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Green demarketing, which promotes anti-consumption as a more extreme sustainability tactic, could help consumers and societies move toward healthier consumption patterns while building strong, long-lasting relationships with consumers. As even the most committed brands find the need to oscillate between demarketing and conventional marketing for survival, this research tests how the congruency of the campaign shown on a brand's home page (owned media) and a following retargeting ad (paid media) could impact perceived congruency and further downstream effects. In doing so, this research proposes that the media context (i.e. news or shopping browsing context) in which the retargeting ad is embedded could determine how much congruency of the demarketing campaign across owned and paid media matters.

An experiment with a 2 (home page content: green vs. demarketing) × 2 (retargeting ad content: product vs. demarketing) × 2 (browsing context: shopping vs. news) between-subjects factorial design was employed with an online panel of 430 participants. The participants first saw the brand's home page content, then were assigned to a website browsing context where the retargeting ad of the brand was embedded.

In a news browsing context, users perceived higher congruency when product retargeting ads (vs. demarketing) were shown after a green home page exposure and when demarketing retargeting ads (vs. products) were delivered after a demarketing home page. The elevated perceived congruency successfully led to higher ad argument and ad attitude. These differences were not present in a shopping browsing context. These results showed that the congruency between the home page and the retargeting ad for demarketing campaigns mattered more in certain media contexts (i.e. news browsing context).

The study closes the empirical gap in demarketing brand activism campaigns by demonstrating when and how congruency between multiple owned and paid channels for demarketing campaigns impacts consumer responses. This study provides evidence of how the match of the demarketing campaign shown on a brand's home page and a following retargeting ad could impact perceived congruency and further downstream effects of ad argument and ad attitude while considering different browsing context effects.

This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of integrated marketing communication (IMC) messages in demarketing campaigns, particularly considering the consumer’s background in corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO).

A 2 (publicity type: green, demarketing) × 2 (ad type: green, demarketing) between-subjects experiment assessed the impact of green marketing and demarketing strategies on consumers with varying levels of CSRO. The study utilized a mix of green and demarketing publicity and advertisements to explore their effects on the perception of the brand’s honesty. Additionally, the research investigated the mediating role of “brand as honest” in shaping purchase intention and anticipated product satisfaction.

Results revealed that for individuals with lower CSRO, the combination of green or demarketing strategies had no significant impact on the perception of the brand’s honesty. However, for those with higher CSRO, the brand was perceived as more honest when demarketing publicity was followed by a demarketing (vs green) advertisement. These effects on purchase intention (if one needed to buy a product of this type) and anticipated product satisfaction (which could help lower repeat and follow-up purchases) occurred through the mediating role of “brand as honest.”

Based on the belief congruence theory, this research contributes to the existing literature by specifically focusing on the effectiveness of IMC messages in demarketing campaigns, considering consumers’ CSRO backgrounds. The study offers original insights into the interplay between demarketing strategies, brand perception and consumer behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted work, leading to the adoption of remote work practices and changes in power dynamics and trust. Although managing remote work has received much attention, the impact of the quality of work life on the effectiveness of hybrid workplaces has been less studied. This study aims to examine the relationship between quality of work life and psychological capital among organizational leaders using an artificial neural network (ANN) model.

This study used a cross-sectional quantitative methodology. A structured questionnaire was used to collect 268 responses from organizational leaders using the convenience sampling method. The data collected were analyzed using the ANN model in the Python interface.

The ANN model training and testing revealed that there is a positive relationship between the quality of work life and psychological capital among organizational leaders. The R-squared values for hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism were 85.19%, 82.08%, 78.55% and 81.08%, respectively, in the training set, and 81.30%, 78.95%, 76.52% and 71.41% in the testing set.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous research in the context of studying the relationship between quality of work life and psychological capital among organizational leaders using the machine learning approach – ANN model.