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Market mavenism and opinion leadership are two important consumer influential concepts in marketing communication literature. The purpose of this paper is to explore two overarching research questions. First, can we separate market mavenism from opinion leadership in China? The answer to this question would solve an important issue of targeting in marketing communication. Second, if market mavenism is indeed distinctive from opinion leadership, are market mavenism and opinion leadership determined by same or different factors in China? The answer of this question would help determine how to reach each type of consumer influential and add knowledge to market segmentation.

An online survey was conducted to test the hypotheses. In total, 316 Chinese respondents completed this survey.

The results were illuminating: market mavenism and opinion leadership were indeed distinctive yet related concepts in China. Monochronicity, altruism, price-value consciousness, and income significantly influenced market mavenism after controlling for all other variables while monochronicity, price-value consciousness, and age significantly predicted opinion leadership after controlling for all other variables.

This study provides a richer picture of market mavenism and opinion leadership in the Chinese market.

This study helps scholars and professionals efficiently and effectively reach each type of consumer influential.

Buyers in China often communicate positive and negative purchasing experiences through word‐of‐mouth (WOM), which creates special problems and opportunities for marketers. Price mavenism, which is associated with price‐information searching and price‐sharing behavior, is often considered a negative dimension of price. The purpose of this paper, however, is to propose price mavenism as an outcome variable arising from both positive perceptions of price (prestige sensitivity) and negative perceptions (price and value consciousness) and examine that the “know” (price mavenism) will positively impact the “glow” (shopping hedonism) among the Chinese.

Data were collected through a survey in Shanghai, China. The conceptual model was tested using structural equation modeling.

This study found that prestige sensitivity, price consciousness and value consciousness shaped price mavenism among the Chinese, supporting the idea that price mavenism arises from both positive and negative perceptions of price. In addition, for the Chinese, being a source of price information and sharing the knowledge with their social groups fulfill a hedonic motivation for shopping. While value consciousness was positively associated with shopping hedonism, price consciousness per se was not.

This study challenges the idea that price mavenism is mainly explained by a negative perception of price.

By understanding the drivers of price mavenism and their impacts on shopping hedonism, international marketers can fine‐tune their marketing strategies to appeal more effectively to price mavens in China.

This study highlights the importance of cultural perspectives in understanding the structure of price mavenism and its theoretical and marketing foundations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not mavens’ dissemination activities are likely to promote or hinder retailers’ store brand premiumisation attempts, by revealing the relationship between mavens’ price and non-price on-pack extrinsic cue search and their store brand purchasing behaviours.

The paper adopts a hypothetic-deductive approach and develops a model of mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviour. The model is tested using SEM on a US data set containing 457 respondents. A full discussion of the direct, indirect and total effects is provided.

Mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviours are strongly linked to their price search activities and negatively related to their use of non-price on-pack extrinsic cues. This indicates that their dissemination activities are likely to stress lower prices and hence price competition rather than promote other cues used to infer quality. Thus, mavens are likely to inhibit retailers’ store brand premiumisation attempts. Mavens’ investments in time engaged in search activities are strongly linked to social returns rather than private financial savings.

The work is based on data collected using an online survey in one region of the USA where store brands are not as prevalent in other countries such as the UK.

The investigation of non-price on-pack extrinsic cues reduces mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviours while the use of price cues increases them. This suggests that even with mavens’ market expertise that a non-price extrinsic cue deficit continues to exist for these products. Consequently, retailers need to re-examine and rework the cues contained on pack to convey more positive consumption-related information if mavens are to become store brand advocates.

Rather than conceptualising the maven as possessing market wide knowledge, this research adopts a domain specific perspective arguing that price mavenism can be distinguished from product-related mavenism with consequences for the set of extrinsic cues used as part of the maven’s search process. In doing so, it reveals the conflicting effects that these maven dimensions have on purchasing behaviours and the likely effects on mavens’ dissemination activities.

The aim of this study is to investigate the psychographic factors of shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness and their influence on hedonic and utilitarian values, attitudes and patronage intentions of the small concept luxury department (SCLD) store.

The researchers utilized a quantitative method. An online survey was created and distributed over a three-week period to a representative sample of US luxury consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships among variables.

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) theoretical framework provided an effective model to investigate the perspectives and behaviors of luxury consumers within the SCLD. The findings of this study suggest the SCLD is an effective store format for consumers who are characterized as market mavens, are considered innovative and enjoy shopping.

The findings from this research are beneficial to luxury department store retailers looking to invest resources into a new experiential format to appeal to their consumer base.

The research extends the literature in a rapidly evolving area of retail formats and consumer perception by exploring psychographic factors, including shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness, and their impact on the beliefs regarding retail formats' hedonic and utilitarian value.

As the markets of Eastern Europe continue to liberalize, they are becoming increasingly important to Western retailers who seek international market opportunities. The current research compares consumer perceptions of price as a marketplace cue in Polish and US cultures. A hierarchical structural equation model (SEM) is used to assess the metric equivalence of price cue measures across a matched sample of Polish (N = 335) and US (N = 342) consumers. Results indicate a great deal of similarity between the two groups’ perceptions of price. Findings from the study suggest practical directions for strategy formulation as well as guidance in measuring perceptions of price cross‐culturally.

This paper aims to theorize counterfeit luxury consumption among millennials from a generational identity perspective.

The paper proposes and tests a model of counterfeit buying behavior using an online survey of 467 millennial respondents. The study uses multi-item measures from the extant literature and uses the structural equation modeling technique to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal when millennials have a self-defining relationship with their generation, they tend to internalize the generational norm pertaining to counterfeit luxury consumption. Millennials’ counterfeit related values: market mavenism, postmodernism, schadenfreude and public self-consciousness contribute to their generational identity. Moreover, market mavenism, cool consumption and public self-consciousness establish counterfeit luxury consumption as a generational norm.

The findings of this paper suggest that the expertise and influence of market mavens can be used to deter counterfeit consumption. Moreover, luxury brands must communicate a cool image to offset the rebellious image of counterfeits. Further, from a standardization versus adaption standpoint, the generational perspective allows for the standardization of anti-counterfeiting campaigns.

The paper makes a novel contribution to the counterfeiting literature by demonstrating that millennials pursue counterfeit luxury brands when they pledge cognitive allegiance to their generation. The paper, thus, extends the identity perspective of counterfeit luxury consumption to group contexts. The authors also test and validate the role of descriptive norms in group contexts by introducing the construct generational norm to counterfeiting literature.

This study aims to identify consumer segments among luxe-bargain shoppers using a fuzzy clustering method based on psychographic variables related to both luxury consumption and bargain processes and profiles the identified segments in behavioral tendencies.

The sample consists of 500 consumers who purchased a luxury brand at a bargain. The analyses involve running a confirmatory factor analysis, a fuzzy clustering analysis based on psychographic variables, and ANOVA for profiling the segments.

A fuzzy clustering analysis identifies four distinct segments: deal hunters, sale-prone shoppers, active luxe-bargain shoppers, and royal shoppers. Each consumer segment exhibits differences in consumer characteristics, demographics, and behavioral tendencies. The study provides insight into varied luxury consumers.

In an effort to fill the gap between traditional framework in luxury research and today ' s luxury market that provides accessibility of luxury items at lower price points to mass consumers, this study introduces a new concept of “luxe-bargain shopper” and examines varied luxury good consumers in the bargain shopping context. However, the findings of the current study should be interpreted with caution due to sampling method, product category of luxury brands, the limited number of luxury brands used in the study.

The results provide marketing suggestions for each segment of luxe-bargain shoppers.

There is virtually no luxury study conducted in the context of bargain shopping. By examining luxe-bargain shoppers using a robust fuzzy clustering method, this study extends our knowledge of luxury consumption as well as provides a new perspective to segmentation research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships between consumer innovativeness, market mavenism, shopping enjoyment, and beliefs, attitude, and patronage intentions toward pop‐up retail.

A survey technique using a national sample of consumers resulted in 869 usable responses. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized relationships among variables.

Findings show that consumer innovativeness and shopping enjoyment influence beliefs about the importance of hedonic elements of pop‐up retail (novelty/uniqueness factor) and attitude toward pop‐up retail, which affects patronage intentions.

Findings provide support for the effectiveness of pop‐up retail, an experiential marketing strategy, at enhancing the appeal of a retail venue to consumers exhibiting higher tendencies in innovativeness and shopping.

This paper provides an investigation of consumer psychographic characteristics and their effect on attitude and behavioral intentions towards a new experiential marketing format, pop‐up retail. This paper demonstrates empirically how consumer innovativeness and shopping enjoyment, noted as growing tendencies among consumers, affect beliefs, attitude, and behavioral intentions towards pop‐up retail.

Empirically examines important general beliefs consumers have about products and marketing. Shows results from a survey of 458 consumers about the degree of consumer endorsement for 20 key market beliefs. Discusses these results in terms of implications for managers.

The aim of this paper is to incorporate the theoretically and practically appropriate affecting factors of customers’ price acceptance to develop an integrated model explaining customers’ price acceptance on the mobile phone market in Vietnam.

This current research applied the cross-sectional design. Data was collected via questionnaires and 605 responses were left after refining. The exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling methods were applied to analyze the collected data.

Prestige sensitivity and product involvement positively affect product knowledge and price mavenism. In turn, these two latter factors together with prestige sensitivity positively affect price acceptance. Besides, product knowledge and price mavenism mediated the effects of product involvement and prestige sensitivity on price acceptance in the context of complex products, rapid product innovation, social setting of using mobile phones, highly competitive market, the low purchasing power of customers and the typical cultural values of Vietnam.

The high product involvement and high prestige sensitivity customers could make up attractive market segments, especially important in the case of launching new products; concentrating marketing efforts on building product knowledge and price knowledge for these market segments may enhance price acceptance, speed up market penetration as well as improve price communication.

This is one of the first studies explaining price acceptance on the mobile phone market in Vietnam and clarifying the mediating effects of knowledge (product knowledge and price mavenism) on the causal relationships between product involvement/prestige sensitivity and price acceptance.