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This paper aims to test the relationship between millennials’ status motivation and their ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) and the mediating role of culture influencing this effect.

A panel of millennials was surveyed using established scales to measure their status motivation, cultural values and ECCB.

The findings demonstrate status motivation has a positive effect on millennials’ ECCB. The findings indicate that the cultural values of collectivism, power distance and masculinity mediate the relationship between status motivation and ECCB.

This study looked at responses from one generation, millennials, in one country, the USA.

Status motivation can impact ECCB and cultural values mediate this relationship. Status motivation can directly impact ECCB, as well as work positively through the cultural values of collectivism and power distance and negatively through masculinity.

The results suggest ECCB for status-motivated millennials is driven by both status motivation and their collectivism, power distance and masculinity. To encourage millennials’ ECCB, public policymakers and marketers should emphasize the social influences of sustainable behaviors and how these behaviors make them stand out from others who are not sustainable and target those who view women as equal to men.

This research examines how millennials’ status motivations impact their ecologically conscious behaviors both directly and through the mediating role of cultural values. This research contributes by answering the call for looking at the influence of cultural values on environmental behaviors. It offers a possible reason for the mixed findings previously in the literature regarding status and sustainability by illustrating status motivations may work both directly and through cultural values in influencing ECCB. Thus, it is one of the first studies to demonstrate culture’s mediating effect in the area of sustainability.

This study aims to focus on understanding the consumer-luxury brand relationships among Generation Z. Generation Z is an up-and-coming generational cohort that has received limited research attention in the domains of both consumer-brand relationships and luxury branding, despite its growing size and purchasing power. Therefore, this study highlights the distinctive patterns of Generation Z’s relationship with luxury by identifying their choice of a luxury brand, the nature of the brand relationships, what characterizes these relationships and the internal and external influences that shape these relationships.

This study used brand collage construction. A total of 56 Generation Z respondents created brand collages that covered 38 different luxury brands. The data from the collages and their accompanying descriptions were evaluated using content analysis.

This study identifies Generation Z’s unique yet expansive view of luxury that encompasses not only traditional luxury but also masstige and non-traditional luxury brands. Moreover, the findings generally support that Generation Z’s relationships with luxury brands are characterized by “like” rather than “love”; while Generation Z may feel a high level of loyalty toward luxury brands in terms of attitudes and behaviors, they do not necessarily have strong, passionate feelings for them.

The findings of this study offer a comprehensive understanding of Generation Z’s brand relationship with luxury. Luxury marketers need to recognize that for Generation Z consumers, luxury is an integral part of their everyday lifestyle more than a display of success, which is clearly different from previous generations.

This study explores consumers' motivations to purchase luxury and counterfeit products using an international sample. In addition, it also examines the moderating role of interpersonal influence on this process. This study seeks to examine if the consumers who demand the highest quality express a preference for luxury goods over counterfeit goods.

Survey research was employed to subjects from the USA, India, China and Russia. Responses from US and India consumers were collected using online software, whereas responses from China and Russia were collected with the help of a local market research firm.

The findings of the study indicate that consumers tend to show similar reactions based on the luxury and counterfeit consumption process examined here. In terms of interpersonal influence as a moderator, however, the study found it significantly impacts status seekers' attitude toward luxury and how a perfectionist shopper perceives counterfeit consumption.

This study is one of the first in the literature to empirically address both luxury and counterfeit consumption. Further it considers consumers from multiple countries with high levels of luxury good purchases.

The purpose of the study is to investigate consumers’ perceptions of status motivations on retailers’ sustainability efforts and whether collectivism and materialism moderate this relationship.

A quantitative research methodology using survey data was used. Data were collected by administering questionnaires from millennial respondents (n = 386) from the USA and Turkey.

The results show that cultural value (collectivism) and materialism can serve as moderators of the effects of status motivation and sustainability. The findings indicate that the link between status motivation and sustainability perceptions (both environmental and social sustainability) is stronger for more collectivist consumers. In terms of materialism, while it did not moderate the relationship between status motivation and perceptions of environmental sustainability, it did moderate the relationship between status motivation and perceptions of social sustainability, particularly the uniqueness aspect of materialism.

The stronger link between status motivation and both environmental and social sustainability for collectivists suggests that the bandwagon effect may be impacting their need for status. The stronger link between status motivation and social sustainability for those more materialistic suggests that their need for status may be more impacted by a snob effect as they want to appear unique. The use of college students is a limitation of this study, and future research needs to explore a wider range of age groups to determine if there are generational differences. Additionally, future research could examine other cultural dimensions such as power distance and masculinity versus femininity.

Findings from this research provide insights for retailers, especially those targeting the status and luxury market when developing their sustainability plans. An interest in sustainability may aid consumers in meeting their need for status, particularly for those status consumers who are more collectivist, as a means to fit in with their group. For more materialistic consumers, retailers may want to focus more on unique social sustainability efforts that are more publicly noticeable.

Social sustainability, a topic not studied as frequently as environmental sustainability, has significant implications for consumers. The findings suggest that the link between status motivation and social sustainability is stronger for collectivists, suggesting a bandwagon effect. Additionally, the authors find that the link between status motivation and social sustainability is stronger for materialists, particularly the uniqueness dimension of materialism, suggesting a snob effect.

The originality of this study lies in the exploration of how status motivation impacts consumers’ perceptions of retailers’ environmental and social sustainability efforts and if these relationships are moderated by collectivism and materialism. Few studies have examined social sustainability, especially in terms of culture.

Cute products have found market success. The literature has identified various factors of cuteness, but the effect of size is under-addressed. This study aims to investigate whether and how size perception influences consumers’ cuteness perception.

In three experiments, size was manipulated in terms of visual cue, product description and product name to determine its impact on cuteness perception.

The results of the three experiments demonstrate that a size cue of smallness can heighten consumers’ perception of product cuteness. The first two studies provided converging evidence for the main hypothesis that smaller objects are evaluated as cuter. Study 3 not only replicated the findings of the first two studies but also revealed that vulnerability acts as the underlying process for the smallness-cuteness relationship. Study 3 also showed that the purchase likelihood for an extended product warranty is higher in the small condition compared to the control condition.

While the findings were robust across product types and size manipulations, possible boundary conditions related to product types or individual characteristics were not tested.

The findings suggest how brand managers can use size perceptions to influence consumers’ perceptions of the cuteness of their products and brands.

The findings inform brand managers about the nuances of size cues that may affect how customers perceive their products and identify a more generally applicable cuteness factor that may have downstream implications for marketing practitioners.

This study aims to understand holistic consumer perceptions of quality and their effect on re-purchase intentions by measuring the latent characteristics of online Amazon reviews.

Data was collected from entries in the Amazon customer review data set, which explicitly mentions quality, economic evaluation and future purchase intention. The analyses included natural language processing, structural topic modeling and econometric analysis. The study used real-time customer reviews to determine the overall perceived quality, the impact of perceived quality on re-purchase intention and the mediating roles of price consciousness and customer satisfaction.

Consumers’ perception of overall quality includes product- and service-related dimensions. Perceived quality influences re-purchase intentions through the mediating role of customer satisfaction. While price consciousness impacts the link between perceived quality and customer satisfaction, it does not affect re-purchase intention.

The managerial implications emphasize multiple dimensions of quality in the online environment and the role of customer satisfaction in consumers’ online re-purchase intentions. The results also illustrate that price effects are insignificant in influencing re-purchase intentions. Thus, while price cuts may encourage initial purchases, quality and customer satisfaction are vital to stimulate re-purchase.

The e-commerce literature lacks a comprehensive and rigorous understanding of the components of consumers’ perceived quality. This research develops a thorough understanding of what impacts overall e-commerce quality based on real-time customer reviews, avoiding the biases arising from traditional methods, including surveys.

The present research takes a qualitative approach to examine young adult consumers’ perceptions and intentions toward non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The goal of the study is to identify consumer sub-segments of young adults based on their perceptions of/intentions toward NFTs.

This research utilized qualitative/thematic analysis.

The results revealed three sub-segments of young adults with different perceptions of NFTs. The largest group, Authenticators, perceive NFTs as luxurious digital possessions that are prestigious, have premium prices and are high quality. They are most likely to be early/late majority, but some are innovators/early adopters. The second-largest group, Pessimists, hold negative views about NFTs, seeing them as fads, silly and/or a waste of time and believing that investing in them is risky. These individuals are most likely to be laggards in terms of adoption. The smallest group, Futurists, hold forward-thinking views about NFTs. They are most likely to see themselves as innovators/early adopters, think of NFTs as the future of asset ownership, investment and digital life, and do not perceive them as overly risky.

The findings add to the scant literature on NFTs in marketing by documenting three potential sub-segments of young adult consumers for NFTs. NFT marketers should take care in effectively marketing NFTs’ value and addressing their risks to consumers as they relate to the identified consumer segments.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relational impact of using win-win or win-lose negotiation strategies within different types of buyer-supplier relationships.

A multi-method approach is used. Qualitative interviews with supply chain managers reveal that relationship-specific assets and cooperation are important relational factors in buyer-supplier negotiations. Framing interview insights within the social exchange theory (SET), hypotheses are tested using a scenario-based behavioral experiment.

Experimental results suggest that win-lose negotiators decrease their negotiating partner’s commitment of relationship-specific assets and levels of cooperation. In addition, the use of a win-lose negotiation strategy reduces levels of relationship-specific assets and cooperation more in highly interdependent buyer-supplier relationships than relationships that are not as close.

Buyer-supplier relationships are complex interactions. Negotiation strategy choice decisions can have long-term effects on the overall relationship. As demonstrated in this study, previous research focusing on one side “winning” a negotiation as a measure of success has oversimplified this complex phenomenon.

The use of a win-lose negotiation strategy can have a negative impact on relational outcomes like cooperation and relationship-specific assets. For companies interested in developing strong supply chain relationships, buyer and suppliers should choose their negotiation strategy carefully as the relational impact extends beyond the single negotiation encounter.

Previous research predominantly advocates for the use of a win-win negotiation strategy within interdependent relationships. This research offers evidence that the use of a win-lose strategy does have a long-term relational impact.

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.

Given the economic downturn, the purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between economic perceptions and consumers' motivation to consume for status and if this relationship was moderated by education level.

A stratified random sample of adult consumers in the southeastern USA were surveyed by telephone. The hypotheses were tested utilizing structural equation modeling.

The results indicated that those consumers with a lower level of perceived economic welfare (i.e. see the economy and their family's financial situation as worse this year versus last year) were less motivated to consume for status. Furthermore, this relationship was positively moderated by education. No relationship was found between consumer confidence (i.e. consumers' perceptions of the economy in the future year) and status consumption. The results suggest that those consumers who perceive themselves to be financially better off this year versus last, particularly those more educated, are more motivated to consume for status.

The main research limitation was that the sample skewed to be older, female and Caucasian, though the sample did match Census figures for the critical variable of education. Additionally, the phone response rate was 9 percent, but it is important to recognize that this was for a non-student sample.

The results suggest that marketers, targeting luxury consumers in the current stagnant economy, aim for more educated consumers who see their economic welfare as improving. This implication stems from the research findings revealing that consumers who feel they are recovering economically from the recent economic downturn, especially those with higher education levels, may more likely be status consumers.

With the democratization of luxury there is renewed interest in luxury consumption research. While research suggests there is a relationship between economic conditions and status consumption, few studies have measured consumer economic perceptions in relation to status consumption and none have examined how education may play a moderating role in explaining why people buy luxuries in a tough economic climate.