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This paper aims to explore consumers' perception of quality of new processed beef products and the role of expected and experienced quality in the formation of consumer's purchase intentions. Based on the Total Food Quality Model, a conceptual framework is developed that relates cue evaluation, expected quality, experienced quality, purchase motive fulfilment and purchase intention.

Structural equation modeling is used to test the framework with data from a sample of 201 respondents, involving three steps. First, principal component analyses were applied to explore underlying factor structures within each construct. Based on the exploratory factor analyses, measurement models were estimated, with the measured variables as indicators of latent constructs for all the four products. Finally, structural models were estimated for the relationships among the latent constructs.

Results show that cue evaluations, expected/experienced quality and purchase motive fulfilment are all predictors of purchase intention, but that their weight and causal structure differ between purchase intentions before and after trial.

Implications for the introduction of new beef products are discussed.

This paper is an attempt to quantitatively estimate the relationships between quality cues, expected and experienced quality, and purchase motives as determinants of purchase intention for new products using structural equation modeling.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of online review’s tactile cues in consumer’s purchase intention, given the absence of direct experience in online shopping.

Based on four empirical studies, the authors examine the role of online review’s tactile cues in consumer’s purchase intention. A secondary data analysis on Taobao and three experiments were conducted.

First, this research demonstrates that tactile cues in online reviews are sure to have a significant influence on consumers’ purchase intention. Second, the purchase intention of consumers is easily influenced by the reviews of holistic tactile cues of the search product, which affects the final purchase intention through the way of outcome simulation. Consumers’ purchase intention is also easily influenced by concrete tactile cues of experience product, which affects the final purchase intention through the way of process simulation. Temporal distance is the boundary condition.

A seller should manage the order of online review or labels related to corresponding tactile cues, in order to encourage consumers to comment on the relevant tactile features. Besides, in the aspect of website design, a seller can also encourage consumers to image about the process and the result of using so as to promote his sales volume.

The conclusion may give a solution on how to deal with the absence of direct experience in online shopping.

There has been little research about the influences of others' tactile behaviors on consumers' behaviors. The authors focus the other tactile experience in online review. The previous studies on online reviews focus on the its influences of valence, quantity and sentiment polarity on the usefulness of reviews and sales volume. However, few studies are explored on contents of reviews. The authors focus on the content such as tactile cues.

Return policies are major risk-allaying cues for customers, yet they are a critical cost/lost-sales for retailers. Despite their importance in the retailing industry, few studies have examined the interplay of return policies with other cues that customers use to make a purchase decision. Toward this end, this study aims to investigate the interaction effects certain salient high-scope and low-scope cues, such as consumer ratings and brand image, and retailers’ return policies have on consumer purchase decisions.

Building on literature from signaling theory and cue scope literature (high-scope and low-scope cues), the authors develop a research model that hypothesizes the interrelationships between return policies, price discounts, customer product ratings and brand image. Three experimental studies investigate the potential interplay between return policies (lenient vs stringent), price discounts (low vs high), customer product ratings (low vs high) and brand image (high vs low) on quality certainty perceptions and purchase intentions. The mediating effect of quality certainty perceptions on the interplay of various factors (return policy, price promotions, consumer ratings and brand image) and customer purchase intentions is also investigated.

Results indicate that a lenient return policy will have a positive effect when consumers encounter high scope cues that signal undesirable aspects of the product (i.e. low consumer ratings, low brand image). In contrast, when high scope cues signal desirable aspects of the product (i.e. high consumer ratings, high brand image), it attenuates the effects of return policy. The findings suggest that quality certainty acts as a psychological process.

Service researchers should seek to examine the role of return policies in a more comprehensive manner.

Return policies are important cues for consumers while making purchase decision. Thus, retailers need to realize that these policies may need to be more dynamic or tiered, rather than one-size-fits-all.

This study provides a more comprehensive view of how consumers consider multiple cues simultaneously in decision-making. Literature has mainly examined the interactions between different high-scope and low-scope cues, but there has been limited research directed toward the interplay between multiple high-scope cues.

This study aims to examine the moderating role of two product-related variables – product type and product involvement on the relationship between shelf-based scarcity (SBS) and purchase intention.

The authors used four 2 × 2 between-subject experiments to test the proposed moderation.

Results from the four experimental studies provide the following insights. SBS enhances customers’ purchase intentions for utilitarian products and decreases purchase intentions for hedonic products. The positive influence of SBS cues on purchase intentions is more pronounced for low-involvement products than for high-involvement products. Perceived popularity and perceived quality mediate the relationship between SBS and perceived consumption risk for utilitarian products but not hedonic products.

This study builds on prior research on scarcity by investigating the impact of product-related factors on the SBS-purchase intention relationship through the elaboration likelihood model.

The results suggest that retailers benefit from using SBS cues for utilitarian and low-involvement products to increase purchase intention. Retailers can avoid SBS cues for hedonic products to prevent them from seeming commonplace. Furthermore, retailers can boost purchase intentions by highlighting the popularity and quality of utilitarian and low-involvement products.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to examine the interaction between SBS and product-related attributes, along with the serial mediation of perceived popularity, quality and consumption risk.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the relative importance of country-of-origin (COO) and its dimensions – country of design (COD), country of technology (COT), and country of manufacture (COM) – in comparison to store image in terms of consumer product evaluation and purchase intention of store brands. The authors also explore consumer regulatory focus effects.

Empirical data were collected from 270 young Korean adults. Two scenarios were given using two high-involvement store brands, an electronic product and clothing product that have hedonic and utilitarian elements. Data analysis was conducted using AMOS structural equation modeling software.

COO affects product evaluation and purchase intention and store image affects purchase intention. By product, store image influences product evaluation and purchase intention (electronics). COO directly influences purchase intention (clothing). By COO dimensions, overall COD weakly affects product evaluation. COT affects electronic product evaluation but directly affects clothing purchase intention. Promotion-focused consumers use COO for product evaluation, with store image directly affecting purchase intention. Promotion-focused consumers consider COD, an affective dimension, and COM in product evaluations. Prevention-focused consumers did not consider COO, but consider store image for product evaluation. Prevention-focused consumers consider utilitarian COT and COM dimensions during product evaluation.

This is the first paper to consider the simultaneous effect of COO (and its dimensions) and store image on product evaluation and purchase intention. It is also the first to consider the regulatory focus theory with regards to COO and store image evaluative and purchase intention criteria.

Based on cue utilization theory, this study aims to examine effects of the style (fashion vs basic) and licensing status (licensed vs nonlicensed) of university-related apparel products (URAPs) as intrinsic and extrinsic cues, respectively, impacting university fans’ responses (i.e. attitudes, purchase intentions and purchase behaviors) and the moderating roles of personal factors (i.e. perceived university prestige, quality consciousness and uniqueness seeking).

Data were collected via an online quasi-experiment employing a 2 (licensing status: licensed vs nonlicensed) × 2 (style: basic vs fashion) within-subjects design with a purposeful sample of 1,126 students and alumni of a Southeastern American university.

Results show that consumers generally responded more favorably to licensed (vs nonlicensed) URAPs, especially for basic styles, whereas their responses to fashionable URAPs were more favorable for nonlicensed (vs licensed) URAPs. Furthermore, the positive effects of licensing status were stronger for consumers with high (vs low) perceived university prestige or quality consciousness. Consumers generally more favorably responded to basic (vs fashion) URAPs, but this style effect was weaker among those with a high (vs low) uniqueness seeking tendency.

Theoretical explanations on URAP consumption have been scant in the product and brand management literature. This study fills this literature gap by conceptualizing extrinsic (i.e. licensing status) and intrinsic (i.e. style) cues crucial in URAP consumption from a cue utilization theory lens and demonstrating empirical evidence for the intricate interplays among the two cues and diverse personal characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to study the interaction of timing cues (active deals vs upcoming deals) and brand familiarity on consumers’ purchase intention.

The research design of this paper is based on one experiment conducted in a behavioural experimental laboratory and two experiments in Mechanical Turk. The data received from these experiments were analysed using one-way ANOVA technique and PROCESS models.

Results across three experiments show that consumers prefer upcoming deals over active deals when brands are of low familiarity. However, the effect is attenuated for brands with high familiarity. Further, the paper proposes and shows that the effects of timing cues and brand familiarity interactions on purchase intention are explained by temporal distance. Finally, results show that need for cognition moderates the effects.

The research results may vary when size of discounts is mentioned. There is a need to study various other moderators such as product type, self-other overlap and regulatory focus.

The paper offers managerial strategies and insights that can be adopted by the online retailing industry. Paper offers practical implications for brands, especially for ones with low familiarity.

This paper adds to the literature by studying new timing cues to understand the behaviour of consumers in retailing industries.

This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of purchase intention. Additionally, it examines consumer preferences for different products and consumption plans for the subsequent five years. The survey sample is drawn from a population of foreign product users from 34 cities in 18 provinces in China. Results provide evidence that brand sensitivity mediates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention; product cues moderate the effect of ethnocentrism on purchase intention. As the first study to link consumer ethnocentrism directly to brand sensitivity and purchase intention, this research provides some managerial implications. Global marketers can offset the negative effect of ethnocentrism by emphasizing brand image of its products, taking advantage of specific product cues, or by providing more comprehensive after‐sale service to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing imports. Also, price is still a hurdle that prevents Chinese consumers from mass consumption of foreign products. Global firms should not overestimate the purchasing power of Chinese consumers. This study represents a “snapshot” of Chinese consumers’ decision making at a time when their economic system is undergoing rapid change.

Restaurant operators often use auspicious connotations embedded in the names and shapes of dishes to increase consumers’ purchase intentions. However, the interaction effect of multiple auspicious cues (i.e. food name and shape) on purchase intentions has rarely been examined in the restaurant context. Thus, grounded in processing fluency theory, this study investigates the direct influence of the two-way interaction effect of food name (auspicious vs nonauspicious) and shape (auspicious vs. nonauspicious) on purchase intentions and its indirect influence via perceived auspiciousness and positive emotions.

Utilizing a 2 (food name: auspicious name vs. nonauspicious name) × 2 (food shape: auspicious shape vs. nonauspicious shape) between-subjects design, the authors conducted two experimental studies with 356 Chinese customers. In Study 1, which focused on a main dish, we investigated the two-way interaction effect food name × food shape on purchase intentions. In Study 2, we replicated this experimental study by focusing on a different food type (i.e. dessert) to test the direct and indirect influences of the two-way interaction of food name × food shape on purchase intentions through perceived auspiciousness and positive emotions.

The results reveal that the congruity condition of auspicious names and shapes significantly influences consumers’ purchase intentions. Congruity with auspicious food cues also indirectly affects purchase intentions through consumers’ perceived auspiciousness and positive emotions. These effects were consistently observed in two experimental studies analyzing different dish types (main dish and dessert).

Restaurateurs should consider utilizing auspicious food cues to attract customers. Specifically, they should combine both food name and shape to increase their perceived auspiciousness and sales.

This study tested processing fluency theory using auspicious food cues. This study contributes to the hospitality literature by improving our understanding of the congruence effect by exemplifying the conceptual alignment between food name and food shape.

This paper aims to examine how olfactory imagery, triggered by scent brand names prior to smelling, influences scented-product purchase intention.

Five studies were conducted. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict likelihood of olfactory imagery formation. ANOVA and t-test analyses were used for scent brand name group comparisons, and serial mediation analysis was used to test how scent brand names impact purchase intention through olfactory imagery vividness and the (dis)confirmation between imagined (i.e. expected) and experienced scents.

Scent name familiarity stimulates olfactory imagery formation. Scent brand name specificity (e.g. “Lavender Bouquet” vs. “Floral Bouquet”) influences purchase intention, with specific names leading to lower purchase intention, because they generate vivid olfactory imagery and induce a disconfirmation between imagined and experienced scents.

Branding scents on products should be a strategic product design decision. Surprisingly, although specific scent brand names trigger vivid olfactory imagery and precise scent expectations, they mitigate purchase intention and thus are riskier. General scent brand names are safer.

This research contributes by extending the literature on the effect of verbal cues on scent perception by considering the role of scent brand name specificity on purchase intent. It also adds to work on how olfactory imagery influences purchase intention by incorporating olfactory imagery vividness. Finally, it proposes and tests an underlying cognitive mechanism to explain the relationship between scent brand names and purchase intention.