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1 – 10 of 18Cristina Aragonés-Jericó, Carmen Rodríguez-Santos, Natalia Vila-López and Inés Küster-Boluda
In the context of Brexit, this study aims to analyse whether the worsening of the UK’s image might have triggered: worse feelings towards the tourism workers and a decrease in the…
Abstract
Purpose
In the context of Brexit, this study aims to analyse whether the worsening of the UK’s image might have triggered: worse feelings towards the tourism workers and a decrease in the final intention to travel to the UK. This paper compares responses from high and low-context tourists to identify at which target the reactions are more intense.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses were formulated in a general model based on the theory of reasoned action applied to Country Image in the tourism sector, comparing the model in high (150 responses) versus low-context (406 responses) scenarios. Structural equation modelling methodology was used.
Findings
The intention to travel to the UK worsens when two out of the three dimensions of country image worsen (aesthetical and functional) and also when feelings towards workers in this country worsen. Related to cross-cultural differences, the main effect on feelings towards workers comes from the normative dimension of the UK’s image, together with the aesthetic perception. Moreover, travellers’ intentions are influenced by functional and aesthetic perceptions of the country as well as feelings towards workers. High-context cultures showed a significantly stronger effect of the aesthetic dimension of the country on feelings towards workers.
Originality/value
This paper tries to advance the understanding of how feelings towards employees in the UK can determine future visits to this destination. In addition, some cultural differences may explain why low-context cultures are more affected by the worsening of the UK’s image after Brexit.
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Natalia Vila-Lopez and Inés Küster-Boluda
The basis of this paper is to carry on a bibliometric analysis to investigate how “marketing” decisions have affected “packaging” success in different disciplines. This analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
The basis of this paper is to carry on a bibliometric analysis to investigate how “marketing” decisions have affected “packaging” success in different disciplines. This analysis covers from the first paper published on this topic (in 1956) to the last papers published in 2019.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 1,170 scientific papers (including 14,177 citations within those papers) were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus, dated from 1956 to 2019. Scimat software was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The results of this paper show that two main sectors constitute the focus of packaging studies from a marketing approach: food and tobacco. Recently, the main topics of research have evolved towards sustainable and health packaging, concerning different agents involved in packaging decisions: retailers, marketers, consumers and producers. So, both lines of research represent promising lines of research.
Originality/value
Three different investigating profiles (i.e. engineers, marketers-psychologists and doctors-scientists) have examined how packaging should be prepared to succeed. However, a holistic bibliometric analysis about “packaging” and “marketing” is missing from those three branches of knowledge. This study is important to guide future lines of research to fill the identified gaps.
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Asuncion Hernandez-Fernandez, Ines Kuster-Boluda and Natalia Vila-Lopez
Rates of diseases caused by poor diet have seen no reduction in recent years. In this scenario, nutritional information labels and health claims could play a decisive role in…
Abstract
Purpose
Rates of diseases caused by poor diet have seen no reduction in recent years. In this scenario, nutritional information labels and health claims could play a decisive role in modifying product attitudes and purchase intention (consequently, eating habits). In this frame, the first objective is to analyze the role of three antecedents on attitudes toward nutritional labels and credibility from health claims. These three starting antecedents are as follows: psychological characteristics of the consumer associated with eating disorders, body image attitudes and affective reactions (pleasure and arousal). Second, this paper aims to analyze if both elements (attitudes toward nutritional labels and credibility from health claims) improve (or not) food product attitudes and then, its purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample comprised 300 young people between 18 and 25 years old. They provided their opinion about a healthy product by completing a structured and personal questionnaire after inspecting the packaging. Path analysis with partial least squares (PLS) was carried out to test the hypotheses stated.
Findings
First, psychological characteristics associated with eating disorders (self-concept and self-esteem) have a positive significant influence on body image attitudes. Second, attitudes toward their body image have a great effect on the perception that these consumers have about the information provided by healthy food packaging. Insofar as those whose attitudes toward their body image is “damaged” seek in the nutritional label indications that make them feel calm understanding that the food they are going to buy is not harmful to their health. Moreover, credibility from health claims improves positive attitudes toward the nutritional label. On the contrary, those consumers with higher punctuations in body image assigned lower values to those items concerning nutritional information and health claims in the packaging. Third, if attitudes to nutritional information improve, then product attitudes improve too. Fourth, if product attitudes improve, then purchase intention improves too. So, food product managers should be aware of the need to improve product attitudes by working on the packaging (label and claim) to improve purchase intention.
Originality/value
First, although previous literature has investigated individual psychological characteristics related to food disorders in the health area, the study of these specific individual psychological characteristics (ineffectiveness, perfectionism, interpersonal distrust, interceptive awareness, maturity fears), is under-researched in the marketing discipline. Second, to date, different authors have investigated how important the use of credibility from health claims in packaging can be in terms of increasing product attitudes and purchase intention, as well as the development of positive attitudes toward nutritional information on the label. However, the joint study of both information sources in the packaging (credibility from health claims and attitudes toward nutritional labels) remains under-investigated.
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Ines Kuster-Boluda and Natalia Vila-Lopez
The aim of this paper is the analysis of teenage consumers with varying degrees of healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits and different healthy and unhealthy eating behaviours and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is the analysis of teenage consumers with varying degrees of healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits and different healthy and unhealthy eating behaviours and food involvement, and its effects on packaging cues. At the same time, the paper tries to analyse the moderating role of gender.
Design/methodology/approach
With a sample of 589 (316 girls and 273 boys) young consumers (14–17 years old) and using SEM methodology, this paper tested a theoretical model related to the association between health, food, packaging cues and gender differences.
Findings
Among teenagers, healthy habits (sports) and healthy eating behaviours affect positively food involvement (p < 0.01 in both cases), and food involvement is positively related to informative packaging cues (p < 0.05). There are some differences between girls and boys. For example (1) there is a significant relationship between your consumers' sports activities and food involvement, and young consumers' healthy eating behaviours and food involvement. (2) More food-involved teenagers are those consumers that significantly read more carefully the packaging labels. Or (3) gender could be considered as a variable able to moderate the relationships between health and unhealthy lifestyle habits and eating behaviours, food involvement and packaging decisions.
Originality/value
The present paper tries to fulfil some literature gaps by developing a study with teenage consumers to solve three main questions/objectives: (1) Do healthy behaviours affect teenagers' food involvement? (2) Does teenagers' food involvement affect teenagers' packaging perceptions? and (3) Do girls and boys differ in their food packaging perceptions?
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Natalia Vila-Lopez and Ines Kuster-Boluda
The positioning of a tourism destination can easily change due to external uncontrolled factors, such as a pandemic. In this scene, the purpose of this study can be summerized in…
Abstract
Purpose
The positioning of a tourism destination can easily change due to external uncontrolled factors, such as a pandemic. In this scene, the purpose of this study can be summerized in two main points: to investigate the main topics associated with a religious tourism destination (Vatican City) before and from the pandemic crisis, and to identify potential topics that could be highlighted to reposition this tourism destination more favorably.
Design/methodology/approach
The information was extracted from Trip Advisor, specifically from the web Vatican City (7,152 reviews). This information was analyzed using text mining software applied to English text data.
Findings
The results show that the image of Vatican City has evolved, from a larger cultural, artistic and historical destination to a destination with a strong religious orientation, probably due to the growing influence of tourists and pilgrims in search of spiritual consolation in a global health crisis. New comments have emerged in the pandemic on topics such as Pope, Catholicism and love.
Practical implications
The authors recommend repositioning this tourism destination under what they have dubbed the umbrella of the three “Rs”: religion, renaissance and relaxation. Also, two outstanding attractions are frequently mentioned by tourists in this more spiritual scenario: Saint Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel.
Originality/value
Studies about religious tourism are scarce, and those considering an urban city as a key religious tourism destination even more.
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Skania Geldres-Weiss, Inés Küster-Boluda and Natalia Vila-López
This paper studies, based on the theory of service-dominant logic, the effect of value co-creation practices (linking and materializing) on engagement dimensions (popularity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studies, based on the theory of service-dominant logic, the effect of value co-creation practices (linking and materializing) on engagement dimensions (popularity, commitment and virality). The main objective is to analyze the influence of value co-creation practices on engagement at international trade shows organizer association on Twitter.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies the usage of Twitter by the Specialty Food Association, which organizes one of the top five foods and beverage international trade show in the United States. To achieve the research objective, the authors have analyzed 1,608 posts on Twitter from the Twitter account @Specialty_Food. A content analysis was performed using Krippendorff's (2004) recommendations, and the data were analyzed using regression analysis with optimal scaling and Kruskal–Wallis Test.
Findings
According to the results, some materializing practices influence popularity, commitment, virality and global engagement on Twitter. While the usage of some linking practices influences respectively commitment and popularity.
Originality
These results provide valuable information for business-to-business (B2B) contexts and answer a research gap reported in previous literature, which affirms that more research is needed about the relationship between service systems and engagement. From a general view, to generate more engagement on social media in B2B contexts, it is recommended to prioritize posts that incorporate live and online events based on collaborative and dynamic human interactions, following by business ideas and business cases.
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Jose Miguel Lorente-Ayala, Natalia Vila-Lopez and Ines Kuster-Boluda
The rise of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during the last decades has made the volunteer a key element. Motivation and satisfaction have been indicated as predictive…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during the last decades has made the volunteer a key element. Motivation and satisfaction have been indicated as predictive indices of their retention. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to better understand the motivations of the volunteers, addressing the effects of such motivations. On the other hand, it analyses whether the intensity of such antecedents and effects differs depending on the type of NGO with which they work: generalist vs specialist.
Design/methodology/approach
A study with 847 volunteers from different types of NGOs was done using structural modelling methodology and multi-sample analysis.
Findings
The type of NGO moderates the relationship between the satisfaction of the volunteer and the intention to recommend.
Practical implications
Given that in specialist NGOs the impact of satisfaction on the intention to recommend is significantly stronger than in generalist NGOs, making sure that volunteers are satisfied becomes a priority in this type of NGO. In this regard, satisfaction studies among volunteers could be conducted periodically to detect crisis situations and implement improvement actions to recover satisfaction in the occupied position.
Originality/value
First, to date, the motivations of the volunteer have been investigated from different disciplines, the self-determination theory (SDT) being an important motivational theory widely used in areas such as social, education and sports psychology. However, there is little research from a marketing approach to understand the background of the motivations of volunteers under this conceptual framework provided by the SDT. Second, there is also a scarcity of literature linking the motivations of a volunteer with the emotions they may feel, ultimately achieving consolidated lasting links with the NGO in which they are integrated. Third, most research on volunteering to date has focused on differentiating volunteers from non-volunteers and understanding the reasons for volunteering. However, the presence of studies on the differences in the motivation of the same according to the type of NGO with which they collaborate has been scarce.
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Cecilia Ugalde, Natalia Vila-Lopez and Ines Kuster-Boluda
Fashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment…
Abstract
Purpose
Fashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment? This paper aims to investigate, on the one hand, the role of four drivers of brand attachment (perceived quality, brand personality, credibility and awareness) and three effects (loyalty, buying intention and perceived risk). On the other hand, three groups of fashionable brands with different positioning strategies are compared to analyze if the brand positioning strategy moderates the proposed relationships in the analyzed country.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the two objectives, surveys with the same instrument were conducted twice, and a sample of 1,922 consumers from the three most populated cities of Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca) took part in the study. They chose fashionable brands with functional (n = 1,066), hedonic (n = 463) and symbolic (n = 393) positioning strategies. They mentioned, for example, functional brands such as Avon, La Lechera, Nokia or Converse; hedonic brands such as Christian Dior, Oreo, Apple or Timberland and symbolic brands such as Axe, Coca-Cola/Coke, Motorola or DBond.
Findings
The results of this study show that (1) brand positioning affects attachment, (2) a functional positioning leads to higher consumers' loyalty, (3) a hedonic positioning leads to the strongest brand personality and credibility and (4) a symbolic positioning seems to be the less useful option in terms of desired effects.
Originality/value
First, this paper considers three different subscenarios in launching a new product: hedonic, functional and symbolic brand positioning. The comparison of these three scenarios makes progress with respect to previous research since the connection between consumers' brand attachment and positioning brand strategy has been scarcely addressed to date. Second, no study has been found that assesses the simultaneous effect of four key antecedents capable of enhancing brand attachment (personality, quality, awareness and credibility), causing three major effects (loyalty, purchase intention and decrease in perceived risk).
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Natalia Vila-López and Inés Küster-Boluda
– The purpose of this paper is to give some recommendations about how to design a low fat food aliment packaging.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give some recommendations about how to design a low fat food aliment packaging.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of previous studies that have analysed food packaging decisions considering personal and product influences was done.
Findings
For low fat foods, a good or a poor performance is not sufficient; you have to perform better than those competitors whose competitive capacity is strong enough to influence strategic decision taking. Low fat products must be focused to a particular target. A product of these characteristics cannot be launched for all the markets at the same time, and under the same conditions. Some personal factors do really affect food buying process: socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, income and education), involvement, time pressure or motivation. A possible recommended target for law fat aliments could be: an old/medium age women, with a medium/high economic position, educated, involved in food buying and worried about health. Some packaging factors also affect food buying process: colours, graphics, size, shape, typography. In this regard, a package for a low fat aliment could be designed including a picture on the label showing the benefits of the product (i.e. a healthy heart), with green colors, medium/small sizes and natural shapes, without sophistications. An umbrella brand for different firms acting in this market could be created, to facilitate their healthy products identification.
Originality/value
Personal variables and product characteristics are mixed together to give some recommendations of how an ideal low fat food package should be designed.
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Marcelo Royo‐Vela, Joaquin Aldás‐Manzano, Ińes Küster‐Boluda and Natalia Vila‐Lopez
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century in order to determine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century in order to determine if they reflect or not the important cultural changes of Spanish society in these years.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of 1,033 different advertisements randomly selected. To ensure reliability two independent codifiers of opposite gender worked together, one as an analyst and other as a judge. Three agreement indices were calculated.
Findings
Use of male and female portrayals has undergone relevant changes in the last 30 years in accordance with the social evolution of Spain. For both men and women stereotypes persist but there has been a move from the portrayal of the character in situations considered socially traditional to less traditional scenarios. At the end of the period analysed, Spanish magazines show low and decreasing levels of sexism.
Research limitations/implications
Only one advertising medium and one country have been analysed.
Originality/value
This is the first study developed in Spain in gender role stereotyping and sexism, and has been analysed through a longitudinal research.
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