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Marketing Technology (Martech) is the cornerstone of creating digital experiences and interactive marketing, providing consumers with high experiential value. Drawing on the mindfulness theory, this study aims to explore how to achieve close psychological distance and experiential value in Martech servicescape (such as augmented reality [AR]).

We employed mixed methods research to clarify the research question. In Study 1, we conducted a systematic literature review of psychological closeness (PC) using a bibliographic coupling approach, identifying gaps in the research stream and discussing the research implications for the interactive marketing field. In Study 2, we used a task-based laboratory assessment to empirically verify our hypotheses and research framework. Two virtual try-on environments, AR and non-AR (e.g. traditional webpage browsing), were applied in a virtual fitting context. The two e-shopping environments were directly compared in terms of their moderating effects on the relationships among the mindfulness-oriented MarTech servicescape, PC and experiential value.

This study elucidates the antecedent of close psychological distance formation, indicating that the features of the mindfulness-oriented Martech servicescape – vivid sensory experience, consumer-focused shopping information and autonomous navigation, then result in creating experiential value. Moreover, this study also revealed that compared to a non-AR e-shopping environment, AR makes the better effect of the mindfulness-oriented Martech servicescape driving experiential marketing.

This study extends the research stream on mindfulness-oriented service to the Martech servicescape (e.g. AR try-on). In this way, this study’s findings will contribute to clarifying the interactive elements and design principles of mindfulness-oriented service in the Martech servicescape. By establishing the association between these three theoretical perspectives—mindfulness-oriented service research stream, construal level theory and experience economy paradigm—the study provides valuable insights into how Martech can enhance experiential marketing. Such research insights can help digital marketing managers shape appropriate Martech servicescape for effective experiential marketing.

This study examines the effects of an inclusive psychological climate on leader inclusion, workgroup inclusion, and employee outcomes (trust in organization and organizational identification). Leader inclusion and workgroup inclusion are explored as both direct and serial mediators in the psychological climate to outcome relationships.

Data from 336 employees in 55 teams were collected at two time points from an educational media company in China.

Results from multi-level modeling suggest that, for employees, the inclusive psychological climate to trust relationship has both direct and indirect effects, including a serially occurring indirect effect through leader inclusion and workgroup inclusion. For the inclusive psychological climate to organizational identification relationship, there were only indirect effects, including a serially occurring indirect effect through both leader inclusion and workgroup inclusion.

These results suggest the value of an inclusive psychological climate for setting the stage for more localized inclusion experiences through the leader and the workgroup. These inclusionary work environments promote social exchange as shown by employer trust and social identification with the organization.

This study examines the combined and serial effects of an inclusive psychological climate, leader inclusion, and workgroup inclusion on outcomes that represent a deep connection with the organization (organizational trust and organizational identification).

Employees’ perceived inclusion has been shown to have beneficial effects on their effective functioning at work (e.g. engagement, creativity, and task performance); however, workplace inclusion is also believed to have a profound impact on employees’ functioning beyond the work domain, such as on their family domain. The primary goal of our study thus is to explore how perceptions of workplace inclusion influence employees’ family lives.

We tested our hypotheses by surveying 125 employees from a cotton textile manufacturing company in China over 10 consecutive workdays.

Daily perceived leader inclusion was negatively related to employees’ daily resource depletion at work, which in turn was positively related to employees’ daily work-to-family conflict. The direct effect of daily perceived leader inclusion on resource depletion and the indirect effect of daily perceived leader inclusion on work-to-family conflict were stronger for employees with more discrimination experience in their lives.

Leaders should be aware of their unique roles they play in shaping individual inclusion perceptions and should enact actions that satisfy employees’ desires for both belongingness and uniqueness. Moreover, leaders should also be attentive to those who are susceptible to discrimination when promoting inclusion initiatives.

Our study proposes an important facet of workplace inclusion—perceived leader inclusion—and offers a resource perspective to understand how leader inclusion may impact employees’ functioning beyond the work domain to affect their family lives.

Despite the promising development and marketing potential of the metaverse, our understanding of how realistic metaverse environments impact user engagement and behaviours remains limited. This study investigates the role of perceived realism in influencing user engagement, thereby affecting external search behaviour and visit intentions.

We surveyed 270 active metaverse users to test the research model. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results of our study show that three dimensions of realism – avatar involvement, perceptual pervasiveness and social realism – significantly enhance user engagement, which in turn influences external search behaviour and visit intention. In contrast, simulation realism and freedom of choice have minimal effects on absorption and dedication.

This study highlights the role of perceived realism in enhancing user engagement with the metaverse and its impact on physical world behaviours. It contributes to metaverse literature by demonstrating that engagement within the metaverse significantly influences physical world behaviours, including visit intentions and external search behaviours.

This study offers practical guidance for developers to enhance user engagement in metaverse environments. Specifically, our findings advocate for visual and audio quality enhancements, greater persuasiveness of virtual spaces, improved avatar representativeness and a closer alignment of metaverse activities with real-life events.

This study advances the theoretical understanding of perceived realism by examining how its dimensions – such as visual and audio quality, avatar representativeness and alignment with real-life events – impact user engagement in the metaverse. It also explores how this engagement influences offline behaviours, thus bridging the gap between virtual and real-world interactions.

A novel phenomenon in product and service promotions, social coupons facilitate group buying at lower prices, bringing key benefits to customers, merchants and coupon aggregators. This study maps the evolution and innovations in social couponing, identifies knowledge gaps in the domain and sets the future research agenda.

Through a detailed systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, this study maps the evolution of social coupons over time. The analysis examines social coupon research by studying research outputs by authors, institutes, countries and research themes. It also explores how the social couponing phenomenon has benefited the three key stakeholders: customers, merchants and coupon aggregators.

An innovation in couponing, social coupons are discount coupons that feature group buying, pre-purchase and daily deals. Based on the extensive review of extant literature, the study proposes a conceptual model for the social couponing process. The study also provides inputs for future research on social coupons and delineates their academic and managerial implications.

This study makes a pioneering endeavor to comprehensively map the knowledge structure of social coupons from multiple dimensions.

The synchronous interactivity in the metaverse afforded copresence, the feeling of being together with other users. Applying the flow theory, this study examines how copresence improves the subjective well-being of users through flow and escapism.

An online self-administered survey of 212 US adults who are currently using metaverse platforms is conducted. The collected data are analyzed by SPSS 27.0 for descriptive statistics and reliability analysis. AMOS 27.0 is employed for the confirmatory factor analysis. The bootstrapping analysis via the PROCESS Macro is used to analyze the mediating and moderating effects.

The results find that copresence, flow, and escapism improve the subjective well-being of metaverse users. A serial mediation analysis reveals that the influence of copresence on subjective well-being is mediated by flow and escapism. Additionally, the impact of escapism on subjective well-being is moderated by self-expansion.

The findings contribute to the metaverse literature and the industry by highlighting the role of copresence in improving user experience and subjective well-being.

In the cosmic expanse of the digital universe, a new celestial body emerges the Metaverse. This study embarks on an interstellar journey to scrutinize the dynamics of entrepreneurial learning (EL) and opportunity in the burgeoning realm of the metaverse. This study aims to understand how personal entrepreneurial characteristics (PEC) and Metaverse environment characteristics (MEC) influence these processes.

The study devotes a dual-lens approach, combining the power of interviews (Phase I) and the precision of a survey (Phase II). It harnesses the insights of the entrepreneurial event model (EEM) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), serving as twin beacons guiding our exploration of the constructs under PEC/MEC.

The study uncovers a fascinating tapestry of interwoven variables. Certain threads in the PEC/MEC weave significantly into the fabric of EL, which in turn embroiders the pattern of opportunity exploitation. However, some threads, namely, Metaverse scalability, entrepreneurial risk-taking and innovativeness, do not significantly contribute to the design of EL.

The findings serve as a compass for various stakeholders in the metaverse. They guide the design of entrepreneurial education programs, inform the development of user-friendly metaverse platforms, shape policies promoting entrepreneurship in the metaverse and provide strategic insights for entrepreneurs and investors.

This study is a trailblazer, being among the first to apply the EEM and TAM in the context of the Metaverse. It offers fresh perspectives on entrepreneurial processes in virtual environments, enriching the emerging narrative on metaverse entrepreneurship and charting unexplored territories for future research.

This study aims to explore how perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use affect users' sensory experience and behavioral experience in the metaverse context, and explore the significance of building a metaverse platform for companies, and provide management enlightenment for corporate development.

Data were collected from 329 online participants and analyzed using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression.

Perceived usefulness and ease of use have a significant influence on customer sensory experience and behavioral experience in the metaverse. Sensory experience mediates the influence of perceived usefulness and availability on behavioral experience. Social presence positively moderates the influence of both usefulness and ease of use on sensory and behavioral experience. In other words, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in the metaverse situation affect sensory experience through social presence, and then affect behavioral experience.

This research clarifies the effect of usefulness and ease of use on customer sensory and behavioral experience. It confirms the positive moderating role of social presence and the mediating role of sensory experience in the influence pathway between perceived usefulness, ease of use, and behavioral experience. From the perspective of management, this study provides theoretical support for the positive impact of corporate metaverse platform building on customer brand experience in the future, and provides impetus for companies to pay attention to improving the usefulness and ease of use of their metaverse platform.

This paper aims to explore consumer perceptions of product design awards (PDAs) and their impact on consumer product evaluation and attitude formation about the award-winning product, the award-winning organization and the award-granting organization.

Based on the grounded theory approach, an exploratory qualitative study is conducted, using 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Turkish consumers through discussions on real-world examples.

Results show that consumers develop emotional responses to PDAs (e.g. interest, curiosity and confusion), hypothesize reasons for products receiving awards and cite rewards as confirmation of their existing judgments about products. PDAs are perceived as extrinsic cues signaling quality and price, and their impact is increased when consumers feel that the award is based on functional feature superiority. Consumer responses to PDAs are also influenced by the perceived expertise of the award-granting organization and beliefs about the award-granting process. Finally, PDAs can lead to positive brand-perception outcomes, influencing consumer perceptions of the product company as resourceful, competent and prominent.

This study shows that it is critical for companies to inform consumers about the specific features that resulted in a given product receiving a design award, as well as to provide information about the PDA itself.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore consumer perceptions of and reactions to PDAs, with significant implications for both the marketing managers of PDA-winning products and award-granting organizations.

This paper aims to examine the impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ offline behavioral intentions: How do customers’ visits to a hospitality business’s virtual property in the metaverse affect their intentions to visit the physical property in the real world?

Based on the general learning model and social cognitive theory, this research hypothesizes the positive impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ visit intentions and explores two boundary conditions for positive impact: user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity. Two experimental studies were conducted.

Metaverse experience has a significant impact on customers’ visit intentions, and this impact is moderated by user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity.

This research addresses the call for empirical studies regarding the effects of metaverse experience on people’s behavioral intentions.

As one of the earliest empirical studies on the marketing effects of the metaverse, this research provides a basis for future metaverse studies in the hospitality field.