Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of interpersonal trust which would affect the buyer-salesperson relationship in a direct selling situation. It also investigates consumers’ perceived risk and advantages of direct selling.

A questionnaire survey of consumers (and also non-consumers) of direct selling companies in Hong Kong was performed by means of mall-intercept interview. The major measurements were perceived risk, perceived advantages, trust dimensions, and repurchase intention.

The results show that there are six dimensions of interpersonal trust in the buyer-seller relationship in direct selling, but only one dimension (i.e. honesty) has a significant relationship with repurchase intention. The ability to shop at home is found to have the highest advantage rating of direct selling. In addition, direct selling is perceived to have a lower level of risk than unsolicited telephone call such as telemarketing.

This is the first study to investigate the effects of different dimensions of interpersonal trust on consumer buying behavior under a direct selling situation in Asia. The study also serves as a foundation for studying the applicability and usefulness of all trust measures in other western or non-western cultures/nations.

This study examines the effect of face on consumer responses to socially responsible hospitality brands and the influence of the consumption setting. Based on the literature on face concern, the consumption setting is expected to influence the effect of face on consumer responses to socially responsible brands.

An experimental design with face concern (low vs high) under two consumption settings (private vs public) was adopted for a fictitious hotel involved in community service. To test this design, 360 participants were recruited.

The results showed that face positively affected consumer responses to socially responsible hospitality brands. Consumers with a high (vs low) level of face concern had higher purchase intention and a greater propensity to spread positive word-of-mouth for hospitality brands with strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations. In addition, the favorable effect of face concern on consumer responses was more pronounced in a public consumption setting than in a private consumption setting.

Hospitality service managers could strengthen the physical evidence of CSR brands during service encounters. This strategy would be more effective for consumers who have a high level of face concern and lead to an increase in revisit intention.

This study highlights the effect of face on consumer responses to CSR brands and the influence of the consumption setting. Managerial implications for hospitality service managers regarding communication and brand management strategies are discussed.

This paper aims to examine the impact of other group members on the travel experiences of Chinese tourists participating in domestic package tours.

Based on the critical incident technique, usable responses were obtained from 253 tourists regarding the influence of other group members on their travel experiences in the same group package tour (GPT).

The results show that the travel experiences of Chinese tourists on a domestic package tour are affected by three general factors, namely, appearance, behaviors, and language of other group members.

This research mainly involves samples of young tourists. The findings may not be able to generalize to elderly tourists. Future studies may involve samples from various age cohorts.

The findings offer new insights and directions for GPT operators and tour guides to improve tourism management and tourist experiences.

This study contributes to tourism literature about customer-to-customer interaction by identifying the major categories of other customers’ characteristics or behaviors that may positively or negatively influence a GPT tourist’s travel experience.

This study enriches the existing literature by investigating the attributes of other group members that may affect the travel experiences of a domestic GPT participant. Tourism firms can formulate better strategies and staff training to enhance tourists’ travel experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of endorser ethnicity (local Chinese vs Western) and portrayal (smart vs sexy) on Chinese women’s attitudes toward luxury advertisements and brands, as well as any moderating effect appearance self-esteem has on the above-mentioned interaction.

Two online experiments were conducted. Study 1 was a 2×2 factorial design (with 280 participants), while Study 2 was a 2×2 ×2 factorial design (with 320 participants). Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test and simple effect analysis.

Results demonstrated that Chinese female consumers are more likely to have a positive attitude toward advertisements for luxury goods and brands when a local Chinese (vs Western) endorser is used and portrayed as smart (vs sexy), particularly if consumers have low appearance self-esteem.

The research focused only on female consumers and only one product type was used for the experiments. The use of controls for potential confounding effects was insufficient in this study design.

To maximize profits, marketers should choose the most appropriate combination of endorser ethnicity and portrayal in the Chinese luxury goods market. Accordingly, if adopting a localization strategy and using a Chinese female endorser, the endorser should be portrayed as smart rather than sexy. In contrast, if a luxury brand adopts an internationalization strategy and uses the same Western female endorser as in other countries, it is more effective to portray her as sexy rather than smart. Furthermore, advertisers should pay particular attention to Chinese female consumers who have low appearance self-esteem when advertising their product and/or brand.

Compared with past studies concerned with consumers’ perceptions of endorser image in advertisements through a focus on endorser ethnicity, this study linked endorser portrayal with his/her ethnicity and discussed the interaction effects between these two factors on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand portrayed in the advertisement. The findings herein contribute new insights to the body of work on luxury marketing and endorser advertising.

This paper aims to examine the mediating role of brand relationship quality in the relationship between brand experience and customer citizenship behavior.

Two studies were conducted in China. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping methods were used for data analyses.

Results show that brand relationship quality mediates the effects of the four dimensions of brand experience (i.e. sensory, affective, behavioral and intellectual) on the two aspects of customer citizenship behavior (i.e. toward other customers and toward the organization). In addition, service provider ratings can moderate the effect of brand relationship quality on customer citizenship behavior.

The findings suggest that marketing or service managers should build high quality of customer–brand relationship to enhance customer citizenship behaviors by providing memorable and pleasurable brand experiences. Brands with high ratings can facilitate the effect of brand relationship quality on customer citizenship behavior.

This research sheds light on the mediating role of brand relationship quality in the relationship between brand experience and customer citizenship behavior.

In this study, the foam dyeing technology was applied to dye cotton knitted fabric for achieving the surface-dyed result. The T-shirt made by this surface-dyed fabric could easily obtain the wash-out effect after garment laundering. The pigment dyeing performances in foam dyeing were system studied. Colour strength, colourfastness and serviceability of fabrics dyed with the methods of foam-padding and liquid-padding were evaluated and compared. Results show that surface dyeing for cotton-knitted fabric with foam media could overcome the shortcoming of poor penetration in foam dyeing method, and turn the poor penetration into the superiority for obtaining the surface-dyed result. The serviceability such as water absorption and handle property was also well improved in foam dyeing method. Finally, the advantages of energy saving and reducing chemical usage were implemented throughout the dyeing process.

Face concern is a personal value that refers to the extent an individual shows regard for or interest in the protection and enhancement of face. This study aims to examine the moderating influence of face concern on consumer responses to brands associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR).

An experimental study was conducted to test the proposed conceptual model in consumer reactions to CSR brands.

The results show that consumers with a high face concern (vs low face concern) have a better quality perception toward CSR brands than non-CSR brands. In addition, they also have a higher purchase intention and propensity to recommend the CSR brands than those with a low face concern. However, this interaction effect between face concern and brand type (CSR brand vs non-CSR brand) is mediated by consumers’ perceived quality of the brand.

This study provides critical implications for the formulation of brand management strategies, particularly for international firms entering an Asian country like China where people generally have a high degree of face concern.

This study highlights the moderating role of face concern in the relationship between consumer responses and brands associated with CSR. It also suggests the mediating role of consumers’ perceived brand quality in the relationship between brand types (CSR brands vs non-CSR brands) and consumer responses.

The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of Asian and Western migrants and native‐borns in Australia toward foreign‐made products and the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on attitude formation.

The research was designed as a personal interview survey using shopping mall intercepts. A total of 206 consumers were asked to indicate their preferences for foreign‐made versus Australian‐made products for five diverse products. Respondents also responded to a short version of the CETSCALE, a scale measuring consumer ethnocentrism. Respondents were classified as Australian‐born, Asian‐born migrants, or Western‐born migrants.

Consumer ethnocentrism is negatively related to attitudes toward foreign‐made products for both overseas‐born (Asian and Western) migrants and local‐born Australians. Asian‐born migrants reported a significantly lower level of consumer ethnocentrism than both of the other respondent groups. Within the Western migrant group, males had a significantly higher level of ethnocentrism than females; there was no significant difference between genders in the other two respondent groups. For migrants, the number of years living in Australia is positively related to ethnocentrism. Age is related to ethnocentrism for all sample groups.

The study contributes to knowledge about ethnic marketing to migrant groups and consumer ethnocentrism, especially for Australia, in which migrants represent a large share of its population. Thus, it could very well serve as a model of “things to come” in other countries that experience large immigration inflows. This is the first study to look at ethnocentrism and attitudes toward country‐of‐origin of products of migrants and locally‐born people.

This paper aims to examine the institutional and social determinants, and consequences of social entrepreneurship with respect to China's rural enterprises. It also attempts to provide a conceptual framework concerning how rural Chinese enterprises act as social entrepreneurial institutions and contribute to both business development and social welfare of local communities.

The conceptual framework is developed through a critical review of literature and an integration of multiple disciplinary studies, with a focus on the perspectives of institutional governance, managerial networks, and market orientation.

The study identifies three framework layers for the development of China's rural enterprises, which are fundamentally driven by market preserving authoritarianism, local state corporatism, community culture, social entrepreneurship and market orientation.

The proposed framework can help contribute to the theoretical development of strategic issues of social entrepreneurship in transitional economies. It may also provide insights about local state governance, ownership structures and market competition in China.

As China's rural enterprises are widely regarded as a phenomenon related to the core nature of a “socialist market economy”, an ideology embraced since the beginning of Chinese social‐economic reforms, a study of institutional and entrepreneurial nature of this kind serves as a stepping stone for understanding the emerging phenomenon of the country's social entrepreneurship, which is characterized by open market mechanisms and socialist legacies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate trust in salespersons of direct selling companies. The major purpose of the study is to examine three alternative measures of trust and to assess the effects of consumer trust in the direct selling salesperson on intended purchase behavior in a non‐Western culture, Hong Kong.

The research was designed as a personal interview survey of purchasers and non‐purchasers of product from direct selling companies in Hong Kong. A street‐intercept method of personal interview was used in three major shopping areas. The major measurement was of three different measures of trust in buying behavior from direct selling companies.

Survey results show that the measures of trust are not equally significant in being related to intention to repurchase. Only one measure, “Affect Trust”, is statistically correlated to repurchase intention. This measure is based on emotions which are affective in nature.

Gaining trust is crucial to all salespeople, industrial and consumer alike, as trust facilitates an exchange relationship while mistrust hinders it. Consequently, having valid measures of trust is essential to ensuring that exchange relations are positive. The research to date has been in the context of Western cultures and is dated (ten or more years ago). The paper examines trust in a non‐Western culture. In addition, the sales relationships studied in the past have been non‐direct selling. The paper expands this domain as it looks at direct selling to consumers in a non‐fixed business location.