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The purpose of this study is to adopt a functional perspective to integrate and extend three streams of research, the first distinguishing between global affect and discrete emotional episodes, the second highlighting the capability of places to elicit emotions and the third demonstrating the differential impact of discrete emotions on consumer response. Doing so shows that four positive place emotions have a significant and variable influence on consumer purchase intentions for brands originating there.

A focus group pilot corroborates that places relate to contentment, enchantment, happiness and pride, which impact consumer response. Study 1 uses landscape photographs to show the four place emotions influence purchase intention for bottled water. Study 2 retests the impact of place emotions, using short vignettes and establishes the moderating role of product hedonic nature. Study 3 replicates emotion effects, corroborating their non-conscious nature and establishing their impact in the presence of place cognitions.

Together, the empirical studies provide evidence for effects of four discrete place emotions, especially with hedonic products and under conditions of cognitive load. Effects are robust when a person’s mood, buying volume, category knowledge, impulse buying tendencies and place cognitions are included as controls.

The study contributes to a better understanding of the emotional dimension of origin effects by adopting a novel, theory-based perspective on discrete positive place emotions impacting consumer response.

Managers invest substantially in places to elicit positive feelings, gravitating toward the view that all they need to do is create a global positive effect with consumers. The study informs this perspective by demonstrating how discrete emotions influence consumer response.

This study is among the first to examine discrete positive place emotions as possible drivers of consumers’ purchase intention.

With limited research on help-seeking in the social marketing domain, this research takes a unique perspective through the lens of McGuire’s psychological framework examining the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (or perceived help-seeking benefits) influencing help-seeking attitudes and behaviour in at-risk gamblers. This paper aims to examine the role that response efficacy has on the relationship between perceived help-seeking benefits and help-seeking behavioural intentions.

Study 1 used focus groups to explore the positive influence of help-seeking in at-risk gamblers. Studies 2 and 3 used online surveys to further test the direct and indirect impacts of perceived help-seeking benefits on attitudes and behavioural intentions. Structural equation modelling with multi-group analysis (low/high response efficacy) tested the hypotheses.

Both cognitive and affective psychological motives manifest as distinct intrinsic (well-being, self-esteem and self-control) and extrinsic motivators (social influence) that influence at-risk gamblers’ help-seeking attitudes and intentions to seek professional services. These perceived benefits influence help-seeking intentions directly (for those high in response efficacy) and indirectly via serial attitudinal mediators.

The results provide a guide for practitioners to enhance the promotion of professional help. Practitioners should develop marketing communication messages centred on the specific psychological needs of at-risk gamblers to encourage help-seeking behaviour including an emphasis on assertion, affiliation, independence, utilitarian, tension reduction, ego defence and consistency.

This research is the first, to the knowledge, to examine the psychological motivations that encourage help-seeking in at-risk gamblers, demonstrating that both preservation and growth motives influence help-seeking attitudes and the decision to act.

Although international product-harm crises have become more common, the influence of the country image (CI) associated with foreign goods in such crises remains under researched. This study aims to investigate the extent to which the CI of a foreign made product influences consumers’ attribution of blame and trust and, ultimately, their future purchase intentions after the product is involved in a crisis.

A 2 (country) × 3 (crisis type) quasi experimental design was used, with data collected from Australia (n = 375) and China (n = 401).

CI can influence attribution of blame, subsequent levels of trust and likely purchase intentions. Australian and Chinese consumers have different views when it comes to trusting a company or placing blame, depending on the country of origin or the type of crisis. The direct and positive effect of CI on consumer purchase intentions following a product-harm crisis is sequentially mediated by attribution of blame and trust. Trust is the most powerful influence on future purchase intentions in both samples.

In this research, only one type of crisis response strategy (no comment) was used. Thus, the results of this study must be viewed with caution when considering outcomes relating to other response options. Additionally, the testing was limited to only two samples, focussing on three countries (England, China, Vietnam), and one product context using a hypothetical brand. Further, despite our reasonable sample size (N = 776), the number of respondents represented in each cell would still be considered a limitation overall.

When developing crisis response strategies, managers should take into account the influence of a positive/negative source CI in driving attribution and trust. To minimize the impact of crisis on future purchasing decisions, organizations can leverage positive biases and mitigate negative ones, aiming to maintain or restore trust as a priority.

The study provides cross-country understanding about the significant role of CI during a product-harm crisis in relation to subsequent consumers’ blame attribution, their trust in the focal organization and ultimately their future purchase intentions.