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This study aims to examine the effect of opinion leadership on individuals’ susceptibility to social influence, which eventually affects their adoption behavior and assess how these relationships vary with gender in new product adoption.

Data were collected based on a survey of young consumers regarding the adoption of new consumer electronics. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and multiple sample analyses.

The study finds that opinion leaders are more sensitive to influence from others when the mechanism of status competition is at work. Although consumers who are more susceptible to normative influence tend to adopt new products later than others, those who are more susceptible to status competition are more likely to adopt earlier. The results also provide evidence for gender differences. Female leaders are more susceptible to status competition, whereas male leaders are less sensitive to informational influence. The effects of susceptibility to normative influence and status competition on adoption behavior are stronger for female than for male consumers.

The overall structural model predicts an interesting relationship between individual influence and susceptibility, as well as the effects of these factors on adoption behavior. This study also provides deeper insights into the dynamics of the social influence mechanisms at work for each gender in new product adoption.

The impact of assimilation on a consumer’s susceptibility to interpersonal influence is assessed in samples of first‐generation Armenian and Chinese immigrants to the US. We find that: (a) Chinese immigrants are more susceptible to interpersonal influence than are Anglo‐Americans who in turn are more susceptible to this influence than are Armenian immigrants, (b) Chinese immigrants are especially susceptible to the normative type of interpersonal influence and (c) Chinese immigrants’ susceptibility to both types of interpersonal influence decreases significantly as they identificationally‐assimilate, whereas Armenian immigrants’ susceptibility to both types of interpersonal influence decreases significantly as they structurally‐assimilate into the Anglo‐American macro‐culture.

The study aims to better understand the impact of susceptibility to social influence (normative and informational) on perceived risk and the consequent impacts on attitudes towards counterfeiting and intention to purchase counterfeit brands.

A single cross-sectional descriptive research was employed, and questionnaires were used to collect data from 361 counterfeit buyers. Structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyse data and test the research hypotheses.

Results showed that normative susceptibility to social influence significantly increased attitudes towards counterfeiting but not purchase intention; its impact on intention was mediated by perceived risk and attitudes. Although information susceptibility to social influence increased purchase intention, it had no significant impact on attitudes and perceived risk.

The current study empirically explores the relationship between susceptibility to social influence and perceived risk in the context of non-deceptive counterfeit consumption, by integrating the foundations of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and social cognitive theory (SCT).

Interpersonal influences play a major role in shaping consumer choice decisions. This is particularly evident in the case of services, where intangibility and variability add to the decision difficulty. While all consumers are susceptible to interpersonal influence, people differ in the extent of their susceptibility to interpersonal influence, with some individuals being chronically more susceptible to social influence than others. Seeks to speculate in this paper that, in addition to individual differences, susceptibility to interpersonal influence also varies systematically across cultures with varying degrees of individualism‐collectivism.

Hypothesis is tested by investigating and comparing the structure, properties, and mean levels of the susceptibility to interpersonal influence scale across samples of French and English Canadian consumers.

It is found that: French Canadians are significantly more susceptible to normative influence than English Canadians; French Canadians score significantly lower than English Canadians on measures of individualism; and individualism has a significant negative effect on consumer susceptibility to normative influence.

By showing that French Canadians were indeed less individualistic than English Canadians, and that individualistic orientation had a significant negative effect on both the utilitarian and the value‐expressive dimensions of consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, hopefully it has been demonstrated that differences in susceptibility to normative influence between French and English Canadians are partly driven by cultural differences in individualistic orientation.

This study aims to empirically investigate how susceptibility to social influence in new product adoption varies with one’s structural location in a social network.

The social network data were collected based on a sociometric network survey with 589 undergraduate students. Social network analysis and ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that consumers with high degree centrality (i.e. hubs) who have a large number of connections to others and consumers with high betweenness centrality (i.e. bridges) who connect otherwise distant groups in social networks are both less sensitive to informational influence from others. More importantly, the authors find evidence that consumers with moderate levels of degree/betweenness centrality are more susceptible to normative influence and status competition than those with low or high degree/betweenness centrality. The inverse-U patterns in the above relations are consistent with middle-status conformity and anxiety.

This research complements social influence and new product diffusion research by documenting important contingencies (i.e. network locations) in consumer susceptibility to different types of social influence from a social network perspective.

The findings will assist marketers to leverage social influence by activating relevant social ties with effective messages in their network marketing strategies.

This research provides a better understanding of the mechanisms driving susceptibility to social influence in new product diffusion.

Chinese face refers to reputation, others’ respect or compliance which is gained through self-representation and role-playing. The purpose of this paper is to identify and distinguish the four dimensions of face construct: personal identity-face, family identity-face, friend identity-face and occupational identity-face. Based on this, the authors discuss and investigate the influence of four different face dimensions on a consumer’s need for uniqueness (CNFU).

This research uses a questionnaire survey method and convenience samples. Subjects are students from a university in Wuhan operated directly under the Ministry of Education. A total of 730 questionnaires were distributed mainly in libraries and study rooms. After eliminating invalid questionnaires, 690 questionnaires were obtained. In sum, 44.1 percent research subjects are males, and 59 percent of them are undergraduate samples; 92.5 percent subjects’ monthly disposable consumption was less than 2,000 yuan.

The result shows that the influence paths and directions are different. Specifically, personal identity-face and family identity-face restrain CNFU through promoting interdependent self-construal, and friend identity-face and occupational identity-face facilitate CNFU through enhancing the consumer’s susceptibility to normative influence.

These findings are useful for clarify contemporary Chinese individuality-seeking consumption and conformity consumption behavior, and will shed light on form strategic practices, such as brand positioning and product communication.

Using an instant response device within the context of a controlled experiment, we find that people’s self‐assessment of susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) differs substantially from the actual, or true, degree to which they are influenced by the actions of others. Actual SNI, a subconscious reaction to the behavior of those around us, can be altered when participants (falsely) believe their peers differ in their willingness to sign a new lease under various rental reduction incentives when their landlord has defaulted on his mortgage. The results are insensitive to eight alternative measures of actual SNI. This study supports the behavioral finance literature relating to herding in that we show people are very much willing to follow the lead of their peers, even in situations where information gain is not the likely derived benefit. Instead, people appear to herd in our study for social reasons.

The purpose of this paper is to examine affect of cosmopolitanism and consumers’ susceptibility to interpersonal influence on Indian consumers’ fashion clothing involvement. Moderating effect of demographics was studied.

Survey technique through self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities in India.

Utilitarian, value expressive factors of normative influence and cosmopolitanism influence Indian consumers’ fashion clothing involvement. Type of city, income, and education moderated influence of normative values and cosmopolitanism on fashion clothing involvement.

One of the major limitations of current research was that it had a large number of respondents in the age group of 18-40 years. Future research can attempt to reduce age biasness.

The findings can prove helpful to international apparel brands marketing luxury and fashion clothing in India. However, since conformance to social norms was important for Indians, clothing manufacturers should use reference groups, opinion leaders, and celebrities to generate awareness. A blend of global and local lifestyle should be used. International luxury brands can customize their products to combine ethnic tastes.

Fashion clothing market promises immense growth opportunities in India. There is limited research to examine influence cosmopolitanism on Indian consumers’ consumption behaviour. Knowledge about influence of global lifestyle, brands, mass media, and services on Indian consumers’ behaviour can help in targeting them effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the roles of self-esteem (SE), negative affect (NA), and consumer susceptibility to normative influence in the enactment of impulse buying behavior.

A theoretical model is developed through an extensive review of literature. Survey research is conducted to collect the data from respondents. Structural equation modeling is performed to test the model and the hypotheses.

The outcome of the study reveals that the act of impulsive buying is preceded by buying impulse (BI). BI is positively influenced by consumer susceptibility to normative influence and impulsive buying tendency (IBT). SE influences the generation of BI partially mediated by IBT.

The study is limited in its generalizability in terms of its geographic location, culture, and the context of product categories.

The findings of the study have practical implications in developing marketing communications, merchandising, and personal selling strategies.

In view of the contradictory empirical evidences in extant literature regarding the role NA the present study re-examines whether NA influences impulse buying. The study, conducted in the field setting also ascertains the external validity of the findings not tested in the prior research. Furthermore, in light of psychology literature, the relationship between SE and IBT was hypothesized and empirically established in the present study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine affect of consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) and demographics on ecologically conscious consumer behaviour (ECCB).

Data were collected through mall intercept technique in six cities across India.

ECCB and CSII scales were applicable in Indian context. Factor analysis revealed two factors for ECCB scale: ecologically conscious purchase behaviour and green product attitudes. Normative, informative influence of CSII and income were predictors to ecologically conscious purchase behaviour. Normative influence emerged as predictor to green attitudes.

The study focuses itself only on CSII factors. It does not examine influence of variables like personal values, risk perception, and personality on ECCB. It does not examine role of consumers’ attitude towards conservation of energy and natural resources.

The findings can be of immense use to firms marketing green brands in India. Social group acceptance and conformance is important for Indian consumers; advertising and promotional campaigns should use social groups for marketing green products. Consumer involvement and engagement can be created through social networking web sites. Ecologically concerns should be rewarded in order to encourage consumers to adopt green attitudes.

Green marketing and ecologically conscious behaviour are upcoming research areas in India. There is limited research to understand Indian consumers’ concerns about environment. ECCB and CSII scales were used as it was assumed that using scales which have been tested and validated in other cultures would give reliable results.

The purpose of this paper to use Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to explain the online brand community (OBC) identity internalization process through brand website interactivity. Secondary purpose of the research is to explore the role of several individual difference factors and brand-specific constructs in predicting brand website interactivity.

This study proposes the OBC motivation development continuum of brand website interactivity. Thus, a national panel was collected by a reputable online survey firm and a structural equation model was used to test the proposed model.

The authors examined four brand-related antecedents and mediators (brand engagement in self-concept, susceptibility of normative influence, opinion leadership, and consumer innovativeness) and found evidence of the differing roles that brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives play as mediators to brand website interactivity.

Marketing managers can use the proposed model as a useful tool for understanding ways to target and motivate segment specific consumers in ways that will increase the effectiveness of managers’ OBC building strategies.

This study utilized SDT to explain the internalization process of brand website interactivity. Further, several individual difference factors were explored as antecedents and mediators of brand website interactivity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between national culture and adoption of new products, ideas, or behaviour to suggest a framework for distinguishing between innovative and imitative behaviour.

The four dimensions propounded by Hofstede are used to distinguish national cultures for developing hypotheses pertaining to patterns of adoption of new products, namely innovative and imitative behaviour of consumers and the sources of influence that instigate them into such behaviours.

Results from the study provide support for some of the hypothesised effects which suggest that indeed, certain dimensions of culture are a key factor in determining whether or not consumers will display a propensity to innovate. Specifically, it was found that cultures characterised by small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance and masculinity will demonstrate innovativeness. The findings also indicate that consumers coming from different national cultures are going to vary in their susceptibility to normative influences and interpersonal communications. Consumers coming from a large power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance and/or feminine cultures are going to be convinced into adopting new products through normative influences while those from more collectivistic cultures are more likely to be swayed by interpersonal communications.

These results offer possibilities of influencing consumers into adopting new products by using different methods that are dependent on the national culture.

This study seeks to examine the effect of two types of social influence, normative and informational, on travelers' perceptions of a destination's brand equity.

A brand equity measurement model, previously developed for a tangible product brand, is applied and validated in the context of a destination brand. The structural model is then estimated to test the effects of normative and informational influence on brand equity.

Normative but not informational influence has a significant effect on brand equity perceptions.

The empirical results help to strengthen the claim that branding principles can be readily generalized to tourism destinations.

This paper aims to examine how conflicting brand preferences between a social group and an individual may lead the individual to hide their consumption. Specifically, the authors examine the conditions under which hiding behaviour is most likely to occur and the impact of susceptibility to interpersonal influence on the decision to hide.

Two experiments were conducted using a combination of student and adult samples. Analysis of variance and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings suggest that individuals are most likely to hide their consumption behaviour when group sanctions for non-conformity are severe, but the likelihood of being caught is low. Further, individual differences in susceptibility to interpersonal influence are found to affect individuals’ decisions to hide their consumption behaviour.

By identifying hidden consumption behaviour as a possible response to preference conflict, this research contributes to the literature on social influence and extends our understanding of how consumers behave when influenced by social group pressure.

The present work establishes hiding behaviour (a concept which has yet to be thoroughly explored in the literature) as an alternative yet viable response to preference conflict.

To investigate the influence of word‐of‐mouth (WOM) behavior among the growing teenage female market segment in the flourishing sports market.

A sample of 118 teenaged girls, aged 13‐18, participated in the study. The theory of consumer socialization and interpersonal influence was used as the conceptual foundation to generate hypotheses concerning female teens' susceptibility to interpersonal influence, self‐esteem, and WOM behavior. Female teens' ethnicity and media habits were also investigated.

All hypotheses were either supported or partially supported, suggesting that female teens' susceptibility to interpersonal influence and self‐esteem are related to athlete WOM behavior. Additionally, African‐American teenaged girls had significantly higher media habits than Caucasian teenaged girls.

The research is based on a small sample of teenaged girls from one region of the USA. However, the sample is from a diverse socioeconomic group of teenagers, and represents a relatively unexplored, yet extremely important, consumer market segment.

The study provides insights for managers who want to learn more about the WOM behavior of one of the largest and most powerful market segments in the USA. Implications and applications are given to consumer marketers to help better serve this segment.

This paper fills a gap in the literature on female teens and what influences their WOM behavior in the enormous and growing sports market. Additionally, the paper looks at ethnicity and media habits and how these variables may impact on WOM behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of how technology‐enabled virtual experiences contribute to community members' online trust and engagement through inducing their community identification. It also seeks to examine two types of social influence in the virtual community: within‐community normative pressure and normative pressure from outside the community.

The authors employed the structural equation modelling approach to estimate a conceptual model using survey data from participants in the World of Warcraft online game community.

The results mainly supported the hypotheses. It was shown that three types of experience could influence community members' engaging behaviour through an increase in community identification and community trust. More importantly it was found that normative pressure from outside the community exhibits a significant and inverted U‐shaped relationship with online community engagement, while within‐community normative pressure had a positive relationship with community engagement. No evidence was found to support the inverted U‐shaped relationship between within‐community normative pressure and community members' engagement.

From perspectives of virtual experience, social identity theory, social trust, and susceptibility to normative influence, the current study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the process through which community members are willing to share what they know, participate in collective actions, and spend their time with strangers in a virtual space.

Sustainable production and consumption may reduce global warming. Disseminating environmental awareness through green advertising appeals can increase consumers’ intention to purchase green skincare products.

The study explores the boundary condition of susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) (Study 1; N = 156) and the need for uniqueness (NFU) (Study 2; N = 198) in the relationship between green appeals and customers’ intention to buy skincare products. This study employs an experimental method to test the relationships.

The findings indicate that (1) green (vs non-green) advertising appeals significantly affect the customers’ purchase intention; (2) the boundary condition of lower (vs higher) SNI strengthens the impact of green appeals on purchase intentions and (3) the moderating role of higher (vs lower) NFU strengthens the relationship between green appeals and purchase intention.

This paper sheds light on the sustainable production and consumption of skincare products through green advertising appeals to promote sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of status‐oriented Muslim consumers in Kuwait. More specifically, to study how personality traits such as materialism, susceptibility to social influence and self‐monitoring explain status consumption.

A sample of 433 consumers provided information on their status consumption orientation and the personality traits under study. Respondents expressed their opinion on the statements on a five‐point Likert scale. Factor analysis was used to explore the underlying dimensions, the reliability of the measures and the components. Regression analysis was used to predict the hypothesized relationships.

This paper hypothesized that the three personality traits, namely materialism, susceptibility to personal influence and self‐monitoring, influence status consumption among Muslim consumers in Kuwait. Based on the results, the data supported all but the effect of self‐monitoring, that is, the ability to readily alter one's behavior to fit the current situation. Also, younger consumers seem to engage in more status consumption than older ones. There is also a positive correlation between income and status consumption.

Status consumption‐oriented consumers are typically susceptible to informational and normative influence and are materialistic.

These findings can be used in market segmentation and advertising, for example, status consumers could be depicted using or consuming products in situations that imply prestige and approval from important referent groups.

The findings contribute to enlarge the psychological profile of Muslim consumers and their orientation towards consumption.

Limited attention has been paid to the cultural influences on the formation of consumer attitudes toward luxury brands (LUX). The purpose of this paper is to investigate this relationship by developing a model that additionally employs the constructs of susceptibility to normative interpersonal influence (SNII) and brand consciousness (BCO).

Sample data were gathered through surveys administered to 383 college students in the UK and Taiwan. The model of cultural influences on attitudes toward luxury brands was empirically tested using multi-group structural equation modeling to evaluate its applicability across the two countries.

Results are presented in two parts: first, the exogenous construct part of the model establishing the reliability and validity of the cultural dimension constructs (horizontal individualism, vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism) that are antecedent to consumer SNII and 2) the endogenous part of the model in which consumer SNII affects LUX through the mediating role of BCO.

The findings in the current study are limited to a sample of college students in the UK and Taiwan, which, through representing western and Asian countries, each housing different cultures, do not span the greater number of cultures found across these countries, much less across the world. Furthermore it is assumed that there are a number of subcultures in both the UK and Taiwan that are not accounted for in this study.

An individual level of cultural orientation (e.g. horizontalism and verticalism) rather than traditionally adopted regionally defined or nationally based (Hofstede, 1980) cultural criteria should be investigated to identify more accurate market demand patterns in order to best target consumers in these markets (Sharma, 2010). In addition, appealing, vertical ad messages would be more effective in stimulating consumer motivations for consumption of luxury brands. Conversely, horizontal ad messages would be effective in demarketing approaches.

The current study is the first of its kind to explore the effect of cultural-orientation on the formation of LUX cross-nationally. As such it provides future cross-cultural researchers with valid and reliable culturally based constructs that can be used to predict consumer SNII in developing LUX. In addition, establishing the mediating role of BCO in the relationship between SNII and LUX helps marketers better understand the equity of their luxury brands, particularly in Asian countries.

This paper aims to examine the concept of “consumer animosity”, model its antecedents, and assess its influence on intention to purchase.

Survey questionnaires were distributed by a quasi‐random sample of school pupils across Taiwan to an adult member of their household, for completion and return. A return rate of 70 percent yielded 456 usable questionnaires, the data from which were analysed by the LISREL structural equation modelling software.

The results suggest that perceived personal economic hardship and the normative influence of members of a consumers' reference group have a positive impact on the phenomenon of consumer animosity, which in turn negatively affects the intentions of consumers in Taiwan to purchase products originating in mainland China and Japan. Contradicting previous studies, consumer animosity was found to be dependent on judgments of product quality.

The research model was built from data collected by non‐probability sampling in a single country. There was no evidence of sampling bias, but future studies would benefit from inclusion of more independent variables and a wider geographical scope.

The findings contain many practical lessons for planners of export marketing strategy.

Two existing theories of social behaviour are integrated with the concept of consumer animosity to explain consumption choices in an international context.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it aims to clarify the moderating role of self-esteem (SE) and susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) in the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty. Second, the study proposes modeling the mediation role of brand love and outlining how SE and SNI affect the consumer-brand relationship. Finally, the study explores the impact of brand love on brand loyalty: the moderating role of self-esteem and social influences, as the literature regarding this is still lacking.

Data were collected via an online survey, which yielded 218 responses. Structural equation modeling was used to predict the research model.

The findings indicate that both SE and SNI mediate the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty. Additionally, consumers love the focal brands positively relates to SE and SNI. In return, SE and SNI lead to brand loyalty. The tight relationship of SE and SNI affects the connection between brand love and brand loyalty.

The data has been collected in Vietnam, which creates a limitation regarding the study’s cross-cultural nature and the economic context. Thus, the study should be conducted in different cultures and economies (both developing and developed countries) to enhance the generalizability in consumer-brand relationships.

Brand managers should conduct more advertising in brand communities to enhance the influence of SNI and emphasize unique features of the brands, to attract consumers through the overlap of SE.

The findings can contribute to enhancing unique brand identity and self-motivation will increase consumer loyalty, increasing the revenue of a specific brand. Moreover, as acceptable peers contribute to making purchase decisions, boosting the brand community will maintain current consumers and attract additional potential consumers from the current consumer relationships.

This study contributes to consumer psychology by indicating both SNI and SE as the mediators in the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty and how the consumer-brand relationship can be enabled.

El propósito de este trabajo es triple. En primer lugar, pretende aclarar el papel moderador de la autoestima (SE) y la susceptibilidad a la influencia normativa (SNI) en la relación entre el amor y la lealtad a la marca. En segundo lugar, el estudio propone modelar el papel mediador del amor a la marca y esbozar cómo la autoestima y la SNI afectan a la relación consumidor-marca. Por último, el estudio explora los factores que afectan a la relación entre el amor a la marca y la lealtad a la misma, ya que aún no existe literatura al respecto.

Los datos se recogieron mediante una encuesta en línea, que arrojó 218 respuestas. Se utilizó el modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) para predecir el modelo de investigación.

Los hallazgos indican que tanto la autoestima como la SNI median la relación entre el amor y la lealtad a la marca. Además, el amor de los consumidores por las marcas focales se relaciona positivamente con la autoestima y la SNI. En cambio, la autoestima y la SNI conducen a la lealtad a la marca. La estrecha relación de la autoestima y la SNI afecta la conexión entre el amor a la marca y la lealtad a la misma.

Los datos se han recogido en Vietnam, lo que crea una limitación en cuanto a la naturaleza transcultural del estudio y el contexto económico. Así pues, el estudio debería realizarse en diferentes culturas y economías (tanto de países en desarrollo como desarrollados) para aumentar la posibilidad de generalización en las relaciones entre consumidores y marcas.

Los gerentes de marca deberían hacer más publicidad en las comunidades de marcas para aumentar la influencia de la SNI y hacer hincapié en las características singulares de las marcas, a fin de atraer a los consumidores mediante la superposición de la autoestima.

Las conclusiones pueden contribuir a mejorar la identidad de una marca única, y la automotivación aumentará la lealtad de los consumidores, incrementando los ingresos de una marca específica. Además, como los pares aceptables contribuyen a la toma de decisiones de compra, el impulso de la comunidad de marcas mantendrá a los consumidores actuales y atraerá a otros consumidores potenciales de las relaciones de consumo actuales.

Este estudio contribuye a la psicología del consumidor al indicar que tanto la SNI como la autoestima son los mediadores en la relación entre el amor y la lealtad a la marca y la forma en que se puede habilitar la relación consumidor-marca.

摘要

本文有三方面的研究目的。第一，明确自尊（SE）和易受规范影响（SNI）在品牌喜爱与品牌忠诚关系中的调节作用。第二，建立品牌喜爱的中介作用模型，并概述SE和SNI如何影响消费者与品牌的关系。最后，探讨品牌喜爱对品牌忠诚度的影响：自尊和社会影响因素的调节作用，目前有关这方面的文献还比较缺乏。

通过在线调查收集数据，共收到218份答复。采用结构方程模型进行预测研究模型。

研究结果表明，自尊和易受规范影响都对品牌喜爱和品牌忠诚度之间的关系起到了调节作用。此外，消费者对焦点品牌的喜爱与自尊和易受规范影响具有正相关关系。反过来，自尊和易受规范影响又会导致品牌忠诚。自尊和易受规范影响的紧密关系影响了品牌喜爱和品牌忠诚之间的联系。

由于本次研究数据是在越南收集的，造成了研究的跨文化性质和经济背景的局限性。因此，未来的研究可以在不同的文化和经济体（包括发展中国家和发达国家）进行，以提高关于消费者与品牌关系结论的普遍性。

品牌管理者可以在品牌社区中增强广告宣传，提高易受规范影响的影响力，同时强调品牌的独特性，与自尊因素相结合来吸引消费者。

本文研究结果有助于增强独特的品牌识别和自我激励，提高消费者的忠诚度，增加特定品牌的收入。此外，由于合适的同伴有助于消费者做出购买决策，提升品牌社区可以维持现有消费者，并通过现有消费者关系吸引更多的潜在消费者。

本研究提出了自尊和易受规范影响是品牌喜爱和品牌忠诚关系的调节变量，并且进一步阐释了它们如何促成消费者与品牌的关系，从而为消费者心理学做出了贡献。

The purpose of this study is to examine the roles that social cues play in affecting patronage behavior and how consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence would moderate the influence of social cues on store image.

A two (high vs low socially‐oriented in‐store graphics) by two (high vs low personalized customer service) between subject experimental design was conducted to achieve the research objective. A total of 193 surveys were used for data analysis.

Consumers had a more favorable attitude toward merchandise and service quality and felt more aroused or pleased with a store where more social cues were present. They also had a more favorable perception of store image when high‐personalized service was provided. Consumers perceived that they would be more likely to shop in a store that had more in‐store displays of graphics with social meaning. Consumer susceptibility to informational influence (SII) played a moderating role in some cases.

Retail service needs to be reinvented to create excitement. Consumers may use social cues embedded in the store environment as an information source. Sales skills of staff and in‐store graphics should be especially appealing to low‐SII customer.

This study has added to the retail literature by demonstrating that the social cues in store environment can affect consumers' perception of store image and patronage intention. It provides interesting insights on how retailers can use a socially meaningful environment as a source of competitive advantage.

This study aims to examine the relationship between social influence and consumers’ self-expression through brands. It considers susceptibility to interpersonal influence and social network influence on self-expressive brands and brand tribalism. The study examines whether self-expressive brands and brand tribalism influence brand loyalty and word of mouth (WOM).

A cross-sectional online survey was carried out with members of Generation Y in Ireland. Data from 675 complete responses were analysed using SPSS 20 and AMOS 20. A structural model tested nine hypothesised relationships.

Findings indicate that both online social network influence and susceptibility to interpersonal influence are antecedents of tribalism and self-expressive brands. Consumers of self-expressive brands are loyal and offer positive WOM. By contrast, those who seek tribal membership have less brand loyalty and offer less WOM than other consumers. Findings suggest that consumers may be loyal to tribes, rather than to brands. This informs our understanding of the role of tribes for consumers and brand outcomes.

This study is limited to Generation Y consumers within Ireland.

This is the first study to explore the effect of consumers’ perceptions about online social network influence on brand tribalism. In addition, their views about the influence of the social network on self-expressive brand consumption, and brand outcomes, are identified. This paper highlights consumers’ susceptibility to interpersonal influence on their brand choices and brand tribalism. In addition, it is shown that brand loyalty and WOM are not always a consequence of tribal membership. By contrast, self-expressive brand consumption enhances brand WOM and brand loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to test and validate a modified Stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model with the bi-dimensional attitude toward counterfeit apparel products. The study examines the relationship of object and social psychological stimuli with utilitarian and hedonic attitude and intentions to purchase counterfeit apparel products.

The authors collected data from 331 systematically selected university students of the age bracket (18–30) years from Punjab, Pakistan (MLE) via self-administrated questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation via AMOS 23 was used for data analysis.

The modified S-O-R model explained significant variance in counterfeit purchase intentions. Hedonic attitude proved to be a strong predictor of counterfeit apparel purchase intentions as compared to utilitarian attitude. All attributes of counterfeit apparel products proved to be the significant positive predictors of hedonic and utilitarian attitude except information susceptibility, which did not predict utilitarian attitude.

Data were collected from university students of the age bracket (18–30) years and apparel products were taken as a product category.

The retailers and manufacturers of original brands should emphasize humiliation and embarrassment that a consumer may have to face because of counterfeit purchasing. They can also educate consumers on the negative impacts of the counterfeit products not only on consumers but also on the economy as a whole.

S-O-R model was adapted to provide strong theoretical underpinnings to understand counterfeit consumption behavior. This study also incorporated two dimensions of attitude in counterfeit product consumption behavior and analyzed their relative influence on purchase intentions.

Consumer purchasing behaviour has changed substantially in the light of recent developments in E-commerce. So-called “multichannel customers” tend to switch retail channels during the purchasing process. In order to address changing consumer behaviour, multichannel fashion retailing companies must continue to learn how to provide excellent service to such customers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the interpretation of multichannel service quality by explaining it from the perspective of the so-called “multichannel customers”.

Drawing on social influence theory, this paper aims to investigate these issues from the perspective of multichannel customers. In contrast with dualist and objectivist studies, this paper uses a constructivist epistemology and ethnographic methodology. Such an approach is associated with an interpretivist ontological worldview, which postulates the existence of “multiple realities”. The sample size for this research consisted of 34 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups comprising 10 focus group participants.

The data analysis fundamentally found that multichannel customers tended to continually adjust choices regarding retailer and retail ckhannel when making purchases. The perspective of this paper is different from mainstream positivist service quality research which sees service quality as static, objectively measurable and dualistic. As an alternative, this paper acknowledges service quality as a dynamic, subjective and pluralistic phenomenon.

This paper contributes to the interpretation of multichannel service quality with a new concept that explains the phenomenon from the perspective of customers and thus considers it necessary for multichannel retailers to adopt strategies relating to customers’ changing behaviour.

Synthesizing the unique Confucian cultural values and the common characteristics of emerging markets, the purpose of this paper is to examine how face drives consumers’ attitudes toward global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) as well as the moderating roles of social aggrandizement and susceptibility to normative influence (SNI).

The authors adopt the total effect moderation model to test the hypotheses using data collected from China.

The results show that face positively affects consumers’ attitudes toward GCCP through enhancing their pursuit for global myth. In addition, social aggrandizement positively moderates the influence of face on pursuit for global myth. SNI positively moderates the influence of pursuit for global myth on attitudes toward GCCP.

The findings of this study highlight the need to utilize local powers to promote brands globally and provide guidelines for “Think Globally, Act Locally” in Confucian societies.

This study represents an important step in the global branding literature regarding the advancement of culturally driven attitudes toward GCCP by taking root in the Confucian culture.

Previous studies on social influence and virtual product adoption have mainly taken users’ purchase behavior as a dichotomous variable (i.e. purchasing or not). Given the prevalence of competing versions (basic vs upgraded) of a virtual product in online communities, this paper investigated the differences in the effect of social influence on users’ adoption of basic and upgraded choices of a virtual product. It also examined how the effect varies with users’ social status and user-level network density.

A natural experiment was conducted in an online game community. Two competing versions (basic vs upgraded) of a virtual product were provided for in-game purchase while a random set of users selected from 897,765 players received the notification of their friends’ adoption information. A competing-risk model was used to test the hypotheses.

Social influence exerts a stronger positive effect on users’ adoption of the upgraded virtual product than of the basic virtual product. Middle-status users have the greatest (least) susceptibility to social influence in adopting the upgraded (basic) virtual product than low- and high-status users. User’s network density enhances the effect of social influence on adoption of both virtual products, even more for the upgraded one.

This research contributes to the social influence and product adoption literature by disentangling the different effects of social influence on basic and upgraded versions of a virtual product. It also identifies the boundary conditions that social influence works for each version of the virtual product.

Although India is home to the world’s largest millennial population, so far, hardly any studies exist that explain the key drivers leading to the luxury goods consumption among this generational cohort. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop and empirically test the conceptual framework designed to measure the relationship between luxury value perceptions and purchase intentions among the young Indian luxury consumers, and, second, to examine the moderating effect of gender in the relationship between luxury value perceptions and purchase intentions.

A purposive sampling technique was employed to collect the data from young luxury fashion consumers. Statistical tests including confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group analysis and structural equation modeling were applied for data analysis.

The findings show that the conspicuous value is the most significant determinant of luxury purchase intention followed by the experiential value, susceptibility to normative influence and utilitarian value. The uniqueness value was found to have weak relationship with purchase intention. Furthermore, results revealed that the relationship between the luxury values and the luxury buying intentions does not vary significantly between male and female.

This is one of the first studies that provides meaningful insights to the academicians and marketing practitioners about why millennials buy luxury fashion brands in emerging markets like India.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differential influences of economic nationalism (EN) and cosmopolitanism (COS) on consumer behaviour, and how the two concepts are underpinned by different (normative versus informational) interpersonal influences.

Surveys took place in two countries, South Korea (n = 257) and Taiwan (n = 258). Both are rapidly developing economies with a cosmopolitan consumer base. Two products, one representing conspicuous and one representing non-conspicuous categories, were used in each country’s survey. The data were subjected to exploratory and confirmation factor analyses and fitted using structural equation modelling.

Contrary to past studies, EN and COS were unrelated. Economic nationalism was strong and biased towards domestic products. The results also suggest that COS may be related to bias against domestic products. EN related strongly to normative influence, whereas COS rested on informational influence. The results were similar across the countries and the product types.

Economic nationalism and COS may coexist as consumer dispositions and their relative salience may vary across individuals. Foreign firms should not overlook consumers’ nationalistic sentiment, just as domestic firms may capitalise on it. Both foreign and domestic firms can capitalise on consumer nationalism by highlighting benefits such as domestic employment and wealth creation.

EN and COS may coexist as consumer dispositions, and their relative salience may vary across individuals. When managing their brand portfolio, foreign firms would benefit from considering consumers’ nationalistic sentiment, just as domestic firms may capitalise on it. Both foreign and domestic firms can capitalise on consumer nationalism by highlighting social benefits such as domestic employment and wealth creation.

This study brings research on EN and COS from a macro/country level to a micro/individual level. It provides theoretical and empirical insights on the differential influences of EN and COS on consumer behaviour and sheds light on their psychological underpinnings.

Because of its omission of social influences, conventional animosity research has failed to sufficiently consider consumption context. To address this limitation, this research constitutes two interrelated parts: (a) investigating how normative influences (value-expressive and utilitarian influences) shape consumers’ animosity attitudes and purchase intentions; and (b) building on the normative influence perspective and separating consumption context into purchase (online vs. offline) and usage (private vs. public) contexts. The goal was to examine under the condition of preference conflict, how consumption contexts with different degrees of behavioral exposure affect purchase decisions.

One pretest, one survey and one experiment were conducted to empirically validate the proposed research model.

In an international crisis, consumers’ attitudes and behaviors were socially determined. Moreover, the online purchase with private usage (offline purchase with public usage) condition resulted in the highest (lowest) level of purchase intention.

This research pioneers in the animosity literature to identify the possibility of preference conflict in a situational international crisis, and to more delicately separate the conventional consumption context into purchase and usage contexts.

Based on the theory of social identity mechanism, this study aimed to investigate the associations with millennial consumers' need for uniqueness (NFU), susceptibility to peer influence (SPI) and attitudes towards luxury brands (ALB) under the cross-cultural context. The mediating effect of fashion innovativeness (FI) and the moderating effect of culture were examined.

The data for this study were collected through a survey from 217 millennials in Shanghai and 268 millennials in Tokyo. Moderation analysis and mediation analysis using Hayes PROCESS macro were applied to test proposed hypotheses.

Results show that NFU and SPI have a significantly positive effect on millennials' ALB, and fashion innovativeness plays a mediating role in this process. Furthermore, the positive impact of NFU on millennials' ALB for relatively individualistic cities (Shanghai) is stronger than for relatively collectivist cities (Tokyo). The positive impact of susceptibility to informative influence (SII) on millennials' ALB for Tokyo is stronger than for Shanghai.

The research results suggest how different cultures can support marketers in effectively carrying out their business strategy.

Under the cross-cultural background, the social identity mechanism behind the attitudes of millennials towards luxury brands has been widely recognised. However, little is known about how culture could moderate the social identity mechanism behind millennials' ALB. By analysing these mechanisms, this study compares the cultures of Shanghai and Tokyo and expands the previous research achievements.

The purpose of this paper is to further our understanding of the sources of consumer animosity and the moderating role of product involvement on purchase intentions.

Animosity is examined in the context of South Korean consumers’ purchase intentions toward Japanese products. A structural equation model was estimated in Lisrel 8.80 to assess the proposed model.

The results offer evidence that consumer ethnocentrism and susceptibility to normative influence have a positive relationship with animosity while cosmopolitanism has a negative relationship with animosity. Furthermore, animosity negatively influences intentions to purchase for high-involvement products, but not for low-involvement products.

International marketing managers can better identify the risk that consumer animosity poses to their products and services based on level of product involvement and characteristics of the market segment.

This study offers clarity to the understanding of animosity by examining additional antecedents of animosity that reflect different world views. It also provides an exception to the previous findings that in general animosity has a negative impact on consumers’ willingness to buy products of countries for which consumers have animosity. In other words, the effect of animosity on purchase intention of products from a disliked country depends on the degree of involvement.

This study investigates drivers and dynamics of preferences for brand prominence among the Chinese little emperors (LEs) residing in the US, a unique but powerful consumer group with dual-cultural characteristics.

Using an online survey, the proposed model was tested with a convenience sample of the Chinese LE generation residing in the US

Susceptibility to normative influence was a significant cultural driver of conspicuous, social, and unique value perceptions of luxury consumption among the Chinese LE generation residing in the US Perceived conspicuous and social values of luxury consumption were the primary drivers of this group's brand prominence preference for luxury fashion bags. However, perceived unique value of luxury consumption did not necessarily lead these consumers to prefer prominent logos or marks on a luxury bag. Furthermore, sociodemographic factors (gender, age, and time lived in the US) significantly affected perceptions and preferences related to luxury consumption among this consumer group.

This study advances the luxury literature by examining the drivers and dynamics of brand prominence preference among the Chinese LE generation residing in the US By testing the role of different sociodemographic factors, we demonstrate heterogeneity within this group and the evolving nature of their perceptions and preferences related to luxury consumption as they are acculturated to Western culture. We used a convenient sample and focused on luxury fashion bags for measuring preference for brand prominence, limiting the generalizability of the findings.

Luxury brands should effectively convey conspicuous and social values in product designs, advertising and promotions as these values play integral roles in determining the Chinese LE generation's preference for brand prominence. Our findings also highlight the importance of fine-tuned approaches to different segments within the LE generation cohort.

This study fills several gaps in the luxury literature by empirically investigating various factors affecting preference for brand prominence among the Chinese LE generation residing in the US, an important but under-researched luxury segment.

This study aims to examine how culture influences consumer attitudes toward the brands of products they own during a product-harm crisis. To this end, average consumers from two countries - the USA, representing a highly individualistic society and China, a less individualistic (i.e. collectivist) society – are compared.

The study conducts an invariance test of the measurement model for a more rigorous comparison of the two countries. Structural equation modeling is performed to identify how average consumers respond to a product-harm crisis (e.g. iPhone explosion) based on survey results of 188 American and 197 Chinese consumers.

These results reveal that in both countries, an individual’s susceptibility to a normative interpersonal influence determines their brand consciousness, which, in turn, enhances consumer attachment to well-known brands, resulting in favorable brand attitudes. During a brand crisis, an owned brand’s buffering effect is observed among consumers high in brand consciousness in collectivistic but not in individualistic societies. The moderating role of feelings of betrayal on the brand attachment-consumer attitude relationship is also reported.

Culture shapes consumer behavioral patterns. In today’s global market, a company’s decisions are no longer limited by borders and many companies experience product failures. Thus, findings that show consumers’ distinguishable psychological experiences between different cultures contribute to crisis management literature.

This paper conducts a meta-analytic review of literature focused on the salient socio-psychological and personality antecedents of luxury purchase intention. It investigates the role of moderators that can assist an effective market segmentation of the luxury market in both emerging and developed economies.

The final analysis includes 95 effect sizes from 42 studies conducted in 15 countries, spanning 5 continents, from 2000 to 2020. The review examined moderating role of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, market type (emerging vs developed) and other study characteristics.

Findings show that socio-psychological antecedents had a more salient role than personality antecedents in driving luxury purchase intention (LPI), across both emerging and developed markets. Normative influence, status consumption and materialism exhibited a stronger influence on LPI in emerging markets than developed markets. Further, stronger effects for normative influence and status consumption on LPI were found in high power distance cultures. The role of seeking uniqueness was more salient and the role of normative influence was less salient in studies with a higher percentage of females. Conspicuous consumption was a stronger driver of LPI for fashion luxury products than other luxury products. The study also proposes distinct definitions of status and conspicuous consumption as there is often theoretical overlap of these constructs in literature.

A meta-analytic review may leave blind-spots due to lack of sufficient number of studies investigating certain theoretically relevant moderators. The authors discuss these gaps, along with study limitations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has conducted a meta-analytic review of the antecedents and moderators of LPI. With the extension of luxury demand beyond the developed countries in the West to the “new rich” consumers in the East, it becomes imperative to conduct a meta-analysis for a richer understanding of the drivers of luxury demand across different cultural orientations and market segmentations.

The purpose of the present research is to explore the (multi-) dimensionality of the highly influential gain, hedonic and normative master goals. Despite being important drivers of consumer behavior, few attempts have been made to incorporate these goals into a single measure.

Across three studies, the dimensionality of the gain, hedonic, and normative master goals are explored (Study 1), confirmed (Study 2) and validated (Study 3).

A structure of five distinct sub-goals emerged, which were shown to be related to the original higher-order goals: thrift and safety (related to the gain goal), moral and social norms (related to the normative goal) and instant gratification (related to the hedonic goal). These five dimensions were shown to have satisfactory convergent, discriminant and construct validity.

The present research shows that consumer motivation is multi-dimensional, and that a distinction should be made not only between higher-order utilitarian, hedonic and normative determinants but also between their corresponding sub-goals, such as social and moral norms. A multi-dimensional approach to consumer motivation should prove useful in standard marketing research, as well as in the segmentation of consumer groups, products and settings.

The emergent dimensions encompass a broad range of research, from economics and marketing, to social and environmental psychology, providing consumer researchers and practitioners alike a more nuanced and psychologically accurate view on consumer motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of consumer animosity on conspicuous consumption in two research settings: Israel and Russia. The study also examines: the relationship between susceptibility to norm influence (SNI) and consumer animosity, whether SNI affects consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) products from a country toward which they harbor animosity, and the relationship between consumer animosity and WTB in contexts differing in the level of animosity harbored toward a target country.

To probe generalizability, the hypothesized model was tested in two different contexts: Study 1 was conducted in Israel using the context of the Holocaust and Study 2 was conducted in Russia using the context of the recent political discord with the USA. A convenience sample of Israeli-Jewish (n=264) and Russian (n=259) consumers yielded a total of 523 questionnaires.

In both contexts, the results from the SPSS and AMOS analyses indicated a negative and significant relationship between consumer animosity and conspicuous consumption. Moreover, SNI was positively associated with consumer animosity. Finally, the study findings point to a negative association between consumer animosity and WTB, regardless of the level of animosity.

The research findings suggest that consumer animosity may be a stronger predictor for the consumption of conspicuous products than for the consumption of necessity goods.

In the context of ongoing Israel-Palestine war, this study aims to explore whether consumer animosity (CA) influences individuals’ reluctance to purchase brands contributing towards the hostile nation. Furthermore, it investigates the mediating effects of product judgement (PJ), boycott motivation (BM) and boycott participation (BP) in this relationship. It also examines the moderating roles of susceptibility to subjective norms (SSN) and switching barriers (SB) in shaping their relationships with purchase aversion (PA).

Using existing validated scales, the authors designed and administered an online survey to collect 589 responses from India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Using Smart PLS 4.0, the authors tested the hypothesized direct and indirect (mediated-moderated) relationships.

The findings reveal that in India, CA towards certain brands leads to negative evaluations, BM and BP. In GCC countries, it positively influences BM and BP. In general, SB subsides the influence of BM, PJ and BP on PA; however, SB has no moderating effects at all in the study.

Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour, this paper offers novel insights into mediating and moderating roles of selected variables, namely, PJ, BM, BP, SSN and SB, in the direct relationship of CA and PA.

This paper aims to explore how motivations to stand out and fit in through consumption affect consumers’ perceptions of subcultural and popular brand coolness. Importantly, how do perceptions of brand coolness affect consumers’ formations of hot, emotional brand attachments and their willingness to pay more?

This study incorporates survey data from consumers regarding cool brands. A structural equation modeling approach is used to assess the relationship between the variables of interest.

Susceptibility to influence is positively related to desire for unique consumption. While this desire may be fulfilled by both subcultural and popular perceptions of brand coolness, only subcultural coolness has a positive relationship with the willingness to pay more. The importance of an emotional brand attachment is established between both dimensions of brand coolness and price premiums.

This study is based on cross-sectional survey data. As brand coolness is often transitory, longitudinal research on trends focusing on different elements of brand coolness may shed light on the cool brand lifecycle.

Firms wanting to position brands as cool should emphasize how the brand can help consumers stand out. If a cool brand is already well-known, resources should be allocated to building hot, emotional attachments to command price premiums.

This research contributes to a nascent body of literature empirically exploring brand coolness. It builds on past literature that notes the tension between standing out and fitting in conceptualizations of coolness by assessing individual differences. Significantly, it examines specific attributes of cool brands to explore the differences in how subcultural and popular perceptions of brand coolness relate to important marketing outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework which provides both practical and theoretical insights into drivers of consumer use of social network sites (SNSs) as an electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) tool and its impact on brand image (BI) and purchase intention (PI).

For assessment of the research constructs, the measures proposed in the social psychology and marketing literature were adapted. These scales were examined for the face validity by the authors’ academic colleagues. Using the survey data collected from the students of the Islamic Azad University, these scales were further examined in terms of convergent and discriminant validity as well as reliability. Structural equation modelling technique was used to test the effect of eWOM antecedents on consumer eWOM intention and the eWOM impact on BI and consumer PI.

The results confirmed significance of the constructs consumer trust, informational influence, sense of belonging, altruism, moral obligation, and knowledge self-efficacy for consumer engagement in eWOM. The results further indicated that eWOM, in turn, played a significant role in shaping BI in the mind of consumers and their PI.

Obviously, university students do not exactly represent the whole population of SNSs members. The eWOM intention can be investigated across generations in terms of intergenerational differences. The authors admit that in addition to the constructs used in this study there are other equally important constructs that can be adapted from relevant fields (e.g. psychology) as the eWOM antecedents. As for eWOM consequences, different aspects of brand equity could be additionally explored and investigated.

The results of this study would help marketing department of companies and advertising agencies make advertisements in accordance with consumer characteristics. The results would also benefit providers of online platforms by giving them insight into behaviour of their members. Finally, the finding that eWOM intention is likely to create PI among consumers is of particular interest to producers of goods.

Given its bidimensional perspective to eWOM behaviour (i.e. considering both antecedents and consequences of eWOM), this study provides valuable insights into the phenomenon eWOM in the context of social networks as well as a basis for further research in this field.

This study aims to present a conceptual model of how blog readers' perceptions of satisfaction generate blog loyalty, which in turn enhances bloggers' power. This study also seeks to investigate the moderating influence of subjective norms on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.

The structural equation modelling approach was used to estimate a conceptual model based on survey data from blog readers in Taiwan. After discarding incomplete responses, the final sample consisted of 567 completed responses.

The majority of the results supported the hypotheses. Three types of exchange outcome satisfaction influence blog readers' perceptions of bloggers' power by increasing attitudinal loyalty. Information satisfaction has a direct and positive effect on expert power. Most importantly subjective norms exhibited a positive moderating relationship between exchange outcome satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. The authors found no evidence to support the relationship between exchange outcome satisfaction and behavioural loyalty.

From the perspectives of exchange outcome satisfaction, loyalty, power, and susceptibility to normative influence, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the process through which blog readers become loyal to their bloggers and are influenced by bloggers' expert and referent power.

The paper examined the impact of brand-identity expressiveness and perceived brand value that was neglected in prior literature, in addition to perceived brand quality and prestige, on behavioral intention. Research also tests if certain consumer values moderate this relationship.

Mall-interception technique was used. Also, partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data and test research hypotheses.

Results indicate that perceived brand globalness (PBG) and perceived brand localness (PBL) are significantly positively associated with perceived quality and prestige. Besides, the inclusion of brand-identity expressiveness and perceived brand value was supported. PBL showed a greater association with brand identity expressiveness compared to PBG, different from previous findings. Furthermore, the total indirect effect of PBG on behavioral intentions was significant through the routes of perceived quality and prestige, compared to a weak and non-significant effect for PBL through the quality route.

This study proposes a comprehensive model testing additional pathways through which global and local brands can boost their preferences.

This study aims to investigate the role of interpersonal influence on consumer purchase decisions regarding foreign products, specifically by exploring consumers’ social reaction styles (acquisitive and protective) when confronted with normative pressures and their subsequent impact on consumers’ purchase behavior in the context of situational animosity.

Three studies were conducted in China to empirically examine the proposed research model. The US–China Chip War of 2022 was used as the research context for situational animosity, while the Japan–China relationship representing a stable animosity condition was used for contrast.

This study establishes the mediating role of perceived normative pressure in linking animosity attitudes to purchase avoidance in situational animosity. It also validates that consumers’ social reaction styles (acquisitive and protective) help predict distinct behavioral outcomes, holding significant implications for advancing research in the field of product and brand consumption.

This research provides a novel perspective by exploring consumers’ social reaction styles when dealing with normative pressure in situational animosity. The distinction between acquisitive and protective reaction styles adds depth and originality to the study. Moreover, this study examines consumer behavior in two distinct consumption contexts: switching intentions to local products and purchase intentions for products from offending countries in hidden consumption situations. This dual perspective offers a comprehensive exploration of consumers’ purchase behavior under normative pressure, contributing to the novelty of this research.

Previous research on luxury consumption has focused on conspicuous consumption; however, research on consumers' self-conceptual mechanism in inconspicuous luxury consumption context is scarce. The present study aims to investigate various self-concepts and their mechanisms for inconspicuous and conspicuous luxury consumption.

An experiment with 215 participants from online survey website was conducted, and the hypotheses were tested using PROCESS Macro 3.4.

The study findings are as follows. Materialistic consumers' preference between inconspicuous and conspicuous luxury products is dependent on distinctive self-conceptual mechanism. More specifically, materialistic consumers with independent self-construal prefer inconspicuous luxury brands because of high need for uniqueness, whereas non-materialistic consumers with interdependent self-construal prefer conspicuous luxury products because of high self-monitoring.

The present study uniquely shows conditions (moderated mediation) that the link between need for uniqueness (self-monitoring) and luxury consumption is stronger for those with independent (interdependent) self-construal than for those with interdependent (independent) self-construal. The present results extend and help better understanding of mechanisms and conditions of conspicuous and inconspicuous luxury consumption.

Marketers are advised to design and produce unique vs popular luxury brands depending on consumer's motives and different self-concepts.

This research contributes to extant literature by distinguishing between conspicuous and inconspicuous luxury consumption with two different mechanisms (need for uniqueness and self-monitoring). The present study further demonstrates that the two mechanisms are strongly sustained differently depending on consumer's levels of self-construal.

In the controlled environment of a professional business seminar, the paper collects data on the willingness of participants to strategically default on a mortgage that is underwater by varying degrees. By providing the participants with fabricated exogenous strong and weak information signals, the paper is able to examine the effect of the signals on their responses. The purpose of this paper is to find evidence suggesting that gender, moral opposition, level of susceptibility to information, and information signal strength influence herding in business professionals.

The paper adopts the Hirshleifer and Hong Teoh (2003) definition of herding as “any behavior similarity/dissimilarity brought about by the interaction of individuals.” In the controlled environment of a professional business seminar, the paper collects data on the willingness of participants to strategically default on a mortgage that is underwater by varying degrees. By providing the participants with fabricated exogenous strong and weak information signals, the paper is able to examine the effect of the signals on their responses.

The major contribution is that the paper finds evidence suggesting that signal strength does indeed matter. The paper finds that a weak signal is more likely to produce herding when respondents answer questions relating their own decisions and strong signals produce more herding when respondents provide advice to others. The paper also finds that women are less likely to herd and people who report they are susceptible to information influences are more likely to herd. Not surprisingly, participants who are morally opposed to strategic default are less likely to herd in most scenarios.

No other study of which the authors are aware looks specifically at signal strength in a financial setting or uses a sample of business professionals to examine herding of a financial nature.

The study addresses gaps in sustainable luxury consumption research by analyzing the role of social norms in different cultural settings. It investigates how social norms, self-control, conspicuousness and future orientation shape sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic (UK) versus collectivist (China) national cultures.

The study was based on survey data from British and Chinese luxury product consumers collected through online panels. The final sample included 452 valid responses from the UK and 414 from China. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The study found that descriptive norms positively influence sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic (UK) and collectivist (China) cultures. Injunctive norms affect sustainable consumption only in the UK. Future consequences universally impact sustainable consumption. Conspicuous consumption negatively affects preferences for sustainable luxury brands. Self-control enhances the impact of descriptive norms in the UK but reduces the impact of injunctive norms in China.

This study uniquely explores how social norms and cultural influences impact sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic and collectivistic societies. It highlights the moderating role of national culture, providing actionable insights for luxury brands to enhance sustainable consumption with culturally tailored strategies. The research challenges the universality of the theory of normative social behavior, advocating for its refined application across different cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how the mere presence of other customers in a service encounter influences customers' evaluations of restaurant services.

Phenomenological interviews were used to reveal the dimensions of other customers and to develop hypotheses on the moderating variables that influence the effect of other customers. A scenario‐based experiment was used to test the hypotheses.

The analysis reveals that “other customers” is a multidimensional construct consisting of number, age, gender, appearance, attire, and public behavior. Also, the importance of each dimension varies according to situational variables such as evaluation stages (pre‐ versus post‐encounter stages), the context of a visit (task‐ versus recreational‐orientations), and the quality‐related risks (high versus low).

The study provides a rationale for service providers to strategically manage their customers. It also gives guidelines of how customers should be “managed”.

The present study is meaningful in the sense that it is one of the first empirical studies which concentrated on the passive role (mere presence) of other customers in a service encounter. The dimensions of other customers and the moderating variables revealed are expected to stimulate further research in the area.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the nature of emotion, self-esteem and life satisfaction tendencies amongst Iranian Muslim consumers when making impulse purchases.

Questionnaires were distributed amongst female Muslim participants at a shopping centre in Yazd, Iran – each of which were selected using cluster and random sampling methods. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling techniques, where LISREL software was used to measure the direct and indirect relationships between variables.

Within the sample, there was a direct causal relationship between impulse buying tendencies, impulse buying behaviour and purchasing. Second, there was a negative relationship between self-esteem and life-satisfaction within impulse buying tendencies. Finally, a positive relationship exists between emotion and impulse buying tendencies, which elicits impulse buying behaviour culminating in purchases. Emotion drives these consumers towards dissonance-reducing behaviour, which mediates low self-esteem and life satisfaction – through consumerism as a form of retail therapy. Some of the items purchased on impulse, that fulfilled this role, were hijabs (headscarves) and mantos (a type of tunic/shirt-dress/coat common in Iran).

The hijab is worn by Muslim females across the globe. However, the manto is an item of clothing worn almost exclusively by Iranian females. Therefore, it is likely that Muslim females in different geographies may exhibit similar behavioural traits, but their consumption patterns would substitute this item with a different one, such as an abaya or jilbab, for example.

Whilst the notion of retail therapy is widely understood, the novel contribution of this study lies in highlighting that the purchase of clothing such as hijabs and mantos by Iranian Muslim females is not just driven by rational and emotional decision-making seeking to fulfil religious obligations. There are cases where these religious artefacts are used to raise feelings of self-esteem and life satisfaction within the same individuals.

Market researchers often treat Asian consumers as a single entity and compare them with their Western counterparts. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast consumers in two Asian countries, Thailand and Turkey. Since global and local brands co‐exist in many regions of the world today, this study, by examining two Asian cultures, examines the impact of personality traits and values on individuals' intentions to purchase global versus local brands. The authors also investigate the role of priming (local versus global cues) in the relationship between these individual traits and purchase intentions.

The study involves a series of pretests and an experiment conducted among 240 participants from Thailand and 142 participants from Turkey. Though exploratory in nature, content analysis also suggests interesting avenues for future research.

The findings suggest that although both societies are perceived as traditional and collective, consumers from both Thai and Turkish cultures exhibit some striking differences. There were differences in the ways in which individual traits and values impacted global vs local brand purchase intentions. For instance, while it was discovered that traditionalism and susceptibility were important among Thai individuals, ethnocentrism and materialism were at similar levels in both samples. Traditionalism had an important effect on intentions to purchase local brands in Thailand, while it did not have a very meaningful impact among Turks. Similarly, in Thailand, susceptibility affected global brand purchase intentions. However, a similar pattern was not seen among Turks.

The research is valuable in understanding that two seemingly similar Asian cultures (Thailand and Turkey) are – in effect – dissimilar on key variables such as traditionalism and ethnocentrism and that impacts how these two cultures perceive global and local brands. As marketers aim to satisfy consumer's needs by offering goods and services, it is extremely important to understand consumers' evaluations of these brands and how these perceptions are formed in the first place. Such an understanding will help marketers in their positioning strategies as well as marketing communications design.

This study aims to propose and test a parsimonious framework for self-congruity, albeit in the context of luxury branding. This paper is the first to propose an integrated model focusing on the drivers and consequences of self-congruity. The model is further applied to explain how self-congruity may motivate future experiences with the luxury brand, mainly by influencing self-perception. Although a substantive marketing literature on self-congruity currently exists, there is a lack of an integrated framework, a gap that the current work addresses.

A paper and pencil survey was conducted among female subjects only, and structural path relationships were tested using AMOS.

Consumers’ self-congruity with a luxury brand (non-luxury brand) is positively (negatively) influenced by its antecedents: social desirability, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Self-congruity with a luxury (non-luxury) brand is found to enhance (undermine) consumers’ self-perceptions. This, in turn, is found to have a stronger (weaker) positive impact on consumers’ motivation to re-use a shopping bag from luxury brand (non-luxury brand) for hedonic purpose. Mediation analyses show that self-congruity has a positive (negative) indirect effect on hedonic use via self-perception for luxury (non-luxury) brand.

Future studies may involve actual shoppers, causal design and additional variables like “utilitarian usage “of shopping bags to extend the proposed framework.

A better understanding of the findings has implications for brand positioning, advertising and packaging.

Till date, no research has examined a parsimonious model for self-congruity complete with its antecedents and consequences and tested it in the context of a luxury versus non-luxury brand.