Do you want me to watch this ad on social media?: The effects of norms on online video ad watching

This study examines the influences of norms on consumers’ intentions to watch online video ads on social media. The social norms approach and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) were adopted as theoretical frameworks. In addition, the effects of interpersonal and social influences on the three personal-level norms were examined as the antecedents of normative perceptions. To test the hypothesized model, an online survey was conducted with 313 undergraduate students. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the measurement constructs of the model, and a structural equation modeling was used to identify the relationships among constructs in the model. Findings indicate that personal injunctive norms and subjective norms were positively related to consumers’ intention to watch online video ads. Interpersonal and social influences were positively related to three normative perceptions regarding online video ad watching. The findings of this study contribute to the research stream on social norms approach and TRA and provide practical implications for advertising and marketing practitioners.     

Market Mavens in Social Media: Examining Young Chinese Consumers' Viral Marketing Attitude,eWOM Motive,and Behavior

A paper survey of 835 Chinese college students was conducted to examine young Chinese consumers' social media use, market mavenism, viral marketing attitude, and product recommendation behavior. Structural model testing results showed that young Chinese consumers' perceived pleasure, affection outcome expectation, and subjective norm of viral marketing affected their market mavenism while their subjective norm and pleasure influenced their viral marketing attitude. More importantly, young Chinese consumers' frequency of product recommendations on social networking websites was determined by their social media use, viral marketing attitude, and electronic word of mouth motive to help the company and market mavenism.     

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: How Humanized,Retargeted Ads Intrude in Social Contexts

A great deal of past work has demonstrated that ads that “fit” or blend into their context evoke favorable responses because consumers perceive such ads as less intrusive. The current work posits that when aspects of the ad make persuasive intent salient—such as exposure to retargeted ads, which are generated based on consumers' past online browsing behavior—this relationship reverses such that fit between an ad and its context elicits higher perceptions of intrusiveness. Specifically, ads that present ad copy in a conversational style “fit” with a social media context on the dimension of social presence. Across three studies, we show that retargeted ads that “fit” the context on the dimension of social presence evoke higher levels of perceived intrusiveness, which, in turn, influence downstream responses such as attitudes toward the ad.     

Indian consumers' purchase intention toward a United States versus local brand

This study of Indian consumers examines the effects of individual characteristics (i.e., consumer's need for uniqueness and attitudes toward American products) and brand-specific variables (i.e., perceived quality and emotional value) on purchase intention toward a U.S. retail brand versus a local brand. A total of 411 college students in India participated in the survey. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), this study finds that Indian consumers' need for uniqueness positively influences attitudes toward American products. Attitudes toward American products positively affect perceived quality and emotional value for a U.S. brand while this effect is negative in the case of a local brand. Emotional value is an important factor influencing purchase intention toward a U.S. brand and a local brand as well. Implications for both U.S. and Indian retailers are provided.     

Drivers of eWOM engagement on social media for luxury consumers: Analysis,implications, and future research directions

The rapid industrialization and growth across the world have fostered the consumption of luxury fashion brands. Electronic word-of- mouth on social media (eWOM) is fast becoming an effective and germane strategy to engage luxury consumers through posting pictures, sharing reviews, and communicating information on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Extant research has not examined the antecedents and drivers that lead to eWOM behavior. We leverage self-congruity theory and through its focal lens, our study addresses this research gap through a survey conducted with 453 consumers in Mexico, Latin America's fastest growing market. Our results indicate that need for status, susceptibility to normative influence, and luxury brand involvement, moderated by authentic pride and social media influencers lead to eWOM behavior on social media. We also demonstrate that luxury brand involvement and susceptibility to normative influence mediate the relationship between need for status and eWOM behavior on social media. The study provides important implications to managers and researchers by suggesting long-term actionable strategies for growth that can help luxury firms develop a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals and competitors.     

Exploring Attitudes and Affiliation Intentions toward Consumers Who Engage in Socially Shared Superstitious Behaviors: A Study of Students in the East and the West

Existing literature on superstitious beliefs focuses on consumer purchasing behavior. However, little is known about how superstition‐based consumption behaviors are socially perceived. This paper investigates students’ attitudes toward consumers who engage in socially shared superstitious behaviors. Two studies show that students from Eastern and Western countries have negative attitudes and lower affiliation intentions toward consumers engaging in socially shared superstitious behaviors. As predicted by social judgment theory, this effect is driven by perceived low competence but not by perceived warmth. These negative attitudes and lower affiliation intentions are moderated by the student's superstitiousness. The managerial implications of social perceptions regarding consumer superstitious behavior are discussed.     

Customer Response to Web Site Atmospherics: Task-relevant Cues,Situational Involvement and PAD

Using the pleasure, arousal, and dominance (PAD) model, this study seeks to extend existing knowledge about consumers' activities in online retail environments by focusing on the largely ignored role of perceived dominance. In online environments, perceived dominance might influence purchasing intentions both directly and indirectly through pleasure. Furthermore, consumers' perceptions of Web site atmospherics (informativeness, navigational cues, perceived organization, and entertainment) likely affect two dimensions of emotion (perceived dominance and arousal). This study also investigates the moderating effects of situational involvement on the relationships among the PAD dimensions for online consumers. The results affirm that perceived dominance has direct effects on purchasing intentions, as well as indirect impacts through pleasure. The impact of perceived dominance on pleasure also is moderated by situational involvement. Whereas high task-relevant cues exert significant effects on perceived dominance, low task-relevant cues influence arousal. Therefore, this research shows that perceived dominance relates to online customers' purchasing intentions, which represents an extension of existing knowledge about the PAD model applied online; it also provides notable managerial implications for e-marketers.     

Celebrity endorsements: Influence of a product-endorser match on Millennials attitudes and purchase intentions

The buying power of millennial consumers is ever growing. They are social consumers, sharing all aspects of their experiences on social media. One advertising technique that may sway millennial consumers is using a celebrity endorser. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the presence of a congruent product-endorser match helped influence purchase intent of millennial consumers and aide in favourable attitudes toward the advertisement. Millennials evaluated an unfamiliar celebrity endorsement where they indicated they had little intent to purchase the product endorsed by the unfamiliar celebrity, but the unfamiliar celebrity did lead to favourable evaluations of the advertisement.     

共享经济下消费者信任的形成机理及影响机制

在对336份调研问卷实证分析基础上,从在线信任理论、制度信任理论及社会渗透理论出发,对我国共享经济下消费者信任的前因和后果及其作用机制进行研究,认为制度机制有效性感知是能代表审核与认证机制有效性感知、隐私保证机制有效性感知和安全保障机制有效性感知的形成性二阶变量,对消费者信任有显著正向影响;与供方互动有效性感知对消费者信任的正向影响不显著,与其他消费者互动有效性感知对消费者信任的正向影响显著;消费者信任对持续共享意愿有显著正向影响,并对感知风险有显著负向影响;制度机制有效性和社会互动有效性对消费者信任的影响存在显著的性别差异,即性别对这两条路径具有调节效应。因此,共享经济平台企业应建立健全管理制度,构建安全、信赖、可靠的在线交易环境,提高消费者的信任和信心,以实现共享平台的可持续发展;共享平台应优化平台网站界面,充分利用社交媒体和社交网络,构建线上和线下平台共享社区,释放共享平台在基层民主治理创新方面的活力;政府主管部门应牢牢把握消费者安全至上的发展理念,加强与平台企业之间的数据共享,建立和完善共享平台与政府部门联动的应急处置机制和风险防范化解机制,形成多元主体协同治理新格局;基于消费数据,共享平台应对市场进行有效细分,制定有针对性的差异化运营策略和营销策略,最大化满足消费者个性需求。     

How social distance affects the intention and behavior of collaborative consumption: A study based on online car-hailing service

In recent years, advances in mobile communications technology have enabled collaborative consumption or product sharing between consumers on a large scale. Unlike traditional consumption, collaborative consumption is based on collaboration among individuals, so that the decision-making mechanisms of individual consumers may be different from those in traditional consumption scenarios. The current study focuses on how the social distance between consumers and drivers affects collaborative consumption intention in the case of online car-hailing services. In this study, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used as the foundational framework, and we innovatively add the concept of social distance to the TPB to form a new, and integrated model. We test the model based on data collected from 315 online car-hailing users. The results shows that behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, positively influence collaborative consumption intention and behavior. More interestingly, we find that social distance has both direct and indirect impacts on collaborative consumption intention: The greater the social distance, the lower the collaborative consumption intention. Moreover, social distance also moderates the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention. To be specific, the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention is weakened when consumers perceive less social distance. The results suggest that the integrated model has a stronger explanatory power on collaborative consumption behavior. This study enhances the traditional TPB model and offers insight into promoting collaborative consumption in the context of the sharing economy.     

Customer pre-participatory social media drivers and their influence on attitudinal loyalty within the retail banking industry: A multi-group analysis utilizing social exchange theory

Social media pervades everyday life and firms need to understand what consumer traits antedate participation over these channels. Utilizing social exchange theory (SET), this study seeks to determine what factors precede SET's cost-benefit analysis of social media participation along with these factors' influence on attitudinal loyalty. Important antecedents to this cost-benefit analysis for social media participation are online interaction propensity (OIP), participation attitude and trust. Further, demographic (age, gender, income) and social media page factors (perceived page size and page visit frequency) are identified as potential precursors to customers' cost-benefit analysis towards social media participation. A sample of 482 U.S. banking customers was collected via an online survey. The results found that OIP and trust had direct statistically significant effects on attitudinal loyalty and participation attitude's effect was fully mediated by trust. Age, gender and page visit frequency facets exhibited no differences between groups whilst income (with higher income groups displaying higher levels of loyalty) and page size groups (smaller page sizes demonstrated greater loyalty) demonstrated differing effects on attitudinal loyalty. The study contributes to knowledge and practice by extending particular pre-SET traits in social media to a U.S. retail banking context. The study also furthers academic and managerial capabilities for segmentation analysis' and explicating connections between pre-participatory influences and attitudinal loyalty.     

Why Forward Viral Fashion Messages? The Moderating Roles of Consumers’ Fashion Traits and Message Orientation

Businesses are now using social media as platforms for viral marketing. However, little is known about the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of fashion consumers who engage with this marketing instrument. This study examines the factors that influence consumers’ use of social media and their behavioral intentions to forward viral fashion messages. An attitudinal model was proposed through the integration of uses and gratification theory and the elaboration likelihood model. Individuals’ fashion trait and message orientations were specified as moderating factors. An online survey was administered to collect data, and 381 college students participated in the study. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings showed that individuals’ intention to forward a message was affected by favorable functional and expressive attitudes towards the message, while motivations of using social media had only slight effects on individuals’ attitudes. Group comparisons showed significant moderating effects from identified individuals’ fashion trait and message orientation.     

Contrasting user generated videos versus brand generated videos in ecommerce

This empirical research (n = 177) compared the impact of user generated videos and brand generated videos on online shopper perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions. The study was guided by the technology acceptance model. Source of videos was a between-subjects factor. The findings indicated that online shoppers did not differentiate between the two video sources when evaluating the perceived usefulness of the videos. Conversely, user generated videos had a significantly greater impact on attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand than brand generated videos. Further, there was no significant main effect of video source on shopper purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Is Background Music Effective On Retail Websites?

Web designers often advise online retailers against incorporating background music on websites. However, the effect of music in brick-and-mortar retail settings has generally been found to be favorable. The research on the effects of music has been mixed. Our study aims to examine whether congruent music on the website homepage influences online consumers. Using the responses of 290 visitors to two different commercial websites, we test the influence of background music on consumers’ arousal and pleasure perceptions. The results indicate congruent background music on a website's homepage will generate positive affective responses of arousal and pleasure within users, and will enhance users’ perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment as well. The findings reveal the effects of respondent’ affective responses to the music differed by gender. Website music produces significant affective and cognitive responses in high web skill/low web challenge users and explains more of website enjoyment.     

Parents' perceptions of the sensitivity of their children's personal information and willingness to share with social media marketers: Implications for sharenting

Many stakeholders such as parents, companies, and policymakers play a role in children's online privacy. This study explores how parents who have at least one child age 10 and younger perceive the sensitivity of their children's personal information and willingness to share it with social media marketers. Survey results of 418 parents indicate that a variety of types of children's information is perceived as sensitive, with certain information (e.g., videos, photos) that parents readily share via social media as highly sensitive. Findings also suggest that fathers and single parents are more likely to perceive their children's information as sensitive and yet are more willing to share it. This research contributes to the consumer welfare literature on children's privacy by providing a baseline of parents' attitudes regarding their children's data, extending prior research that has examined adults' perceptions of the sensitivity of their own information and willingness to share with social media marketers.     

Like,Share, Retweet: Testing Competing Models of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Slacktivism Engagement

ABSTRACT

Token support for social causes has been increasingly studied and commented on in recent years. Campaigns such as the Livestrong bracelet, the pink breast cancer ribbons, the Kony 2012 video, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and the Facebook profile picture modifications for marriage equality and support for Paris after the terrorist attacks in November 2015, have been coined “slacktivism” and those who engage in such activities “slacktivists”; however, little empirical research has been done on the topic. Most of the research and commentary on slacktivism focuses on social media activity online. This research tests competing models of the theory of planned behavior in predicting an individual’s slacktivism engagement from their attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention. The results suggest that although the theory may be a plausible representation of the data, behavioral control may not be important in the context of engaging in slacktivism.     

To post or not to post: social media sharing and sporting event performance

Social networks are becoming increasingly important for consumers, especially in the context of sport, where the service experience is highly intense. Few studies have combined subjective event performance variables and social network variables to analyze social network content sharing by sports practitioners. This article investigates the use of social networks in relation to sporting events. An empirical study examined the role of social network variables and sporting event performance variables in social media use. The sample consisted of 410 triathletes (72.2% male) aged between 18 and 66 years (mean 37.03 ± 8.62). Four analyses were performed using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the causes of sharing comments through social media, sharing photos and videos on social media, participant satisfaction, and word‐of‐mouth (WOM). The event's general image was a necessary condition in all cases. The combination of participants’ satisfaction and positive event image and the combination of social network use and positive event image lead to social network content sharing by athletes. The combination of positive event image and participant satisfaction leads to a positive WOM.     

The combined influence of time pressure and time orientation on consumers’ multichannel choice: evidence from China

This article deals with the influence of time pressure and time orientation on consumers’ multichannel shopping behaviour. Previous studies have documented the role of time pressure on customers’ channel choice in developed countries, without examining the moderating effects of time orientation on the relationship between perceived time pressure and consumers’ attitudes towards online/offline channels. To fill this gap, this article aims to investigate the combined influences of time pressure and time orientation on consumers’ attitude towards both online and offline shopping. The results show that time pressure helps consumers form more favourable attitudes towards online shopping than towards offline shopping. Further, the effect of time pressure on consumers’ channel attitudes depends on one's time orientations. The implications for marketing channel strategies and market segmentation in Asian emerging markets are discussed.     

Does social trust always explain the active use of sharing-based programs?: A cross-national comparison of Indian and U.S. rideshare consumers

The global trend of the sharing economy has led consumers to use peer-to-peer systems. However, little is known about the cultural difference in forming trust in the platform entities that is critical for participating in sharing programs. The current study researches how social trust perception affects trust in technology and platform-based trust: trust in providers, other users, and the platform company and whether it varies across cultures. Focusing on Indian and U. S. consumers, we propose that cultural orientation (cultural tightness) impacts trust formation and continuation intention. Specifically, in India, trust in technology is formed regardless of the individual's perceived social trust level, which positively impacts the trust in the platform players. For American consumers, their trust in technology is based on social trust perception, which subsequently leads to the sharing participation. This is the pioneering work to investigate social trust-the use of sharing program relation based on cultural tightness.