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Taking the customer-centric nature of integrated marketing communications (IMC), this article investigates the specific role of customer performance in IMC effectiveness in various size companies applying inter-country context.

The sample consists of the primary data from developed (Spain) and developing (Belarus) economies. A total of 540 manager respondents participated in the survey. The article uses structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis for analysis.

When taking into consideration, customer performance affects the IMC outcome on the market and financial performance. The customer performance role varies in firms of various sizes and small- and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs) operating both in developed and developing economies.

The research underlines the significant role of customer performance in IMC implementation, which stimulates further investigation on the topic. It also closes the gap in the IMC outcomes analysis in SMEs operating in developed and developing economies.

Customer evaluation plays a vital role in the IMC outcomes for market growth and financial returns. SMEs and larger companies implement IMC with different levels of effectiveness. SMEs with IMC implementation can gain an advantage over larger rivals and improve their market position. Moreover, the study generalizes the results by applying inter-country context.

This is a pioneering study of the complex IMC outcomes model under firms' size moderate conditions. The research applies an inter-country context.

Mass customisation, defined as the mass production of individually customised goods and services, aims at providing products and services that are more suited to the needs or desires of today’s fragmented consumer markets. Mass customisers should identify how needs or desires of the fragmented market shape the customisation of not just the product and service, but also the mass customisation experience. Towards this end, the authors examined whether an individual’s preferred level for environmental stimulation defined as optimum stimulation level (OSL) was associated with the types of products, services and experiences desired from mass customisation of apparel. As the authors hypothesised, OSL had significant positive correlations with willingness to use co‐design services to create a unique design, trying co‐design as an exciting experience, overall commitment to using co‐design, and trying body scanning as an exciting experience. OSL did not have significant correlations with the more banal willingness to use body scanning services for better fitting products or overall commitment to using body scanning. There was also a significant positive correlation between OSL and interest in customising experiential products, but not between OSL and interest in customising utilitarian products, as hypothesised. Results support research of the influence of OSL on consumer behaviour. Implications for the industry include considering experience aspects and environmental stimulation when developing a mass customisation programme.

The purpose of this study is to critically review consumer knowledge in marketing and propose a future research agenda. Despite the many works that have examined this variable, given its strong influence on behaviour, it has generally been studied in association with other constructs, and no studies have focused on it in a specific way. Its definition, measurement and approaches to its role and usefulness are superficial and underdeveloped. After structuring and analysing the existing literature, the authors establish, (I) which aspects are of little use to the discipline, and (II) which research lines have the most potential and should be developed and studied in greater depth, to advance and complete the existing consumer knowledge framework.

A search was undertaken for documents in the main databases in which the term “consumer knowledge” appears in a marketing or consumer context, and a critical and reflexive approach was taken to analyse the main contributions and to structure them by content blocks.

Five main content blocks were identified. A set of research gaps were detected, mainly related to the lax conceptualisation of the topic, measurement problems and the scarcity of more useful works connected with business management, and several research lines are proposed that complement the existing framework to make it more complete and operational.

This paper offers a critical review and proposes a research agenda for one of the most used but little studied variables in the field of marketing, which may help academics and professionals in the discipline to continue developing useful theories and models.

El objetivo de este trabajo es revisar críticamente el conocimiento del consumidor en marketing y proponer una agenda de investigación futura. A pesar de los numerosos trabajos que han examinado esta variable, dada su fuerte influencia en el comportamiento, generalmente se ha estudiado en asociación con otros constructos, y ningún estudio se ha centrado en ella de manera específica. Su definición, medición y aproximaciones sobre su papel y utilidad son superficiales y poco desarrollados. Después de estructurar y analizar la literatura existente, establecemos (I) qué aspectos tienen poco uso para la disciplina y (II) qué líneas de investigación tienen más potencial y deben ser desarrolladas y estudiadas con mayor profundidad; para avanzar y completar el marco existente sobre conocimiento del consumidor.

Se realizó una búsqueda de documentos en las principales bases de datos en las que aparece el término “conocimiento del consumidor” en un contexto de marketing o consumo, y se adoptó un enfoque crítico y reflexivo para analizar las principales contribuciones y estructurarlas por bloques de contenido.

Se identificaron cinco bloques principales de contenido. Se detectó un conjunto de huecos de investigación, principalmente relacionados con la laxa conceptualización del tema, problemas de medición y la escasez de trabajos más útiles conectados con la gestión empresarial; y se proponen varias líneas de investigación que complementan el marco existente para hacerlo más completo y operativo.

Este documento ofrece una revisión crítica y propone una agenda de investigación para una de las variables más utilizadas pero poco estudiadas en el campo del marketing, lo que puede ayudar a académicos y profesionales en la disciplina a continuar desarrollando teorías y modelos útiles.

本文旨在对市场营销中的消费者知识进行批判性审视, 并提出未来的研究议程。虽然已有许多研究检验了该变量, 但由于其对行为产生强大影响, 通常会与其他结构变量一起研究, 而没有以特定方式专注于该变量。对其定义、测量以及其作用和用途的方法仍旧存在研究空白。通过对现有文献进行结构化分析后, 确定了以下两个方面：（I）哪些方面对该学科意义不大, （II）哪些研究方向最具研究潜力, 并且应该进一步深入发展和研究, 以推进和完善现有的消费者知识框架。

通过主要数据库检索市场营销或消费者背景下涉及“消费者知识”一词的文献, 采取批判性和反思性方法来分析其主要贡献, 并通过内容块对其进行结构化。

识别了五个主要内容块, 并发现存在一定程度的研究空白, 主要涉及该主题的概念松散化、测量问题以及与商业管理相关的有效研究的稀缺性。此外, 本文提出了几个研究线索, 这些线索为现有框架补充了信息, 使其更加完整且具备更强的操作性。

本文对市场营销领域中广泛使用但研究较少的变量进行了批判性评述, 并提出了相关研究议程。这一工作有助于学术界和专业人士继续发展实用的理论和模型。

This paper aims to examine how two non-price cues – consumer rating and number of purchased social coupons (SCs) – serve as risk-relievers for high and low variety-seekers and subsequently impact their purchase decision for SCs offered by unfamiliar brands.

Participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk online panels participated in three scenario-based experiments.

Low (vs high) variety-seekers perceive greater risk and indicate lower likelihood of purchasing SCs offered by unfamiliar brands. Both high and low variety-seekers utilize the two non-priced cues – consumer rating and number of purchased SCs – as risk-relievers sequentially. That is, consumer rating constantly has a substantial impact on purchase likelihood for such SCs, whereas number of purchased SCs is influential only when consumer rating becomes ambiguous. Specifically, low (vs high) variety-seekers have a greater tendency to rely on number of purchased SCs in addition to consumer rating as a risk-reliever.

This paper examines cue utilization process in the SC context and suggests that high and low variety-seekers respond to the two non-price cues differently and sequentially. This provides theoretical insights on consumers’ cue utilization process and managerial insights regarding how managers could strategically handle the cues on SC provider websites. Further, this paper identifies situations where high variety-seekers may not prefer unfamiliar experiences and low variety-seekers may become more likely to embrace unfamiliar experiences.

A person's optimum stimulation level (OSL) reflects one's desired level of environmental stimulation and predisposition to act in the presence of environments. The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive model, which illustrates that consumers with different levels of OSL have differing evaluations of retail store elements, shopping value and subsequent shopping behaviours.

To examine the relationship between OSL and consumer perceptions and behaviours, interviews were conducted with retail shoppers in Taiwan (n=147).

Taiwanese shoppers with a high OSL were found to have more favourable evaluations of a store's ambient, design, layout and density elements than did consumers with a low OSL. Additionally, the high OSL shoppers reported higher hedonic and utilitarian values from their shopping. Most importantly, the shoppers with a high OSL spent more time and money in stores.

With this research, hopefully retailers will pay even more attention to the ambient, design and layout elements of their stores. In doing so, they might be able to attract more consumers with a high OSL and entice them to spend more money.

The paper contributes to the growing body of international retailing research by examining the effects of shoppers' optimum stimulation levels on their perceptions toward store elements, perceived shopping value, and purchase behaviours. Moreover, a comprehensive framework is put forth to assist future research.

Japanese materialistic behavior and consumption trends are examined by comparing age‐cohort differences between the Japanese “new breed” and “second baby‐boomer age‐cohorts”. Price perception, brand loyalty, and shopping‐information sources of the two age‐cohorts are also assessed. Results suggest that the Japanese new breed is more materialistic, sensitive to prestige, brand loyal, and likely to use media as their shopping information source as compared to second baby‐boomer. On the other hand, second baby‐boomers are less materialistic, value conscious, less brand loyal, and more likely to rely on word‐of‐mouth communication as their information sources as compared to the Japanese new breeds.

The purpose of this study is to identify diners ' fundamental reasons for seeking variety in their choice of a restaurant and to understand their variety-seeking intentions from the perspective of personality characteristics.

An online survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire and 309 usable responses were collected. To test the hypothesized relationships, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. A multiple group analysis was also conducted to test the moderating effects of personality characteristics.

The results suggested that diners ' desired values are more critical than prior dining experiences in determining variety seeking intentions. Further, satisfaction and desired hedonic/utilitarian values differently affect variety seeking intentions across high and low allocentric personality groups.

Regarding personality types, satisfaction and desired values were found to have a significant impact on variety seeking intentions in the high allocentric group, but not the low allocentric group. This suggests that the restaurant industry could develop effective marketing strategies by considering their target customers ' personality characteristics.

This study is unique in that it identified customers ' fundamental reasons for seeking variety in consumption situations, particularly in terms of restaurant choice. This study also considered individuals ' personality characteristics associated with optimal stimulation level in order to understand why consumers seek variety.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to be more creative and innovative to survive in the business competition and to make their businesses environmentally friendly, to develop global supply chain strategies, and to make innovations in products and business processes to become indispensable. This study discusses the effect of green supply chain integration (GSCI) and environmental uncertainty on performance through the moderation of green innovation. Structural equation modeling and maximum likelihood estimation were used to analyze a sample of 130 SMEs in East Java, Indonesia. The result shows that GSCI and environmental uncertainty significantly affect performance, and green innovation significantly moderates the effect. This research found that SME’s performance is influenced by GSCI concept and green innovation application as well as SME’s understanding about recent and future environmental uncertainties; this fits the market demand.