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Marketers are increasingly spoilt for choice as to which emerging technology to use for the purpose of enhancing their company’s competitive advantage. Accordingly, there is an inherent need to assess, relative to the task of accomplishing an organization’s marketing goals, the levels of consumer-perceived effectiveness germane to these options. Based on grounded theory, this study aims to develop an appropriate measurement instrument.

Research is based on a survey featuring a cross-section of 18 technology-based initiatives that are being routinely incorporated within many companies’ marketing strategies. A sample of 967 adult residents of the USA provided their perspective on the effectiveness of each initiative as a mainstream marketing tool.

A wide spectrum of opinions exists as to what constitutes an effective initiative. Three sub-dimensions of the consumer-perceived effectiveness construct were identified and validated as measurement scales for use in future research: involvement stealth and outreach.

The generalization of the findings may be limited because minority segments of the adult American population, specifically, African Americans and Asian Americans were somewhat under-represented in the sample. Likewise, younger and older segments were slightly under- and over-represented, respectively.

The study findings can be used to aid in the further development of an instrument designed to measure the strength and directionality of consumer-perceived marketing effectiveness. With the specter of an increasing array of technology-based strategic options going forward, using such an instrument will no doubt become a critically important success factor among business-to-customer (B2C) organizations.

Few studies to date have sought to understand consumer perspectives regarding the effectiveness of technology-based initiatives as marketing tools, and none have explored the relativities of such perceptions across an array of different initiatives or examined any latent sub-dimensions of the construct. This study addresses these deficiencies.

Technology-based initiatives are now being routinely incorporated within most companies’ marketing strategies. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perspectives on the ethics of these initiatives. It also seeks to identify underlying dimensions within the technology-based strategic environment with the intent of generating advances for both academicians and practitioners alike.

The enquiry is based on a survey featuring a cross-section of 20 technology-based initiatives. A sample of 967 adult residents of the USA provided their views of the extent to which each initiative/scenario conformed to their perception of society’s norms regarding ethical acceptability.

In total, 13 of the 20 initiatives were deemed unacceptable with the greatest disdain exhibited for a company posting bogus online reviews. Most acceptable were self-service checkouts. Three sub-dimensions of the ethicality construct as it relates to technology-based marketing initiatives were identified and validated as measurement scales for use in future research: involvement, communication, and privacy.

The generalization of findings may be limited because younger and older segments of the population were slightly under- and over-represented, respectively.

Marketers should recognize that consumers are much more accepting of any initiative from which they will derive some benefit. They should also recognize that within this arena, ethical acceptability is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, necessitating that they strategize accordingly.

Although previous research has garnered insights with respect to a particular technology-based marketing initiative, none have explored the relativities of consumer perceived ethicality across an array of different initiatives or examined any latent sub-dimensions of the construct in this arena. This study addresses these deficiencies.

In revisiting Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, this paper seeks to go beyond traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) research parameters and explore the full extent of its potential application within a New Zealand business-to-business (B2B) purchasing context.

The study's core findings are based on four separate focus group discussions with B2B salespeople. Responses were recorded and analysed according to the manifest content of the discussions. These focus groups were preceded by, and followed up with, two other enquiries that sought the perspectives of B2B buyers.

Intended for use as a learning tool for aspiring B2B salespeople and their instructors, a new typology of four generic potential post-decision ‘cognitive states’ is proposed, which, depending on the scenario at hand, will likely reflect the buyer's mindset.

The generalisation of findings may be somewhat limited because the focus groups were drawn from a convenience sample totalling just 20 practitioners. Some participants might also have felt slightly constrained, leading to opinions that are subject to bias.

Examples of differing buying scenarios are profiled and explained from the perspective of their implications for salespeople. Suggestions as to how sellers can best accommodate the post-decision cognitive states experienced by their buyers are delineated.

Conventional wisdom suggests that post-purchase cognitive dissonance is the sole ‘cognitive state’ towards which a B2B salesperson needs to be attuned to for the purpose of taking some form of accommodating action. However, this study indicates that three other states relating to the aftermath of a buyer's decision, whether a purchase is made or not, also merit attention.

This study aims to provide novel insight into cognitive and emotional factors contributing to green customer citizenship behaviours, as mediated by green attitudes in general and moderated by culture.

The investigation was guided by the “value attitude behaviour hierarchy” and green customer emotions, which served as a framework for understanding the mediating effect of attitude on the relationships between cognitive and emotional factors (green consumption values and emotional affinity towards nature) and customer citizenship advocacy and feedback behaviours. Data was obtained from respondents in the USA and South Korea. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, bootstrapping and Wald tests were performed to conclude on the model and verify the moderating effect of culture on the indirect effects established.

In both countries, green consumption values and emotional affinity towards nature positively influence green attitudes and stimulate feedback behaviour. Green attitudes only predict advocacy in the USA. Culture moderates the majority of the indirect effects examined.

The model presents a novel approach to stimulate green advocacy and feedback behaviours and may aid firms in closing the “green gap” and co-create value with customers. Firms could profit from customers advocating the benefits of green purchasing to other customers and providing feedback on interventions required that will convince reluctant customers to make a purchase.

This study offers a multicultural perspective on the connection between a novel set of cognitive and emotional factors and green customer citizenship advocacy and feedback behaviours that may directly and indirectly influence green purchasing, value co-creation and closing of the “green gap”.

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business communication and ethics. Combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand and Singapore with their US counterparts. A sample of 373 students indicated that the students in the three countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of business. Of the 14 scenarios evaluated, only four exhibited significant differences between the two groups, i.e. USA compared with Singapore and New Zealand. In each of these four, students from New Zealand and Singapore expressed greater tolerance for the questionable business practice. However, there are several instances where Singapore is significantly different from the USA, but New Zealand is not. The relationship between ethics and business communication is well established, for instance ethical issues in advertising including Federal Trade Commission of the USA's concerns with advertising (and similar concerns elsewhere). Although this research was not designed to show this interconnection in an express manner, this relationship was borne in mind during the questionnaire design. The focus of this research is elsewhere but assumes that the interconnection is well understood.

Given the in creasing globalisation of economies, a growing number of marketing firms are expecting more of their profits to be derived from international sales. However, failure to account for or understand the effects of differences in consumers' cultural values on decision‐making will hinder a marketer's efforts to expand internationally. Using samples of Middle‐eastern and US consumers, the study found cultural values and consumer ethical beliefs to be significantly different between the two groups. In addition, these cultural values explained a significant part of the variation in consumer ethical beliefs in both cultures.

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphasis on global business and ethics. Combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand and Singapore to their US counterparts. A sample of 373 students indicated that the students in the three countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of consumers. The overall predisposition of the three groups as measured by the grand mean of the responses was virtually identical. However, of the 14 scenarios evaluated, four exhibited significant differences between the three groups. In two of these four, students from New Zealand expressed greater tolerance for questionable consumer action while US students expressed greater concern in regard to the other two. Singapore’s situation was somewhat in the middle. The results indicate that a global measure of ethical predisposition may be misleading and that ethical attitudes may be situational. Marketers must consider the characteristics of each country when assessing risk.

Businesses cannot rely on their customers to always do the right thing. To help researchers and service providers better understand the dark (and light) side of customer behavior, this study aims to aggregate and investigate perceptions of consumer ethics from young consumers on five continents. The study seeks to present a profile of consumer behavioral norms, how ethical inclinations have evolved over time, and country differences.

Data were collected from ten countries across five continents between 1997 and 2007. A self‐administered questionnaire containing 14 consumer scenarios asked respondents to rate acceptability of questionable consumer actions.

Overall, consumers found four of the 14 questionable consumer actions acceptable. Illegal activities were mostly viewed as unethical, while some legal actions that were against company policy were viewed less harshly. Differences across continents emerged, with Europeans being the least critical, while Asians and Africans shared duties as most critical of consumer actions. Over time, consumers have become less tolerant of questionable behaviors.

Service providers should use the findings of this study to better understand the service customer. Knowing what customers in general believe is ethical or unethical can help service designers focus on the aspects of the technology or design most vulnerable to customer deviance. Multinationals already know they must adapt their business practices to the market in which they are operating, but they must also adapt their expectations as to the behavior of the corresponding consumer base.

This investigation into consumer ethics helps businesses understand what their customer base believes is the right thing in their role as customer. This is a large‐scale study of consumer ethics including 3,739 respondents on five continents offering an evolving view of the ethical inclinations of young consumers.