Celebrity versus film persona endorsements: Examining the effect of celebrity transgressions on consumer judgments

This study introduces film personas (e.g., Hermione Granger, Jack Sparrow, Bridget Jones) as effective brand endorsers. A three study, mixed‐method approach is used. Results show that a film persona (e.g., Legolas, from Lord of The Rings, vs. celebrity, Orlando Bloom) is a more (less) effective endorser (i.e., resulting in more positive attitudinal and behavioral judgments). Exploratory findings indicate that this may be due to film personas possessing a tight (vast) association set, which is more (less) easily transferred onto the endorsed brand. Results of this study also illustrate that endorsed brands are shielded from the negative effects of celebrity transgressions when they are featured as their film persona in an endorsement. This study has important implications for advertisers in the choice and execution of their advertisements featuring celebrities.     

Creating ethical brands: the role of brand name on consumer perceived ethicality

A critical component of brand equity is consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) of the brand. Yet, little is known about how to create positive brand CPE. We offer that the starting point for creating brand CPE is with the brand-naming decision. Drawing on sound symbolism theory, we propose that certain brand name characteristics better convey ethicality. Two studies are conducted. Study 1 finds that higher frequency sounds in brand names better convey ethicality than lower frequency sounds. Study 2 finds that brand names can positively impact brand CPE in the presence of additional information, in particular, information that reflects negatively on the brand’s ethical behavior. These results suggest that marketers be more involved at the onset of creating an ethical brand image.     

Beyond drinking: the role of wine in the life of the UK consumer

Since the development of wine sales via supermarkets in the UK in the 1970s wine consumption has more than doubled so now the UK is the largest wine import market (by value) in the world. Wine is now consumed by approximately 61% of the UK adult population on a regular basis. For many social wine consumption has become part of their lifestyle. Given the international importance of the UK wine market, plus the increasing incorporation of wine into regular consumption behaviour, it is remarkable how few academic studies have been undertaken into the consumption behaviour of moderate, social UK wine consumers. This paper aims to start developing that knowledge, thus adding to our understanding of consumer behaviour in general. The results show that consumers use wine in very sophisticated ways via purchasing, gifting and consumption. The findings also show that social interaction with wine varies significantly, dependant upon occasion and environment. Behaviour also varies if the purchase, as gift and/or for consumption, is perceived as a private or public activity. This paper places UK wine consumer behaviour within a social context, and is able to show that all consumers display a range of behaviours in relation to wine which are situation and occasion dependant.     

The role of perceived control and gender in consumer reactions to download delays

An empirical study finds that perceived control strongly mediates the effects of perceived speed of a Web site download on consumers' attitudes and intentions to use the Web site. Moreover, results show that men are more likely to react positively to the perceived speed of a Web site download, whereas women are more likely to base their reactions on perceptions of control in the context of download delays. In contrast to past online research, the gender differences are intrinsic in two ways—they are context independent, and they are not caused by length of Internet experience, extent of Internet usage, or type of Internet connections.     

Brand expertise and perceived consistency reversals on vertical line extensions: The moderating role of extension direction

Vertical line extensions are a valuable growth strategy for many retail service sectors. Correctly positioning a new vertical line extension in the price/quality spectrum is an important decision that has considerable implications for bottom line profits. This paper examines the moderating role of extension direction on the effect of perceived consistency on vertical extension evaluations. In two studies, we show that a lack of perceived consistency acts as a reminder to consumers that the brand may be stretching beyond its expertise, increasing perceived performance and financial risks for upscale extensions but not for downscale extensions. As a consequence, higher consistency results in higher upscale extension favourability whereas evaluations of downscale extensions are similar regardless of their perceived consistency with the parent brand.     

Assessing the effect of organic-food short storytelling on consumer response

This study explores the influence of organic food storytelling on consumer response. A random sampling method was used to select organic food retail stores and markets, and then collected 578 valid samples by a quota sampling method. Four storytelling types, including individual story, environmental story, price story, and food therapy story, were based on interview results. Based on partial least squares results, organic food storytelling indeed led consumers to prefer natural food, with food therapy storytelling being the most important factor that influenced their preference for natural food. This was followed by environmental story, price story, with the individual story being the last one. Except for the individual story type, the other three story types established more positive consumer attitudes toward organic food. The preference for natural food increased consumers’ purchase intention, followed by attitude toward organic food, and finally by individual story.     

Assessing sales contest effectiveness: the role of salesperson and sales district characteristics

Sales contests are widely employed to improve short-term sales performance, but knowledge about their effectiveness at the individual salesperson level remains sparse. Proponents argue that contests increase sales by stimulating salespeople, while critics say that contests merely encourage strategic timing of sales efforts. The authors draw on the strategic sales timing literature and goal theory to hypothesize that in a consultative selling scenario, sales will dip below the baseline before the contest but increase above the baseline during and after the contest. They posit that sales district potential and salesperson ability moderate the pre-contest sales dip, contest sales boost, and post-contest sales. Results from a model based on individual-level data on 1180 salespeople in 78 sales districts are largely supportive of the hypotheses. They highlight the need for researchers to integrate the role of strategic timing, salesperson, and sales district characteristics to assess sales contest outcomes. For practitioners, the findings show that in consultative selling situations, contests can generate a net sales increase despite the occurrence of timing games, and the sales gain is higher in districts with lower sales potential and among salespeople with higher sales ability.     

Replicating,validating, and reducing the length of the consumer perceived value scale

This research reports an assessment of Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) consumer perceived value (PERVAL) scale. The PERVAL scale contains four dimensions: quality, emotional, price, and social values. The present study develops and evaluates two short forms of the original 19-item PERVAL scale based on Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) original data and three other studies in two different countries. In comparison with the full scale, the short 12-item and 8-item forms have equally good dimensional properties and equivalent predictive validity. The discussion includes implications, both for research and for retail managers.     

Top management team characteristics and firm internationalization: The moderating role of the size of middle managers

This paper examines the influence of the top management teams' (TMTs) characteristics, including tenure and international experience, on the degree of firm internationalization. In addition, this study explores the moderating effect of the size of middle managers (MMs) on the relationship between the TMT characteristics and the degree of firm internationalization. This study use the information-process perspective to emphasize that MMs provide information processing capabilities that assist TMTs as they cope with the high information-processing demands of the strategic decision-making process in international markets. We test the hypotheses using a sample of listed manufacturing firms in the electro-optical and textile industries during the 2006–2010 period. The findings indicate that TMT tenure has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm internationalization and TMT international experience has a positively affect the firm internationalization. Furthermore, we find that large MM size positively enhances the inverted U-shaped relationship between TMT tenure and firm internationalization.     

The role of emotions in utilitarian service settings: The effects of emotional satisfaction on product perception and behavioral intentions

The role of emotions in hedonic service settings is well established, but their role in utilitarian service settings has received scant attention. This research attempts to fill this gap by investigating the effects of customers’ perceptions of service quality and servicescape on their emotional reactions, and their perceptions of product quality and subsequent behavioral intentions. Data are collected from 189 clients/patients who visited an optometry clinic. The study reports that perceived service quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) and service environment (atmosphere and layout) both increase positive emotional satisfaction. In turn, positive emotional satisfaction leads to a high perception of product quality, high recommendation, patronage intention, and likelihood of purchase. Additionally, product quality perceptions have a significant positive impact on behavioral intentions.     

The effects of consumer perceived value and subjective norm on mobile data service adoption between American and Korean consumers

The effects of consumer perceived value and subjective norm on using mobile data services between American and Korean consumers were examined to explain the differences and similarities in consumer mobile data service adoption behavior in this study. The antecedent effects of four dimensions of consumer perceived value showed different behavioral intention to use mobile data services between the two countries. Emotional value was found to be the most significant effect on using mobile data services for consumers in the two countries. Subjective norm was a significant antecedent of attitude and behavioral intention to use mobile data services for American consumers, but it was not evident for Korean consumers.     

The effects of ethical climate on organizational identification, supervisory trust, and turnover among salespeople

This study examined how an ethical work climate influences salespersons' organizational identification, supervisory trust, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and turnover. Using a sample of 393 salespeople, the results found that facets of an ethical work climate are related directly to supervisory trust and organizational identification. One aspect of an ethical work climate, ethical norms, was related directly to turnover. These results indicate that an ethical work climate can directly affect salespersons' job attitudes and outcomes. The results indicate the importance of measuring ethical work climate from a multi-dimensional perspective.     

How retailer and competitor decisions drive the long-term effectiveness of manufacturer promotions for fast moving consumer goods

While both retailer and competitor decisions contribute to long-term promotional effectiveness, their separate impact has yet to be evaluated. For 75 brands in 25 categories, the author finds that the long-term retailer pass-through of promotions is 65 percent, yielding a long-run wholesale promotional elasticity of 1.78 before competitive response. However, competitors partially match the wholesale price reduction by 15 percent, which decreases promotional elasticity by 10 percent. The range of retailer and competitor response across the analyzed cases is very wide, and is affected by category and brand characteristics. As to the former, large categories yield stronger retailer response, while concentrated categories yield stronger competitor response. As to the latter, smaller brands face a fourfold disadvantage compared to leading brands: they obtain lower retail pass-through, lower retail support, and lower benefits from competing brand's promotions, while their promotions generate higher benefits to competitors. Interestingly, the mid-1990s move from off-invoice allowances towards scan-back deals only partially improves their promotional effectiveness compared to that of leading brands.     

The role of respect in the effects of perceived ad interactivity and intrusiveness on brand and site

This paper examines the interrelated effects of respect, ad intrusiveness, and ad interactivity on attitudes toward brands and the publishers that serve online advertisements. Despite widespread use of the term, respect has received almost no attention in the advertising literature. A structural equations model indicates that ad formats that are perceived as respectful to viewers result in more favorable attitudes toward both the brand and publisher site. Ad intrusiveness negatively affects respect, while interactivity has a positive influence. Respect is demonstrated to exhibit a partial mediating role in the effect of these two variables on brand and site. Results also suggest that advertisers should strive for greater interactivity in ads if their objective is branding rather than direct response, as this can minimize the negative influence of intrusiveness. Publishers can also benefit from these kinds of ads.     

Internet banking loyalty: evaluating the role of trust,satisfaction, perceived risk and frequency of use

This paper analyses the role of satisfaction, trust, frequency of use and perceived risk as antecedents of consumer loyalty to banking websites. While the literature usually focuses on the direct effects of these variables, special attention is paid here to evaluate their moderating effects on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. The results from a sample of 254 Spanish users of Internet banking services show that while satisfaction correlates positively with loyalty, the effect is significantly less intense with high levels of perceived risk. The results are similar for trust, which correlates more positively with high levels of perceived risk, but also when Internet banking is used less frequently. Managerial implications from these results are provided.     

The Moderating Impact of Quantitative Information on the Relationship Between Source Credibility and Persuasion: A Persuasion Knowledge Model Interpretation

An experiment manipulated source expertise, source bias, and message format. The findings reveal that expert sources are expected to quantify message claims whereas non-expert sources are not. Persuasion is greater when these expectations are met versus when the source and the message format are incongruent, but only when the source also has self-interest in the advocacy. It appears that source-message incongruity and source bias focus attention on the source and, in combination, lead to negative inferences about the source's manipulative intent. This interpretation is consistent with the Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad and Wright 1994).     

The moderating effects of in-store marketing on the relationships between shopping motivations and loyalty intentions

This study attempts to understand the moderating roles of in-store marketing by incorporating the effects of shopping motivations on repatronage and word-of-mouth intentions in the context of fashion apparel by applying theories related to self-determination and social impact. Structural equation modeling using data collected from young adult fashion apparel shoppers in Thailand reveals positive effects of shopping motivations. The utilitarian shopping motivation shows a greater effect in predicting loyalty intentions than hedonistic shopping motivation. In-store marketing is shown to have a moderating effect on loyalty intentions, although the influence of each moderator on the investigated direct effects varies. The findings can prove helpful to fashion apparel retailers in developing effective advertising and promotional strategies that correspond to the specific needs of the shoppers to promote store loyalty intentions.     

新形势下国有粮食购销企业主渠道作用的思考

阐述国有粮食购销企业主渠道作用的意义及不可替代的现实性,并针对制约国有粮食购销企业主渠道作用的因素提出相应的对策。     

粮食价格与居民消费价格水平联动效应研究

明晰粮食价格与居民消费价格水平之间的关系意义重大。基于1979—2020年中国粮食价格和居民消费价格水平年度数据,运用向量误差修正模型和Granger因果分析,对粮食价格与居民消费价格水平间的关系进行实证分析。结果表明:短期内,居民消费价格水平对粮食价格的影响远大于粮食价格对居民消费价格水平的影响,居民消费价格水平变动与粮食价格变动之间存在单向Granger因果关系;长期看,两者之间存在双向Granger因果关系。根据研究结论,提出了加强粮食价格和居民消费价格监测、稳定粮食价格水平、加大市场调控等对策建议。     

Comparing the impacts of Internet technology and national culture on online usage and purchase from a four-country perspective

The Internet has successfully generated an ever-expanding cohort of users for all its major concomitant activities, including information gathering, communications and transactions. So far no attempt has been made to validate whether such a success is so deep as to transcend national cultures. Nor any work has been conducted to compare the internationalisation¹ performances between online usage activities. The current study addresses these two research gaps from the perspective of four countries, i.e. Britain, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Results show that although the technological forces have been quite successful in internationalising overall online usage activities, they succumb to the cultural forces as far as only the transactions activity, or more colloquially online purchase, is concerned. This indicates the relative difficulty in internationalising online purchase vis-à-vis other online usage activities. Further research on locating a series of step functions or kick-off time points regarding the development of online purchase is suggested.