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Facilitated by image retouch tools, social media influencers can digitally enhance their self-image in product recommendation posts. This paper proposes that image enhancement may serve as a cue for the audience to assess the authenticity of the influencer (“true to oneself”), which further affects the influencer's product recommendation effectiveness (i.e. attitudes toward the post and recommended product).

Experiment 1 examines the effect of image enhancement on consumers' perceived influencer authenticity and product recommendation effectiveness. Experiment 2 considers the moderating role of post type, examining the effects in informational versus storytelling posts.

Consumers perceived an influencer to be more authentic when the image is not enhanced; in turn, consumers reported more favorable attitudes toward the post and the recommended product upon reading the post. The effects are moderated by post type: the effect of image enhancement (through perceived influencer authenticity) exists in posts using an informational message format but is attenuated for those using a storytelling message format.

This research enriches the literature on authenticity cues by documenting a novel visual cue and contributes to influencer marketing by identifying a nuanced interactive effect between image enhancement and post type on recommendation effectiveness.

This article aims to empirically test the terroir concept and tackles the issues of origin, typicity and legality. Whilst this has previously been examined at a theoretical level, the research uses a study of producer and consumer perceptions to examine the multidimensional nature of terroir and its relationship with authenticity.

A preliminary list of terroir items was aggregated from the literature and placed in an online questionnaire that was distributed to an industry sample and then to a consumer panel in France. Quality perceptions, anticipated satisfaction and purchase intent of terroir products were also included. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were conducted, as were linear regressions between uncovered dimensions and the dependent variables.

The results show that the terroir concept comprises three dimensions that relate to authenticity: product, internalised and institutional authenticity. All three dimensions are positively correlated. Each of these dimensions can be related to satisfaction, quality perceptions and purchase intent, although the intensity and valence will depend on the relationship of the respondent to wine.

Prior to this research, there were no empirical results to support the multidimensional nature of terroir. As well, the distinct relationship between terroir and types of authenticity is defined.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an antecedent of perceived authenticity in the relationship between product ethnicity (PE) and evaluations of foreign products. Moreover, the present study explores roles of product involvement and product type as moderators in the relationship between PE and authenticity.

A pretest was conducted to guide the selection of the product type utilized in the survey. With 200 South Korean panel data in Study 1, hypotheses were analyzed using multiple regression following the procedures outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986). With 288 US panel data in Study 2, mediation effects were analyzed using PROCESS by Hayes (2013).

The study provides strong evidences of the full mediating role of perceived authenticity between PE and consumer evaluations of foreign products. Experience goods accentuate the impact of congruent PE on authenticity relative to search goods. However, the product involvement as a moderator is not significant.

International marketing practitioners should attend to the importance of how source country consumers perceive the authenticity of foreign product. In particular, insights from findings will provide international marketers with a means to assess the efficacy of strategic communication messages designed to establish a perception of authenticity in the minds of consumers and a more effective approach to market segmentation in the foreign markets.

This study suggests the addition of authenticity into future studies of country of origin (COO) effects. As authenticity fully mediates the relationship between PE and product image evaluations, this study suggests the congruent product-country match as a signal of authenticity, in addition to product image. Moreover, this finding extends literature on COO effects by discussing the importance of authenticity in the context of experience goods relative to search goods.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of territory of origin (TOO) associations for consumers’ perception of product authenticity and empirically tests the chain of effects, from TOO associations to perceived authenticity, and to consumers’ self-brand connections.

An experimental method and a partial least square approach were adopted. Hypotheses were tested on data collected across 665 Chinese consumers.

Results demonstrate that TOO exerts a positive impact on perceived product authenticity, which in turn leads to stronger consumers’ self-brand connections. In addition, compared with country of origin (COO) information, TOO has a unique positive impact on perceived authenticity and a direct positive effect on consumers’ self-brand connections. Also, the positive impact of TOO on perceived authenticity is enhanced through consumers’ familiarity with the TOO and through congruence between the product category and the TOO.

One possible outcome of TOO (perceived authenticity) and one product category (lavender soap) were considered in this study.

Given the diminishing relevance of COO associations, this study demonstrates that TOO is an appealing alternative strategy for strengthening brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how geographic cues embedded in a website affect Chinese consumers’ cross-border shopping experiences. The study simultaneously explores the effect of telepresence on shoppers’ perceptions of product authenticity and their trust in retailers, key drivers of behavioral intentions.

Two experimental conditions were utilized. Geographic cues depicted a famous shopping district in the retailer’s country (South Korea) or the shopper’s country (China). Study participants were female Chinese consumers in their 20s and 30s who had purchased Korean fashion products in the past (n=236). Structural equation modeling was conducted using AMOS 21.0.

Results indicate that participants in the “retailer’s country” experimental condition experienced higher telepresence and greater perceptions of product authenticity. Furthermore, telepresence increased participants’ trust in the retailer and perceived product authenticity, which led to positive behavioral intentions.

Findings offer important implications for cross-border online retailing. First, results suggest a highly successful tactic for enhancing shoppers’ perceptions of product authenticity and retailer trust on a cross-border platform. Second, cross-border online business professionals should focus on the role of telepresence. Finally, this study provides insight about Chinese cross-border shoppers.

This study contributes to the literature on cross-border online shopping. It suggests that the strategic use of geographic cues on a website can provide an experiential benefit, telepresence, to cross-border shoppers. The study’s findings provide a novel insight into possible unique success factors in cross-border e-commerce.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an authenticity model for food specialties considering both the subjective and the object-based dimensions of authenticity. Moreover, the relationship with personality traits – such as consumer self-concept and identification with the product – (antecedents) as well as with the consumption intention (consequences) are measured.

Hypotheses were analyzed by means of a structural equation model using AMOS. Calculations were based on data collected through an online survey of 138 German respondents who were recruited by a consumer panel.

Both subjective and object-based perceived authenticity significantly influence the purchase intention. Object-based authenticity's role is mediated by the subjective authenticity, which is affected by the consumers self-identification with the product and personality traits such as determination and passion.

The results presented in this paper will help to understand what influences the perception of authenticity of a traditional food product and how it affects purchase intentions. More influencing variables should be considered in future research, as well as other product groups. Repeated analyses considering larger samples are necessary to confirm the presented results.

A deeper understanding of which psychological and social factors affect the perception of a product's authenticity is important for creating appropriate marketing strategies.

While there is a vast literature on authenticity theories, remarkably few scholars have provided empirical evidence on this subject by using a quantitative research design.

This paper aims to move beyond previous investigations juxtaposing the performance of global versus domestic brands, where domestic is referred to as “localness” in the literature, conceptualizing and developing two measures of “within-country brand or product localness.” In doing so, it uses objective localness measures, rather than consumer perceptions of brand localness, as have been primarily used previously. Then, by leveraging established theory on brand authenticity and corollary literatures on brand identity and country-of-origin effects, this research develops and empirically tests key hypotheses about how these within-country, more geographically local products or brands (referred to as simply “localness” hereafter, for brevity), influence sales outcomes through increasing perceptions of brand and product authenticity.

Two empirical studies using different archival data sets are conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 focuses on new product sales from 2002 to 2011 for 31 categories of consumer packaged goods US product launches initiated in 2002–2005, whereas Study 2 investigates online consumer review and retail sales data in the US craft beer industry from 2001 to 2011. Localness is operationalized as two different objective measures: in Study 1, local distribution is measured, and in Study 2, firm headquarters denotes the geographic bounds of localness. These two measures are motivated by prior consumer perceptual studies of Locavores (consumers who strongly prefer local products), which identify that local systems of production and/or distribution are the key signals of localness. Using two measures allows the localness construct to be tested for the potential firm-side boundaries of its scope and provides two empirical measures that future researchers can leverage.

Brand (or product) localness gives performance advantages over national brands in the form of increased sales across both studies. The second study, focused on craft beer, dives more deeply into the theoretical mechanism (localness operates through increased perceptions of brand authenticity) and shows that while brand authenticity directly translates into higher sales, as anticipated, localness fully mediates this relationship. When coupled with supporting marketing tactics (high price and/or product variety), the link between localness and brand authenticity grows stronger. Local brands with low prices and/or limited product variety are deemed inauthentic by consumers, so it is important for brand managers to use marketing tactics that reinforce brand authenticity to support localness as a strategy.

Future research could extend this inquiry in a number of ways. These include combining both empirical measures of localness into a single empirical inquiry, investigating additional product categories and further integrating aspects of strategy such as market positioning and innovation strategy. Newer data could also reveal how these phenomena are continuing to evolve.

Based on this study, managers can benefit by leveraging localness as a key brand or product attribute to achieve a sales advantage, but they must do so by using marketing tactics consistent with an authentic brand positioning. Efforts to expand a brand’s geographic reach over time should likely be conducted very locally at first, before extending to regional markets and then to a global footprint. It is also posited that retail store managers can benefit from allocating some shelf space to local brand and product offerings.

This paper conceptualizes and measures localness in new ways compared to the previous literatures. It develops objective measures of within-country localness instead of using consumer perceptions of localness and/or considering domestic brands as being “local” compared to global brands; builds key linkages between concepts of localness, authenticity and sales performance; and uncovers when and how within-country localness is a key brand or product attribute associated with increased sales success.

The study jointly investigates sustainability and authenticity concepts in the food context during the COVID-19 outbreak with a fourfold objective: (1) understanding whether sustainability and authenticity are equivalent concepts in consumers' perceptions; (2) advancing knowledge on the role played by them about food frauds' perception; (3) investigating whether these concepts are considered as “risk relievers” by consumers, (4) comparing the concepts to understand which one has a greater weight on the consumer's perception.

The study adopts a Combination of a Uniform and a shifted Binomial distribution (CUB models) on data gathered in Spain between June and August 2020 through an online questionnaire.

The findings reveal that: (1) consumers perceive sustainability and authenticity as different concepts in the food context and (2) as two important indicators of fraud protection of a product for consumers; (3) besides, authenticity is seen as a “risk reliever” in buying a food product, as well as sustainability, (4) although results underline high uncertainty in the latter case.

By considering that the COVID-19 outbreak seriously threatens food safety, security and nutrition, this research elucidates the relevant role of food sustainability and authenticity concepts as “risk relievers” in terms of food frauds and negative issues related to COVID-19.

Augmented reality (AR), an innovative interactive technology that can realize the synchronization and integration of virtual and reality, has been widely used in commodity displays and museum exhibitions. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of AR-based product display in the context of historically cultural and creative product (HCCP) marketing. This study aims to focus on whether and how the application of AR technology to the HCCP display will influence consumers’ product evaluation.

This study uses three experiments to examine the impact of an AR-based product display on consumers’ evaluation of HCCPs. In experiments 1 and 2, the researchers compared the consumer’s evaluation of HCCPs under the AR-based product display condition and two other display conditions (i.e. 3D model display and photographic display) and examined the mediating role of perceived authenticity in the evaluation process. Experiment 3 tested the moderating effect of the availability of artistic detail information on weakening the negative impact of AR-based product display on the evaluation of HCCPs.

This study found that using AR-based displays harms consumers’ evaluation of HCCPs by impairing perceived authenticity. The spatial-temporal cues of real-time circumstances impede consumers’ processing of the historical attributes of the product. The dynamic AR-based display makes it hard for consumers to build the product’s connection with historical prototypes. Thus, consumers’ perception of the authenticity of HCCP is reduced. Providing artistic details during the presentation makes artistic attributes more prominent than historical attributes, allowing consumers to pay more attention to the sensory experience caused by the artistic design instead of the spatial-temporal cues of the product. At this point, the negative impact of AR-based product display on the evaluation of HCCPs will be attenuated.

First, this study shows the adverse effects of AR-based product displays in the field of HCCP marketing. AR-based product display degrades product evaluations when the displayed product has historical attributes. Second, this study extends the perceived authenticity theory to the technological experience context and establishes a theoretical connection with the AR literature. Third, this study explores the multiple characteristics of HCCPs. The historical attributes are the central attribute of HCCPs, leading consumers to perceive lower sense of authenticity due to the conflict with real-time spatiotemporal cues risen from the AR-based display. However, the artistic attributes, which are beyond the limitation of time and space, will attenuate this conflict when they become prominent.

This study aims to investigate the rising trend of virtual influencers – digitally created characters with human-like attributes. It aims to evaluate and compare their effectiveness with human influencers in terms of brand attitudes and purchase intentions. It uncovers the mechanisms underlying the differences in effectiveness observed between virtual influencers and their human counterparts.

The research uses a 2 (influencer type: human vs virtual) × 3 (product type: functional vs symbolic vs experiential) between-subjects design. Through a pilot study (n = 334) and a main study (n = 352), the research examines the interactive effects of influencer and product type on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Hypotheses were developed and tested using moderating mediation models centered on authenticity and product–endorser fit.

Virtual influencers are perceived as less authentic than human influencers across all product types, negatively influencing brand attitude and purchase intention. However, the extent to which influencer type affects brand attitudes and purchase intentions, mediated by product–endorser fit, varies based on the product type.

This research emphasizes two key mechanisms – authenticity and product–endorser fit – influencing the effectiveness of virtual influencers. It suggests that aligning virtual influencers with suitable product types can offset their perceived authenticity deficit, significantly affecting their endorsement effectiveness.