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Declares that diffusion (a term employed to describe the process whereby an innovation or a new idea or practice spreads through a social system over time) is a summary term used to embrace studies which trace the process of diffusion, the process of adoption and the patterns of influence involved. Acknowledges that even allowing for low involvement of marketing research in diffusion, marketing management's interest in this area can be guided and controlled. States that information is diffused through some form of communication channel – these may be one of two types: vertical channels, which exist if ‘there is a meaningful difference in the interests, social status, demographic or economic characteristics of the communication units’; and horizontal channels, which occur where communications flows among members of groups with similar interests and characteristics – these groups may be work groups, social groups, etc. Investigates sources of information and influence – in particular the two basic ones of: impersonal sources via the mass media; and personal sources involving the opinion leader in a two‐step flow of communication. Closes by discussing the implications of the two‐step flow for marketing in depth, with recommendations.

The introductory chapter includes how to design-in good practices in theory, data collection procedures, analysis, and interpretations to avoid these bad practices. Given that bad practices in research are ingrained in the career training of scholars in sub-disciplines of business/management (e.g., through reading articles exhibiting bad practices usually without discussions of the severe weaknesses in these studies and by research courses stressing the use of regression analysis and structural equation modeling), this editorial is likely to have little impact. However, scholars and executives supporting good practices should not lose hope. The relevant literature includes a few brilliant contributions that can serve as beacons for eliminating the current pervasive bad practices and for performing highly competent research.

The expanding nature of the men’s casual apparel market represents a considerable economic growth area in the apparel industry. Of particular interest is the demand for casual clothing by college‐age men. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of casualwear involvement (high, medium, low) on the purchasing behaviour of male students in relation to their shopping dimensions, personal characteristics, buying behaviour, shopping attributes and information sources. Data were collected using a questionnaire delivered by e‐mail to a systematically selected sample, with 176 male college students responding from 18 colleges in Georgia, USA. The results revealed that there were unique shopping patterns which differ according to casualwear involvement, indicating a deep interest in casualwear and appearance. Most male students had a medium to high casualwear involvement sum score; however, as age increased this score decreased. Both the personal and the market information sources indicated that customers with high involvement were more experienced than either the low or medium involvement groups. The medium involvement casualwear group was composed of consumers who were likely to make purchases during the sale season. The low involvement cohort was moderate casualwear buyers in terms of volume and purchased expensive casualwear. This study shows that classifying male college students by involvement can be helpful in marketing to this group. Apparel marketers are well advised to focus on this neglected cohort of male casualwear consumers.

Purpose: This study analyses the mediating effect of parasocial interaction (PSI) in the link between hedonic motivation and impulsive buying intention (IBI) in fashion vlogging about sustainable cosmetics.

Need for the Study: Due to the mass popularity of YouTube, vlogging has led to an augmented level of PSI of vloggers with consumers, which strongly impacts a consumer’s behavioural consequences and persuades consumers to indulge in impulsive buying. Thus, marketers need to comprehend the changing behavioural patterns, including sustainable products, as this new communication medium serves the future of promotion and advertising.

Methodology: Online questionnaires were administered to 349 Gen Z female fashion vlog followers. Structural equation modelling and Hayes Process macros were employed to test the model relationships.

Findings: Results indicate that PI with the fashion vlogger partially mediates between hedonic motivation and impulse buying intention for sustainable cosmetic products. Fashion consciousness (FC) was also established as a significant moderator between all the model relationships.

Practical Implications: The findings of the study would be helpful for fashion brands in the content development of visual marketing communications, which would tap the female Gen Z consumer. Improving the PSI between the follower and the fashion vlogger can be easily enhanced by delivering the right content through the vlogger’s videos.

It is important to remain creative when conducting segmentation research, as many different ways to segment a market can exist. Five main bases are discussed: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behaviouristic and image. This is followed by an overview of the main techniques used to establish and verify segments, including automatic interaction detector, conjoint analysis, multidimensional scaling and canonical analysis.

This chapter describes and tests the principles of configural theory in the context of hospitality frontline service employees’ happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of these employees’ quality of work performances. The study proposes and tests empirically a configural asymmetric theory of the antecedents to hospitality employee happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of employees’ quality of work performance. The findings confirm and go beyond prior statistical findings of small-to-medium effect sizes of happiness-performance relationships. The method includes matching cases of data from surveys of employees (n = 247) and surveys completed by their managers (n = 43) and uses qualitative comparative analysis via the software program fsQCA.com. The findings support the four principles of configural analysis and theory construction: recognize equifinality of different solutions for the same outcome; test for asymmetric solutions; test for causal asymmetric outcomes for very high versus very low happiness and work performance; and embrace complexity. The theory and findings confirm that configural theory and research resolves perplexing happiness–performance conundrums. The study provides algorithms involving employees’ demographic characteristics and their assessments of work facet-specifics which are useful for explaining very high happiness-at-work and high quality-of-work performance (as assessed by managers) – as well as algorithms explaining very low happiness and very low quality-of-work performance.

We examine the role of communication in stimulating consumer attitudes and buying behavior regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR).

We review the literature on communicating CSR to consumers through (1) messages constructed and verified by the company (such as product claims and corporate advertising), (2) messages constructed by the company, but verified by a third party (such as disclosures), and (3) messages constructed and verified by a third party (such as independent consumer guides and publicity).

Communication messages constructed and verified by the company can be quite effective in persuading consumers, if they are communicated in a credible way. The latter can, for example, be done by including specific behaviors and/or outcomes in the message. Messages constructed by the firm, but verified by a third party tend to have a higher credibility, but risk containing either too little information or too much. Finally, messages constructed and verified by a third party can be seen as highly credible, but can sometimes be seen as merely PR. In addition, both messages focusing on deontological responsibility (the firm’s motives and behavior), and messages focusing on consequentialist responsibility (the outcomes of the firm’s behavior) seem important to consumers.

The results offer suggestions on how to communicate about CSR to consumers.

The chapter provides the first comprehensive overview of the literature on communication about CSR to consumers.

The aim of this study is to determine, using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), affluent female consumers' purchase intention of a controversial luxury product, apparel made with American alligator leather.

Influence variables evaluated in the model included: attitude toward performing the behavior (purchasing alligator leather apparel); subjective norm, involvement (fashion involvement); controversy perception (social acceptance and endangerment status of the American alligator); price perception (price‐quality schema and prestige sensitivity); personality traits (self‐confidence and self‐consciousness); and demographics. A mail survey of 1,200 affluent female consumers residing in eight US metropolitan statistical areas defined as fashion centers was conducted.

A total of 430 usable surveys were returned for a 36 percent response rate. The general linear model regression analysis revealed that attitude toward performing the behavior, subjective norm, controversy perception (social acceptance), and fashion involvement were significant predictors of purchase intention.

The model was effective in predicting affluent females' purchase intention for a controversial luxury apparel product, and results suggest the TRA could be used to predict purchase intention of other luxury products considered controversial. Producers and retailers of controversial luxury apparel products or interested researchers could use the model in their exploration of consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. Luxury exotic leather producers and retailers could use the results as they develop merchandising and promotions campaigns for their product lines.

The theory could be used to predict purchase intention of other controversial and/or luxury fashion merchandise. Information about affluent female consumers' knowledge, perceptions, and purchase intention of American alligator leather apparel is provided, thus expanding the current limited literature.