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Price image studies have dominated the consumer market but have been slower to evolve in the business market. This research aims to conceptualize and validate the firms’ price image (FPI) in the business market, as well as to develop a conceptual framework for exploring the importance of pricing capability (PC) in the formation of FPI and its influence on customer value (CV) and business performance (BP).

The study conducted field interviews with business managers and customers of Indian small and medium-sized enterprises to operationalize and validate the FPI variable using a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative multivariate analyses. Partial least square structural equation modeling technique was applied to validate a conceptual model on a sample of 286 respondents acquired from both physical and digital questionnaire survey techniques.

The findings revealed that PC is positively linked to FPI, which in turn, significantly affects CV and BP. Moreover, CV serves as a partial mediator in the FPI–BP link. The research also offers a measurement scale consisting of eight items for assessing the FPI variable from the stakeholders’ perspective.

This research contributes to the literature on price image by refining and testing measures of FPI, and enriches the existing literature by understanding the theoretical relationships among PC, FPI, CV, and BP.

The research reveals that developing PC is a useful tool for SMEs to build favorable FPI, which delivers superior CV and obtains improved BP. The findings can also assist SME managers to gain a sustainable competitive advantage by maintaining a favorable FPI.

While a growing number of consumer market studies reveal that price image is strategically important for the retailers who own it, no study has explored the role of price image in the business market. This is the first study to explore price image at the firm level in the business market. This study further provides empirical evidence for the claim that PC influences the formation of a FPI and clarifies the relationship between FPI, CV and BP.

This paper intends to contribute to the evolving understanding of Indian adolescents as consumers by examining their unique relationships with food brands, focusing specifically on brand love. It further investigates the key drivers that cultivate brand love among adolescents and explores the resulting outcomes of brand love.

About 37 in-depth interviews, including three exercises, were conducted with adolescents aged 11–16. The first and second exercises used projective techniques to explore respondents’ culture-bound love relationships with their favorite brands. Using the laddering technique, the third exercise investigated the critical drivers of respondents’ brand love.

The study reveals that adolescents derive value through attribute-benefit-value linkages from the consumption experience, leading to brand love. The customer value–brand love dynamics result in adolescents’ customer engagement behavior. Additionally, Indian adolescent customers seek brand consumption as a medium to instate their social identity and achieve hedonic pleasure from the experience. The study highlights the role of socialization and attitudinal autonomy in shaping adolescent–brand interactions.

The study could be relevant for both academicians and practitioners as they unveil the consumer psychology of contemporary adolescents in emerging countries like India and how similar or different they are from adult consumers. Also, there are very few adolescent–brand relationship studies in the past that have been deliberated in the context of food brands. Brand managers may design their product development and communication appeals around higher levels of abstraction in the attribute-benefit-value linkages discovered by this study.

The development of online brand communities employed by marketers to maintain consumer relationships and brand building is increasing. This study aims to explore how value co-creation practices can cultivate consumers' brand loyalty.

Using partial least squares modeling, the hypotheses testing involves the utilization of and data collection from 599 Chinese consumers who actively engage in brand communities in China.

Value co-creation practices in brand communities cultivate consumers' affective commitment and psychological brand ownership, which in turn can further contribute to consumers' brand loyalty.

By offering a more comprehensive insight into how affective commitment and psychological brand ownership act as intermediaries between value co-creation practices and consumers' brand loyalty, this research enhances the existing knowledge on value co-creation and brand management.

This study aims to examine the effect of symbolic and functional congruity on pilgrims’ intention to buy ethnic food which leads toward behavior in the religious tourism context. Moreover, the moderating effect of social media celebrities’ intimate disclosures (SMCs-ISD) on the association between intention and behavior is also tested.

A survey was conducted to collect data, and 443 participants provided valid responses. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that actual and ideal self-image significantly influence the symbolic congruence whereas quality, health and price are significantly associated with functional congruence. In addition, symbolic and functional congruence is significantly related to pilgrims’ intention to use ethnic food which in turn influences their behavior. Moreover, the moderating effect of SMCs-ISD is also found significant.

Grounded in self-congruity theory, this study explores the impact of functional and symbolic congruity on pilgrims’ intentions to buy ethnic food in religious tourism. It addresses the intention-behavior gap by examining the moderating effect of SMCs-ISD through the lens of parasocial relationship theory. This dual theoretical approach offers new insights into how self-congruity and social media influence shape consumer behavior in this unique context.

Drawing upon the trust transfer theory and IS success model, this study investigates the transfer mechanism and the antecedents of trust to the platform and trust to a food vendor in the FDA, which subsequently affect users’ behavioral intention.

Data collection was carried out through an online questionnaire via the Prolific platform. Respondents were exclusively selected from Uber Eats users in the US market due to the popularity of this food delivery app and the volume of food delivery transactions in this country.

The findings confirmed the trust transfer between trust in the platform and trust in the food vendor, ultimately contributing to users’ continuance usage intention and purchase intention. Our empirical results also show that system quality and service quality lead to trust-in-platform, while product presentation richness, vendor reputation and social referrals enhance trust in food vendors.

The results offer valuable insights for FDA providers and food vendors to offer better user experiences to foster trust, enhance purchase intention and retain their commitment to the platform.

Unlike past research in an e-commerce context that mainly concentrates on the role of trust in general or trust in the platform, this study expands the understanding of trust-related research by exploring the predictors and consequences of both trust toward the platform and trust toward the vendors in the FDA settings.

Despite the growing interest in micro-celebrities in destination marketing, their role in transferring cognitive, emotional and behavioral outcomes to destination psychological ownership (DPO) is underexplored. This study aims to address this void by investigating how the perceived characteristics of micro-celebrities influence travel intentions through interactive engagement, perceived information quality and DPO. It highlights three pathways for fostering DPO.

A survey-based design was developed with 302 samples collected and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling and artificial neural network to examine the hypothesized model.

Findings reveal that the expertise and attractiveness of micro-celebrities enhance their perceived personal trustworthiness. This perception encourages social media users to view travel information from micro-celebrities as higher quality and to engage more with them, leading to DPO. Consequently, when social media users experience this psychological ownership, they show a stronger intention to travel to the destination, influenced partly by micro-celebrity marketing.

This study provides a psychological–developmental perspective on micro-celebrity marketing-induced travels. It underscores the importance of fostering micro-celebrity-induced DPO to establish a sustained, mutually beneficial relationship between tourists and destinations.

尽管微名人在目的地营销中的作用已引起学术界的关注, 但他们在传递认知、情感和行为结果至目的地心理所有权中的作用尚未得到充分探索。本研究通过调查微名人的感知特征如何通过互动参与、感知信息质量及目的地心理所有权影响旅行意图, 填补了这一研究空白。此外, 本研究还强调了促进目的地心理所有权的三条途径。

本研究采用基于调查的设计, 收集并分析了302个样本, 并使用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）和人工神经网络（ANN）对假设模型进行了检验。

研究结果表明, 微名人的专业知识和吸引力增强了其感知个人可信度。这一感知促使社交媒体用户将微名人分享的旅行信息视为更高质量的信息, 并与他们进行更频繁的互动, 从而促进了目的地心理所有权的形成。由此, 当社交媒体用户体验到这种心理所有权时, 他们表现出更强烈的旅行意图, 这在一定程度上受到微名人营销的影响。

本研究从心理发展的角度探讨了微名人营销引发的旅行意图, 强调了通过微名人激发目的地心理所有权的重要性, 以建立游客与目的地之间持续且互利的关系。

A pesar del creciente interés por las micro-celebridades en el marketing de destinos, su papel en la transferencia de resultados cognitivos, afectivos y conductuales a la apropiación psicológica del destino (DPO) está poco explorado. Esta investigación aborda esta laguna de investigación analizando cómo las características percibidas de las micro-celebridades influyen en las intenciones de viaje a través del compromiso interactivo, la calidad de la información percibida y la DPO. Se destacan tres vías para fomentar la DPO.

Se desarrolló un diseño basado en encuestas, recogiéndose y analizándose 302 observaciones. Se utilizó modelización de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales y redes neuronales artificiales para analizar el modelo propuesto.

Los resultados revelan que la experiencia y el atractivo de las micro-celebridades mejoran su credibilidad personal percibida. Esta percepción anima a los usuarios de redes sociales a considerar la información sobre viajes proporcionada por las micro-celebridades como de mayor calidad y a interactuar más con ellas, lo que conduce a la formación de la apropiación psicológica del destino. Como resultado, cuando los usuarios de redes sociales experimentan esta apropiación psicológica, muestran una mayor intención de viajar al destino, influenciados en parte por el marketing de micro-celebridades.

Este estudio aporta una perspectiva de desarrollo psicológico sobre los viajes inducidos por el marketing de micro-celebridades. Subraya la importancia de fomentar la propiedad psicológica del destino inducida por micro-celebridades para establecer relaciones sostenidas y mutuamente beneficiosas entre los turistas y los destinos.

This study aims to determine the factors that influence payment Fintech application adoption intention among low-income groups in India.

This study used an expanded technology acceptance model (TAM; covering perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, perceived risk and financial literacy), which was tested using 310 low-income respondents in Northern India. The PLS-SEM approach was used to analyse the data.

The results indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence and financial literacy all has a direct positive relationship with the intention to use Fintech. Furthermore, financial literacy was found to be the moderator in moderating the relationship between social influence and intention to use the Fintech app.

This study ameliorates existing research and deepens the authors’ understanding of users’ intentions to use Fintech among low-income groups. The findings of the study help both policymakers and academicians in designing effective strategies for promoting Fintech usage.

This study examines the factors that determine Fintech application adoption, particularly among low-income individuals. The TAM framework was expanded to include perceived risk and financial literacy as two of the factors influencing Fintech adoption. Furthermore, the moderating role of financial literacy on intention to use Fintech app was considered in this study in the context of a developing country such as India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how digital literacy influences knowledge sharing and academic performance among graduate students in online learning environments.

Structural equation modeling via AMOS was utilized to test the research hypotheses in this cross-sectional study. Students’ digital literacy, their knowledge sharing, and their academic performance in online learning environments were surveyed by questionnaires. The sample of 330 graduate students was selected from a leading public university in Iran. Based on a stratified sampling approach, the recruited students answered questionnaires based on their degree level and field of study.

The results demonstrated that digital literacy was a positive and significant predictor of knowledge sharing and students' academic performance. Furthermore, the study revealed that knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between digital literacy and academic performance.

Our findings revealed that digital literacy positively and significantly predicts knowledge sharing and academic performance. This may be attributed to the fact that digital literacy is essential for developing digital learning in higher education. Conducting research on the antecedents and consequences of digital literacy in academic environments may prove attractive to future researchers.

Research on the influence of digital literacy on students’ knowledge sharing and academic performance in online learning environments is scarce. This study suggests that improving students’ digital literacy and knowledge sharing can enhance their performance in online learning environments, and it is a recommendation for university educators and educational technologists. Gaining insight into the influence of digital literacy on how students share knowledge and their academic achievements in virtual learning environments can have numerous managerial ramifications for administrators and instructors in higher education.

This study explores the strategies of value creation and value capture adopted by two companies producing and processing almonds to measure their effectiveness.

The study takes a quantitative approach based on the analysis of two cases study. The value created and captured is esteemed by using the “transformation value” of agricultural products, developed by the Italian economic-estimative school.

The research shows how vertical integration, product differentiation and direct sales can increase the value created and captured by companies. The results demonstrate that effective supply chain management allows firms to retain a greater share of the value created, thereby improving their competitiveness.

This quantitative approach, scarcely present in the literature, makes a significant contribution to the literature on value creation and capture and proposes a replicable methodology for analyzing the impact of business strategies in the agribusiness sector.

This study proposes a serial mediation model to investigate the factors influencing hospitality and tourism (H&T) students' destination choice intentions in an experiential learning context. By extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to include extended variables and the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory, this study explores pathways in which experiential learning involvement (IEL) and destination emotions (DE) interact with attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) to predict H&T students' intentions (ITT). This work also examines the moderating role of destination familiarity (DF) on relationships between destination emotions and attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.

The conceptual model and research hypotheses were each assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Paper-based surveys were used to collect data from 715 students majoring in tourism and hospitality training at schools in Vietnam and applying experiential learning activities during their training.

Research results confirm a serial mediation model wherein IEL and DE promote the formation of intention to choose a specific destination through various pathways: IEL? PBC? ITT; IEL? DE? SN/PBC? ITT and DE? SN/PBC? ITT. In addition, the results show that destination familiarity dampens the relationship between emotions and attitudes as well as with perceived behavioral control.

This study offers practical recommendations for destination management organizations (DMOs) seeking to increase the intention of H&T students to choose their particular destination. These recommendations include: forming strategic alliances with H&T educational institutions; implementing preferential policies like discounted or free admission to attractions and corporate discounts for students; launching targeted digital marketing campaigns on social media platforms and promoting the destination through youth-oriented media such as television shows and music videos.

From addressing the research gap by developing and testing a serial mediation model of destination choice intention of H&T students in an experiential learning context, this study offers new insights into developing scales of constructs in the research model associated with the context of experiential learning and highlights the importance of IEL and DE as a stimulus to achieve ATT, SN and PBC, all of which serve to increase H&T students' intention to choose a destination through different paths under the moderating lens of destination familiarly.