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This study contends that consumer ethnocentrism and animosity rest on semantic and episodic memory, respectively. It further examines how the influence of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity on consumer boycott behaviour may vary over time and use the memory theory to explain these temporal differences.

Part 1 involved an experiment to demonstrate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism/animosity and semantic/episodic memory. To determine the temporal characteristics of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity, Part 2 involved two quantitative surveys (one each in China and Japan), followed by another two surveys six months later.

Part 1 showed that consumer ethnocentrism and animosity were underpinned by semantic and episodic memory, respectively. Consistent with memory theory, Part 2 found that consumer ethnocentrism was temporally more stable than animosity. Consumer animosity influenced boycott behaviour during but not after the dispute, whereas consumer ethnocentrism influenced boycott behaviour during as well as the dispute. Finally, consumer ethnocentrism was antecedent to consumer animosity, siding with the relationship between semantic and episodic memory.

Limited to two countries, both with collectivistic culture. A longitudinal approach over multiple phases would further enhance the robustness of the findings.

Understanding the psychological underpinning of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity would allow firms to develop effective marketing strategies to appeal to consumers’ ethnocentric and animosity dispositions.

The first study to examine the psychological underpinnings of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity by drawing on the memory theory.

This study aims to examine the effects of three self‐congruity constructs: the brand's personality congruity (BPC), the brand's user imagery congruity and the brand's usage imagery congruity, in consumers' attitude and brand loyalty toward two luxury fashion brands.

Using a sample of Australian consumers, this study examines two luxury fashion brands (CK and Chanel) from two product categories, watches and sunglasses. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that user and usage imagery congruity are stronger predictors for brand attitude and brand loyalty than BPC in the context of the luxury fashion brands tested. Both user and usage imagery congruity have significant effects in brand attitude and brand loyalty in most analyses. This study finds no significant effect of BPC in either brand attitude or brand loyalty for the two brands tested.

Future studies should include more populations, product categories and more brands in each category.

Symbolic benefits are key motivations behind luxury brand purchases. Symbolic benefits are from non‐product‐related attributes like imagery. One important implication of the study is that user and usage imagery are more important to build than attempts to develop a brand's personality. Because most luxury brands market in multiple product categories, attention should be paid to the core perceptions of user and usage imagery for the brand when designing communication strategies for different categories.

This study provides the first evidence that these self‐congruity concepts may represent different imageries that lead to different effects in brand attitude and brand loyalty. Findings from this study add to the understanding of the consumption of luxury brands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of attitude towards behavior, subject norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on a Chinese subject's evaluation of a tertiary education program.

This study adopts a 3 (country‐of‐origin) by 2 (location) between‐group factorial design. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used as a framework to understand the intentions of the Chinese subjects concerning their enrollment in an offshore program.

Results show that a subject's attitude towards behavior, subject norm and PBC had a significantly positive relationship with the subjects' enrollment intentions irrespective of the country‐of‐origin (COO) of an education program. However, results also indicate that the significance of the three components on enrollment intention is contingent on which country the offshore program is from.

The findings of this study can help foreign education institutions develop a good understanding of the education market in China.

This study is one of the few studies that have adopted the TPB, the widely used psychology theory, in the Chinese context.

Sex appeal has been widely used in most countries. However, little is known about consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising in different cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of sex appeal on ad and brand evaluation among Australian, Chinese and US consumers.

The paper adopted a three (Australia, China and the USA) × two (male or female model) × two (low or high level of sex appeal) between‐group factorial design.

Australian, Chinese and US consumers have significantly different attitudes when exposed to the same ad. However, consumer buying intentions towards the advertised brand are not significantly different. Despite the general assumption that Chinese consumers might react least favourably to sex appeal ads, this paper finds that they hold similar attitudes towards sex appeal ads as US consumers and even more favourable attitudes than Australian consumers. Product involvement is found to be a significant covariate.

The sample includes young consumers, who may be more tolerant to sex appeal advertising than older generations in China. A similar situation may exist in Australia and the USA.

Understanding how consumers in different cultures respond to different advertising appeal strategies is important for international advertisers.

This is the first reported empirical study that compares Chinese consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising with those in Western countries. Findings add to the understanding of the standardisation‐localisation debate.

This research was designed in order to explore the gender differences in Chinese consumers’ responses to sex appeal advertising.

Experiments were conducted at a university in South China with a total of 157 commerce students. Four advertisements, designed for the same fictional brand but featuring different genders and different levels of sex appeal, were tested in the experiments. Data analyses were conducted using t‐tests and ANOVA tests.

When comparing the male and female differences in the responses to the ads, it was found that males and females only differed significantly when they were exposed to the ad featuring a male model with the low level of sex appeal. No significant differences were found between male and female consumers regarding the other three ads featuring the male model with the high level of sex appeal or featuring the female model with the low or high level of sex appeal. Further analyses on male or female consumers’ responses to the four ads found that females had significantly different attitudes towards the ads, whereas males did not.

Using a convenient sample and testing only one product category were two major limitations of this study. Future research should adopt a more representative sample and test different product categories.

The findings of this study suggest that international advertisers need to take careful consideration if they are going to use sex appeal in their advertising to the Chinese consumers. Particularly, they must first take into account whether an ad targets a male or female audience.

This article is the first empirical study on mainland Chinese consumers’ responses to sex appeal advertising. It provides significant insight into gender differences among Chinese consumers regarding different sex appeal advertising strategies.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

You are the son or daughter of a well‐heeled family and studying at an exclusive and expensive university. Your affluence is such that your watch and sunglasses are more likely to be branded with the Calvin Klein or Chanel name than with that of a cheaper, downmarket product. But why do people choose such brands – apart from the fact they can afford them – at a time when brands are becoming less and less different in terms of product attributes? How can marketers of luxury goods develop or enhance brand images via non‐product attributes? It's a challenge which is becoming increasingly important for marketing any brand, luxury or not.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Loyal customers are vital to the well‐being of any business organizations. And when times get tough and competition more intense, their value soars to even greater heights. Such customers don't simply fall from the sky though. On the contrary, it typically takes significant and ongoing work on the firm's part to first entice them and then continually meet their needs. Loyalty is widely accepted as being more likely to emerge when consumers have a favorable attitude towards company, product and/or brand. The incentive is so great that it would be imprudent for any organization not to put in the necessary effort. If any further persuasion is required, one needs to look no further than the array of benefits that loyalty can offer.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an introduction and background as well as a narrative to the development of an economic, social, technological and cultural phenomenon that has been sweeping across national frontiers since first being identified by Theodore Levitt in 1983.

The approach is to trace theoretical development but there is lack of a consensus on this subject and so the perspectives of key authors in this area are reviewed alongside each other to test for signs of possible convergence.

Globalisation is a set of processes rather than just one. The practice is different from what the authors may have expected in that sales of the leading multinationals are not global but regional. Organisational forms reflect differences in strategic thinking with less uniformity being necessary or imposed. Individuals today recount their daily tasks in terms of using the names of global brands or products as nouns and verbs in everyday language. Attitudes towards globalisation are constantly changing. Equally, globalisation continues to evolve.

What is presented here is an overview of the literature as it applies to international trade where globalisation was earlier hoped to bring an economic rescue to billions of people and liberate them from poverty. Marketing, organisational behaviour, risk assessment and strategic decision making all have important roles to play here and so further research is required to monitor a new global trading situation.

It is hoped to contribute to further thought, discussion and conceptualisation of research in this area. The idea of globalisation and regionalisation is not new but the prevalence of this phenomenon in our daily lives is striking.

As the concept has advanced and developed, more studies have been made of this phenomenon and from different perspectives. Here, it is hope to recount those different perspectives as well as reach certain conclusions as to where it has reached and how far it may be expected to reach.

In today's digital and post-pandemic era, construction teams can span their boundary to obtain important resources and support in computer-mediated ways. However, the benefits of computer-mediated team boundary spanning (TBS) are mostly assumed. Empirical evidence for these benefits is in lack. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the influence of computer-mediated (instant messaging in this study) TBS on construction project performance and the underlying mechanism.

From the multiteam system (MTS) perspective, this study employs the input-process-outcome (IPO) framework and coordination theory to explore the influence of instant messaging-based team boundary spanning (IMTBS) on construction project coordination processes and project performance. A theoretical model is built and validated with a survey involving 206 construction projects.

Results show that IMTBS positively affects knowledge integration and project coordination, but negatively affects project commitment. The positive link between IMTBS and project performance is attributable to knowledge integration and project coordination. Further, project commitment is also found to negatively mediate the relationship between IMTBS and construction project performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically investigate the influence of TBS on construction project performance. As such, this study contributes to the literature on TBS in the construction field. In addition, the findings of this study unveil the double-edged characteristic of IMTBS, which should attract managers' attention. This also indicates that the form of TBS is a significant determinant of its effectiveness, which should attract scholars' attention in the future.