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This paper aims to investigate how the use of varying amounts of makeup by sales personnel influences perceived salesperson trustworthiness and downstream purchase intentions/sales effectiveness.

Two studies were run with female and male makeup usage examined separately. In each study, a between-subjects, scenario-based experiment was run on Qualtrics in which participants were randomly assigned to conditions representing a salesperson with varying levels of makeup usage (none to glamorous/extreme).

Using ANOVA, the authors find that the glamorous/extreme makeup condition led to significantly lower perceptions of trustworthiness. Furthermore, mediation models for both studies found that increased salesperson makeup predicted lower perceived trustworthiness, resulting in lower purchase intentions and sales effectiveness.

Managers and salespersons can benefit from these findings through increased awareness of the “masking” effect of wearing too much makeup and the insight that more is not always better when it comes to the use of makeup to increase salesperson attractiveness and effectiveness.

Much work has been done in the past on attractiveness of salespersons in general and the “beauty premium.” The present work expands on this literature by examining a specific strategy, yet to be rigorously examined, that sales personnel may use to increase their attractiveness – makeup, and by identifying an “optimal” level of makeup usage.

This article aims to examine differences between older and younger consumers in their reactions to a product harm crisis. Research suggests that motivational and cognitive changes due to aging might cause information to be differentially utilized. The authors use primary and secondary control influences on information processing to explain why older consumers perceive themselves as less susceptible to the threats associated with a product harm crisis. This has important implications in terms of blame attributions, and marketing variables of interest such as purchase intentions and negative word of mouth.

Two studies were conducted in which participants were asked to read a short newspaper article about a product harm crisis and to respond to a series of questions. Participants were split into two groups based on age.

The empirical findings indicate that, compared with younger consumers, older consumers perceive product harm crises as less threatening, place less blame on the company, and have stronger intentions to purchase and recommend the product involved in the crisis.

The finding that the more physically vulnerable older population actually perceives themselves as less vulnerable to harm suggests that socially responsible companies should work harder to make older consumers aware of risks created by product harm crises when dealing with this increasingly important target market.

This research advances our understanding of differences between older and younger consumers, and adds another dimension to what it means to embrace the true essence of corporate social responsibility with regard to older consumers.

The purpose of this research is to examine predictors of impulse buying. Although moderate levels of impulse buying can be pleasant and gratifying, recent theoretical work suggests that chronic, high frequency impulse buying has a compulsive element and can function as a form of escape from negative affective states, depression, and low self‐esteem.

The present research empirically tests a theoretical model of impulse buying by examining the associations between chronic impulse buying tendencies and subjective wellbeing, affect, susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and self‐esteem.

Results indicate that the cognitive facet of impulse buying, associated with a lack of planning in relation to purchase decisions, is negatively associated with subjective wellbeing. The affective facet of impulse buying, associated with feelings of excitement and an overpowering urge to buy, is linked to negative affect and susceptibility to interpersonal influence.

Given the link to negative emotions and potentially harmful consequences, impulse buying may be viewed as problematic consumer behavior. Reductions in problematic impulse buying could be addressed through public policy or social marketing.

This study validates and extends the Verplanken et al. model by examining the relationship between impulse buying and other psychological constructs (i.e. subjective wellbeing, positive and negative affect, social influence, and self‐esteem).

This research examines whether consumers infer that celebrity endorsers like the products they endorse, and presents a model using these inferences and other characteristics of the endorser to predict attitudes toward the endorsed product. Participants in two experiments examined written endorsement advertisements and were asked to infer the extent to which the endorser truly liked the advertised product and to rate the endorser's attractiveness, similarity to themselves, and knowledge of the product. Attitudes toward the advertisement, the endorser and the product were also measured. The resulting model indicated that product attitudes were predicted by inferences about the endorser's liking for the product and by attitudes toward the endorser.

This paper aims to examine how different ways in which a charitable organization communicates successes (highlighting individual or collective achievement) can influence potential future donors, and to determine whether the effectiveness of the communication strategy is contingent on the cultural context.

Experiments were conducted in the USA and Mexico.

The findings of the study demonstrate that the effectiveness of communications with the public regarding a charitable organization's success stories depends on the type of message used in relation to the cultural context. When the message was congruent with the cultural dimension of individualism‐collectivism, the public was more likely to consider making a contribution to the charity.

The study examined the impact of conveying a message congruent with the cultural context in the context of charitable contributions. Further research is needed to examine whether one would expect a similar result with a different type of charitable organization (issue‐related instead of cause‐related) or a non‐student sample.

The authors found that the effectiveness of communications with the public regarding a charitable organization's success stories depends on the type of message used in relation to the cultural context. Standardizing the message can have adverse implications on the public's intentions to donate to the organization.

Very few studies examine charity advertising in a global setting, and to the authors' knowledge this study is the first to examine communicating success stories to the public. In addition, previous studies do not examine the impact of different advertising appeals on intentions to donate to the charity, an important dependent variable for both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the cross‐cultural efficacy of a gender identity scale commonly used in marketing: the shortened version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) measure developed by Barak and Stern, the Gender Trait Index (GTI).

Data were collected in the USA, Mexico, and Norway, and confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the cross‐cultural equivalence of the GTI.

Configural, metric and partial scalar invariance of a revised 16‐item measure were supported.

The validated 16‐item GTI scale will enhance measurement applications and theory building in cross‐cultural research, and further the authors' understanding of the role that gender identity plays in consumer decision making.

This cross‐cultural study examines inter‐relationships between values (using the list of values), collective self‐esteem (CSE), and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII).

Data were collected through surveys administered to 783 university students in four countries (Australia, English‐speaking Canada, Korea, and Norway).

Results indicate that external and interpersonal values are positively related to the normative component of CSII, while internal values are negatively related to the normative component of CSII. The CSE subscale measuring importance of the group to one's identity is positively related to normative CSII, while the CSE subscale of membership esteem is negatively related to normative CSII. Normative CSII was substantially higher among Korean participants than among participants from the other countries.

This research was limited to a sample of university students in Canada, Australia, Norway, and Korea. Future research could expand the sample to include a more representative adult sample, in order to ensure the generalizability of the results.

CSII may be an important factor in many consumer purchases that relate to self‐image. The relationship of values and collective self‐esteem to CSII provides valuable insights to managers regarding consumer purchasing behavior.

Given that values, consumer self‐esteem, and country explain a large degree of the variation in consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, managers can benefit from this knowledge when developing advertising content and marketing interventions.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of online compulsive buying in the association between excessive use of social networking sites (SNS) and financial well-being among Chinese young adults.

A sample of 539 SNS users and active online shoppers (M age = 20.32 years, SD age = 2.11) completed an online survey questionnaire measure of excessive use of SNS, online compulsive buying and financial well-being. Covariance based-structural equation modelling was used to assess the measurement model and the proposed mediation model.

Results indicated that excessive use of SNS was positively related to online compulsive buying behaviour and financial anxiety. Also, the results showed that online compulsive buying mediated the positive relationship between excessive use of SNS and financial anxiety.

Several implications were suggested and discussed to enhance the levels of financial well-being among youths by tackling their problematic behaviour such as excessive SNS usage and online compulsive buying.

The findings of this study contribute to the limited body of knowledge in the area of financial well-being and further improves our understanding of the effect of the excessive use of SNS on financial well-being and the mechanism behind it.

This paper examines the impact of celebrity endorsement on Malaysian consumers' behavioural intentions. Source attractiveness, source credibility and the fit between the endorser and the endorsed product are discussed and examined. An empirical study is carried out which uses stimulus materials that involve a sport shoe brand and a fitness centre. The dataset is analysed using a series of multivariate analyses and a model subsequently constructed using structural equation modelling. The findings indicated that source attractiveness and credibility are essential for celebrity endorsement effectiveness. However, the fit between the endorser and the product is not found to be significant. Nonetheless, this fit has an indirect effect on consumers' behavioural intentions, via the shared variances with source attractiveness and credibility.