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This study aims to understand how product attributes (object stimuli), social influences (social-psychological stimuli) and internal factors (internal stimuli) contribute to Chinese Generation Z’s purchase intentions (responses) for new Chinese style apparel (NCSA) through NCSA attitudes (cognitive state) and cultural pride (affective state) based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model.

Data were collected from 989 respondents aged between 18 and 29 years through self-administrated questionnaires via a professional survey panel, Credamo, in China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results showed that among the seven stimuli, NCSA’s design, online social networking communities, cultural identity and personal norms significantly influenced Generation Z’s purchase intentions through both NCSA attitudes and cultural pride. Further, NCSA’s cultural connotations and celebrity influences elicited purchase intentions merely through the affective state – cultural pride. In contrast, NCSA’s functionality did not have a significant influence on NCSA attitudes and adversely affected cultural pride.

This study fills the research gap and extends the application of the S-O-R model within the NCSA context. The findings of this study shed light on the practical implications for marketers, brands and policymakers with regard to a better understanding of Chinese Generation Z’s NCSA consumption.

Higher education institutions must keep up to date with the changing needs and situations of students, addressing societal issues affecting young people’s lives and learning. Among the crises that higher education institutions in South Korea are facing, population decline and a lack of sustainable development present a significant threat to these institutions’ existence as well as student satisfaction and learning experience. By relying on a review of relevant literature, this chapter will discuss each of these challenges and potential solutions. We hope that our discussion of the challenges in South Korea will also highlight that many of the ‘crises’ for higher education and ways to tackle them can be both localised and globally applicable. What is significant here is that higher education has a key role to play in preparing the young generation of Koreans to embrace sustainability and to foster resilience in them – for preparedness for future crises. We propose that a focus on community identity strength and education for sustainable development (ESD) can work as a solution for improving students’ learning and global citizenship in these areas. Furthermore, we argue that this is especially important for preserving local and regional strengths and, ultimately, mutual development between the region and universities. Sustainable development depends on building a stronger and positive personal and collective identity, and students’ active participation in sustainable development transcends the localised challenges. Such outcomes are also important for the sustainable future of higher education in South Korea and continuous development in the higher education scholarship.

We test whether six individual components of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in the form of environmental, employee, anticorruption, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), health and human rights are converging (global), diverging (regional) or crossverging (hybrid) on a sample of 335 multinational enterprises (MNEs) from 31 countries from three regions of the world: Europe, Anglo-Saxon cluster and Asia and the emerging markets.

We use an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) analysis to test for differences between the six components of CSR on a sample of 335 MNEs from 310 countries for three regions of the world.

The effect of one-way ANOVA was significant for each of the six dependent variables separately on the differences between MNEs from the three regions. Taken together clearly the MANCOVA analysis indicates that there are signs of crossvergence between MNEs from Asia and the emerging markets and those from the Anglo-Saxon and European subsamples due to the hybrid nature of the findings.

The results of the present study support the regional nature of CSR practices and disclosures and on many of the individual components CSR disclosures are a reflection of their home environments.

The study sheds light on the ongoing debate on whether CSR practices are converging, diverging or crossverging on a sample of 335 MNEs from the three regions of the world. Clear evidence of divergence was seen in that in all six dimensions of CSR, there were differences between MNEs from Europe and those from the Anglo-Saxon region reinforcing the implicit and explicit nature of the phenomena. There were significant differences between MNEs from Asia and emerging markets and Europe on four out of the six dimensions of CSR indicating mostly divergence. There were also significant differences between MNEs from Asia and emerging markets and those from the Anglo-Saxon region on three out of the six dimensions of CSR indicating the presence of divergence.

This study aims to examine the role of different forms of corporate social advocacy (CSA) in shaping individuals’ attitudinal and behavioral intentions towards companies taking their public stand on controversial socio-political issues. With an online experiment as the research method, this study tests whether depicting nonpolitical or political behaviors in CSA messages increases individuals’ positive behavioral intentions.

This study uses a single factor between subject online experiment. A total of 135 US young adults were recruited through a Qualtrics online panel. Three social media mockups were created to manipulate three levels of actions in CSA messages (no action, nonpolitical action and political action). Participants viewed one of those social media posts depicting presented actions to counter anti-LGBTQ + legislation in the USA and answered questions about values-driven motives behind CSA, brand preference and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intention.

Participants displayed higher levels of brand preference when they viewed CSA messages depicting the company’s political action intended to repel anti-LGBTQ + legislation. Participants showed more positive WOM intentions towards the company when they perceived its political actions as more values-driven.

The findings of this study offer practical insights to companies when designing CSA messages and strategies. The results of this study indicate that the presence of political actions in CSA communication increases individuals’ positive behaviors towards companies. The results also suggest that depicting altruistic motives behind CSA leads individuals to talk about companies more in positive ways.

This study is one of the early studies investigating the impact of various forms of CSA on individuals’ attitudinal and behavioral intentions to companies practicing CSA. This study provides practical implications on how to effectively appeal individuals’ favorable attitudes and behaviors towards CSA. In particular, this research presents the importance of action aspects in individuals’ attitudes toward corporations’ CSA messages.

This study aims to operationalize consumer decision-making styles as higher-order constructs and investigates the influence of two distinct subdimensions of consumer vanity – namely, appearance vanity and achievement vanity – on consumer decision-making orientations (CDMO).

Using data from an online survey of 319 young adults, the authors construct a higher-order structural model capturing the following three orientations: social/conspicuous, utilitarian and undesirable. The partial least squares structural equation modeling approach was used to test the validity of the higher-order structural model and the hypothesized relationships.

Results, confirming the higher-order structure of consumer decision-making styles, highlight the distinctive impacts of the vanity dimensions on different CDMOs. Specifically, appearance vanity predominantly affects social and undesirable orientations, and achievement vanity influences utilitarian orientation.

While several theoretical classifications of consumer decision-making styles have been proposed in the past, none of the earlier studies leveraged those classifications as higher-order models. Addressing this literature gap, this study provides empirical evidence associating CDMOs with a specific consumer trait – vanity – thereby validating the higher-order nature of consumer decision-making styles.

This study aims to examine the factors influencing trust toward mobile health applications (mhealth apps) among young consumers. By building on the socio-technical systems framework and self-congruence theory, the authors develop and examine a conceptual model of the trusting intentions of young consumers toward mhealth apps.

The data for the study was collected from a sample of 285 young consumers via an online survey by using a purposive sampling method. All the respondents were existing users of health apps and resided in the urban areas of the country. The sample comprised 53% male respondents and 47% female respondents. Subsequently, the data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique.

The findings revealed that psychological factors like self-congruence and technical factors such as flow experience and perceived playfulness aid in building trust among young mhealth app users, which in turn influences the purchase intention and user loyalty toward the application. Social factors like perceived critical mass and social influence did not significantly impact trust.

The data was collected from Generation Z, recognized as the most influential consumer demographic worldwide, primarily involved in mhealth app usage. Nonetheless, it is essential to understand that these findings might only partially apply to a specific user group. In addition, the study did not focus on any specific mhealth applications. Hence, it is prudent to exercise caution when generalizing these results to the broader population.

This study advances the comprehension of socio-technical elements in establishing trust, subsequently impacting purchase intentions and loyalty among young users in the context of mhealth apps. In addition, it expands the socio-technical framework by incorporating a psychological factor that could influence trust and purchase intentions toward mhealth apps. Furthermore, the post hoc findings reinforce this comprehension by identifying the moderating effects of operating system type and gender. These insights could provide valuable guidance for developing tailored marketing strategies targeting the young consumer base.

Social media has broadened the scope of luxury brand marketing and has emerged as a salient tool for Internet marketing campaigns in the post-pandemic world. Under the theoretical lens of the SOR model, this study aims to explore the nexus between brand social media marketing (BSMM) activities and online consumer brand engagement (CBE) via mediating consumers' emotions in the modest luxury fashion branding post-pandemic context.

This study conducted a post-pandemic survey in five major metropolitan cities in Pakistan with a total of 584 eligible young consumers who follow the fan pages of fashion brands. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The findings reveal that BSMM activities have a significant influence on three emotion states (pleasure, arousal and dominance); however, only pleasure and arousal significantly drive CBE (i.e. affective engagement and activation). Moreover, the results show that pleasure and arousal partially mediate the relationships between BSMM activities and affective and activation dimensions of CBE, while dominance fully mediates the relationship between BSMM activities and cognitive engagement. Interestingly, only affective engagement was shown to be the most potent component of CBE in fostering positive emotions toward luxury fashion brands.

This study contributes to the literature on social media marketing and consumer brand engagement by revealing valuable insights into post-pandemic luxury fashion branding that could assist academicians and marketing practitioners of non-Western markets.

Electric vehicle adoption (EVA) drives sustainability by significantly reducing carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. Despite EVA’s notable advantages from existing literature and its evolving nature, a gap persists in evaluating EVA research. This research presents a systematic literature review, offering insights into the current state of EVA advancements.

This study amalgamates various factors influencing EVA and elucidates their associations, fostering sustainable transportation. To evaluate progress in this domain, we adopt the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework, systematically assessing the theories, contextual factors, characteristics and methodologies employed in EVA research to support efficient decision-making.

The study reveals 18 theories, prominently including the theory of planned behavior, innovation diffusion theory, technology acceptance model and UTAUT. The study identifies diverse factors such as perceived risk, effort expectancy, social norms, performance expectancy, government policy, personal norms, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, demographics and ecological knowledge as pivotal in shaping attitudes and intentions toward electric vehicle adoption. Furthermore, structured equation modeling emerges as the predominant methodology, while including alternative approaches enriches the methodological landscape, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the factors driving EV adoption.

The insights gained from this research can inform policymakers, manufacturers and researchers, ultimately contributing to the global transition towards more sustainable transportation solutions.

This research’s cardinal contribution lies in developing an integrated theoretical framework, a novel approach that offers a structured and holistic perspective on the multifaceted determinants of EVA. This framework not only illuminates the intricate relationships among these variables but also opens up exciting avenues for future research.