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This research delves into the nuanced effects of positive goal framing quantity in advertising on consumer reactions towards new products, categorizing them into incrementally new products (INPs) and really new products (RNPs). It moves beyond the traditional binary evaluation of advertising effectiveness, offering a more intricate analysis of consumer engagement based on product novelty.

Employing a comprehensive dataset encompassing 461 digital video advertisements from six leading technology-centric firms, this study employs content analysis alongside hierarchical polynomial regression to dissect the dynamics between the volume of positive goal framings and consumer engagements. This examination is contextualized within the spectrum of product innovation, offering insights into the differential consumer behaviors elicited by INPs and RNPs.

The investigation uncovers a non-linear, inverted U-shaped correlation between the volume of positive goal framings and consumer responses. This relationship exhibits variability in its intensity between INPs and RNPs, with INPs demonstrating a more pronounced response variability around a higher inflection point on the curve. This pattern underscores the complex interplay between goal framing and product novelty in shaping consumer perceptions and actions.

This study pioneers the exploration of goal framing within the realm of product advertising, shifting the analytical lens from its traditional roots in health and medicine to the intricacies of consumer behavior in response to advertising. By introducing a distinctive classification of product newness through INPs and RNPs, the research augments current understanding of effective advertising strategies, delivering profound insights for marketers and advertisers in tailoring their campaigns to align with consumer expectations and product characteristics.

This paper aims to explore whether products branded with handwritten scripts suffer more from the effects of product-harm crises than other brands. Most studies on handwritten scripts focus on their positive effects, such as humanizing a product or creating an emotional tie with consumers. However, seldom have researchers investigated the negative effects of handwritten scripts. This paper goes some way to filling this gap.

Five experimental studies were conducted to test three hypotheses. These experiments provide evidence of the negative effects of handwritten scripts. In addition, they reveal the mechanisms that lead to these outcomes and outline the boundary conditions of the negative effects.

Framed by attribution theory, three conclusions can be drawn from the experiments: when a product-harm crisis occurs, consumers react with greater negativity toward the brand using handwritten scripts than to those using machine typefaces. The negative effect is explained by a serial mediation process that follows the pattern: typeface → perceived humanization → brand responsibility → brand attitude. The negative effect decreases when the crisis is perceived to be an accident.

This paper enriches the theory of marketing in terms of both handwritten scripts and product-harm crises, providing valuable guidance for enterprises that use handwritten scripts in their marketing activities.

This paper aims to demonstrate both the positive and negative effects of loyalty programs. The study proposes a model to demonstrate why and how loyalty program strategies can result in good customer relationships and customer entitlement behaviors. Various configurations of three different loyalty program strategies are analyzed – tangible rewards, preferential treatment and perceived status.

The authors’ hypotheses were tested by analyzing the survey data of 152 frequent flyer program members in China through partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to test different configurations of the three loyalty program strategies.

A net effects analysis demonstrates that loyalty programs are a double-edged sword. While loyalty programs can improve customer relationships, strategies based on perceived status have a positive relationship to customer entitlement, which may lead customers to expect extraordinary efforts from companies, such as greater discounts and extra privileges. Using fsQCA, the authors determined four sufficient configurations of high level of relationship quality and high level of customer entitlement, which also support their findings.

First, this study expands the research on loyalty programs by providing an examination of their positive and negative consequences. Second, by proposing the configuration paths that lead to high level of relationship quality and high level of customer entitlement using fsQCA, this research enriches research on the net effects of loyalty programs, providing researchers and practitioners with a more comprehensive understanding of loyalty programs. Third, this research extends the concept of customer entitlement to the context of buyer–seller relationships by introducing perceived status as an important antecedent of customer entitlement and by identifying four sufficient configurations.

The value of online reviews has been well documented by academics and practitioners. However, to maximise the benefits of consumer reviews, online sellers must avoid the negative consequences associated with customer feedback, such as reputation loss, or product returns after purchase. In developing a better understanding of the relationships between online reviews and their potential for negative impacts, this research aims to explore product returns. Through a quantitative model, this research demonstrates why online reviews can result in product return behaviours.

The hypotheses were tested via two studies. In Study 1, the authors examine the direct effects of review valence and review volume on product returns by analysing secondary data on 4,995 stores on China's Taobao.com. Study 2 further extends and validates the findings of Study 1 with a survey sample of 795 participants across several online shopping platforms. This analysis examines the mechanics and conditions that influence the relationships between online reviews and product returns through partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results show that both review valence (i.e. average star ratings) and the number of reviews can increase the probability of product returns due to the high expectations that result from positive online reviews. Further, the effect of review valence on product returns is stronger for first-time purchasers at a store. In terms of mitigation, the analysis shows that bilateral communications between sellers and buyers can temper the unrealistic expectations set by positive reviews, leading to fewer product returns.

This research adds to the literature on online reviews by exploring the negative consequences of online reviews and the role they play in online purchasing decisions. The findings also provide direct evidence as to why online reviews can result in more product returns, adding clarity to extant research which contains conflicting conclusions as to how online reviews affect product return behaviours.

Although brand alliance has become quite ubiquitous in the marketplace and attracted considerable interest amongst researchers, little research has investigated its effects on the brand equity of partners. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate why and how brand alliance affects the brand equity of the partners in an alliance.

The hypotheses were tested by analysing the data of 260 participants in China, which were collected from an experiment.

This research draws five conclusions: the brand equity of a pre-alliance partner has a positive effect on brand alliance evaluation; product fit and brand fit amongst partners also have a positive effect on brand alliance evaluation; alliance brand evaluation has a positive impact on the brand equity of a post-alliance brand; the brand equity of a pre-alliance partner exerts a positive effect on the brand equity of a post-alliance partner; and the spillover effect of brand alliance for a weak brand is stronger than that of a strong brand in an asymmetrical brand alliance.

This research introduces brand equity into the field of brand alliance. From the perspective of consumer perception, the authors measure brand equity and provide insights for a company to effectively enhance brand equity through brand alliance. The authors explore ways to increase the brand equity of partners through brand alliance. Additionally, the authors discuss the spillover effects of the brand equity of partners in symmetric and asymmetric brand alliances.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been rapidly spreading around the world for more than a year. However, few studies have explored the connection between the perceived severity of COVID-19 and purchase intention of the health-related products, for example, organic food. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework, this study examines the influencing mechanism of perceived severity of COVID-19 on purchase intention of organic food.

To evaluate the proposed model, an online survey was utilized to collect 1,104 valid questionnaires from China.

The findings suggest that (1) the perceived severity of COVID-19 has a significant positive impact on purchasing intention; (2) health consciousness acts as a mediating role between perceived severity of COVID-19 and purchasing intention and (3) perceived inconvenience negatively moderates the connection between perceived severity and purchase intention.

The findings of this paper provide new insights into the positive effects of COVID-19 and pave the way for governments and enterprises to promote the purchase behaviour of organic food.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of greenwashing behaviour of one brand on purchase intention of green products from other brands. Further, this study tests the mediating role of greenwashing perception of the entire industry and the moderating role of brand attitudes towards other brands in the industry for the above-mentioned relationship.

A sample of 377 participants was utilised in three studies. The study analysed the data using SPSS 18.0 to test the research hypotheses.

The study suggests that greenwashing behaviour of one brand negatively affects consumers’ purchase intention of the green products from other brands in the industry. It is also indicated that the greenwashing perception of the entire industry partially mediates the relationship between greenwashing behaviour of a brand and purchase intention of green products from other brands. In addition, the study shows that the relationship between greenwashing perception of the entire industry and purchase intention of the green products from other brands is negatively moderated by brand attitudes towards other brands in the industry.

This study provides useful insights for the managers that firms can learn the way to alleviate greenwashing spillover effect through the brand attitudes to enhance green purchasing behaviour.

The study is perhaps the first one to study the existence of the spillover effect of brands’greenwashing behaviour. The study also reveals the influencing mechanism of greenwashing spillover effect of a brand.

Reducing food waste is one of the critical challenges of campus canteens. This study aims to test an extended theory of planned behaviour that incorporates moral norm, food taste and campus food-saving climate to understand the influence factors of food waste behaviour on campuses.

To evaluate the proposed model, an online survey was utilized to collect 513 valid questionnaires.

The findings suggest that (1) attitudes towards food waste, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control have a significant influence on intention to reduce food waste; (2) Moral norm and food taste are shown to have a favourable effect on the intention to reduce food waste; (3) Food waste behaviour is significantly determined by intention to reduce food waste; (4) Campus food-saving climate negatively moderates the relationship between intention to reduce food waste and food waste behaviour.

This study paves the way to enhance the understanding of the factors of food waste among college students. In addition, this study develops practical strategies to prevent large amounts of food from being wasted on campus.

The purpose of this research is to help better understand the impact of online user reviews on sales of search goods.

This research is based on digital camera sales data collected from amazon.com and two studies are included in this research. The first study is based on a static model and sample data from one time stamp. The second study is based on two sample data collected from two different time stamps, and a dynamic model is proposed.

The results from the first study reveal that the average online customer review, the number of online reviews, the price and the camera's physical properties such as the number of pixels and the optimal zoom number (but not LCD screen size) have significant influence on digital camera sales. The results from the second study show that the sales from the previous period are an important indicator for future sales. In addition, change in price, change in average online review rating and change in the total number of online reviews are all significantly associated with future sales.

The research reveals that there is a significant relationship between the online user review and sales of search goods, and the influence of online user reviews on search goods sales is different from that on experience goods. It also recognizes that the product specifications influence the sales of search goods. In addition, the research on search goods shows that price at the specific time and price changes are significant factors affecting sales.

The research indicates that retailers should provide channels for, and encourage, customer online reviews for search goods to improve sales. It is also beneficial for online retailers to provide detailed product attributes to help their customers make the purchase decision. Carefully designed and executed price promotions could also be effective ways to improve sales of searchable goods.

This study is one of the first attempts to investigate the impact of online user reviews on sales of search goods.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare new modified polypropylene (PP) with phenolic microspheres (PFMs). Furthermore, the crystallinity and mechanical properties of PP modified by fillers (silicon dioxide [SiO₂] and light calcium carbonate [CaCO₃], respectively) have also been investigated and compared.

For effective toughening, three different fillers were added into the PP matrix. PP composites were prepared through melt blending with double-screw extruder and injection moulding machine.

It was found that with the addition of 3 Wt.% PFM, the impact strength was maximum in all PP composites and increased by 1.4 times compared to pure PP. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and polarised optical microscopy (POM) analysis confirmed that 3 Wt.% PFM, 3 Wt.% SiO₂ and 2 Wt.% CaCO₃ were optimal to add in PP and PFM to give the best compatibility with PP.

PFM particles not only are tougher and less brittle and can offer other advantages such as enhanced machinability, but also are important organic materials and have a good compatibility with polymer for reinforcing polymer properties.

The method developed provided a simple and practical solution to improving the toughness of PP.

There will be thermoplastic plastics with higher toughness in domestic, packaging and automotive applications, particularly at lower temperatures.

The PP modified by tiny amounts of fillers in this work had high toughness, which can be applied as an efficient material widely used in domestic, packaging and automotive applications.