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The purpose of this conceptual paper is to integrate two previously disparate areas of research: mindfulness and the entrepreneurial process. This present study conceptualizes the impact of mindfulness on the choices entrepreneurs face. Specifically, the research theorizes the positive effects of mindfulness on the opportunity recognition process, including evaluation of entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we propose that metacognition mediates this relationship, and emotional self-regulation moderates it. This conceptual research also suggests that mindfulness is positively related to the ethical decision-making and opportunity recognition and evaluation. Finally, compassion is proposed as a factor that mediates the relationship between mindfulness and ethical choices in opportunity recognition.

This research reviews numerous studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external search in conventional marketing channels to investigate differences among these studies that have produced conflicting results. The findings provide a benchmark for future researchers and practitioners seeking to gain insight into consumer information search processes unfolding in the new environment of online, mobile, and social networking channels.

A meta-analysis of an extensive array of empirical studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external information search was conducted. Regression analysis was used to test whether certain characteristics in the studies can explain variability in the effect sizes in which effect sizes are entered as dependent variables and moderators as independent variables.

Objective and subjective knowledge tend to increase search, while direct experience tends to reduce search. Consumers with higher objective knowledge search more when pursuing credence products. However, they search relatively less when pursuing search products. Consumers with higher subjective knowledge are much more likely to search in the context of experience products, but as is the case for objective knowledge having little effect on search for experience products, subjective knowledge has no significant effect on information seeking for search products. In addition, objective knowledge facilitates more information search in a complex decision-making context while higher subjective knowledge fosters more external information search in a simple decision-marketing context. Finally, the findings indicate that the knowledge search relationship reflects strong linkage in the pre-Internet era.

Relatively little is known about how the relationship between knowledge and information search varies across different types of products in simple or complex decision-making contexts. This study begins to fill this gap by providing insight into the relative importance of objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and direct experience in influencing consumer information search activities for search, experience, and credence products in simple or complex decision-making contexts.

The present data illustrate the effectiveness of utilizing theoretically guided models to develop consumer-based micro-segmentation strategies. The results provide marketers with a powerful discriminant function calculated from six variables to profile consumers and make informed decisions regarding promotional content and channel delivery to stimulate processing of marketing communication. The function also enables marketers to carve out casual, moderate, and loyal market segments with 74.3 per cent accuracy utilizing only 18 survey questions.

This chapter aims to identify integrated marketing communication (IMC) in the context of business to business to consumer (B2B2C) and empirically test a number of hypotheses related to the selected constructs. A model of the IMC was tested in a survey conducted among stakeholders in the selected field. Professionals responsible for communication and branding activities need to evaluate the relative contributions of the IMC in the B2B2C perspective.

This chapter explores the perspectives of rural librarians about the information behaviors of children with special needs (CSN) and services available for the disenfranchised population in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) region.

Qualitative feedback is collected from 31 SCA rural librarians via phone interviews and a web-based survey about: (1) The most important information needs/wants of the CSN in the SCA rural libraries; (2) The most important information resources and services that the CSN seek/use in the SCA rural libraries; (3) Extent of perceived need for effective library services for the CSN in rural areas; (4) Ways that the SCA rural libraries can improve to better serve the CSN in their local communities.

Content analysis of the data generated quantitative representation of response counts for specific themes that resulted in practical user-centered suggestions for positive change in delivering effective library services for the CSN in the SCA region.

Research significance lies in its first-time effort to understand the information needs and information uses of the CSN in the SCA rural library environments from the perspective of a rural librarian immersed in an American society that perceives a parochial regional work setting. This research presents data that challenges notions stereotyping and marginalizing of the “South” in its documentation of positive and meaningful efforts that rural librarians suggest should be made to improve the conditions experienced by the CSN in this region.

Corporations in all industries recognize the demand for responsible business behavior and have developed corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs accordingly. This paper examines to which extent sustainability practices – unrelated to the actual ingredients of a consumable product – affect brand equity, taste perceptions, and perceived emotional value. In an experimental setting, effects were determined of the presence or lack of a sustainability-marketing message within a beer brand’s promotional material. The constructs were measured in a survey, and a PLS-SEM was used to analyze the results. In the factor model, all constructs proved to be sufficiently reliable and valid. The experiment’s results indicate that taste perception is positively influenced by the presence of a sustainability message.

Brand equity has been highlighted as a crucial element in differentiating products and achieving competitive advantage. Recent studies reflect the gradual rise in interest in the importance of building brand equity linked to the store. However, empirical evidence about the antecedents of store brand equity is still scarce, particularly on the retailer’s corporate social responsibility behavior. This chapter aims to analyze the influence of the retailer’s commitment to sustainable development (RCSD) and the credibility of the retailer’s communications on the overall store brand equity. Focusing on two samples of hypermarket customers in France and Spain, the findings provide evidence on the importance of the RCSD regarding employees, society, and environment, as well as the effectiveness of credible communications to generate store brand equity. Results are consistent for France and Spain.