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This study aims to empirically analyze the effects of marketing communications, such as advertisement/promotion and social network service (SNS) content, on consumer engagement (CE), brand trust and brand loyalty.

The study’s participants were 230 US and 376 Korean consumers who have used (i.e. contacted) a food service establishment (i.e. family restaurant) at least once before and who continue to use an SNS (e.g. Facebook and Instagram). This study conducted a hypothesis test using structural equation modeling analysis. In addition, hierarchical analysis was performed to further generalize and support the statistical analysis results.

Advertisement/promotion and SNS content have a statistically significant positive effect on CE. Advertisement/promotion has a statistically significant positive effect on brand trust, and SNS content has a statistically significant negative effect on brand trust. CE has a statistically significant positive effect on brand trust, and CE and brand trust have a statistically significant positive effect on brand loyalty. No statistically significant differences were shown between the US and Korean consumer groups (critical ratios for difference of path coefficient < ± 1.96). The hypothesis test results of the structural equation model analysis and hierarchical analysis were the same for the entire group.

The findings indicate that the overall mediating role of CE is important. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate which marketing communication channels are most effective in the restaurant sector.

With the empirical evidence on the purchase behaviour of tinned tomatoes, food labelling and the safety consciousness of consumers in Ghana were examined.

Primary data were obtained from 130 consumers. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and multinomial probit analysis were applied.

Consumers use tinned tomatoes for cooking because of its easy accessibility in nearby shops, guaranteed constant supply, attractive package, it being affordable/cheaper, its better colour, advertisement/promotion, and longer shelf life. There is a low level of food safety consciousness among consumers since only one-fifth read labels on tinned tomatoes very often, and one-fifth do not read labels at all. Consumers frequently check on tinned tomatoes' most essential information: brand/type, manufacturing and expiry dates, and weight/volume. Age, residential status, contact information, nutritional benefits and affordability influence the choice of retail brand of tinned tomatoes. The health label consumer segment and conventional label consumer segment were identified, with the majority being the former.

The sample size used for the study could be improved in terms of number and geographical coverage. This is because the study was limited to only one main urbanised area in Ghana. Therefore, it will be worthwhile for a further study to be conducted by comparing urban and rural consumers in Ghana and other countries within Africa, to either validate or reveal a different trajectory of consumer behaviour relevant to marketing, policy and practice.

Tomato paste (tinned tomatoes) is consumed in almost all homes in Africa, but there are food scare concerns about tinned tomatoes due to reported cases of adulteration with unhealthy materials such as starch and food colour, leading to negative health implications on consumers. This makes the reading of tinned tomato labels very crucial. Thus, it is of policy relevance to investigate consumers' reading behaviour of label information on tinned tomatoes in Ghana. However, previous studies on food labelling focussed on food and nutrition labelling and implications of food labelling on consumers' purchase behaviour, with most of them outside Africa.

The aim of this research is to examine the selection criteria of customers for Islamic home financing in the context of Pakistan and to examine these factors with respect to gender, age, income, and occupation.

This study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the choice criteria for Islamic home financing. All 18 independent variables are taken from previous research; for their analysis, descriptive statistics, independent sample t‐tests and ANOVA was used. Data were gathered from the customers of Islamic banking who use the services of Islamic home financing. The sample consists of 200 respondents. For the collection of data, a survey questionnaire with closed‐ended questions and a five‐point Likert scale was employed. The questionnaire was designed into two sections, one consisting of demographic information and the second relating to the selection criteria of Islamic home financing.

The results indicate that the shariah principle, fast and efficient services, price, bank reputation, and terms and conditions of product flexibility are the five most important factors considered by customers in choosing Islamic mortgages.

The limitations relate to the sample area for the study, which is confined to Lahore, and due to the limited sample size, the findings cannot be generalized. Second, only four banks are considered.

This study is beneficial for practitioners in Pakistan by offering insight into choice criteria for Islamic home financing. The results should also be useful for Islamic bank managers who are also policy makers, as they can study and plan for attractive schemes and policies for customers through which they can fulfill their needs and expectations. For the researcher, this study will also add to the existing body of knowledge by providing novel evidence on the selection criteria used for Islamic home financing.

This topic has never been examined in the context of Pakistan, so this study initiates the choice criteria for Islamic home financing among Pakistani banks' customers. The paper provides potentially useful information for both customers (in selecting Islamic banks) and bank managers to identify the factors needed to attract customers.

Considering the network externalities of online selling, this paper builds three different online direct selling models: manufacturer direct selling (MN model), network platform direct selling (NN model) and retailer direct selling (RN model). The optimal advertising and pricing decision and corporate profits under each selling model are investigated.

Combining the characteristics of online direct selling, this paper formulates direct selling models that are dominated by different companies as Stackelberg game models. Numerical analyses are carried out, along with the comparison of the equilibrium solutions for each model.

The authors' research shows that increasing network externalities is conducive to the development of enterprises. The network platform's profit is the lowest in the RN model and the highest in the NN one. The comparison of manufacturers' profits between the MN model and the NN model primarily depends on consumers' sensitivities for sales price and advertising promotion level. The manufacturer does not benefit from the RN model due to the lowest efficiency.

Coupled with three different online direct selling models and detailed analyses of the optimal solutions, this study has enriched the theoretical foundation of online direct selling. Moreover, this study extends the research of network externalities to the field of e-commerce, revealing the network externalities' influence on the decision-making of the e-supply chain.

The umbrella heading of this feature is used broadly to cover careers in Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations. Marketing itself could be seen as an umbrella term inseparable from and indeed drawing upon the other two disciplines. The subject Marketing is attracting increasing attention from companies and institutions where it was formerly not practised or even known. Banks have recently discovered this discipline, and we have seen a new attitude evolve towards their customers and services. Politicians have recently discovered it and, partly because of it, their candidates are now being handled like new product launches, with careful attention being paid to market research and communications and promotion media. Marketing is also rapidly spreading as an idea of importance to national economy.

This paper examined the usage of cultural values in market segmentation. The study involved young Chinese consumers of apparel market in Hong Kong. Chinese Cultural Values Scale (CCVS) (Yau 1994) was adopted as the measurement instrument of the value construct. Samples were asked to rate the importance of various store attributes in their choices of where to purchase. The analysis involved multivariate statistical methods. Respondents were segmented into four clusters and contrasted. It revealed that clusters with different value orientations rated differently the importances of ten store attributes. Implications for marketers were proposed.

This chapter focuses on critical thinking as a new, powerful, and specialized tool and technique for understanding and analyzing the subtle operations of the free enterprise capitalist market system and its ethics and morality. Everything in the world of consumers and market enterprise systems are determined by our supply–demand system that in turn are determined by our presumed limitless production–distribution and consumption (LDPC) systems. From a critical thinking viewpoint, we study the free enterprise capitalist system (FECS) as a dynamic, interconnected organic system and not as a discrete or compartmentalized body of disaggregate parts. Systems thinking with critical thinking calls for a shift of our mindset from seeing just parts to seeing the whole reality in its structured dynamic unity; both mandate that we see ourselves as active participators or partners of FECS and not as mere cogs in its wheels or as mere factors of its production processes. Critical thinking seeks to identify the “structures” that underlie complex situations in FECS with those that bring about high- versus low-leveraged changes in various versions of capitalism. Specifically, this chapter applies critical thinking to FECS as defined by its founder, Adam Smith, in 1776 to its fundamental and structural assumptions, and as supported or critiqued by serious scholars such as Karl Marx, Maynard Keynes, C. K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond (inclusive capitalism), John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia (conscious capitalism), and others.