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Do consumers in countries that differ widely in cultural values and in economic development also differ in their resistance to innovations? And, if so, why? Addressing these questions will help international marketing managers formulate an appropriate strategy for a successful product introduction in diverse foreign markets. In this five‐country study, the cultural values of fatalism, traditionalism, and religious commitment were found to explain cross‐cultural variation in innovation resistance in Senegal and in the United States, but not in India, South Korea, or Thailand. Even though the results were different for every country, fatalism was generally associated with less willingness to try new non‐technical products and with higher levels of perceived product risk. Differences were found to be related to entertainment and media innovations as opposed to technical or fashion‐oriented innovations. The results do not support the contention that a global, standardised marketing strategy may be appropriate for the introduction of new products in foreign markets.

In the last decade, the scope of consumer research has been expanded beyond choice and decision‐making to include various behaviour parameters like the meanings of possession and materialism but that should be studied in the background of cultural differences. Consumer behaviour has been found to be affected by regional differences that come out of various geographic, topological and cultural factors including values, motives and lifestyle. These give rise to distinct subcultures and can be an important determinant of both consumption and non‐consumption behaviours. India being highly diversified, the differences in geographic subculture are hypothesised to be significant. Accordingly this present study extends the current literature and explores the interaction among cultural adherence, materialism, preacquisition dream propensity and pre‐purchase “wish list” all of which are hypothesised to be actually reflecting the influence of regional differences. The degree of materialism was found to be significantly correlated with the intensity of cultural adherence. Regional differences and cultural adherence, as a whole, was also found to be significantly related to materialism and prepurchase dreaming propensity. An interesting perspective was revealed from the content analysis of wish list. Implications of the findings for the study of materialism are also discussed.

In the literature of industrial management, the focus is normally given on examining the factors that contribute to product innovation acceptance. The advocates of “pro-innovation bias” assume that consumers are open to new products and are willing to accept an innovative product. However, there is a high failure rate of technological innovations and most of the technological innovations were rejected due to users' resistance. Since the inception of innovation resistance theory (IRT), the number of studies that used IRT has gained much attention from scholars. However, the findings from these studies from various contexts are inconsistent, lack universality, and a clear understanding of technological innovation barriers. The study aims to determine whether the IRT theory is indeed valid and whether IRT is culturally invariant from the Eastern and Western cultures.

A meta-analysis based on a random-effects model and studies drawn from 24 countries and/or regions with a consolidated sample size of 10,463 was conducted. Cultural invariance was identified based on subgroup analysis. Moderator analysis was performed by applying the weighted linear regression.

The results reveal that tradition is the strongest barrier followed by the value, risk, image and usage barrier. Interestingly, there is a cultural invariance in IRT from the Eastern and Western cultures. Besides, there are significant moderating effects due to the temporal factor.

The study has contributed useful theoretical and managerial implications in advancing the product innovation literature.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the innovation perception, in its different aspects, of the Spanish people. To this end, several ordered logit models have been developed to determine the extent to which socio-demographic characteristics and other aspects of innovation affect the perception of innovation.

This paper analyses the perception of individuals about innovation in Spain and the related factors. It uses 2015 and 2018 data on individuals from Spanish surveys. The data include various measures of innovation perception, age, gender, educational level and other socio-economic variables.

The results indicate that people have a better perception of innovation if they are being trained in innovation or have good information and communication technologies skills. Among the main results, there is a gender gap in the perception of innovation, as well as differences in terms of digital skills.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time of this kind of analysis in this country. The results are linked to the literature, but should nevertheless be taken into account, which is why some policy recommendations are presented below.

Working in groups and teams is a common practice in today’s college classroom, partly in order to meet the growing demand by employers that students entering the workforce have leadership and group experience. This practice has many inherent benefits and challenges. The experiences created must meet the needs of both students and other stakeholders in the world of work. This qualitative case study includes 11 undergraduate student participants (8 female and 3 male) who were enrolled in Leadership in Groups and Teams, a course at a large Midwestern research university. Participant interviews pertaining to their experiences and perceptions of groups and teams in the educational setting emphasized the value of engaging in experiential learning as a complement to traditional scholarship. Beneficial insights are suggested for future changes in the course content and structure.

Despite the efforts of governments and firms, consumer resistance toward digital innovations in the retail finance space continues to manifest rather visibly. Yet, the causes of consumer resistance toward innovations such as online procurement of financial products continue to remain under-explored. The present study attempts to address this gap by examining barriers that may constitute Indian consumers' resistance to buying financial products marketed digitally, using insurance as an exemplar. Precisely, the study measures five classic innovation resistance theory (IRT) barriers constituting consumers' resistance toward procuring digitally marketed insurance and examines the influence of consumers' demographic characteristics, measured through age and gender.

The conceptual model, resting on the theoretical proposition of IRT, was tested using data collected from 420 smartphone users. Given that, the data did not satisfy the multivariate assumptions of normality, homoscedasticity and linearity, artificial neural network approach was used for analysis. The analysis served as the basis for determining the relative importance of the five barriers in influencing consumer resistance.

The results indicated that the image barrier was the most influential barrier impacting consumer resistance, followed by usage, tradition, risk and value barriers. Moreover, as revealed by the values of correlations, the direction of influence was positive. Notably, the relationship of all barriers except tradition with consumer resistance was found to be nonlinear.

The study makes a novel contribution in two ways – one by extending IRT to a new area, i.e., resistance to buying financial products online, thereby further enhancing its applicability, and the other by exploring consumer resistance to e-procurement of life and nonlife insurance, which to the best of the authors' knowledge, has not been examined so far despite the established exigency.

The study aims to construct a model that illustrates the relationship between receiving and sharing negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), consumer resistance to innovation (CRI), and customer loyalty.

Utilizing questionnaire surveys and regression model analysis, this study examines the case of smartphones to explore the impact of customer loyalty and CRI on the spread of negative e-WOM.

The results show that when consumers receive negative e-WOM, it increases their resistance to innovation, consequently raising the probability of them sharing this negative feedback. However, strong customer loyalty mitigates this interaction. Interestingly, customer loyalty increases the likelihood of consumers sharing negative e-WOM upon receiving it. This suggests that loyal consumers tend to be more inclined to share information, regardless of its positivity or negativity.

The paper contributes by examining the mechanisms linking the receipt and dissemination of e-WOM, CRI, and customer loyalty, along with the moderating impact of customer loyalty.

Purpose – Public debates about censorship laws largely focus on their desirability and the limits set on free speech. From a historical perspective, however, the logic and contradictions inherent in these laws’ implementation, as well as their evasion, also merit attention. This chapter places at the heart of its investigation the General Communist Notification (1932) in British India which prohibited specific kinds of Communist publications from import and circulation, even more so in a context of mass anti-colonial nationalism. Methodology/Approach – Using government and intelligence agencies’ archival records, intercepted documents of the Communist Party of India, legislative debates and memoirs, this chapter illustrates the censorship of Communist literature in India at two levels: one, it sketches a broad picture of the mode and extent of the censorship of Communist literature in late colonial India (c. 1925–1947). Two, by excavating debates and processes around the treatment to be accorded to books of two British Communist writers, John Strachey and R. P. Dutt, it reveals the constraints and dilemmas of censorship of Communist literature. While doing so, it brings both Indian and British voices to the fore. Findings – This investigation provides valuable insights into the operation of laws related to specific genres of publications, provides an assessment of the success of censorship measures, and highlights the repercussions of their failure. Originality/Value – By illustrating the limited success of censorship measures, as well as the dilemmas of censors and debates among them, this chapter urges for a more nuanced and multidimensional understanding of the operation of censorship, particularly in politically fraught contexts.

To fill a gap in external atmospheric literature and provide useful information for small store retailers, this study aims to investigate the influence of external atmospheric variables, specifically window displays and landscaping (i.e., accessory vegetation), on customers’ responses towards an apparel boutique.

The Stimulus‐Organism‐Response (S‐O‐R) model proposed by Mehrabian and Russell provided the theoretical framework. Data were collected from students enrolled at an American university. Univariate analyses and simple regression analyses were used to evaluate the influence of two external variables (window display and landscaping) on consumer responses in terms of liking, mood, and patronage intentions.

Results indicated that window display and landscaping had no main effects on pleasure or arousal. However, the presence of window display and landscaping influenced respondents’ liking of the store exterior and patronage intentions. Additionally, consumers’ liking of the store exterior and mood positively influenced patronage intentions.

Store retailers, especially small apparel boutiques, would benefit from landscaping the external portion of their store and pay special attention to their window displays.

Turley and Milliman stressed the pressing need for further empirical research on external atmospheric variables because of lack of research on exterior atmospheric variables. This study focused on external atmospheric variables and their impact on shopper behaviors and thus adds to the existing literature.

The use of indoor living plants for enhancement of indoor relative humidity and the general environment of a large, modern, open plan office building are studied using a mixed-methods paradigm.

The quantitative element involved designated experimental and control zones within the building, selected using orientation, user density and users’ work roles criteria. For a period of six months, relative humidity was monitored using data loggers at 30 min intervals, and volatile organic compounds were measured using air sampling. Qualitative “perception data” of the building’s users were collected via a structured questionnaire survey among both experimental and control zones.

Study findings include that living plants did not achieve the positive effect on relative humidity predicted by (a-priori) theoretical calculations and that building users’ perceived improvements to indoor relative humidity, temperature and background noise levels were minimal. The strongest perceived improvement was for work environment aesthetics. Findings demonstrate the potential of indoor plants to reduce carbon emissions of the [as] built environment through elimination or reduction of energy use and capital-intensive humidification air-conditioning systems.

The study’s practical value lies in its unique application of (mainly laboratory-derived) existing theory in a real-life work environment.