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To investigate the psychological mechanism of observational learning in the online retailing context, the purpose of this paper is to show how the psychological distance between consumers and products affects modes of observational learning.

Five experimental studies are conducted to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that which modes of observational learning are adopted by consumers is affected by consumers’ psychological distance. Specifically, when the psychological distance between consumers and products is proximal, consumers tend to adopt the termed adequate observational learning mode by considering the interaction of information about popularity and the breadth of appeal of a product to make purchase. However, when the psychological distance is distal, consumers would consider information of popularity and breadth of appeal separately without considering the interaction, termed as inadequate observational learning mode. The observed relationship between psychological distance and observational learning mode could be explained by the construal level.

This research advances the observational learning and psychological distance literature by investigating the psychological mechanism behind observational learning modes. Limitations include the use of scenario-based experiments to test the hypotheses, investigation of a single product attribute (i.e. breadth of appeal) and assessment of popularity information by sales volume alone.

The current research provides a deeper understanding of consumer observational learning modes, which can help online retailers to develop effective product strategies and marketing tactics and, finally, achieve stronger competitive positions.

The present research contributes to the literature by examining the psychological mechanism involved in observational learning. This research distinguishes adequate and inadequate observational learning modes from the perspective of psychological distance.

In the digital age, enterprise social media (ESM) use is becoming more prevalent in the workplace. The “group” function is a very important part in the use of ESM. This paper explores how the characteristics of employees' task requirements affect their group participation behaviors on the ESM.

Based on information processing theory, the authors establish a two-stage research model to explore the impact of task characteristics on employees' online group participation behavior in the context of ESM. Data were collected using a survey of 341 Chinese employees.

The results indicate that (1) task interdependence was positively correlated with participation in small closed groups; (2) task complexity was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups and (3) task non-routineness was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups.

This study builds on the literature on task characteristics, information processing theory and employees' online group participation behavior, contributing to the research on ESM in the field of information systems and providing guidance for enterprise practice.

This study identifies a new type of advertising, sponsored ad forwarding, in microblog contexts. It tests the effectiveness of designs of a message with an ad with regard to receivers who are purely online friends or offline friends.

In the main experiment, a three-by-two experimental design was employed. By random assignment, message senders forwarded an ad with either an other-oriented or a self-oriented message to a group of offline friends or purely online friends. In the control group, there was no message accompanying the ad. The data of 218 effective sender-receiver dyads were collected and compared.

The results show that a message with an other-oriented appeal is more effective than one with a self-oriented appeal for dyads with an offline relationship, and a message with a self-oriented appeal is more effective than one with an other-oriented appeal for dyads with a purely online relationship. Overall, the use of appeals significantly boosts ad effectiveness.

This study identifies a new type of marketing practice in social media, namely sponsored ad forwarding. It also proposes appeal orientation as a novel type of message content design. It shows how to apply the right appeal orientation to the right receiver groups, that is, offline or purely online friends.

As e-commerce platforms and merchants increasingly adopt promotion preannouncements, understanding their spillover effects on other products within and across brands is crucial. This study aims to comprehensively investigate these spillover effects to optimize the use of promotion preannouncements.

The study uses quantitative analysis of real-world e-commerce data and four between-subjects experiments to examine the spillover effects of promotion preannouncements.

Promotion preannouncements negatively impact products within the same brand and category, while positively influencing products in different categories. Additionally, preannouncements create negative spillover effects on products within the same brand echelon. Moreover, powerful brands are more likely to harm different-echelon products compared to weak brands.

The experiment has its own limitations because there will be differences between the simulated scenario and the real shopping scenario. Considering the practical factors, randomized field experiments cannot be conducted at the e-commerce platform level.

The findings provide managerial insights on brands and merchants to arrange the preannounced products and products being sold.

This study contributes to the field of preannouncements by developing new knowledge through a combination of quantitative analysis using e-commerce data and experiments, capturing the novel phenomenon of promotion preannouncement and its spillover effects. We study the preannouncement phase of promotions, thus enriching the multistage research on promotions. In addition, this paper innovatively divides the spillover effects of promotion preannouncement into four components and uses brand echelon as a categorization factor.

Suning Group launched Suning.com when its chain stores were developing at the highest speed, realizing the transformation to an Internet retailer. Suning continued to follow the growth strategy of “Technological transformation and Smart Services”, and was renamed Suning Commerce Co. Ltd. It launched a business model of “e-commerce + stores + retail service providers”. Riding on the brand new O2O business model, Suning is thinking and practicing from simple donation to actual implementation, from constructing public welfare network to extending CSR ecosystem in a bid to advance towards deeper and more extensive Internet economy, and to create greater social value.

Discusses the 6th ITCRR, its breadth of textile and clothing research activity, plus the encouragement given to workers in this field and its related areas. States that, within the newer research areas under the microscope of the community involved, technical textiles focuses on new, ‘smart’ garments and the initiatives in this field in both the UK and the international community at large. Covers this subject at length.