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The purpose of this paper is to identify patterns of medium preference for loyalty programs (LPs) among members to support the case for segmenting customers based on their medium preference.

A survey of nearly 2,000 customers who are enrolled in at least one supermarket LP was employed. LP members are segmented based on a latent class clustering model and then profiled in terms of socio-demographic variables by means of a multinomial logit regression model.

Medium preference is heterogeneous and differs at the customer segment and at the LP touchpoint level. Five segments emerge which display different medium preference patterns. LP medium preference is associated with age, gender, affluency and number of different LPs the customer is enrolled in.

Retailers, e-tailers and brands can benefit from this customer segmentation when faced with the challenges of adding online features or migrating their LPs online. Marketers should differentiate their investment in online and offline LP touchpoints according to the medium preference for each LP touchpoint of the customer segments of interest.

Retailers, e-tailers and brands are today introducing online marketing strategies and tactics, such as LPs, that have been traditionally used offline. So far, however, they have failed to answer the question whether online and offline LPs and related touchpoints have the same preference among consumers. Literature on LPs has not explored customer preference for the LP medium or the consumer characteristics related to medium preference. This work is unique in providing an overview of medium preference for LPs and their touchpoints.

This paper aims to investigate whether preferences for certain types of privacy predict the frequency and duration of social media usage as well as the moderating role of gender on these relationships.

An e-mail-based survey among the faculty, staff and students of a medium-sized mid-western university is used to gather data regarding preferences for privacy and social media usage. Using 530 respondents, structural equation modeling explores the relationship between the various privacy types, gender and social media usage.

Evidence supports a relationship between four types of privacy preferences and social media usage. A positive relationship exists between frequency of social media usage and a preference for not neighboring. Duration of social media usage shows a negative relationship with preferences for seclusion and reserve, and surprisingly, a positive relationship with a preference for anonymity. Gender moderates the relationship between preference for privacy and social media usage, offering evidence that intimacy, seclusion and reserve predict social media usage for males, while not neighboring and anonymity predict usage for females.

The study extends the privacy literature through investigating differential impacts of privacy preferences. The marketing literature examines privacy as a general concept, without allowing for differences in consumers' preferences for types of privacy. Additionally, the study shows that gender moderates the relationship between preferences for privacy and social media usage. A second contribution is investigating the relevance of a scale, developed in an age without social media, to an era permeated in social media.

It is well known that the results of academic marketing research are not widely used by practitioners. This is attributed to a range of factors including language barriers and poor communication between the academic and practitioner communities. In spite of this, there exists little research within marketing that has focused on how potential users of academic research such as business or marketing managers prefer to receive research information. To start filling this void in the research literature, we report a study of managers' media preferences for receiving academic research information.

A survey of managers who had taken part in a larger study into the competitiveness of service enterprises was conducted. Cluster analysis was used to assess different media preference segments.

Findings contradict expectations derived from media richness theory. For example, a substantial number of managers prefer written communication modes, which according to media richness theory are not effective ways of communicating complex information such as academic research results. Cluster analysis suggested that three media preference segments existed.

Further research should investigate why managers appear to prefer particular communication modes, particularly printed media.

The paper examines the appropriateness of different types of media used to communicate complex academic research information to practitioners. Findings should be useful to academics that aim to disseminate effectively their findings to practitioners.

Work-from-home (WFH) gained ground with COVID and will now continue to be a part of India’s future of work. Under WFH information and communication technologies (ICT) media become the primary/sole mode of communication for employees, which holds several implications for employers and employees. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of ICT media characteristics and usage frequency on multiple WFH outcomes. Specifically studied was ICT media’s ability to support synchronicity or coordinated behaviours of individuals working together.

This work examined the effect of ICT media’s synchronicity-supporting ability and usage frequency on WFH employees’ need for competence and relatedness satisfaction, thereby wellbeing and preference to WFH. Data from 301 white-collar employees of varied manufacturing and services organizations of India was analysed via partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Achieving more synchronicity by frequently using ICT media that can better facilitate coordinated behaviours did not directly influence WFH employees’ feeling of belongingness (need for relatedness) or wellbeing. It did, however, positively affect their feeling of effectance (need for competence) and thereby wellbeing. However, unexpectedly, it negatively influenced preference to WFH more often.

This study has uniquely combined media synchronicity and self-determination theories to investigate the implications of a work practice on employee wellbeing and preferences. Also, an extensible media evaluation parameter was created that encompasses the characteristics and usage frequency of a set of ICT media.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) has become a common phenomenon on social media. This study aims to examine how FOMO influences consumer preferences for posting about identity-relevant products on social media.

In this research, three studies were conducted to explore the effects of FOMO in different real-life situations. Study 1 was conducted in a laboratory setting in China. Study 2 includes two experiments, one that was conducted in China and one in the USA. Study 3 was conducted in a workplace setting in China.

The results of Study 1 indicate that when consumers experience FOMO, they prefer to post about identity-relevant (vs functional) products to a greater extent than usual. Study 2 examines the role of self-esteem and identifies self-presentation and the avoidance of social attention as underlying mechanisms. Thus, consumers with high (or low) self-esteem tend to be more motivated to present themselves positively (or to avoid social attention) when experiencing FOMO. Furthermore, Study 3 reveals the moderating role of supportive interactions; that is, the interaction between FOMO and consumer self-esteem is most likely to exert an effect when consumers receive many supportive interactions.

This research demonstrates that posting identity-relevant content on social media is a coping strategy that individuals may adopt when experiencing FOMO. Moreover, self-esteem can predict how individuals cope with FOMO by identifying self-presentation and avoidance of social attention as the mechanisms underlying effects. Although this research attempts to avoid interference from other factors between in the relationship FOMO and the control conditions, it seems possible that more socially relevant information may be presented in the FOMO condition.

Because FOMO can be manipulated and posting types can be predicted, this research provides important implications for brands on how to create or post content to better engage consumers.

This research supports the role of FOMO as a driver of on consumer posting preferences on social media.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the underlying motives for individuals’ polychronicity, the preference to multitask with media.

For this exploratory study, a qualitative research design is chosen, using face-to-face in-depth interviews and triad groups. In total, 34 in-depth interviews are conducted in the UK, Germany and Australia, with four subsequent triads in the UK.

The underlying motives for individuals’ preference for multiple media use include eight dimensions: comfort with multitasking; multi-channel preference; effectiveness and efficiency; convenience; emotional gratification; information and knowledge; social benefits and assimilation.

A non-probability sample of a specific sample group (Digital Natives) is used in this study and despite the reassurance provided by quality criteria and triangulation, generalisation from this study is problematic. Future research to validate the eight exposed dimensions would be valuable.

For marketing communications and media channel planners, endeavouring to optimise clients’ budgets, the unique knowledge provided by the depth of understanding offered by the eight dimensions of polychronicity and their associated facets enables the development of relevant communication campaigns.

This paper presents a unique insight into individuals’ preference for multiple media use, uncovering the underlying dimensions of this behavioural phenomenon. Accordingly, this study makes a valuable contribution to knowledge in this emerging research domain.

The purpose of this paper is to study the individual investors’ preferences towards stock selection in social media environments. The study is conducted to understand the implications and conceptual directions for the corporates and financial advisors to understand the choices of individual investors applied in financial markets. Further, this study aims to examine the selection of the most preferred social media platform and behavioral intentions of investors towards selection of investment portfolios in Indian stock markets.

A questionnaire was designed based on the technique of conjoint analysis and was responded by 428 respondents belonging to the Northern region of India. The estimation of preference functions in Conjoint Analysis was designed by using orthogonal arrays and was calculated using the ordinary least square regression technique.

This study reveals that while making selection of desired investment portfolios, the investors give highest preference to social media platforms in terms of highest utility value and range followed by their preference for behavioral intentions to invest. Among different social media platforms, the investors preferred Twitter the most, followed by Facebook and the primary interest of investors was observed towards Intra-day trading purposes and balanced portfolio investments in financial markets. The major reason behind opting the social media platforms was selection of speculative stocks.

The actual individual investment behavior cannot be observed through the survey, which limits the external validity of the study.

The paper presents a very important practical tool that can help financial advisors, opinion leaders and corporates in defining their target audience more sharply for investment-related advice. The findings revealed by the study will put them in a better position to understand how investors differ behaviorally and they will get acquainted with their choices and preferences while making investment decisions in the backdrop of social media environments. The preferences of the investors based on social media usage discovered by the study will not only enable the individual investors understand their own preferences, but those of the other investors as well in terms of planned investment decisions and choices.

The paper is a first of its kind to empirically identify the individual investors and their preferences and choices by applying conjoint analysis in the new social media environment. The study thus integrates the gap between marketing theories and emerging theories of behavioral finance to understand the investor behavior in a better way.

Food plays an important role in every culture around the world. Recently, cuisine preference analysis has become a popular research topic. However, most of these studies are conducted through questionnaires and interviews, which are highly limited by the time, cost and scope of data collection, especially when facing large-scale survey studies. Some researchers have, therefore, attempted to mine cuisine preferences based on online recipes, while this approach cannot reveal food preference from people’s perspective. Today, people are sharing what they eat on social media platforms by posting reviews about the meal, reciting the names of appetizers or entrees, and photographing as well. Such large amount of user-generated contents (UGC) has potential to indicate people’s preferences over different cuisines. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese cuisine preferences among online users of social media.

Based on both UGC and online recipes, the authors first investigated the cuisine preference distribution in different regions. Then, dish preference similarity between regions was calculated and few geographic factors were identified, which might lead to such regional similarity appeared in our study. By applying hierarchical clustering, the authors clustered regions based on dish preference and ingredient usage separately.

Experimental results show that, among 20 types of traditional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan cuisine is most favored across all regions in China. Geographical proximity is the more closely related to differences of regional dish preference than climate proximity.

Different from traditional definitions of regions to which cuisine belong, the authors found new association between region and cuisine based on dish preference from social media and ingredient usage of dishes. Using social media may overcome problems with using traditional questionnaires, such as high costs and long cycle for questionnaire design and answering.

Access to media is more available now than ever before, both physically and digitally. This study was used to investigate the underlying personality traits that influence the decision to purchase either physical or digital books, and extend theory on access to art and provide a unique lens through which marketers can sell digital media.

Study 1 is a field study in which data were collected from several comic book readers and collectors to look at the role that psychological ownership plays in influencing the likelihood of buying physical or digital comics. Specifically, study 1 includes consumers' need for uniqueness and tech savviness as potential influencers. Study 2 extends the findings of study into a new context and manipulates, rather than measures, the identity of the participants. Study 2 looks at the effects of turning a digital object into a non-fungible token (NFT).

This paper demonstrates that consumers who have a high consumer need for uniqueness (CNFU) are more likely to prefer physical media to digital media. Further, it is shown that preference for physical media leads, on average, to more purchases and that the consumer's psychological ownership mediates the effects of CNFU. In addition, this paper shows that higher degrees of tech savviness led to a preference for digital media. Finally, this paper shows that when consumers identify with a collector identity, turning a digital item into an NFT increases their preference for that object.

This work builds off recent research into physical and digital media and is one of the first to examine the specific personality types that prefer each.

This paper aimed to investigate reading format preference of undergraduate students with regard to various categories of information sources and use of social media information sources for academic and non-academic activities.

An exhaustive literature review was carried out in a very well organised way using total 56 publications which include 48 research papers, four conference papers, two books and two reports, which were selected for analysis on the basis of prescribed data schema and adopting the inclusion and exclusion criteria matching with the research objectives of the study.

Undergraduate students preferred text books in print format for passing the exams, and use of search engines and Internet sites were rated as the most crucial source for the academic information. In particular, Wikipedia, YouTube and Blogs were the most frequently used social media information sources by undergraduate students for their academic activities. However, Facebook and Twitter were most prominently used for social interaction.

The population of the study was restricted to the homogenous group of users, i.e. undergraduate students to examine their choices and preferences for their academic and non-academic activities. Further research studies may be conducted covering the more diverse and heterogeneous user group of postgraduate students and research scholars of different disciplines.

Generally, many previous research studies depicted users' preference for print and electronic media format without paying special attention on the usage of a variety of information sources by user groups. However, the present study is a value addition to the existing literature which emphasised the use of various categories of information sources, particularly by undergraduate students in print and digital format for different purposes in the digital environment. A major shift from the use of print media to digital media to social media information sources by undergraduate students for their academic and non-academic activities.