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This study aims to examine the relationship between marginalization, Web presence and firm performance for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This study relies upon interviews and surveys of managers and/or owners of SMEs. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, the authors tested an integrated model of the relationship between marginalization, Web presence and firm performance.

Findings indicate that marginalization enhances the risk perceptions entrepreneurs assign to internet use. This enhanced risk perception then limits the extent to which an entrepreneur responds to online customer feedback, which has implications for the SME’s relationship and reputation management efforts with buyers, ultimately impacting the enterprise’s performance.

This study sheds light on the overlooked phenomena of marginalization and internet avoidance among entrepreneurs. The findings provide insight for entrepreneurs on the deleterious consequences associated with lacking an online presence.

Organizational buying behavior has often been treated as a rational activity, even though humans are involved in the decision-making. Human decision-making often includes a complex cadre of emotions and rationalizations. Subsequently, organizational buyers may not only be driven by logic, testing and facts, but also by emotions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that emotions play in organizational buying behavior.

In-depth interviews were conducted with marketing decision-makers for one of the most valuable brands in the world. The role that emotions play in the behavior of organizational buyers is elucidated from the perspective of these marketing professionals.

Emotions are prevalent at all stages in the organizational decision-making process and various discrete emotions fuel action tendencies among buyers. Efforts are made by marketers to strategically manage the emotions buyers experience.

Although organizational buyers must see the functional value of a product or brand, companies need to consider ways in which brands can connect with buyers on an emotional and personal level.

This paper contributes to the literature by offering insights into which discrete or specific emotions are most prominent in organizational buying behavior and how the manifestation of these emotions impact decision-making at each stage in the buying cycle.

Music and sound have been used pervasively to enhance the tourism and hospitality experience. Incorporating music into a brand’s identity has the potential to influence consumer perceptions and decision-making. This study aims to identify how sonic branding influences consumer attitudes and engagement patterns with hotel brands by using feelings as information theory and applying the effects of music on neurochemical phenomena in the brain. It also explores how sonic branding differentially influences the decision-making of consumer segments.

Experimental studies are used to examine how sonic brands influence consumer perceptions and engagement tendencies. Study 1 (n = 92) adopts a single-factor experimental design to investigate the main effects of sonic branding (presence vs absence) on customers’ responses. Study 2 (n = 204) uses a 2 (sonic branding: present vs. absent) × 2 (purpose of travel: leisure vs business) design to examine the interaction effects. Participants were recruited through Prolific.

Results indicate that the use of sonic branding increases engagement tendencies for a hotel brand. In addition, sonic branding interacted with the purpose of travel such that business travelers exhibited more favorable attitudes and higher engagement tendencies toward a hotel brand than leisure travelers when a sonic brand was used.

Given the proliferation of audio-centric environments, this research provides insight into how tourism and hospitality brands can engage and connect with customers by developing sonic brands that can be used throughout the customer journey.

音乐和声音被广泛用于提升旅游和酒店体验。将音乐融入品牌的身份有可能影响消费者的感知和决策。本研究旨在通过使用感觉作为信息理论和应用音乐对大脑神经化学现象的影响, 识别声音品牌如何影响消费者对酒店品牌的态度和参与模式。它还探讨了声音品牌如何对不同消费者群体的决策产生差异化影响。

采用实验研究来检验声音品牌如何影响消费者的感知和参与倾向。研究1（n = 92）采用单因素实验设计, 调查声音品牌（有 vs. 无）对客户反应的主要影响。研究2（n = 204）采用2（声音品牌：有 vs. 无）× 2（旅行目的：休闲 vs. 商务）设计, 检验交互效应。参与者通过Prolific平台招募。

结果表明, 使用声音品牌会增加消费者对酒店品牌的参与倾向。此外, 声音品牌与旅行目的的交互作用表明, 当使用声音品牌时, 商务旅行者比休闲旅行者对酒店品牌表现出更有利的态度和更高的参与倾向。

鉴于音频中心环境的普及, 本研究提供了旅游和酒店品牌如何通过开发声音品牌在整个客户旅程中与客户互动和联系的见解。

La música y el sonido se han utilizado de forma generalizada para mejorar la experiencia del turismo y la hostelería. La incorporación de la música a la identidad de una marca tiene el potencial de influir en las percepciones y la toma de decisiones de los consumidores. Este estudio pretende identificar cómo influye la marca sonora (o audio branding) en las actitudes de los consumidores y en sus patrones de compromiso con las marcas hoteleras utilizando los sentimientos como teoría de la información y aplicando los efectos de la música en los fenómenos neuroquímicos del cerebro. También explora cómo influye diferencialmente la marca sonora en la toma de decisiones de los segmentos de consumidores.

Se emplean estudios experimentales para examinar cómo influyen las marcas sónicas en las percepciones y las tendencias de compromiso de los consumidores. El estudio 1 (N = 92) adopta un diseño experimental de factor único para investigar los efectos principales de la marca sonora (presencia frente a ausencia) en las respuestas de los clientes. El estudio 2 (N = 204) utiliza un diseño 2 (marca sonora: presente frente a ausente) × 2 (Objetivo del viaje: ocio frente a negocios) para examinar los efectos de interacción. Los participantes fueron reclutados a través de Prolific.

Los resultados indican que el uso de la marca sonora aumenta las tendencias de compromiso con una marca hotelera. Además, la marca sonora interactuó con el objetivo del viaje de forma que los viajeros de negocios mostraron actitudes más favorables y mayores tendencias de compromiso hacia una marca hotelera que los viajeros de ocio cuando se utilizó una marca sonora.

Dada la proliferación de entornos audiocéntricos, esta investigación ofrece una visión de cómo las marcas turísticas y de hostelería pueden captar la atención de los clientes y conectar con ellos desarrollando marcas sonoras que puedan utilizarse a lo largo de todo el viaje del cliente.

Brand management has traditionally enlisted visual branding elements, including the brand’s graphic logo, to distinguish and communicate the personality of the brand. However, as healthcare organizations work to shape how consumers perceive their brand, organizations are also enhancing their brand identity with sound and music by creating a sonic brand. This research paper aims to examine how sonic brands influence consumer emotional reactions and trust in a healthcare provider. It also explores how sonic brands can differentially affect consumers, depending on their level of engagement in their physical and mental health.

Two experimental studies were conducted that tested the use of a sonic logo for healthcare providers in consumption contexts that might elicit negative emotions, cancer care and mental health care.

The results suggest that the presence of a sonic logo helped to alleviate negative emotions as well as engender trust in the provider. Findings also revealed that for consumers who are less engaged in their health, a sonic logo served as a peripheral cue by enhancing perceptions of competence and empathy for the healthcare provider.

Findings from this research provide insight into how sonic brands can increase the effectiveness of branded healthcare communications.

While the role of relationship marketing to consumers’ overall satisfaction with schools has been discussed in the education management literature, empirical studies on the marketing mechanisms that underpin school-customer relationships are limited. The purpose of this paper is to establish the association between market orientation (MO) in the school context and key relationship marketing performance indicators.

MO and four relationship constructs (brand trust, affective commitment, attitudinal loyalty, and advocacy) were measured using existing and established scales from the education and behavioral literatures. A model reflecting causal ordering derived from the literature and an understanding of school-customer relationships was developed. Data were collected from 205 parents of school-aged children in the USA and analyzed using structural equation analysis.

Results show that a positive relationship between market-oriented behaviors of school organizations and three of the identified indicators of successful school relationship marketing (affective commitment, attitudinal loyalty, and advocacy) are mediated by brand trust.

The study contributes to an understanding of the theoretical relationship between market-oriented behaviors and relationship marketing for schools. The results suggest that, for school organizations, MO impacts important outcomes and thus may be vital to sustainability and growth.

The purpose of this paper is to build upon reward-learning theory and examine the role of indulgent food consumption and habitual eating behaviors as a means of emotional coping.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were enlisted to explore emotional eating and indulgent tendencies. In Phase 1 of this research, participants responded to open-ended questions regarding the drivers of emotional eating. In Phase 2, a theoretically driven model was developed from Phase 1 findings and quantitative data was collected to test it.

Phase 1 findings indicate that negative terms such as “stressed” and “distract” were more prevalent in the high emotional coping group as opposed to the low emotional coping group. Building from Phase 1, findings from Phase 2 demonstrate a link between emotional eating and indulgent food consumption, underscoring the impact of habitual behaviors. Specifically, emotional coping frequency fully explains the relationship between emotional eating habits and indulgent eating frequency, while intentions to eat indulgent foods partially mediates the relationship between attitude toward indulgent foods and indulgent food consumption frequency. In addition, intentions to eat indulgent foods partially mediates the relationship between emotional coping frequency and indulgent food consumption frequency.

Social marketing efforts can be enlisted to de-market fatty foods to individuals prone to engaging in emotional eating. Individuals might also be encouraged to use emotion regulation techniques to help manage negative emotions.

This research contributes to the existing marketing and consumer well-being literature by exploring the role of habit formation in the development of emotional eating and indulgent food consumption.

This research aims to examine the unique emotional distress experienced during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It explores the role of fear and anxiety, what fueled it and how fear and anxiety impacted consumption and behaviors of conformity and compliance.

An exploratory assessment of the emotions and behaviors of individuals during the early part of the coronavirus outbreak (early March 2020) was conducted by sending a questionnaire to a national panel (n = 42). The insight offered from these individuals, in conjunction with prior literature, provided the basis for the development of a conceptual model that was tested using survey methodology (n = 691).

Both exploratory and empirical research indicate that ruminative thoughts were positively related to feelings of fear and anxiety, whereas trust in leadership was negatively related to fear and anxiety. Feelings of fear and anxiety were also associated with purchasing in large quantities, in compliance with guidelines to slow the spread of the virus and the management of negative feelings through consumption.

Important insight for marketers and public policymakers in how fear and anxiety might be both tempered and mitigated during emergencies is offered.

This research provides new insight into what fuels fear and anxiety during a pandemic and investigates how fear and anxiety impacts consumption and behaviors of conformity and compliance.

Researchers and practitioners have traditionally maintained that organizational buying requires rational decision-making. However, individuals at organizations make decisions daily applying a confluence of rationalizations and emotions. This study aims to address the roles of personal feelings, facts and emotional advertising content in the organizational decision-making process.

In two studies, the authors apply both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore emotional and cognitive reactions to advertising. In Study 1, depth interviews were conducted with marketing and advertising content developers from a Fortune 100 technology company. In Study 2, a web-based survey was sent out to a Fortune 100 company’s buyer panel.

Results suggest that advertising using emotion-based themes helps to foster brand engagement tendencies and advocacy for a brand. Findings also demonstrate that organizational status (C-level executive’s vs non-C-level employees) moderates the relationship between buyers’ reliance on facts and their receptivity to advertising using emotion-based themes, such that reliance on facts increases the appeal of emotional advertising.

This research contributes to the organizational buying literature by addressing the dearth of research on the role of emotions in organizational decision-making and providing insight into the role of advertising in business-to-business (B2B) decision-making.

These results imply that advertising incorporating emotion-based themes provide meaningful information to B2B buyers and is especially effective when targeted at buyers at higher levels in an organization.

B2B buying behavior has traditionally been considered a rational undertaking. This research explores how decision-making orientation and the presence of advertising using emotion-based themes help to foster engagement and advocacy for the brand.

Organizations can benefit significantly from the growing capabilities of the internet. As the Web facilitates purchasing and reduces the costs of marketing, companies can connect with customers through the use of storytelling. This study aims to examine how small businesses leverage the use of storytelling to engage with customers and drive revenue and online reputation management.

Both qualitative and quantitative insights are offered in two studies. In Study 1, interviews were conducted with business owners to explore the efforts made by their companies to connect and engage with consumers online. Study 2 builds on the findings from Study 1 and uses survey methodology to test a model which outlines how storytelling can foster engagement with customers.

Results indicate that story content is positively related to emotional content and the personal connection an individual feels toward a firm’s products. Furthermore, user-generated content moderates the relationship between story content creation and personal connections. Findings also demonstrate that personal connection is essential to customer engagement. Ultimately, engagement can lead to revenue generation from social commerce as well as increased reputation management activity.

This research demonstrates how small businesses can use the power of storytelling to immerse and transport audiences in such a way that customer beliefs and attitudes toward the firm are impacted in a favorable way. By telling its brand story well, firms have the power to increase the value of their products.