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This study employs a multi-method approach to investigate how perceived relationship marketing investment affects perceived relationship value and consumer gratitude, influencing consumer involvement, word-of-mouth intentions, and long-term relationships across three retail consumer types.

The study analyses a model involving 542 consumers, employing structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify distinctive factor configurations across public, semi-public, and private retail organizations.

A retailer’s investment in relationship marketing significantly enhances relationship value and consumer gratitude, leading to increased engagement and word-of-mouth intentions. Perceived benevolence moderates the effect of relationship marketing on gratitude. However, gratitude alone does not ensure long-term relationships. Using fsQCA, we identify four distinct consumer configurations, providing nuanced insights.

Retail organizations broaden relationship marketing strategies to boost perceived value and elicit consumer gratitude, influencing consumer performance outcomes.

Retail organizations should broaden relationship marketing strategies to boost perceived value and elicit consumer gratitude, influencing consumer performance outcomes.

Managers should develop strategies that lead to consumer gratitude toward the firm, such as journey mapping can help visualize retail delivery. Grateful consumers may contribute to firms’ profitability by influencing current and potential consumers in their social networks and communicating their expertise through review/feedback for improvement. Therefore, various strategies are needed to stimulate positive comments from grateful consumers about the firm’s excellent performance.

This study builds on Lawler’s affect theory, highlighting how relationship value and consumer gratitude profoundly influence exchange process outcomes. It introduces new psychological mechanisms to explain the impact of perceived relationship marketing investment on performance outcomes. Integrating these elements provides a comprehensive understanding of retailer–consumer dynamics, revealing how emotional and psychological factors shape marketing strategies and business performance. This contribution enriches theoretical frameworks and offers practical insights for enhancing relationship marketing practices.

Fashion companies have been among the first to ride the new trend and develop projects for the Metaverse, considering Generation Z (Gen Z) as a relevant target. The paper aims to investigate Gen Z consumers’ intention to use digital fashion items in the Metaverse.

The study relies on the technology acceptance model (TAM). The authors include specific aspects of the Metaverse: the user-avatar identification and the development of an alternative identity; fashion innovativeness is discussed as a moderator variable. The model is tested on Gen Z consumers, with 329 survey responses collected in 2022 and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The paper shows that the two external and explanatory variables the authors added, i.e. user-avatar identification and alternative identity, positively and directly impact the individual attitude to use digital fashion items in the Metaverse. Moreover, according to the proposed research model, the moderating effect concerning fashion innovativeness has positive and negative consequences.

Using TAM, the authors explored consumers’ perceptions (perceived usefulness and ease of use), attitudes and intentions regarding the new technology context (digital fashion in the Metaverse). This study enriched TAM with new consumer marketing constructs (user-avatar identification and alternative identity) and their relationships with consumers’ intention to use digital fashion items in the Metaverse. This study also contributed to TAM by exploring the relevance of moderating the effects of consumer fashion innovativeness on consumers’ intentions and attitudes in the novel context of digital fashion in the Metaverse. The paper contributes to the academic debate by focusing on the individual and personal sphere of the consumer moving in the Metaverse digital environment. The marketing-focused study develops research on Gen Z consumers to provide new insights and possible opportunities for marketers in the Metaverse.

The wine market has witnessed intensified competition across all aspects. However, there is a limited systematic assessment of wine marketing literature. This study employs bibliometric and thematic content evaluation methodologies to present a comprehensive summary and trend of the existing research in wine marketing.

This integrates bibliometric and thematic content analytical techniques to trace the evolutionary arc of wine marketing research, underpinned by a framework-based evaluation - the 4 Ws (what, where, why, and how) to give a thorough overview of wine marketing literature. We draw on the thematic structure of wine marketing research by conducting keyword co-occurrence, thematic, social network, and cluster-based content analyses. A total of 291 publications from peer-reviewed journals, spanning the years 2001–2023, were examined in the present study.

The bibliometric analysis is used to determine the most notable journals, authors, nations, articles, and themes, thereby offering a comprehensive understanding of the publication trends within the sphere of wine marketing. Based on the findings, this study advocates a research agenda to extend further contributions to the field of wine marketing.

The study performs a comprehensive analysis of the publication patterns, influential authors, and emerging trends within the wine marketing research field. It provides a unique insight into the evolution and development of wine marketing as a scholarly discipline, facilitating future research directions and knowledge advancement.

Conceptual and empirical research over the past 20 years has moved the social media (SM) literature beyond the embryotic stage to a well-developed academic discipline. As the lead article in the special issue in the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing on Cutting-Edge Research in Social Media and Interactive Marketing, this review and agenda article has two key goals: (1) to review key SM and interactive marketing research over the past three years and (2) to identify the next wave of high priority challenges and research opportunities.

Given the “cutting-edge” research focus of the special issue, this review and research agenda paper focused on articles published in 25 key marketing journals between January 2021 and March 2024. Initially, the search request was for articles with “social media, social selling, social commerce” located in the article title, author-selected key words and journal-selected keywords. Later, we conducted searches based on terminology from articles presented in the final review. In total, over 1,000 articles were reviewed across the 25 journals, plus additional ones that were cited in those journals that were not on the initial list.

Our review uncovered eight key content areas: (1) data sources, methodology and scale development; (2) emergent SM technologies; (3) artificial intelligence; (4) virtual reality; (5) sales and sales management; (6) consumer welfare; (7) influencer marketing; and (8) social commerce. Table I provides a summer of key articles and research findings for each of the content areas.

As a literature review and research agenda article, this paper is one of the most extensive to date on SM marketing, and particularly with regard to emergent research over the past three years. Recommendations for future research are integrated through the paper and summarized in Figure 2.

Consumer welfare is one of the eight emergent content areas uncovered in the literature review. Specific focus is on SM privacy, misinformation, mental health and misbehavior.

Emojis are quickly becoming a popular new language in social media and marketing. The capability to express emotions and make message understanding easier is one of the primary reasons for using emojis. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and involvement on customer engagement due to emojis used in digital marketing communications among Generation Z (Gen Z) in South Africa.

Following the descriptive research approach, quantitative research was used in this study. A questionnaire (self-administered) was utilized to test the effectiveness of using emojis among 1,000 young consumers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of the study yielded positive relationships between the variables, namely between trust and involvement; involvement and the perceived ease of use; involvement and perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; trust and customer engagement; perceived usefulness and customer engagement; involvement and customer engagement; customer engagement and intention to purchase; trust and intention to purchase; and perceived usefulness and intention to purchase.

This study can help organizations in emerging markets use emojis in their digital marketing communications to engage customers and stimulate intention to purchase among young people, especially the Gen Z cohort, who seek organizations and brands that understand and connect with them.

By investigating the effects of emojis in digital marketing communications, this study contributes to the customer-centric process and the literature on emoji usage while also involving a credible digital language when communicating with members of Gen Z. By extending TAM, the findings of this study contribute to the TAM literature by demonstrating that emoji usage in digital marketing communications positively influences various attitudinal associations among Gen Z consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to (1) characterize representational and nonrepresentational images; (2) review the literature on representational and nonrepresentational images; (3) introduce the theory of consumption values (TCV) framework vis-à-vis representational and nonrepresentational images; and (4) generate propositions and questions for future research based on that intersection.

Conceptual/literature review with propositions and future research directions.

The authors offer nine propositions and several associated example research questions to explore and document the important ways in which representational and nonrepresentational images can affect the five dimensions of value as outlined in the TCV.

It is the hope that this work serves as a theoretical starting point – surely, there are other theories and frameworks beyond the TCV that may share ties with types of images, which scholars should be encouraged to explore, but if the authors had attempted to document every possible theory, the result would be a limitless document. As such, the authors have honed the efforts on a broad-reaching framework, the TCV, in the attempt to balance theoretical insights with parsimony. Through exploration of these and other avenues, the authors hope that scholars and practitioners alike will benefit from elucidation of theories and effects around representational and nonrepresentational images.

Several practical implications flow from the dimensions and propositions within this work.

Representational and nonrepresentational images have featured prominently throughout visual content and communications for centuries, yet the current body of literature remains scant and underdeveloped in its relationship to marketing. The present work addresses this gap by using the TCV as an overarching framework to generate propositions and future research questions.

This research examines the effect of team diversity on customer behavior (purchase likelihood) associated with sustainable luxury products and further considers the mediating role of customer skepticism and the moderating role of the growth mindset in these relationships.

Study 1 aims to confirm the direct effect of team diversity on purchase intention and the mediating effect of customer skepticism. Featuring a fictitious brand, Study 2 seeks to test the moderating effects of a growth mindset. This research recruits participants located in the USA who have shopping experiences with a luxury product.

The findings support the notion that team diversity can mitigate customers' skepticism while enhancing purchase likelihood. Moreover, this effect is stronger among those with a growth mindset. As such, the findings suggest that communicating the heterogeneous composition of team members can benefit sustainable luxury brands.

Underpinned by the signaling theory and incremental theory, this research examines the effects of team diversity on customer behavior (purchase likelihood) related to sustainable luxury products, as well as the role of customer skepticism (as a mediator) and a growth mindset (as a moderator) in these relationships. Thus, the findings broaden the current diversity research which has predominantly focused on team decision-making and performance.

This paper aims to understand consumption values buying from informal retail markets (i.e., street vendor retailing). It also explores why consumers prefer daily necessary goods from the informal compared to the formal retail market (such as supermarkets, retail chain outlets and e-commerce).

Employing the qualitative research approach, this study collected data from nine respondents in two areas in Malaysia. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using the thematic analysis technique. Only representative verbatim codes were presented under five themes of consumption value theory.

Consumers are triggered by the convenience, ease, and exclusive products (conditional value), friendly and known relationship with informal sellers, as well as the availability of some particular food items (emotional value) and lower price and freshness of groceries (functional value) while buying from informal compared to formal retail vendor.

This study provides knowledge implications to the consumption value theory. Functional, emotional, and conditional values are the dominant components of purchase behaviour in informal compared to formal retail channels. Social values are common, whereas epistemic value is more substantial in formal retailing.

Findings are helpful for informal retail businesses to understand consumers' buying behaviour. Informal retail owners should ensure that commodities are fresh, highly affordable and available in the local communities. Building a friendly relationship with consumers would be a key to the success of this retail sector.

Authorities should support informal sellers to set up mobile retail stores in residential areas. This effort would offer greater convenience to both parties in informal businesses and ensure informal sellers' financial and social well-being.

Despite the widespread acceptance of buying goods from informal retail vendors, research on consumption value in informal retailing is largely overlooked. Previous research primarily deals with formal market phenomena due to their size and economic contribution. Consequently, current literature lacks an understanding of why consumers prefer to buy from informal retail vendors for their daily groceries when the formal retail channel could fulfil similar needs. Using a qualitative research design, this research uncovers consumers' buying motives from informal compared to formal vendors.

This study systematically explores the literature on global niche market strategies within the fashion industry to allow the mapping of niche practices and examine the benefits, success factors and characteristics of a niche strategy. Additionally, it identifies data gaps and necessitates a detailed examination to uncover areas with inadequate information.

This study utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020) method for systematic review and included 70 studies to analyze their findings.

This systematic literature review pinpoints niche strategies shaping the future of the fashion industry while developing sectors of the textile and apparel industry, fashion technology, fashion retail business, fashion media and communication, luxury fashion, sustainable fashion, adaptive clothing and transgender fashion within the fashion supply chain. A niche market strategy utilizes both pull and push marketing in the fashion industry. Scholarly literature commonly underscores the understanding of the consumer as a pivotal factor in the success of fashion niche market strategy.

This review offers a comprehensive overview of fashion niche strategy practices, aiming to inspire fashion industry professionals. It also serves as a guide for fashion industry professionals, summarizing best practices across various fashion industry sectors to help develop effective niche strategy competencies for firms.

This review thoroughly analyzes niche strategy implementation in the fashion industry, presenting an important resource for individuals new to this sector. It highlights the significance of niche strategies in improving the comprehension of emerging participants in the fashion business.

There is a dearth of research in the field of social marketing that attempts to understand why consumers prefer to use plastic packages when using online food delivery services. In addressing this issue, this study aims to investigate the role of moral disengagement, myopia and environmental apathy in the young generations' intentions to use plastic bags while ordering food online. It also examines the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of guilt in the context of the online food delivery service industry in China.

An online survey was designed to collect data, which yielded 256 usable responses. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique (SmartPLS 4.0) was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results indicate that environmental apathy, myopia and moral disengagement exert significant negative effects on consumer intention to use plastic. In addition, moral disengagement was able to mediate the links between “environmental apathy”, “myopia” and “plastic usage intention”. Lastly, consumers’ guilt was found to be a significant moderator in the link between moral disengagement and plastic usage intention.

This research holds significant importance for social marketers in the online food delivery service industry. Particularly, by understanding consumers' negative behavioural aspects, social marketers can implement marketing strategies that emphasise green practices for environmental well-being.

This is a pioneer study that focuses on the negative aspects of consumer behaviour, such as myopia, environmental apathy and moral disengagement, to understand what drives young consumers to use plastic. Additionally, this study investigates several new relationships in the social marketing field, such as the mediating effect of moral disengagement between myopia, environmental apathy and plastic usage intention. It also tests the moderating effect of guilt on the link between moral disengagement and use intention.