of TAM 2 in examining luxury fashion smartwatch adoption, and subjective norms has been proven as one of the most important factors.

The Chinese fashion market, which has typically been dominated by luxury brands, is expanding more into mid- to low-end fashion brands including global SPA (Specialty retailer of private label apparel) brands. This change in the Chinese fashion market is due to the growth of the middle class in China. The advance of the Chinese middle class is attributed to the fact that the wages of large city workers is improving due to the development of various industries, particularly IT. Recently, the Chinese government has initiated an anti-corruption movement, which has led to the prohibition of luxury goods consumption, and so the interest of Chinese potential fashion consumers has moved to the mid-to low-end fashion products imported from developed countries. In addition, young Chinese consumers' positive attitude toward online shopping is favorable for foreign mid-to low-end brands. These changes in the tastes of Chinese fashion consumers are favorable for Korean fashion brands in particular for several reasons. First, the Korean fashion industry does not have a history of producing luxury brands, but does produce many good mid- to low-end fashion brands. In addition, Chinese tend to consider Korean fashion and food culture as more developed and preferable due to the success of the Korean wave. Lastly, it is easy for Korean practitioners to offer online shopping and customer service. The emergence of mid- to low-end fashion brands started in Korea in the late 2000s when global SPA brands entered the market. Unlike Korea's soho brands, which are based on the "No-brand" strategy, global SPA brands have actually shaken up the market by offering reasonable prices for Korean domestic brand products that are of similar quality. Since then, consumers’ willingness to pay for clothing has been reduced even further in the Korean market even though the low-growth trend in the economy has stabilized. So, it is very important to analyze and study the consumption tendency for low and mid-priced fashion brands among both Chinese and Korean consumers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive the personality of mid- and low-priced fashion brands and how such personality affects brand loyalty, commitment, and perceived quality. Brand personality is a vital area of research since fashion products are a type of consumer good that is consumed by users close to the body and which can express the self and the personality to others. Aaker (1997) developed a brand personality measurement scale consisting of five dimensions which many researchers have used in exploring the brand personality dimension in various industries. In the study of fashion in particular, the dimension of brand personality has been explored and its effects have been analyzed. However, most of the research has focused on luxury or high priced brands. Also, the research has not compared cultures such as China and Korea in this regard. Therefore, this study explored how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive some of the mid- to low-end priced brands originating in Europe and Korea. Also, the research examined how multiple dimensions of brand personality affected perceived quality, commitment, and brand loyalty. This study assumed that perceived quality and commitment may mediate the relationship between brand personality dimensions and loyalty. In order to conduct quantitative research, this study adopted scales from the previous literature to measure the variables used in the research model. A professional online research company conducted the survey, which was designed to be administered only to potential consumers of mid-and low-priced fashion brands who had purchased one or both European and Korean brands which were suggested in the survey. Also, gender (female), residential area (Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai), and age (21-39 years old) were controlled for. In this research, the European origin brand was the global SPA (Zara, H & M, ONLY), and there were eight Korean brands, including “Style Nanda,” which is popular in China (Refer to Table 1). The data collected on the 250 Korean and 250 Chinese participants were analyzed using statistical package SPSS 20.0. The brand personality dimension was explored using factor analysis which applied Varimax rotation based on the principle component method. As a result, even though the items included were found to be somewhat different according to the country and origin of the brand, the brand personality dimensions of the European global brands turned out to be similar and reflected “TRENDY, SINCERITY, AND COMPETENCE.” Also, Chinese consumers’ perception of brand personality in Korean brands was found to be similar to their perception of European brands. However, Korean consumers’ perception of Korean brands, which are of course their own brands, was more diverse reflecting “TRENDY, SINCERITY, COMPETENCE, AND OUTGOING.” This seems to be because Korean consumers may have had more chance to experience Korean brands either online or offline through visiting stores or being exposed to a variety of marketing communications. Thus, because there are more Korean brands than European, Korean consumers may be able to have an accurate perception of the personality of Korean brands. The conceptual model of the current research includes the relationships among multiple dimensions of brand personality in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty. Also, the mediating effect of quality and commitment between brand personality and loyalty was examined. In order to test the hypotheses, hierarchical multiple regression using SPSS was analyzed and is described in Table 2 in relation to European brands and in Table 3 in relation to Korean brands. As expected, brand personality dimensions that were found to be a significant factor in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty were likely to vary based on Chinese or Korean perceptions. For Korean consumers’ perception of global brands, while TRENDY was likely to be the most powerful personality dimension forming brand loyalty, its impact on loyalty seemed not to be mediated by quality but rather by commitment. Also, the influences of COMPETENCE on loyalty were mediated by quality and commitment. For Chinese consumers’ perception of global brands, the impacts of SINCERITY as well as TRENDY on loyalty were found to be mediated by quality and commitment. In addition, COMPETENCE seemed to have a rather direct impact on quality, commitment, and loyalty without a mediating effect. For local brands, Korean consumers did not seem to rely on brand personality or commitment when considering brand loyalty. Since the R2 did not improve at all with adding mediating factors such as quality and commitment, there was found to be no mediating effects in the Korean cases for local brands. In particular, while TRENDY directly impacted loyalty, OUTGOING was found to be significant only in its impact on quality. On the other hand, all three dimensions of local brand personality turned out to be significant influencers on loyalty and quality for Chinese consumers. The impact of TRENDY and COMPETENCE on loyalty seems to be mediated by quality and commitment. In this study, we found that mid- to low-end fashion brands seemed to reflect valid brand personality according to the brand’s origin (global vs. local) as well as consumers’ culture (Chinese vs. Korean). Also, the effect of brand personality dimension was different. This study contributes to the study of brand personality and the Chinese fashion market by comparing a conceptual model of the consumption behavior of Chinese and Korean consumers in relation to mid and low-priced fashion brands and brand awareness formation. In particular, the research revealed differences between Chinese and Korean consumers, suggesting different approaches for Korean fashion practitioners who are planning on entering China, which has not only a similar market to that of Korea but also one that is familiar to Korean practitioners.

As the popularity of Korean drama and celebrities in China, Korean fashion is becoming increasingly popular in the Chinese market. Although the effect of Korean drama on Chinse consumers’ attitudes toward Korean products are known, little research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms underlying the impact of Korean drama on the development of consumer attitudes. Thus, this study examines how Chinese consumers’ exposure to Korean dramas has influenced their attitudes towards Korean fashion products. Applying the similarity-attraction theory, the study explores the roles Chinese consumers’ perceived similarities in appearance and values with Korean characters in TV dramas plays in the process of attitude development. Data was collected via an online survey and the responses of 317 Chinese consumers in their twenties were used for data analysis. The results of structural equation modeling show that exposure to Korean dramas has a direct impact on Chinese consumers’ perceived appearance similarity, perceived value similarity, image of Korean people, and attitudes toward Korean fashion products—results that support the theory of mere exposure. In addition, the analysis demonstrates that perceived appearance similarity positively influences the image of Koreans among Chinese people, which, in turn, influences attitudes toward Korean fashion products, supporting the similarity-attraction theory. However, the effect of perceived value similarity on attitude toward Korean fashion products was not significant. The study concludes by describing its practical implications for the Korean fashion industry and presenting ideas for future research.

The purpose of this study was to find efficient and customized tools for delivering the benefit of health functional foods (HFFs). Delivery tools which could influence the impact of advertising were images, explanations of ingredients, diagrams of health benefit, patents, and comments from authority. Six advertisements were developed using these tools: “A”: relevant image + explanation of ingredients + scientific diagram of efficacy; “B”: relevant image + explanation of ingredients; “C”: relevant image; “D”: irrelevant image; “E”: irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + patent; “F”: irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + comments from authority. To analyze the consumer perceptions on HFFs and advertisement effects, 300 respondents were requested to answer a questionnaire comprising of the following questions: 5 questions of attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information, watching advertisements and trust in advertisement claims) and 6 questions on the 6 developed advertisements (attention, understanding, sufficiency of information, sympathy, trust, and purchase). Scoring was done as per the 5 Likert scale. There was a higher proportion of females and the elderly, as compared to males and youngsters. The overall consumer attitudes were positive. Explanation of ingredients, scientific diagram of health benefit, patents and expert comments were helpful factors in increasing the advertisement evaluation by consumer, but the images were not. Advertisement evaluation of consumer did not differ with gender and age. However, differences were observed between some of the consumer attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information and trust in advertisements claim) and advertisement evaluations (attention, understanding, sympathy and purchase). Our results indicate that for consumers utilizing the HFFs, advertisements with concrete tools such as diagrams, patent, and expert comments are more helpful. However, for consumers who do not have interest in HFFs, the scientific information was irrelevant. We believe that to maximize the effect of health information in advertisements, consumers should be segmented, and customized tools for each segment needs to be developed.

As consumers’ interest in social responsibility (SR) has greatly increased in the last two decades, a growing body of academic research has examined the influence of consumers’ environmental consciousness on their attitudes and purchase intentions toward environment-friendly apparel products. Use of environment-friendly shopping bags (EFSB; recycled and reusable bags) is an example of how apparel retailers engage in SR. However, little research has examined consumers’ perceptions and their responses to the use of EFSB. To fill this research gap, this study examined the impact of young consumers’ perceptions of EFSB and environmental consciousness on their attitudes and purchase intentions toward apparel retailers using EFSB. An online survey was conducted for data collection. A convenience sample of 212 college students was obtained from a large mid-Southern university in the U.S. A simple linear regression analysis was conducted to test all hypotheses. Results showed that young consumers’ perceptions of EFSB positively influenced their environmental consciousness and their attitudes toward apparel retailers that use EFSB, which led to purchase intentions toward the retailers. Findings confirmed that young consumers placed a great degree of importance on EFSB and, therefore, would purchase apparel from retailers that use recycled or reusable shopping bags. These findings imply that providing EFSB is important in enhancing positive attitudes and purchase intentions toward apparel retailers.

Design innovation is acquiring greater importance as consumers’ emotional needs grow ever greater and the cycle of technological innovation grows ever faster. Apple in particular led and strengthened this trend, achieving incomparable business success in the technology-driven electronics industry. However, although the importance of design innovation has increased, very little research has been done to explain the influence of design innovation on business success. This study aims to investigate the influence of design innovation attributes on perceptions, attitudes, and purchase intentions among designers and consumers. 408 designers and 464 consumers participated in an online survey that presented as stimuli four different smart watches. Design innovation attributes were evaluated based on the criteria of features, aesthetics, and ergonomics; consumer-perceived values were categorized as emotional, social, and functional. Regarding consumers attitudes, attitude toward product and attitude toward brand were measured separately. Overall results indicate that purchase intention among designers and consumers alike is influenced by their attitude toward product as well as brand. However, in the case of designers, these attitudes are most influenced by emotional value, while consumers are influenced by emotional as well as social values. Moreover, all three innovation attributes - namely, features, aesthetics, and ergonomics - affect designers’ perception of emotional value, but only aesthetics and ergonomics affect consumers’ emotional and social value. The study demonstrates three significant differences in the responses of designers and consumers. First, there is correlation of aesthetics and ergonomics to functional (price) value among designers, but not consumers. Second, there is correlation of functional (quality) value to attitudes toward product and brand for consumers, but much less or none at all for designers. Third, the influence of features on perception of emotional value is more pronounced among designers as compared to consumers. In conclusion, aesthetics and ergonomics are important design innovation attributes for consumers as well as designers, but the latter also attach significance to features. While perception of emotional as well as social value is important to consumers, designers consider only emotional value. It is anticipated that the relative importance of design innovation attributes will vary according to product categories and price ranges; therefore, further comparative studies will be meaningful in investigation of design innovation.

In today’s Internet society, consumers value the opinion of other consumers, and regularly seek feedback on products and services prior to making purchase decisions. This consumer-to-consumer communication (C2C) commonly occurs online, and is referred to as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). One popular source of eWOM is online product reviews. The current research investigates the determinants of consumers’ attitudes toward online product reviews. Results indicate that perceived value and credibility of online product reviews positively impact consumer attitudes towards online product reviews. More specifically, consumers’ attitudes toward online product reviews positively influence their reliance on said reviews prior to product purchase. Additionally consumers’ attitudes toward online product reviews are positively determined by their perceptions of the credibility of online product reviews and the value of those reviews. However, the perceived value of online product reviews have a greater impact on online review attitudes than does perceived credibility of online product reviews. Further, men and women exhibit differences in their attitudes and reliance regarding online product reviews.

In 2015, the size of China’s cross-border shopping market was 97.3 billion dollars. The market increased by 63% during the last 5 years (Mun, 2016), and is expected to rise to 220 billion dollars by the year 2020. According to the e-commerce export trends of the Korea customs administration, in August 2015, the largest exporter was China (42%) and the largest export was clothing (52%) (Song, 2016). Accordingly, Korean corporations and brands are focusing on Haitao (海淘族, who enjoy cross-border online shopping) and proceeding to build customized websites and mobile platforms. Even though China's cross-border shopping is consistently growing, insufficient information is available to Chinese consumers. Hence, this research study is based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and analyzes the factors that influence the behavior of Chinese consumers in cross-border shopping the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The objective of this research is to identify how shopping values, subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavior controls influence the behavioral intention of Chinese consumers toward cross-border shopping. The respondents of this study were 20 to 30-year-old Chinese who live in first and second-tier cities in China, and have experienced cross-border shopping. Samples were collected through an online survey website, Sojump (问卷星), and 205 valid questionnaire responses were received. Reliability analysis, factor analysis and SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) were used to validate the measurement model and test the hypotheses with SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0. The findings reveal that the utilitarian values and perceived behavioral controls of Chinese consumers have a positive effect on their attitudes toward cross-border shopping. Furthermore, their behavioral intentions were affected by their attitudes, and their perceived behavioral controls in cross-border shopping excluded subjective norms. The results of the study have implications for Korean fashion retailers who plan to exploit Chinese markets and for the formation of a theoretical basis for cross-border shopping.

The Indonesian population is estimated at 250 million and ranked as the world's fourth-largest. It is also one of the world's largest Muslim nations. Seventy percent of the population of Indonesia is young consumers in their 20s and 30s. In additions, Indonesian consumers have recently developed a great interest in fashion in general and Korean fashion in particular. This paper addresses issues related to young Indonesian consumers' clothing behavior in terms of clothing image, clothing style, body image, clothing and attitudes toward Korean fashion brands. The survey method was used as a primary research instrument. All measurements were adapted from the existing scales from previous studies. A total of 172 questionnaires were used for the final statistical analysis. Empirical results showed that Indonesian consumers' preferences regarding clothing image were new, casual, humorous, futuristic, soft, interesting and active. In terms of style, Indonesian consumers scored high in their preferences of casual and classic styles. With regard to body image, Indonesian consumers have significant concern for their appearance and body, but at the same time they are more satisfied with their body shape. More than half of the respondents had experience in purchasing Korean fashion products. Indonesian consumers recognized the clothing image of Korean fashion brands as new, futuristic, and hi-tech. Furthermore, they perceive the clothing style of Korean fashion brands as casual, feminine, and sexy. Korean fashion brand purchase intension was significantly influenced by recognition and preference of Korean fashion brand.

This study set out to investigate consumers' attitudes toward pro-environment, and their actual purchasing behavior. It aimed to empirically examine the effects of the consumers' attitudes toward pro-environmental products, the importance of the product attributes and the perceived value of the companies' environmental activities, on their purchasing behavior of eco-friendly fashion products, including their satisfaction, trust, and repurchase intention. The questionnaires were administered on 304 married women with previous experience of buying eco-friendly fashion products. The results were as follows. First, the consumers' behavioral patterns in terms of environmental concerns and the purchasing of eco-friendly household items were significantly positive in relation to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Second, the importance of eco-friendly attributes was significantly positive in relation to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Third, the perceived value of corporate environmental activity was not related to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Finally, the purchasing behavior of eco-friendly fashion products was significantly positive in relation to the satisfaction with eco-friendly fashion products as well as the trust and repurchase intention, and satisfaction and trust positively affected the repurchase intention. The implication of the research and direction for future study were discussed.

For decades, marketing practitioners and scholars have envisioned that environmental characteristics of market offerings will become an important consumer concern (Grant 2007; Henion 1981; Kassarjian 1971; Kotler 2011; Ottmann 2011) and a myriad of consumer surveys indicated that consumers are willing to change their purchase and consumption habits for a better environment (Banikarim 2010; Ferguson and Goldman 2010; Imkamp 2000; Laroche, Bergeron and Barbaro-Forleo 2001). However, consumers’ actual adoption of environmental market offerings has been far below what had been expected and predicted so far (Connolly et al. 2006; Davis 1993; do Paço and Varejâo 2010; Kilbournes 1998; Horne 2009). To bridge the gap between consumers’ stated interests in and attitudes regarding adoption of eco-friendly market offerings and their actual adoption of eco-friendly market offerings, marketers need an accurate understanding of: 1) what determines consumers’ willingness and propensity to adopt eco-friendly market offerings and consumption behaviors, 2) how those individual, social, and marketing determinants of eco-friendly consumer behaviors are interrelated with each other, 3) where consumers stand currently in terms of those determinants, and 4) what needs to be done to remove the bottlenecks in the adoption and diffusion processes. To provide answers to above four aspects of eco-friendly consumer behaviors, this paper attempts to advance a more theoretically-based and comprehensive model of eco-friendly consumer behavior than extant models by incorporating recent findings of research on determinants of pro-environmental consumer behaviors and integrating various relevant theories of attitude-behavior links including the value-belief-norm theory, the theory of reasoned action, and the elaboration likelihood model. The structural validity and generalizability of the proposed model is tested based on two sets of survey data collected from consumers in the U.S. Midwest region and a metropolitan area surrounding Seoul, the capital city of Korea. The findings of the empirical study demonstrate that while the proposed model explains eco-friendly consumer behaviors by both the U.S. and Korean consumers, the relative importance of the predictors of eco-friendly consumer behaviors vary between the two groups of consumers. The analysis of the data also reveals that consumers in the two groups differ significantly from each other on many variables which are included as direct and indirect determinants of eco-friendly consumer behaviors in the proposed model. Together, the findings provide interesting and practical implications for strategies to facilitate consumer adoption of eco-friendly market offerings.

Sportswear brands in particular have been intensely competing to get an opportunity to prove the value of their new technology and products through sports sponsorship. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among sports involvement, the attitude toward sports sponsorship carried by sportswear brands, brand equity, and purchase intention of the products of the sponsor's brand. The study was implemented though a descriptive survey method using a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 455 men (n=289) and women (n=166) in their twenties, residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. Data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and path analysis of structural equation modeling. The results revealed that sports involvement has an influence on the consumers' attitudes toward sports sponsorship performed by sportswear brands. Also, the sports sponsorship attitude of consumers had an influence on the brand equity and purchase intention toward the sponsor's brand products. It was notable that the attitude toward the manner of sponsoring of the sponsor than the contents itself of the sports event sponsored had an influence more on brand loyalty. Among the component factors of brand equity, brand loyalty showed the biggest impact on purchase intention. Considering the results, in order for sports sponsorship to be more effective, sports involvement of the target market should be considered more carefully.

This study is to explain and identify the impacts of cognitive components of rice on consumers' attitudes and purchase intention. A survey study was conducted to collect the data with the actual rice purchasers at some kind of retailing stores. A regression analysis was performed to test the research hypothesis. The results of the study show as follows: First, it was found that words and pictures information about rice influences on consumers' attitudes and purchase intention, and price information had effect to consumers' attitudes but not affect to purchase intention. Second, it shows differential effects in how components of words, pictures and price information influences consumers' attitudes and purchase by types of consumer's characteristics factors such as occupation, age and residential area, except for price had effects to purchase intention. Therefore, marketers of distribution stores that selling rice have to enhance brand awareness of product by communicating types of information in a manner tailored to customer's demographic characteristic factors.