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One of the greatest challenges that global brands face as they expand into new markets and segments is overcoming social and cultural barriers that prevent them from being accepted by consumers. By drawing on theories of Mead’s prefigurative cultures, reverse socialization and symbolic interactionism, this paper aims to investigate the process of reverse socialization, the antecedents and its impact on parents’ attitude toward the reverse socialized brand.

Using in-depth interviewing method, data were collected from 20 Chinese consumers by capturing the accounts of both parents and their children involved in reverse socialization. The interpretive content analysis was used to study the data.

Reverse socialization exerts positive influence on brand attitude and facilitates parents’ adoption of the socialized brand. The brand has acquired additional symbolic meanings for Chinese consumers, which in turn enhances self-brand connections among them.

Managerial implications include strategies for cross-cultural marketers to maximize the acceptance of brands by elderly consumers through reverse socialization and efficiently expand the brands’ market into more segments.

As the first research of its kind (to the authors’ knowledge), the findings fill a gap in the marketing literature by demonstrating adult children’s influence on parents through reverse socialization.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the combined effect of game-interactivity and game-product congruence on consumers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance in the context of in-game advertising.

A 2 (interactivity: high or low)×2 (game-product congruence: high or low) between-subject measures design is used. In total, 140 students participated in the study. A 2×2 between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that for a high-interactive game, congruent condition results in higher brand advocacy and superior brand acceptance than the incongruent condition. However, for a low-interactive game, both congruent and incongruent conditions will result in the same level of brand advocacy as well as equal levels of brand acceptance.

This paper provides implications for theory as well as practice by providing the empirical evidence of the combined effect of game-interactivity and game-product congruence on consumers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance from the perspective of attention and elaboration. If higher brand advocacy and greater brand acceptance are the objectives of the brand managers, then a high interactive with congruent brand placements would be the right approach for effective advergames.

This investigation contributes to non-traditional advertising media literature, specifically to the area of branded entertainment, like brand placements in digital games by examining and exploring the influence of game-specific factors on players’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance. Moreover, this paper is one of the first to reveal the real-time roles of game-specific factors in generating gamers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance from the perspectives of attention and elaboration, in an emerging marketing context, like India.

This study aims to examine how perceived brand credibility (PBC) moderates the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and identifies the influencing variables that consumers consider while adopting IoT products and services. The study uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) and extends its constructs by investigating the role of PBC to measure the intention to use IoT.

To test the proposed relationships, data was gathered using the survey method, from respondents in India, an emerging market. The data was analyzed using partial least square based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Moreover, the study measured the moderating effect of PBC and evaluated the effect of control variables – gender and degree of exposure to IoT.

The study found that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) have a significant influence on customers’ attitudes towards using IoT devices and services. Further, PBC moderates the relationship between attitude and behavioral intention to utilize IoT devices and services. Both components of PBC – brand trustworthiness and trust – have significant moderating effect on the adoption of IoT-based services and devices.

The study tests TAM empirically in a new setting and extends it further. Introducing PBC as a moderating variable improves the understanding of the way consumers adopt IoT technology and hence strengthens the predictive power of TAM. Thus, the study provides rich insights for businesses to effectively position their IoT devices and services among their target users.

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors leading to adoption of social networking sites (SNS) by librarians of entrepreneurial libraries to provide support to business community in their market research. Identification of these adoption factors will help to design SNS in the way that led to their seamless diffusion in university libraries, making them capable of providing reliable and useful market knowledge to the business community.

To meet the research objectives, this study is based on the technology adoption model (TAM). The survey was conducted with 50 librarians of various universities across Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia, sampled through non probabilistic sampling techniques-purposive and snowball sampling. The collected data are analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the formulated structural equation model using SmartPLS 3.2.9 software version.

The results indicate that university librarians have high perception about usefulness and ease of using SNS for meeting their business objectives. The perceived usefulness (PU) is solely based on the prolonged adoption of SNS technology in personal lives of the librarians. The perceived ease of use (PEU) is triggered by the increasing quality of evolving SNS technology, especially user friendliness. The prolonged use of technology, increasing market entry of brands and improving quality of SNS will overcome librarian resistance to use SNS for market research related support to business community. Evolving technologies are more likely to be adopted seamlessly in entrepreneurial libraries.

This study has implications for librarians, entrepreneurs and technology providers. Librarians should have flexible technology adoption policies in place to keep technology adoption synchronized with changing market conditions. Entrepreneurs should share clear and accurate business needs as well as practicing ethical and lawful business practices. They should also help libraries to gain new skills to make future adoption easier. Technology providers should focus on improving the quality of their technology by increasing their functional utilities, performance and reliability as well as making them more user-friendly.

This study investigates technology adoption of SNS in libraries from the perspective of providing market research related services to entrepreneurs rather than just digitalizing library services for student users.

As branded apps emerge as a marketing tool in the foodservice industry, the effort to manage them increases in the long term. This study aims to explore the determinants to continue the use of foodservice apps by adopting the post-acceptance model (PAM) of information systems continuance and the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

Based on a sample from a survey of 329 participants who use foodservice apps, a structural equation model analysis tested the relationships between the core constructs of both models.

The findings revealed the user confirmation of expectation leads to continued use of the app through satisfaction. Perceived usefulness, a key technology acceptance measure, however, has no direct effect on usage but on attitude. Among the salient behavioral beliefs of the TPB, only attitude and perceived behavioral control promoted continued use of the foodservice apps.

The study provided a framework to establish a practical strategy for foodservice firms by specifying important aspects, which induce the use of branded apps. Given that it is vital to meet users’ expectations to build branded-app loyalty, continuous interaction with users is required along with customized marketing.

On the basis of the PAM and the TPB, the findings contributed to developing and testing a model that motivates users to continue the use of foodservice branded apps. The study is significant, in that it enriched the PAM by integrating cognitive aspects to explore the psychological mechanisms in the post-adoption phase of foodservice app users.

This study aims to examine the drivers and outcomes of the usage intention of branded mobile applications (apps), revealing findings of theoretical and practical relevance. First, it uncovers the specific technological features that underpin the perceived usefulness and ease of use of branded apps driving (directly and indirectly) usage intention. Second, it outlines two key outcomes that are relevant to the strategic management of branded apps: willingness to recommend the app and willingness to pay to continue using the app.

This study uses data randomly derived from a panel of one million UK consumers, analyzed via structural equations modeling. The unit of analysis was individual apps prominently displaying a brand identity. The study tested indirect relationships between the key drivers considered and usage intention via perceived usefulness and ease of use.

Consumers who view branded apps as protecting their privacy, customizable and compatible with what they do, will have stronger perceptions of usefulness and ease of use and greater intention to use the app. These effects also occur indirectly. Furthermore, usage intention drives the willingness to recommend the app and to pay to continue using it.

To influence usage intention, managers can improve the perception of usefulness of branded apps by protecting consumer privacy and improving the app’s design and its compatibility with people’s needs and lifestyle. Managers can also enhance the perception of ease of use of the branded app by heightening its security and ubiquity. Combined, these factors can enhance (directly and indirectly) the intention to use the app, which will lead to the willingness to recommend the app and pay for it.

This study extends previous research by examining factors driving the intention to use branded apps and the resulting outcomes. It also offers a model that yields predictions for individual branded apps (not the brand powering the app), thus providing practical recommendations on how to manage, in general, apps with a brand identity.

The advent of social media brought a new perspective for guerrilla marketing since it allows ads to reach more people through the internet. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of guerrilla marketing in social media on brand image.

A conceptual model was developed based on the information acceptance model (IACM). The research model was validated through structural equation modelling based on the surveys of 385 university students.

The results support the proposed model and confirm that guerrilla marketing in social media has a positive effect on both functional and symbolic brand image.

This study was conducted with university students. This sample was deemed appropriate since the study had to be conducted with people who use social media. However, although the age group of university students constitutes the majority of social media users, they may not fully represent the whole population. Also, this study showed four guerrilla marketing examples to participants before they commenced filling in the questionnaire. Although the authors selected the most generic guerrilla advertisements during the pilot tests and eliminated the ones which were difficult to understand, this can still be considered as limitations of the study.

This study has both theoretical and managerial implications. First, most of the guerrilla marketing studies focus on consumers and neglect possible impacts on brands. In order to fulfil this gap in the literature, this study investigates the influence of guerrilla marketing in brand image. Besides, this study contributes to IACM by expanding its scope through testing its determinants on “brand image”. It proves that IACM is valid for use in different contexts. On the managerial side, this study provides marketers with a frame of reference to understand the information adoption process of guerrilla marketing on social media.

Current studies regarding the influence of guerrilla marketing mostly focus on consumers, where the possible impacts on brands have been relatively neglected. This study attempts to fill this gap by focussing on the brand image.

This paper attempts to examine the relationship between consumer innovativeness and consumers' acceptance of brand extensions.

This is a conceptual paper that builds upon the extant literature of consumer innovativeness and brand extensions. A number of research propositions are developed in this thought‐provoking work.

It is proposed that consumer innovativeness exerts considerable influence on consumers' acceptance of brand extensions when extension distance and types of extensions are examined. In addition, product information availability and interpersonal communication/influence (i.e. informative and normative) moderate the relationship between consumer innovativeness and consumers' acceptance of brand extensions.

This study can help marketers develop appropriate and effective marketing strategies to influence consumers' acceptance of brand extensions. This study serves to provide guidance for brand managers and marketers alike in evaluating the potential success of their extended brands. On the other hand, the paper draws from the extant literature and theoretical discussion to develop research propositions. This approach might limit its depth and scope.

As the use of brand extensions intensifies in the marketplace, it is imperative to understand how consumer innovativeness exerts influence on acceptance of brand extensions. This study fills the research void in the literature and contributes to the extant literature by analyzing the relationship between consumer innovativeness and consumers' acceptance of brand extensions.

Considering the strikingly high number of new products and services that are withdrawn from the market very soon after launch, the aim of this paper is to study how early market survival is affected by decisions regarding a particular launch tactic, i.e. the configuration of the adoption network through which the innovation is commercialized. The paper also investigates how the impact on early market survival of this launch tactics depends on the maturity of the technology underlying the new service.

The conceptual model relating the variables “size of the adoption network”, “brand awareness of the organizations comprised in the adoption network”, “maturity of the underlying technology” and “early market survival” is tested in the empirical setting of the Italian mobile value added services (VAS) market, utilizing a longitudinal dataset which includes more than 28,000 new VAS launched between 2003 and 2007.

The paper shows that increasing the number of external organizations involved in the adoption network is a particularly effective tactical decision for new services based on very novel technologies, whereas building an adoption network that involves organizations with high brand awareness in the eyes of prospective customers positively impacts the early market survival of services relying on mature technologies.

Besides providing practical insight to product and marketing managers seeking to maximize the chances of early survival of the services they are responsible for, the paper has interesting implications for launch decisions and diffusion of innovation research.

The quality and reliability of medical communication for branded drug adoption is extremely critical, not only for safeguarding patient interests but also for ensuring successful investments by multinational pharmaceutical firms. This paper predicts doctors’ prescribing intentions based on communication relationship among factors for late entrant branded drugs, compared with pioneering brand choice, for treating chronic diseases such as hypertension.

The constructs were validated with structural equation model for a sample set of 151 doctors from private hospitals in the National Capital Region of India.

This research reveals communication drivers and draws on theory to suggest that the doctor’s behavioural prescription intentions, subject to social influence from their colleagues, leads to lower adoption responses.

Given that limitations on sample size are often unavoidable, this study reveals that, due to the availability of substituting brands, alternate therapeutic routes and lack of availability of a practical guide for prescription, a communication model needs to be developed and validated.

Furthermore, managers of pharmaceutical firms should differentiate between the effects of direct and indirect communication–integration efforts for minimizing uncertainty in drug adoption in the context of the fragmented and unpredictable Indian market.

A late entrant may lose its dominant market share to alternate brands from other suppliers due to communication gaps in an unstructured market, leading to low adoption intentions. The study provides business theorists, drug marketers and health-care professionals with unique insights into specific communication drivers of prescribing decisions, aimed at ensuring reliable and appropriate drug adoption in Indian markets.