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This study aims to examine how employee advocacy, via the value and credibility of their professional social media content, affects their followers’ attitudes toward the brand through the mediating role of parasocial relationships.

A quantitative research was used, and questionnaires were answered by LinkedIn users who follow at least one person they consider to be an employee advocate. A total of 390 responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that the credibility of an employee advocate positively impacts the parasocial relationship between the user and the employee, which, in turn, impacts the user’s attitude toward the brand represented by the employee advocate.

The results of this study suggest that employee advocacy on LinkedIn can shape positive attitudes toward the advocate’s brand. These findings suggest that organizations should consider employee content and credibility as strategic tools in marketing communications.

This study delineates the linkages between the credibility and content value of the employee advocate, the parasocial relationship they have with followers and their attitude toward the brand. This research contributes to the literature on employee advocacy and studies on the concepts of parasocial interactions and relationships.

The purpose is to investigate the impact of the value co-creation behaviour of parents on a set of education service outcomes, including perceived school reputation, parent satisfaction and teacher competence.

An online survey of 932 parents of primary and secondary school children was conducted. Canonical correlation analysis (general linear model) was used to test the impact of parental involvement in value co-creation behaviour on education service outcomes.

Value co-creation behaviour has a positive impact on education service outcomes, but the impact differs depending on the type of behaviour. Parent citizenship behaviour positively affects satisfaction, school reputation and perceived teacher competence. However, parent participation behaviour positively affects satisfaction with the school and perceived teacher competence.

The study used self-reported data from parents, which may be biased and subject to errors. Future research could use more objective measures such as administrative records or teacher reports. The study's results are limited to one country, highlighting the need for further research in multiple countries.

The study's findings have implications for education service providers in terms of the importance of supporting parental involvement in their child's school life via value co-creation behaviour.

The study contributes to the service dominant logic, value co-creation theory and educational marketing literature by providing the detailed empirical evidences of parents' value co-creation outcomes in the context of the primary and secondary schools.

Functional foods have been marketed as promoting health and reducing the risk of disease. While the market of functional foods is increasing across the globe, little is known about how actual and subjective health status are related to functional food choices and existing research evidence is inconsistent. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to systematically explore the relationship between functional food choices and perception related dimensions vs medical dimensions.

The study used data collected from a large-scale mail survey in Japan (N = 8,368) and a representative Internet survey in Lithuania (N = 900). It used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed conceptual model.

The general results indicated that functional foods could be used to maintain one’s subjective health status – the frequency of using functional food products was positively related to consumers’ subjective health status (p = 0.04). However, if consumers were experiencing health-related issues (self-reported disease symptoms or current medical treatment), there was no systematic relationship between such experience and the usage of functional food products.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to systematically analyze the relationship between subjective health status, self-reported disease symptoms, current medical treatment and the frequency of using different functional food product groups. The findings indicated that it is important to simultaneously consider different underlying factors, such as specific to functional food targeted disease symptoms and specific food product groups, which contributed to a more thorough understanding of functional food consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social media marketing on new venture performance utilizing Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) theory.

A survey approach was employed, and questionnaires were sent out to the representatives of new ventures established in the previous six years at the time of data collection. Measures were adapted from SCP theory and the measurement model examined. A total of 248 responses were analyzed using structural equation modelling (LISREL 11).

The results indicate that social media marketing capabilities have a positive impact on the marketing performance of new ventures through a mediating effect of social media marketing performance. Thus, social media marketing performance affects new venture performance through marketing performance.

This research supports the vitality of social media in the lives of new firms and the importance of social media when executing marketing activities. The perceptive measurement of social media marketing capabilities on the firm level can be useful for new ventures to evaluate their competencies related to social media, and thus help firms improve those capabilities over time.

This research contributes to the existing knowledge on linkages between social media marketing capabilities and new venture performance acknowledging the role of a turbulent market environment. Therefore, the recognition of industry structure articulated by a turbulent market environment, social media marketing capabilities and social media support for competitive marketing strategy answers the question of how social media marketing capabilities drive competitive marketing strategy and subsequently influence performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of channel performance in a multi‐level marketing (MLM) channel.

Personal interviews with 105 distributors from network marketing companies operating in Lithuania, provided data for this study. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation model (LISREL).

The findings suggest that trust, locus of control and shared values are moderated by channel commitment of the downstream channel members.

This study is limited to one country under investigation, therefore further research needs to be extended to other economies. Researchers might also identify additional variables affecting channel performance as well as undertake a longitudinal approach of the focal areas of commitment and channel performance.

This study is of managerial interest, as the framework suggested in this study may be applied by MLM firms to monitor their networks and evaluate multi‐level channel performance.

MLM channels offer a unique alternative and underutilized distribution channel for many companies, yet limited theoretical research has been accomplished in this arena. MLM channels are very interpersonal by their very nature and thus we extend the relationship marketing paradigm to MLM. In addition, transitional economies tend to have less developed marketing channels, and therefore are prime targets for MLM. Thus, this research specifically examines MLM in a transitioning economy.

The aim of this study is to develop a structural model and test it in the parcel delivery services business‐to‐business market in order to identify how services quality influences relationship quality and to determine the interactions between constructs of relationship quality.

A structural model was developed using frameworks suggested by Gwinner et al., Hennig‐Thurau et al. and Bingguang et al. Online survey research was employed to survey the respondents. Structural equation modeling was employed to estimate structural model and test hypotheses.

The research demonstrated that services quality does not have direct influence on commitment, but impacts it indirectly through various relational benefits. The results imply that services quality is not enough for commitment‐based loyalty to develop. Relational benefits are essential. The results demonstrated that special treatment benefits, social benefits and confidence benefits are intricately related and have effect on each other. Main findings of the study demonstrated that in parcel delivery services industry there exist context‐specific relationships between constructs of relationship quality. The research found out that the interactions between constructs of relationship quality in parcel delivery services industry are different. Moreover, the empirical study confirmed the existence of industry‐specific direct and indirect loyalty drivers.

The developed relationship quality model is intentionally limited to parcel delivery services industry in order to examine industry‐specific relationships between the constructs. The model could be extended in order to model competition and effects of change in relationship quality on customer life‐time‐value.

The model can be used by managers of parcel delivery companies to assess loyalty and commitment of clients.

This study is the first attempt to identify how services quality influences relationship quality, test relationships between constructs of relationship quality and examine context‐specific relationship in the parcel delivery market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on internal employee motivation.

A survey was conducted among 274 employees from medium and large enterprises engaged in CSR activities in Lithuania. The research hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analysis using factor scores from a principal component factor analysis.

The findings suggest that internal and external CSR activities positively correlate with internal employee motivation. Internal CSR was found to be stronger related to internal employee motivation than all the external CSR dimensions. Regarding the external CSR, customer‐related activities indicated stronger correlation with internal employee motivation than local communities and business partners related CSR activities. The weakest relation was found between internal employee motivation and business partners related CSR activities.

This study is limited to one country under investigation, therefore further research needs to be extended to other countries. The survey is conducted in the period of economical recession. In order to assess the generality of the findings, it is suggested to repeat the research in a stable economy situation.

Executives could use the results of the research to resolve practical dilemmas by giving priority to the areas of CSR which facilitate employee internal motivation enhancement.

By revealing the importance of CSR activities to employee internal motivation enhancement, this study contributes to the CSR investigation arena.