Virtual influencers as an emerging marketing theory: A systematic literature review

Over the past few years, the popularity of influencers on social media (SM) has increased, and influencer marketing has become an important element in companies' marketing strategies. This has resulted in significant interest from researchers and practitioners; consequently, the number of publications devoted to the topic of influencers and influencer marketing has risen. Simultaneously, computer-generated avatars and virtual influencers (VIs), including those using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, have begun to emerge and gain popularity in the SM space. Thus far, research on these topics has been limited, with few studies examining the issue from different perspectives. Given the growing potential of VIs' inclusion in the consumer decision-making process, and this being a developing field, a comprehensive and critical review of existing research on this subject is urgently needed. In response, this study consolidates the current state of research on virtual, AI, and computer-generated influencers. A systematic review of peer-reviewed articles was conducted to identify key themes and dominant concepts. An analysis of 35 articles provides an understanding of this phenomenon, shedding light on the mechanisms underlying the appeal of VIs and their role in shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors. Based on the analysis, the main thematic streams from the study are presented. Further, research gaps have been identified, and recommendations made for future research directions.     

Business ethics: A literature review with a focus on marketing ethics

In recent years, the business ethics literature has exploded in both volume and importance. Because of the sheer volume and diversity of this literature, a review article was deemed necessary to provide focus and clarity to the area. The present paper reviews the literature on business ethics with a special focus in marketing ethics. The literature is divided into normative and empirical sections, with more emphasis given to the latter. Even though the majority of the articles deal with the American reality, most of the knowledge gained is easily transferable to other nations. John Tsalikis is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, and Psychology and Marketing. David J. Fritzsche is a Professor of Business Administration at the University of Portland. His articles have appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Columbia Journal of World Business, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers, and Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy.     

Mobile marketing: A literature review on its value for consumers and retailers

The article describes the existing knowledge of how mobile marketing can increase the value for consumers and retailers. Mobile device shopping, and consumers' use of mobile devices while shopping is shown to be both an extension of consumers' shopping behaviours developed on Internet-connected desktop and laptop computers (PC), and potentially new behaviours based on a mobile devices' uniquely integrated features such as camera, scanners and GPS. The article focuses on how mobile marketing creates value for consumers and retailers, enabling more precise research and development of managerial concepts and tools while providing both managers and academics with increased understanding of mobile marketing and its value outcomes for retailers.     

Relationship marketing in an international context: a literature review

This study identifies and examines the extant literature in international relationship marketing. Twenty-four empirical studies that address various aspects of relationship marketing are identified. However, only eight studies were found to explore marketing relationships across national boundaries. The remainder combine multi-country data or examine relationship marketing in non-US settings. In this review, we report the nature and the findings of these studies and discuss their implications for future research and marketing practice. It is apparent from this review that, despite the increasing importance of international marketing, insufficient attention is being paid to exploring and theorizing relationship marketing in international contexts. Furthermore, limited effort in validating domestic findings in international settings circumscribes the universal applicability and managerial relevance of relationship marketing studies.     

Linking customer resources to firm success: The role of marketing program implementation

Drawing from both resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory, this research investigates how customer resources (i.e., knowledge and network size) influence firm performance through marketing program implementation. The current research shows that customer resources are critical to the development and execution of marketing programs, which can then lead to firm success. Through surveying 269 retailers, this study finds that while customer knowledge directly affects marketing program implementation, it does not directly influence firm performance. In contrast, customer network size not only directly contributes to marketing program implementation and firm performance, but also serves as a significant moderator.     

Improving marketing success: The role of tacit knowledge exchange between sales and marketing

Successful organizations adapt their marketing strategies to marketplace changes. Boundary spanners, such as salespeople, because they are able to embed themselves in social networks outside the organization, play a key role in developing marketplace knowledge. However, if this knowledge remains solely with the boundary spanners, it cannot be used effectively to improve firm performance. This study investigates tacit knowledge exchange between sales and marketing and its ability to enhance marketing success (i.e., marketing program innovativeness, relative efficiency, and relative effectiveness). In addition, by examining five antecedents hypothesized to influence tacit knowledge exchange, it provides guidance to sales and marketing managers, who desire to improve tacit knowledge exchange, and, in turn, marketing success.     

Measures of marketing success

A mismatch of the meaning of “success”, as perceived by researcher and the firms researched, renders research less relevant and possibly, where the firm's resources are not directed at the goals selected by the researcher, misleading. This paper is concerned with the dependent variables used for business or marketing “success”, not its drivers, in seven leading marketing and strategy journals. The findings are that researcher, not respondent, views of performance dominate the literature which raises issues of relevance. Researchers are not necessarily being normative, and should be thoughtful in their selection of marketing performance objectives, i.e. the outcomes they seek to explain. A checklist of dependent variable considerations is provided together with a tentative definition of “success” against which performance may be compared.     

富媒体成就事件营销

网络营销是借助一切被目标用户认可的网络应用服务平台开展的引导用户关注的行为或活动，目的是促进产品在线销售及扩大品牌影响力。     

Networking in SMEs: Evaluating its contribution to marketing activity

This paper examines the networking activities of SME owner/managers within a food distribution channel, and considers them in relation to the marketing decisions made in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The study period coincided with dynamic changes within a UK regional market resulting from the market entry of multinational supermarket companies. Research findings show that there was wide variation in the extent of networking and marketing carried out by the SME owner/managers working within this channel. However, the level of marketing-led decision-making by each SME owner/manager was related to the level of networking, whereby an SME owner/manager who was proactively networking and utilising his/her marketing network displayed a more sophisticated level of marketing-led decision-making. These findings are the result of a 2 year in-depth qualitative study of 12 SME owner/managers working within the same channel.     

The market research contribution to new product failure and success

This paper examines the use made by management of market research data in the evaluation of new product development (NPD) projects. Stressing the need for a systematic approach to NPD the paper sets out four brief case histories, the products being Crocodillo, Paul Masson wine, the Prudential's Holburn UK Unit Trusts, and Golden Wonder's Preludes. These case histories illustrate both the value of a systematic approach to NPD by building up a market research programme and also the limitations of market research data which cannot alone be any guarantee of success.     

The impact of individual and managerial factors on salespeople's contribution to marketing intelligence activities

Although salespersons represent a unique and important channel of information, few of them contribute efficiently to marketing intelligence. This research aims to understand how salespeople's motivation and effort to gather and transmit marketing intelligence to management may be influenced by individual (organizational commitment, desire for upward mobility) and managerial (control system, participation in decision making, feedback, recognition) factors. The test of the proposed model shows that desire for upward mobility is the only individual determinant of behavior. Other than participation in decision making, all the managerial factors play influential roles in structuring both motivation and behavioral effort toward marketing intelligence by salespeople. The authors also discuss the limits of the model, some managerial implications, and future research opportunities.     

Behavioural psychology,marketing and consumer behaviour: a literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Psychology, along with a wide range of other academic disciplines, has influenced research in both consumer behaviour and marketing. However, the influence of one area of psychology – namely, behaviourism – on research on consumers and marketing has been less prominent. Behaviourism has influenced consumer and marketing research through the application of classical and operant conditioning, matching and foraging theories, amongst other frameworks, during the past 50 years. This article provides a review of research and applications of behavioural psychology in the area, as well as a brief introduction of behavioural psychology for scholars unfamiliar with the area. The article also suggests avenues for further research examining the potential development of behavioural psychology approaches for both consumer and marketing researchers.     

The application of probit,logit, and tobit in marketing: A review

Recent work on the analysis of qualitative dependent variables having considerable potential in marketing research are reviewed and illustrated. In particular, three related models, probit, logit, and tobit, are discussed in a nontechnical manner. In the last few years, there has been a resurgence of interest among biologists, economists, and other social scientists in developing and generalizing these three models. Yet, despite their apparent utility in marketing research, there have been only one or two rather limited applications to date. The object of this review is to enable researchers to evaluate these models and to relate them to their existing statistical procedures. The models are defined and related to the multivariate methods commonly used in marketing research. Second, the theoretical problems associated with using regression analysis and similar procedures on qualitative data are noted and the assumptions needed to resolve such problems are presented. Third, marketing applications are reviewed and an illustration of a general form of the probit model is evaluated and compared.     

The history of consumption: A literature review and consumer guide

The history of consumption is fast becoming a vital area of academic research. For the social sciences, in general, this new field promises new insight into the great transformation of Western society. For consumer research, in particular, it promises the opportunity to create new perspectives, sources of data, and theoretical concepts. The purpose of this paper is to review recent literature on the history of consumption, and to offer a consumer guide for those who wish to use it in the study of modern consumer behavior and policy.

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Die Geschichte des Konsums: Ein Literaturüberblick und Leseführer

Zusammenfassung Die Geschichte des Konsums wird immer stärker zu einem wichtigen Gegenstand der akademischen Forschung. Für die Sozialwissenschaften im allgemeinen gilt, daß das neue Feld völlig neue Einsichten in die große Tranformation der westlichen Gesellschaften bietet. Für die Verbraucherforschung insbesondere gilt, daß es neue Perspektiven eröffnet, neues Datenmaterial erschließt und die Bildung neuer theoretischer Konzepte ermöglicht. Der vorliegende Beitrag will über die neuere Literatur über die Geschichte des Verbrauchs orientieren und Einstiegshilfen für denjenigen geben, der diese Literatur bei der Analyse des heutigen Verbraucherverhaltens und der Verbraucherpolitik benutzen möchte. Dabei warnt der Beitrag gleich zu Beginn vor einigen naheliegenden Betrachtungsfehlern, vor allem vor einer allzu gegenwartsbezogenen Betrachtung, die vergangene Perioden vorranging als die Vorwegnahme oder zumindest die Vorbereitung unserer Gegenwart auffaßt, sowie vor der Gefahr einer Projektion der eigenen Sichtweisen und Einstellungen auf eine andere Zeit, also die Erforschung einer vergangenen Zeit ausschließlich mit Denkweisen von heute.Die weiteren Abschnitte behandeln die verschiedenen Zusammenhänge, in denen Konsum gesehen werden kann: den kulturellen, den soziologischen, psychologischen, politischen und intellektuellen Kontext, sowie den Marketing- und den Verbraucherkontext. Diese Überlegungen können — so die Schlußfolgerung des Beitrages — einen entscheidenden Beitrag zu der Frage beitragen, weshalb sich in den westlichen Gesellschaften so große Veränderungen ergeben haben, die sich nicht nur in einer industriellen Revolution, sondern auch in einer Konsumrevolution niedergeschlagen haben.

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Grant McCracken is Assistant Professor, Department of Consumer Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada. He wishes to thank Russell Belk, Victor Roth, Montrose Sommers, Richard Vosburgh, and anonymous referees for their comments on this paper.     

Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review

The study meta-analytically integrates results from three decades of human capital research in entrepreneurship. Based on 70 independent samples (N = 24,733), we found a significant but small relationship between human capital and success (r_c = .098). We examined theoretically derived moderators of this relationship referring to conceptualizations of human capital, to context, and to measurement of success. The relationship was higher for outcomes of human capital investments (knowledge/skills) than for human capital investments (education/experience), for human capital with high task-relatedness compared to low task-relatedness, for young businesses compared to old businesses, and for the dependent variable size compared to growth or profitability. Findings are relevant for practitioners (lenders, policy makers, educators) and for future research. Our findings show that future research should pursue moderator approaches to study the effects of human capital on success. Further, human capital is most important if it is task-related and if it consists of outcomes of human capital investments rather than human capital investments; this suggests that research should overcome a static view of human capital and should rather investigate the processes of learning, knowledge acquisition, and the transfer of knowledge to entrepreneurial tasks.     

The influence of extrinsic product attributes on consumers’ food decisions: review and network analysis of the marketing literature

ABSTRACT

The paper synthesises the existing research on the influence of key product characteristics on the consumers’ food decision-making. By applying network analysis on a sample of 233 empirical studies from the last three decades, the paper demonstrates how marketing-specific variables are embedded in a network of other predictors. The paper also analyses network structure and density using well established measures. The results show that there is still a lack of research concerning the interplay between marketing-relevant extrinsic product attributes (e.g. price, brand, labelling, country of origin) and intrinsic food attributes, policy-related factors, as well as aspects of the proximal and distal environment. The paper identifies gaps in the marketing literature and derives research propositions. Additionally, implications for marketing practice are developed.     

Infant feeding as a social marketing issue: A review

Despite universally recognized benefits to both mother and child, there is a worldwide decline in the incidence and duration of breastfeeding. This paper examines the choice of infant feeding method as a social marketing and consumer behavior issue by considering infant feeding (1) in the context of exchange, (2) as the first complex consumption decision that is made for a child, (3) in a socio-cultural context, (4) as a policy issue affecting the health care system, the workplace, and the law, and (5) as a methodological challenge to marketing and consumer behavior researchers.

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Zusammenfassung Die ErnÄhrung von SÄuglingen als ein Thema des sozialen Marketings: Ein überblick Obwohl seine Vorteile für Mutter und Kind allgemein anerkannt werden, nimmt das Stillen weltweit ab, sowohl was die HÄufigkeit als auch was die zeitliche Dauer betrifft. Der Beitrag prüft die Entscheidung über die SÄuglingsernÄhrung als Thema des sozialen Marketings und des Konsumentenverhaltens anhand der folgenden Gesichtspunkte: (1) Stillen als Beziehung und Austausch zwischen Mutter und Kind, (2) Stillen als erste komplexe Konsumentscheidung, die für das Kind getroffen wird, (3) Stillen im soziokulturellen Zusammenhang, (4) Stillen als ein Thema der Gesundheitspolitik, der Arbeits und der Rechtspolitik und schlie\lich (5) Stillen als methodische Herausforderung für Marketing- und Verbraucherforscher.

     

New product success in the consumer packaged goods industry: A shopper marketing approach

Marketing activities that influence shoppers along the various stages of their path-to-purchase are gaining attention from both manufacturers and retailers. Using a dataset with detailed information on 105 new products (NPs) launched in the U.K. by 44 leading brands and sold across 13 major retail banners, we provide strong support for the prominent role of both upper- and lower-funnel marketing actions that influence consumers before (upper) or during (lower) their shopping trip. We show which of these shopper-marketing instruments have the largest effect on NP performance at a retailer, and whether and how their effect is moderated by the retailer's store context. When it comes to NP success, the lifeblood of CPG companies, the lower-funnel marketing actions targeting shoppers directly at the point-of-purchase predominantly decide your fate. Thus, manufacturers should work ever harder to collaborate with retailers and push the store-specific shopper-marketing instruments in a favorable direction through information sharing and tailoring of their marketing program to individual retailers. Indeed, not all news is bleak for brand manufacturers. We identify five pieces of good news that brand manufacturers can use to their advantage.