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This study aims to examine the role of face consciousness, materialism and risk of embarrassment in determining consumer purchase intention toward counterfeit luxury brand. In addition, the authors explore boundary conditions of these relationships.

Study 1, a survey research (N = 321), examines the mediating role of risk of embarrassment between face consciousness on the purchase intention toward luxury counterfeits. Study 2 (N = 345), an experimental study, examines the moderating role of brand prominence of counterfeit (i.e. whether it contains prominent brand signals). Study 3 (N = 315) explores how the above-mentioned relationships are moderated by consumers’ moral rationalization (i.e. whether consumers seek rationalization when behaving unethically).

First, this research shows that risk of embarrassment mediates the negative relationship between face consciousness and Chinese consumers’ purchase intention toward luxury counterfeits, whereas this relationship was not found between materialism and counterfeit purchase intentions. Second, this negative mediating effect holds only when the counterfeit brand is highly prominent. Third, the mediating effect depends on consumers’ moral rationalization, with a positive impact on the purchase intention toward luxury counterfeits, regardless of brand prominence.

This study represents a preliminary inquiry into the dynamics between face consciousness and materialism in influencing Chinese consumers’ purchase intention toward counterfeit luxury products. Unlike their Western counterparts, whose materialistic views of possessions predict their counterfeit luxury consumption (Davidson et al., 2019), Chinese consumers are more likely to be driven by the social implications of counterfeit luxury to communicate a prestigious social image to others on account of genuine luxuries’ high social recognition.

While Chinese consumers are one of the most potent global luxury buyers, they are immersed in the world’s biggest counterfeit luxury market. By digging into the core value of Chinese consumers (i.e. face consciousness), this research provides a number of managerial implications for luxury goods companies to engage in international efforts to educate consumers against counterfeit luxury.

This study makes at least three contributions to the counterfeit consumption literature. First, this study represents a preliminary inquiry into the dynamics between face consciousness and materialism in influencing Chinese consumers’ purchase intention toward counterfeit luxury products. Second, this research identified the complex mechanism of face consciousness as an independent variable on consumers’ purchase intention toward luxury counterfeits. Finally, the authors examined the boundary conditions of brand prominence and consumers’ moral rationalization. The findings may help luxury brand managers identify strategies to discourage counterfeit consumption.

This study examines the impact of narcissism on young luxury consumers' preferences for quiet versus loud luxury products in China and the United States. As young consumers are increasingly becoming the bedrock of global luxury growth, it is imperative for marketing researchers and practitioners to understand the psychological and social needs of these consumers.

A two-study examination of young Chinese and US luxury consumers suggests that the two types of narcissism influence luxury consumption in different ways. Study 1 is a survey of young Chinese consumers that examines how the impact of narcissism on luxury purchase is mediated by social attitude functions and moderated by social anxiety. Study 2 is an experiment conducted in both the United States and China that establishes the causal relationship between the different types of narcissism and purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury products.

Building on an overarching framework that integrates both the narcissism literature and social attitude function theory, this study shows that overt narcissistic (vs. covert) consumers hold a value-expressive (vs. social-adjustive) attitude toward luxury products, which leads them to prefer quiet (vs. loud) luxury. In addition, higher levels of social anxiety enhance the mediating role of narcissistic consumers' social attitude functions.

This study advances understanding of young Chinese and US luxury consumers' narcissistic consumption patterns by proposing and empirically testing a novel research model that examines the mechanisms by which overt and covert narcissism leads to a different preference of quiet and loud luxury via the routes of different social attitude functions.

From an environmental psychology perspective, we aim to uncover the role that app discoverability facilitators play in enabling the various perceived values (e.g. social, information and hedonic) necessary for app adoption.

A survey study was conducted and data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Results show that certain consumer review elements (i.e. review quality, review quantity and app ranking), peer influence and app developers' reputation — to varying degrees — influence the three perceived values, which subsequently affect users' app adoption intention. The three perceived values mediate the relationship between app discoverability facilitators and users' app adoption intention.

App store managers and developers should make a greater effort to effectively optimize discoverability and product differentiation.

Guided by environmental psychology, we confirm the importance of app discoverability facilitators regarding their influence on users' general perceptions of an app (e.g. the three perceived values). We also uncover the differentiated effect of the three perceived values on app adoption intention.

Despite the growing research regarding consumer luxury value perception and their influence on luxury consumption behavior in different cultural contexts, there is little research investigating the cultural variation toward luxury within different generations in a given society. The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationships among Confucian propriety, luxury value perception, and purchase intention of luxury brands, and especially how these relationships differ between young and older consumers in a Chinese context.

Data were collected through a questionnaire survey in China. A multi-group structural equation model was used to test the conceptual model and research hypotheses.

The results show that the effects of functional value and social value on purchase intention of luxury brands are stronger for older generations than younger ones, while the effects of self-identity and hedonic value on purchase intention are stronger for younger generations than older ones. The Confucian propriety relates positively to the functional value and social value; however, these effects are more salient for older consumers.

The results of this study reveal the evolution of luxury consumption values and behaviors of Chinese consumers, suggesting that marketers should no longer label Chinese luxury consumers with common behaviors. It is also recommended that marketers of luxury brands in China should adapt this shifting attitude and respond actively to the expectations of different generations.

Smartphone multitasking behavior has become prevalent in our daily lives, yet factors influencing smartphone multitasking behavior have not been fully investigated. This study aimed to examine the roles of a set of demographic, personality and motivational factors on smartphone multitasking behavior, and how these factors were related to general and application-specific types of smartphone multitasking behavior.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 2,659 smartphone users were invited to complete an online survey on smartphone multitasking behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the roles of demographic, personality and motivational factors on smartphone multitasking behavior.

The results showed that, in general, demographic factors, such as gender, age, occupation status, education and smartphone usage time significantly predicted smartphone multitasking behavior. People characterized by agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience were more likely to multitask with smartphones. Information seeking, efficiency and habit motivations were identified as major motivational factors for smartphone multitasking behavior. The roles of demographic, personality and motivational factors differed much across varied types of application-specific smartphone multitasking behavior.

This study extends and advances the literature on media multitasking, smartphone multitasking in particular, by identifying a set of demographic, personality and motivational factors as antecedents of smartphone multitasking behavior. In addition, this study revealed the differentiated roles of the above-mentioned factors across varied types of smartphone application usages. The findings provide important implications for practitioners to tailor smartphone applications and services to different target smartphone users and use situations.

This research is aimed at predicting tower crane accident phases with incomplete data.

The tower crane accidents are collected for prediction model training. Random forest (RF) is used to conduct prediction. When there are missing values in the new inputs, they should be filled in advance. Nevertheless, it is difficult to collect complete data on construction site. Thus, the authors use multiple imputation (MI) method to improve RF. Finally the prediction model is applied to a case study.

The results show that multiple imputation RF (MIRF) can effectively predict tower crane accident when the data are incomplete. This research provides the importance rank of tower crane safety factors. The critical factors should be focused on site, because the missing data affect the prediction results seriously. Also the value of critical factors influences the safety of tower crane.

This research promotes the application of machine learning methods for accident prediction in actual projects. According to the onsite data, the authors can predict the accident phase of tower crane. The results can be used for tower crane accident prevention.

Previous studies have seldom predicted tower crane accidents, especially the phase of accident. This research uses tower crane data collected on site to predict the phase of the tower crane accident. The incomplete data collection is considered in this research according to the actual situation.

Even with the evidence that participation in home-sharing is highly ecologically sustainable, the existing consumer communication studies in the hospitality sector have predominantly focussed on the social and economic benefits. This study aims to examine how the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers.

Two scenario-based experiments (Study 1: n = 377 and Study 2: n = 290) examined the effects of consumers’ consumption orientations, and the appeal of environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertising on their home-sharing adoption intentions.

Study 1 demonstrated that when consumers with either a hedonic or utilitarian consumption orientation book travel accommodation, their home-sharing adoption intentions increase depending on whether advertisements are designed as hard- or soft-sell appeal, respectively. Study 2 showed that the influence of an environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertisement that has considered consumers’ consumption orientation and applied the corresponding advertising appeal design is as effective as a home-sharing service that offers economic benefits and is even better than an advertisement that emphasises social benefits, particularly for utilitarian-oriented consumers.

This study is the first in the lodging sector examining the ways in which the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers. The findings shed light on corporate practices pertaining to information that home-sharing service marketers can control and provide an essential basis for further advertising, consumer differences, environmental sustainability awareness and collaborative consumption studies.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interpreting schema and semantic description framework for a collection of images of Xilankapu, a traditional Chinese form of embroidered fabric and brocade artwork.

First, the authors interpret the artwork of Xilankapu through Gillian Rose’s “four site” theory by presenting how the brocades were made, how the patterns of Xilankapu are classified and the geometrical abstraction of visual images. To further describe the images of this type of brocade, this paper presents semantic descriptions that include objective–non-objective relations and a multi-layered semantic framework. Furthermore, the authors developed corresponding methods for scanning, storage and indexing images for retrieval.

As exploratory research on describing, preserving and indexing images of Xilankapu in the context of the preservation of cultural heritage, the authors collected 1,000+ images of traditional Xilankapu, classifying and storing some of the images in a database. They developed an index schema that combines concept- and content-based approaches according to the proposed semantic description framework. They found that the framework can describe, store and preserve semantic and non-semantic information of the same image. They relate the findings of this paper to future research directions for the digital preservation of traditional cultural heritages.

The framework has been designed especially for brocade, and it needs to be extended to other types of cultural image.

The semantic description framework can describe connotative semantic information on Xilankapu. It can also assist the later information retrieval work in organizing implicit information about culturally related visual materials.

Drawing on sensemaking and emotion regulation research, the purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize core contributor withdrawal (CCW) in the context of online peer-production communities (OPPCs). To explain the underlying mechanisms that make core contributors withdraw from these communities, the authors propose a process theory of contributor withdrawal called the core contributor withdrawal theory (CCWT).

To support CCWT, a typology of unmet expectations of online communities is presented, which uncovers the cognitive and emotional processing involved. To illustrate the efficacy of CCWT, a case study of the English version of Wikipedia is provided as a representative OPPC.

CCWT identifies sensemaking and emotion regulation concerning contributors’ unmet expectations as causes of CCW from OPPCs, which first lead to declined expectations, burnout and psychological withdrawal and thereby to behavioral withdrawal.

CCWT clearly identifies how and why important participation transitions, such as from core contributor to less active contributor or non-contributor, take place. By adopting process theories, CCWT provides a nuanced explanation of the cognitive and affective events that take place before core contributors withdraw from OPPCs.

CCWT highlights the challenge of online communities shifting from recruiting new contributors to preventing loss of existing contributors in the maturity stage. Additionally, by identifying the underlying cognitive and affective processes that core contributors experience in response to unexpected events, communities can develop safeguards to prevent or correct cognitions and emotions that lead to withdrawal.

CCWT provides a theoretical framework that accounts for the negative cognitions and affects that lead to core contributors’ withdrawal from online communities. It furthers the understanding of what motivates contributing to and what leads to withdrawal from OPPC.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of channel partners’ government relations within channel performance and explore how institutional factors interact to influence channel performance. A theoretical framework, inclusive of hypotheses, is proposed to demonstrate the interaction of government relations and institutional environments on firm performance. Drawing on an institutional perspective, this paper suggests that the effect of partner’s government relations on firm performance is moderated by institutional environment factors, such as government interference, legal protection, and the importance of guanxi.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey and collected data from 393 Chinese manufacturer managers in China.

Partner’s government relations increase focal firm’s performance and this effect is moderated by different levels of legal protection. Partner’s government relations increase firm performance only in the context of high-legal protection; whereas, when legal protection is low, partner’s government relations decrease focal firm performance. As for the interaction of institutional factors, legal protection and importance of guanxi, all three moderate the negative effect of government interference on firm performance.

This paper provides insights on how channel partner’s government relations, representing a key institutional capital, interact with institutional environment factors to influence channel performance.