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The majority of emerging adults in the United States spend time in cohabiting unions. Prior research has suggested that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity may exist among those in cohabiting relationships compared to marital unions. Although these basic patterns have been explored in prior work, research examining the potential reasons why levels of sexual non-exclusivity differ by union status has been limited. Drawing on a relational perspective and using the fifth wave of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), the present study found that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity in cohabiting relationships were explained by intimate relationship characteristics and sexual histories rather than sociodemographic factors, partner heterogamy, or partner- and couple-level drug use. These findings highlighted that understanding the higher rates of sexually non-exclusive experiences in cohabiting relationships, compared to marital relationships, requires attention to specific dynamics of the intimate partnership and prior relational experiences of both partners. The study concluded that cohabitation has a unique place in emerging adults’ relationship landscape and may set the groundwork for future relationship functioning.

Although there are at least two important characteristics of targeted promotions—promotion individualization (i.e. whether the offer is personalized for the recipient) and notification exclusivity (i.e. how small the number of recipients is)—most previous studies on targeted promotion have conceptualized them synonymously. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of targeted promotion on consumer purchases by conceptualizing these separately and incorporating them in a single model. Also, this study explores how the effects of these differ depending on customer loyalty. We particularly examine the promotional responses of extremely loyal customers, distinguishing them from other loyal customers.

Using actual customer purchase data, we develop a two-stage model of the consumer decision-making process involving decisions of whether and how much to purchase. The two characteristics of targeted promotions—promotion individualization and notification exclusivity—first influence the probability of purchase and then the purchase amount given purchase.

The results show that customers respond positively to individualization and exclusivity. The effect of individualization is reduced as customer loyalty increases from loyal customers to extremely loyal customers while that of exclusivity remains the same.

By clearly identifying the two characteristics of targeted promotions and developing an empirical model that captures the effects of these separately, this paper provides new academic and managerial insights that were not clearly identified in the current literature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how exclusivity and rarity (natural versus virtual) influence consumers' perceptions of luxury. Further, it examines whether exclusivity and rarity can function as distinct marketing strategies in today's luxury market environment.

Online questionnaires were administered by adapting developed scales from prior research. Research stimuli were chosen from three luxury categories including bags, wine and cruise. Confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses.

The results confirmed that exclusivity, natural rarity and virtual rarity were perceived as relatively distinct constructs among our sample. Findings also highlighted that perceived natural rarity (PNR) has consistently emerged as a positive and significant contributor to consumers' perceptions of luxury across all three luxury categories. The influence of perceived exclusivity (PE) on perceptions of luxury has also shown to be significant for two product categories (luxury bag and luxury wine), whereas perceived virtual rarity (PVR) did not show any significant effects across all three categories.

The results indicate that consumers perceive natural rarity, virtual rarity and exclusivity as relatively distinctive marketing strategies. This suggests that luxury businesses can adopt each strategy independently to achieve desired marketing outcomes.

This study offers theoretical support for the proposition that exclusivity and rarity may have different functions in luxury marketing implementations. It provides empirical evidence showing the distinctiveness of perceived exclusivity and perceived rarity, which have not be done in previous research.

It is important for an exporting manufacturer to motivate its foreign channel partners to sell and promote its products. An excellent way to motivate such foreign channel partners is to give them exclusive territories. Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the determinants of territorial exclusivity. This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and territorial exclusivity and the moderating role of firm size in this relationship.

Survey data were collected from manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan. To test the hypotheses, a regression analysis was conducted using the ordinary least squares technique.

Empirical evidence shows that the cultural values of collectivism and uncertainty avoidance influence territorial exclusivity; collectivist exporters are likely to use territorial exclusivity, whereas exporters with high uncertainty avoidance are not likely to use it. Furthermore, the larger the firm size, the smaller the impact of cultural values on territorial exclusivity; this suggests that large SMEs do not rely on their organizational culture to make decisions about exclusive territories.

The export marketing literature emphasizes the advantages of exclusive territories. By contrast, the channel management literature suggests that exclusive territories also have disadvantages. As exclusive territories have both advantages and disadvantages, it is crucial to answer the following question: What kinds of exporting manufacturers grant exclusive territories to their foreign channel partners? By addressing this question, this study contributes to a better understanding of export channel strategy.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are gaining popularity as investments and personal indulgences, prompting brands to integrate them into marketing campaigns. Thus, understanding consumer personality traits toward NFTs is essential for success. This study presents a model that explores how social comparison orientation (SCO) influences perceived exclusivity and financial benefits of NFT marketing, subsequently impacting experiential evaluations, willingness to purchase NFTs and brand loyalty.

We conducted two experiments to test our model. Study 1 used a quasi-experiment with 1,053 participants and tested the model using partial least squares–based structural equation modeling. In Study 2, we aimed to investigate the causal influence of SCO on NFT marketing effectiveness. We employed a one-factor experiment (social comparison prime: high SCO vs. control) with 123 participants.

NFT users frequently engage in social comparisons and prefer branded NFTs that offer exclusivity (social value) and financial benefits (economic value). Social and financial superiority derived from NFTs enhances branded NFT experiences, leading to a stronger willingness to purchase NFTs and building brand loyalty. Perceived exclusivity, financial benefits and experiential evaluation mediate the effects of SCO on willingness to purchase NFTs and brand loyalty.

This study explores the effectiveness of NFT marketing through the lens of social comparison theory. In doing so, we examined the relationship between SCO and NFT marketing outcomes, revealed the causal influence of SCO on perceived exclusivity and perceived benefits in NFT marketing and shed light on the serial mediation of value- and experience-related constructs.

This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value (authenticity vs exclusivity) appeals within advertising messages.

Three experiments were conducted. Studies 1A and 1B establish the influence of incidental emotions and regulatory focus on consumer preferences for divergent luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) within advertisements. Study 2 shows the match-up effects of congruent emotional and luxury value appeals on advertising effectiveness.

The authors offer causal evidence that promotion pride increases the preference for exclusivity appeals, whereas prevention pride increases the preference for authenticity appeals in luxury advertising.

The study offers a novel perspective into the ways consumers evaluate different value appeals in luxury advertising and establishes the important role played by emotions within such evaluations.

Marketers of luxury products can increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by considering the fit between emotional and luxury value appeals. Specifically, the authors show that the congruent matching of promotion pride with exclusivity appeals and of prevention pride with authenticity appeals within advertising messages can elicit more favorable consumer responses.

The study is the first to illustrate novel “match-up” effects: it shows when and how different luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) and emotions (promotion pride vs prevention pride) influence the effectiveness of luxury advertising.

The market for luxury is growing rapidly. While there is a significant body of literature on luxury goods, academic research has largely ignored luxury services. The purpose of this article is to open luxury services as a new field of investigation by developing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings to build the luxury services literature and show how luxury services differ from both luxury goods and from ordinary (i.e. non-luxury) services.

This paper uses a conceptual approach drawing upon and synthesizing the luxury goods and services marketing literature.

This article makes three contributions. First, it shows that services are largely missing from the luxury literature, just as the field of luxury is mostly missing from the service literature. Second, it contrasts the key characteristics of services and related consumer behaviors with luxury goods. The service characteristics examined are non-ownership, IHIP (i.e. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability), the three additional Ps of services marketing (i.e. people, processes, and physical facilities) and the three-stage service consumption model. This article derives implications these characteristics have on luxury. For example, non-ownership increases the importance of psychological ownership, reduces the importance of conspicuous consumption and the risk of counterfeiting. Third, this article defines luxury services as extraordinary hedonic experiences that are exclusive whereby exclusivity can be monetary, social and hedonic in nature, and luxuriousness is jointly determined by objective service features and subjective customer perceptions. Together, these characteristics place a service on a continuum ranging from everyday luxury to elite luxury.

This article provides suggestions on how firms can enhance psychological ownership of luxury services, manage conspicuous consumption, and use more effectively luxury services' additional types of exclusivity (i.e. social and hedonic exclusivity).

This is the first paper to define luxury services and their characteristics, to apply and link frameworks from the service literature to luxury, and to derive consumer insights from these for research and practice.

This paper examines antecedents to perceived injustice in exclusive talent identification practices.

31 in-depth interviews with individuals working in for-profit organizations in France were conducted and analyzed. Interviewees represented a variety of sectors such as transportation, aerospace, energy and telecommunications.

The use of exclusivity in talent identification influences perceived organizational justice through ambiguous advancement policies, support from hidden networks, lack of diversity in the talent identification process, frequent gender discrimination, and premature labeling of talent. These practices suggest breaches in procedural, distributive and interactional justice by allocating advantages to some employees over others. Exclusivity yielded frustration, jealousy and potential retaliatory behavior against those individuals deemed to be unfairly identified as talent.

The challenge of ensuring fair and equitable talent identification is a growing issue for organizations. For managers, it requires paying close attention to how some forms of exclusivity in talent identification may create unfair treatment of employees.

While organizational justice research focuses on the background and practices that promote justice, our research finds its originality in examining the sentiments of injustice that remain contextual, subjective and comparative.

This paper examines the effects of resource dependency and contract exclusivity on the attitudes and intentions of consumers in brand alliances. Findings indicate that attitudes of the brands before the alliance (pre‐attitudes) have a positive effect on the attitude toward the alliance, which has a positive effect on perceived quality of the alliance, willingness to pay a premium price and purchase intention. Further, attitudes toward the brands after the alliance (post‐attitudes) reveal a positive spillover effect for both the host and ally brands. Interestingly, the moderating effects of dependency and exclusivity differ based on whether the brand serves as the host or the ally brand in the alliance. Analyses conducted after controlling for the effects of familiarity of the ally brands revealed consistent results.

This paper aims to examine consumers’ evaluation of and reaction to the coexistence of brand misconduct and sustainability claims through a series of studies.

The research questions are examined across three studies. Consumer’s scepticism of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is considered the driver of brand distance. Brand hypocrisy is postulated to mediate the relationship between scepticism to CSR and brand distance. Furthermore, brand trust and desire for exclusivity are tested as moderators of brand hypocrisy and brand distance.

The findings showed that environmental misconduct leads to perceived brand hypocrisy and brand distancing. When luxury brands take action to remedy their actions, the perceived brand hypocrisy and brand distancing decrease. In addition, brand trust and desire for exclusivity dilute the relationship between brand hypocrisy and brand distance.

The findings show that, standing in a contradictory position, brands can still reduce the consumers’ perceived brand distance by building a strong consumers’ trust toward the brand. At the same time, relating the luxury consumers’ yearning for the exclusive products and services, the findings show that the consumers with a strong desire for exclusivity feel a lower level of brand distance even if the brand gets involved in misconduct.

Este artículo examina la evaluación y la reacción de los consumidores ante la coexistencia de la mala conducta de la marca y las alegaciones de sostenibilidad a través de una serie de estudios.

Las preguntas de investigación se examinan a través de tres estudios. El escepticismo de los consumidores respecto a la RSC se considera el motor del distanciamiento de las marcas. Se postula que la hipocresía de la marca media la relación entre el escepticismo hacia la RSE y la distancia de la marca. Además, se comprueba que la confianza en la marca y el deseo de exclusividad son moderadores de la hipocresía y la distancia a la marca.

Los resultados mostraron que la mala conducta medioambiental conduce a la percepción de hipocresía de la marca y al distanciamiento de la misma. Cuando las marcas de lujo toman medidas para remediar sus acciones, la hipocresía y el distanciamiento de marca percibidos disminuyen. Además, la confianza en la marca y el deseo de exclusividad diluyen la relación entre la hipocresía y el distanciamiento de la marca.

Los resultados demuestran que, situándose en una posición contradictoria, las marcas pueden seguir reduciendo el distanciamiento de marca percibido por los consumidores mediante la creación de una fuerte confianza de los consumidores hacia la marca. Al mismo tiempo, relacionando el anhelo de los consumidores de lujo por los productos y servicios exclusivos, nuestros hallazgos muestran que los consumidores con un fuerte deseo de exclusividad sienten un menor nivel de distancia a marca incluso si la marca se ve involucrada en una mala conducta.

本文通过一系列的研究, 考察了消费者对品牌不当行为和可持续发展主张并存的评价和反应。

研究问题在三项研究中得到了检验。消费者对企业社会责任的怀疑被认为是品牌距离的驱动因素。品牌伪善被假设为介导对企业社会责任的怀疑和品牌距离之间的关系。此外, 品牌信任和对排他性的渴望被测试为品牌伪善和品牌距离的调节因素。

研究结果显示, 环境方面的不当行为导致了人们对品牌伪善和品牌距离的感知。当奢侈品牌采取行动补救他们的行为时, 被感知的品牌伪善和品牌距离就会减少。此外, 品牌信任和对排他性的渴望稀释了品牌伪善和品牌距离之间的关系。

研究结果表明, 站在矛盾的立场上, 品牌仍然可以通过建立消费者对品牌的强烈信任来减少消费者感知的品牌距离。同时, 联系到奢侈品消费者对独家产品和服务的渴望, 我们的研究结果表明, 即使品牌涉及到不正当行为, 对独家性有强烈渴望的消费者也会感到较低的品牌距离。