Search results

This paper aims to examine the differential effects of the type of gift (material vs experiential) offered on Snapchat and Instagram (Study 1) and how the impacts of gift type and message type (informational vs emotional) vary by the two different image-sharing social media platform in a business-to-consumer (B2C) gift-giving context (Study 2).

Study 1 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) between-subject factorial design, whereas Study 2 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) by two (message type: informational vs emotional) between-subject factorial design. A series of analyses of covariance was conducted to test the suggested hypotheses.

Study 1 demonstrated that the promotion of material gifts was more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram, while the promotion of experiential gifts was more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat. Study 2 showed that the impacts of gift type and message type varied by social media platform. The promotion of an experiential gift with an emotional ad appeal was found to be more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat, while the promotion of a material gift using an informational ad appeal was found to be more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram.

This research used a college student sample for the experiments. However, to extend the generalizability of the results, it is recommended that future experiments be conducted with nonstudent samples. Also, the current research manipulated the two different social media conditions, Snapchat vs Instagram, by enforcing participants to use their social media and then provided experimental stimuli in a different screen from their social media account. If the stimuli were distributed through participants’ real social media account, the external validity of this research could be enhanced. Finally, future research should apply this framework to other countries with different social media platforms to confirm the generalizability of the study’s findings.

This research can thus contribute to the development of new guidelines for planning social media marketing in the business gift-giving context. By leveraging findings that the fit effect of gift types and advertising appeals differs based on social media platform, practitioners can create a more effective social media plan for their advertising campaigns. Given that copywriting and media plans are among the most important and difficult work in the business of advertising, this study’s findings would assist advertising practitioners in planning and executing the most effective advertising campaigns.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for the development of effective brand promotion strategies for B2C gift-giving via social media.

Virtual gifts have emerged as a common feature of online communities, social gaming and social networks. This paper aims to examine how network-related variables and gift-seeding impact virtual gift sales. The network variables include gift-giver centrality and gift-giving dispersion, capturing, respectively, the relative importance of gift-givers in a network and their tendency to give gifts to a greater or lesser number of network peers. Gift-seeding tactics capture social network firms’ attempts to stimulate virtual gift purchases by awarding virtual gifts to network members.

This study develops and estimates a fixed-effects panel data regression model to analyze virtual gift purchase data for a large social network service.

Gift-giver centrality, gift-giving dispersion and gift-seeding increase virtual gift purchases. Increases in consumers’ receipt of seed gifts from social network firms (“direct seeding”) and from other consumers (“indirect seeding”) increases virtual gift purchases. However, the extent to which consumers give seed gifts to their friends in the social network (“seed mediation”) does not affect sales. Greater gift-giver centrality amplifies (attenuates) the positive effects of direct (indirect) seeding. At greater levels of gift-giving dispersion, the effects of indirect seeding and seed mediation become negative. Furthermore, gift-seeding has spillover effects on virtual good (non-gift) purchases.

This study’s data, drawn from a South Korean social network service, offer unique and valuable social network information on actual virtual gift purchases and their seeding. Future research should replicate the results of the study outside the South Korean context.

Given the effects reported in this study, social network firms can facilitate the purchases of virtual gifts by improving the targeting of consumers in social networks and gift-seeding tactics.

This study uniquely examines the individual and interactive effects of network-related variables and gift-seeding on virtual gift sales. The study is seminal in its examination of how gift-seeding can be used as a marketing tactic to increase virtual gift purchases.

The increasing number of people who search for and purchase gifts online underscores the need to better understand the process of searching for gifts online. This study explores online gift-searching with regard to the psychological characteristics of gift seekers and the benefits of searching. This study examines how gift-giving orientations (agape and reciprocity) influence the perceived benefits of searching (utilitarian and hedonic) in online gift-searching behaviour.

The conceptual framework was tested using a survey. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that agape positively influences both utilitarian and hedonic benefits, which in turn increase online gift-searching. Reciprocity does not affect utilitarian benefits but decreases hedonic benefits and thus causes a reduction in online gift-searching. The perceived benefit of searching fully mediates the relationship between gift-giving orientations and online gift-searching. Utilitarian benefits are the primary benefits that are sought by consumers who search for gifts online.

Previous research regarding online information searching has focused on searching for items for self-use. This study extends that research by focusing on gift giving. By analysing the mediating effects of both the utilitarian and hedonic benefits of searching, this study provides new insights into whether and how gift-giving orientations affect online gift-searching. Additionally this study offers guidelines for effectively managing online retail environments.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a categorization of sharing practices from a structured interdisciplinary literature review on the Sharing Economy. Instead of striving for a new definition, the authors distinguish nine types of sharing practices and provide an overview of prior investigations on sharing practices across three levels of analysis and 15 research areas. The structured analysis is translated into opportunities for future research on the Sharing Economy.

The study follows a structured literature review approach to uncover practices related to the Sharing Economy and similar phenomena. The authors analyze 210 articles from a broad number of disciplines, and develop a categorizing framework for Sharing Economy practices.

The paper identifies nine different types of sharing practices and provides a structured way for analyzing, comparing and positioning research on the Sharing Economy and related phenomena.

The categorization of sharing practices and the embedded interdisciplinary overview of studies on the Sharing Economy help to explain potentially contradictory research results and uncovers opportunities for future research in the topic area.

Given the variety of disciplines dealing with the Sharing Economy and the plenitude of definitions and related concepts, the categorization and research overview provides a consolidated view of the knowledge in the topic area and an effective tool for identifying paths for future research.

This study aims to investigate the process of service gifting (i.e. unexpected upgrades or benefits) and examine why service gifts do not always result in firm-beneficial reciprocal behaviors from consumers.

Through a series of three studies including both scenario-based and game-theory-based experiments, this research proposes and empirically validates a conceptual model that examines the effect of service gifts on firm-beneficial reciprocal behaviors, and the role of collective social connection and norm of positive reciprocity (NPR) in this process.

The findings of this research show that the consumer’s feelings of collective social connection mediate the link between the provision of service gifts and firm-beneficial outcomes. Furthermore, an individual’s adherence to NPR moderates this process. Specifically, individuals with a strong adherence to NPR do not display increases in collective social connection following the receipt of a service gift. Those who are low in NPR follow the expected pattern of increased collective social connection leading to reciprocation.

Future research may further generalize the model to other situations such as high vs low context cultures. Longitudinal field experiments can be used to further investigate collective versus relational social connection, which can be either a by-product or a primary benefit derived from service delivery.

The results of this research reveal the critical role of collective social connection which has been largely ignored in service gifting research. It encourages managers to use service gifting to directly boost consumers collective social connection. Furthermore, it offers managers insight into why service gifts do not always result in firm-beneficial outcomes because of the moderating role of NPR.

The roles of social connection and the norm of reciprocity have been under-studied in both theoretical and empirical work on service gifting. This paper demonstrates that, contrary to traditional thought, those typically expected to reciprocate the most (i.e. high in NPR) may not realize increased collective social connection leading to reciprocation following receipt of a service gift.

To examine the impact of manufacturer reputation, retailer reputation, and product price on consumers’ perceived quality and purchasing behavior regarding organic milk.

Employing a 2 × 2 experiment, data were collected from 1,259 consumers in 32 provinces in China.

When a low-reputation manufacturer sells products through a high-reputation retailer, it improves consumers’ perception of quality and positively influences their purchasing behavior. Interestingly, setting higher prices for products manufactured by low-reputation companies and selling them through high-reputation retailers did not significantly enhance consumers’ perceived quality and deter their purchasing behavior.

The analysis expands the framework for cue diagnosis. While the existing framework primarily focuses on the influence of cue-type combinations on perceived quality, it does not integrate purchasing behavior into the conceptual framework. This limitation hinders people understanding of the theoretical mechanisms underlying the use of cues in purchasing decisions. This paper address this by gradually introducing variables, such as retailer reputation and product price, into the baseline model, thereby extending this theory. In addition, this paper advances the marketing research literature within the business-to-business-to-consumer context by examining the additive effects of manufacturer reputation, retailer reputation, and product price on consumers’ perception of quality and purchasing behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how free gifts with purchase influence the purchase satisfaction of online consumers, and compares the difference between the contexts, which the consumers are certain and uncertain with the free gifts before purchase.

This study developed a theoretical model to examine how free gifts with purchase influence the purchase satisfaction of online consumers. The moderating effect of uncertainty was also examined. Using a survey questionnaire, empirical data were collected from 288 Taobao users. The partial least squares technique was used to test the proposed research model.

Perceived usefulness, perceived quality, perceived cost, and perceived ingenuity are antecedents of happiness toward a free gift with purchase. Happiness has a positive effect on the purchase satisfaction of online consumers. Uncertainty is an important moderator.

The findings extend the current state of knowledge about the relationship between online purchase with free gifts and purchase satisfaction, as well as reveal the psychological mechanism of the effects of online purchase with free gifts on purchase satisfaction.

The findings of this study provide e-retailers with a deep understanding of how free gifts with purchase affect the purchase satisfaction of online consumers in different presentation approaches of the gifts.

Knowledge about the role of free gifts with purchase on the purchase satisfaction of online consumers is scarce. This study provides empirical evidence about the effect of free gifts with purchase on the purchase satisfaction of online consumer in different presentation approaches of the gifts.

Today's sharing economy covers a variety of business models. This research aims to (1) identify dimensions along which sharing businesses may vary and (2) investigate how these dimensions influence consumer engagement while considering consumers' sustainability orientation.

This research relies upon a systematic literature review (n = 67 articles) to identify five sharing business dimensions: (1) ownership transfer, (2) professional involvement, (3) compensation, (4) digitalization and (5) community scope. A discrete choice conjoint experiment in the fashion industry is employed to investigate how these dimensions affect consumer engagement with sharing businesses (n = 383 participants).

The results suggest that ownership of tangible resources elicits more engagement than access to tangible resources for both consumers with a low sustainability orientation and consumers with a high sustainability orientation. Community scope also affects consumer engagement as reflected in more engagement towards sharing businesses with a local rather than a global scope. The presence of professional service providers, monetary compensation and a digital platform only induces engagement among consumers with a low sustainability orientation.

This research generates a better understanding of how sharing businesses can draw on business dimensions to engage consumers with different levels of sustainability orientation and, in turn, how sharing businesses can realize their economic and/or circular potential.