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This paper aims to examine the influence of different self-presentation strategies (cultural, personal and informational posts) and interactivity on luxury brands’ social media advertising.

Three pre-tests and a main experiment collected responses from 459 Chinese participants in total.

Cultural posts significantly influenced brand attitudes, interest and purchase intention, and the effects were mediated by perceived reinforcement of the brand’s social media account. Informational posts added to perceived informativeness of the brand’s social media account, but were more likely to trigger a perception that the brand was conservative and distancing itself from consumers. Interactivity increased perceived closeness and reduced perceived inactiveness and conservativeness of the brand’s social media account and subsequently improved brand attitudes. Perception of brand’s social media accountfully mediated the effects of self-presentation strategies and interactivity on brand attitudes, interest and purchase intention.

Self-presentation transfers desirable brand associations to luxury brands, reinforces brand image, and subsequently influences responses to luxury brands. Interactivity largely influences relational perceptions and brand attitudes.

Curating content about brand heritage and culture creates a social media self-presentation that is effective and influential on consumers. Brand and product information satisfies informational needs. Interactivity maintains customer relationship.

A theoretical model of luxury brands’ advertising was generated from the findings.

This study aims to understand how abusive supervision influences employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). In particular, the mediating effect of moral disengagement and moderating role of traditionality on this relationship were examined.

This study conducted a two-wave questionnaire survey using data collected from 629 employees from different companies in China. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results show that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ UPB. Employee traditionality enhances the relationship between abusive supervision and moral disengagement as well as the indirect effect of abusive supervision on employees’ UPB via moral disengagement.

First, by exploring the positive impact of abusive supervision on UPB, the authors enhance the current understanding of the role of negative leadership in the development of UPB and enrich the research on the antecedents of UPB and outcomes of abusive supervision. Second, based on social cognitive theory, this study enriches the literature on abusive supervision and employee UPB by identifying moral disengagement as a mediator. Third, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are among the first to incorporate traditionality to tell a Chinese story about how traditional employees respond to the effects of abusive supervision on UPB, providing a new lens for the cultural boundary condition in the occurrence mechanism of UPB.

This study aims to delve into entrepreneurs’ perceptions and interpretations of short video marketing on TikTok.

In light of the study’s exploratory nature, a qualitative approach was used. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 17 entrepreneurs to uncover their insights on short video marketing via TikTok. Data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis and NVivo, and rigorous measures were in place to ensure the quality of the study.

This study’s findings suggested that entrepreneurs’ usage of TikTok is customer-oriented, with the purposes of promoting their businesses, generating word-of-mouth and managing customer relationships. As such, the gratification of connection with their audience, entertainment and information provision needs motivate entrepreneurs’ use of TikTok for social media marketing. Additionally, entrepreneurs’ use of TikTok may also contribute to their gratification of creativity and spontaneity needs, which may otherwise be limited in the context of other social media platforms.

This study expands the previous literature on entrepreneurship, social media marketing and the uses and gratification approach by revealing the specifics, nuances and dynamics of TikTok marketing from the entrepreneurs’ emic perspective.

The purpose of this study is to understand how perceived micro-celebrity-product image congruency and product type affect native advertising effectiveness on Instagram. Additionally, the study aims to understand how advertising skepticism and persuasion knowledge affect the effectiveness of native advertising featuring micro-celebrity.

This study was administered online using a 2 (product type: high self-expressive vs low self-expressive) × 2 (micro-celebrity and product congruity: congruent vs incongruent) between-subjects factorial design to test the hypotheses. A total of 186 participants, all Instagram users living in the USA, were recruited using an Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). After screening out 14 respondents who were not Instagram users or did not fully answer the questions, a total sample of 172 valid and complete responses were included for hypotheses testing.

The results revealed that when native advertising featured highly self-expressive products and micro-celebrities with good product image fit, consumers had a more positive attitude toward the ad and the brand, higher source credibility and higher electronic word-of-mouth intention. In addition, advertising skepticism was found to moderate the effect of micro-celebrity-product fit on source credibility.

This study is the first to examine the effect of micro-celebrity and product congruence on native advertising effectiveness. Moreover, the study provides a better understanding of the advertising skepticism and its influence on source credibility. It discusses why a micro-celebrity’s image is a critical factor in shaping attitudes toward native advertising. This study contributes to both the native adverting and influencer marketing literature.

This paper aims to explore Chinese entrepreneurs’ perceptions and interpretations of social media marketing (SMM) in their daily business practices.

A qualitative approach was adopted to explore the phenomenon. Specifically, 18 in-depth interviews were conducted among Chinese entrepreneurs to obtain their experiences of and perceptions on SMM.

Findings revealed that Chinese entrepreneurs have good understandings of SMM. They believe SMM is a necessary way to interact with customers and SMM can provide flexibility and sensitivity which are important for entrepreneurial marketing and are not easy to achieve through traditional marketing activities. When they choose social media applications, they will match the purpose of marketing activity with the characteristics of the social media. They have developed the specific strategies for different social media applications. In the meantime, they are facing some challenges, such as breaking the communication clutter, measuring the results and over depending on social media.

Findings of the current study extend the uses and gratifications theory to the context of business-oriented media usage. In addition, findings of the study expand previous literature by enriching the theoretical understanding of the concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurial marketing in new social and cultural contexts. Finally, findings of the current study also supplement previous research on social media advertising by uncovering rich meanings of SMM from business owners’ emic perspective.

International students develop perceptions about leadership based on cultural practices in their home country. What is the leadership experience of international students in the United States? This study sought to describe the lived leadership experiences of international graduate students. A total of 17 participants, from 11 different countries were recruited for face-to-face in- depth interviews. The participants were enrolled in a large public university and served in a formal leadership position on campus. Four themes emerged concerning graduate students’ leadership experience with leadership and were categorized as: (1) contextually challenging; (2) essential; (3) task and people oriented, and; (4) rewarding. Recommendations are made for campus personnel and leadership educators who support international students.

Leader high performance expectation (LHPE) as a performance management practice is becoming more common in today’s business environment, with managers setting ambitious goals to motivate employees to excel at their jobs. This study aims to critically examine LHPE as a performance management practice within contemporary organizations, focusing on whether LHPE has opposing effects on employee performance and health, as well as how servant leadership can improve the benefits of LHPE while lowering its costs.

A path analysis of data from a three-wave survey of 416 full-time employees was used to test our hypotheses.

LHPE has opposing effects on employees via two distinct pathways: motivational effects on employee performance via harmonious work passion and strain effects on employee health via work strain. In the face of LHPE, servant leadership can assist in achieving a mutual gain between employee performance and health.

This study contributes uniquely to the field of employee relations by offering a comprehensive analysis of LHPE’s dual effects. It moves beyond traditional views that focus on singular outcomes, providing a deeper understanding of how LHPE can both motivate and strain employees. Highlighting servant leadership’s role signifies a novel approach to managing LHPE’s complexities, presenting valuable insights for HR practitioners and organizational leaders. This research underlines the importance of balancing performance expectations with employee well-being, aligning with modern perspectives on positive employment relationships.

This study aims to examine consumers’ perception of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI marketing communication.

Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data and phenomenological reduction was used to analyze data.

Findings suggest that consumers’ interpretation of AI is multidimensional and relational with a focus on functionality and emotion, as well as comparison and contrast between AI and human beings; consumers’ perception of voice-assisted AI centers on the aspects of function, communication, adaptation, relationship and privacy; consumers consider AI marketing communication to be unavoidable and generally acceptable; and consumers believe that AI marketing communication to be limited in its effect on influencing their evaluation of products/brands or shaping their consumptive behaviors.

According to the authors' knowledge, this study is the first research project to gauge consumers' perception on AI and AI marketing communication.

Drawing on the personalization–privacy paradox and guided by means–end analysis, this study explores how consumers balance their concerns for privacy and the benefits of smart home device personalization and the role that trust plays in the process. More specifically, this study aims to investigate how perceptions of smart device personalization and privacy concerns are shaped by consumers’ experiences and the role of trust in the deliberation process.

In-depth interviews were conducted across diverse demographic groups of smart device users to shed light on the balancing act between personalization and privacy.

The study found that product experience, ownership type, perceived value of convenience and control and quality of life via “smart things” are key motivators for product usage. The benefits of tailored recommendations and high relevance are balanced against the risks of echo chamber effects and loss of control. The results also show the role of active involvement in the privacy calculus and trust level. The study points to the significance of an ecosystem-based service/business model in gaining consumer confidence when they balance between personalization and privacy.

Although many studies have explored trust, privacy concerns and personalization in an artificial intelligence (AI)-related context, few have addressed trust in the context of both smart devices and the personalization–privacy paradox. As such, this study adds to the existing literature by incorporating the concept of trust and addressing both privacy concerns and personalization in the AI context.

This study aims to explore why Chinese consumers pay for digital content products by investigating the experiences of Chinese consumers living in first-tier and second-tier cities regarding paid digital knowledge products.

A total of 19 in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data, and the phenomenological reduction was adopted to analyze data.

This study reveals that Chinese consumers use paid digital knowledge products to alleviate stress and anxiety stemming from real-life competition and the fear of falling behind. While consumers acknowledge the limited assistance that paid knowledge products can offer, their acceptance and expectations of paid digital knowledge products remain positive.

Paid digital knowledge represents an innovative phenomenon, with few scholars outside China having studied it. This study contributes a conceptual framework to understand the motivations of Chinese consumers with high purchasing power residing in first-tier and second-tier cities to invest in digital content.