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The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of different multi-unit promotions (MUPs) and a single-unit promotion (SUP) on store-level sales and consumer-level purchase probability and quantity decision.

The paper combines two empirical studies. Study 1 applies a hierarchical multiplicative model to store-level sales data for four product categories provided by a large Dutch retail chain. Study 2 presents a laboratory experiment in which the quantity requirements of the two focal MUP frames are manipulated to assess their impact on consumer purchase decisions.

The paper provides empirical evidence for the superiority of the “X for $Y” above “X + N free”, which confirms the hypotheses based on prospect theory, mental accounting and theory about gift-giving. Quantity requirements of four to five units show the largest effects. In addition, the superiority of the “X for $Y” frame holds for functional product categories, but not for the hedonic categories.

The paper provides managerial insights into the relative effectiveness of alternative MUPs and an SUP and how this promotional effectiveness depends on the type of product category and quantity requirements.

This paper combines actual sales data and experimental data. This “mixed approach” extends existing knowledge by comprehensively evaluating two MUP frames, namely, “X + N free” and “X for $Y” promotions, and an SUP.

Revenue maximization through improving click‐throughs is of great importance for price comparison shopping services (PCSSs) whose revenues directly depend on the number of click‐throughs of items in their itemsets. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach aiming to maximize the revenue of a PCSS by proposing effective itemset construction methods that can maximize the click‐throughs.

The authors suggest three itemset construction methods, namely naïve method (NM), exhaustive method (EM), and local update method (LM). Specifically, NM searches for the best itemset for an item in terms of textual similarity between an item and an itemset, while EM produces the best itemset for each item for maximizing click‐throughs by considering all the possible memberships of the item. Finally, through combining NM and EM, the authors propose an LM that attempts to improve click‐throughs by locally updating the memberships of items according to their ranks in each itemset.

Through evaluation of the proposed methods based on a real‐world dataset, it has been found that improvement of click‐throughs is small when itemsets are constructed by using the textual similarity alone. However, significant improvement in the number of click‐throughs was achieved when considering items' membership updates dynamically.

Unlike the previous studies that mainly focus on the textual similarity, the authors attempt to maximize the revenue through constructing itemsets that can result in more click‐throughs. By using the proposed methods, it is expected that PCSSs will be able to automatically construct itemsets that can maximize their revenues without the need for manual task.

This study aims to examine how consumers perceive the persuasion intent and sincerity of brand messages differently and to what extent the advertised brand sounds opportunistic within the context of a crisis, depending on what the message offers.

In Study 1 (N = 163), the brand messages were manipulated in terms of control (an empathetic claim only), monetary reward (with a discount offer) and cause-related marketing (CRM) conditions. In Study 2 (N = 150), the message effects were replicated using a different product category. In Study 3 (N = 216), the three brand messages were examined under high vs low involvement conditions.

The results revealed a linear decrease in negativity in consumer responses when the brand message offers CRM activity, followed by one that offers a discount. It was also found that the monetary reward message was perceived to have greater persuasion intent and be more opportunistic than other message types under low involvement, whereas such effects disappeared under high involvement. Conversely, the CRM message was perceived to have greater persuasion intent and be more opportunistic under high involvement (vs low).

Amidst the global economic impact and corporate landscape changes, there is limited understanding of consumer responses to crisis-related brand messages. Rooted in the attribution theory and the persuasion knowledge model, this study fills the gap by examining how consumers assess the underlying motives of different message types and perceive brands as taking advantage of the crisis situation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of government assistance programmes on internationalization of SMEs from an Asian developing nation.

Primary data from a sample of 203 SMEs in three export‐oriented industries in Bangladesh were analyzed using structural equations model to examine both direct and indirect causal effects of government assistance on their internationalization.

Results suggest that the usage of market development‐related government assistance significantly influence internationalization directly as well as indirectly via other determinants, whereas finance‐ and guarantee‐related assistance has only indirect effect.

Government export assistance programmes play an important role in the SMEs' internationalization process by contributing to a number of firm‐ and management‐related factors that determine international marketing performance of a firm. The study provides a guideline for SME managers as to how they can benefit from both categories of export assistance programmes in improving their positive attitudes towards the export market environment, building their knowledge and enhancing commitment to exporting for better success in their international operations.

The importance of export assistance programmes is well recognized in the literature but its causal effect on internationalization of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is low. The paper tries to fill this gap by reporting the results of an empirical study examining effects of government assistance programmes on internationalization of SMEs from an Asian developing nation, where there is a gross dearth of research.

This study aims to identify and analyse the interactions among drivers of anti-food waste behaviour at the consumer level. By understanding the mutual interactions among the drivers, an effort is made to identify the most driving and most dependent drivers through the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach. Modelling offers inputs to propose focused interventions for reinforcing the identified drivers of anti-food waste consumer behaviour using the theoretical lens of social practices theory.

A proposed model of factors affecting anti-food waste behaviour is arrived at to suggest the most effective anti-food waste behavioural interventions. The factors were identified through an extensive literature search. A hierarchical structure of identified factors has been developed using TISM and MICMAC analysis through expert opinion. Focused marketing strategies towards promoting the identified factors for encouraging anti-food waste behaviour were suggested further.

This study identifies nine drivers based on extensive literature review, brainstorming and expert opinion. The TISM hierarchical model portrays the most important and least important drivers of household anti-food waste behaviour. It establishes that fundamental knowledge and socio-cultural norms are the most critical factors to drive the consumers. Marketers can focus on designing effective interventions to enhance the essential knowledge of the consumers and orient the socio-cultural norms towards anti-food waste behaviour.

This study offers implications for practitioners, policymakers and cause-driven marketing campaigns targeting anti-food waste behaviour. It provides an indicative list of critical factors relevant to household food waste behaviour, which can be used to drive effective marketing campaigns to nudge anti-food waste behaviours.

The proposed food waste behaviour management model was developed through modelling technique (TISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, and relating them to marketing interventions is a novel effort in the food waste domain.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of how to form a multi-item assessment and what approaches can be applied for researchers.

This study proposes three ways to form a multi-item assessment (i.e. separate, formative and reflective approaches) and further makes a comparison between these three approaches.

The results show that multi-item assessment, particularly for formative and reflective constructs, has greater explanatory power in the research model. Finally, this study provides a roadmap to guide future researchers’ decision strategy for selecting multi-item assessments.

Due to the multi-faceted nature of research, using a single indicator to judge a scholar’s research performance will never reveal a multi-faceted picture and can easily result in measurement bias. In this vein, researchers should use different evaluation approaches and indicators to address various forms of research outcomes. However, prior studies rarely adopt multi-item scales to evaluate research performance and seldom discuss how to build a composite construct of research performance. This study aims to fill this research gap in the literature.

Brand managers in packaged goods firms are under pressure to increase or maintain high sales promotion spending at the expense of media advertising. This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of brand managers’ advertising and sales promotion budget allocations by adopting a bounded rationality perspective. Based on survey data collected from 165 brand managers in the USA, higher advertising (vs sales promotion) allocations are associated with: single, relatively high priced brands in the early phases of the product life cycle; and more experienced brand managers who are subject to less retail influence. Also, brands with higher budget allocations to advertising, relative to sales promotion, tend to have more favorable consumer attitudes, stronger brand equity, and higher market share increases and profits. Managerial implications and areas for future study are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine how perceived fit between a line/brand extension and its parent brand moderates the evaluation of two economically identical promotions, i.e. buy one get one free (BOGOF) and 50 per cent off. A travel-sized painkiller is the product in this study.

A 2 (perceived fit: high or low) × 2 (promotion type: BOGOF or 50 per cent off) between-subjects design is used in this study. Participants, who are college students, are randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions.

The results indicate that parent brand attitude is more closely associated with line-extension attitude than with brand-extension attitude, line extension leads to lower perceived performance risk and higher stockpiling tendency than brand extension and BOGOF is preferred over 50 per cent off for line extension but 50 per cent off is preferred over BOGOF for brand extension.

For a low-price, non-conspicuous and stock-up product category such as painkillers, marketers should consider using BOGOF to promote a line extension and 50 per cent off to promote a brand extension. It is important to explore in future research as to how the findings can be applied to other product categories, other promotion types, other packages and non-student consumers.

This study is the first that examines how perceived fit of a line/brand extension moderates the evaluation of economically identical promotions. It integrates the literature of line/brand extension, perceived performance risk and prospect theory to advance the research on sales promotions for new products.

Increasingly, retailers are adopting technologies such as augmented reality (AR) as tools to enhance the customer experience. However, little is known about consumers' differing attitudes towards AR. The aim of this study is to explore how consumers differ in terms of the value they receive from using AR, as well as the trade-offs they experience when using the technology for shopping. Moreover, the study explores the individual characteristics that lead to these differences by segmenting consumers according to their perceptions of and attitudes towards AR as a shopping tool.

To identify the segments, latent class analysis was conducted on the data collected from an online survey of 503 US consumers.

The analysis yielded four distinct segments of consumers who vary in their attitude towards AR as a shopping tool – AR Averse, AR Hesitant, AR Open and AR Enthusiastic. Covariate analysis indicated that the factors which drive membership of these segments include perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and psychographic characteristics such as innovativeness, time pressure and shopping enjoyment.

The heterogeneity of consumer attitudes towards AR is driven by consumers' perceptions of decision confidence (how they see AR enhancing their ability to make choices), information overload (the potential for AR to over-stimulate shoppers) and experiential value (the derived value from engaging with AR). Hence, retailers should leverage these dimensions when communicating the value of AR in assisting consumers when shopping.

This study highlights that heterogeneity exists in consumer attitudes towards AR, and suggests that the attitude towards AR is not a fixed value, but can change through education.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and test a model of the managerial promotion process.

Utilizing longitudinal data from multiple sources (i.e. employees, their immediate supervisors, their personnel files, and task forces charged with succession planning), the study reported examined a model of the promotion process involving district managers being considered for advancement to the position of regional manager in a large organization.

Results support a model in which a district manager's past performance, current job tenure, and prior job tenure predict the manager's promotability rating which, in turn, predicts whether or not the manager is promoted.

Given that data were used for actual employment decisions by an organization, reliance on single‐item measures was necessary.

Several issues that employers should be evaluating (e.g. adverse impact, whether promotability ratings are valid predictors of performance in the next higher level job) are discussed.

Given that women and older employees face hurdles in advancing in organizations, a better understanding of the promotion process may shed light on how to remove impediments.

Although the process by which organizations make employee promotion decisions is an important one, it has received relatively little attention from researchers.