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Customization, as a crucial way to meet the heterogeneous demand of individuals, exists two fundamental and competing motivations, namely, assimilation and uniqueness. Based on optimal distinctiveness theory, this paper aims to validate the interactive effect of self-expressive customization types (i.e. customization to express individual identity and customization to express a shared identity) and self-construal on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium (WPP).

Two studies were conducted to provide empirical support for all proposed hypotheses. The first study (n = 151) uses a hypothetical scenario of a basketball game to test the interaction effect of self-expressive customization and self-construal. The second study (n = 184) assumes a scenario of designing a t-shirt or a uniform to examined the moderated mediating role of consumer-product identification.

The results reveal that independent (vs interdependent) self-construal will have stronger consumer-product identification for customization to express an individual identity (vs customization to express a shared identity), thus generating a higher WPP. Also, perceived task difficulty is the boundary condition of the research model.

This paper makes insightful contributions to the customization literature by strengthening the identity signals of customization and exploring the psychological mechanism and the boundary conditions.

This research is one of the first few empirical studies to examine the impact of self-expressive customization on consumers’ WPP via the identification with the focal object. This paper not only expands the literature of self-expressive customization but also provides a new research direction for the research of person-object interaction in marketing.

The competitive international environment of the twenty‐first century is said to require greater collaboration between the multinational corporation (MNC) units, where local employees work toward global as well as local goals. What does it take to motivate local employees to go the extra mile for the sake of the MNC as a whole? This article reports the results of a study conducted among 317 local managers at the Indian and Pakistani subsidiaries of a British MNC in the consumer products industry. Organisational identification, or a psychological bonding with the organisation, was one of several factors contributing to the willingness of local managers to exert extra effort toward organisational goals. Implications of the findings are drawn for expatriate managers who work alongside local managers, and for international human resource management.

This study aims to examine the influence of two significant product labelling strategies (geographical indication [GI] vs country-of-origin [COO]) on shaping customer product attitude and purchase likelihood, considering consumers’ ethnocentric and cosmopolitan tendencies. The authors also investigate the boundary conditions and intervening mechanisms to manage the adverse consumer product evaluations and present mitigating procedures which reinstate favourable product evaluations and purchase likelihood.

The collected data from these all these studies were analysed using ANOVA and mediation anlaysis. The study tests the proposed hypotheses using three follow-up experimental investigations.

The study found that GI (vs COO) labels have a more significant impact on customers’ product evaluation and likelihood of purchase and supported the dispositional effect of ethnocentric and cosmopolitan inclinations. Further, the results indicated that self-product congruence can efficiently regulate consumer dispositions. Also, the results confirmed the significant impact of product identification on influencing consumer attitudes.

The above-said insights add practical insights, particularly concerning product labelling. Also, the insights on product attitudes and purchase likelihood intricacies in the context of product labelling enable companies to comprehend better the significance of GI labels, COO labels and self-product congruence.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time a study has compared the role of two significant product labelling strategies (GI vs COO) in shaping customer product evaluations, confirmed its boundary conditions and shown how to transform them into helpful customer product outcomes.

This paper aims to study the main requirements of traceability and examine how the technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can address these requirements. It further seeks to outline both an information data model and a system architecture that will make traceability feasible and easily deployable across a supply chain.

The design research approach is followed, associating traceability requirements to a proposed system design.

The technological approach used has great implications in relation to the cost associated with a traceability system and the ease of its deployment.

Validation of the proposed information data model and system architecture is required through practical deployment in different settings.

The paper provides practitioners with insight on how RFID technology can meet traceability requirements and what technological approach is more appropriate.

Food quality has become an important issue in the last decade. However, achieving end‐to‐end traceability across the supply chain is currently quite a challenge from a technical, a co‐ordination and a cost perspective. The paper contributes by suggesting a specific technological approach, exploiting the new possibilities provided by RFID technology, to address these issues.

In July 2010, a mandatory European Union (EU) logo for organic food was introduced to strengthen the organic sector by making the identification of organic products easier for consumers. The present study aims to analyse how consumers in five EU countries view a mandatory EU logo for organic food and to give recommendations for agrarian decision makers and market actors in the organic sector.

The study is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a comprehensive picture of consumer views. Focus group discussions were conducted with consumers in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the UK. A subsequent survey with 2,042 participants was carried out to quantify consumer views on key issues and analyse country differences. Finally, the results of the qualitative and quantitative study were brought together.

While the introduction of a mandatory EU logo for organic food was generally welcomed in all countries, trust in the underlying production standards and the inspection system was not very pronounced (except in Italy). The authors conclude that the introduction of the new EU logo should be supported by communication campaigns to make clear what the new logo stands for and remove unfounded consumer concerns regarding the downscaling of standards and the trustworthiness of the inspection system.

To the authors' knowledge, no previous studies exist on consumer views on a mandatory EU logo for organic food. The recommendations drawn from their findings can help to reach the objectives connected with the introduction of the mandatory EU logo.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the proposed methodology to develop the product as per customer’s requirements (CRs) and increase customer satisfaction (CS).

The companies are using different methods to identify CRs and translate these requirements into new products. The Kano model is used to identify CRs. The result of the Kano model is used in quality function deployment (QFD) to decide the priority for improvements of CRs and the technical requirements.

The integration of the Kano model and QFD is applied on the mobile phone. The Kano model helps to find out the CRs which affect the CS, such as attractive (A) attribute, one (O)-dimensional attribute and must be (M) attribute. The QFD method helps to translate the CRs into technical requirements so that the designer can decide priority of requirements for improvement or new product development.

The proposed methodology can be applied to different consumers as well as industrial products.

The Kano model has been used in manufacturing as well as service sector. This work explores its usefulness and applicability for consumer and industrial products.

This study aims to analyze how restaurants' collaboration with mobile food delivery applications (MFDAs) affects product development efficiency and argues that technological capabilities moderate relational ties impact the joint decision-making and development efficiency of restaurant products.

A product development efficiency model was formulated using a resource-based view and real options theory. In all, 472 samples were collected from restaurants collaborating with MFDAs, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to the proposed model.

The findings of this study indicate three factors are critical to the product development efficiency between restaurants and MFDAs; restaurants must develop a strong connection with the latter to ensure meals are consistently served promptly. Developers of MFDAs should use artificial intelligence analysis, such as order records of different genders and ages or various consumption attributes, to collaborate with restaurants.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few that considers the role of MFDAs as a product strategy for restaurant operations, and the factors the authors found can enhance restaurants’ product development efficiency. Second, as strategic artificial intelligence adaptation changes, collaborating firms and restaurants use such applications for product development to help consumers identify products.

The purpose of this paper is to assess product and service arrays of community banks within competitive markets that are impacted by varying sized financial institutions. A cost efficiency model is used to understand the relationship of product offerings and business cycle response upon bank performance.

A cost efficiency model is used to understand the relationship of product offerings and business cycle response upon bank performance. Markets comprised of alternate size and type of financial institutions are compared.

Greater values of X_EFF _i when institutions compete are observed in this analysis. Cost efficiency is lowest when community banks are the only institution in the market, and second lowest when credit unions are the only competing institutions. Call report data are analyzed from 1994 to 2013. The number of big banks increases community bank efficiency and efficiency of large banks. Also, the number of community banks does affect big bank cost efficiency. The magnitude of the effect pertaining to the number of community banks upon big bank efficiency is much smaller than that of the number of big banks on community bank efficiency.

This study considers cost efficiency and profitability as measures of institution on the performance of a competing institutional type. The modeling approach uses cost efficiency as a method of observing the performance of financial institutions and an explanation of how firms persist, grow, and respond to changes in technology or regulation. The effects of the presence of each type of financial institution on the performance of another type are compared. Situations in which any number of one or more institutional types is present in a market are considered for analysis purposes.

The topic of brand personality (BP) has received extensive research attention in the last 2 decades, with a particular focus on examining its antecedents and consequences. This study, therefore, systematically reviews and synthesizes extant research on antecedents and consequences of BP of consumer products.

A systematic review approach is used to identify and analyze relevant studies from five major databases and a search engine. This review identified 62 articles from 43 journals published during 1997–2018. The relevant literature germane to the research objectives is extracted from these articles.

This study identifies and classifies antecedents and consequences of BP of consumer products, along with key mediators and moderators underlying these relationships. Additionally, the study reveals pertinent characteristics of BP literature, including conceptualizations, measurements, methods, theories and research settings. Finally, this study develops an integrative conceptual model and presents avenues for future research.

This study provides insight to practitioners that create and develop brand personalities. The study would inform managers concerning the outcomes of BP.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first systematic review that synthesizes existing empirical research on antecedents and consequences of BP of consumer products.

Consumer product firms renowned for marketing appear to be complementing brand creation, extension and acquisition with minority equity investments in entrepreneurial brand ventures (EBVs) for strategic purposes. Similarly, EBVs are looking for growth and resources that can be accessed via inter-organizational partnerships. This flourishing industry practice and the paucity of empirical research indicates the potential for new studies. The research objective was to examine why and how large incumbents were implementing strategic brand venturing (SBV), and with this understanding to develop a framework useful for descriptive and normative purposes.

This qualitative research study comprised in-depth interviews and multiple data sources across seven case studies drawn from US subsidiaries of global firms within the consumer products industry. Grounded in resource theory, the dimensions of strategic brand equity investments are abductively derived.

The findings delineate 16 process capabilities within four aggregate clusters entailing, the designing of the SBV program, opportunity identification, brand entrepreneur partnerships and venture portfolio management. Prefaced by endogenous and exogenous antecedents, these process capabilities help to contribute strategic and financial value when implemented.

This qualitative research study yielded analytical rather than statistical generalizations. A range of market and economic factors exist in the United States contributing towards a favorable entrepreneurial and brand incubation climate. This may render the SBV concept as contingent and contextual. Furthermore, the view of brand entrepreneurs' regarding the design of the process model were not explicitly sought but inferred from the discourses of the venturing units interviewed.

The article outlines several important implementation imperatives for corporations endeavoring to competitively advantage their brand portfolios via adoption of a minority equity investing strategy in EBVs. Practitioners are cautioned against myopically adopting this process alone as a success heuristic given other factors may impact success such as changes in corporate strategy or upper echelon sponsorship.

Mission preservation for social brand ventures being tethered to a large incumbent may need to be taken into account prior to and during SBV relationships.

The research contributes to the call for greater insights into the investment processes used in venturing relationships as well as coverage of new industry sectors beyond technology industries that often characterize corporate venture capital studies. Several novel findings emerged related to the importance of—the industry ecosystem; symbiosis between the founding brand entrepreneur and brand culture; synchronization of investment strategies with an emerging brand life-cycle model and serendipitous corporate entrepreneurial opportunities.