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To date the vast majority of sponsorship research has focused on the perspective of sponsors. The purpose of this paper is to use this research to identify factors that sponsored institutions and organizations (sponsees) should be cognizant of before entering into a sponsorship arrangement, and to propose a research agenda based on these factors.

The authors leverage sponsorship research that has been published in business journals with an impact factor above 0.5 (Reuters, 2015).

This paper argues that sponsees should be aware of the benefits that sponsorship brings to sponsors so that they can better appeal to potential sponsors. A sponsee also needs to be aware of the impact a sponsorship partnership may have on its own brand, image, and equity.

This is a conceptual paper grounded in the literature that aims to stimulate further research in the domain of sponsorship and provide deeper understanding for sponsees. Empirical research addressing the research questions posed is required.

In a holistic manner, this literature review offers insights into factors that sponsees should consider before entering a sponsorship relationship.

Previous research in the sponsorship domain has focused primarily on dyadic sponsors. This paper considers sponsorship from the sponsee’s perspective.

Consumers are becoming increasingly socially conscious when making their purchasing decisions, which in turn is providing an incentive for firms to integrate social responsibility considerations into their product offerings. Explaining the various categories of socially responsible consumption (SRC) is therefore important. The purpose of this paper is to explain the various categories of socially responsible consumption.

Grounded in the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper surveyed a sample of 1,202 Hong Kong consumers.

The findings indicate that attitude towards the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are all significant predictors of three categories of SRC (i.e. intention to purchase from firms based on their CSR performance, intention to practice recycling and intention to try to avoid or minimize their use of products based on their environmental impact). Intention to engage in SRC was then shown to be a significant predictor of SRC behavior.

This paper relied on only the single-factor test as a measure of socially desirable responding. Furthermore, while the quota sampling was designed for broad representativeness, it is difficult to verify if the well-controlled quota controls entirely removed the possibility of a biased selection of respondents within each cell.

Recommendations are made for public policy-makers and marketers to devise ways to shape consumer behavior to facilitate more responsible consumption.

Previous research relating to SRC has not explained the various categories of SRC and often failed to test the relationship between intention and behavior, representing a considerable gap in the literature. This paper applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain intention and behavior with regards to the various categories of SRC.

In an arts organisation context, this paper aims to further the understanding of service relationships by developing a framework explaining how sponsored arts organisations could better manage their relationships with sponsors to facilitate mutual benefit and relationship persistence.

Grounded theory methodology was applied to sponsorship of arts organisations through interviews with the managers of arts organisations worldwide who had been involved in seeking and managing sponsorship relationships.

Reciprocity was found to be the key factor in successful sponsorship relationships, but emotional reference to reputation was also important. Together they link uncertainty in the complex sponsorship environment with an arts organisation’s artistic ambitions.

This study extends the understanding of service relationships by shedding light on the sponsorship relationship from the sponsored organisation’s point of view and in particular highlighting the role of reciprocity in managing the relationship with their sponsor.

Understanding the moderating roles of reciprocity and reputation in sponsorship relationships helps to explain key facets of such relationships which can partially negate sponsor benefits and threaten a sponsorship’s continuation.

Women’s conspicuous display of luxury brands is known to serve the purpose of sending signals to other women, but little is known about how men interpret those signals. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how men interpret the signals sent by women displaying luxury brands.

An interpretivist approach and phenomenological methods were applied, involving interviews with selected men in Hong Kong.

The men interviewed suggested that if a woman’s overall image matches that of the brands she displays and the situation, luxurious brands can amplify the woman’s beauty and perceived class status. However, if these factors clash, men react negatively and tend to view the woman as engaging in impression management and pretending to have high social status unjustifiably.

The sample for this phenomenological study was limited to Hong Kong men only. Culture must, almost by definition, influence men’s views toward women and branded products, so similar exploratory research in other cultures seems justified.

The findings suggest that marketers should offer “brand education” to help make their female consumers aware of the images their products are trying to establish, and what are the appropriate usage situations. Such consumer education would also reduce the risk of negative image transfer from the brand user to the brands.

The current understanding of female luxury brand signals is limited to female-vs-female intra-sexual competition. By examining how men interpret female luxury brand signals, this research addresses an important research gap.

Library management is struggling to improve productivity without reducing the quality of service to its users. With downsizing continuing to be a trend, the implementation of self‐checkout circulation systems may be an important technological investment for libraries to consider. In most large academic institutions, such circulation functions as checking out and renewing library materials have traditionally been performed by staff members. The climate may, however, be right to rethink the mode of service delivery systems and shift from providing full‐service to self‐service models, whereby the patron takes responsibility for checking out his or her own library materials.

This research profiles consumers of pirated products, specifically pirated brands of clothing. Utilising a structured questionnaire and counter‐biasing statements, results from face‐to‐face street‐intercept interviews showed that low spenders on pirated brands of clothing are mainly people aged 19 to 24 with a blue‐collar occupation, relatively low monthly income, secondary education level, and no children. High spenders on pirated brands are in the age bracket 25‐34 with white‐collar jobs, a monthly income of HK$10,000‐HK$19,999, tertiary or university education, and children. Consumers identify pirated brands of clothing usually by lower price and buying location, but price was not the sole determinant for purchase. Finally, they bought the pirated brands mainly for private use. Based on these results, the paper makes recommendations to original brand manufacturers and policy makers for combating pirated products.

Due to deregulation, the New Zealand retail banking environment is characterized by change, especially in the area of self‐service technologies. The success of these technology projects has been mixed, and one must question whether or not the suppliers of these technologies have a true understanding of consumer needs. Draws a comparison between what the consumers see as being important influences in the adoption or non‐adoption of retail banking self‐service technologies; and what the suppliers of these technologies (i.e. banking and technology experts) perceive as being important influences in the consumer adoption or non‐adoption of self‐service retail banking technologies. To achieve this, a review was conducted of the literature relating to consumer surveys which investigated why consumers do or do not adopt the main self‐service technology in retail banking: automated telling machines. The themes from this review were identified. A Delphi study was then conducted with New Zealand′s leading experts in the area of retail banking technologies. A comparison between the themes from the literature and the results of the Delphi study indicated that the suppliers of technology do in fact have an understanding of those variables, which affect consumer adoption of self‐service technologies in retail banking.

Three key self‐service technologies exist in banking in New Zealand: ATMs (automatic telling machines), EFTPoS (electronic funds transfer at the point of sale), and telephone banking. All three are at differing stages of the adoption process. Of interest is exactly the stage where they are and towards which they are heading. Information of this nature would assist banks in developing marketing strategies. In order to identify at what stages of adoption these technologies are, and heading towards, 302 telephone surveys were carried out with randomly selected respondents. The results indicated that ATMs are at the late majority stage of the diffusion process, and heading for the laggard group. The question thus needs to be asked, “Should banks be spending any resources at all in trying to encourage new users?” The laggards are the least likely of all customers to adopt, and the banks′ resources could well be better spent elsewhere. EFTPoS is at the late stages of the early majority, and heading for the late majority. Strategies used by the banks to encourage new users need to recognize that the late majority are typically sceptical about new ideas. Also the banks need to stress the mobility value of EFTPoS, since members of the late majority tend to be less mobile. Telephone banking is at the early stages of the early majority. Banks need to recognize that at this stage it is word‐of‐mouth which will determine the success or failure of a product or service. Telephone banking systems should be available to the market only when the system has been found to be faultless, and customer service levels are at an optimum.

With a focus on the purchasing behaviour of parents buying luxury brands of infant apparel, this paper considers the concepts of buying roles, conspicuous consumption/social consumption motivation, and materialism. A survey of 134 mothers who had purchased luxury brands of clothing for their infants found that parents are motivated by the good quality and design associated with the luxury brands. The relationship between the amount of money spent by parents on luxury brands of infant apparel and social consumption motivation was not significant. However, interviewees who spent more on luxury clothing brands for their infants were determined to be more materialistic. It is thus recommended that marketers should emphasise the good quality and design of their luxury brands of infant apparel. In addition, marketers should promote the materialistic values of purchasing luxury brands of infant apparel, showing that buying luxury brands of infant apparel may be a route to happiness, rather than being a route for impressing others.

Self‐service technology is challenging the traditional concept of provider‐client interaction in the retail banking industry. Following a review of the literature, this paper discusses the experts' opinions of the role of self‐service technologies and human bank staff in New Zealand retail banking to the years 2000 and 2010. These opinions were identified through a Delphi study held with leading executives from various sectors of the economy. The research indicated that in the future utilisation of home banking by television will be limited to a specific and small market segment. Home banking by personal computer will be relatively more widespread, although it is unlikely to be used by more than twenty per cent of the banking population. Home banking by automated telephone service will be more widespread still, yet acceptance is unlikely to be greater than thirty per cent of the banking population. ‘Staffless branches’ (which are staffed predominately by self‐service technology) will be available in all main city centres before the turn of the century. Automatic Telling Machines (ATMs) will be the most utilised self‐service technology in the future.