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Despite significant business spending in areas such as personalization tools and add-on options representing levels of product attributes, most marketers do not know the amount of value that is directly attributable to their e-customization strategies. This study aims to offer an in-depth investigation of consumers' value perceptions of e-customization and their relationship with perceived sufficiency of information and cognitive cost. The context effects on value perception in e-customization are studied together with antecedent constructs.

The research consists of a 2×2 between-subjects factorial design. The full model is tested using multiple-group structural equation modeling analysis to verify the significance of the inter-relationships between constructs, as well as the main and the interaction effects of two experimental factors (product information framing and product type).

The experimental results showed that perceived e-customization value does not simply stem from the ability to “narrow-cast” content more specifically related to a shopper's interests (i.e. anticipated fulfillment value). Rather, this value also stems from the dynamic flexibility of the information system and its ability to entertain and educate during the information dissemination process (i.e. process value and knowledge value). Furthermore, when the customization framing features are better matched with product type characteristics, e-customization seemed to increase value in ways that are difficult to achieve in conventional shopping environments.

By testing the proposed structural model simultaneously with two experimental factors of product type and information framing, this work is the first to address the question of context effects on value creation in an area of increasing substantive importance.

The purpose of this paper is to make contributions toward new knowledge and understanding of how marketers can provide effective online customization experiences for customers. The practicality of online mass customization has received much attention as consumers perceive more value from customized products than from their standardized counterparts. Little research has been done to understand consumers’ behavioral intentions in response to these value additions. This study incorporates product information framing in developing and empirically testing a model of the relationship between online customization and price sensitivity, endowment addition and expected likelihood of product return.

The relationship among the constructs specified in the model was tested using multiple group structural equation modeling analysis.

The findings indicate that consumers perceived knowledge gain via customization process influences the utilitarian value, which directly impacts levels of likelihood of product return and price sensitivity. The process value, on the hedonic side, influences more on the endowment addition. Endowment addition is found to mediate the relationship between the hedonic benefits and the two utilitarian outcome variables: price sensitivity and likelihood of product return.

Understanding the consequences of customization is particularly crucial for marketers. This research is the first to expand and further our knowledge of customization, particularly in relation to its outcomes of customers’ behavioral intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the interpretation strategy of cultural mixing on consumers’ evaluations of global brands that incorporate local cultural elements. Specifically, this paper examines whether a property interpretation and a relational interpretation have different influences on consumers’ evaluations of global brands that incorporate local cultural elements.

Two experiments were conducted as part of this research. Experiment 1 adopted a two (interpretation strategy: property interpretation vs relational interpretation) single-factor between-subjects design. Experiment 2 adopted a 2 (interpretation strategy: property interpretation vs relational interpretation) × 2 (polyculturalist beliefs: high vs low) between-subjects design. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and PROCESS 213.

A property interpretation (emphasizing that some features of a global brand transfer to local cultural elements) leads to a less favorable evaluation of global brands that incorporate local cultural elements than a relational interpretation (emphasizing a relation between global brands and local cultural elements). This effect is fully mediated by perceived cultural intrusion, and it exists only when consumers have a low level of polyculturalist beliefs.

This paper reveals that the phenomenon of cultural mixing occurs when global brands incorporate local cultural elements. In addition, the way that consumers perceive the relationship between global brands and local cultural elements will determine their reactions to global brands that incorporate local cultural elements.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether key investor information documents (KIDs) provided by suppliers/issuers help retail investors to understand the key characteristics of financial products. KIDs are fact sheets composed to describe the characteristics of financial products in a brief, standardized and straightforward manner.

In the empirical analysis, the authors evaluate different versions of KIDs and examine whether they meet minimum requirements to provide benefits for consumers.

The empirical results suggest that subjects assess KIDs of suppliers/issuers merely as moderately appropriate to grasp the key characteristics of financial products. In contrast, neutral benchmark KIDs are generally evaluated as being superior to those of suppliers/issuers, which at best meet current legal requirements.

The authors argue that a major reason for these findings is consumer policy’s assumption of omnicompetent subjects in line with the neoclassical idea of a Homo economicus. This assumption, however, is far from being both realistic and practical.

Brand image is considered as a signaling phenomenon because high brand image ensures quality product that can reduce consumer’s uncertainty. A strong brand image induces consumers to pay higher prices, which in turn provides competitive advantage and market success to a company. Online reviews, blogs and texts on brand usage experiences are more effective than oral communication to build a strong brand image. Online reviews on products create distinct places for brands in the consumer’s mind, and thus ultimately affect images of the brands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of online reviews on functional and hedonic brand images in the context of consumer electronic products in India.

The present study adopts a novel approach to collect data. The data have been collected from select e-commerce sites’ brand pages on Facebook through Google form application. A number of respondents are 1,038. Structural equation modeling technique has been used to examine the effects of online reviews on functional and hedonic brand images.

The data analysis reveals that source and review quality have more significant effect on credibility evaluation of online reviews as compared to the effects of review consistency and receiver. Moreover, credible online reviews have more impact on hedonic brand image rather than functional brand image in the context of consumer electronics product in India.

The present study combines Yale attitude change model and attribution theory to examine the effects of online reviews on brand image.

This study systematically reviewed pricing research published in leading marketing and hospitality and tourism (H&T) journals between 2010 and 2019. It attempts to concretize the understanding of the evolving patterns of pricing research in both fields and suggests an agenda for future research in H&T.

This study performed keyword co-occurrence analyses and co-citation analyses on the bibliographic data of 575 articles from marketing and H&T journals. Content analysis was applied to investigate the emerged topics in H&T.

The marketing discipline showed a persistent focus on research themes including price promotion, reference price, price fairness and pricing strategy. The H&T domain experienced a significant content enrichment of preexistent research topics. H&T scholars showed a growing interest in studying pricing for sharing economy accommodations and the interplay between pricing and electronic word-of-mouth. While marketing research applied theories from multiple disciplines as the theoretical foundations, H&T studies adopted the hedonic pricing model as an overarching theory.

Future pricing research in H&T may incorporate theories from other disciplines such as psychology, sociology and anthropology to broaden the scope of the study. Besides, innovative study designs and complex data analysis techniques should be encouraged. Topicwise, H&T scholars can dive deeper into price promotion and distribution channel price management.

This is the first study consolidating the pricing literature in H&T and marketing. It also suggests the potential research directions for researchers.

This paper aims to investigate multidimensional customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) as antecedents of action loyalty in hospitality contexts and examine service conditions that inhibit and facilitate the former relationship.

This paper tests a holistic framework based on transaction data from 5,855 active members of a hotel firm. The hypotheses are examined using ordinary least squares regression.

By integrating transaction-related CEBs with non-transaction-related CEBs, this paper found that three CEB constructs (i.e. feedback, mobilizing and cross-buying) contribute significantly to action loyalty in hospitality contexts. These effects vary depending on the inhibitor (service failure) and the facilitator (service customization).

Hotel managers should value customer engagement as a marketing tool to retain customers. When engaged customers encounter service failure and customization, managers can react differently to facilitate consumers’ action loyalty.

Contrary to prior studies focusing on the effects of general CEBs on attitudinal loyalty, this study examines the diverse impacts of multidimensional CEBs on customers’ action loyalty and confirms boundary conditions to coordinate the effects between CEBs from a hotel firm’s perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on online sales configurators (SCs), also known as mass-customization toolkits, which enable consumers to self-customize their product solutions online. The paper aims to provide new insights into which characteristics of an online SC increase the consumer-perceived benefits of possessing a mass-customized product.

Previous studies on mass customization (MC), sales configuration, and learning psychology are used to develop the research hypotheses, which are tested by analyzing data from 675 configuration experiences from a convenience sample of potential consumers using 31 real online SCs for laptops/notebooks, economy cars, and sport shoes/sneakers.

The paper finds support for the hypotheses that SCs with higher flexible-navigation, focused-navigation, and easy-comparison capabilities enhance not only the traditionally considered utilitarian benefit (UT), but also the consumer-perceived uniqueness benefit (UN) and self-expressiveness (SE) benefit (SE). Furthermore, consistent with the study’s hypotheses, SCs with higher benefit-cost communication and user-friendly product-space description capabilities are found to improve UT. The hypotheses that these two capabilities enhance UN and SE, however, are not supported. Post-hoc analyses suggest that the examined SCs are generally UT-centered and need improvement of their ability to communicate the UN and the SE a consumer could derive from the purchase of his/her configured product.

While prior research has primarily been concerned with conceptually arguing and empirically showing that uniqueness and self-expressiveness are two additional sources of consumer value in business-to-consumer MC, this is the first empirical study that offers insights into which characteristics online SCs should have in order to draw from these two value sources.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer advocacy, customization and entertainment intentions based on the notion of the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework. In addition, this study aims to examine the mediating and moderating role of customization and entertainment intentions on the proposed relationships. The authors also intend to highlight the comparative effects between male and female young social media consumers on those proposed associations.

In the pursuit of comprehensive and rigorous data collection, this study adopted a quantitative methodology using a meticulously crafted questionnaire. The questionnaire survey was conducted in major cities of Malaysia using the convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A total of 576 responses were collected, even though 549 retorts were used for data analysis. In this investigation, the authors strategically used covariance-based structural equation modeling through the use of AMOS v. 24 as the primary data analysis tool. Augmenting the analytical depth, the authors also conducted a supplementary bootstrap analysis. The additional layers of examination were crucial for appraising the mediating and moderating effects inherent within the model, in which the PROCESS MACRO v.4.20 was used.

The results of this study revealed the significant direct positive effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. Consumer customization and entertainment intentions also found significant direct affirmative effects on consumer advocacy intention, along with the significant direct positive effects of consumer entertainment intention on consumer customization intention. The results further revealed that consumer customization and entertainment intentions cannot mediate the relationship between celebrity endorsers and advocacy intention. The entertainment intention also declined the mediating effects between celebrity endorsers and consumer customization intention. On the contrary, consumer customization intention significantly and positively, and entertainment intention also significantly but negatively, moderate the association between celebrity endorsers and consumer advocacy intention. This study also illustrates that the effects of those examined relationships differ between male and female young social media consumers.

This study investigates the impact of celebrity endorsers on consumer behavior, focusing on their customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. It extends current SOR framework, enhances source credibility theory, fills gaps in the literature on social media brand engagement and underscores the significance of customization and entertainment intentions. The findings provide insights for managers aiming to harness consumer brand advocacy through celebrity endorsers effectively.

This research aims to examine the moderating role of consumers’ persuasion knowledge (PK) on the persuasive effect of combined advertising and publicity within the same medium. The synergistic effect experienced when two messages are thus combined is reversed for readers with high PK who are first exposed to publicity then to advertising. Believability of the message is found to be a mediator within this context.

Based on a review of the appropriate literatures on PK and integrated marketing communication (IMC), this paper tests the hypotheses using two experimental studies.

The results of two experiments show that publicity-then-advertising yields poorer persuasion than advertising-then-publicity, especially under a high PK condition. The reduced synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity is found especially when consumers activate temporary PK and/or when they have chronically high PK. A mediator for a decrease in the synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity, believability, is examined.

This study contains significant managerial implications for marketing communicators about how to most effectively combine and coordinate publicity and advertising in the implementation of an IMC strategy.

Other than making a contribution to the IMCs’ literature, this research extends understanding of the power of PK within an IMC framework. The research contributes yet another extension to the original PK model of Friestad and Wright (1994) by suggesting an underlying theoretical mechanism to explain how PK works in the IMC domain.