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Drawing on the personalization–privacy paradox and guided by means–end analysis, this study explores how consumers balance their concerns for privacy and the benefits of smart home device personalization and the role that trust plays in the process. More specifically, this study aims to investigate how perceptions of smart device personalization and privacy concerns are shaped by consumers’ experiences and the role of trust in the deliberation process.

In-depth interviews were conducted across diverse demographic groups of smart device users to shed light on the balancing act between personalization and privacy.

The study found that product experience, ownership type, perceived value of convenience and control and quality of life via “smart things” are key motivators for product usage. The benefits of tailored recommendations and high relevance are balanced against the risks of echo chamber effects and loss of control. The results also show the role of active involvement in the privacy calculus and trust level. The study points to the significance of an ecosystem-based service/business model in gaining consumer confidence when they balance between personalization and privacy.

Although many studies have explored trust, privacy concerns and personalization in an artificial intelligence (AI)-related context, few have addressed trust in the context of both smart devices and the personalization–privacy paradox. As such, this study adds to the existing literature by incorporating the concept of trust and addressing both privacy concerns and personalization in the AI context.

The study examined the mediating and moderating roles of engagement and trust in the relationship between digital marketing and purchase intentions in the banking industry.

The study was quantitative and cross-sectional and used a sample of 462 respondents drawn through a combination of purposive and convenience sampling techniques. The main method of data analysis was the covariance-based structural equation modeling used to assess the paths relationships, using the Amos v.23 software. Prior to that, a confirmatory factor analysis was done to assess the reliability and validity of the instrument.

The empirical findings support the hypothesized relationship between digital marketing and purchase intention of banks’ services. Consumer engagement partially was found to mediate the association between digital marketing and purchase intentions. Finally, consumer trust moderates the relationship between digital marketing and consumer engagement.

Given digital marketing is evolving with new tools and channels coming up by the day, we recommend that future studies should explore others such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, content marketing, display advertisement etc. These will help give a broader perspective to the digital marketing strategy and its effect on consumers’ purchase intentions of banks’ services.

The study makes a strong case for the use of multi-channel and/or integrative approach, improving digital infrastructure and systems, adopting new and emerging digital tools/channels such as artificial intelligence, chatbots among others to facilitate digital marketing strategy implementation while ensuring active consumer engagement. It further underscores the need for managers to build trust and regularly engage consumers through their digital marketing channels.

The integration of the variables in the study provides new empirical understanding and extends knowledge in digital marketing theory. It also serves as a foundation for future studies to explore other areas in the digital marketing, especially from a developing digital economies perspective.

The study has two objectives: (1) expand our knowledge of the relationship between unethical behaviour and both trust and satisfaction and (2) demonstrate that unethical behaviour research should be examined multi-dimensionally.

Data were collected by resorting to a mixed methods approach. First, individual interviews were performed with 31 bank consumers from six main commercial banks in Bukavu city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Interview notes were submitted for content analysis to identify items and components that underpin the unethical practices construct. Second, a quantitative survey was conducted with 410 consumers from the same six banks. An aggregated-disaggregated structural equations modelling approach was used to test the impact of unethical practices on relationship outcomes through two studies. Study 1 tested a model that links unethical behaviour as a one-dimensional construct to trust and satisfaction. Study 2 tested a model that directly connects the four specific unethical behaviour components to both trust and satisfaction.

Results from study 1 reveal that perceived unethical behaviour negatively influences consumer trust. Results also confirm that trust positively influences customer satisfaction. Results from study 2 confirm that unresponsive, disrespect and lying behaviours negatively influence both trust and satisfaction. Banks which are involving in those specific unethical behaviours can neither satisfy their consumers, nor maintain a sustainable and profitable relationship with them. Therefore, unethical behaviours harm the relationships outcomes in the banking sector.

The perceived unethical behaviour scale derives from a single data set and its reliability and validity need to be improved. Relationships between constructs are tested in a more direct way and ignore moderating variables. Perceived unethical behaviour is connected to relationship outcome variables while its impact on firms’ metrics have been ignored.

Banks have to understand customers’ perception of unethical behaviours and find a way to overcome them. Banks should recruit, motivate and retain employees who demonstrate an ethical inclination in the service encounter and create structures and mechanisms in order to monitor and manage unethical practices.

Banks employees' unethical behaviour and practices not only damage the trust and reputation of banks but also can lead to frustration on the part of customers and damage their relationship with the institution. Our paper is a warning of this danger and might improve the social interactions between organisations (in general) and customers.

Unethical behaviour is measured with a four-component scale in contrast to previous studies that have used bi-dimensional or one-dimensional scales. The study tests a disaggregated model that links four components of perceived unethical behaviour to relationship outcome variables. Perceived unethical behaviours are analysed from the customers’ perspective by resorting to mixed methods strategy.

Increasing demand for goods and services strains environmental sustainability, driving interest in green products. Trust in these products is vital for adoption. Scholars have examined factors affecting green trust, but a comprehensive framework involving cognitive and affective factors as antecedents and behavioral outcomes as consequences is lacking. This study aims to address this gap and introduces cultural and socio-demographic variables as moderators.

The study consolidates the outcomes of 79 empirical publications on green trust and conducts a meta-analysis.

All the cognitive and affective factors and behavioral outcomes are significantly associated with green trust. The moderator analysis provides many valuable insights as it highlights the context dependency of various relationships of green trust.

Using an extensive literature review, this study introduces an integrated framework that clarifies the antecedents and consequences of green trust. This work enriches the existing body of knowledge by investigating the influence of cultural and socio-demographic factors as moderators on these relationships, offering significant insights into the realm of green trust.

This research yields valuable guidance for providers of green products/services, shedding light on the factors that foster trust in their offerings and emphasizing the importance of customized strategies that take into account cultural and socio-demographic variables.

This is an original study that contributes to the green trust literature.

This study examines the inverted U-shaped relationship between a live-streaming seller’s disclosure of two-sided product information and consumers’ trust in the seller and product. It also explores the interaction between these two types of information disclosure and their impact on purchase intention in the live-streaming sales context.

An e-questionnaire survey was conducted in China, followed by multiple regression and structural equation modeling analyses.

The disclosure of both negative and positive product information is positively correlated with consumers’ trust in the seller or product but does not directly affect their purchase intention. Negative information disclosure neither enhances nor diminishes the positive impact of disclosing positive information on consumer trust.

Live-streaming sellers (i.e. retailers or manufacturers) should disclose both positive and negative product information to form consumers’ trust toward them (or products) and enhance sales.

Live-streaming sellers often worry about the negative effects of excessive promotions or disclosure of positive or negative product information. However, these negative effects were not statistically significant.

Since some researchers have found nonlinear effects of two-sided product information in other contexts, this study is the first to focus on the impact of live-streaming sellers’ disclosure of two-sided product information on consumers’ trust in the live-streaming sales context rather than on the information per se.

Live-streaming e-commerce is becoming a new way for many consumers to shop. During the live broadcast process, the interaction between anchors and customers plays a decisive role on consumers' purchasing decisions. This study aims to explore how two types of interaction between the anchor and the customers (i.e. task-oriented interaction and relationship-oriented interaction) affect customers' purchase decisions.

The study establishes a model based on online trust theory and multi-sensor interaction theory. To validate the model, we carried out five simulated live-streaming events and collected data through a scenario-based survey of the viewers participating in the live-streaming (N = 244). Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.

Both task-oriented interaction and relationship-oriented interaction have a positive impact on users' purchase decisions through the mediation of virtual touch, emotional trust and cognitive trust. Sense of power has opposite moderating effects on the impacts of relationship-oriented interaction on emotional trust and cognitive trust.

This study enriches the theory of live-streaming e-commerce by demonstrating the decisive roles of two types of anchor–customer interaction, the mediation roles of virtual touch, cognitive trust, and emotional trust in customer purchase decisions, as well as the moderating effect of sense of power on customer decision-making processes. The findings provide practical insights for anchors and live-streaming platforms about how they should arrange live-streaming content to enhance consumer purchasing decisions.

The current study aims to propose and empirically investigate a conceptual model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attribution, thus providing a practical and concise model as well as examining brand attachment as a mediator explaining the relationship between CSR attribution and its consequences.

A between-subjects experimental design was employed. The study included two experimental conditions; intrinsic and extrinsic CSR attribution and a control condition. An online self-administered survey was utilised for data collection. The sample was a convenience sample of 336 university students. Both one-way between-groups ANOVA and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were utilised for hypotheses testing.

The most significant antecedents of CSR attribution in order of importance are the firm's approach to CSR communication, past corporate social performance, CSR type and the firm's call for customers' participation in its CSR. CSR attribution exerted a significant direct positive impact on brand attachment and trust. Three significant indirect consequences of CSR attribution were PWOM intention, purchase intention and brand loyalty intention. Whereas trust played a significant mediating role between CSR attribution and its three indirect consequences, brand attachment exerted significant mediation only between CSR attribution and brand loyalty intention. Brand attachment might mediate the relationship between CSR attribution and purchase intention. However, brand attachment failed to play a mediating role between CSR attribution and PWOM intention.

Several studies marginally investigated CSR attribution. Despite the vital role of CSR attribution in how consumers receive firms' CSR engagement, the availability of CSR attribution-centric studies is limited. By introducing a model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of CSR attribution, this study aids in understanding the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' CSR attribution and provides valuable implications.

In the realm of tourism and sustainability, transportation and mobility hold a crucial position. Among the green product categories, three-wheeled electric vehicles have gained significant attention due to their environmental benefits. However, research on consumers’ intentions to purchase these vehicles is limited, particularly in Asian destinations like Sri Lanka. This study aims to bridge this gap by examining the direct and indirect impacts of green brand awareness, green brand associations and green perceived quality of local Sri Lankans’ intention to choose branded electric three-wheelers in future purchase decisions.

A questionnaire survey garnered 400 usable responses, and structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The results indicate that green brand awareness, green brand associations and green perceived quality have a direct positive and significant effect on consumers’ intention to choose branded electric three-wheelers in future purchase decisions and green trust. Also, green trust has a positive and significant direct effect on consumers’ intention to choose branded electric three-wheelers in future purchase decisions. Furthermore, the results indicate that only green brand associations and green perceived quality have an indirect positive and significant effect on consumers’ intention to choose branded electric three-wheelers in future purchase decisions through green trust.

This research contributes to the tourism industry and other sectors involved in sustainability efforts in several ways. First, it emphasizes the importance of fostering positive associations with eco-friendly attributes and perceived product quality to build consumer trust and influence their purchase intentions for green products. Second, the study underscores the relevance of highlighting eco-friendly product attributes to stimulate consumer interest and adoption of green products. Finally, it theoretically underscores the significance of building trust through transparent and credible sustainability initiatives.

This study aims to identify and explore different risk typologies associated with consumer acceptance of purchase recommendations from voice assistants (VAs).

Drawing on components of perceived risk, consumer trust theory, and consumption value theory, a research model was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with data from 482 voice shoppers.

The results reveal that, unlike risks associated with physical harm, privacy breaches, and security threats, a variety of other concerns—including financial, psychological, social, performance-related risks, time loss, and the overall perceived risks—significantly influence consumers' willingness to accept VAs purchase recommendations. The effect is mediated by trust in VA purchase recommendations and their perceived value. Different types of risk affect various consumption values, with functional value being the most influential. The model explains 58.6% of the variance in purchase recommendation acceptance and significantly elucidates the variance in all consumption values.

This study contributes crucial knowledge to understanding consumer decision-making processes as they increasingly leverage AI-powered voice-based dialogue platforms for online purchasing. It emphasizes recognizing diverse risk typologies associated with VA purchase recommendations and their impact on consumer purchase behavior. The findings offer insights for marketing managers seeking to navigate the challenges posed by consumers' perceived risks while leveraging VAs as an integral component of modern shopping environments.

The continuing development of digital technologies creates expanding opportunities for information transparency. Consumers use social media to provide online reviews that are focused on changing levels of consumer trust. This study examines the effect of perceived risk that prompts consumers to search for online reviews in the context of food safety.

Commitment-trust theory forms the theoretical lens to model changes in consumer trust resulting from online reviews. Consumer-based questionnaire surveys collected data to test the structural model, using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The findings show when consumers perceive high levels of risk, they use social media to obtain additional product-related information. The objective, unanimous, evidential and noticeable online reviews are perceived as informative to consumers. Perceived informativeness of positive online reviews is found to increase consumers trust and, in turn, increase their purchase intentions.

The findings contribute to the knowledge of online review-based trust literature and provide far-reaching implications for information system (IS)-practitioners in business.