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The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of product information on purchase intention and evaluate the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency in cross-border e-commerce.

The methodology is to use multiple regression analysis on 406 qualified online survey responses to determine the influence of product description, product display, and product content on consumer purchasing intention through product involvement as well as the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency.

The results show that product description and product content were positively associated with product involvement, while product display did not exhibit a significant relationship between it and product involvement. As hypothesized, product involvement mediated the relationship of product description and product content with consumer purchasing intention. The return policy leniency was also found to positively moderate the mediation path of product content on purchasing intention through product involvement.

This study bridges a gap in the literature on the influence of three kinds of product information on purchasing intention through product involvement in a cross-border e-commerce context. Especially the study is one of the first attempts to determine that good return policy do not apply universally due to implied boundary conditions. The results can be used to expand consumption in cross-border e-commerce.

In the channel-mix era, the customer journey involves combining channels during all the stages of the decision-making process, such that creating and maintaining relationships with consumers poses a challenge to retailers. This work aims to explore what role brands play in this issue by analyzing what impact the perceived benefits of brand channel-mix have on consumer self–brand connection (SBC) and what their effect is in enduring consumer–brand relationships (i.e. future channel-mix use and word of mouth [WOM]). This paper also explores the moderating role of product involvement in these relations.

The authors carried out a personal questionnaire with a sample of 288 consumers who were recruited after leaving one of the stores of a clothing brand that is a successful example of distribution channel management.

Insofar as consumers perceive channel-mix benefits, SBC will be higher and (or as a result) their future intentions with the brand will be more intense. In addition, the results show that product involvement moderates the relationship between SBC and channel-mix use intention and WOM.

This work contributes to channel-mix, relationship marketing, brand and product involvement literature by analyzing how customers may be retained in the channel-mix era through brand management and by considering product category involvement. This study merges brand and product variables to explore their impact on relationship marketing within channel-mix behaviors.

This study aims to examine how young consumers perceive the advertising effectiveness of endorsements by virtual idols and how endorsements by virtual idols differ from endorsements by real human celebrities such as traditional celebrities and online influencers.

An experimental study was conducted with 400 randomly selected young respondents in China in December 2022. A 3 × 2 factorial design was used to test how the type of celebrity endorser and level of product involvement influence the persuasiveness of advertising aimed at young adults. Among 400 respondents, the average age was 21.5 years. A total of 193 male and 207 female respondents participated in the experiment.

Young consumers find virtual idols, online influencers and traditional celebrities attractive. Although virtual idols are the least credible among the three types of celebrity endorsers, young consumers tend to be more convinced by their endorsements of products with low levels of consumer involvement than those with high levels of involvement. Among the three types of celebrity endorsements, young consumers find traditional celebrities the most effective. In addition, young consumers’ attitudes toward celebrity endorsers mediate the impact of celebrity endorsers’ attractiveness and credibility on their attitudes toward the advertisements. The perceived level of product involvement moderates the transfer of meaning from the attitude toward the celebrity endorsers to the attitude toward the advertisement.

First, when choosing celebrity endorsers to advertise products targeting young consumers, marketing communication practitioners should give priority to the endorsers’ perceived credibility, as young consumers have a variety of views about them that can significantly affect their attitudes toward the advertisement. Second, real human celebrity endorsers are more effective than virtual idols in celebrity endorsements. However, virtual idols may be suited for use in advertisements to promote products with low involvement levels, such as soft drinks.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first experimental study to attempt to analyze the effectiveness of virtual idols in advertising aimed at young consumers. This is also the first comparative study to introduce virtual idols as celebrity endorsers in product advertising and to compare their effectiveness with that of the two other types of commonly discussed celebrity endorsers, traditional celebrities and online influencers.

This study aims to examine how consumers perceive the persuasion intent and sincerity of brand messages differently and to what extent the advertised brand sounds opportunistic within the context of a crisis, depending on what the message offers.

In Study 1 (N = 163), the brand messages were manipulated in terms of control (an empathetic claim only), monetary reward (with a discount offer) and cause-related marketing (CRM) conditions. In Study 2 (N = 150), the message effects were replicated using a different product category. In Study 3 (N = 216), the three brand messages were examined under high vs low involvement conditions.

The results revealed a linear decrease in negativity in consumer responses when the brand message offers CRM activity, followed by one that offers a discount. It was also found that the monetary reward message was perceived to have greater persuasion intent and be more opportunistic than other message types under low involvement, whereas such effects disappeared under high involvement. Conversely, the CRM message was perceived to have greater persuasion intent and be more opportunistic under high involvement (vs low).

Amidst the global economic impact and corporate landscape changes, there is limited understanding of consumer responses to crisis-related brand messages. Rooted in the attribution theory and the persuasion knowledge model, this study fills the gap by examining how consumers assess the underlying motives of different message types and perceive brands as taking advantage of the crisis situation.

This study explores the influence of heritage brand extension on consumer purchase intention and analyses the effects of pop culture involvement. The extension of heritage brands is becoming increasingly difficult because such an extension needs to be consistent with the unique characteristics of brands and resonate with consumers. However, few scholars discuss the influence of consumers' level of pop culture involvement on brand extension and purchasing behaviour.

Taking time-honoured brands as an example, this study established a conceptual model based on a comprehensive review of the literature, and then tested the model using a sample of 255 respondents who were familiar with one of the selected Chinese time-honoured brands. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships amongst brand extension fit, pop culture involvement, perceived value and purchase intention.

Time-honoured brand extension fit has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention, and this path is significantly influenced by the mediation mechanisms of perceived value. Situational pop culture involvement can significantly strengthen the relationship between time-honoured brand extension fit and perceived value, whereas enduring pop culture involvement does not.

The results clarify and expand on the different roles of cultural involvement in time-honoured brands and broaden research on the influence of cultural involvement in this regard. This study has significant theoretical value for the inheritance and revival of heritage brands and provides a reference for the practice of time-honoured brands.

Children’s sensory involvement refers to the degree to which children engage their senses, such as sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing, in their interactions with the environment. In the context of parents' purchase decisions, children’s sensory involvement pertains to how children's sensory involvement influences the purchasing decisions made by their parents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of children's sensory involvement on parents’ purchase decisions considering the mediating role of the parent’s attitude.

In this study, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted with parents of children aged 7–12 in Isfahan, Iran. The sample consisted of 210 parents, aimed at elucidating the relationship between variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationship between variables.

Results showed a significant relationship between children’s sensory involvement and parents’ purchase decisions, children’s sensory involvement and parents’ attitudes and parents’ attitudes and purchase decisions. It was concluded that children’s sensory involvement could indirectly influence the parents’ purchase decisions considering the mediating role of parents' attitudes.

In today's business landscape, it is imperative for organizations to discern the multitude of factors influencing consumers' purchasing decisions. Among these, family dynamics play a substantial role, with children often exerting a strong influence on their parents' buying choices. Despite the acknowledged importance of this dynamic in existing literature, the specific impact of children's sensory involvement on parental purchasing decisions remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by shedding light on the role of children's sensory involvement in shaping parental buying behaviors.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

This paper shows how organisational agility allows companies to adopt the necessary changes to remain competitive and produce with a lower environmental impact, implying customers in the value chain.

This investigation uses a cross-sectional design to collect data on the study variables from a sample of 260 Spanish manufacturing organisations. Structural equations with PLS are applied to test hypotheses.

Results show that organisational agility is positively related to eco-innovation. Furthermore, eco-innovation results in a positive relationship with organisational performance. Finally, it has been found that customer involvement positively moderates the effect of organisational agility on new green processes and products and makes green product innovations more successful.

Conclusions indicate that would be advisable that innovative companies promote capabilities such as organisational agility, and integrating customer involvement throughout their value chain, for developing successful new green products increasing their results with a lower environmental impact. Likewise, the customer’s involvement in eco-innovation projects has been found, in companies with agile behaviours, that could aim to increase their performance, helping to react more quickly to market trends and saving money in product development.

This investigation addresses three gaps previously identified in the literature. Firstly, it covers a lack of research on how agility could foster green innovation and how this could positively affect their performance outcomes. Secondly, it studies a moderating factor, customer involvement, and its effects on the relationship between organisational agility and eco-innovation in product and process and between eco-innovation in product and organisational performance. Thirdly, it introduces dynamic capabilities theory through agility concept to study the dynamic context of the eco-environment.

Developing green innovative services is critical to the restaurant industry to achieve significant benefits as well as environmental sustainability. This study aims to explore the mechanisms through which employees’ green involvement can foster green service innovation behavior.

The data set garnered from employees who worked in restaurants was used to test these mechanisms. A partial least square technique was conducted on this data set.

The results revealed the employees’ green involvement significantly influences their green service innovation intention, which subsequently influences their green service innovation behavior. Furthermore, information technology (IT) adoption was found to fortify the linkage of employee green involvement with green service innovation intention.

The results suggest to the restaurant industry that awareness of green service innovation and IT adoption practices can help restaurants to develop effective sustainability work practices and meet societal expectations.

This study extends the restaurant management literature by linking the green involvement of restaurant employees to green service innovation intention as well as identifying the moderating role of IT adoption underlying this link.

This paper aims to identify critical factors that influence small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers’ involvement in their customers’ product development and contrast these with the factors identified from the customer perspective.

A multiple case study approach was used, including four companies. Data were collected through 32 semi-structured interviews, six workshops and documents.

A model is presented that merges this study’s nine identified critical factors with seven critical factors from the customer perspective. The model provides a dual perspective of supplier involvement in product development, wherein the supplier and customer perspectives are concurrently addressed. Some factors are unique for the supplier, but several mirror those on the customer side.

The study is based on data from SME suppliers in Northern Europe. As it is expected that SME companies are more constrained by limited resources, future studies could study critical factors at larger suppliers.

Customers and suppliers having insights about the critical factors can provide better conditions for product development for the other actor; for example, when evaluating customer–supplier integration.

The presented model of critical factors provides a more nuanced picture of supplier involvement in product development as prior research has been biased toward the customer perspective. This study emphasizes the importance of contextual information that has been unnoticed in the literature.