The research aims to estimate the role of SMAs implementation in impacting event image, commemorative product perceived value, and TBIs in the context of sports tourism events. Additionally, this study analyzes the effects of perceived value and event image on TBIs. This article focuses on the following research questions: (1) What is the SMAs' influence on TBIs? (2) What is the impact of SMAs on event image and commemorative product perceived value? (3) What is the role of event image and product perceived value in the relationships between SMAs and TBIs in the sports tourism context? The data collection was done during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games to address the research goals. The study examines the data from 315 valid questionnaires from tourists in the Chinese market by SEM (structural equation modeling).

With the growth of blockchain technology, the potential of NFTs is receiving significant attention across all industries. As NFTs emerge as a novel type of asset, they are drawing attention as a potentially important market, particularly for many luxury goods. This study aims to understand the concept of NFTs and their influence on e-WOM. This study develops a research model that facilitates an understanding of luxury brands’ NFT marketing activities and tests it with a consumer survey. Our analysis reveals important characteristics of perceived NFT marketing activities such as scarcity, resaleability, and authenticity. Furthermore, the impact of specific NFT marketing activities and their influence on e-WOM are discussed. This study contributes theoretical insights for researchers and has practical implications for practitioners who manage marketing activities for NFTs.

Every year consumers spend billions of dollars on impulse purchases across the globe. Noticeably, occasions for impulse buying have been expanding due to new technologies and the growth of e-commerce that enhanced both the consumer’s accessibility to products and the ease of purchase transactions (e.g., one-click purchase) (Strack and Deutsch 2006). For instance, the retail store have become ubiquitous—being present on our desktop, in our mailbox, on our phone, in subway platform, in gas station kiosks—and reaching every street corner in our neighborhood. Such ubiquitous nature of mobile commerce combined with the introduction of IT devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) makes consumers even more vulnerable to the sudden, powerful, and persistent urge to buy something instantly (i.e. impulse buying) (Rook 1987; Watson et al. 2002; Danaher et al. 2015). From the perspective of firms, this indicates that marketing opportunities to influence shopper attitudes and behavior can emerge at any point in the shopping cycle from the couch in a person’s living room to the shopping cart in mobile devices and media (Shankar et al. 2010; 2011). While impulse buying has been a well-known approach to explaining empirical deviations from the rational choice model in the literature (Strack et al. 2006), previous researchers have mainly focused on antecedents of impulsive behaviors, such as mood (Rook and Gardner 1993), self-construal (Zhang and Shrum 2009), chronic goals (Ramanathan and Menon 2006) and consumers’ self-loneliness (Sinha and Wang 2013). However, relatively little has been studied on what factors drive consumers to purchase products impulsively and how firms can utilize marketing activities (e.g., 4Ps) to engage consumers in such behavior. There exist a few studies paying attention to the interaction of individual characteristics and marketing variables for impulse buying (e.g., Bell et al. 2010; Inman et al. 2009; Narasimhan et al. 1996) but several issues still can arise from measurement problems, self-selection, lack of marketing variables, and limited breadth of product categories. In particular, researchers have used the term ―unplanned‖ purchases exchangeably with impulse purchases despite a conceptual distinction between the two terms: impulse buying is defined with three key components; unplanned, difficult to control, and resulting in emotional response (Rook 1987). In other words, mostly all impulse purchases are unplanned, but not all unplanned purchases are impulse buys and we cannot rule out other alternative explanations (e.g., it is a ―reminder‖ purchase based on true needs). In this study, therefore, we aim to differentiate two terms and investigate the consumers’ impulsive purchase behaviors using the actual behavioral data with respect to product characteristics, customer demographics, timing and controllable marketing activities such as advertising. We obtained the data from one of the leading TV shopping channels in Korea on 2,657 products and 17,848 air time slots covering a broader range of both hedonic and utilitarian products including electronics, food, fashion, home appliances, and so on (7.8 million orders and 2 million order cancels). Unlike typical supermarket shopping where consumers can actively search products, programming on TV shopping channels are shown randomly to viewers which helps us rule out self-selection problems. Most importantly, distinct from previous studies, we use an objective measure for impulse buying by exploiting the actual order placement and subsequent order cancellation (i.e., regret with retrospective judgment about purchase decisions). We find that product characteristics are the primary factors explaining the half (60.5%) of impulse purchase ratio variations followed by marketing variables (20.4%), and timing fixed effects (10.9%). Interestingly, we find little evidence of consumer demographics (1%) as a driver for impulsive buying behavior. Consequently, we focus on the interplay between product categories and marketing activities. Specifically, we classified the product categories into utilitarian and hedonic on the basis of the gross product categories and investigated the roles of two main marketing activities: advertising and price promotion. We find that the informative and persuasive roles of advertising (Akerberg 2003; Mehta et al. 2004) lead to a U-shaped effect on impulse purchases over time as the informative role attenuates over time but the persuasive role increases over time. While utilitarian products are more likely to be influenced by informative role of advertising and hedonic goods are more likely to be influenced by persuasive role of advertising, we detect that the U shape would be moved to the left (right) with a price discount (increase). In other words, price information does not change over time but the persuasive role increases over time with a price discount. Hence, our results can provide managerial insights for retailers and manufacturers to utilize point-of-sale marketing tactics and to improve their shopper engagement strategies to trigger impulse purchases.

Marketing in the sharing economy The shift on the enhanced complexity of customers‟ needs has created a new business model termed as the sharing economy emerging through the traditional B2B2C sector, and substituted with micro-entrepreneurs who act as service providers (Kumar, Lahiri, and Dogan, n.d.). The importance of the sharing economy is based on the fact that in a short period of time it has managed to disrupt well-established fields (i.e.: taxi and accommodation industry), through the provision of low-cost convenience without the ownership responsibility (Eckhardt & Bardhi, 2015). In general, the sharing economy service providers are not responsible for marketing and promotional aspects since this is an aspect taken care of the service enablers (i.e.: Airbnb). In the sharing economy, marketing needs to focus on the development of early adopters, meaning younger generations (Laciana & Rovere, 2011), since they are the largest generational cohort, and are expected to remain the largest one for the forthcoming decades (Fry, 2016), whilst they have a considerably lower spending capacity than older people (Henderson, 2016). Therefore, younger generations select cost-efficient options and engage in utility-based brand switching (Kumar et al., n.d.). As a result, sharing economy marketing strategies mainly focus on apps or websites where their existing customers may visit (McAlone, 2016). Moreover, multigenerational marketing is considered as a rational segmentation strategy for service enablers (Eckhardt & Bardhi, 2015), since the older a generation is the lower the general adoption rates in sharing economy marketing (Hall & Krueger, 2015). Still, the complex decision-making of consumers in sharing economy‟s marketing is affected by several factors such as price and quality issues and the associated risks (Pappas, 2017). Despite the importance of sharing economy in modern business, the literature is silent on the complexity of aspects affecting the related marketing activities. The paper examines the complexity of marketing activities formulation examining peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation holidaymakers in Athens, Greece. It specifically evaluates the impact of risks, price and quality issues, and social aspects, on P2P accommodation marketing activities, also including the socio-demographics of age and income. The research contribution is in both, theoretical and methodological domains. In terms of literature the study provides an understanding of the complexity formulation of marketing activities, with special reference to the sharing economy. Methodologically-wise, the research implements fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which is considered new to the study of tourism and hospitality (Pappas & Papatheodorou, 2017). It further compares fsQCA suitability with regression, which is the dominant correlational mode of analysis. Study tenets In service industry research the term „tenet‟ is used to describe testable precepts able to identify complex conditions (Papatheodorou & Pappas, 2017). This study has formulated six tenets: (T1) The same attribute has the ability to determine a different decision for marketing activities depending on its configuration with other attributes (T2) A complex configuration with at least two simple conditions can leads to an outcome condition that can have a consistently high score (Recipe principle) (T3) Complex configurations can influence the marketing activities for P2P holidaymakers (T4) When the combinations differ on the simple conditions of configurations, they can influence in a positive or negative manner the marketing activities for P2P holidaymakers (T5) Sufficient marketing activities do not always result in a high outcome score (Equifinality principle), and (T6) When the Y scores are high, a given recipe for the marketing activities is not relevant for all cases. Complexity in tourism Complexity theory focuses on complex systems with nonlinear dynamics, characterised by self-organisation, emergence, and evolution (Arévalo & Espinosa, 2015). The theory is used to evaluate the nonparametric, and dynamic processes of complex phenomena in several different disciplines (Olya & Al-ansi, 2018). Tourism complexity is based on several conflicting elements, such as the translocal relationships and multilocality, the heterogeneity of actors, the places and governance globalisation, and the extreme diversity of operations (Darbellay & Stock, 2012). Moreover, tourism deals with complex policies involving multiple actors, and a perpetually changing multi-level coordination in a local, national and international level (Lai, Hsu, and Wearing 2016). The degree of behavioural complexity renders Newtonian (linear) thinking inadequate and highlights the necessity for nonparametric (nonlinear) research (Laws & Prideaux, 2005). Method The study was held in Athens, Greece in adult P2P accommodation holidaymakers. Following the study of Pappas (2017), structured questionnaires were distributed to the P2P rentals, asking from the holidaymakers to fill them in during their stay. As Akis, Peristianis and Warner (1996) suggest, the study‟s sample size should have a minimum of 95 percent level of confidence and a maximum of 5 percent statistical error, whilst the most conservative response of 50/50 (meaning half of the respondents would express positive views and the other half negative ones) was adopted. For N>20, t-table defines cumulative probability (Z) in 1.96 level. Following Akis et al. (1996), the sample size calculation is: Rounded to 400 In total, 712 useful responses were collected, generating a statistical error of 3.67 per cent. The questionnaire consists of 24 Likert scale statements adopted from previous research, including two socio-demographic questions (age; income). The study employed fsQCA for the evaluation of complex configurations. fsQCA is considered a mixed method since it employs quantitative testing and qualitative inductive reasoning, and it is able to examine the potential complex relationships that have a bearing upon the outcome of interest, and identifies combinations of binary sets generated from its predictors. Since the research also estimated negated sets (presence or absence of a simple condition), the symbol “~” was used for the indication of an attributional absence. Research calibration was made by using 42 randomly selected individual cases. For the evaluation of the marketing activities „f_ma‟ affecting holidaymakers, the calibrated fuzzy-sets used were „f_a‟ for age, „f_i‟ for income, „f_r‟ for risks, „f_sa‟ for social aspects, „f_pi‟ for price issues, and „f_qi‟ for quality issues. Results Three sufficient configurations emerged from the research. More specifically, the first solution (f_a*f_i*~f_r*~f_sa*f_pi*f_qi) concerns the price-quality nexus, the second configuration (f_a*~f_i*f_r*~f_sa*f_pi*~f_qi) deals with price sensitivity, and the third one (f_a*~f_i*f_r*f_sa*~f_pi*f_qi) focuses on social interaction. The generated solutions for marketing activities are presented in the table below. The results indicate that all four simple conditions appear in at least one solution (T1), whilst at least two simple conditions are included in each sufficient configuration (T2). Moreover, the findings suggest that the solutions focus on: (i) price-quality nexus (ii) price sensitivity, and (iii) social interaction (T3). In addition, none of the simple conditions appears in all configurations (T4), and three different solutions seem to lead to the same outcome (T5). Finally, the coverage varies from .429 to .453, meaning that none of the solutions applies in all cases (T6). As a result, the findings confirm the six tenets of the study. fsQCA versus regression The study used a structural equation model for the examination of linear relationships, and implemented Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), since the sum of the examined items is based on previous analytic research. Due to the large sample (N=712) χ2/df instead of χ2 was selected, since it is considered as a better estimate of goodness (Chen & Chai, 2007). Following Kline (2010), the research estimated the four most important fit indices: χ2=634.921, df=352, χ2/df=1.803 (acceptable value 0≤χ2/df≤2 [Schermelleh-Engel, Moosbrugger & Müller, 2003]), CFI=.902 (acceptable value is when CFI is close to 1.0 [Weston and Gore 2006]), SRMR=.782 (acceptable value is when SRMR<.8 [Hu & Bentler, 1999]), and RMSEA=.475 (acceptable value is when RMSEA<.5 [Browne & Cudeck, 1993]). In factor analysis, all values less than .4 were suppressed (minimum acceptable value .4 [Norman & Streiner, 2008]) in an effort to evaluate higher coefficients. In all constructs, the Average Variance Explained (AVE) was higher than .5 (minimum acceptable .5 [Kim, 2014]), and the convergent validity (CR) higher than .7 (minimum acceptable value: .7 [Huang, Wang, Wu, & Wang, 2013]). The Figure below explains the study‟s endogenous variables. The comparison of fsQCA with regression highlights that the latter cannot encapsulate the full range of alternative combinations, in restricts the presence/absence of a construct or socio-demographic in one outcome, whilst the row coverage in all sufficient configurations (also showcasing high consistency) is higher than the overall R2 (.393). As a result, fsQCA seems to be more efficient than regression concerning the examination of marketing activities on P2P holidaymakers, since it better presents the influence of the constructs under examination. Managerial implications The study offers a number of managerial implications. For starters, through the use of fsQCA, traditional accommodation providers and destinations can better understand complexity aspects of consumer trends, being able to sufficiently reposition their marketing activities. Moreover, fsQCA can assist on the clarification of the factors affecting marketing complexity in tourism and hospitality, and better promote and advertise the products and services in reference. The understanding of complex marketing patterns, can further lead to the formulation of competitive advantages and strengthen the competitiveness of the enterprises engaged in a destination, as well as the destination itself. In addition, destinations can better comprehend the complex evolution of sharing economy and build upon its strengths, aving the opportunity to formulate a cooperative market towards traditional establishments and P2P rentals. Limitations Despite the theoretical and methodological contribution of the study, several limitations need to be highlighted. The main limitation derives from the study‟s main strength, which is the limited application of fsQCA in tourism and hospitality. Much further use of fsQCA in the field could reveal its full potential. Another limitation deals with the examination of other groups, such as the holidaymakers selecting traditional establishments for their stay, P2P stakeholders, and destination authorities. Since different groups of respondents may produce different outcomes, any generalisation of the findings should be made with caution. Finally, if the research is repeated in some other destination or in later time, the focus of the generated complex configurations may alter. Therefore, the results should be carefully interpreted.

Technology has turned the consumer into a non-stop generator of traditional, structured, transactional data as well as more contemporary, unstructured, behavioural data. The study of consumer analytics turns on the junction of Big Data and consumer behaviour. This paper intends to test empirically the conceptual model proposed by Erevelles, Fukawa and Swayne (2016) for FB, in Portugal. A qualitative methodology is being performed, namely conducting twenty-five in-deep interviews with the current managers of FB, with the average duration of one hour. Once the 25 interviews are all carried out, they will be subsequently transcribed in full. Then, a content analysis will be held by two researchers and resorted to software NVivo, which is considered a good tool to help in theory building (Azevedo, 1998). Since the study is still at the moment of data collection through in-deep interviews, it is not yet possible to present consistent results. However, the first interviews leads to the idea that FB in Portugal do not have a structure particularly dedicated to identifying business opportunities that favor the implementation of an organized Big Data management system. It was also recognize the option of a more centralized management strategy, in anticipation the changes in the environment that can predict trends in the consumer market. Finally, it was verify that the definition of a particular profile of skills and knowledge associated with the agents involved in the collection and treatment of the inputs given by the consumers through the analysis of the Big Data, is not yet defined.

It is becoming increasingly essential for firms to achieve social improvement. Consumers no longer support firms that solely seek profits. A worldwide consumer survey found that 66% of respondents are willing to pay premium prices for brands from firms concerned with social well-being (Nielsen Report, 2015). Therefore, many firms actively engage in various societal marketing activities to elicit positive responses from consumers. As societal marketing continues to increase in importance, many studies have focused on the effect of corporate social responsibility activities. As one such activity, cause-related marketing (CM) is defined as “the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when customers engage in revenue-providing exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual objectives” (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988, p.60). This enables a firm to improve its brand image or reputation and increase sales (Henderson & Arora 2010; Pracejus & Olsen 2004). A firm that employs CM can differentiate itself in competitive markets, which leads to increase in consumer’ purchase intention and their willingness to pay more for the firm’s brands (Müller, Fries, & Gedenk, 2014; Strahilevitz, 1999; Winterich & Barone, 2011). Therefore, CM expenditures are predicted to reach 2.06 billion dollars in 2017 (IEG Report, 2016). Further, CM growth continues worldwide in both developed and developing countries (Adkins, 2008; Wymer & Samu, 2009). Therefore, we focus on CM among various societal marketing activities. Many firms conduct CM in markets that differ both economically and culturally. However, cross-country or cultural research on consumers’ responses to CM is scarce. Although some studies consider cultural factors, most are based on Western-Eastern or individualism-collectivism typology (Ralston, et al., 2008; Yuan, Song, & Kim, 2011). It is dangerous to assume a bi-cultural continuum without considering the multiple variations within the Western or Eastern worlds. The current research addresses this limitation in literature, by exploring CM within the Asian market. We specifically examine Korea and China, as these countries are included in Asian culture, but differences exist between the two. The majority of previous research has discovered factors for successful CM, including the donation magnitude and quantifier, product traits (e.g., type, involvement), the company’s characteristics such as reputation or image, and the cause’s familiarity or importance (Barone, Miyazaki & Taylor, 2000; Lafferty, & Edmondson, 2014; Pracejus, Olsen, & Brown, 2003; Samu & Wymer, 2009). The results regarding the product type’s effect on consumer responses toward CM, revealed that guilt received considerable attention. It has been found that guilt generated by hedonic consumption compels consumers to purchase CM products. Further, the consumer regards the product’s CM as a means of justifying their hedonic product purchase. Many studies demonstrate that consumers choose CM products to reduce guilty-feeling regarding consumers simply as beings who seek to maximize utility. However, CM must also be illuminated, as CM is marketing strategy that involves donation. In summary, we take both economic and ethical perspective based on the dual process theory. From an economic view point, we examine the effect of guilt on consumers’ preferences for CM products. We then propose a new factor from an ethical perspective. Further, we study the two factors’ impacts on consumers’ decision-making through a cultural comparison. We conducted a between-subjects experiment. It was found that Korean consumers felt guiltier and the mean of perceived value of CM was higher in Chinese consumers (Table Ⅰ). As the below Figure Ⅰ illustrates, there was significant interaction effect between countries (Korea versus China) and product type (utilitarian versus hedonic). We also confirmed that the underlying consumer response mechanism to CM products differs between Korean and Chinese. These results support prior studies’ conclusions, in that guilt is the key factor in consumers’ decision-making processes regarding hedonic CM products. And we present the value perception as new influential factor. This paper provides several implications. First, we attempt to overcome previous research’s narrow viewpoint toward CM. As research is scarce regarding the ethical or philanthropic aspect of CM, we focus on that aspect with a particular focus on consumers’ perception of CM value. Second, this paper draws on the dual mode theory, to proposes another new influential factor that affects consumer behavior. As dual processes’ relative effects may differ depending on context (Sonenshein, 2007), therefore, and third, this study examines these effects using a cultural context. Korea and China have a substantial ripple effect on the global economy, thus, it is valuable to study the two countries’ different responses toward CM. Finally, our study provides more insight and practical implications for firms in the Korean and Chinese markets.

The aim of this exploratory research is to investigate whether luxury brands social media activities (Kim & Ko, 2012) – which are online activities that could potentially engage customers in digital environment (Sashi, 2012) – are capable of transmitting the sense of heritage of such brands to the customers. Moreover, the authors will observe whether the aforementioned activities are capable of transmitting the sense of exclusivity, which will be measured through the customers’ perceptions of the brand prestige (Hwang & Hyun, 2012), to the latter. In order to explore such a phenomenon, the authors have selected structural eqation modeling (SEM) as the main methodology of the research (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). The theoretical foundations of the present research are related with three streams of marketing literature, namely (1) luxury brands social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010; Kim & Ko, 2012), (2) luxury brands heritage (Ciappei, Zollo, Boccardi, & Rialti, 2016; Hudson, 2011; Rialti, Zollo, Boccardi, & Marzi, 2016) and, finally, (3) luxury brands customer-based prestige (Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). In particular, building on the concept of social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010), we aimed at observing how the latter could influence customers’ perceptions of the brand by engaging them in online activities and conversations (Sashi, 2012; Zaglia, 2013). Specifically, we investigated if engagement in online activities or in online communities is related with a positive perception of luxury brands’ heritage and prestige. Hence, customers’ online engagement deriving from social media activities has been considered as an antecedent of customer perceived heritage and prestige (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011; Hamzah, Alwi, & Othman, 2014; Riviezzo Garofano, & Napolitano, 2016). Luxury brands have been selected as the context of research since heritage and prestige have emerged as relevant strategic marketing levers for luxury brands’ brand strategist. As a proof of that, recently, luxury brands’ strategist and product managers are increasingly focusing brands’ strategies on the history of the brands in order to transmit customers a feeling of exclusivity and elitism (Hudson, 2010; Balmer, 2011). Thus, luxury brands heritage perceived by costumers emerged as a fundamental component of brand identity and, in addition, it may be considered as a form of competitive advantage increasing brand equity (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). The main findings of the present research are related with the fact that social media marketing activities may engage customers online (Sashi, 2012). Moreover, it emerged how social media strategies are capable to engage customers and transmit them the sense of heritage and prestige. Hence, social media marketing strategies focused on developing a relationship with customers emerged as crucial in order to enhance customers’ perceptions of a brand heritage and prestige. Finally, the development of such a kind of social media marketing strategies is the principal implication for marketing managers. Due to the aforementioned results, this exploratory research contributes to online luxury brand management literature (Kim & Ko, 2010). In particular, due to our results it is possible to assess that social media activities, which are capable to engage customers online, are able to transmit the sense of heritage and of prestige. Future researches should explore better this phenomenon. In particular, on the one hand we suggest scholars to investigate through qualitative methodologies which kind of communications are capable to transmit sense of heritage and prestige. On the other hand, we suggest scholars to compare traditional form of communications with online form in order to understand which one is more capable to influence customers’ perceptions. The principal limitation of this research is related with its exploratory nature and with the traditional limitations of SEM methodology.

Social media was originally based on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and is described as “user-generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Although initially used for communication among internet users for privacy, it has become one of the most powerful online networking tools, and in the last few years has been widely practiced in the real world to enhance relationships between businesses and customers. Virtual tourist communities are not a new concept; they have been used for more than 10 years by tourists to exchange opinions and experiences of certain travel destinations. In tourism, internet based social communities have greatly expanded recently as a result of Web 2.0 technologies’ development. Tourists use the Internet to obtain information on trips, and share experiences related to their trip before, during and after their vacation (Parra-Lopez et al., 2011). Therefore, behaviors such as sharing photos and videos, writing travel experiences in blogs and microblogs, ranking travel destinations and posting opinions on social forums (for example, TripAdvisor) are becoming generalized (Chung & Buhalis, 2008) into what has been called Travel 2.0 (Adam, et al., 2007). The purpose and importance of this study is to explore how tourists perceive the value of social media as practiced in the tourism industry. We also investigate travel agencies’ social media marketing activities, and how tourists’ perceived value of social media affects their intention to use social media for organizing their vacation. Conceptual foundations Perceived value of using social media in tourism Perceived value is treated as a major element in a number of tourism research papers (for example, Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000; Sweeny & Soutar, 2001; Jin et al. 2015). As Parra-Lopez et al. (2011, pp.641) said, “the identification of the types of customer value perceived by travelers using social media for trip planning purposes is very essential, because it can provide significant guidelines on how to design the information sources, the structure and the functionality of social media in order to enhance their web traffic, usage and competiveness”. Realizing the essential role of social media in the tourist industry, and clarifying how to measure the perceived value of using social media is required. Because perceived value is defined as ‘cognitive-affective evaluation’ in this study, we employ both cognitive and affective variables to measure the perceived value of using social mediato organize vacations. This study applies four dimensions – ‘functional’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’ and ‘trust’ from Parra-Lopez et al.’s (2011) study - to measure the value that travelers perceive from using social media to organize their vacations. Because both cognitive and affective value are used to evaluate a product or service during the purchasing process (Bajs, 2015), it seems reasonable to assume that ‘function’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’, and ‘trust’ are regarded as essential when measuring the perceived value of using social media to organize vacations. Such propositions and findings provide valuable insights that enable us to introduce our Hypothesis 1. H1: ‘Functional’, ‘Social’, ‘Altruism’ and ‘Trust’ are the dominant dimensions in the perceived value of using social media in organizing vacations. The inter-relationship of attitudes towards social media marketing activities and the perceived value and intention of using social media to organize vacations Social media is seen as one of the most powerful communication tools, and social media marketing (referred to henceforth as ‘SMM’) is used by business companies to build and maintain relationships with their customers in various fields (Kim & Ko, 2012). In previous studies, such as Kim and Ko (2012) as well as Teo and Tan (2002), it has been claimed that customers’ attitudes towards SMM activities affect brand equity. This conclusion is also supported by Chan and Guillet’s (2011) study, which shows the important role of SMM in the hospitality industry. Nowadays, most travel agencies in Japan have created their social communities aiming to enhance their relationship with customers and promote their travel products. Aker and Topcu (2011) suggest that attitude greatly affects people’s purchase intention and behavior. Moreover, the wide acceptance of SMM also means that a positive attitude towards SMM affects the perceived value of social media. It has been clarified that perceived value is positive when the benefits are greater than the sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988). As more and more tourists rely on social media to enhance their vacations, this suggests that the perceived benefit of social media is greater than the sacrifice, and therefore its perceived value positively affects the behavior intention of tourists who use social media to organize vacations. This academic background leads us to Hypothesis 2. H2: Both direct effect (i.e. attitude towards SMM activities→Intention) and indirect effect (i.e. attitude towards SMM activities→ Perceived value→Intention) will provide a good explanation of tourists’ intention of using social media to organize vacations. Methodology Proposed conceptual model Based on the theoretical background, this study proposes a conceptual model (see Figure 1) to show the inter-relationship of ‘attitudes towards SMM activities’, ‘perceived value’ and ‘behavior intention’. Figure 1: Conceptual Model Measurement This study involves items which have been used in past research. All items were developed based on the 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ (see Table 1).Data collection The empirical data for this study was collected by an online survey conducted by one of the biggest research companies in Japan from March 13th to March 16th, 2015. A screening test was conducted to select suitable respondents with experience of using social media to organize their vacation and had accessed or used travel agencies’ social media, such as Facebook, Blog, and Twitter. Finally, due to the limited research budget, 622 valid samples were collected to be used in analysing the conceptual model. Data analysis results As all items presented in this study are cited from past research, we employed second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) directly to explore the dominant dimensions of the perceived value of using social media to organize vacations (H1), and covariance structure analysis to investigate the inter-relationship among attitudes towards SMM activities, perceived value and behavior intention (H2). The results of data analysis are shown below (see Figure 2&3). Conclusions and managerial implications Based on the results reported in the present study, ‘functional’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’ and ‘trust’ are shown as dominant dimensions of perceived value in social media literature, thus supporting hypothesis 1. However, these four dimensions play different roles in perceived value. Compared with other dimensions, ‘altruism’ appears to be more essential. This result can be explained by the usage of social media. Tourists tend to share their experiences, opinions, photos and videos about certain travel destinations in what is called ‘altruism dimensions’. These tourists’ behavior is not for the benefit of others but for self-satisfaction (Baym, 2010) and is believed to be the most important incentive for using social media. Concerning the inter-relationship of attitudes towards SMM, perceived value and the intention of using social media to organize a vacation, contrary to our hypothesis, tourists’ attitudes towards SMM activities conducted by travel agencies do not seem to affect their behavior intention of using social media to organize their vacation (.05). The perceived value of social media seems to play a significant mediating role between attitudes towards SMM and behavior intention. In other words, the indirect influence (.585) through perceived value is greater than the direct influence (.05) of attitudes toward SMM on behavior intention. This result implies that travel agency managers should know how to increase the perceived value of social media, instead of only attempting to enhance SMM activities. Limitations Social media’s commodification in Japan is still a new concept, and for Japanese tourists, the practice of social media in the tourist industry is relatively novel. In other words, social media’s commodification has not been developed enough in Japan. Thus, the results gained from the empirical study should be compared in the countries where social media is more developed.

With traditional boundaries among culture, technology, finance, politics, and ecology are disappearing (Friedman, 1999), the need of businesses to deliver unusual experiences to the consumers have increased in order to survive and thrive. With consumer’s need diversifying and getting more complex, capturing receiver’s attention is becoming the key issue for brands (Jung & Shin, 2010). Resultantly, the traditional operators are feeling the necessity to co-operate with those in other fields to obtain differentiation. Hence, even without one consensus meaning existing, the emphasis on the word 'convergence' is consistently growing. Its popularity of use reflects the era we live in, where boundaries are fading and unaccustomed ideas are brought together (Lord & Velez, 2013). However, despite its importance increasing, researches on convergence marketing are very limited. Most of the studies focus only on qualitative research, especially on case studies or defining conceptual definition of term convergence. Thus, not much is known of how consumers perceive this new way of approach. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to first, understand how the consumers perceive marketing of technology and marketing of culture, and second, how the convergence of these two influence on brand perception. The concept of convergence holds meaning in all sorts of fields from telecommunications, computer sciences, mathematics, logic, to economics, sociology, accounting and others (Lord & Velez, 2013). Although it seems that the word convergence is more or only related to the information technology discourse, however in large, although it is true that it was mainly based on the advance of information technology, the concept of convergence is frequently used both in the media industry and the other academic fields. From media industry, it denotes the ongoing restructuring of media companies as well as to describe the various intersections between media technologies, industries, content and audiences. Yet, in academic fields, in the same context of convergence several other terms are frequently used in the literatures, for example as alliance, partnership, sponsorship, and collaboration (Appelgren, 2004) which is all based on the same ‘coming together’ yet differs in specific goal. The convergence marketing that emerged from the intensified competition among brands co-operates with those in other fields in order to create differentiating point. The convergence in fashion industry is found with two main streams of technology convergence and cultural convergence (Wi, 2013). In line with the fact that convergence in everyday life bases from the improvement of technology, the application of technology in fashion industry is also found throughout the production process, from design to production and distribution. Unlike 2000s where fast fashion changed the fashion system, the impact of technology seems to be the largest in the turn of 2010 (Choo et al., 2012; Ko, Kim, & Lee, 2009). As the convergence of marketing and IT can create rich, technologically enabled digital experiences that engage, delight, and serve the consumer, now it plays a part as a source of innovation (Lord & Velez, 2013). Accordingly, with pioneering advantages that technology appliance can deliver, many luxury brands have adopted new technology in its marketing strategies, including QR code in the magazine ad, hologram technique replacing the plastic mannequin, motion reacting interactive show window are to name a few. Similarly, culture for marketing is found with consumers pursuing more and more cultural and intellectual activities with the improvement of the standard of living. As concept of art exemplified from the marketing standpoint evoke general connotations of sophistication, culture, luxury and prestige (Martorella, 1996), many luxury brands are applying cultural contents to improve brand images (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008). In sum, to satisfy consumers’ diverse need, brands are trying to incorporate not only using the novel digital devices, but also conveying the cultural contents to provide emotional stimulus. Thus, this study focuses on the marketing communication using convergence of technology and culture that aims to gain consumers’ evaluation. This study applies complex model of Technology acceptance model to Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory to better understand how consumers perceived and adopt the new type of marketing strategy. TAM is a widely employed in various studies to predict users’ behavior intentions (Hsu & Lu, 2004). Technology acceptance model suggested by Davis (1989) is agreed as the theoretical background useful to explain individual adoption behavior with the introduction of such relatively new medium like this make users to experience new ways (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). Yet, in the model application stage, it was suggested that TAM model focuses only on the judgment of the system of technology and lacks the ability to explain other potentially important factors that can influence on users’ acceptance process. Thus, similar to the other previous researches, this study also linked the emotion response to the existing technology acceptance model (Igbaria, Zinatelli, Cragg, & Cavaye, 1997; Venkatesh, 2000). This was due to the fact that the usage of technology is extending throughout the industry, and emotional factors are found to work as an important factor in such work. Many other approaches have been made in order to explain the emotional side of the adoption, yet in this study, pleasure-arousal-dominance theory which is often used to explain in marketing communication discourse and is supported in application for experiential aspect (Holbrook & Batra, 1987). Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory (PAD; Mehrabian & Russell (1974)) suggested by Mehrabian & Russell (1974) explains the three basic emotion status to mediate approach-avoidance behaviors in any environment based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R) paradigm. It explains that individual’s emotional status is aroused by the mediating environment (Donovan, Rossiter, Marcoolyn, & Nesdale, 1994). Yet, interpreting the recent studies arguing that in consumption related emotions situation, dominance is not necessary (Donovan et al., 1994), this study was adopted as a two-dimensional construct that can impact the user’s behavior intention. In sum, this study applies perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, pleasure, and arousal as the determinants of adoption. In addition, not simply examining the adoption process of the convergence marketing, but this study relates to the actual effect on consumers’ brand evaluation. The appliance of TAM as the part of individual dimension variable was found in recent studies that investigated the effect of adverting with interactive medium (Han & Park, 2010; Shim, 2009). Previous literatures have suggested the perceived usefulness significantly influences on the attitude toward the retailer that provides such experience (Lee et al, 2006). Especially, such studies were made within the e-commerce conditions, such as investigation of consumer behavior towards a non-profit organization’s virtual store (Chen et al, 2002), influence of perceived usefulness positively influencing on attitude towards the online retailer and intentions to use from such retailer (Vijayasarathy, 2004), and determinants of adoption (usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment) on the attitude toward the online retailer (Lee et al, 2006). On this account, brand attitude, and purchase intention was examined. In this study, survey method in order to investigate how consumers perceive the convergence marketing in the marketing communication context, and further, how they evaluated the brand performing convergence marketing. Preliminary study was first proceed to understand how marketing of technology and marketing of culture is recognized by consumers, and further, manipulate each stimuli. The adoption process was investigated using technology acceptance model combined with pleasure-arousal-dominance theory, as a part of the individual variables. With mediating effect of consumer characteristics found to be important in convergence marketing (Kim, 2007), personal innovativeness, art involvement, and need for uniqueness was applied to see the mediating effect. Therefore, a survey was conducted to see the differences in the degree of convergence. The preliminary research with 183 samples indicated that convergence marketing method was preferred over the dedicated marketing of technology or culture. Thus, the experimental design that was designed in a form of 2 by 2 between subjects factorial design with factors of innovation of technology and classiness of culture, the 513 samples collected a total of 485 samples being used. The analysis indicated that as the convergence traits of novelty and classic increase, determinant of intentions were strongly generated, followed by the increasing intention to accept, continued to building positive brand attitude and purchase intention. Yet, in specific, novelty trait had direct influences on making emotional feeling, including pleasure and arousal, rather than on generating cognitive reaction. It was the classic trait that had relationship in between cognitive and emotional reaction. Additionally, it was also found that in case of emotional feeling were evoked, pleasure and arousal, it influenced on building positive brand attitude continued to purchase intention even if adoption intention was not made. Moreover, when adoption intention was made, the direct influence on positive brand attitude was found to be significant. Meanwhile, determinants of adoption were found to have the significant influence on adoption intention and on brand attitude. The positive influence of determinants of adoption on adoption intention is in line with a number of researches on ETAM. When perceived to be higher, all resulted in higher adoption intention (Tzou et al., 2009). In terms of brand attitude, it was found that only the emotional variables of pleasure and arousal that had direct influence to have marketing effectance, which coincides with the result of Childers et al. (2001). This study indicates that compared to the perceived usefulness and ease of use, enjoyment was a stronger driver to predict the attitude. In sum, the result implies that convergence marketing can work to satisfy both the cognition dimension as well as the emotional facet. When drivers of determinants of adoption is generated, it strongly influence on the adoption intention. Yet, in order to have the marketing communication effect on brand attitude and purchase intention, it is necessary to consider the emotional aspect, either pleasure or arousal. Such relationship is not only related to the cultural contents, but technology itself can now deliver emotional feelings to the consumers. Thus, the marketing director should focus on the usage of technology to involve emotional facets. In addition, all individual characteristics were found to be significantly moderating. Result of the effect of personal innovativeness implies that those of highly innovated tends to not only have strongly influence on adoption intention, but also had significant effect of advertising effect compared to the less innovated groups. The moderating effects of art involvement turned out that those highly involved in art, novelty did not matter much compared to the less involved group. In case of need for uniqueness, the significant relationship of perceived pleasure on brand attitude was found, yet unlike expected, those low in need for uniqueness had significantly stronger adoption intention. Thus, this can be perceived as due to the marketing activity targeting the mass audience, lacking the attractiveness towards those in higher need for uniqueness. Thus, in order to attract both those in high and low need of uniqueness, delivering both usefulness as well as pleasure is important. The result of this study contributes to understanding on status and recent trend of convergence marketing activities. Further, it is meaningful in that it is in line with the recent studies of applying TAM in combination with PAD theory as well as within the context of marketing communication. Thus, the result of this study is expected to be helpful in understanding the new hybrid consumers and give suggests useful information for establishing future brand communication plans. Yet, to further understand the interpretation process of consumer studies that incorporate variables suggested from the interview should be incorporated in the study.

The implication of the study is that it demonstrates the relationship of image attribute specifying each pattern from the previous studies and investigates the difference in the relationship of brand attitude, artist attitude and purchase intention among image attribute. In addition, by demonstrating the difference in the relationship among the cultural arts lifestyle groups, as well as the high and low fit between lifestyle brand and artist, the study provides an insight and a specified path for marketers as they plan out ways to utilize cultural marketing communications. Finally, by verifying the relationship among patterns, our study offers useful points of reference also for artists or art foundations who plan it with lifestyle brands using strategic approach to consumers by specified means.

이 연구는 무용을 통한 기업의 문화마케팅 활동이 해당기업의 이미지 및 지각된 품질, 충성도 에 영향을 규명하는데 목적이 있다. 연구의 목적을 달성하기 위하여 연구대상은 경기도 지역에 소재한 4년제 대학교에 재학 중인 대학생들을 모집단으로 설정하였으며 최종분석에는 200개의 자료가 활용되었다. 조사도구는 설문지를 사용하였으며 신뢰도와 타당도를 검증하여 사용하였 다. 또한 가설검증은 AMOS를 이용한 확인적요인분석(confirmatory factor analysis; CFA)과 구조방 정식모형분석(structural equation model; SEM)을 실시하였으며, 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 문 화마케팅 활동 참여 기업의 기업이미지는 지각된 품질에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다. 둘째, 문화마 케팅 활동 참여 기업의 기업이미지는 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다. 셋째, 문화마케팅 활동 참여 기업의 지각된 품질은 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다. 넷째, 문화마케팅 활동 참여 기 업의 기업이미지는 지각된 품질을 통해서 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다. 이러한 결과는 기 업이 문화마케팅 활동에 참여할 경우 대중에게 호의적인 기업이미지를 각인시키고 해당기업에 대한 상표나 제품에 대해 신뢰를 가질 수 있음을 알 수 있었다. 더 나아가 문화마케팅 활동이 해당기업에 대한 충성도를 높이게 됨으로서 기업경영활동에 득이 될 수 있음을 시사한다.

예술이 기업환경과 기업문화에 기본적인 자원을 제공하는 이유는 기업의 입장에서 볼 때, 점차 늘어나는 예술에 대한 수요와 예술이 지역경제에 미치는 긍정적이고 잠재적인 파급효과가 소비자의 기호를 형성하고 나아가 하나의 집합체, 즉 새로운 표적시장으로서 분류될 수 있기 때문이다. 실제로 기업 이미지 향상, 광고, 판촉 활동, 그리고 섭외 활동 등에서 기업은 예술을 통해 상당한 효과를 거두고 있다. 오늘날에는 기업이 좋은 이미지를 얻고 훌륭한 경영환경을 형성해 나가기 위해서 단순한 이윤추구 제일의 경제기관으로서만이 아니라 지성이 뛰어난 훌륭한 이웃사람으로서 역할과 기능을 하는 문화기관도 되어야 한다. 그러므로 기업은 조직의 바탕을 예술경영이나 마케팅을 통한 문화의 활용방법을 높이는 노력을 꾸준히 병행해야 한다. 여기에 더하여 사원 한 사람 한사람의 의식수준까지 문화의 활용방법을 높이려는 문화화 전략을 추구하는 노력도 필요하다. 기업경영 초점의 변화과정을 고찰하여 보면 특정시점에서 기업이 특히 관심을 집중하는 분야가 생산과정의 효율화를 위한 생산관리에서 인적자원의 효율적 운영을 위한 인사관리로 초점이 이동하였다. 이후 생산과 인사관리를 통한 기업의 재무구조의 개선과 관리에 중점을 두는 재무관리로 기업의 경영초점이 변화해 왔다. 현대에 이르러서는 마케팅을 통한 효율적 판매에 중점을 두어 수익창출의 극대화를 모색해 왔고, 경쟁 환경의 급속한 변화는 이제 기업전략과 기업문화의 관리를 통한 이미지 극대화를 통해 통합적 마케팅 커뮤니케이션을 추구하고 있는 상황이다. 따라서 본 연구의 문제의식을 바탕으로 연구목적은 기업문화와 예술경영을 중심으로 기업마케팅의 변화와 예술경영활동에 대해 연구하고자 다양한 학문분야의 선행연구를 토대로 한다. 이러한 이론적 배경을 근거로 기업전략의 필요성인식, 기업의 예술경영활동, 기업전략의 변화와 수익창출전략을 구분하여 이론적으로 정리한다. 아울러 기업문화와 예술경영과 예술경영의 의사결정과정과 전략경영 그리고 기업의 사명을 제시함으로써 기업마케팅의 변화와 예술경영활동에 대한 효과적인 상호협력관계를 통한 현업의 발전을 위한 시사점을 제시한다. 한편, 기업마케팅의 변화와 예술경영활동에 대한 의미와 영향에 대한 선행연구는 최근 흐름으로서 본 연구에서 그 이론적 고찰을 도출한 것은 의미가 있는 것으로 향후 추가적인 연구와 접근이 모색되어져야 될 것으로 판단된다.

The implementation of physical or social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic has an implication on the shifting of conventional to online business activities. This study aims to explore how financial support, perceived benefits, external pressure determine social media marketing as well as understanding the role of internet and e-business technology (IEBT) that occurs in this relationship. This study adopted a quantitative study with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-based variance Partial Least Square (PLS), which aims to enhance understanding of the relationship between variables. The surveyed population of this study came from 123 small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners in East Java of Indonesia, using an online survey and selected with the convenience random sampling method. The findings of this study indicated that the perceived benefits and external pressure have a positive effect on the adoption of IEBT. However, financial support failed in explaining SMEs’ adoption of IEBT. This study confirmed that the adoption of IEBT has successfully mediated the influence of financial support, perceived benefits, and external pressure on social media marketing. Despite the samples solely collected from East Java, this study is the first step in research related to the social media marketing in SMEs in Indonesia.

The purpose of this study is to find out how SNS marketing activities affect brand recognition, brand familiarity, and purchase intention for consumers who have purchased products from franchise chicken stores, including whether there is a moderating effect according to gender. SNS marketing activities were set up by configuring three attributes which are, SNS advertising, SNS information, and SNS events as sub-factors. For empirical analysis, a survey was conducted on SNS users, and SPSS/AMOS statistical programs were employed for the data analysis. First, the result of the empirical analysis showed that SNS advertising, SNS information, and SNS events have a significant positive effect on brand recognition. Second, it was found that the SNS events had a significant positive effect on brand familiarity. Third, it was found that SNS advertising has a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Fourth, it was observed that brand recognition has a significant positive effect on brand familiarity. Fifth, it was found that brand recognition and brand familiarity have a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Sixth, it was found that gender plays a significant role in the relationship between these constructs. Therefore, it can be assumed that the hypothesis presented in this study is sufficiently proven.

Consumer preference, marketing environment and various agricultural policy were changed recently. So it is necessary to analyze the consumption behavior for selection the target market. In this paper, we analyzed the consumption behavior and the brand positioning using oriental melon. From the results of analysis, firstly, consumers' age, job, education and the number of member of household were effected to consumption behavior of oriental melon. Secondly, the marketing factor was the most important when purchasing oriental melon. Thirdly, the brand of Sung-Ju Oriental Melon was evaluated to the best brand on brand name, brand image and brand message.