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The purpose of this paper is to propose the self-presentation styles of advertising influence consumer self-image, which in turn influence purchase intention.

Using virtual brands as stimuli in a series of experiments, this study collects data on consumer self-image and purchase intention in the conditions of different advertising styles.

While consumer self-image mediates the relationship between advertising self-presentation style and purchase intention, the consumption situation (public vs private) moderates the relationship between self-presentation style, consumer self-image and purchase intention. That is, self-enhancing advertising promotes customers’ ideal self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for publicly consumed products, whereas self-deprecating advertising solicits customers’ real self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for privately consumed products.

This study informs product/brand managers and marketers of the importance of aligning the self-presentation style of advertising with the consumption situation of the product being advertised.

Based on self-consistency theory, this study not only finds a relationship between the self-presentation style of advertising and purchase intention, but also uncovers the mediating role of self-image in this relationship. Furthermore, the relationship chain of “self-presentation style of advertising – self-image – purchase intention” is moderated by the consumption situation of the product. This is one of the first studies to explore the intricacies of these relationships.

This study aims to explore how the distributor orientation of manufacturing-centered small and medium-sized enterprises (MCSMEs) influences relationship building outcomes, distributor satisfaction, and channel profitability.

This study examines the moderating role of competitive intensity and coordinative culture in the association between distributor orientation and relationship building outcomes.

Empirical results from 115 MCSMEs reveal a strong positive relationship between distributor orientation and distributor satisfaction. The findings also show a positive relationship between distributor orientation and channel profitability. Furthermore, although competitive intensity strengthens the positive relationship between distributor orientation and the two relationship building outcomes, coordinative intensity weakens the positive relationship between distributor orientation and the two relationship outcomes.

Managerial implications and future research opportunities were discussed.

The research contributes to the literature on the management of small and medium-sized enterprises and offers practical implications for manufacturers and distribution channel managers.

Despite the growing interest by scholars, practitioners and public policymakers, there are still divergent and fragmented conceptualizations of nation branding as the field is still developing. In response, the purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize nation branding research and to provide directions for future research.

The authors review peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles published during the last two decades – from 1998 to 2018. Selected journal articles on nation branding were subsequently synthesized for further insights.

The field of nation branding is fragmented and has developed in the course of the last two decades in different directions. This paper identifies key publication outlets and articles, major theoretical and methodological approaches and primary variables of interest that exist in the nation branding literature. The findings also highlight several research themes for future research.

This research fills a need to summaries the current state of the nation branding literature and identifies research issues that need to be addressed in the future.

Developments in electronic technology are changing the way business is normally done. This paper investigates how Internet technology reshapes consumer behavior, specifically in online information search. While information search has been a major research stream in the consumer behavior literature, online search for product/service information is a relatively new area. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for studying the determinants of online information search. Since information search online is a precursor to online purchase, an in‐depth understanding of how consumers gather information online is critical to Internet business success.

Market orientation is one of the major research streams in strategic marketing developed during the past ten years. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the major thrust of research in market orientation has been to study the relationship between market orientation and business performance. Although it is acknowledged that market orientation and performance are likely correlated, this paper directs attention to what may lie beneath the relationship. From both conceptual and empirical perspectives, it is argued that future research should focus on the mechanisms by which market orientation contributes to performance. To this end, we draw on the gap analysis literature and develop a framework to link market orientation and performance for service organizations. This simple framework will help shape future agendas for service research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how market orientation is related to relationship building outcomes in the downstream distribution process. The authors examine the role of distributor satisfaction in mediating the association between market orientation in distribution and return on assets.

Market orientation in distribution was measured by distributor orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination.

Results showed that the positive relationship between market orientation in distribution and distributor satisfaction was strongly supported. While distributor orientation and competitor orientation were both positively related to distributor satisfaction and return on assets, interfunctional coordination was not related to either distributor satisfaction or return on assets. However, interfunctional coordination lessened the positive relationship between distributor orientation and distributor satisfaction.

This study fills research void in downstream relationship building in the distribution process in a business-to-business context.

This paper aims to investigate Chinese consumers' international outshopping motives from a culture perspective based on Hofstede's four cultural dimensions.

Four international outshopping motives that may affect Chinese consumer's propensity of shopping abroad were empirically investigated based on a sample of 174 Chinese consumers who participated in a mall intercept survey.

The results suggest that Chinese consumers' perceived expressiveness of using foreign products, perceived reliability of foreign retail service, and perceived enjoyment of shopping abroad have positive and significant impacts on their propensity of shopping abroad. In addition, their perceived morality to support domestic industries does not significantly affect their outshopping behavior, although consumer ethnocentrism was regarded as an issue in China.

Outshoppers from China are increasingly found in the stores and malls in Western countries. The findings offer an insightful call for retailers and distributors in the West to understand how to make effective marketing strategies to target Chinese outshoppers and how to predict their behaviors when the global market gradually opens to Chinese consumers.

The identified motives represent a deeper understanding of Chinese consumers and their cultural environment.

The purpose of this paper is to compare organizational web site design attributes between US and Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The study uses 18 web site design variables identified by previous research.

The results show that US and Chinese SME corporate web sites have both similarities and differences in terms of web site design attributes. The design differences are not much affected by the impacts of macro-economy and technology gaps. However, US and Chinese SMEs may differ in terms of their marketing practices and cultural orientations, and as a result, web site design attributes still remain significantly different.

Marketing and cultural factors are found to be important determinants in SMEs’ organizational web site design across the two countries.

This paper aims to examine how the three market orientation components (customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination) influence industrial manufacturers’ customer relationship management outcomes in a business-to-business (B2B) context.

In linking market orientation components and their relationship outcomes, the authors examined the moderating effect of interfunctional coordination. The model was tested using data collected from 279 manufacturing firms in the USA.

While customer orientation and competitor orientation both influence customer relationship outcomes, interfunctional coordination does not. However, interfunctional coordination lessens the positive relationships between customer orientation and customer retention as well as between competitor orientation and customer satisfaction. Although competitor orientation has a slightly stronger impact on customer satisfaction than customer orientation does, it only has an indirect relationship with customer retention through customer satisfaction.

The findings illustrated the effects of the three components of market orientation on customer relationship outcomes within manufacturing-centered firms, and provided managerial implications to industrial manufacturers on market orientation implementation strategies in regard to successful B2B customer relationship management.