Catherine L. Bachleda and Asmae Bennani
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between personality and interest in the visual arts in a sample of Moroccan workers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between personality and interest in the visual arts in a sample of Moroccan workers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from 210 respondents to an online survey.
Findings
Results indicate that interest in the visual arts is associated with openness and sensation seeking, even after controlling for income and education.
Practical implications
This study suggests that to increase consumption of visual arts products or experiences, arts marketers should focus on the personality traits of openness and sensation seeking rather than the demographic variables of income and education.
Originality/value
Results extend conclusions about openness and interest in the visual arts to a non-student sample and extend the importance of sensation seeking to visual art interests as opposed to visual art preferences and art judgement. This study also represents the first empirical examination of interest in the arts in Morocco.
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Catherine Bachleda and Boutaina Berrada-Fathi
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of various sources of negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and negative personal word-of-mouth (pWOM) on trust in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of various sources of negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and negative personal word-of-mouth (pWOM) on trust in the Word-of-mouth (WOM), attitude toward the service provider and purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from 336 Moroccan workers who responded to an online survey.
Findings
Results show that negative pWOM is more influential than negative eWOM in the form of written Facebook testimonials, written review site testimonials and written testimonials on a corporate website. However, there is a relative ranking of importance among eWOM sources, with review site testimonials found to be more influential than either Facebook or corporate website testimonials.
Research limitations/implications
This work responds to a call for research on differences and similarities between pWOM and eWOM. The findings extend understanding of the relative influence of negative pWOM and negative eWOM.
Practical implications
The results of this study provide guidance to service marketers in terms of strategies for deflecting negative WOM and allocating service recovery resources.
Originality/value
This study is the first to compare the relative influence of negative pWOM and eWOM in service consumption.
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Catherine Bachleda, Nicolas Hamelin and Oumaima Benachour
– The purpose of this paper is to explore whether religiosity impacts the clothing style Moroccan Muslim women choose to wear in the public setting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether religiosity impacts the clothing style Moroccan Muslim women choose to wear in the public setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework chosen for this study was the theory of planned behaviour. Data were gathered by a questionnaire administered to 950 Muslim women located throughout in Morocco.
Findings
Results indicate that a woman’s religiosity cannot be determined simply by what she wears, with age, marital status and education found to have far greater impact on a woman’s choice of clothing than religiosity.
Practical implications
In countries where women have freedom to choose what they wear, Muslims should not be treated homogeneously, but rather as a heterogeneous segment with different social classes, different sects and different ways of expressing and experiencing their faith in daily life.
Originality/value
Currently there is limited literature that explores the relationship between religiosity and a woman’s choice of dress, outside of the hijab. Moreover, in spite of the significance of religion in the lives of many individuals, its role in consumer choice is not clear. This research provides some clarity within the context of clothing choice for Moroccan Muslim women.
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Catherine Nickerson and Anup Menon Nandialath
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of religious salience on consumer purchase intentions in the multicultural environment of the UAE, more specifically on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of religious salience on consumer purchase intentions in the multicultural environment of the UAE, more specifically on the willingness of a Muslim consumer to purchase a product labelled or packaged to include an Islamic appeal, i.e. an appeal with a heightened religious salience. While some attempts have been made in the literature to examine the impact of religious salience on purchase intentions, research amongst Muslim consumers remains under-explored.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a randomized survey experiment administered to 148 Emirati educated female nationals. The survey consisted of pairs of advertisements, where each advertisement promoted the same product and the same brand, varying on whether they included an Islamic appeal or not in the labelling, packaging or slogan. The respondents were asked about their attitude to the different versions of the advertisements, as well as their willingness to purchase the product. The authors used causal mediation analysis to explore the mechanisms through which causal effects on purchase intentions are determined.
Findings
This study shows that including an Islamic appeal, and therefore increasing the religious salience in product promotion, leads to higher purchase intentions amongst Muslim consumers. The authors also identified a number of additional moderating factors that influenced the consumer’s purchase intentions, such as product and/or brand awareness and the type of product being promoted, as well as the nature of the artefact that was included in the ad as the Islamic appeal. Finally, the causal mediation analysis suggests that Islamic appeals increases product attractiveness, which in turn leads to higher purchase intentions.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the effect of religious salience on consumer behaviour and their purchase intentions. This paper makes an empirical contribution to understanding consumer behaviour with particular relevance to retail hubs with a majority Muslim population.
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Catherine Nickerson, Effrosyni Georgiadou and Anup Menon Nandialath
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether including an Islamic appeal in a culture-neutral product advertisement has a positive effect on consumer attitudes to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether including an Islamic appeal in a culture-neutral product advertisement has a positive effect on consumer attitudes to the advertisement leading to higher purchase intentions while considering religious affiliation and religiosity as moderating factors of the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Conditional process analysis was applied to examine the mediation of the relationship between ad version and purchase intention through attitude to the advertisement as well as the moderating role of religious affiliation and religiosity among 819 consumers within the Dubai market.
Findings
The analysis in this paper revealed that including an Islamic appeal in an advertisement does not have a positive effect on attitude to the advertisement or purchase intention, neither for Muslim consumers in general nor for Muslim consumers with high levels of religiosity. Conversely, including an Islamic appeal has a significant negative effect on the purchase intentions of Christian consumers within the Dubai market, as well as on those consumers who did not state their religious affiliation.
Research limitations/implications
Marketers should reconsider the use of Islamic appeals in product advertising, especially in relation to the promotion of culture-free products within diverse expatriate populations such as that represented by the Emirate of Dubai.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the underexplored role of religious affiliation and religiosity in relationship to consumer behavior within the field of Islamic marketing in a major retail hub in the Middle East.