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This study aims to investigate the mediating role of shopping intention and the moderating roles of employee incompetence and consumer similarity in the relationship between consumers’ personal traits and their shoplifting behaviors

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the authors develop and test a model that links personality traits to shoplifting intention and behavior. The results from a sample of 507 consumers.

The results from a sample of 507 consumers show that shoplifting intention mediates the effects of personality traits (materialism, alienation and sensation seeking) on shoplifting behavior. In addition, both employee incompetence and consumer similarity are found to moderate the relationship between shoplifting intention and behavior. The findings offer some useful theoretical and managerial implications.

Drawing on the TPB, the authors investigate how personality traits (i.e. materialism, sensation seeking and consumer alienation) influence shoplifting behavior via shoplifting intention. They find that the effects of materialism, sensation seeking and alienation on shoplifting behavior are mediated by shoplifting intention. More importantly, they also find strong support for the moderating roles of employee incompetence and consumer similarity on the relationship between shoplifting intention and behavior. While employee incompetence enhances the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior, consumer similarity negatively moderates the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of perceived product similarity and comparative ad claims on brand responses.

This study uses a two (similarity between the target product and the comparison product: relatively similar vs dissimilar) by three (product attributes of the target product: common to the comparison product, distinct from the comparison product, and a combination of common and distinct attributes) between-subjects factorial design with 300 Thai undergraduate students.

It finds that when perceived similarity between the products is high, a combination of superiority (distinct) and parity (common) ad claims lead to the best brand responses. When perceived similarity is low, superiority claims bring about the best brand responses.

It extends comparative advertising and category-substitution research by addressing the research gaps in perceived similarity and claim type.

Companies should emphasize a product’s superior attributes in general but a combination of common and superior attributes when the product is relatively similar to other products in comparative advertising.

This study provides new evidence that perceived product similarity moderates the effect of comparative ad claims on brand responses.

This paper aims to analyze the impact of copycat packaging strategies on consumers’ product choices, assessing to what extent the adoption of this type of packaging increases the likelihood of purchase of private labels (PLs).

Data were collected in a preliminary field study (1,032 observations), followed by two experimental studies. Study 1 analyzed to what extent PLs’ packaging similarity influences consumers perceptions regarding product quality and production origin across six product categories. Study 2 analyzed, in a simulated real retail setting, to what extent copycat packaging strategies influence consumers’ choice across 22 product categories.

Results indicate that the higher the level of package similarity between PLs and national brands (NBs) (copycat strategy), the higher the likelihood that PLs’ products are perceived as being produced by one of the NBs’ manufacturers, leading to enhanced perceptions of quality of the PL products, and that the higher the level of package similarity, the higher the likelihood of consumption of PLs, especially when consumers are choosing products of utilitarian versus hedonic nature.

Data were collected in a south-western European country, which will aid the development of further studies in different retail settings.

This paper analyzes the impact of copycat packaging adoption by retailers on consumers’ perceptions and preferences about PLs. To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to assess, across multiple product categories and use market copycats, the potential effects of PLs packaging strategies on consumers’ purchase behavior.

This paper aims to identify the key antecedences contributing consumer similarity perception toward store branded lookalikes (SBLs), testing to what extent each of the antecedences influences the overall similarity perception.

Two empirical studies were conducted. Study 1 was an online experiment to test the relative importance of packaging features on similarity judgment of SBLs. Study 2 examined the impacts of consumer characteristics and store related elements on similarity perception through a Qualtrics web-based questionnaire covering seven product categories.

This research yields two key findings. First of all, it revealed that all three packaging attributes studied (i.e. size and shape, image and color) exert positive influence on similarity judgment of SBLs, among which color shows the most significant importance, followed by size and shape, and then color. Then, it showed that brand loyalty fully mediated the effect of brand familiarity on consumers' similarity perception, giving that no direct effect was found from brand familiarity to similarity perception but consumers' brand loyalty increased as they become more familiar with the NBs. As consumers become more loyal to the brands, they would perceive the SBLs to be less similar to imitated national brands.

This research confirmed the significance of proper manipulation of packaging design, either to the SBLs or to the imitated NBs. It also reveals the critical role of gaining high familiarity and strong loyalty for the NB manufacturers. For retailers, the research highlights the need to maintain a better store image in order to take advantage of SBLs to help with marketing competition.

This research contributes new knowledge on the lookalike phenomenon by uncovering the prerequisites that cause similarity perception between two products.

Limited research has paid attention to the physical attractiveness stereotype in peer-to-peer sharing accommodation settings. Since the high-risk situations in sharing accommodations, this paper aims to exam whether beauty premium is still relevant in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation.

The mixed method, including 2,506 secondary data analysis and two scenario experiments, is carried out to test the research framework.

The results show that both beauty premium and beauty penalty exist in the e-commerce context. Excessively high attractiveness and plain looking of hosts are likely to decrease consumers’ booking decision while moderately attractive hosts will stimulate more booking behaviors. Moreover, perceived trustworthiness mediates the effect of physical attractiveness on booking decision. Additionally, similarity between hosts and consumers plays a moderating role in the relationship between physical attractiveness and perceived trustworthiness.

This study reveals the physical attractiveness stereotype effects in P2P accommodation and carry implications to P2P platforms and hosts for providing moderately attractive profile photos, enhancing trustworthiness and similarity between hosts and consumers. Further studies can investigate the robustness of the findings as well as more possible reasons for its occurrence.

The research provides a clearer understanding of physical attractiveness stereotype effect in peer-to-peer sharing accommodation platforms. Besides, the linkage between physical attractiveness and perceived trustworthiness is dynamic; a high host – consumer similarity weakens the negative impact of both excessively high attractiveness and plain looking on consumers’ perceived trustworthiness.

This study aims to focus on the dynamics in influencer-consumer relationships to understand how Generation Z consumers’ identification and social comparison with influencers shape their response to influencers’ branded posts. Specifically, this study investigates how perceived similarity and wishful identification lead to distinct social comparison mechanisms that affect Generation Z consumers’ self-improvement motives, which, in turn, drive their message engagement, brand attitudes and purchase intentions.

An online survey was conducted with 295 college students who are digital natives and whose purchase decisions are heavily influenced by social media influencers.

The study findings confirmed that perceived similarity positively influenced assimilative comparison emotions of optimism, admiration and aspiration while negatively influenced contrastive comparison emotions of envy, depression and resentment. Wishful identification positively affected both assimilative and contrastive comparison emotions. Both types of social comparison emotions further affected consumers’ motivations to follow the influencer for self-improvement, thereby enhancing their brand attitude, purchase intention and engagement behaviors.

This study is one of the earliest attempts to investigate the relationship dynamics between influencers and consumers from the lens of social comparison. The study examines the antecedents of perceived similarity and wishful identification, the mediators of upward comparison emotions and self-improvement motives and the brand evaluation outcomes of message engagement, brand attitude and purchase intention.

In this paper, two studies examine the effects of Hispanic-targeted ads on three consumer-brand relationships (i.e. brand love, brand attachment and attitude toward the brand) and their behavioral outcomes. Additionally, this paper aims to examine how product involvement moderates these effects.

Study 1 demonstrates the linkages between three consumer–brand relationships (i.e. brand love, brand attachment and attitude toward the brand) and their antecedents. In Study 2, by testing the nomological network of the antecedents and consequences of brand love, the authors extend the results of the previous study.

Study 1 provides evidence that ethnic advertising has the strongest effect on brand love in comparison with other alternative consumer-brand relationship constructs. In Study 2, results show that only for low-involvement products, the perceived similarity of customers with Hispanic models in ads could lead to a higher positive attitude toward the ad. However, in the high-involvement condition, perceived similarity did not mediate the relationship between those constructs, which is in line with Elaboration Likelihood Model.

From the practical and managerial perspective, this paper proposes that managers should concentrate on ads with ethnic cues, especially for low involvement products. Hence, it would be worthwhile for companies to consider ads with ethnic cues to effectively develop deep consumer–brand relationships.

This paper investigates the effects of targeted ads on deeper relationships (e.g. brand love) and its behavioral consequences. Therefore, the authors show how Hispanic targeted ads could lead to deep consumer–brand relationships which encompass both the mind and heart of customers.

En este trabajo, dos estudios examinan los efectos de los anuncios dirigidos a los hispanos en tres relaciones entre el consumidor y la marca (el amor por la marca, el apego a la marca y la actitud hacia la marca) y sus resultados conductuales. Además, examinamos cómo la implicación del producto modera estos efectos.

El Estudio 1 demuestra los vínculos entre tres relaciones consumidor-marca (el amor a la marca, el apego a la marca y la actitud hacia la marca) y sus antecedentes. En el Estudio 2, al comprobar la red nomológica de los antecedentes y las consecuencias del amor a la marca, ampliamos los resultados del estudio anterior.

El Estudio 1 aporta pruebas de que la publicidad étnica es la que más influye en el amor a la marca, en comparación con otros constructos alternativos de relación entre los consumidores y la marca. En el Estudio 2, los resultados muestran que sólo en el caso de los productos de baja implicación, la similitud percibida de los clientes con los modelos hispanos en los anuncios podría conducir a una mayor actitud positiva hacia el anuncio. Sin embargo, en la condición de alta implicación, la similitud percibida no medió en la relación entre esos constructos, lo que está en consonancia con el Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Desde el punto de vista práctico y de gestión, este trabajo propone que los gestores se centren en los anuncios con señales étnicas, especialmente para los productos de baja implicación. Por lo tanto, valdría la pena que las empresas tuvieran en cuenta los anuncios con señales étnicas para desarrollar eficazmente relaciones más estrechas entre el consumidor y la marca.

Este trabajo investiga los efectos de los anuncios dirigidos en las relaciones profundas (i.e., el amor a la marca) y sus consecuencias conductuales. Por lo tanto, mostramos cómo los anuncios dirigidos a los hispanos podrían conducir a relaciones profundas entre el consumidor y la marca que abarcan tanto la mente como el corazón de los clientes.

本文的两项研究考察了以西班牙裔为目标的广告对三种消费者-品牌关系（即品牌喜爱、品牌依恋和对品牌的态度）及其行为结果的影响。此外, 我们还研究了产品参与是如何调节这些影响的。

研究1展示了三种消费者-品牌关系（即品牌喜爱、品牌依恋和对品牌的态度）与其前因之间的联系。另外, 通过在研究2中测试品牌热爱前因后果的法理网络, 我们扩展了之前研究的结果。

研究1提供的证据表明, 民族广告对品牌喜爱的影响强于其他的消费者品牌关系建构。研究2的结果显示, 与西班牙裔模特的相似性只有在低介入产品中被感知, 才会让顾客产生对广告的更高积极态度。然而, 在高介入条件下, 感知相似性并没有调解这些建构之间的关系, 这与细化可能性模型是一致的。

从实践和管理的角度来看, 本文建议管理者应该把注意力集中在有民族线索的广告上, 尤其是低介入产品。因此, 为了有效地发展深层次的消费者-品牌关系, 企业考虑带有民族线索的广告是值得的。

本文研究了目标广告对深层关系（如品牌喜爱）的影响及及其行为后果。因此, 我们展示了以西班牙裔为目标的广告是如何能够导致一个深层次, 顾客思想与心灵上的消费者-品牌深层关系。

The purpose of this study is to find out how electronic word of mouth (eWOM) may affect evaluations of products with different brand images. In particular, the study explores differential eWOM impacts across several brand types and extension categories.

An experiment with 2 (brand image: prestige/function) × 2 (category similarity: low/high) × 2 (eWOM message type: positive/negative) between-subjects design was used to examine the impacts of eWOM on different types of brand extensions. A total of 268 subjects from a public university in the Southwest participated in the study. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in analyzing the data.

The findings highlight the differential impact of eWOM on brand extension evaluations with different brand images. First, eWOM is more effective in influencing evaluations of functional brand extensions than prestige brand extensions. Second, whereas negative eWOM does equally bad on both high- and low-similarity brand extensions, positive eWOM is more effective in improving evaluations of high-similarity extensions than low-similarity extensions.

This study is the first to examine the impact of eWOM on products with different brand images. This is a critical issue for brand managers who allocate limited marketing resources to monitoring and managing vast amounts of eWOM activities. The findings provide important guidance for managing social media marketing communications.

The purpose of this research is to conduct an exploratory study to discover if presenting consumers with a certain content type (i.e. product-focused content with informational appeal, institution-focused content with emotional appeal, experience-focused content with emotional appeal,) and blog type (i.e. a corporate, sponsored or a personal blog) persuade consumers to form perceptions of credibility and similarity toward the fashion brand, which leads them to further engage with the brand through Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM).

This study employs a 3(content type: product-focused, institution-focused, experience-focused) x 3(blog type: corporate, sponsored and personal) between-subjects design. Mock fashion blogs and content were developed in order to provide a realistic blogging experience for the participants. With 511 usable data collected, ANOVA was employed to test the relationships.

Findings reveal that content type, specifically product-focused content and experiential content, is an important consideration for illustrating similarities between the brand and consumers compared to institutional content. Product-focused content is found to be effective in encouraging consumer eWOM for the brand as well. Further, the interaction effect of blog type and content type was significant in establishing brand credibility. However, blog type did not influence any of the dependent variable.

This study brings meaningful suggestions to fashion brands on effective blog campaign, which eventually provide insights on how brands can influence female consumers to shape positive evaluation toward the brand.

Reports show that 6.77m people published blogs on blogging websites and more than 12m people write blogs using their social network. However, few studies have explored consumer attitudes toward bloggers and their advertising. Therefore, an effort to discover how paid blog advertisements influence consumer attitudes toward bloggers and the products they advertise will help marketers gain an understanding of how to use bloggers as paid sponsors to influence consumer purchase intent. Using online survey approach, a study recruited participants (n=210) through an online survey platform (MTurk). The results indicated that the similarity between the consumer and the ad creator is an important psychological reason why consumers are more likely to perceive advertisements as more authentic, more affective, less deceptive and more credible, and they are thus more likely to trust the blogger. On the other hand, the importance of ad attribute (authenticity) does not significantly influence consumers’ intention to purchase products advertised by a blogger. As consumers are becoming more skeptical of advertisements, blogs need to be entertaining and a pleasure to view. Not only does the content need to be interesting, the design, flow and clarity of the blogs must also be considered important factors. In addition, advertising needs to be believable, credible and honest. In the online world, trust and credibility are still paramount in attracting consumers’ engagement; hence, promoting companies’ products and services through blogs can be an effective strategy to lower consumer skepticism barriers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Participants answered questions about their attitudes toward bloggers and their advertising when purchasing products in an online retail environment. Furthermore, participants also answered questions about their perceived trust in the bloggers themselves as well as the authenticity and credibility of the brand-related communication received from bloggers. Moreover, they reported on their attitudes toward how deceptive they considered bloggers and their advertising to be. Finally, participants reported how paid blog advertisements influence their purchase intent.

Similarity toward the ad creator is an important psychological reason behind consumers’ attitude toward blogs. Consumers who follow a blog often have the same interests and are thus more likely to support bloggers. This idea can be used as a segmentation strategy to reach particular consumers. Consumers who perceive similarity with the ad creator are more likely to recognize the ads as more authentic, affective, credible and trustworthy as well as less deceptive, regarding the blogger. Blogs need to be entertaining and a pleasure to view. Not only does the content need to be interesting but the design, flow and clarity of the blog are also important factors. Blog advertising needs to be believable, credible and honest. In the online world, trust and credibility are still paramount in attracting consumers’ engagement with the website, bloggers or social media.

Trust in the blogger did not influence consumers’ purchase intent; however, it did influence their attitude toward how similar they are with the blogger. In an online shopping environment, the human touch and personal contact between consumers and retailers has been lost. Consumers often leave the online transaction due to a lack of trust. Therefore, bloggers can be replacements for the missing “salesperson” in online interactions. Companies can use bloggers as the mediating person to reach their intended audiences, bridging the gap between the company and consumers.