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This chapter has three central goals: First, it aims to introduce the concept of consumers’ online brand endorsements, which we define as consumers’ intentional, public, and positive online affiliations with brands (e.g., liking a brand page on Facebook). Second, it provides an overview of the drivers and consequences of this phenomenon. Third, it answers the question whether and when the broadly adopted marketing strategy of consumers’ online brand endorsements is feasible.

To accomplish these goals, we conducted a general review of the literature.

We identified three different drivers of consumers’ online brand endorsements: Identity-related drivers, brand-related drivers, and community-related drivers. Based on the literature we suggest that from the perspective of the endorsing consumer, online brand endorsements have the potential to be a two-sided sword.

The greater potential of this marketing technique appears to rely on the fact that consumers’ online brand endorsements are broadcasted to a gigantic network of other consumers and their potential to be contagious.

Consumers’ online brand endorsements are a new phenomenon and therefore quite understudied. Still, many brands have social media marketing strategies that aim to acquire huge amounts of endorsements by their consumers. This chapter contributes to our knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of consumers’ online brand endorsements. Moreover, it shows how and when consumers’ online brand endorsements can be a feasible marketing strategy.

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a digital marketing method that has been considered by some companies as an effective and efficient approach to enhance social learning and the environment for the customers. A social media user could benefit from gaining information from other users to aid their decision-making process. Instagram is an example of a social media platform that could be utilized for the application of eWOM. It could serve as a source of quality, credible and detailed information, and a channel to increase customer interactions and trust. This study aims to determine the effects of eWOM information generated through Instagram on patients’ intention to join the in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. By adopting the information acceptance model (IACM) theory, several parameters were evaluated: information quality, credibility, usefulness, adoption, attitude toward information, and purchase intention. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze as many as 200 respondents of Morula IVF Jakarta and were active Instagram users. The results showed that the adoption of information and attitude toward information had considerably influenced patients’ intentions to join the IVF programs. Such circumstances might have occurred as a result of the increase in information exchange about IVF, through the discussions and sharing of experiences by patients on Instagram. Furthermore, information usefulness was demonstrated to affect information adoption and was influenced by the credibility of information and attitudes toward information. Nonetheless, one variable which did not display any effects on the usefulness of information was the quality of information. In summary, the characteristics of eWOM information that were conveyed on Instagram could affect the intention of patients in joining the IVF program.

The exchange of reciprocal and quantitative consideration between transaction parties rests on the independent intentions and judgments of potential benefit for each. A transaction consummated between independent parties should logically be beyond subsequent unilateral modification. And, because “duality” is inherent in every exchange-priced transaction, the account form follows the lead of transaction substance. Conditions precedent to consummation of a transaction is two affirmative value judgments by the parties as to the benefits expected.

Face-to-face meetings between auditors and clients are becoming increasingly more difficult and expensive to arrange, due in large part to the ceaseless expansion of commerce across the globe. Relying on electronic communication media such as e-mail messaging or video-conferencing for auditor–client inquiry purposes is one way to enhance the timeliness of such communications; however, questions arise with respect to potentially biasing influences of certain technical aspects of electronic media on auditors’ judgment and decision-making processes. Drawing on information processing theories, the current study posits that media and message attributes can interact, thereby differentially affecting auditors’ belief revisions – holding information content constant. The media attributes examined in the current study are cue multiplicity (i.e., the range of central and peripheral cues a medium is capable of transmitting) and message reprocessability (i.e., the extent of archival and retrieval features a medium is capable of handling); and the message attribute studied is evidence strength (e.g., the credibility of client-provided evidence). Research findings from a laboratory experiment with 189 graduate accounting students indicate the following: (1) when client-provided evidence is strong, neither message reprocessability nor cue multiplicity significantly affect the auditors’ belief revisions; (2) when evidence is weak and reprocessability is present, higher cue multiplicity leads to significantly greater belief revision in favor of the client; (3) when evidence is weak and reprocessability is absent, lower cue multiplicity results in significantly greater belief revision in favor of the client. Study results suggest theoretical and practical implications for globally distributed auditor–client communications.

This chapter reviews research on the question–behavior effect, the phenomenon that asking questions influences respondents’ behavior. Two distinct research streams, the self-prophecy effect, concerned with socially normative behaviors, and the mere measurement effect, dealing with purchase behaviors without socially normative significance, are identified. Despite the recent attempt at integration, it is argued that there are fundamental differences between the two effects. Distinctions are also drawn between lab-based and field-based mere measurement effects, and between normatively consistent and implicit attitude-driven, normatively inconsistent self-prophecy effects. Key studies, theoretical explanations, and moderators of each effect are discussed, potential unanswered questions and research opportunities are identified, and significant managerial and policy implications are highlighted.

This chapter begins with an exploratory approach to understanding how online branded video results in positive impressions among viewers. Scholars have examined the characteristics of videos that contribute to their appeal (e.g. Ashley & Tuten, 2015; Berger & Milkman, 2012; Botha & Reyneke, 2013; Dafonte-Gomez, 2014; Southgate, Westoby, & Page, 2010). Separate strands of literature have identified social practices and emotions likely to influence the perceptions of branded content. This chapter bridges the gap between those two strands by asking which social practices produce the emotions that lead to greater enjoyment of a video. Using a series of multiple regressions, we constructed a path analysis model linking key social practices and emotions that lead to positive evaluations of branded videos. The model provides strategic direction for the makers of online branded video.

The rapid digital transformation is driving businesses to reexamine their marketing plans and practices. Marketers face new conflicts while they are implementing digital marketing strategies. The main objective of this chapter is to deeply understand these conflicts and to provide appropriate solutions. This chapter addresses six digital conflicts that challenge marketers most: (1) online versus offline channel conflicts, (2) conflicts stemming from digitalization gap, (3) conflicts in influencer marketing context, (4) conflicts in artificial intelligence (AI) context, (5) environmental conflicts and digital marketing, and (6) ethical conflicts and digital marketing. Finally, we discuss conflict management strategies for the most challenging digital marketing conflicts.

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

I suggest that the search for Adam Smith’s theodicy is likely to be in vain. The paper begins with a brief history of approaches to evil, emphasizing the context in which they arose, and the questions authors were addressing. Approaches most relevant to Adam Smith include those of Augustine and Calvin, and the early modern theodicies of Leibniz, Samuel Clarke and William King, as well as the attacks on them by Bayle and Voltaire. Scottish Enlightenment writers were not terribly interested in theodicy, though Hutcheson and Kames did devote space to their versions of problems of evil. David Hume’s Dialogues on Natural Religion are often taken to be classic statement of the problem of theodicy and argument against religious belief, but his concern was to demolish rationalistic theodicies rather than religious belief or practice. The paper then turns to Smith’s writings, considering similarities and differences to these approaches to evil. Smith emphasizes the wisdom and beneficence of God, and that evils we observe are part of a larger providential plan. He makes no attempt to justify the God in the face of evil, and in this respect Smith shares more with Augustine and Calvin than he does with the early modern theodicists. Smith’s approach to evil is simple and ameliorative. Smith’s approach contrasts with early nineteenth century English political economists, from Malthus onwards, for whom theodicy was important. Whatever view we take of the theodicists project of justifying an all-powerful and good God in the face of evil may, we still struggle to make sense of economic suffering and evil.

Budget decision-makers are forced at times to assign budgets that deviate substantially from budget participants’ requests. In these instances, budget participants likely interpret their budgetary involvement as lacking influence and perhaps as pseudo-participative. This experimental study examined two situational factors that may affect perceptions of pseudo-participation: budget favorability (receiving a much better or much worse budget than requested) and disclosure of budget intention (the decision-maker discloses or does not disclose a preliminary budget before the budget decision, with the final budget exactly matching the preliminary budget). As hypothesized, budget participants had a self-serving tendency to discount pseudo-participation as the cause of low influence when they received a favorable budget. However, contrary to a hypothesized effect, budget participants did not have a self-serving tendency to inflate pseudo-participation as the cause of low influence when they received an unfavorable budget. Instead, they formed strong, unbiased pseudo-participation perceptions. Also contrary to a hypothesized effect, the budget decision-maker's disclosure of an intended budget, which should have provided clear indications of an insincere request for budget input, did not increase perceptions of pseudo-participation. Budget outcomes that indicate low influence may evoke such strong perceptions of pseudo-participation as to override other information that suggests pseudo-participation.