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The purpose of this paper is to extend earlier research on mature consumers and their internet use by examining how mature consumers' use of the internet is impacted by their nostalgia proneness, innovativeness, and risk aversion.

Data were collected using a convenience sample (n=374) of respondents who were 65 years of age or older. Several scales were used to measure the constructs of interest to the research, all of which have been used in earlier research.

Results revealed that those seniors with higher levels of nostalgia proneness used and accessed the internet less, purchased less online, had less online experience and felt less comfortable using the internet. There is also support for the impact of innovativeness on mature consumers' internet use, frequency, online purchases, experience, comfort level with the internet, and satisfaction with the internet. In terms of risk aversion, seniors with more online experience report a lower level of risk aversion to the internet than other mature consumers.

Future research needs to determine if these results can be replicated with a national random sample. Additionally, research is needed to determine what factors increase seniors' experience with the internet.

This study demonstrates that seniors are becoming an increasingly more viable segment for internet marketers.

In the growing field of electronic commerce there are various influences that can lead to online purchase decisions. An understanding of these influences can lead to greater electronic marketing effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to analyze and compare the effect of internet experience, proclivity of use, and perception of risk on the likelihood of purchasing online in three different countries.

The empirical study includes a survey‐based design in which responses to a questionnaire completed by 492 multinational consumers are analyzed in structural equations modeling using LISREL.

Results suggest a positive relationship between consumer usage and experience of the internet and the likelihood of making online purchases. There is further indication that the perceived risk of buying online has a negative effect on consumers' purchase likelihood. Moreover, perceived risk tends to partially mediate the relationships between internet usage and purchase likelihood, and between experience and purchase likelihood. Overall, results from a three‐country study indicate that extent of ongoing internet usage, long‐term experience, and perceived risk are important antecedents to purchasing goods via the internet.

In the growing field of electronic commerce there are various influences that can lead to online purchase decisions. The results suggest marketers should modify their e‐marketing strategies to address specific conditions in consumer behavior that arise at the cultural, socioeconomic, and other levels of individual countries. Differences in levels of experience in using the internet, proclivity to use the internet, and perceptions of risk regarding the internet, influence the likelihood to purchase goods online. Generally, managers should minimize the perception of risk that potential consumers feel online. Consumers in different countries process e‐commerce constructs differently, perhaps because of different rates of technology diffusion.

The first amendment, a crucial component of American constitutional law, is under attack from various groups advocating for censorship in universities and public schools. The censors assert that restrictive speech codes preventing anyone from engaging in any expression deemed hateful, offensive, defamatory, insulting, or critical of sacred religious or political beliefs and values are necessary in a multicultural society. These speech codes restrict critical comments about race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical characteristics, and other traits in the name of tolerance, sensitivity, and respect. Many hate speech codes are a violation of the first amendment and have been struck down by federal and state courts. They persist in jurisdictions where they have been ruled unconstitutional; most universities and public schools have speech codes. This assault on the first amendment might be a concern to all citizens, especially university professors and social studies educators responsible for teaching students about the democratic ideals enshrined in our constitution. Teachers should resist unconstitutional speech codes and teach their students that the purpose of the first amendment is to protect radical, offensive, critical, and controversial speech.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of relational competences, such as open-mindedness and the ability to adapt business style, in developing trustworthy relationships through communication in the export markets in different cultural contexts.

The analysis is performed on survey-based data from a sample consisting of 39.9 percent of the total population of Norwegian seafood companies involved in exporting, including 108 business relationships.

The findings reveal that adaptive business style and communication mediate the overall effect of open-mindedness on trust building between partners in the export markets. The adaptive business style fully explains the effect of open-mindedness on communication. Open-minded persons are better prepared to achieve communication on a high level because they are more likely to adapt to a new business style. Performing adaptive business style improves communication, particularly when the importer belongs to a dissimilar culture. For trust building, communication is equally important, irrespective of cultural differences.

Exporter should aim at recruiting open-minded people because they have the advantage that they are capable of performing a variety of negotiation styles and business approaches, depending on the situation.

This paper develops a model that integrates key constructs from the relational paradigm with constructs rooted in different research streams, extending our knowledge regarding salespeople competences that are important in order to develop business relationships in export markets.

This paper aims to investigate how the strength of a corporate brand influences the adoption of an innovative service, and the main components of the construct: corporate brand (CB).

A real‐world, online, information acceleration experiment was conducted where the marketing mix and competitive environment was held constant for a new service from three different CBs. Respondents indicated their likelihood of buying from each of these and their perceptions of them.

The study finds that there was a significant relationship between CB strength and respondents' likelihood of adoption of the service. The CB construct was found to comprise two factors: conative and cognitive, where the former was more influential on adoption probability.

A limited set of variables commonly associated with brands was taken to be representative of CB. Further research would be needed to more generalise the findings and more fully examine the CB construct for its components.

A competent marketing mix is not sufficient on its own to gain the adoption of an innovative service: a strong CB is influential. The emotive rather than factual associations with the CB may well be a more influential on adoption decisions.

An indication of the scale of the CB effect on innovation adoption is given. CB is indicated to have two components: emotive and factual. Those managing the potential launch of an innovative service and who may have several corporate brands to choose from to use would be aided by this research.

The purpose of this research is to show how institutional factors affect buyer–supplier relationships. Specifically, the authors examine a model of relationship quality and its antecedents across rule-based, relation-based and family-based governance environments.

A conceptual model and accompanying research hypotheses are tested on data from a survey of 169 US (rule-based), 110 Brazilian (family-based) and 100 Chinese (relation-based) managers and buyers. Structural equation modeling is used to test the relationship quality framework and the hypothesized moderation of governance environment.

Results suggest that the informal institutions which shape a nation’s governance environment impact the relationship building process between buyers and suppliers. Communication quality was found to influence relationship quality more in developed economies where relationships are protected and managed under rule-based governance. Interaction frequency was found to be more relevant in emerging market firms characterized by relation-based societies. relationship benefits are applied more to relationships in emerging markets operating under family-based governance. No differences were found across governance environments for the influence that conflict resolution has on relationship quality.

Results provide insight into how the fairness and effectiveness of political and economic institutions surrounding a buyer’s nation of operation impact “rules of the game” differently for developed and emerging market firms.

This study extends research on cross-cultural relationship marketing to more than just communications context and cultural heritage. Results demonstrate that a buyer’s quest for legitimacy impacts its sensitivity to what supplier behaviors matter the most.

The purpose of this paper is to address the aftermath of the crisis that has plagued the Spanish financial sector from a microeconomic and emotional perspective associated to financial entities’ relationships with their customers.

The authors build a model of effects with structural equation modelling based on the quality of the relationship between financial entities and their customers. The authors identify the different dimensions of quality in the entity’s service provision (tangible quality, functional quality and staff quality) as essential antecedents of the different dimensions of relationship quality (satisfaction, trust and loyalty). Moreover, the authors develop a multi-group analysis to test the moderator effect of age in the proposed model.

The work shows that bank customers have been eminently results driven focusing on functional quality which is a determinant cause of customer satisfaction and trust.

Furthermore the authors consider that the dimensions of service quality are interrelated. Functional quality represents an essential quality in customer service, whereas tangible and personnel qualities act to reinforce functional quality. In turn, qualities based on tangible aspects have positive effects on qualities based on intangible aspects.

Moreover, the results confirm the consideration of related variables to conform the construct of relationship quality: satisfaction, trust and loyalty. Finally, age has been found to have a considerable effect as a moderating variable in the relations.

These results represent a significant change in traditional patterns of bank customer behaviour, and fit in with postulates of a new approach based on individual differences in attitudes, with relevant practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumer trust during a financial crisis, studying its antecedents and consequences. The perceptions of older and younger consumers are also compared.

The theoretical model of trust formation is tested on a random sample of 634 individuals from the three largest Spanish cities, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, in a period of economic crisis. Structural equation models were used to verify the global hypothesized relationships. Additionally, the total sample was divided into two groups (younger and older consumers) in order to test the moderating effect of age in the proposed relationships.

In a period of financial crisis, older consumers’ trust is protected by an emotional and experiential shield from the effects of negative news in the surrounding environment. In contrast, trust, although important, is not the core variable for the younger segment, whose preferences are the consequence of a broad range of cognitive and emotional variables.

This research was carried out on financial services. Emotional, relational and experience-linked variables acquire greater importance as the individual gets older, in contrast to more cognitive evaluations. The difference between the younger and the older segments is that the cornerstone of older consumers’ attitudinal loyalty is trust, whereas for younger people, it is positive switching costs or rewards. Further research on the proposed conceptual model across different industries and countries is needed to determine the generalizability and consistency of the findings from this study.

This paper has significant managerial implications. The authors believe that the best strategy for a bank during a period of crisis is to follow a customer-friendly orientation, as in the case of banks that took a long-term vision to look after their brand image. The study draws banking companies’ attention to the importance of using age as a segmentation criterion.

Based on the life-course paradigm, a theoretical model of trust formation is performed. In a period of economic crisis, trust becomes the key variable in determining older consumers’ preferences.