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This study investigates the use of gamification in promoting the silver generation's adoption of mobile payment technology through the gamified cultural practice of gifting red packets. It considers the effectiveness of using gamification in a cultural context to promote technology acceptance among older adults. This crossover between digital technology and cultural traditions brings unique gaming elements to the adoption of technology.

Drawing upon technology acceptance Model (TAM) and prospect theory, a research model is evaluated using structural equation modeling. Data were collected via survey from elderly consumers who are current users of WeChat but are yet to use its mobile payment functions.

The results reveal the perceived effectiveness of gamification is determined by the perceived enjoyment of the game and contributes to users' attitude development, directly and through its perceived usefulness. Perceived risks were identified as a barrier to converting positive attitude into adoption intention.

The findings contribute to the conceptualization and understanding of the effectiveness of gamification in technology adoption, specifically among the silver generation.

In contrast with previous gamification studies on gamified experience, this study introduces a new conceptualization of the perceived effectiveness of gamification and its measurement. This study validates game engagement as being effective in encouraging seniors to adopt a technology. In an era of an aging population where digitization is a norm, improving the digital literacy and digital inclusion of elders by encouraging them to adopt technology is essential to developing a more accessible and inclusive social environment.

With a focus on the purchasing behaviour of parents buying luxury brands of infant apparel, this paper considers the concepts of buying roles, conspicuous consumption/social consumption motivation, and materialism. A survey of 134 mothers who had purchased luxury brands of clothing for their infants found that parents are motivated by the good quality and design associated with the luxury brands. The relationship between the amount of money spent by parents on luxury brands of infant apparel and social consumption motivation was not significant. However, interviewees who spent more on luxury clothing brands for their infants were determined to be more materialistic. It is thus recommended that marketers should emphasise the good quality and design of their luxury brands of infant apparel. In addition, marketers should promote the materialistic values of purchasing luxury brands of infant apparel, showing that buying luxury brands of infant apparel may be a route to happiness, rather than being a route for impressing others.

This chapter examines which coping mechanisms citizens used during the pandemic and how these mechanisms related to overall well-being. Using the Transaction Theory of Stress and Coping to frame the analysis, the chapter investigates predictive factors for various coping strategies and identifies which groups were more likely to use adaptive as opposed to maladaptive strategies. I examine how coping strategies used in April 2020 predict change in well-being, measured by life satisfaction, in November 2020. Americans reported greater use of maladaptive coping and less use of the adaptive coping strategies compared to their Finnish counterparts. Americans reported more frequent use of religious coping strategies. Interestingly, worrying about COVID-19 did not increase the use of maladaptive coping for Finns or Americans. Regarding the effect of the coping strategies on life satisfaction, the analyses revealed that those who reported using maladaptive strategies in April 2020 showed a significant decrease in life satisfaction in November 2020. However, this finding was only significant for Finnish residents. Unexpectedly, Finnish and US residents who reported using Active/Expressive and Planning coping reported a decrease in life satisfaction from April to November 2020. Finally, Finnish and US residents who were married, had higher self-esteem, or had higher social capital were more likely to report an increase in life satisfaction from April 2020 to November 2020. These findings raise questions for future research. The context of the pandemic may have created a unique situation that rendered coping mechanisms to behave in unusual ways.

This chapter documents how the early request for citizens to participate in health-protective behaviors to quell the spread of the disease became politicized. Health-protective behaviors, such as social distancing and mask wearing, were found to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Yet, despite the evidence that compliance helped control the pandemic’s spread, mask wearing became a politicized symbol during the early stages of the pandemic. Particularly in the United States, bipartisan stances for and against mask wearing developed quickly as conspiracy theories, supported by President Trump, downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic. As vaccines appeared by late 2020, this polarization continued, again with President Trump aiming blame that the release of the vaccine was timed with 2020 election and raising questions with its safety. In comparison, Prime Minister Marin took a pro-science, global approach to Finland’s mandate and vaccine response. Using regression analysis, I examine the growing political divide that occurred between April 2020 and November 2020, highlighting the growth of politicization for both mask wearing and vaccine intention in both the United States and Finland. While analyses from April 2020 show support for the party in power (Republicans for the United States and left-leaning parties for Finland) was not a significant predictor of mask wearing in either country, by November 2020, political party significantly predicted both mask wearing and vaccine intention in both countries. Additionally, other important predictive factors, particularly state/citizen collaborative dimensions, are reviewed and discussed.

In services marketing, the employee plays a central role in attracting, building and maintaining relationships with customers. The recognition of the central role of employees in service marketing has given rise to “internal marketing” programs strongly oriented to employee development. This paper explores the linkage between internal marketing activities (directed at employee recruitment, training, motivation, communication, and retention) and the more traditional external marketing activities (e.g., pricing, advertising, and personal selling). An examination of the relationship between the key elements of the services marketing management model (internal and external marketing, employee attitudes and behavior, and customer attitudes and behavior) demonstrates how service managers can enhance customer loyalty, satisfaction and perception of quality.

The motivation behind this research is to remedy a gap in the literature on the role of branding within small to medium‐sized not‐for‐profit organisations that are not part of the charity or voluntary sector.

To understand the role precisely, a qualitative study based on in‐depth interviews with not‐for‐profit small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) was undertaken. The study identifies how these organisations develop their brands and the role that branding plays within such organisations. Two new models are presented to visually demonstrate the processes – a brand development matrix as a guide to the brand development decision process, and a focal model for the role of branding within not‐for‐profit SMEs.

Significantly, the study finds that employees play an important role as “ambassadors” of the brand. Forging links and working in partnerships were found to be exceptionally valuable in helping the organisations establish “a name” as well as raising awareness. Consequently, associations linked to the brand come from interactions that customers and other stakeholders have had with employees.

The study was qualitative and, therefore, more subjective in nature.

This study sought to explore how not‐for‐profit SMEs develop their brands to begin to remedy a gap in the current literature. The objectives of the study that the researchers set out to achieve have been aided by the development of two new models. The findings show evidence of similarities between the more conventional models of branding, whilst also revealing new findings not currently in the literature.

The horizon for not‐for‐profit organisations is changing. This has put increasing pressure on such organisations to establish “a name” for themselves. Although a considerable amount has been published on the role of branding in large commercial organisations, the researchers believe this is the first study to explicitly explore the role of branding to not‐for‐profit SMEs (not part of the charity/voluntary sector).

The purpose of this paper is to understand how supply chain actors in an Italian cashmere supply chain reacted to dependence and power use during the Covid-19 crisis and how this affected their perceptions of justice.

The research took a case study approach exploring issues of dependence, power and justice in a multi-tier luxury cashmere supply chain.

The authors found two types of dependence: Craftmanship-induced buyer dependence and Market-position-induced supplier dependence. The authors also identified four key archetypes emerging from the dynamics of dependence, power and justice during Covid-19. In the repressive archetype, buying firms perceive their suppliers as dependent and use mediated power through coercive tactics, leading the suppliers to perceive interactional, procedural and distributive injustice and use reciprocal coercive tactics against the buying firms in the form of coopetition. In the restrictive archetype, buying firms that are aware of their dependence on their suppliers use mediated power through contracts, with suppliers perceiving distributive injustice and developing ways to circumvent the brands. In the relational archetype, the awareness of craftmanship-induced buyer dependence leads buying firms to use non-mediated power through collaboration, but suppliers still do not perceive distributive justice, as there is no business security or future orders. In the resilient archetype, buying firms are aware of their own craftmanship-induced dependence and combine mediated and non-mediated power by giving the suppliers sustainable orders, which leads suppliers to perceive each justice type positively.

This paper shows how the actors in a specific supply chain react to and cope with one of the worst health crises in living memory, thereby providing advice for supply chain management in future crises.

In this chapter, we first argue for a green criminological perspective on culture as well as nature, as those concepts are framed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Second, from within this green criminological perspective we discern a neocolonial hegemony in the resource extraction from developing countries that is represented by international trafficking markets in looted cultural heritage and poached wildlife. In other words, developed nations benefit from these trades while developing nations suffer, and governance regimes attempting to control these global criminal trades prioritise the rational interests and cultural norms of the more powerful market nations over the local interests and cultural histories of communities at the source of the chain of supply. Finally, our third argument is that the emerging intellectual framework of sustainable development, as represented in the UN's goals, may provide a perspective on the issue of trafficking culture and nature that can push back against the neocolonial hegemony of international criminal markets such as these.