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The purpose of this paper is to focus on failures in online flash sales (OFS) and to explore why consumers participate in an OFS even after experiencing service failure. It also examines the role of deal proneness, attribution, and emotions.

Using a mixed method approach to gain insights into this relatively unexplored phenomenon of OFS, this research uses netnography followed by a survey study.

The findings show that deal-prone customers tend to ignore service failures during OFS and re-participate in the future. In the context of OFS, failures attributed to internal locus of attribution (LOA) also have a negative effect on re-participation compared with failures attributed to external LOA. Furthermore, there is a three-way interaction among deal proneness, LOA, and past emotions. The results show that negative past emotions further exacerbate the impact of attribution on the link between deal proneness and re-participation.

In contrast with prior research, the paper shows that consumers participate even after service failure. The proposed difference is between customers who experience different LOA and past emotions offers insights into their behavior after service failure in a new context of an online/electronic commerce event – flash sales. This paper specifically explores the role of internal LOA and finds that it has a more negative impact than external LOA on re-participation.

The subject areas are e-commerce, brand management, marketing strategy, digital marketing and supply chain management strategy.

Medium, can be used for undergraduate marketing electives and graduate core courses.

Jumei, founded in 2010, had already become China’s biggest online retailer of beauty products. Its 31-year-old Founder and Chief executive Officer (CEO) Leo Chen had become the youngest CEO of any NYSE listed company in 2014. However, Jumei was currently facing a major milestone. Could it become a mega-commerce hub like Alibaba? Or should it stick to its core product line – cosmetics – which was already being challenged by luxury retailers and other horizontal e-commerce competitors?

The case will provide the students the opportunity to conduct a situational analysis Identify and prioritize generic business and marketing strategies, review concepts of brand/line extension and conceive new product ideas, assess Jumei potential as a business-to-customer platform and assess brand equity and potential by comparison to another diversified brand.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of several consumer characteristics (fashion leadership, impulse buying, bargain shopping), web site attitude, and visit frequency on intention to purchase from a private sale site.

Data were collected from 164 female respondents who were members of at least one private sale site. The sample was selected mainly by using a snowball sampling technique which relied on chain referrals to recruit eligible participants. Factor analysis results suggested that fashion leadership consisted of two dimensions: fashion opinion leadership and fashion innovativeness. Regression analysis was conducted to determine how strongly purchase intention for private sale sites was predicted by fashion opinion leadership, fashion innovativeness, impulse buying, bargain shopping, web site attitude, and visit frequency.

Regression results showed that ease of use was the only dimension of web site attitude that significantly predicted purchase intention. Impulse buying and bargain shopping also significantly influenced purchase intention. Implications for future research and limitations were also discussed.

As private sale sites continue to grow in popularity, insight into the psychology and behaviors of shoppers at these sites has become more important. There has been, however, no published research that examines what motivates consumers to purchase from private sale sites.

Generation Z (Gen-Z), sometimes known as “digital natives”, represents the first generation to become immersed in digital communication. In a multicultural environment, this study aims to explore which types of factors are most beneficial in connection with Gen-Z’s impulsive purchase behaviour.

This study adopts an exploratory sequential mixed-method design, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In Study 1, focus group discussions are conducted to address “why” and “how” questions, whereas Study 2 uses a quantitative method to test the hypothetical model. The model is assessed using structural equation modelling. This study used the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework in the context of Instagram.

Building on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) concept and focus group discussions, Study 1 introduces a novel SOR model tailored to Instagram. In Study 2, the model is tested, and results confirm most hypotheses, except for three. Factors such as aesthetic appeal, scarcity promotions and discounted prices stimulate impulse buying behaviour in Gen-Z. Positive emotional responses evoked by these factors also influence impulse buying, whereas the impact of negative emotional responses is found to be insignificant.

This mixed-methods study enhances the theoretical understanding of Gen-Zers’ impulse buying behaviour by highlighting the influence of diverse independent variables. By using the SOR framework, it reveals the intricate emotional aspects impacting impulsive purchase decisions. The research provides new insights into online impulsive buying behaviour, particularly relevant to consumer psychology and behavioural economics among young collectivist consumers.

The purpose of this study is to present a systematic review of the online service failure (OSF) literature and conduct an exhaustive analysis of academic research on this emerging research area.

The current study has adopted a structured systematic literature review approach to synthesize and assess the OSF literature. Further, the study uses the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework to propose future research directions in the OSF domain.

This systematic review shows that OSF research is still developing and remains mainly incoherent. Further, the study develops a conceptual framework integrating the frequently reported antecedents, mediators, moderator and consequences in the extant literature. This review also synthesizes the theoretical perspectives adopted for this domain.

The study followed specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to shortlist articles. Further, articles published only in the English language were considered. Hence, the findings of this review cannot be generalized to all OSF literature.

This systematic review has classified antecedents into customers' and service providers' roles which will enable online service providers to understand all sets of factors driving OSF. It also synthesizes and presents service recovery strategies and emphasizes the role of online customer support to fix OSF.

The OSF literature is still developing and remains highly incoherent, suggesting that a synthesized review is needed. This study has systematically reviewed and synthesized the OSF literature to study its development over time and proposes a framework which provides a comprehensive understanding of OSF.

In 2015, NESTLÉ India underwent a major crisis as the product which contributed to nearly 30% of its sales had to be taken off the shelves. Maggi—the go-to convenience food for all generations (especially kids and young adults)—which had entered the market in 1983, was banned. With a market share of 70-80% before the ban, NESTLÉ, which got the ban lifted in November 2015, had to undergo the task of winning back the lost market. Over a period of 8 months after its relaunch, the brand regained about 60% of its market back, but the question is how could such brand disaster be avoided in future? The case revolves around a major brand recovering from a brand disaster, and whether they did it well enough or could the situation have been managed better. It also enquires as to what road should be taken forward from here. It notes the action taken by the government against the brand and leaves it to the judgment of the readers if the actions taken against the brand were a little too harsh, solely because MNCs are usually considered a soft target in India. The readers must also understand and analyse the different brand relaunch strategies that were adopted by NESTLÉ and the next steps that should be taken by it.

Applying a middle-range theorizing to premises of signaling theory and the scarcity principle, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms and effects of different patterns of post-stockout disclosures that highlight the limited supply and high quality of a durable good on consumer satisfaction with the shopping experience and purchase intention, mediated by consumer perceived product scarcity.

The hypotheses are tested with two scenario-based experiments. The first experiment—a between-subjects design—explores the effect of post-stockout disclosures on consumers' perceived scarcity, satisfaction, and purchase intention. The second experiment – a within-subject design – examines the impact of time on consumer responses to stockouts.

Results indicate that perceived product scarcity mediates the relationship between post-stockout disclosures and consumer outcomes. Specifically, post-stockout disclosures present an indirect positive effect on consumer purchase intention, despite reducing satisfaction beyond the effects of the stockout. These results are consistent when disclosures are sent through multiple channels. Results also show that consumers' perceived scarcity and purchase intention decrease over time while dissatisfaction levels remain the same when stockouts persist.

Even though consumers will be dissatisfied upon experiencing a stockout, specific patterns of post-stockout disclosures can be a valuable strategy for consumer retention and lost sales prevention.

While recent consumer-centric supply chain management literature has investigated mitigation strategies of detrimental consumer response to stockouts, such as “save-the-sale” tactics and price discounts, the mechanisms and effects of different patterns of post-stockouts disclosures highlighting the limited supply and high quality of the product are yet to be investigated.

SpiceJet came out with Big Sale offer in January 2013 in which the company offered 10 lakh air tickets for Rs. 2013 to travellers in Indian domestic civil aviation market. The promotion, aimed at increasing passenger load factor, generated wide publicity due to unprecedented nature of offer in highly competitive market. The case traces the history of promotions conducted by SpiceJet and examines the different aspects of promotion which become crucial while planning for promotions in service industry.

This paper aims to investigate how online consumer reviews (OCRs), countdowns and self-control affect consumers' online impulse buying behavior in online group buying (OGB) and uncover the relationship between these factors.

Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this research examines the effects of OCRs, countdowns and self-control on users' impulse purchases. First, the influence of emotions on impulse purchases in group purchasing is investigated. In addition, this study innovatively applies stress-coping theory to group buying research, with countdowns exerting temporal pressure on consumers and OCRs viewed as social pressure, to investigate in depth how countdowns and OCRs affect users' impulse purchase behavior. Finally, this study also surveys the moderating role of users' self-control in the impulse purchase process.

The results show that the perceived value of OCRs and positive emotions (PE) were positively correlated with impulsiveness (IMP) and the urge to buy impulsively (UBI), while negative emotions (NE) were negatively correlated with IMP. Countdowns (CD) had a positive effect on UBI. Self-control can indirectly affect users' impulse buying by negatively moderating the relationship between PE and UBI, PE and IMP and CD and UBI.

The research results can help group buying platforms and related participants understand the factors influencing users' impulse purchases in OGB and facilitate them to better design strategies to increase product sales.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interpretative framework for the high market capitalisation companies (unicorns) universe, especially with the deployment of the mobile internet. The paper attempts to account for this global trend and to describe its global setting (global data), and its various components.

This paper originates from a research meant to document the phenomenon of high market capitalisation companies (unicorns) through the investigation of a qualitative sample of companies. The paper is based on desk research, a review of literature, review of the technical journals and analysis of annual reports. Going beyond the observations gathered from the sample, the research found that the transformations of the mobile communications ecosystem could provide an adequate framework to understand and put in perspective this phenomenon.

The paper defined unicorns as information technology (IT)-based (software mostly but hardware as well) start-ups that bridge pent-up demand and supply through innovative services and products mostly rooted in the mobile internet wave and the opportunities it brings along. The paper shows that smartphones as games changers facilitate the entry of new players in the mobile markets coming either from the IT sector or from Asia, much to the detriment of the European Union (EU) industry grappling with legacy business models. These companies derived the most from a mobile-first approach and have an outstanding number of unicorns. The paper identifies a potential telecom policy failure especially in the EU: policies have been tilted towards the supply side, without enough consideration of demand. The paper suggests that the EU, after having lead the previous wave, may have missed the last one (mobile broadband) not only from a policy but also from an industry viewpoint.

More research should be done to better investigate what might have been the causes of this apparently missed mobile turn in Europe. The paper deals mostly with the cases of Asia and the USA. As the paper concentrates on the issue of unicorns and mobile technology, some other aspects of the mobile markets may not be taken into account.

The paper suggests reconsidering some policies in the field, to better take into account the role of consumers and to improve the link with other policies like innovation policies.

The paper attempts at giving a better understanding of the evolution of demand and its role in the making of some new services. The paper does not deal with other societal issues like privacy or data.

The main assumption about the role of the mobile internet can shed some light not only about related developments such as the app economy but also about the business and technological environment of an array of start-ups, some of them having reached impressive market capitalisation. The paper reveals how this mobile wave is reshuffling companies, sectors, and geographies. The paper provides one of the first analysis of the unicorn phenomenon.