Andy Wei Hao, Xin Liu, Michael Hu and Xiaoling Guo
The paper examines the cultural differences in consumers' evaluations of vertical brand extensions.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines the cultural differences in consumers' evaluations of vertical brand extensions.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (extension types: upward, downward) × 2 (nationality: USA, China) × 2 (ownership: owner, non-owner) between-subjects design with thinking styles as a covariate was employed to test consumers' evaluations of vertical brand extensions. A total of 228 subjects from the US and 194 from China participated in the two experimental studies.
Findings
The paper finds that consumers prefer downward extensions to upward extensions. Furthermore, Chinese consumers have even more favorable evaluations of downward extension products than do American consumers. In addition, analytic thinkers exhibit a stronger ownership effect than holistic thinkers.
Originality/value
The research contributes to the understanding of culture differences in vertical brand extension evaluations.
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Ying Zhu, Yong Wang, Joicey Wei and Andy Hao
Few studies illustrate how contextual effects (e.g. assimilation and contrast) in pay-per-click ad design may impact consumers' attitudes and purchase intention. To fill this…
Abstract
Purpose
Few studies illustrate how contextual effects (e.g. assimilation and contrast) in pay-per-click ad design may impact consumers' attitudes and purchase intention. To fill this research gap, the authors provide theoretical predictions and empirical evidence on how ad design may prompt an assimilation and/or a contrast effect that may influence consumers' attitudes toward the ad and the brand and purchase intention. They also investigate whether the impact of contextual effects on consumers' decisions depends on the level of vividness in the ad.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (vividness: dynamic motion vs. static page) × 2 (information design: assimilation vs. contrast) × 2 (aesthetic design: assimilation vs. contrast) between-subjects experimental design is used to examine the effects of vividness, information design and aesthetic design. Conditional process analysis is used to assess the mediating role of attitudes toward the ad and the brand in the relationship between contextual effects and purchase intention.
Findings
For dynamic ads (i.e. high vividness) but not for static ads (i.e. low vividness), combined information contrast and aesthetic contrast designs generate a more favorable attitude toward the brand and a higher purchase intention than do combined information assimilation and aesthetic assimilation designs. Notably, combined information contrast and aesthetic contrast designs have the strongest effects than any other combination of assimilation and contrast designs of information and aesthetics. Attitudes toward the ad and the brand are significant mediators between contextual factors and intention to purchase.
Research limitations/implications
The study examines the effectiveness of online ads from a new theoretical angle based on the attributes of pay-per-click ads.
Practical implications
The results suggest that when advertisers decide to use dynamic ads, they should adopt a contrast design for both the ad information and its aesthetics.
Originality/value
This study fills a research gap in the contextual effects literature, including providing evidence of an underlying process in the relationship between certain contextual effects and purchase intent. It also extends previous findings of assimilation/contrast in information design to aesthetics design and advances the literature on vividness by examining a moderation effect of vividness.
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Xiaoling (Martine) Guo, Andy Wei Hao and Xiaoyan Shang
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers' perception of brand functions in an emerging market: China. The study also aims to investigate the impact of brand functions on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers' perception of brand functions in an emerging market: China. The study also aims to investigate the impact of brand functions on brand loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
A two‐phase study was conducted. The first phase consisted of 15 personal in‐depth interviews while the structured questionnaires were used to collect data in the second stage and a total of 256 consumers participated in this study.
Findings
The study finds general support that consumer perceives both utilitarian and expressive functions of the brand. Specifically, the results of the research show that for Chinese consumers, brands accomplish various functions such as “recall of past experiences”, “quality sign” and “identify”. Moreover, “recall of past experiences” is a unique brand function for Chinese consumers and has a positive impact on brand loyalty.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to shed light on examining consumer perceptions of brand functions in the Chinese market.
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Zhen Huang, Yidan Zhu, Andy Hao and Jia Deng
This paper aims to examine the relationship between social presence and consumer purchase intention in the context of livestreaming commerce and test the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the relationship between social presence and consumer purchase intention in the context of livestreaming commerce and test the mediating role of immersive experience and the moderating role of positive emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a convenience sampling method to select 408 college students from a university in Ganzhou as the participants. They employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses, as well as Hayes' PROCESS to test the mediation and moderation effects.
Findings
The authors found that immersion experiences partially mediate the relationship between social presence and consumers' purchase intentions and positive emotions moderate the “social presence–immersion experience–consumer purchase intentions” path. Therefore, social presence constitutes a moderating mediating effect on consumer purchase intentions.
Practical implications
This study offers meaningful insights into how livestreamers and e-retailers can stimulate consumers' buying behavior in livestreaming environments. E-commerce platforms should strengthen consumer interactions and increase consumers' perceptions of social presence. In addition, companies should meet the social and psychological needs of consumers and generate positive emotional resonance.
Originality/value
This research sheds light on the effect of social presence on consumer purchase intentions in livestreaming commerce and extends the social presence literature by investigating the mediation mechanism of immersive experience.
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Martin Aruldoss, Miranda Lakshmi Travis and V. Prasanna Venkatesan
Bankruptcy is a financial failure of a business or an organization. Different kinds of bankruptcy prediction techniques are proposed to predict it. But, they are restricted as…
Abstract
Purpose
Bankruptcy is a financial failure of a business or an organization. Different kinds of bankruptcy prediction techniques are proposed to predict it. But, they are restricted as techniques in predicting the bankruptcy and not addressing the associated activities like acquiring the suitable data and delivering the results to the user after processing it. This situation demands to look for a comprehensive solution for predicting bankruptcy with intelligence. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
To model Business Intelligence (BI) solution for BP the concept of reference model is used. A Reference Model for Business Intelligence to Predict Bankruptcy (RMBIPB) is designed by applying unit operations as hierarchical structure with abstract components. The layers of RMBIPB are constructed from the hierarchical structure of the model and the components, which are part of the reference model. In this model, each layer is designed based on the functional requirements of the Business Intelligence System (BIS).
Findings
This reference model exhibits the non functional software qualities intended for the appropriate unit operations. It has flexible design in which techniques are selected with minimal effort to conduct the bankruptcy prediction. The same reference model for another domain can be implemented with different kinds of techniques for bankruptcy prediction.
Research limitations/implications
This model is designed using unit operations and the software qualities exhibited by RMBIPB are limited by unit operations. The data set which is applied in RMBIPB is limited to Indian banks.
Originality/value
A comprehensive bankruptcy prediction model using BI with customized reporting.
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Haoyang Song, Fangwei Zhu, Ole Jonny Klakegg and Peng Wang
Due to the increasing risk and uncertainty of construction projects, contractual flexibility has been considered as an effective tool to cope with emergences and to promote…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the increasing risk and uncertainty of construction projects, contractual flexibility has been considered as an effective tool to cope with emergences and to promote cooperation between owners and contractors. However, in practice, owners often failed to build an efficient cooperative relationship via contracts, resulting in a lacking of appropriate justice. Furthermore, due to a lack of available empirical research, the influence of contractual flexibility on the cooperative behavior of contractors requires further investigation. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by conducting empirical research from the perspective of justice perception.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model was developed and a series of hypotheses were proposed. Then, partial least squares structural equation modeling analyses were conducted on a sample of 188 respondents.
Findings
The results show that contractual content and executing flexibility both have a positive influence on the cooperative behavior of a contractor, which was partially mediated by distribution, procedural, and interactional justice perceptions. Moreover, content flexibility has a significant impact on all three types of justice perception, and the execution of flexibility has more impact on interactional justice compared to other justice perceptions.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to an improved understanding of how contractual flexibility affects the cooperative behavior of contractors, indicating that the owner could develop a fair exchange relationship through flexible contracting and motivation of the other party.