企业环保主张对消费者绿色购买意愿的影响机制研究

在广告设计中如何使用环保主张是影响广告效果和公司声誉的一项重要决策。基于此，文章引入归因理论和精细加工可能性模型对企业环保主张的效果和发生机制进行分析。结果表明：相较于关联型环保主张，消费者面对实质型环保主张时的绿色购买意愿更高；消费者环境关注调节了环保主张对绿色购买意愿的影响，即相较于关联型（实质型）环保主张，高环境关注（低环境关注）的消费者面对实质型（关联型）环保主张时绿色购买意愿更强；同时消费者的CSR内部动机感知在环保主张对消费者绿色购买意愿的影响中起中介作用。文章丰富了绿色广告理论体系，为增强企业环保主张的说服效果提供了理论依据。     

To trust or not to trust? The interplay between labor-related CSR claim type and prior CSR reputation of apparel retailers

Prevalent human rights violations in supply chains have tarnished apparel retailers' reputations, heightening skepticism toward CSR communication. We examine the effect of labor-related CSR claim type (associative vs. substantive) on message credibility, skepticism, and retailer trust. Moreover, to determine whether CSR reputation plays a role in vulnerability to criticism, we investigate how a retailer's prior CSR reputation moderates the effect of CSR claim type on consumer evaluations. Applying the framework of decoupling and cognitive dissonance theory, we propose hypotheses and test them with an online experiment. We reveal that associative CSR claims, which communicate image-oriented rather than concrete information, significantly diminish message credibility and retailer trust, while triggering skepticism. A significant interaction effect further demonstrates that when a retailer's prior CSR reputation is negative, associative claims exacerbate message credibility. Our findings also indicate that positive CSR reputations do not always create a buffering halo effect. We discuss implications to develop optimal CSR communication strategies for apparel retailers.     

The Effectiveness of Environmental Claims among Chinese Consumers: Influences of Claim Type,Country Disposition and Ecocentric Orientation

This study empirically examines how environmental claim type affects the communication effectiveness of environmental advertising claims among Chinese consumers, and how two individual difference variables—country disposition and ecocentric orientation—moderate the claim type-effectiveness relationship. The present findings reveal that environmental claim type, country disposition, and ecocentric orientation all exert significant influences on communication effectiveness. Specifically, it is shown that substantive environmental claims generate greater communication effectiveness than associative environmental claims for both high-involvement and low-involvement purchases. For both types of purchases, environmental claims also generate more positive responses from consumers exhibiting a strong ecocentric orientation than from those exhibiting a weak ecocentric orientation. In addition, when compared with those holding a negative country disposition toward the source country, consumers holding a positive country disposition express more favorable responses toward environmental claims in high-involvement purchases. Finally, the present study also reveals that country disposition and ecocentric orientation jointly exert significant moderating effects on the claim type-effectiveness relationship in high-involvement purchases. These results remind marketers of the importance of adopting a situational perspective by taking country disposition and ecocentric orientation into account when determining which types of environmental claims should be employed to appeal to their targeted Chinese consumers.     

Misleading Consumers with Green Advertising? An Affect–Reason–Involvement Account of Greenwashing Effects in Environmental Advertising

Drawing from the affect–reason–involvement model, we examine how misleading advertising about the environmental features of products, or greenwashing, affects how consumers perceive ads and brands. Using data from two experimental studies with quota-based samples in the United States (N = 486) and Germany (N = 300), we compare nondeceptive claims with two types of claims often used in greenwashing: vague claims and false claims. We also identify the presence of pleasant nature-evoking images and test for interaction effects with two types of environmental involvement: environmental concern and environmental knowledge. Results indicate that while vague claims do not enhance consumers' perceived greenwashing regardless of their environmental knowledge or concern, false claims do, which consequently harms consumers' attitudes toward those ads and brands. In the United States, consumers' environmental knowledge moderates that effect, whereas all consumers in Germany could identify false claims as attempts at greenwashing. Moreover, associating greenwashing claims with nature-evoking images activates an affective persuasive mechanism that appeals to consumers' affinity for nature, which not only positively influences their evaluations of ads and brands but also influences their attitudes toward ads and brands more strongly than perceived greenwashing. In closing, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Astroturfing Global Warming: It Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

Astroturf organizations are fake grassroots organizations usually sponsored by large corporations to support any arguments or claims in their favor, or to challenge and deny those against them. They constitute the corporate version of grassroots social movements. Serious ethical and societal concerns underline this astroturfing practice, especially if corporations are successful in influencing public opinion by undertaking a social movement approach. This study is motivated by this particular issue and examines the effectiveness of astroturf organizations in the global warming context, wherein large corporate polluters have an incentive to set up astroturf organizations to undermine the importance of human activities in climate change. We conduct an experiment to determine whether astroturf organizations have an impact on the level of user certainty about the causes of global warming. Results show that people who used astroturf websites became more uncertain about the causes of global warming and humans’ role in the phenomenon than people who used grassroots websites. Astroturf organizations are hence successful in promoting business interests over environmental protection. In addition to the multiple business ethics issues it raises, astroturfing poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the grassroots movement.     

Call for papers: Special issue on Latin America

In green advertising research, images of pleasant nature scenery have been classified as vague, unspecific and possibly ineffective green claims, as opposed to substantive, informational claims. In this study, the concept of virtual nature experiences is introduced to point out a perceptual mechanism through which the association of a brand with nature imagery may indeed lead to significant advertising effects. Consumers’ exposure to specific nature imagery in green brand communications may lead to pleasant feelings analogous to those experienced in ‘real’ nature. If adequately conditioned, these ‘virtual nature experiences’ may enhance the consumer’s attitude towards a given brand. The perceptual and attitudinal effects of substantive green claims and nature imagery are analysed in the scope of an experimental study. The field study consisted of a national survey, allowing for the relative statistical representativeness of the sample. Results of the study confirm significant perceptual and attitudinal effects of both informational claims and virtual nature experiences. The latter are identified as a distinct perceptual dimension of green brand associations, and turn out to wield additional positive influences on the consumer’s attitude towards the brand.     

Web banner ads in online newspapers: a cross-national comparison of India and Korea

A cross-national content analysis was performed on 449 web banner ads taken from the online editions of leading Indian and Korean daily newspapers. There are substantial differences between Indian and Korean ads in terms of the types of products advertised, the presence of price cues and the types of appeals used. Korean newspaper websites are starting to attract a diverse mix of advertisers, while Indian newspaper websites attract ads targeted mainly towards expatriate non-resident Indians. The observed differences between the two countries are probably attributable more to differences in internet diffusion rather than to cultural differences.     

Same Service,Different Ad Claims: The Moderating Role of Need for Cognition

Advertisers can choose among different ad claims when framing commercial messages about a new service offer. Two alternative ad claims are functional ad claims, focusing on product or service attributes and benefits, and experiential ad claims, focusing on future experiences with the product or service. This article proposes that different ad claims evoke different memory structures (semantic vs. episodic), and that different memory structures require different types of cognitive processing (system 1 vs. system 2). In two experiments using need for cognition as a dispositional trait of level of cognitive processing, this article shows that a new service entrant with experiential ad claims will be less favorably evaluated when consumers engage in more effortful, or system 2, processing, than when consumers engage in less effortful processing (system 1). For functional claims, however, the evaluation of the new service does not differ between the two types of cognitive processing (system 1 vs. system 2).     

The current practices in food advertising

A content analysis and a quasi-experiment were performed to examine the current practices in food advertising, and the usage and the effectiveness of different advertising claims across two food categories (hedonic vs functional). The content analysis revealed that taste and specific nutrition claims are the two dominating types of advertising claims in recent food advertisements. Also, a greater proportion of advertisements for functional (vs hedonic) foods appeared to use such nutrition/health claims as general health and contains nutrient claims, whereas a greater proportion of advertisements for hedonic (vs functional) foods used taste claims. However, these current practices of food advertising were called into question by the results of the quasi-experiment, which showed that the nutrition/health claims were more effective when promoting hedonic (vs functional) foods, whereas taste claims were more effective when promoting functional (vs hedonic) foods in generating favourable attitudes and purchase intention. Implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

The Impact of Buying Environment Characteristics of Retail Websites

This article identifies the extent to which buying environment characteristics, which are not directly related to price or product information, are currently available on online apparel websites and whether e-tail stores which use high levels of buying environment characteristics on their websites have a beneficial association with financial performance. A content analysis of 96 online apparel websites was employed. The overall extent to which current online websites provide buying environment characteristics appears to be low and providing more information in relation to the five characteristics was positively related to company profitability.     

Professional Ethics in a Virtual World: The Impact of the Internet on Traditional Notions of Professionalism

Numerous articles in the popular press together with an examination of websites associated with the medical, legal, engineering, financial, and other professions leave no doubt that the role of professions has been impacted by the Internet. While offering the promise of the democratization of expertise – expertise made available to the public at convenient times and locations and at an affordable cost – the Internet is also driving a reexamination of the concept of professional identity and related claims of expertise and standards of integrity.This paper begins with a presentation of case studies illustrating the ease by which impostors infiltrate the ranks of professionals. Reports of individuals masquerading as professionals via the Internet often reveal that these imposters cause harm to the unwary victims who rely on assertions of professional expertise. Such reports motivated the authors to examine the origins and evolution of the traditional roles of professions and professionals in today’s society, as well as question how, or whether, the standards for professional practice have been adapted to the challenges posed by technology, i.e., do statements of professional ethics provide a ‘guiding light’ for practitioners and their clients in the cyber age? The authors challenge the professions to consider the notion that technology forces a confrontation between the guild-like aspects of a profession that have served, on the one hand, to protect a profession from encroachment and, on the other hand, have purportedly protected the public.The authors conclude by presenting an examination of websites that show recognition of the challenges that the Internet poses to professionalism, as we have known it. Detailed discussion of the websites of two professions illustrates different approaches to responding to these challenges.     

Privacy in the Information Age: Stakeholders, Interests and Values

Privacy is a relational and relative concept that has been defined in a variety of ways. In this paper we offer a systematic discussion of potentially different notions of privacy. We conclude that privacy as the freedom or immunity from the judgement of others is an extremely useful concept to develop ways in which to understand privacy claims and associated risks. To this end, we develop a framework of principles that explores the interrelations of interests and values for various stakeholders where privacy concerns have risen or are expected to rise. We argue that conflicts between the interests and values of different stakeholders may result in legitimate claims of privacy/transparency being ignored or underrepresented. Central to this analysis is the notion of a stakeholder. We argue that stakeholders are persons or groups with legitimate interests, of intrinsic value, in the procedural and/or substantive aspects of the privacy/transparency claim and subsequent judgements on that basis. Using the principles of access, representation, and power, which flow from our framework of analysis, we show how they can facilitate the identification of potential privacy/transparency risks using examples from the British National Health Service.     

Evaluation of Brand Use on City Government Websites: A Search for Brand Type,Repetition, and Consistency

ABSTRACT

There is growing interest in bringing marketing thought and practice to government. By examining the use of brand symbols and slogans on ninety-seven city government websites, I expose challenges in branding within a public sector context. My study reveals that city governments vary in the types of brands emphasized on their websites and their websites' reflection of recommended branding practices. The majority of the websites present city symbols and slogans. For some websites, there are inconsistencies in and infrequent use of brand elements suggesting a need for greater integration of marketing communications and the opportunity to more fully embrace marketing principles.     

What retailers need to understand about website inaccessibility and disabled consumers: Challenges and opportunities

This research uniquely contributes to the marketing policy literature by illuminating the widespread yet seldom studied problem of online inaccessibility of retail websites affecting approximately 30 million disabled Americans. When a website is not designed to be navigated easily or is not compatible with assistive technology such as a screen-reader, these potential customers are not able to independently search for information and conduct transactions. Blind and low vision participants in an empirical study provide their opinions regarding accessibility policy issues and reveal that their frustrations with inaccessible retail websites may result, not only in avoidance of the retailer in its different sales channels but also in antifirm behaviors driven by negative attitudes toward perceived retailer accessibility/disability policy that spur feelings of online marketplace discrimination. Using two different evaluation tools, the top 100 retailers in the United States were evaluated on the accessibility of their websites over the past 4 years (2015–2018). Results show that most websites contain many design errors making navigation very difficult or even impossible for vision impaired consumers. The argument is made that online retailers who proactively address these inaccessibility issues on their websites may significantly increase their customer base and profitability.     

A validation study of the Cross‐Cultural Adaptability Inventory

Despite the claims made about the effectiveness of cross‐cultural training programs, few studies have examined the reliability and validity of the instruments used in these training programs. In this study, the authors examined the factor structure of the Cross‐Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) via a confirmatory factor analytic approach. A series of confirmatory factor analytic models was tested and applied at the item level to both the CCAI and Goldberg's Big Five Inventory. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model in which a method factor was estimated fits the data significantly better than a model without such a method effect. Further, the method factor suppressed substantive relationships such that the two CCAI factors of Emotional Resilience and Personal Autonomy became significant correlates with self‐reported number of international job assignments after accounting for method variance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

An empirical analysis of factors that influence retail website visit types

Consumers may have a variety of reasons for using a retail brand's website, including browsing, purchasing, or browsing followed by purchasing. In this study we examine visits to three different retail websites to develop a typology of website visit behaviors and reveal factors that are associated with each visit type. We find four visit types that are consistent across all brands, which we label “touching base,” “search/deliberation,” “goal-directed,” and online shopping “cart-only” visits. One of the brands has an additional visit type we term “considered visits.” The type of visit a consumer makes is influenced by a combination of marketing channels, and their visit and purchase history with the brand. For example, shoppers that are directed to a retailer's website by clicking on a search engine link (paid or organic) are more likely to make visits that are associated with a purchase goal, while visits generated by an email are more likely to be just touching base. These findings provide marketers with a more refined understanding of the different ways consumers use their websites, and the factors associated with these visit behaviors.     

The Evolution of Business Groups’ Corporate Social Responsibility

Although establishing gender equality in board and managerial positions has recently become more important for organizations, companies with low levels of gender diversity seem to perceive an ethical dilemma regarding the ways, in which they attempt to attain it. One way that organizations try to move toward gender equality is through the use of their corporate websites to manage potential applicants’ impressions of their current levels of, and actions to improve, gender diversity. The dilemma is whether to truthfully communicate their low level of gender diversity, conceal it, or exaggerate it. On the one hand, organizations that are truthful may find it difficult to achieve equality because women are less attracted to companies that lack diversity. On the other hand, organizations that are untruthful risk their moral legitimacy. The present work investigates gender diversity-related communication on the corporate websites of 99 major German companies. Based on theoretical work on minority attraction, we apply an organizational impression management taxonomy to guide our in-depth content analysis. With this approach, we hope to advance the understanding of how the issue of gender diversity is presented on corporate websites, which is useful for both organizational decision makers as well as diversity researchers. We found that although gender diversity-related communications on corporate websites contain both assertive and defensive organizational impression management tactics, as well as a third type of tactic we refer to as “acknowledgement,” assertive tactics were used more frequently. We argue the existence of a paradox whereby organizations use assertive impression management tactics to maintain pragmatic legitimacy but compromise their moral legitimacy by doing so. Furthermore, we argue that moral legitimacy can be maintained or restored through the sincere use of defensive impression management tactics and acknowledgement.     

Are nutrient-content claims always effective?

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which recently prevalent nutrientcontent claims in food advertising are effective and how the level of effectiveness might differ between food products perceived as healthy and unhealthy. Guided by the match-up hypothesis and its theoretical underpinnings, a set of 2 (nutrient-content vs taste claim) × 2 (healthy vs unhealthy food) experiments investigated the impact of nutrient-content claims compared to the impact of taste claims on two different food product types. The authors found that (a) respondents evaluated food ads with nutrient-content claims as healthier than food ads with taste claims regardless of product type, but (b) the respondents showed better advertising evaluations on nutrient-content claims for foods perceived as healthy foods and on taste claims for foods perceived as unhealthy. Our findings provide implications and suggestions for improving food advertising and marketing strategies, and public health policy.     

Offline and Online Search in Used Durables Markets

This study examines how different information sources are used by consumers prior to their purchase of used durable goods, specifically used cars. We examine how online and offline search are related. Categories of online sources are dealer websites and resale websites, and of offline sources are print media and dealer visits. Prior research on new car purchases finds that online sources substitute for traditional, offline sources such as dealer visits. We examine whether this theory extends to used-car purchases and distinguish between dealer websites and resale websites (a distinction relevant to used-goods markets) by collecting data from a sample of used-car buyers. Because search in different sources can be interrelated, and due to data censoring, we build and estimate a simultaneous equations Tobit model. In contrast to existing research, we find that online search on dealer websites is complementary to and not a substitute for dealer visits. This complementary effect highlights the importance of dealers’ web presence in used markets.     

Performance evaluation of tourism websites' information quality of four global destination brands: Beijing,Hong Kong,Shanghai, and Taipei

Some tourists only have a slight idea of where they want to go on a holiday when planning starts. Such tourists or their travel partners are likely to look for information for making a final travel decision. As the web becomes an increasingly popular information source, tourism destination websites can play a critical role in destination choice. A rubric for comparing tourism websites put forward by Dion and Woodside (2010) is used and ideas for enhancing the rubric are introduced utilizing a growing literature. Comparisons are made for the tourism websites of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taipei. Analysis involves considering websites' quality and usefulness. The study indicates that Hong Kong's site is best while Beijing has the most room for improvement. The paper concludes with implications of the research for website analysis. The discussion includes contributions to the value of criteria for websites found in the literature but not covered in an information-quality performance rubric.