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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of activities within a multi-activity experience influences consumer preferences before and after consumption.

The hypotheses are tested using four experiments and a secondary data set from a river cruise firm that includes first-time river cruise purchases by consumers from this firm between January 2011 and December 2015 (n = 337,457).

Consumers prefer experiences with fewer (vs more) activities before consumption – a phenomenon, this paper calls “activity apprehension” – but prefer experiences with more (vs fewer) activities after consumption. A mediation analysis indicates that this phenomenon occurs because the highly perishable nature of activities makes consumers uncertain about their ability to use all the activities within the experience (usage uncertainty).

Evaluations of a multi-activity experience depend on both the number of activities and on whether the consumer is at the pre- or post-consumption stage of the customer journey. As such, firms looking to sell multi-activity experiences should design and promote these experiences in a way that minimizes activity apprehension.

This study is the first to demonstrate that consumer perceptions of an optimal experience depend on both the number of included activities and on the stage of the customer journey (i.e. pre- or post-purchase). It further contributes to the consumer experience literature by examining an unexplored activity characteristic, perishability, in shaping experiential purchase decisions. Finally, it demonstrates a new way in which experiential purchases differ from tangible product purchases.

The USA is witnessing a conflict between LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) consumers/supporters and Christian fundamentalist service providers/opponents regarding whether service can be denied based on religious values. The purpose of this paper is to make a timely investigation into this conflict between marketplace inclusion (for LGBTQ consumers) and freedom of religion (for religious service providers).

The intersection of marketplace inclusion for LGBTQ consumers and religious freedom for service providers is examined by identifying appropriate strategies that address this conflict and reviewing how differing religious perspectives influence perceptions of LGBTQ consumer rights, all building off the social identity threat literature.

LGBTQ and religious identities often conflict to influence consumer behavior and service provider interactions. Such conflict is heightened when there is a lack of substitutes (i.e. only one service provider in an area for a specific service). Common LGBTQ consumer responses include changing service providers, providing justification for the provision of services and pursing legal recourse. Suggested strategies to address this conflict include highlighting common social identities and using two-sided messages for service providers, using in-group interventions for social groups and using government interventions for public policy.

Research has yet to examine the conflict between marketplace inclusion and religious freedom, particularly for the inclusion of LGBTQ consumers. Thus, this paper provides a novel conceptual model detailing these relationships to stimulate discussion among consumers, service providers, social groups and public policy in addition to serving as a foundation for future research.

This study aims to introduce the concept of dissociative threat, which is the fear of being associated with an undesirable (dissociative) group as a result of demonstrating ability in a domain that is stereotypically linked to that group. Consumers experiencing dissociative threats use inability signaling as a self-presentational strategy in which they present themselves as lacking ability in the dissociative domain.

Five experimental studies were conducted to test whether consumers experience threat in dissociative domains and to examine factors that influence this threat.

Results showed that dissociative threat adversely affects consumers’ performance at tasks that require using products linked to dissociative groups. Threatened participants reported intentions to perform poorly and train for a longer time in preparation for such tasks, thus signaling low ability in dissociative domains. Additionally, when participants who were experiencing dissociative threats received confirmation that they lacked ability in that domain, their performance at these tasks improved.

This study expands the knowledge on strategies, including inability signaling, that consumers use to avoid being linked to dissociative groups.

The findings suggest to marketers that stereotypes that link their products to certain consumer segments can threaten other consumers. Factors that shape and alleviate this threat are identified, which may help companies who are marketing such products.

This study extends the current understanding of stereotype threat and proposes a new self-presentational strategy, that has not been documented yet in the literature (i.e. inability signaling), that consumers use to deal with the dissociative threat.

This study aims to examine how women's groups help women to navigate context-related barriers to their engagement in rural entrepreneurship. The paper combines the contextualisation of entrepreneurship framework and the feminist separatist theory to describe how women's groups in patriarchal rural communities enable women to circumvent context-related barriers and actively engage in rural entrepreneurship.

Based on a case study of 12 women's groups engaged in paddy farming, rice processing and marketing in rural Tanzania, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with 46 women, four focus group discussions, four in-depth key informant interviews and non-participant observation.

Rural women face unique context-related challenges that hinder them from effectively participating in rural entrepreneurship. Specifically, limited access to farmlands and profitable markets, lack of business networks, limited time, poverty and insufficient financial resources constrain women's engagement in entrepreneurship. To overcome these contextual barriers, rural women have organised themselves into groups to gain access to business services, business-related training, grants and business networks.

This study contributes to the existing literature on contextualising entrepreneurship by focussing on how rural contexts may constrain women's entrepreneurial engagement while showing how women respond to contextual barriers that enable them to participate in rural entrepreneurship.

This study shows that women with low education can pursue rural entrepreneurship if they are supported through training and access to networks. This will support the performance of these groups of women.

This study offers new insights into the role of women's groups in navigating gender-related constraints that hinder women from participating in rural entrepreneurship within the patriarchal context of low-income countries. Thus, new perceptions for the gender and rural entrepreneurship theory and the policy implications thereof are proffered.

TRAGEDY has touched many libraries in the past few weeks, but the really sporting manner in which has been met the worst that the Nazi bomber can do places librarians, we hope, fully in line with our people. Roofless rooms have been patched, sometimes merely with canvas and felt, empty houses have been taken over, and by similar expedients even in the worst places a library service has been continued. It has been used, too. There is no fear for the future of the book and reading, whatever difficulties impede them. It has become almost commonplace that reading is a main employment of war leisure; but we still have to get that over to the powers that be. Or have we? The Board of Education wrote to local authorities asking them to maintain and even to extend library facilities as their value in war was enhanced. Some have responded.

This autobiography sums up the life story of one of the contributors to the history of inquiry and instruction in the field of marketing, with special attention to the historical developments that have influenced the study of consumer behavior and the concept of branding.

This paper is an autobiographical essay, a personal history.

The reminiscence illustrates the way life experiences evolve, showing the interaction among personal growth, education, career choices and work experience that led to Professor Levy’s contributions to the field of marketing education and its research literature.

The paper describes a unique life, and an unusual explication of the personal life sources of influential ideas. It is novel in its large perspective and integrative narrative, and the unusual exposure of its various conceptual issues and links. It should be of interest to marketing historians, managers and scholars of marketing education.

To investigate the importance of the work of French cultural theorist Paul Virilio for critics of international business.

The article employs Virilio's and others' writings on “dromoeconomics” or the political economy of speed and “hypermodern” forms of organization with the aim of expounding a “Virilian” approach to the critique of international business. This standpoint necessitates a discussion of dromoeconomics in addition to deliberations on “hypermodern organization”. Two jointly authored articles by the author are introduced and explored as examples of a Virilian perspective on international business.

The author argues that whilst a Virilian point‐of‐view regarding the field of international business might initially appear as inappropriate to orthodox critics, a deeper examination reveals its usefulness.

The article considers Virilio's groundbreaking cultural theory in view of contemporary debates over international business, dromoeconomics, and hypermodern modes of organization.