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This exploratory study aims to examine how wine stakeholders' are adopting innovative advancements in smart industry 4.0 application technology (SI4.0AT) coupled with electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) techniques to increase winery visitation and wine sales, prior to and during a global pandemic in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia.

A qualitative interpretivist geographical bounded case study approach was used to collect data from fifteen Victorian wine stakeholder's prior to and during the global pandemic COVID-19. A thematic analysis was applied to interpret participant responses and how they viewed, reacted to and harnessed S14.0AT and e-WOM to continue and increase wine sales.

The findings suggest few wine stakeholders' were actively implementing SI4.0AT prior to the global pandemic, COVID -19. With the forced closure of wineries to visitors across Australia, most small to medium-sized wineries immediately changed their business models to concentrate on domestic e-commerce wine sales and home delivery. To support these new business models, e-WOM techniques were quickly adopted or increased whereas other S14.0AT technologies were not, due to financial restraints.

The number of participants used in this study is a limitation, however, this can be overcome by replicating this study in other wine regions. This research focused on the wine stakeholders' viewpoint only and may not be easily generalised. Future studies may examine the “what” aspect of SI4.0AT is being used and e-WOM content such as investigating what consumers are saying about these wineries, the method of communication and the motivations for consumers to engage with a winery.

The implications for the wine industry and overall results offer insight into the wine stakeholders' perceptions of SI4.0AT and e-WOM and consequent marketing strategy of wineries in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, both pre- and during forced face-to-face winery closures due to a global pandemic. Wineries need to continue to harness and leverage the benefits of e-WOM wine marketing in their marketing strategies and continue to explore the affordability of 4.0 app technology and Tourism 4.0 options.

This study is the first attempt at investigating how wine stakeholders' view; react to and harness SI4.0AT and e-WOM through formalised online marketing strategies which should continue to be investigated in the future.

In the most recent years, social, innovative, economic and political changes in the European context have characterized consumers' behaviours. The paper aims to understand if the use of electronic commerce differs in a situation characterized by uncertainty.

An innovative approach to categorising online consumer behaviour considers the self-determination theory and basic psychological needs in an uncertain scenario. The research is based on a quantitative analysis obtained by clustering algorithms on a sample of 1,000 digital users in European countries. A structured questionnaire was administered online and distributed through the leading online social platforms and direct mailing.

The results show online activities during changes in consumer behaviour patterns and retailers' strategies. This research will allow online retail managers and practitioners to obtain important information to help them define appropriate customer-oriented strategic actions to enhance value in the electronic context for both customers and firms.

The innovation of this research approaches the categorization of online consumer behaviour by exploiting the self-determination theory in an uncertain scenario. Precisely, the novelty of this research is to highlight three detailed categories of electronic commerce consumers, namely, unwilling, halfback and digital, to collect, store and disseminate information about these categories of Online Consumers Behaviours.

This paper aims to understand how virtual influencers (VIs) can promote interethnic tolerance, online, among youth as a social good.

This paper conducted qualitative research using interpretive analysis with RTA (Reflexive Thematic Analysis) on data collected through focus groups.

This paper revealed that the quality of the VI’s content is a leading factor influencing VI's ability to promote interethnic tolerance, but creating content that is constantly authentic, appealing and inclusive to diverse ethnic groups in a particular context is challenging.

The study has some limitations related to the specific context on which it is focused and therefore transferring the findings to different contextual conditions requires caution, and also can be extended with positivist validation.

Findings from our study can drive future projects where real VI artifacts will play the role of a mediator in building strong relational trust among youth belonging to different ethnic groups. The findings indicate that VIs can be effectively used to foster interethnic tolerance if involve diverse team members who understand the ethnic culture deeply and social media experts, to create high-quality content to overcome some limitations.

VIs can be used as social interventions to promote interethnic tolerance and to reduce prejudices and anxiety in online youth communication.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no known studies investigated the potential of VIs for promoting interethnic tolerance among ethnically diverse youth groups. Hence, this study paves the way for further refinement on using cutting-edge technology for social good, since it is highly challenging, often resulting in wasted money.

Drawing on person–environment fit theory, this study aims to investigate how the relationships between service task types (i.e. utilitarian and hedonic service tasks) and perceived authenticity (i.e. service and brand authenticity) differ under different conditions of service providers (human employee vs service robot). This study further examines whether customers’ stereotypes toward service robots (competence vs warmth) moderate the relationship between service types and perceived authenticity.

Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, Study 1 examines a casual restaurant, whereas Study 2 assesses a theme park restaurant. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS are used to analyze the data.

Both studies reveal that human service providers in hedonic services positively affect service and brand authenticity more than robotic employees. Additionally, the robot competence stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services, service and brand authenticity, whereas the robot warmth stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services and brand authenticity in Study 2.

Restaurant managers need to understand which functions and types of service outlets are best suited for service robots in different service contexts. Robot–environment fit should be considered when developers design and managers select robots for their restaurants.

This study blazes a new theoretical trail of service robot research to systematically propose customer experiences with different service types by drawing upon person–environment fit theory and examining the moderating role of customers’ stereotypes toward service robots.

This paper systematically reviews and scrutinises the current development of studies concerning digital platform use in firms’ internationalisation. It also provides a research agenda for future work. Despite more than two decades of research, the study of how traditional firms enter foreign markets using digital platforms remains in its infancy. This paper contributes insights into the academic and managerial relevance of this field.

A systematic review of the literature based on content analysis was undertaken, drawing from peer-reviewed journal articles in international business, international marketing, information systems, and electronic commerce. The articles were published between 1999 and 2023, and the review employed a vote-counting method.

This analysis of 61 papers indicates that research on digital platform use in firms’ internationalisation is growing rapidly. However, the field itself is fragmented, and the research findings are inconsistent. This dynamic area reflects a growing trend, is dominated by several theories, relies primarily on survey data, and frequently uses China as a research context.

In acknowledging the vibrancy and managerial importance of this field, the authors offer a comprehensive overview of the existing studies to serve as a repository of knowledge on digital platform use in internationalisation for both academics and practitioners. Based on the aforementioned analysis, this study develops a reconciling framework to address current research gaps and identify future study directions.

Advances in digital technologies and the growing number of touch points have had a significant impact on the shopping behaviour of omnichannel customers. Several research papers have explored different facets of omnichannel, but only a few have thoroughly explored the literature on showrooming and webrooming simultaneously. This paper aims to identify the key groups of antecedents influencing customer buying behaviour in omnichannel, under the influence of digital technologies, with a particular focus on showrooming and webrooming.

Our study conducted a systematic literature review to identify the factors influencing customers’ buying behaviour in omnichannel, which have been the subject of academic discussion over the last decade. We finalized 149 articles for the thematic analysis and identified three groups of antecedents: channel-related, product-related and consumer-related with their subgroups.

Under channel-related antecedents, cost and perceived benefits, search convenience, need for interaction and situational circumstances have been identified as major attributes. The expressiveness of the product, product demonstration and search and experienced products have been identified under product-related antecedents, followed by price consciousness, past experiences, perceived risks and shopping motivations as leading attributes under consumer-related antecedents. The study revealed the multifaceted influence of digital technologies on omnichannel buying behaviour. Digital technologies are shaping the antecedents related to channels, products and consumers. Digital technologies simultaneously mediate between antecedents and the selection of a specific path within an omnichannel environment. Showrooming and webrooming should no longer be seen as general concepts. The rise of digital technologies has led to the development of new consumer journey patterns and the blurring of distinctions between showrooming and webrooming. A conceptual framework has been proposed to understand consumers' omnichannel behaviour, having considered the identified antecedents and the role of digital technologies.

This study advances the academic understanding of consumer behaviour in omnichannel under the influence of digital technologies and provides important implications for omnichannel management. With the advancement of digital technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality, retailers should implement channel integration strategies to bridge the gap between online and offline channels, providing a memorable shopping experience for omnichannel customers.

This study is unique because it identifies and analyses the antecedents of consumer behaviour in omnichannel settings under the influence of digital technologies. It also uncovers new potential combinations of showrooming and webrooming patterns. The proposed framework can help retailers in their future planning of omnichannel strategies.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic study of important research trends and published electronic word of mouth (eWOM) studies over the past 20 years in the emerging economy. This research is designed to identify the key areas of eWOM based on the Antecedents-Consequence-Intervention (ACI) framework. This paper is also aimed to analyze the current research status of each WOM area and critically review each area for developing future research directions.

616 articles were selected from 112 journals for in-depth review analysis. For the systematic review of articles, an ACI framework was adopted. This paper used systematic review analysis methodology to critically analyze important research studies in each area of the ACI framework with a set of research questions.

Results identify six significant areas of eWOM, i.e. WOM antecedents, outcomes, senders, receivers, eWOM platform and eWOM management representing the whole environment. The result highlights increasing research interest on mixed eWOM and rich eWOM content and market-level source credibility factors. Research also identifies research gaps based on the ACI framework.

Analyzing the recent trends in the eWOM environment with the SLR approach and linking these trends to the ACI framework with a future research agenda in the emerging market indicated a pioneering attempt in eWOM research.

Social media marketing has become a powerful strategic tool for many brands, but scholarly research in this domain is still in its infancy. This study aims to examine the effects of social media marketing activities on consumer online impulse buying intentions via brand resonance and emotional responses by incorporating the direct and moderating effects of social network proneness toward fashion retail brands.

By using snowball sampling, this study recruited 441 netizens (who were using fashion retail brands) and obtained their responses through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to 394 responses for analysis.

The findings discovered that social media marketing activities significantly influenced brand resonance, consumer emotional responses and online impulse buying intentions. Likewise, brand resonance and emotional responses were positively associated with online impulse buying intentions and acted as decisive mediators. Social network proneness’s direct and moderating effects significantly increased consumer online impulse-buying intentions toward fashion retail brands.

This study provides recommendations to retail managers for creating and executing brand positioning, segmenting and targeting strategies to enhance consumers’ intentions for engaging in online impulsive purchases for fashion brands.

This original research contributes to the branding literature and stimulus–organism–response theory by focusing on social media marketing activities, brand resonance, emotional responses, social network proneness and consumer online impulse buying intentions toward fashion retail brands.

The purpose of this study is to review and analyze the status of word-of-mouth (WOM) research in the business-to-business (B2B) context and discuss and identify new possible future directions.

A systematic review was conducted and 36 articles on B2B WOM were collected to evaluate the current state of the literature and clarify possible future research directions.

This thematic analysis categorize these articles into three themes: WOM generation, WOM usage and reference marketing. Under each theme, the authors reveal research findings unique to B2B research and different from business-to-consumer (B2C) WOM research. This study identifies several research questions that should be addressed by future research.

Both academic researchers and business practitioners recognize that WOM plays an essential role in B2B marketing. However, no review paper focuses on WOM in the B2B context. Findings in the B2C WOM literature suggest that WOM substantially influences firms’ performance, but that managers cannot simply attempt to extrapolate B2C findings to the B2B arena. By synthesizing and assessing prior research on WOM in the B2B context, this study contributes to a better understanding of the B2B WOM phenomenon and facilitates future research on this topic.

To explain how technology will replace a great deal of human labor in knowledge markets using a theory of reasoned action applied to demand and theories of procedural rationality, cost structure and system dynamics applied to supply.

Two illustrative scenarios are presented. The first is a third-party Best Treatments site, and its effect on the expert advice pharmaceutical representatives provide doctors. The second scenario is an online higher education business course module with embedded AI.

Both scenarios demonstrate the advantages of online expertise and teaching platforms over the in-person alternative in variable and marginal cost, ease and convenience of use, quality conformance, scalability, knowledge reach and depth and most importantly, speed of evolutionary adaptability. Despite such overwhelming advantages, a number of reasons why the substitution might be slowed are presented, and some strategies firms might adopt are discussed. Opportunities for service scholars to confirm, challenge and extend the conclusions are presented throughout the paper.

Increasing cost structure and adaptability advantages of online technology and AI over in-person delivery of expertise and training services are demonstrated. It is also demonstrated that the innovation-imitation cycle is accelerating because of exogenous innovation in knowledge access and online influence networks and an endogenous effect where imitators accelerate their innovation that drives innovators to accelerate their innovation, which drives imitators to further accelerate their imitation.