Tser Yieth Chen, Tsai Lien Yeh and Fang Yu Lee
This study aims to investigate the relationship between Internet celebrity characteristics and the follower's impulse purchase behavior in YouTuber. Attachment and parasocial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between Internet celebrity characteristics and the follower's impulse purchase behavior in YouTuber. Attachment and parasocial interaction are mediating variables concerning the impact of Internet celebrity characteristics on followers' impulse purchase behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted an online survey of YouTube users in Taiwan and utilized quota sampling with 500 samples to examine the influence of two types of Internet celebrities on impulse purchase behavior.
Findings
As to the empirical results, the main path indicated that the self-disclosure Internet celebrity positively affected the attachment, which mainly positively affected the impulse purchase behavior. The second path showed that the expertise-knowledge Internet celebrity positively affected the attachment, which positively affected the impulse purchase behavior.
Practical implications
YouTube marketers should proceed prudently with the market segmentation and choose the appropriate type of Internet celebrities who are suitable for the product image to differentiate marketing. Empirical results can aid marketers in selecting a product-endorser, and enhance consumers' purchasing effect on product advertisements in interactive marketing.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study is to explore the mediation effect of the impact of Internet celebrity characteristics on followers' impulse purchase behavior in interactive marketing. The explaining mechanism of attachment and parasocial interaction is promised to be highlighted as the contribution of this study to the extant literature. This study constructs a theoretical mechanism between attachment theory and parasocial interaction theory and then can be used as a theoretical lens for designing successful social media strategies and explaining social media brand relationships.
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Ching-Cheng Chao, Fang-Yuan Chen, Ching-Chiao Yang and Chien-Yu Chen
The e-freight program launched by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has gradually become a standard specification for international air freight operations. This…
Abstract
The e-freight program launched by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has gradually become a standard specification for international air freight operations. This study examined critical factors affecting air freight forwarders’ decision to adopt the IATA e-freight using a technology-organization-environment model with air freight forwarders in Taiwan as the base. Our findings show that ‘information technology (IT) competence’, ‘trading partner pressure’, ‘government policy’ and ‘competitive pressure’ all have significant positive effects on air freight forwarders’ decision to adopt the e-freight and the top three factors among these are ‘government funding’, ‘government’s active promotion’ and ‘government’s requirement of electronic air waybill (e-AWB)’. Finally, this study proposes strategies that can encourage air freight forwarders to decide on e-freight adoption for the information of relevant oK regyawniozradtison International Air Transport Association (IATA); IATA e-freight; Technology organization environment model; Air freight forwarder
Timmy H. Tseng, Sara H. Hsieh and Crystal T. Lee
Numerous companies have launched branded applications to foster consumer–brand relationships. Due to fierce competition among branded apps, the retention rate is quite low. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Numerous companies have launched branded applications to foster consumer–brand relationships. Due to fierce competition among branded apps, the retention rate is quite low. The facilitation of behavioural outcomes through branded apps is a highly relevant research area. This paper investigates the drivers of behavioural outcomes in the context of branded apps from an investment model perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This work examines various branded apps primarily used by consumers in disparate product categories, namely, Target, Walmart, Under Armour, Nike, Pandora, Spotify, Starbucks, Burger King, Disney and Netflix. Four hundred and one valid online questionnaires were obtained and partial least squares structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.
Findings
The results obtained extend the investment model to the context of branded apps and show that app investment size and app satisfaction facilitate brand relationship commitment, successively enhancing app continuance intention, brand purchase intention and app word-of-mouth (WOM) intention. Furthermore, app confidence benefits and self-enhancement benefits facilitate app satisfaction, while app social benefits and special treatment benefits facilitate app investment size.
Originality/value
The present work applies an investment model to various branded apps to show how relationship components facilitate behavioural outcomes. We contribute to the literature by identifying four types of app relational benefits as drivers of relationship components in the context of branded apps.
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Guiyao Tang, Bingjie Yu, Fang Lee Cooke and Yang Chen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying mechanism through which high-performance work system (HPWS) influences employee creativity. In addition, this paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying mechanism through which high-performance work system (HPWS) influences employee creativity. In addition, this paper aims to examine contingent factors in the relationship between perceived organisational support and employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of the study included 268 employees and matched supervisors from two pesticide chemical companies in China. Hypotheses were tested with linear regressions.
Findings
The study shows that HPWS enhances perceived organisational support, which in turn promotes employee creativity. Moreover, the results also indicate that devolved management positively moderates the relationship between perceived organisational support and employee creativity.
Research limitations/implications
The unique environment of China may limit the generalisability of the findings. Future studies can extend these findings by conducting studies in other societal contexts.
Practical implications
When trying to inspire employee creativity, organisations need to pay attention to employees’ perception of organisational support. One way of enhancing perceived organisational support is to implement HPWS. In addition, organisations need to encourage devolved management in order to inspire more creative behaviours.
Originality/value
This is the first study that explores the mediating role of perceived organisational support in the HPWS-employee creativity linkage. In addition, the study provides what is believed to be the first test of the moderating role of devolved management.
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Wangyue Zhou, Zayyad Tsiga, Boying Li, Shuning Zheng and Shuli Jiang
The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents of e-finance continuance intention with Alibaba’s Yu’E Bao as an example.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents of e-finance continuance intention with Alibaba’s Yu’E Bao as an example.
Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire was used to collect the data (n=293), and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. Four e-finance features (perceived reputation, website quality, e-finance familiarity and situational normality) are introduced with trust acting as a moderator between the users’ satisfaction and continuance intention to use an e-finance platform.
Findings
The results find that website quality, familiarity and situational normality can influence perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). PEOU and PU, together with reputation, are positively associated with confirmation which further leads to satisfaction. The positive effects that satisfaction and trust have on e-finance continuance intention are confirmed, and trust is found to be a significant moderator on the relationship between satisfaction and continuance intention.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to guide e-finance providers to improve their platform design and services to retain users.
Originality/value
This study combines the theory of trust, Technology Acceptance Model and Expectations Confirmation Theory to investigate the factors that influence the continuance intention in the context of e-finance in China.
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Marcello Mariani and Matteo Borghi
Based on more than 2.7 million online reviews (ORs) collected with big data analytical techniques from Booking.com and TripAdvisor.com, this paper aims to explore if and to what…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on more than 2.7 million online reviews (ORs) collected with big data analytical techniques from Booking.com and TripAdvisor.com, this paper aims to explore if and to what extent environmental discourse embedded in ORs has an impact on electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) helpfulness across eight major destination cities in North America and Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
This study gathered, by means of Big Data techniques, 2.7 million ORs hosted on Booking.com and TripAdvisor, and covering hospitality services in eight different destinations cities in North America (New York City, Miami, Orlando and Las Vegas) and Europe (Barcelona, London, Paris and Rome) over the period 2017–2018. The ORs were analysed by means of ad hoc content analytic dictionaries to identify the presence and depth of the environmental discourse included in each OR. A negative binomial regression analysis was used to measure the impact of the presence/depth of online environmental discourse in ORs on e-WOM helpfulness.
Findings
The findings indicate that the environmental discourse presence and depth influence positively e-WOM helpfulness. More specifically those travelers who write explicitly about environmental topics in their ORs are more likely to produce ORs that are voted as helpful by other consumers.
Research limitations/implications
Implications highlight that both hotel managers and platform developers/managers should become increasingly aware of the importance that customer attach to environmental practices and initiatives and therefore engage more assiduously in environmental initiatives, if their objective is to improve online review helpfulness for other customers reading the focal reviews. Future studies might include more destinations and other operationalizations of environmental discourse.
Originality/value
This study constitutes the first attempt to capture how the presence and depth of hospitality services consumers’ environmental discourse influence e-WOM helpfulness on multiple digital platforms, by means of a big data analysis on a large sample of online reviews across multiple countries and destinations. As such it makes a relevant contribution to the area at the intersection between big data analytics, e-WOM and sustainable tourism research.
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Teng Teng, Huifang Li, Yulin Fang and Lingzhi Shen
In recent years, closed social networking sites (SNSs) have become popular advertising media. Marketer-generated advertisements (MGAs) and user-generated advertisements (UGAs) are…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, closed social networking sites (SNSs) have become popular advertising media. Marketer-generated advertisements (MGAs) and user-generated advertisements (UGAs) are the two pillars of advertising businesses. The objective of this research is to investigate and compare how these ad types (i.e. MGA versus UGA) affect advertising effectiveness in closed SNSs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a scenario-based experiment of 403 WeChat users in China and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the research model.
Findings
The study results indicate that UGAs perform better than MGAs in enhancing consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment, while MGAs are more likely to make consumers feel irritated than UGAs in closed SNSs. Moreover, consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment positively influence advertising effectiveness, whereas perceived irritation negatively affects it.
Originality/value
This study reveals consumers' psychological response mechanisms to MGA and UGA and sheds light on their differential effectiveness by extending the stimuli-organism-response model to the context of closed SNSs.
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People spend more than 90% of their smartphone usage time on mobile applications (apps). Companies have capitalized on this opportunity to develop various types of branded apps…
Abstract
Purpose
People spend more than 90% of their smartphone usage time on mobile applications (apps). Companies have capitalized on this opportunity to develop various types of branded apps. However, due to fierce competition in the app market, most branded apps have a low retention rate. Drawing on the theory of psychological ownership, this study aims to investigate drivers of what we call “strong” indicators of branded app outcomes or, namely, indicators of app engagement that reveal a higher level of consumer brand commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted using online and offline surveys. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.
Findings
The results of the two studies confirm the research hypothesis. When utility-related antecedents (perceived usefulness and ease of use) are controlled for, self-brand congruity and investment size facilitate psychological ownership towards a branded app, which, in turn, generates feedback intention and brand evangelism.
Originality/value
Unlike the utilitarian perspective on user engagement with branded apps, the current research contributes to the literature by proposing a self-concept perspective that can drive strong indicators of branded app marketing outcomes. Two strategies through which practitioners can facilitate these indicators and create a competitive advantage for their companies are proposed.
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This chapter examines how the breakthrough of Zhang Ziyi's depiction of a female kung fu master in The Grandmaster (2013) transforms the figure of the heroine in Chinese action…
Abstract
This chapter examines how the breakthrough of Zhang Ziyi's depiction of a female kung fu master in The Grandmaster (2013) transforms the figure of the heroine in Chinese action films. Zhang is well known for her acting in action films conducted by renowned directors, such as Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-wai. After winning 12 different Best Actress awards for her portrayal of Gong Ruomei in The Grandmaster, Zhang announced that she would no longer perform in any action films to show her highest respect for the superlative character Gong. Tracing Zhang's transformational portrait of a heroine in The Grandmaster alongside her other action roles, this analysis demonstrates how her performance projects the directors' distinctive gender viewpoints. I argue that Zhang's characterisation of Gong remodels heroine-hood in Chinese action films. Inheriting the typical plot of a daughter's use of martial arts for revenge for her father's death, Gong breaks from conventional Chinese action films that highlight romantic love during a woman's adventure and the decisive final battle scene. Beyond the propensity for sensory stimulation, Gong's characterisation enables Zhang to determine that women can really act in action films – demonstrating their inner power and ability to create multi-layered characters – not merely relying upon physical action. This chapter offers a relational perspective of how women transform the action film genre not merely as gender spectacles but as embodied figures that represent emerging female subjectivity.
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Mingzhou Yu, Fang Liu, Julie Lee and Geoff Soutar
This study aims to understand the influence of negative publicity on brand image, brand attitude and brand purchase intention. Specifically, the study examines the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the influence of negative publicity on brand image, brand attitude and brand purchase intention. Specifically, the study examines the role of attribution (or brand blame) and information characteristics in Chinese consumers’ responses to negative publicity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a quasi-experimental approach involving two negative publicity scenarios (mild and high severity) and a sample of 203 young and educated Chinese consumers. Partial least squares was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
A common assumption is that negative brand information has a negative influence on all aspects of a brand. However, this study finds that brand blame and information severity have differential effects on consumer evaluations of the affected brand. Specifically, brand blame negatively impacted attitudes and purchase intentions, but not brand image. In contrast, information severity negatively impacted brand image, but not attitudes or intentions. Further, the relations between brand image and brand attitudes and intentions depended on the level of information severity. In the mild-severity condition, brand image positively influenced attitudes and intentions, but not in the high-severity condition.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should examine consumer responses to negative publicity across different media and product categories. Cross-cultural studies should also be explored in the future.
Practical implications
When a brand encounters negative publicity, its marketer or brand manager should assess to what extent various brand equity components are influenced by negative publicity before adopting any cognitive-based or imagery-based communication strategies.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the limited and fragmented literature on consumer response to negative publicity by examining the impact of consumer’s attributions of blame to the brand under conditions of mild and severe negative information on a range of important brand-related outcomes. Specifically, the authors find that negative publicity has a different impact on brand image, brand attitudes and intentions to purchase. The authors suggest that brand managers use this information to guide their marketing communications.