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Applying the value-attitude-behavior (VAB) model, this study investigated how perceived utilitarian and hedonic values (i.e. novelty and emotion) affect individuals' attitudes toward medical hotels and how these attitudes, in turn, influence their intentions to stay at medical hotels. The current study also explored the moderating impact of overall health status on the relationships between perceived utilitarian, novelty and emotional values and attitudes toward medical hotels.

The data collected from 351 individuals who spent a night in a hospital to undergo medical treatment was used in conducting structural equation modeling to evaluate the research model and test the study hypotheses.

The study results revealed that perceived utilitarian, novelty and emotional values exerted a positive influence on individuals’ attitudes toward medical hotels, consequently enhancing their intention to stay. Additionally, significant moderating impacts of overall health status on the associations between perceived utilitarian, novelty and emotional values and attitudes toward medical hotels were observed.

The study findings provide useful guidance for professionals, such as operators, marketers and managers in medical hotels. These insights can improve operational and marketing strategies, benefiting both the industry and healthcare accommodation seekers.

This study is among the first to empirically assess a theoretical model that explored the influence of individuals' value perceptions within the realm of medical hotel establishments.

This study aims to identify the decision-making process involved in the purchase of organic wine from consumer values to attitudes to behavioural intention towards organic wine via the value–attitude–behaviour (VAB) model. Involvement in wine is also taken into consideration.

The data were collected using a snowball sampling method and a closed-ended questionnaire. A total of 209 responses were analysed. Linear regression and PROCESS Macro on SPSS were used to perform data analysis.

Both biospheric-altruistic values and egoistic values are positively associated with attitudes towards organic wine. Attitude is found to mediate the relationship between biospheric-altruistic/egoistic values and behavioural intention. Egoistic values are found to significantly predict behavioural intention in the organic wine purchase context. Involvement was found to moderate the relationship between egoistic values and attitudinal loyalty.

This study identifies the decision-making hierarchy from consumer values to attitudes to behavioural intention, theoretically confirming the robustness of the VAB model in the organic wine consumption context. It also makes a practical contribution by indicating the marketing emphasis of organic wine and segmenting potential consumers according to their values and levels of wine involvement.

In keeping with global developments rendering online shopping as an emerging trend among consumers, the present study extends the unified theory of use and acceptance of technology (UTAUT2) comprising the digital payment mode (DPM) as a new driver of online shopping and with the mediation of attitudes toward technology (ATTs) to gauge a better and deeper understanding of behavioral intention (BI).

This study used a survey instrument with snowball sampling from 600 consumers in northern India. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to find the association between drivers using UTUAT2, along with DPM and ATTs. The data were divided into a test group (20%) and validated through a training group (80%).

DPM was shown to be directly associated with BI. The mediation of ATTs was also validated through the model. The predictability of the model was 67.5% for the test group (20%) and 69.6% for the training group (80%). The results also indicated that facilitating conditions is a critical driver of BI.

This study enhances the understanding of the roles that DPM and ATTs play in BI during online shopping, suggesting that Indian managers need to adopt DPM as a support service to make online shopping a worthwhile experience.

Effective customer journey design (ECJD) is considered a key variable in customer experience management and an essential source of brand meaning and pro-brand behavior. Although previous research has confirmed its importance for driving brand attitudes and loyalty, the role of consumer-brand identification as a social identity-based influence in this relationship has not yet been discussed. Drawing on construal level and social identity theories, this paper aims to investigate whether effective journeys and the resulting overall journey experience are equally powerful in driving brand loyalty among customers with different levels of consumer-brand identification.

The present article develops and tests a research model using data from the European and US service sectors (N = 1,454) to investigate how and when ECJD affects service brand loyalty.

Across two cultural contexts, four service industries and 33 service brands, the results reveal that ECJD is a crucial driver of service brand loyalty for customers with low consumer-brand identification. Moreover, the findings show that different aspects of journey effectiveness positively impact the valence of customers’ experience related to those journeys – a process that is ultimately decisive for their brand loyalty.

This study is unique because it generates theoretical and practical knowledge by combining the literature streams of customer journey design, customer experience and branding. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that consumer-brand identification is a critical boundary condition to be considered in the relationship between ECJD and brand loyalty in services.

The problem of environmental pollution is becoming increasingly severe, and international consensus confirms the need for eco-friendly consumption. Worldwide, the eco-friendly food market is booming, so understanding consumers’ motivations to purchase these foods is crucial. This paper aimed to construct a model explaining consumers’ intentions to purchase eco-friendly food by combining stimuli-organism-response (SOR) and signalling theories and exploring the mechanisms by which macro- and micro-signals impact perceptions of value and consumers’ subsequent willingness to purchase eco-friendly food.

An online questionnaire was distributed through the Qualtrics platform, and the completed questionnaires were collected in March and April 2023. The study used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the 331 valid responses received.

The results indicated that trustworthy eco-labels for high-quality and health-promoting products, as conveyed in macro signals, significantly enhanced consumers’ perceptions of functional value. The peer effect and a moderate level of food anthropomorphism conveyed in micro-signals substantially improved their perceptions of social value, whilst the perceived value of products significantly and positively influenced their purchase intentions.

This study explains consumers’ motivations to purchase eco-friendly products. This provides an explanation for the effect of macro- and micro-signals on value perceptions. By integrating the different dimensions of these signals to create a unified research perspective, the paper provides an integrated model, thereby filling a research gap concerning the influence of two-dimensional signals on purchase intention. By supporting eco-friendly food use, the paper contributes to environmental protection and sustainable development.

The author examined effects of endorser type and message framing on visual attention and ad effectiveness in health ads, including the moderator of involvement. This paper aims to discuss this issue.

An experiment was conducted with a 2 (celebrity vs. expert) × 2 (positive vs. negative framing) between-subject factorial design. Eye-tracking measured visual attention and a questionnaire measured ad effectiveness and product involvement.

Experimental data from 78 responses showed no vampire effect in the health advertisements. Celebrity endorsement with negative message framing received more attention and had less ad recall than that with positive message framing. Negative and positive message framing attracted the same amount of attention and ad recall in the expert endorsement condition. High involvement participants paid more attention to the ad message with the expert than that with the celebrity, but ad recall was not significantly increased. Low involvement participants exhibited the same attention to the ad message with the expert and with the celebrity, but had greater recall of the ad message with the expert. Visual attention to the endorser was associated with ad attitude but not with ad recall. Ad attitude impacted behavioral intention.

Studies examining influences of celebrity and message framing on ad effectiveness have focused on the response to advertising stimuli, not the information process. The author provides empirical evidence of the viewers' information processing of endorsers and health messages, and its relationship with ad effectiveness. The study contributes to the literature by combining endorser and message framing in health ads to promote public health communication from the information processing perspective.

Fierce competition among over-the-top (OTT) platforms has rendered branding a precondition for consumer appeal. This study proposes a new structural equation model for OTT brands, especially Netflix, where hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motives function as facilitators of consumer brand engagement.

An online survey was conducted. Structural Equation Modeling was used to build the model and test for various direct, mediation, and moderation effects.

The results suggest a multiple mediation model in which the relationship between the two types of entertainment and intention to use Netflix is sequentially mediated by consumer attention and consumer brand engagement. Moreover, this study confirms that female consumers, compared to male consumers, exhibit higher levels of consumer brand engagement when motivated by hedonic entertainment.

This is the first study to present a novel structural model for the content consumption of OTT brands and test the role of the two types of entertainment in the intention to use Netflix.

To generate the measurement instrument seven steps were implemented. A total of 819 questionnaires were collected in Yunnan Province, China, where it has long tradition of eating insects.

This study aims to explore the influences of the multidimensional benefits of consuming insect-based food on its consequences. Food neophilia and hedonic motivation are used as moderating variables.

Health, nutritional value, taste and cultural domains effectively explained consumers’ attitudes toward insect-based food, food consumption value, satisfaction, subjective well-being, loyalty to the restaurant and community attachment. Food neophilia and hedonic motivation partially moderated the relationships between the proposed constructs.

This study provides a conceptual model for exploring insect-based food consumption experiences and offers a useful guideline for developing and designing marketing strategies for stakeholders in the food and restaurant industry.

This is one of the few studies examining the benefits of consuming insect-based food from the perspective of consumers.

Acknowledging previous scholarly focus on functional attributes in understanding technology acceptance behaviour, the current study aims to offer a novel perspective by integrating eight different dimensions of utilitarian and hedonic attributes to examine their influence in delivering a holistic web-based retail shopping experience.

The research model was tested and validated through data collected from 370 online shoppers across both hedonic and utilitarian product ranges. Hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling with multi-group analysis to examine the moderation effect.

The findings strongly support the model confirming eight new utilitarian and hedonic dimensions that influence web-based retail shopping behaviour. The findings also confirm that hedonic attributes remain important even for utilitarian product purchasing.

The key managerial implication is the demonstrated need to balance utilitarian and hedonic attributes in web-based retail platforms, where previously, there has been an overemphasis on functional features. Web-based retailers should consider the optimal blend of utilitarian (e.g. information quality) and hedonic (e.g. aesthetic) attributes in the design of a retail shopping site, irrespective of the product category.

This study integrates multiple dimensions of utilitarian and hedonic attributes into a single model and highlights the interplay of these attributes, thus extending the technology acceptance model. This paper also advances scholarship through its identification of attribute impact across different product categories.

Aversion linked to disgust and neophobia is the primary reason for human reluctance towards edible insects as a sustainable food source. Stimulating positive emotions may overcome these mental barriers. Cute visuals and claims on product packaging can trigger positive affective responses in consumers whilst modulating taste expectations. This study investigated how these elements influence emotions, perceptions and attitudes towards insect-based foods.

An online cross-cultural study involving French (n = 747) and Colombian (n = 695) consumers was conducted using two insect-based products: chips (hedonic) and bread (functional). Ten visual packaging variations were created per product, emphasising palatability, sustainability, nutrition and popularity (plus a control: no claim) affixed to the image of a cute anthropomorphic cricket or its silhouette. Visual appreciation and associations were assessed along with the participants' degree of food variety seeking, familiarity with entomophagy and openness to consuming edible insects.

Differences were reported in emotions, perceptions and attitudes based on the combination of packaging elements, product type and consumer segments. The findings suggest that food marketers should use cute insect depictions linked to palatability-focussed claims to alleviate young French adults' reluctance towards insect-based foods (IFs). Colombians responded better to pro-social claims and neutrally to cuteness.

The results should be valuable to stakeholders seeking to enhance food marketing strategies related to IFs amongst target consumer segments.

This study is the first to assess how baby schema cuteness induces emotional changes towards IFs and how it affects perceptions and attitudes amongst distinct populations and age segments.