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The study examines the influence of various congruity factors (economic, safety and Health, hedonic, and functional) on tourists' satisfaction with sharing economy-based services.

A single cross-sectional design is used in the study, with 513 travellers surveyed directly at three different tourist destinations in India. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling approach is used to analyse the data.

The research shows that congruity factors significantly influence tourists' satisfaction with sharing economy-based services. Moreover, satisfaction is strongly associated with recommendation intention for these services and customer loyalty. Additionally, the intention to recommend directly leads to increased customer loyalty.

The results offer pertinent insights for stakeholders in the sharing economy, including tourism marketers, policymakers and corporations. Aligning services with the identified congruity factors can enhance user satisfaction, boost recommendation rates and foster long-standing customer loyalty.

This study stands out for its thorough investigation into how congruity factors influence tourist satisfaction within the context of the sharing economy. Additionally, by focusing on specific demographic differentiators, such as age (gen Z or old gen) and gender (male or female), the study provides a nuanced understanding that enriches the existing body of knowledge.

Coffee shops are becoming more aware that brand loyalty can be an effective strategy for securing a competitive edge in business. To supplement current understanding of the importance of coffee shop branding, this study investigates the role of personality traits and congruity in the formation of brand loyalty. This study finds that personality traits have direct effects on congruity and customer satisfaction, the two defining factors of brand loyalty. Overall, our results suggest that the interaction of personality traits, congruity, and satisfaction is essential to the process of influencing coffee shop customers’ brand loyalty.

Drawing on the self-congruity theory and customer engagement literature, this research accounts for the influence of the three dimensions of customer self-congruity on customer engagement with global brands by uncovering the mediating mechanism of brand psychological ownership and moderating mechanism of global connectedness. The research framework is tested across developed and developing country contexts to highlight any cultural differences in the drivers of customer engagement with global brands.

Data were collected from developed (USA; n = 270) and developing (India; n = 273) countries through two online surveys and tested, employing structural equation modeling, across the two markets to investigate cross-cultural variations.

Social self-congruity has the strongest influence on customer engagement for USA consumers, while all three forms of self-congruity are equally important in India. Psychological ownership consistently works as the mediating mechanism across both contexts. While global connectedness accentuates the relationship between self-congruity and brand psychological ownership for Indian consumers, it attenuates the relationship amongst USA consumers.

While prior literature mainly establishes a direct link between self-congruity and customer engagement, this study provides a deeper understanding of the self-congruity–customer engagement relationship by: a) investigating the mediating role of psychological ownership; b) examining the moderating role of global connectedness and c) studying all three forms of self-congruity (i.e. actual, ideal and social) simultaneously. The study, testing the framework in developing and developed country settings, highlights cultural nuances in forming customer engagement with global brands.

Studies have explored the determinants of customer advocacy because of customer advocacy's vital role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. The current research complements the existing literature in the hospitality field by examining the association between restaurant innovativeness and customer advocacy while also investigating the mediating roles of self-image congruity and customer engagement.

The statistical software AMOS version 25 and bootstrapping were employed to test the hypotheses. Purposive sampling was employed for participant recruitment, and a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were collected from Taiwanese customers who had dined at selected restaurants.

The results from 385 restaurant customers reported that self-image congruity had an indirect impact on customer advocacy through customer engagement. Customer advocacy was influenced by restaurant innovativeness through the mediation of customer engagement. The influence of restaurant innovativeness on customer advocacy was positively and sequentially mediated by self-image congruity and customer engagement.

Restaurant innovativeness is linked to customer advocacy through self-image congruity and customer engagement. Thus, restaurant managers should implement strategies focusing on innovativeness to improve self-image congruity and engagement among customers.

The current research may be the first to provide a research model that explores restaurant innovativeness, self-image congruity, customer engagement and customer advocacy in the hospitality context. This study also has practical implications for enhancing customer advocacy.

Studies have shown that negative publicity adversely affects brand trust, but exactly how brand trust can be damaged remains poorly understood. This study aims to explore how negative publicity influences image congruity and, subsequently, brand trust. In addition, the study also examined the effectiveness of two corporate strategies to repair both congruity and trust.

Based on a valid sample of 522 Chinese consumers between the ages 20 and 50, this study adopted a quasi-experimental design involving two types of negative publicity (performance- and value-related) and two initial corporate repair strategies (compensation and public apology) intended to repair brand trust.

Negative publicity shaped brand trust through both functional congruity and self-congruity. Moreover, the type of negative publicity affected the role of image congruity in brand trust. The effectiveness of repair strategies further depended on the type of negative publicity.

Mobile phones were an appropriate focal product for this research, but examining only one product category may limit findings’ generalizability. Negative emotions such as frustration or anger and their relationships with congruity can also be addressed in future work. Subsequent research can additionally consider more conditions to explore alternative routes of processing related to brand trust.

Brand trust is a vulnerable brand asset on which negative publicity can have seriously negative consequences. Marketers and brand managers should assess the extent to which negative publicity can damage image congruity and brand trust and come up with different repair strategies subsequently.

This study contributes to the limited and fragmented literature on consumers’ evaluations of negative information. Findings offer fresh insight into the impacts of negative publicity on image congruity and brand trust. The implications extend beyond negative publicity to other forms of negative information, such as rumors, fake news and negative word of mouth. Results also highlight the importance of adopting appropriate repair strategies to restore consumers’ trust in the event of negative publicity.

Based on object–object congruity, this study aims to clarify the driving factors and antecedent mechanism of tourists’ willingness to purchase intangible cultural heritage (ICH)-souvenirs.

This study used a five-point Likert scale to collect data and proposed a structural equation model to explore this issue.

ICH-inheritor/souvenir-congruity is positively related to tourists’ purchase intention for ICH-souvenirs and perceived authenticity; perceived authenticity and brand identity play a chain mediating effect between ICH-inheritor/souvenir-congruity and the purchase intention for ICH-souvenirs.

This paper excludes individual, situational and cultural factors, ignoring the possible moderating roles of these factors. This treatment simplifies the feasibility of the present study but might lead to the deviation between the results of the current research and the actual outcomes.

The retailers of ICH-souvenirs should encourage the ICH-inheritors to endorse and promote their products while creating. They could tell a good story about their experience or create entertainment experiences for tourists through hand-in-hand teaching.

This study explores the driving factors and antecedent mechanism of tourists’ purchase intention for ICH-souvenirs from the third perspective of image congruity theory, namely, object–object congruity.

品：形象一致性与品牌对游客购买意向的影响

基于客-客一致性, 本研究旨在厘清游客购买非物质文化遗产纪念品的影响因素与驱动机制。

本研究利用5点式Likert量表收集数据, 并提出了一个结构方程模型来探讨这个问题。

非遗传承人/纪念品一致性正向显著影响非遗纪念品的购买意愿和本真性感知; 本真性感知和品牌认同在非遗传承人/纪念品一致性和非遗纪念品购买意愿之间起着链式中介作用。

本研究从形象一致性理论的第三个视角（客-客一致性）, 探讨了游客购买非遗纪念品的影响因素与驱动机制。

本研究进一步证明了客-客一致性的有效性和合理性, 拓宽了形象一致性理论的外延。

非遗纪念品的零售商应鼓励非遗传承人在创作的同时代言和推广他们的产品。他们可以讲述自己的经历, 或者通过手把手教学为游客创造娱乐体验。

本文排除了个人、情境和文化因素, 忽略了这些因素可能的调节作用。这种处理简化了当前研究的可行性, 但可能导致当前研究结果与实际结果之间的偏差。

la influencia de la consistencia de la imagen y la marca en la intención de compra de los turistas

Resumen

Basado en la congruencia objeto-objeto, el presente estudio busca esclarecer los factores impulsores y el mecanismo antecedente sobre la disposición de los turistas a adquirir recuerdos del PCI.

El presente estudio utiliza una escala de Likert de cinco puntos para recopilar datos y plantea un Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales (MEE) para estudiar este asunto.

La congruencia entre el heredero/recuerdo del PCI se relaciona de forma positiva con la intención de compra de recuerdos del PCI por parte de los turistas y con la autenticidad percibida; la autenticidad percibida y la identidad de marca ejercen un efecto mediador en cadena entre la congruencia entre el heredero/recuerdo del PCI y la intención de compra de recuerdos del PCI.

El presente estudio explora el mecanismo antecedente de la intención de compra de los turistas de recuerdos de PCI a partir de la tercera perspectiva de la teoría de congruencia de la imagen (la congruencia objeto-objeto).

El presente estudio justifica la validez y racionalidad de la congruencia objeto-objeto, extendiendo la teoría de la congruencia de imagen.

Los minoristas de los recuerdos del PCI deben fomentar que los herederos del PCI respalden y promocionen sus productos al mismo tiempo que los crean. Ellos pueden contar sus propias experiencias o crear experiencias entretenidas para turistas mediante la enseñanza mediante ejemplos.

El presente documento no tiene en cuenta los factores individuales, situacionales y culturales e ignora el posible papel moderador de estos factores. Dicho tratamiento simplifica la viabilidad de este estudio, aunque podría dar lugar a una desviación entre los resultados de la presente investigación y los resultados reales.

This paper aims to explore content-related factors that can foster beneficial consumer responses to one kind of native advertising: in-feed sponsored articles. Specifically, studies examine how informational versus entertaining content interact with the content’s brand image congruity to affect brand attitudes through brand trustworthiness and identify the roles played by advertising value and perceived deceptiveness.

Experimental survey-based research with a between-subjects design was conducted, manipulating the content type (entertaining/informational) and brand image congruity (low/high) and measuring brand attitude, brand trustworthiness, advertising value and perceived deceptiveness. Participants were recruited via Amazon’s MTurk, and data were collected via online surveys in Qualtrics.

Results reveal that high brand image congruity generates more favorable brand attitudes for informational in-feed sponsored articles, and low brand image congruity generates more favorable brand attitudes for entertaining in-feed sponsored articles, through perceptions of brand trustworthiness. Enhanced brand trustworthiness results from increased advertising value for informational in-feed sponsored articles that are high in brand image congruity. Reduced brand trustworthiness results from increased perceptions of deceptiveness for entertaining in-feed sponsored articles that are high in brand image congruity.

While much academic research on native advertising focuses on its negative aspects, the present research identifies content-related factors that foster beneficial consumer responses to in-feed sponsored articles, including enhanced perceptions of brand trustworthiness and more favorable brand attitudes, due to differences in consumers’ perceptions of advertising value and deceptiveness. Managerially, this work can help branded content creators design effective in-feed sponsored articles.

This study aims to examine the effects of motives for attending charity sport events on perceptions of self-congruity and charity sport event identification. It also examined the mediating role of self-congruity on the relationships between motives for attending charity sport events and charity sport event identification.

Data were collected through an online self-administered survey of 330 participants who had attended charity sport events in Thailand. A series of multiple regressions and the PROCESS macro method were used for analysing direct and indirect effects.

The results clearly indicated that physical and charitable motives had a significant impact on event identification. While physical, social and charitable motives had an impact on self-congruity, self-congruity had a greater impact on event identification. The role of self-congruity, meanwhile, mediated the relationship between physical, social, enjoyment and charitable motives and the event identification.

The results of this study contribute to the extension of the body of knowledge, especially in regard to special events and charitable foundations where the proposed relationships have yet to be studied.

Using the social identity theory as a theoretical background, the study adds to the comprehensive understanding of social and psychological motives to build an identity and enhance a strong sense of identification and belonging to a charity sport event.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the context congruity effects of online product recommendations (PRs) by recommendation agents (RAs) influence consumers’ attention to and memory of recommended products in an online shopping environment.

The study focuses on the context congruity effects of online PRs by examining consumers’ browsing patterns and attention characteristics (fixation counts and fixation duration) using an eye-tracking device and by measuring memory performance with an aided memory test. Three types of PRs (highly congruent, lowly congruent and incongruent PRs) and two degrees of involvement (high and low involvement) are considered.

The results of the gaze data show that context congruity effects can influence consumers’ PR attention, but this effect is not moderated by involvements. The results of the memory data show that PR recognition is influenced not only by context congruity effects but also by involvement. Another significant finding is that attention to a PR does not necessarily guarantee better memory performance.

The study significantly contributes to deepening the understanding of how context congruity can influence consumers’ attention to and memory of PRs. The findings also have important managerial and practical implications, such that selecting and presenting PRs should be based on context congruity effects.

First, introducing context congruity effects to investigate the effectiveness of online PRs by RAs not only provides an important theoretical contribution to research on recommendation effectiveness but also enriches its application. Second, the findings suggest that the relationship between visual attention and memory is not definitely positive. Third, to interpret the complex translation process from attention to memory, the authors propose a methodology that considers stimulus attributes, issue involvement, cognitive capacity and cognitive interference.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of actual and ideal congruity in predicting the repurchase intentions of young women in relation to inconspicuous fashion items.

The research focussed on a non-luxury intimate apparel brand, typical of daily use and private consumption. Regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 308 young female consumers to identify the effect of actual and ideal congruity in determining repurchase intentions. A cluster analysis based on actual self-concept was employed to develop a typology for consumers.

Unexpectedly, the findings revealed that ideal congruity is a stronger predictor of repurchase intentions than actual congruity. Further, based on actual self-concept, three profiles of young women emerged: active romantics, self-assureds and reliables. The clusters differed in relation to perceptions of brand personality and the effect of self-congruity on repurchase intentions.

This study was conducted using participants from one university in Northern Italy. Thus, the main limitations of this study relate to sample size and selection. Additionally, this study only investigated the perceptions of young women.

This study suggests that non-luxury intimate apparel items, typical of daily use, are not merely functional purchases, but reflect young women’s self-expression motives. Accordingly, fashion marketers should focus on consumers’ ideal self-concepts to develop effective promotion strategies. Further, specific dimensions of brand personality should be considered in relation to the different clusters.

This study shows that repurchase intentions towards inconspicuous non-luxury fashion items are explained more by self-esteem motives (i.e. ideal congruity) than self-consistency motives (i.e. actual congruity).