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To advance marketing research and practice, this study aims to examine the application of the innovative, mobile-applicable neuroimaging method – mobile functional near-infrared spectroscopy (mfNIRS) – in the field of marketing research, providing comprehensive guidelines and practical recommendations.

A general review and investigation of when and how to use mfNIRS in business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing settings is used to illustrate the utility of mfNIRS.

The research findings help prospective marketing and consumer neuroscience researchers to structure mfNIRS experiments, perform the analysis and interpret the obtained mfNIRS data.

The application of mfNIRS offers opportunities for marketing research that allow the exploration of neural processes and associated behaviour of customers in naturalistic settings.

The application of mfNIRS as a neuroimaging method enables the investigation of unconscious neural processes that control customer behaviour and can act as process variables for companies.

This is one of the first studies to provide comprehensive guidelines and applied practical recommendations concerning when and how to apply mfNIRS in marketing research.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate eTourism technology acceptance literature to illustrate current gaps in the field and suggest two alternative perspectives that could be adopted.

A review of academic literature in the field of eTourism technology acceptance was undertaken combining a systematic keyword-based search and snowballing techniques leading to the identification of relevant academic journal articles published since the year 2000.

While the field of eTourism technology acceptance research has grown substantially over the past few decades, this study highlights that the majority of this research seems to have been conducted within a narrow theoretical scope. The study suggests that this has led to contemporary theoretical and philosophical advancements in understanding the psychological, sociological and neuroscientific aspects of consumer behaviour not yet being mirrored in the eTourism technology acceptance research.

This study invites researchers to adapt alternative theoretical perspectives to create a more in-depth understanding of aspects of technology acceptance behaviour that have yet to be understood. Two distinct alternative perspectives, NeuroIS and interpretivism, are suggested.

This study assists researchers in developing alternative research agendas and diversifying the theoretical foundations of eTourism technology acceptance research.

eTourism technology acceptance research risks being left behind if it does not begin to think beyond current theoretical conceptions of consumer behaviour research. This study contributes to the wider literature by highlighting how eTourism literature is falling behind and by suggesting two innovative alternatives that allow eTourism research an exciting way forward.

本论文旨在审视eTourism技术接受研究文献, 以指出当前文献的不足, 并且提出两个未来可能研究方向。

研究样本为关于eTourism技术接受研究的文献, 文献搜集方法采用系统关键词搜索和雪球搜索技术, 共74篇相关研究文献, 发表年代为2000年至今。

eTourism技术接受研究自过去几十年的发展, 其研究成果已经显著增长。本论文强调这方面研究大多数局限在一个狭小理论领域中。本论文建议此方面的研究可以扩展到心理学 社会学 神经科学等消费者行为的领域,提高eTourism技术接受研究的现代理论和哲学进步,而这些方面在eTourism技术接受研究领域中, 还未涉足。

本论文邀请学者采用其他理论角度来增强技术接受行为的深入理解。两个显著研究方向包括NeuroIS和解释主义。

本论文启示学者在eTourism技术接受研究方面的开发新的研究征程, 以及丰富其相关理论基础。

eTourism技术接受研究将被落下, 如果学者不扩展当前关于消费者行为方面的理论基础。本论文拓宽了对eTourism文献的论述, 并且就其如何可能研究落后以及建议两个创新性方向, 使得eTourism研究将有一个崭新前进。

技术接受、电子旅游、技术接受模型(TAM)、神经资讯系统(NeuroIS)、 神经科学旅游(Neurotourism)、解释主义

This applied neuroscience study aims to understand how direct and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses underlie travel destination preferences. State-of-the-art neuroscience tools and methods were used, including stationary eye tracking and brain scanning electroencephalography (EEG) to assess emotional and cognitive responses to destination images and assets. To the researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first applied neuroscience study in tourism research and thus opens a new path of research and enquiry to this area. This paper is an attempt to understand specific mental processes in human tourism behaviours, and it is suggest that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research.

To better understand consumers’ unconscious responses to possible travel destinations, a 3 × 5 factorial design was run with the factors being stimulus type (images, printed names and videos) and travel destination (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, New York and London). Eye-tracking calibration was done with a nine-point fixation test and the EEG calibration was done using functional localizer tests based on the ABM B-ALERT calibration process. This calibration procedure allows reliable tracking of emotional and cognitive responses over time. Thirty Emirati (nationals of the UAE) participants, consisting of equal numbers of males and females (15) were recruited from the UAE and signed informed consent. Each participant was positioned in front of an eye tracker and computer screen, and brain-scanning equipment was mounted; then, each participant underwent eye-tracking and neuroimaging calibration procedures. A Tobii T60XL eye tracker and an ABM X-10 EEG brain scanner, both running iMotions v5.1 in a Windows 7 environment, were used.

General emotional and cognitive differences were identified between the channels through which travel destinations are presented. Words about and names of travel destinations cause higher cognitive loads, which may not be surprising, given the greater associative load that words have than images. Of particular interest is the hypothesis that images evoke stronger affective responses than verbal representations. However, as previously noted (Holmes and Mathews, 2005), empirical evidence for this assumption seems surprisingly sparse. The present study and the context provided here suggest that decisions on travel destination have an unconscious component and a direct component that may drive or affect overt preference and actual choice.

The limitations of this paper is that first, neuromarketing is not dependent on sample sizes; however, future studies could build on this paper to understand why there is a preference for cities. It is suggested that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research.

Thus, tourism research may indeed be a suitable field for understanding the brain bases of complex preference formation and choice. Various researchers have found that a destination image is typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural components, and further stated that the cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a significant positive effect on the affective image component and overall destination image (Stylidis et al., 2017). Therefore, this research which has introduced brain scanning can be used to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and cognitive processes that affect consumer thought and action. An understanding of what goes on in the human unconscious mind is very important for destination marketers, this can help in the integrated marketing communication process to create a destination image and brand.

Halal markets are rapidly growing in terms of market size and global coverage; therefore, there is a critical demand to have a deeper understanding of the consumption behavior of Muslim consumers. This study aims to explore the influence of using the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes toward food products using the neuroscience technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The theory of planned behavior represents the foundation of this research, where consumer attitudes during an fMRI experiment were evaluated based on two different groups of images: images of just the Halal logo and images of meat labeled with the Halal logo. The study used the blocked design approach to track brain responses produced from displaying the two groups of images to study participants, where brain activity represents participants’ attitudes toward selecting the products.

There were no significant variations in brain activity when participants viewed Halal and non-Halal logos; in contrast, there were significant brain changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex region when meat images were labeled with Halal and non-Halal logos. This suggests that the Halal logo only has an influence on perception when it co-occurs with a product.

Tracking Muslim consumption patterns is important for managers to be able to establish strategies to target Muslim consumers. This study uses a unique technique to study the behavioral attitude of a rapidly growing market segment, which can help marketing managers tailor their advertisement strategies to be more effective.

Previous research on the consumption of Halal products uses conventional approaches to study the influence of the Halal logo; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the influence of the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes using fMRI technology.

Brain and behavioral research is a hallmark of knowledge and understanding within modern society and has taken on greater importance in the commercial context; as this area unfolds, the intersection of the science, technology and marketing is an important and topical area for exploration.

This work tracks the parallel history of the technologies and science of the brain because it grows in relevance for the study of marketing and consumer behavior. It is an historical review of the usage of technologies to measure brain activity and behavior, parallel to the development of psychological theories created to account for human decision-making from the 1940s until the present.

This essay presents a new conception of “closure” and “momentum,” as envisioned by social construction of technology and technological momentum theories, arriving at a new concept for inclusion called “convergence” which offers a multifactor explanation for the acceptance, technical implementation and its commercial application.

It is an original adaptation of theories from across several fields that yields insight into the integration of science, technology, society and business.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in neuroscientific methods and demonstrate its potential for the service field. This work is a call to action for more service researchers to adopt promising and increasingly accessible neuro-tools that allow the service field to benefit from neuroscience theories and insights.

The paper synthesizes key literature from a variety of domains (e.g. neuroscience, consumer neuroscience and organizational neuroscience) to provide an in-depth background to start applying neuro-tools. Specifically, this paper outlines the most important neuro-tools today and discusses their theoretical and empirical value.

To date, the use of neuro-tools in the service field is limited. This is surprising given the great potential they hold to advance service research. To stimulate the use of neuro-tools in the service area, the authors provide a roadmap to enable neuroscientific service studies and conclude with a discussion on promising areas (e.g. service experience and servicescape) ripe for neuroscientific input.

The paper offers service researchers a starting point to understand the potential benefits of adopting the neuroscientific method and shows their complementarity with traditional service research methods like surveys, experiments and qualitative research. In addition, this paper may also help reviewers and editors to better assess the quality of neuro-studies in service.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of emotions in processing scent information in consumer research, using event-related potential (ERP)-based neuroscience methods, while considering individual differences in sense of smell.

Prior research on olfaction and emotions in marketing has revealed mixed findings on the relationship between olfaction and emotion. The authors review earlier studies and present a neuroscience experiment demonstrating the benefits of ERP methods in studying the automatic processing of emotions.

Results demonstrate how emotional processes occurring within 1s of stimulus exposure differ across individuals with varying olfactory abilities. Findings reveal an automatic suppression mechanism for individuals sensitive to smell.

Scent-induced emotions demonstrated through the use of ERP-based methods provide insights for understanding automatic emotional processes and reactions to ambient scents by consumers in the marketplace.

Findings show an automatic suppression of emotions triggered by scent in individuals sensitive to smell. Marketers and retailers should consider such reactions when evaluating the use of olfactory stimuli in promotional and retail strategies.

The authors review past literature and provide an explanation for the disparate findings in the olfaction–emotion linkage, by studying individual differences in response to scent in the marketplace. This is one of the first papers in marketing to introduce the application of ERP in studying consumer-relevant behavior and provide technical and marketing-specific considerations for both academic and market researchers.

This study aims to explore the plausibility of the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) methodology for neuromarketing applications and develop a neurophysiologically-informed model of purchasing behavior based on fNIRS measurements.

The oxygenation signals extracted from the purchase trials of each subject were temporally averaged to obtain average signals for buy and pass decisions. The obtained data were analyzed via both linear mixed models for each of the 16 optodes to explore their separate role in the purchasing decision process and a discriminant analysis to construct a classifier for buy/pass decisions based on oxygenation measures from multiple optodes.

Positive purchasing decisions significantly increase the neural activity through fronto-polar regions, which are closely related to OFC and vmPFC that modulate the computation of subjective values. The results showed that neural activations can be used to decode the buy or pass decisions with 85 per cent accuracy provided that sensitivity to the budget constraint is provided as an additional factor.

The study shows that the fNIRS measures can provide useful biomarkers for improving the classification accuracy of purchasing tendencies and might be used as a main or complementary method together with traditional research methods in marketing. Future studies might focus on real-time purchasing processes in a more ecologically valid setting such as shopping in supermarkets.

This paper uses an emerging neuroimaging method in consumer neuroscience, namely, fNIRS. The decoding accuracy of the model is 85 per cent which presents an improvement over the accuracy levels reported in previous studies. The research also contributes to existing knowledge by providing insights in understanding individual differences and heterogeneity in consumer behavior through neural activities.

This research analyses the searching, interacting and purchasing behavior of shoppers seeking semidurable and fast-moving consumer goods in an immersive virtual reality (VR) store, showing how physical examinations and visual inspections relate to purchases.

Around 60 participants completed two forced-purchase tasks using a head-mounted display with visual and motor-tracking systems. A second study using a pictorial display of the products complemented the VR study.

The findings indicate differences in shopping behavior for the two product categories, with semidurable goods requiring greater inspection and deliberation than fast-moving consumer goods. In addition, visual inspection of the shelf and products was greater than a physical examination through virtual handling for both product categories. The paper also presents relationships between visual inspections and product interactions during the searching stage of purchase decisions.

The research consists of two types of implicit measures in this study: eye-tracking and hand-product interactions. This study reveals the suitability of implicit measures for evaluating consumer behavior in VR stores.