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Behavioral targeting has become a popular marketing strategy among brands as it enables advertisers to display ads to consumers based on their previous surfing behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of behaviorally targeted ads for luxury brands and to explore how and when behavioral targeting works.

A 2 (targeted vs non-targeted ads) ×2 (culture: China vs the Netherlands) between-subjects factorial design is conducted to test the hypothesis.

The result reveals that as for luxury brands, behavioral targeting can shorten the psychological distance and in turn lead to a more positive attitude toward the ad. However, the effect of behavioral targeting depends on the culture. In the Netherlands, behavioral targeting can enhance the attitude toward the ad by lowering the psychological distance. However, in China, these effects are mitigated.

This study contributes to the research of online luxury marketing. First, luxury brands should adapt their marketing strategy to different regional markets. In addition, luxury marketers should not worry about a shorter distance with consumers caused by the use of internet. A shorter distance does not mean to reduce an aura of mystery, but to build up a closer relationship with consumers. Luxury brands are not necessary to be aloof and supercilious like an indifferent robot. A closer relationship with consumers brings more positive effects.

The current research makes important contributions both to the scientific literature and to the luxury industry. First, this research reveals the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of behavioral targeting for luxury brands and also compares the effectiveness of behavioral targeting in two cultures, which contributes to the current cross-cultural studies and international marketing research. Second, this study also helps luxury marketers to realize the importance of behavioral targeting and to know how and when they can use this new marketing strategy in a global environment.

The purpose of this paper is to recommend behavioral targets for future interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at college campuses and to advise interventionists on how to choose between many potential behavioral targets.

The authors used the community-based social marketing (CBSM) methodology over two studies. In Study 1, the authors assessed adoption rates (i.e. penetration) and likelihood of adoption (i.e. probability) for 16 potential behavioral targets. In Study 2, the authors used quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the barriers and benefits of engagement in five of the top-performing behaviors from Study 1.

The findings suggest that an intervention to promote purchasing green energy credits (GECs) has a high potential to reduce emissions. Purchasing GECs has a small penetration (<7%) and a large impact (1,405 kgCO₂e/person/year). Compared to the other four behaviors the authors examined in Study 2, purchasing GECs is also more convenient and requires very little time. Thus, the behavior should be appealing to many individuals interested in reducing emissions or protecting the environment.

The authors performed a holistic evaluation of potential behavioral targets that included a barrier and benefit analysis, in addition to the traditional CBSM method of combining impact, probability and penetration.

In the field of behavioral disabilities, systematic direct observation (SDO) has been an integral tool for describing and explaining relationships between student and teacher behavior in authentic classroom settings. However, this method of measurement can be resource-intensive and presents a series of complex decisions for investigators. The purpose of this chapter is to review a series of critical decisions investigators must make when developing SDO protocols to address their research questions. After describing each decision point and its relevance to the measurement system, we identify trends and special considerations in the field of behavioral disabilities with respect to each decision. We organize content according to deciding what to measure, deciding how to measure it, and critical steps to prevent system breakdowns. Finally, we identify avenues for research to further the impact of SDO in the field of behavioral disabilities.

Recent reviews of field experiments aiming to entice tourists to behave in more environmentally sustainable ways conclude that attitudes – while the primary target – do not perform as well as expected. The purpose of this study is to analyse in detail when attitudes have or have not been successful as behavioural change targets and propose a conceptual framework of possible explanations. In so doing, this study represents the first theoretical – rather than empirical – challenge to the currently dominant theoretical understanding of environmentally significant tourist behaviours and offers alternative theoretical constructs tourism researchers aiming to make tourists behave in more sustainable ways could investigate in future.

The authors investigate in detail experiments where attitude-based behavioural change approaches failed. Based on the insights from this analysis, the authors propose a conceptual framework offering five potential explanations. This study also discusses alternative theoretical constructs that could be used for behavioural change interventions.

The authors derive five potential explanations for why attitudes often fail to trigger behavioural change in the context of environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour: tourists do not notice messages attempting to change their attitudes; tourists are unwilling to cognitively process behavioural change messages; tourists develop reactance to behavioural change requests; attempts to alter attitudes do not influence habits; and attempts to alter attitudes do not reduce the effort associated with displaying the desired behaviour.

This study broadens research attention to alternative theoretical constructs that may be more effective in making tourists behave in more sustainable ways and opens opportunities for new measures tourism businesses and destinations can implement to influence tourist behaviour.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first theoretical investigation of possible reasons why attitudes have performed poorly as targets of behavioural change interventions aiming to trigger environmentally sustainable tourist behaviours.

The purpose of this research is to aim to use observation, linked to quantitative risk‐based scoring, to evaluate the effectiveness of a small‐scale consumer food safety initiative based on the social marketing approach. Evaluation of intervention effectiveness is considered to be an important component of any health education initiative. The ultimate goal for social marketing initiatives is sustained behavioural change. Thus, when determining the effectiveness of community‐based social marketing interventions, direct measurement of behaviour is advocated.

A small‐scale food safety strategy using targeted interventions was piloted in a geographical test community in South Wales, UK. Targeted consumers from the community prepared a set meal in a model domestic kitchen before, immediately after, and 4‐6 weeks after implementation of the strategy. Observations of meal preparations were made using CCTV and food‐handling behaviours were recorded and assessed using a risk‐based scoring system. A quantitative evaluation of overall and specific food safety behaviours was made, and an effect size analysis provided a measure of potential intervention effectiveness.

This pilot study suggested that “one‐off” food safety interventions developed and implemented using a social marketing approach may result in a short‐term improvement of consumer food safety behaviours. Interventions targeting specific food safety behaviours may produce a “halo effect” upon other food safety behaviours that are known, yet not consistently implemented during domestic food preparation. Intervention effect was greater immediately after implementation of the strategy than 4‐6 weeks later. Use of the risk‐based scoring system and observation techniques were effective for assessing food hygiene behaviours and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions.

The use of an observational risk‐based approach to assess consumer food safety behaviours can provide a valuable tool for evaluation of the estimated immediate and long‐term effectiveness of food safety interventions on a small scale prior to launch of a larger initiative.

The performance of behavioral targeting (BT) mainly relies on the effectiveness of user classification since advertisers always want to target their advertisements to the most relevant users. In this paper, the authors frame the BT as a user classification problem and describe a machine learning–based approach for solving it.

To perform such a study, two major research questions are investigated: the first question is how to represent a user’s online behavior. A good representation strategy should be able to effectively classify users based on their online activities. The second question is how different representation strategies affect the targeting performance. The authors propose three user behavior representation methods and compare them empirically using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as a performance measure.

The experimental results indicate that ad campaign effectiveness can be significantly improved by combining user search queries, clicked URLs and clicked ads as a user profile. In addition, the authors also explore the temporal aspect of user behavior history by investigating the effect of history length on targeting performance. The authors note that an improvement of approximately 6.5% in AUC is achieved when user history is extended from 1 day to 14 days, which is substantial in targeting performance.

This paper confirms the effectiveness of BT on user classification and provides a validation of BT for Internet advertising.

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

Financial technology innovation within the developed world is driving financial markets, yet its adoption is lagging among consumers in emerging markets. At the same time, most African economies continue to be at the tail end of global financial innovations adoption. Given lagging consumer adoption of cryptocurrency in South Africa, the purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict behavioural intention to adopt cryptocurrency.

A survey instrument based on the TPB was used to collect quantitative data for predicting adoption from adult distance students at the Mancosa, Cape Town campus. For data analysis, the two-step structural equation modelling approach was used.

The findings indicate that attitude and perceived behavioural control positively impact the intention to adopt cryptocurrency. Subjective norm showed a negative non-significant influence. Overall, the results of the study show that the model has a good model fit and can be used to explain the theory.

The results of this study may not be generalisable to the wider population as it is only based on a cross-sectional study of a sample of adult students at a single institute in South Africa.

The contribution of this paper is threefold: it is one of a few studies on the behavioural intention to adopt cryptocurrency in South Africa using the TPB model, it contributes towards the use of predictive behavioural economics models in understanding consumer behaviour critical to accelerating the adoption of financial innovations, and the results of the study also inform behaviour change strategies that can be applied by practitioners or policymakers to improve adoption. Studies of this nature may lead to the development of financial innovation in emerging markets through a nuanced understanding of consumer behaviour.

This paper aims to describe the Social Branding framework, which uses lifestyle branding to change behaviour within psychographically-defined target audiences. Syke, a Social Branding programme to reduce cigarette use within the higher-risk alternative teen peer crowd in Virginia, USA, is presented as a case study with evaluation results.

Social Branding first creates an authentic lifestyle brand that appeals to a psychographically-defined audience. Once sociocultural authority is built, the lifestyle brand introduces tailored behavioural messaging using targeted messaging channels, relying on experiential marketing events and in-group influencers to align the desired behaviour with the audience’s social identity and values. The evaluation consisted of annual cross-sectional surveying (2011–2014; n = 2,266) on brand recall, liking, message comprehension and current smoking. Among those with recall, the prevalence of liking/comprehension categories (disliked and did not understand; liked or understood; liked and understood) and of smoking within categories was compared across years using chi-square tests. Multivariate logistic regression explored liking/comprehension as a predictor of smoking.

Recall, liking and comprehension were significantly higher in 2014 than in 2011, as was the proportion who both liked and understood Syke. Those who liked and understood Syke had half the odds of current smoking compared to those who disliked and did not understand it.

Syke reached, was liked by and was understood by the target audience. The Social Branding framework effectively appeals to and reaches higher-risk audiences, with learnings applicable to other behaviours and populations.