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This paper investigates internal and external barriers influencing the different dimensions of firm service innovativeness and the moderating effect of transformational leadership on these relationships in an emerging economy, namely, Turkey.

The hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional survey data from 148 hotels. The authors use regressions to analyze the data set.

The results demonstrate that barriers to innovation need not necessarily impede firm service innovativeness at all times; some of these so-called “barriers” may even act as catalysts that improve firm’s likelihood of adopting innovations. More importantly, the findings suggest that a transformational leadership style alleviates the negative influence of internal barriers on internal service innovativeness dimensions of process, strategic and behavioral innovativeness.

The positive effect of transformational leadership lessening the detrimental impact of barriers to innovation is a topic in need of research. In addition to examining this phenomenon in a developing country, the authors choose a service retailing industry as a study context: hospitality/tourism. The main reason for choosing this industry is that there is little empirical evidence of service innovation activity in this industry despite the fact that it contributes to a large extent to employment and gross domestic product in most emerging economies, and it is, in fact, a fairly innovative industry. Furthermore, this study presents a unique perspective by investigating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This study aims to examine the relationship between brand engagement in self-concept (BESC), value consciousness (VC) and brand loyalty among Generation Z consumers. In addition, the study aims to segment the Generation Z consumers based on BESC and VC and examine the differences between the segments.

A self-administered questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 346 undergraduate students in Malaysia. The hypothesized structural models are tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The study also uses cluster analysis to segment the Generation Z consumers.

The results reveal that among Generation Z consumers both BESC and VC have a positive effect on brand loyalty. Additionally, the mediation analysis established that BESC plays a mediating role in the relationship between VC and brand loyalty. The study also identified four consumer groups – attentive group, dedicated group, prospective group and switchers group. Furthermore, consumer classification according to BESC can be used by marketers and managers in marketing strategy development.

The study has originality and value in developing and testing a new model linking BESC with VC and brand loyalty. Further, market segmentation on the basis of BESC and VC has been rarely studied. Even less, has been studied among Generation Z consumers and this study fills this important gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how nonprofit service providers can better engage their customers through online communication. It identifies two communication styles and three communication functions, and examines their impact on customer commenting, customer liking and customer sharing.

Similar to Python for Facebook, a software package for the automatic retrieval of web page content was developed specifically for this study to extract data from the microblog Sina Weibo. Following the successful retrieval of 1,500 randomly selected messages from 34 universities in China, a two-level regression was performed using Mplus 7 to examine the association between the proposed relationships.

The findings reveal that messages with a friendly communication style increase both the number of comments and their positive tone; an authoritative style has no effect on customer engagement. The functions associated with message content (spreading information, building community or promoting action) influence customer liking and sharing. Building community tends to engage more customers than spreading information; promoting action often generates the least customer engagement in social media settings.

The study fills an important research gap in the service marketing literature as it pertains to nonprofit service organizations (i.e. universities) by identifying two types of online identities based on the communication style and the messages posted on social media. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between identity type and audience engagement, and to analyze the moderating factors of this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of how firms can maintain longitudinal satisfaction. Previous research on longitudinal satisfaction demonstrates that the product attributes weight on satisfaction shifts over time. However, the existing literature lacks an understanding of the intervening mechanism. Inspired by the hedonic adaptation theory, this research first argues that the shift depends on the attribute’s variability. Then, it posits that hedonic adaptation might play a mediation role in connecting the attribute’s weight and longitudinal satisfaction. Finally, the research incorporates consumer intentional activities into the antecedents of longitudinal satisfaction.

The authors test a series of hypotheses across two studies. Using the Slope-shift Parameter Theory and Structural Equation Modeling, data collected from smartphone owners in four MBA classes (Study 1) and eight business venues in China (Study 2) are analyzed to confirm the research model.

The findings suggest that hedonic adaptation occurs during the ownership process. It is revealed that both the attribute’s variability and consumption behavior play important roles in sustaining long-term satisfaction, confirming the mediating effects of hedonic adaptation on the relationship above.

The hedonic adaptation theory is applied to study the mediating role of product attribute variability and consumption behavior in sustaining customer satisfaction over time. Three contributions are offered: First, hedonic adaptation occurs during the ownership process; second, the attribute’s variability and consumption behavior both play important roles in sustaining longitudinal satisfaction; third, the mediating effects of hedonic adaptation are confirmed for the relationship between attribute’s variability and sustaining satisfaction and consumption behavior and sustaining satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to explore the marketing success factors of an international private healthcare company operating in Lebanon and examine how these factors evolve depending on different business phases.

An extreme single-case study of a Lebanese healthcare center was conducted. The data sources consisted of semi-structured interviews and archival data including industry reports, newspaper articles and internal documents.

This study offers interesting, non-studied insights into marketing success factors in the private healthcare sector. In particular, it shows how to evolve from more traditional business models to disruptive yet very attractive personalized services with high-quality standards.

While the theoretical position developed fits the unique characteristics of the studied industry and country settings, it is necessary to be cautious in generalizing the study to other geographical settings and industries.

This research provides managers and decision-makers with insights into how to identify, organize and develop success factors in the marketing discipline during different business phases of private healthcare organizations.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on the marketing of private healthcare organizations by exploring success factors in a non-studied geographical and cultural context.

This research aims to investigate effect of consumer creativity on their evaluations of brands. Consumers’ creative participation is often used by online retailers as a promotional tool nowadays. The authors propose that consumer creativity exerts a positive impact on brand attitudes by affecting their attitudes toward the creative activity itself. Furthermore, consumer creativity moderates the effect of consumers’ perceived level of fit on their acceptance of brand extensions, such that creative consumers will show a higher level of acceptance of distant brand extensions.

The authors test their hypotheses in three laboratory experiments. Study 1 examines the effect of consumer creativity on brand evaluations. Study 2 explores the moderating effect of consumer creativity on perceived level of fit on acceptance of brand extensions. Study 3 replicates the authors findings in Studies 1 and 2 using a better representative sample and a different type of creative task.

Study 1 finds that consumer creativity results in a positive attitude toward brand; this effect is mediated by attitude toward the creative activity. Study 2 shows that creativity leads to a greater level of brand acceptance when the brand extension has a low fit with the focal brand. Study 3 further provides evidence of proposed effects using a different type of creative task with a more representative sample.

In the experiments, this study examined three types of online creative marketing communication activities. Future research could examine other types of consumer creative activities so as to enhance the generalizability of the findings.

Our results provide important implications for firms that intend to exploit the promises of online creativity-themed marketing communications. First, because consumers’ attitudes toward the focal brand hinge on their attitudes toward the creative activity, it is important that firms design their creativity-themed activities carefully, so that they are attractive to the users. Second, firms can exploit the creativity edge by launching new brand extensions that target creative consumers. This effect is even more pronounced when the brand extension exhibits a low fit with the focal brand. These guidelines suggest that firms’ investments in online creativity-themed marketing communications can pay off in terms of improved consumers’ attitudes toward the firms’ brands and brand extensions.

This research makes several theoretical contributions. First, the authors explore the important role of creativity in the context of brand attitudes and brand extensions. This study adds to extant consumer creativity literature by documenting the consequences of consumer creativity in terms of positive outcomes for firms. Second, by examining the mediating effect of attitude toward the creativity task, the authors broaden the scope of attitude-toward-the-site and attitude-toward-the-sponsorship-event research to the online marketing communications setting. Third, by showing that consumer creativity can facilitate the acceptance of distant brand extensions, this study also enriches extant brand extension literature.

To provide insight on the characteristics of the Chinese multi‐vitamin marketplace and to discuss key issues involved in marketing work, including market testing, product positioning, market segmentation and targeting, differentiation, and branding strategy.

The paper is based on a field‐based case study. An in‐depth interview has been used for data collection. The case is presented on a chronological order and could be divided into four stages (2001‐2005). Substantial information regarding the company's marketing strategy and tactics has been provided. Detailed sales data have also been given to facilitate the case discussion.

The case presents the uneven growing path of a Chinese multi‐vitamin brand. It has established the importance of brand‐building strategy on the basis of integrated marketing mix.

The case provides an excellent basis for exploring the pros and cons of numerous marketing tactics – individual branding vs brand extension, penetration vs skimming, choice of promotional tools, etc. It has also illustrated different ways for product positioning and differentiation. In addition, it provides a basis for discussing ethics in advertising – e.g. the soft advertising.

The case has been used successfully in executive MBA courses. The case helps managers and researchers to understand China health supplement market which has indicated many special characteristics compared with Western market, or discuss general issues related to marketing.