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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers respond to price changes by analyzing online product reviews (OPRs) posted on a product (Amazon’s Kindle 2), and to suggest several future research topics on online consumers’ reactions embedded in OPRs.

An exploratory case study is conducted using OPRs added to the Kindle 2. By analyzing 6,714 OPRs, the authors examine how online consumers respond to two continual price decreases embedded in the observable (star rating and review depth) and implicit (positive and negative emotions) features of OPRs as well as how the number of OPRs per day has changed after two price drops.

The authors found that all four features of OPRs (star rating, review depth, positive emotion, and negative emotion) and the number of OPRs per day had significantly changed after two price decreases for both long-term and short-term periods. In addition, online consumers’ reactions to price decreases in terms of these four features and the change in the number of OPRs per day were different between the first and the second price drops.

This study investigates online consumers’ reactions to price decreases only. Future research should investigate other cases where price changes under the dynamic pricing strategy in order to find the relationship between price increases/decreases and consumers’ reactions.

This study implies that online merchants should consider consumer groups’ innovation adoption stages and make strategic decisions for price decreases to improve the sales of their products.

While prior research involving the effects of price changes on consumers’ reactions has focussed on offline consumers, this is among the first attempts to address the long- and short-term reactions to price changes in terms of both the observable and implicit features of OPRs, and suggests that consumers’ reactions to price changes in OPRs are more complex.

This study aims to analyse what type of premium, hedonic or utilitarian, is preferred in a promotional context. Additionally, it seeks to examine the role of affective and cognitive reactions in decision processes where utilitarian and hedonic premiums are involved.

Three experiments were conducted. A single factor within-subjects design was employed, with the nature of the premium (hedonic/utilitarian) as the treatment factor. Respondents were asked to make their choice between two promotional offers. Affective and cognitive reactions were measured. Regression analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized effects.

The results show that hedonic premiums are preferable to utilitarian ones in a promotional context, other characteristics of the premium (e.g. premium attractiveness) being equal. The findings also identify that a preference for the hedonic/utilitarian premium is more likely to emerge when affective/cognitive reactions are incited, and indicate that the nature of the preferred premium determines the mediating effect of cognitive reactions.

The paper only focuses on the hedonic/utilitarian nature of the premium. However, premiums come in very different forms and several characteristics – such as a premium with a relatively low price, the reception delay of the premium, and the perceived fit between the product and the premium – may reverse the relative preference for hedonic premiums.

The hedonic vs utilitarian nature of the premium should be considered when planning premium promotion. It appears that the use of more hedonic premiums increases the effectiveness of promotional actions alongside other variables such as premium attractiveness, the promotional benefit level or the product-premium fit. Furthermore, the type of premium offered influences the role of affective and cognitive reactions aroused during shopping. Thus, the nature of the premium may influence the reactions of consumers when participating in promotional actions.

The research extends the factors that may explain the effectiveness of premium promotions, since few studies to date have focused on the hedonic or utilitarian nature of premiums.

Management response to consumer comments has become a widely adopted marketing strategy to address the undesirable effects caused by negative remarks. Yet, when and what management response is more effective and under what circumstances remains under-researched. This study aims to fill this gap.

In three experiments using five different products, the authors manipulate psychological construal level (psychological distance: distant vs proximal) and management response (response of primary vs secondary features) and thereafter assess their bearings on consumer psychological and behavioral reaction toward products of two distinctive natures (hedonic vs utilitarian).

At a psychological distance, consumers show a preferable reaction to management response of primary over secondary features. In contrast, when the psychological distance is proximal, consumers react more positively to management response of secondary than primary features. In addition, these effects vary as a function of product nature, hedonic vs utilitarian.

The findings of this research bring a significant contribution to marketing communication literature and extend the construal level theory.

A better understanding of the relative effectiveness of distinct types of management response to negative consumer comments is essential for more targeted and effective marketing strategies.

Little research has documented the effects of distinct types of management response. How psychological distance might underpin these effects has not been explored. In addition, whether the interaction effect of management response and psychological distance varies with differences in product nature, namely, hedonic and utilitarian, remains unanswered until this research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in consumer reactions to high- versus low-equity brands in terms of consumer attitude toward the brand, involvement with the brand, company credibility and consumer purchase intentions.

Experimental procedure is conducted to test three hypotheses using 317 consumer participants. The experiment is carried out comparing a high-equity personal computer (PC) brand and a low-equity PC brand involved in product-harm crisis.

The results indicate that, in the case of product-harm crisis, negative consumer perceptions regardless of brand equity level; less negative perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand; and smaller loss in consumer perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand.

The findings highlight the importance of brand equity in crisis management explained by covariation theory of attributions.

Although product-harm crisis is inevitable for many firms, continuous investment in brand equity can mitigate the negative consequences.

Product-harm crisis can pose serious consequences for firms on both financial and intangible dimensions. Given the occurrence of numerous product-harm crises involving both reputable and less known brands, it is important to consider potential influences of brand equity on consumer reactions to such crisis.

This research extends existing services offshoring literature by investigating how the type of information exchanged, technical support or personal billing, in conjunction with country-of-service-origin (COSO) influences consumer likelihood to react negatively (boycott issue importance, NWOM, perceived service quality) to an offshore service exchange.

Structural equations modelling is employed to assess relationships among constructs when country of service origin (New Zealand and the Philippines) and type of service provided (technical support and personal billing services) are varied. Using a scenario-based experimental design we collected 337 responses from a consumer panel across Australia.

Results indicate that both COSO and type of information exchanged affect service sentiment. Overall, consumers feel more negative and more likely to punish a company for offshoring to culturally dissimilar countries such as the Philippines than to culturally similar ones such as New Zealand. However, consumers were more concerned with personal billing services provided from offshore providers than technical support, regardless of COSO.

Practitioners need to understand customer sentiment about services offshoring in general as well as the relationship between service type and country of service origin when designing the global service supply chain.

This study extends theory by applying a multi-dimensional portfolio perspective in examining customer sentiment of offshore services. Understanding the underlying bases of customer concerns and how companies can mitigate negative perceptions allows firms to better manage service offshore strategy.

Previous research on brand crisis has introduced the difference between a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis. However, little remains known regarding consumers’ varying negative responses towards these two different types of brand misconduct. This paper aims to investigate and compare consumers’ affective and behavioural negative reactions (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention) towards a faulty brand during a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis by testing the mediation of negative emotions and introducing the moderating role of cultural belongingness (collectivistic vs individualistic).

The authors tested a model of moderated mediation in a cross-cultural investigation on a sample of 229 Italian and Asian consumers. The study is a 2 (cultures: collectivistic vs individualistic) × 2 (crisis: performance-related vs values-related) between-subjects experimental design. The moderated mediation model shows that consumers’ negative reactions (negative word of mouth and negative purchase intention) towards a faulty brand involved in different crisis typologies is explained by the mediating role of negative emotions, and that this mediation depends on a consumer’s cultural belongingness.

The results suggest that consumers belonging to a collectivistic culture (e.g. Asian culture) tend to react in a more severe and strict manner when faced with a values-related brand crisis event then when faced with a performance-related crisis. The arousal of negative emotion towards a brand represents the mediating variable in behavioural responses (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention).

The present study extends current knowledge in the field of consumers’ negative response to brand irresponsibility behaviours while introducing the role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness. In particular, individualistic people are more sensitive to a values-related crisis in comparison with a performance-related one. The findings of this study have strong managerial implications for defining effective response strategies to negative events involving brands in different markets.

Reports the results of a three‐study research program whose purpose is to gain a better understanding of consumer reactions to premium‐based promotional offers. In the first study, elaborates and evaluates a comprehensive typology of premium‐based promotional offers with respect to its content and predictive validity. In the next study, explores the semantics that are used by consumers when they are presented with premium promotions and develops a series of research hypotheses from qualitative interviews with 12 consumers. In the final study, conducts a survey of 182 adult consumers to test these research hypotheses. The results reveal that consumer appreciation of premium‐based promotional offers is more positive when the premium is direct than when it is delayed, when there is a relatively lower quantity of product to purchase, when the value of the premium is mentioned, when brand attitude is positive, when interest in the premium is great, and when consumers are characterized by deal‐proneness and compulsive buying tendencies. Consumers’ perception of manipulation intent is affected mainly by directness of the premium, mention of the value of the premium, interest in the premium, and deal‐proneness.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain insights into Vietnamese consumers’ knowledge and relevance of as well as their reaction to modern food retailers (MFRs) responsible and irresponsible conduct.

Data were obtained from an online survey applying content analysis, uni- and multivariate tests and multivariate regression models.

In total, 60 percent of respondents are not aware of (ir)responsible conduct of MFR. Most of those aware of such behavior indicate that this has induced a change in their shopping behavior. This holds to a similar extent for those not aware but envisaging the (ir)responsible conduct of MFRs. The findings point to a negativity bias in that consumers’ reaction is more sensitive regarding irresponsible than responsible firm behavior. This bias is higher for consumers already knowledgeable about the (ir)responsible behavior of MFRs. The likelihood that consumers punish irresponsible conduct is influenced by the importance they attach to “food quality and safety” while those having high concerns for environmental, social and ethical’ issues are more likely to reward responsible firm actions.

The negativity bias which implies that consumers react more sensitive regarding irresponsible than responsible firm behavior is likely underestimated in hypothetical studies.

Customer loyalty is at stake for MFRs behaving irresponsible while it can be strengthened by responsible firm conduct.

This research is the first to highlight the importance consumers in Vietnam attach to responsible firm conduct. It also points to a lack of awareness of such behavior.

This paper investigates why and when messages regarding unsustainable luxury products lead to negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) through a focus on the role of guilt, need to warn others and consumers' cultural orientation.

Three experiments test whether messages describing unsustainable versus sustainable luxury manufacturing processes elicit guilt and a need to warn others and whether and how the need to warn others affects consumers' NWOM depending on their cultural orientation.

Consumers experience guilt in response to messages emphasizing the unsustainable (vs sustainable) nature of luxury products. In turn, guilt triggers a need to warn other consumers, which leads to NWOM about the luxury company. Furthermore, the results suggest that two dimensions of Hofstede's model of national culture – namely individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity – moderate the effect of the need to warn others on NWOM.

Luxury managers should design appropriate strategies to cope with consumers' different reactions to information regarding luxury brands' unsustainability. Managers should be aware that the risk of NWOM diffusion may be higher in countries characterized by a collectivistic and feminine orientation rather than an individualistic and masculine orientation.

Consumer reaction to unsustainable luxury, especially across different cultural groups, is a neglected area of investigation. This work contributes to this novel area of research by investigating NWOM stemming from unsustainable luxury manufacturing practices in different cultural contexts.

This conceptual article presents a theoretical approach to understanding the atmosphere at sports stadiums. Using the environmental psychology behavioural model proposed by Mehrabian & Russell (1974), and taking into account recent findings in consumer research, we develop a comprehensive framework for investigating this atmosphere. The framework highlights the role of emotions elicited by different stimuli in sports stadiums. We also suggest a number of direct and indirect influences on behavioural outcomes, caused by the emotional reactions and personal predispositions of spectators - influences that are of economic relevance. The proposed framework also forms a starting point for future empirical studies.