Patterns of innovation in tourism ‘Small and Medium-size Enterprises’

This study aims to explore the different types of tourism innovation and to display distinctive innovation patterns by tourism small business. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to identify those non-technological factors of innovation that are specifically applicable to tourism small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Following a quantitative research approach, the empirical analysis carries out a logistic regression in order to determine the best predictors for different types of innovation. Data set consists on a survey conducted among 125 Andalusian hotel SMEs. Although the results indicate that the diverse categories of innovation – product, process, marketing and organizational – are explained by different sets of variables, it is possible to outline the results related to a number of firm's characteristics, such as dependency on tour-operator, geographic localization or co-operation.     

Beyond ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ to ‘know-who’: enhancing human capital with social capital in an Australian start-up accelerator

Abstract

This study investigates the enhancement of human capital with social capital in a start-up accelerator and how this integration affects the entrepreneurial learning experience. In particular, it examines the relative importance of the three components ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’. The study involved thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with participants in an Australian start-up accelerator that is delivered using ideas such as Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas and Lean Start-up methodology. We find that although the programme emphasised ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’, ‘know-who’ was most significant for participant learning. The results indicate that mentors and experts were especially helpful in shaping learning and in developing entrepreneurial networks. Moreover, our results show that the processes of ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’ are interrelated – by knowing ‘who’, participants learnt ‘what’ and ‘how to’ through social learning. The research contributes to entrepreneurial learning theory and application particularly in the Asia Pacific context, by providing evidence that ‘know-who’ closes the learning loop for ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ as ‘know-who’ can actually provide entrepreneurs with the means to enhance their entrepreneurial self-efficacy.     

An exploration of consumers’ experiences in physical stores: comparing consumers’ and retailers’ perspectives in past and present time

Abstract

In this paper, we explore consumers’ in-store experiences and their components, from both a consumer and retailer perspective. This is a replication of a study we performed in 2006 and thus we also examine how the role of the physical store has changed over the last decade. We use the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to improve our understanding of consumers’ in-store experiences. Moreover, we conduct in-depth interviews with Swedish retailers to achieve an understanding of how retailers use aspects of the store environment to enhance the consumer experience. Interestingly, our results suggest that consumers’ in-store experiences to a large extent are created by the same aspects today as ten years ago (e.g. personnel, layout, atmosphere). Furthermore, while retailers today emphasize the importance of fulfilling new and more advanced consumer demands, they often still accentuate the weight and use of traditional values (e.g. personnel and layout) ahead of advanced technology.     

‘Instagram made Me buy it’: Generation Z impulse purchases in fashion industry

This paper investigates what types of Instagram marketing tools are the most effective in relation to Generation Z's impulse purchasing behaviour within fashion industry in the context of the United Kingdom. The research applies Stimulus-Organism-Response model to the context of Instagram. The findings of this qualitative study based on eight extensive focus groups conclude that there are significant gender differences in relation to impulse purchasing behaviour on Instagram. Instagram is vastly influential in encouraging impulse purchases amongst females, however, this was not the case for male participants. A revised Stimulus-Organism-Response model is proposed to Instagram, concluding that advertisements, opinion leaders and user-generated content act as stimuli (S) in evoking positive emotions (O), which subsequently trigger impulse purchases (R) in Generation Z females.     

‘We’ are more likely to endorse than ‘I’: the effects of self-construal and brand symbolism on consumers’ online brand endorsements

Recent research increasingly highlights that consumers engage in online brand endorsements (e.g. Facebook likes) to signal their identity, but has failed to explain why different consumers use this type of signaling to differing degrees. This paper addresses this gap by looking at a culturally constructed individual difference variable, namely self-construal. Self-construal, which can be independent or interdependent, refers to the extent that people define themselves in terms of the relations they have with others. In four studies, this research shows that consumers’ self-construal is related to their intention to endorse brands online. In particular, high levels of interdependent self-construal positively affect consumers’ intention to endorse brands online (Studies 1A & 1B). This effect is mediated by an increased perception of brands’ symbolic value (Study 2). Moreover, this positivity bias toward symbolic brand cues is conditional upon consumers’ brand attitude (Study 3). These findings demonstrate that consumers’ identity plays a central role in their brand perception and brand-related social media use.     

Antecedents to purchase intentions for Hispanic consumers: a ‘local’ perspective

The current study explores consumer attributes such as attitudes, subjective norms, connectedness, and price consciousness and their relationship with purchase intentions of Hispanic shoppers within the locally produced food category. Four hypothesized direct-path relationships and one moderation effect across the four proposed paths were tested via a two-step process in structural equations modeling. Results of measurement model testing suggested that a five-factor model fits well for the Hispanic group. Within the structural model process, a significant positive relationship was found between two proposed paths: consumer attitudes with intention to purchase and price consciousness with intention to purchase. A moderation effect of perceived product availability was found only for the path of price consciousness with intention to purchase. These results suggest that factors such as subject norms and connectedness, often associated with the local food category, may not be important drivers for purchase intentions for the Hispanic food shopper in retail grocery channels. However, other factors relating to attitudes, price consciousness, and product availability may be more salient. From this exploration, implications for marketers are provided and future research directions suggested.     

Roles of ‘small- and medium-sized enterprises’ in service industry innovation: a case study on leisure agriculture service in tourism regional innovation

This study combines service-dominant logic (SDL) with industry cluster theory to analyze the evolution of leisure agriculture service in Taiwan. The result shows that cooperation among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can increase customer willingness to participate in value co-creation. Customer-driven cooperation among SMEs drives SMEs to increase their competitiveness and thus overcome their disadvantages in resources and capabilities. Additionally, the four-stage evolution of leisure agriculture service is identified to help tourism SMEs understand their positions and suggest appropriate strategies for achieving sustainable development and it also reveals a shifting paradigm from goods-dominant logic to SDL in tourism industry.     

Beating,ditching and hiding: consumers’ everyday resistance to marketing

ABSTRACT

This article illuminates consumers’ views of marketing in light of theories of resistance. It argues that consumers engage in resistance to the power of marketing through their everyday actions and also through the ways they construct their accounts of these actions. It identifies three theoretical approaches to resistance (hegemonic, relational and autonomous). These are used to discuss consumers’ accounts of marketing collected through 78 personal interviews in which participants were asked to describe marketing and provide examples of their experiences with marketing as they defined it. Through this, the study uncovers various forms of consumer resistance, which can often go unnoticed. These are conceptualised through the notion of everyday resistance to marketing and are used to challenge existing marketing theory and develop paths for future research.     

The terror of death and consumers’ sustainability attitudes

Applying Terror Management Theory, this research attempts to investigate how the terror of death perception affects consumers' sustainability attitudes under the contingent condition of religiosity. This field study was conducted in Malang, Indonesia. The findings disclose that both mortality salience and self-esteem increase materialism. Materialism is found to intensify consumers’ sustainability attitudes of green concern and consumer social responsibility (CnSR). It is also found that religiosity strengthens the effect of mortality salience on materialism and that of materialism on CnSR. Contrarily, religiosity weakens the effects of materialism on green concern. However, there is no statistical support for the moderating effect of religiosity on the linkage between self-esteem and materialism.     

Chronological cues and consumers’ preference for mere newness

Chronological cues are ubiquitous in retail settings, whether they come in the form of production, release, on-shelf, or purchase dates, etc. Yet, they remain relatively underexplored in the marketing literature. Could newness that arises from these chronological cues lead consumers to prefer options merely because they are newer, above and beyond any substantive benefits conferred or implied by that newness? We propose and find in a series of eight preregistered studies (n= 2,216) that consumers exhibit mere newness preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer options over older options with no substantive benefits to newness. We provide evidence that overgeneralization is one important driver of mere newness preference: Most consumers hold positive (negative) associations with chronological newness (oldness) in an implicit association test, and mere newness preference is reduced in domains in which the opposite association exists. Consequently, consumers are willing to pay a newness premium even for mere newness.     

Entrepreneurs’ creativity and firm innovation: the moderating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy

There are several studies in entrepreneurship investigating determinants of innovation outcomes in SMEs. Although entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial creativity is often seen as a prerequisite, previous research indicates it is not an exclusive determinant of innovation. We use theoretical logics of social cognitive theory and innovation theory to develop a conceptual model of entrepreneur’s creativity, self-efficacy, and innovation outcomes. The model is then tested on a large sample of small and medium firms from two distinct economies: the United States and Slovenia. Empirical findings partially support the proposed moderation effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but with the same variations between countries. The implications of these results in relation to entrepreneurship theory and practice are discussed.     

Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs’ involvement in internationalization and innovation: Three Canadian cases

In international entrepreneurship literature, entrepreneurs moving across borders have received less attention than other entrepreneurs. Also, only scant attention has been paid to immigrant entrepreneurs’ contributions to their organizations. This paper aims to contribute to the emerging international immigrant entrepreneurship literature by studying Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs’ roles in their firms’ international and innovative activities in Canada, China, and other countries. It is based on three cases of Chinese entrepreneurs who established businesses in Canada. We conclude that these immigrants’ experience of doing business in China and Canada, their network relationships and knowledge of these markets quickened their firms’ internationalization considerably. Moreover, these firms became active in product or service innovation as the case immigrants also involved other immigrants and locals. Consequently, immigrant entrepreneurs should actively use their connections both in their new country of residence and also in their previous home country, but to become even more successful, they should also reach beyond their ethnic ties.     

Consumers’ reaction to automobile recalls: The role of corporate non-market strategies and interstate relations

We investigate how the two signals of non-market strategies of foreign automakers (i.e. the domestic share of ownership and recognition of social responsibility) and the relations between China and the foreign automaker’s home country (i.e. interstate relations) jointly affect the business performance of Sino-foreign joint venture automakers (SJVAMs) when an automobile recall event occurs. Analysing 422 automobile recall events in 2013–2019 befalling SJVAMs in China, we find that the domestic share of ownership and recognition of social responsibility can buffer the negative impact of recalls on SJVAMs’ business performance. Meanwhile, the buffering effect of recognition of social responsibility is stronger when the domestic share of ownership is lower. Additionally, the buffering effects of domestic share of ownership and recognition of social responsibility are stronger when the interstate relation is poorer. We discuss our contributions to research on corporate legitimacy and crisis management.     

How money priming affects consumers in an advertising context: the role of product conspicuousness and consumers’ signalling needs

ABSTRACT

Effects of money priming on basic psychological processes are well established in the literature. However, research that investigates money priming in an advertising context is scarce. This article presents two empirical studies examining consumer reactions after being primed with money and exposed to advertisements presenting either conspicuous or non-conspicuous products. Consumer reactions were investigated with respect to their attitude towards the ad, product evaluation and signalling needs. The findings indicate that the evaluation of a conspicuous product, and the respective ad promoting it, benefit from money priming while the evaluation of a non-conspicuous product is not affected. Moreover, money priming elicits signalling needs in situations where consumers are confronted with conspicuous products. Our moderated mediation models show that these signalling needs mediate the positive effects of money priming in conspicuous situations.     

Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products

In investigating consumers’ intentions to re-purchase organic personal care products (PCP), this study extends the theory of planned behaviour by including perceived value dimensions as the antecedents of attitude in the model. The findings revealed that most of the hypothesised relationships linking the consumer perceived value constructs (namely, health, safety, hedonic and environmental) with attitude towards the rebuying of organic PCP, were supported. Also, better product knowledge about organic PCP would lead to more positive attitudes towards re-purchasing the product. In contrast, social value was not important in predicting attitude. Similarly, the influence of subjective norm on rebuying intention was not supported. In terms of ranking of importance with regards to prediction of re-purchasing intention, attitude was the most important predictor followed by perceived behavioural control, product knowledge, hedonic value, environmental value and safety value.     

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

Abstract

The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.     

Modelling consumers’ acceptance for the click and collect service

This study investigates possibilities for developing a click and collect service in the context of e-commerce and attempts to identify the consumer characteristics that determine the acceptance of this service. Data of 285 e-commerce consumers were collected through an online questionnaire using banners uploaded in seven online retailers' sites. Binary logit models are developed to analyze the data and relate consumer characteristics to their intention to use and pay for the click and collect service. Perceived environmental contribution of the click and collect service, perceived time pressure, car use in the city center and frequency of online shopping significantly affect consumers’ intention to use the service. The model results provide information that can be used to choose location points and design marketing and pricing policies that will make the click and collect service attractive to customers.     

The mitigating effects of uncertainty on ‘e’ innovation propensity: some service sector evidence

This paper reports the findings of a study that sought to explore a range of technical, financial and social issues that the literature suggests influences e-innovation propensity. The research was conducted on a sample of knowledge-intensive business service SMEs in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and New Zealand within a business-to-consumer context. Qualitative methodologies (in-depth interviews and projective techniques) were employed to investigate the research problem. The findings highlight a number of specific issues that call into question the value of an e-business strategy, such as uncertainties surrounding knowledge acquisition, disintermediation effects and sustainability of an e-business. These issues continue to negate e-innovation propensity. The paper proposes practical suggestions to alleviate the mitigating effects of uncertainty that are impacting on e-innovation propensity. The conclusions derived from this research, along with the modelling of the uncertainty factors extend existing knowledge and also set the precedent for further empirical research in other country and industry settings.     

Bribery: Australian Managers’ Experiences and Responses When Operating in International Markets

Managers seeking to respect local norms when operating in cross-cultural settings may encounter ethical dilemmas when faced with values that potentially conflict with their own. The question of whose ethics or values should be applied or whether a set of universal eth- ical norms should be developed often confronts managers in their international business dealings. This article explores the findings from a qualitative research study that examines critical ethical dilemmas confronting Australian managers in their international business operations and their responses to those dilemmas. For Australians managers in this study, bribery emerged as the major ethical dilemma confronting them in their international operations.