Search results

Evaluates current evidence on contemporary gift giving, drawing some tentative marketing conclusions. Draws evidence from surveys carried out in Bradford, UK and those carried out by Gallup and the National Opinion Polls on Christmas shopping. Looks at the role of gift giving in society while interpreting data and drawing marketing conclusions and contrasting with primitive societies.

Corporate gift-giving and hospitality are some of the high-risk areas for corruption. This paper aims to see comparisons between the Malaysian Ministerial Guidelines and the UK Guidance and to analyse whether the guideline in Malaysia is adequate in dealing with corporate gift-giving and hospitality.

The methodology used in this paper is qualitative research which is based on data collection through online searches, legal databases, information obtained from articles, books, statutes and related government publications.

The findings show that the statutory guideline in Malaysia is immature, still not adequate, and lacks detailed regulations in determining gifts and hospitality as corruption (unclear boundary), as compared to the UK law which is more detailed.

This paper explains on comparison of corporate gift giving and hospitality practise in Malaysia and the UK based on the statutory guidelines.

In social networking services gift giving, the decision to send a gift is often initiated by spontaneous news about others, who may have recently experienced fortune or misfortune. The purpose of this paper is to show that the valence of the other’s event can affect the empathy experienced by the giver and that the level of empathy affects gift selection behavior.

Study 1 investigated the relationship between empathy and valence of other’s event and the underlying mechanism of changes in self-esteem. Study 2 explored how different levels of empathies lead to different gift selection behavior. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 using a different measurement approach.

Across the three studies, findings consistently suggest that the empathy arising from unexpected news of the others’ fortune was lower compared to that of the others’ misfortune because of threats to self-esteem. In addition, greater empathy prompted gift givers to spend more time and effort in gift selection.

Understanding how valence of event experienced by others might motivate givers to engage in selecting a gift online can help retailers increase predictive insights for recommendations.

While past research focused on ritual gift giving, this research examined spontaneous gift giving. The study is also unique in that the empathy gap between the giver and the receiver is a result of the changes in the psychological state of the giver.

This paper aims to examine the differential effects of the type of gift (material vs experiential) offered on Snapchat and Instagram (Study 1) and how the impacts of gift type and message type (informational vs emotional) vary by the two different image-sharing social media platform in a business-to-consumer (B2C) gift-giving context (Study 2).

Study 1 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) between-subject factorial design, whereas Study 2 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) by two (message type: informational vs emotional) between-subject factorial design. A series of analyses of covariance was conducted to test the suggested hypotheses.

Study 1 demonstrated that the promotion of material gifts was more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram, while the promotion of experiential gifts was more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat. Study 2 showed that the impacts of gift type and message type varied by social media platform. The promotion of an experiential gift with an emotional ad appeal was found to be more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat, while the promotion of a material gift using an informational ad appeal was found to be more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram.

This research used a college student sample for the experiments. However, to extend the generalizability of the results, it is recommended that future experiments be conducted with nonstudent samples. Also, the current research manipulated the two different social media conditions, Snapchat vs Instagram, by enforcing participants to use their social media and then provided experimental stimuli in a different screen from their social media account. If the stimuli were distributed through participants’ real social media account, the external validity of this research could be enhanced. Finally, future research should apply this framework to other countries with different social media platforms to confirm the generalizability of the study’s findings.

This research can thus contribute to the development of new guidelines for planning social media marketing in the business gift-giving context. By leveraging findings that the fit effect of gift types and advertising appeals differs based on social media platform, practitioners can create a more effective social media plan for their advertising campaigns. Given that copywriting and media plans are among the most important and difficult work in the business of advertising, this study’s findings would assist advertising practitioners in planning and executing the most effective advertising campaigns.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for the development of effective brand promotion strategies for B2C gift-giving via social media.

This study aims to explore the evolution of the culture agapic (personal) gift-giving with the advent of new online gifting platforms that provide the opportunity to gift tourism experiences. This study investigates this well-established cultural behavior in view of this new form of social exchange.

Focus group interviews with two key target markets – mothers and couples/singles – were conducted (N = 39). Interview questions focused on understanding gifting using online platforms, sharing the experience and the role of various parties in the exchange.

This study reveals that experiential tourism gifts differ from physical gifts because they offer novelty and symbolic value, heighten positive emotions and have the potential to create lifelong memories for recipients. However, giving an experiential gift can also be a risky option because of the uncertainty of getting the gift–recipient identity match correct, particularly for adventure tourism gifts. The identity of the gift-giver is also considered in gift selection as the experience selected is a reflection of self.

It is recommended that online experiential gifting platforms pay attention to both the identity of the gift-giver and gift-recipient. Sharing the experience through social media posts can reinforce both parties’ social identity, create a positive social exchange and may motivate repeat purchase.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to uncover the motivational factors of online tourism experiential gifting as part of the culture of gift-giving and the parties in this exchange. The findings advance theoretical understanding of this new form of social exchange.

The increasing number of people who search for and purchase gifts online underscores the need to better understand the process of searching for gifts online. This study explores online gift-searching with regard to the psychological characteristics of gift seekers and the benefits of searching. This study examines how gift-giving orientations (agape and reciprocity) influence the perceived benefits of searching (utilitarian and hedonic) in online gift-searching behaviour.

The conceptual framework was tested using a survey. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that agape positively influences both utilitarian and hedonic benefits, which in turn increase online gift-searching. Reciprocity does not affect utilitarian benefits but decreases hedonic benefits and thus causes a reduction in online gift-searching. The perceived benefit of searching fully mediates the relationship between gift-giving orientations and online gift-searching. Utilitarian benefits are the primary benefits that are sought by consumers who search for gifts online.

Previous research regarding online information searching has focused on searching for items for self-use. This study extends that research by focusing on gift giving. By analysing the mediating effects of both the utilitarian and hedonic benefits of searching, this study provides new insights into whether and how gift-giving orientations affect online gift-searching. Additionally this study offers guidelines for effectively managing online retail environments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the giving and receiving of gifts that are experiences rather than physical goods, and to illuminate how the behavioural processes in the selection, exchange and consumption of such intangible gifts might differ from the generic understanding of gift giving.

A trio of qualitative research methods – depth interviews, self‐completion written instrument, and semi‐structured telephone interviews – captured donor, recipient and industry expert perspectives, yielding a total of 189 real life incidents of experience gift exchange.

The model of experience gift‐giving behaviour encapsulates the behaviour of donors and recipients with sufficient flexibility to incorporate purchased, modified and donor‐created experiences, differing donor decision‐making styles, and immediate or delayed consumption. It is structured around the process stages of decision making, exchange, and post‐exchange/consumption/post‐consumption.

The empirical evidence is drawn from the UK, and is biased towards close personal relationships and experience gifts of higher monetary value.

Consumers in Western societies are actively giving gifts that are experiences. Greater understanding of their behaviour in this marketplace – as evidenced in the paper – will enhance marketing practice for those service organisations recognising the gift potential of their products.

This research is believed to be the first to examine the phenomenon of experiences as gifts – a theoretical contribution that starts to close the gap between real world consumer behaviour and corresponding academic knowledge.

This study aims to examine factors, beyond child requests, that influence parents’ perceptions of the most important gifts to give their children by assessing the influence of television advertising on children’s programming.

Using agenda-setting as a theoretical and methodological template, a content analysis of 7,860 commercials in children’s programming was compared using a questionnaire to 143 parents of 240 children to test the transfer of salience between advertising and parents’ perceptions. The study also examined the role of child purchase requests in this relationship.

The product categories that most prevalently advertised on children’s television had a significant relationship with the product categories that parents perceived to be the most important to give their children as gifts. Furthermore, the results indicate that this relationship was not contingent upon parental advertising mediation or child product requests.

The results are limited to a single broadcast market during the Christmas season. Strategically, the research suggests that advertising through children’s television programming may be an effective way to directly inform parents’ gift-giving consideration sets, and this target and outlet should be strategically evaluated in subsequent campaign decisions about the marketing mix.

The findings add new insights to the gift-giving literature, indicating that advertising in children’s programming may be an alternative direct influence on parents’ perceptions. This research also extends research on advertising agenda setting into the new context of commercial advertising of consumer products.

This study examines subject and self-metaphors in Cantonese in order to understand the impact of self-conceptualization on self-giving in Hong Kong. The bifurcation of the individual in Hong Kong signals the importance of the subject and the relational self in Chinese culture. The word for person (rén) is written as two individuals interacting with each other, so communication between the subject and the relational self has a significant impact on self-giving as evidenced by the most prevalent type of gift – the puritanical one. The mental accounting in this instance reflects the importance given to the consideration of others prior to or simultaneously with rewarding oneself for the successful achievement of a personal goal. Both whimsical and therapeutic gifts are fairly rare and justified in a more elaborate fashion. Indulging oneself by purchasing consumer goods or services for special occasions is acceptable when they are not provided by relevant others, such as close friends or family. Purchasing clothes and shoes for Chinese New Year is not necessarily viewed as a self-gift because this occasion is an auspicious one, requiring the wearer to attire herself in new outfits in order to attract good fortune. Finally, the presence of self-gifts in Hong Kong justifies its inclusion in the gift continuum.

Parents' exposure to children's brands appears rather limited; while brands sell at Christmas, there are extraordinary purchases of low‐cost toys and stocking filler fun toys. Maybe, toy brand purchases satisfy the child's request, rather than parents' value or quality preferences. Generally, the theories of branding feature the positive functional, symbolic and emotional attributes. This paper aims to examines parental evaluation of popular brand names to be given as gifts at Christmas and the sources used to gather information about brands.

Data were gathered via a survey of parents in the period prior to Christmas. The analysis consisted of a principal component analysis of the functional, symbolic and emotional evaluations. A frequency analysis and a gender‐based crosstabs series identified gender variations in the evaluations and use of information sources.

The study indicated that parents hold low evaluations of popular brands when buying Christmas gifts for their children. These low evaluations are across functional, symbolic and hedonic elements. Since mothers generally attend to the gift purchase decisions, there were significant gender differences on a few evaluations. The most popular source of information is asking children what they want and is closely followed by the use of store catalogues.

The evaluation and purchase of toys and gifts predominate at Christmas. Having such a high level of product or brand choice in the children's market could create confusion or uncertainty for parents. A negative image of children's exposure to toy advertising and the resultant pester power may combine to cloud parents' evaluations of giving brands as gifts. In essence, Christmas is the major chance for brand owners to sell their toys and other products. The idea of “… ask mom to get one … ” may be appropriate in high turnover, supermarket products, but not effective in a one‐chance, Christmas gift situation.

This research spans the value sets of two generations. Simply, the promotion of toys is primarily directed toward children who develop desires, expectations and values that are different from those values and attitudes of parents. Research into parental Christmas giving ascertains the value of children's brands to parents.