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Although graphic-based emoticons in mobile instant messenger (MIM) services became an important revenue source for their service provider, empirical research investigating factors influencing graphic-based emoticon purchase from the consumer's perspective is insufficient. The authors explore how user's achieved belongingness (acceptance or rejection) affects graphic based emoticon usage motivations and its purchase intentions.

A structural model is used to examine the relationship among individual's overall achieved belongingness, motivation factors of graphic-based emoticon usage in MIM such as perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, perceived enjoyment for others, social norm and emoticon purchase intentions. The authors collected and analyzed survey data of 279 Korean KakaoTalk users.

The analysis shows that perceived acceptance/inclusion positively impacts perceived usefulness, enjoyment and enjoyment of others in graphic-based emoticon usage. Meanwhile, perceived rejection/exclusion positively impacts perceived enjoyment and enjoyment of others but negatively influences perceived social norms. Moreover, social norms and perceived enjoyment directly affect graphic-based emoticon purchase intentions. The authors also find that perceived enjoyment of others and perceived social norms in a serial causal order mediate the relationship between perceived acceptance/inclusion (and rejection/exclusion) and emoticon purchase intentions.

Additional research including users from other demographic groups, such as other age groups, is required to generalize our findings and to increase external validity.

Unique implications related to the role of user's achieved belongingness and perceived enjoyment of others in graphic-based emoticon usage in purchase intentions are found.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/ 10.1108/OIR-02-2020-0036

The aim of this study is to profile types of gifters via a set of psychographic consumption traits (frugality, gratitude, market mavenism and novelty seeking) and identify differences among the groups regarding their gift-purchasing behavior.

Based on the data from 193 participants, the authors seek to identify and profile unique consumer segments (gifters) generated from the four psychographic consumption traits. Second, once the segments are established, the authors analyze how the segments differ across 16 unique gift-purchasing behaviors.

The data generated four distinct consumer segments: experiential gifters, considerate gifters, convenience gifters and astute gifters. Across the segments, there were differences in their gift consumption behavior (e.g. time/effort spent, desire for customization, gift presentation, derived joy, purchasing frequency, eco-friendliness, seeking assistance, regifting and more).

US-based sample was collected via an online panel in January; this may restrict the generalizability of the research, given that gift consumption customs may vary across different countries. Thus, future research should include participants from other geographic regions to increase the external validity of the research.

Retail managers can use this knowledge to devise marketing strategies focused on the gift-purchasing behaviors of each group.

Segmenting clusters based on differences in consumption traits provides insights to retailers looking to build a competitive advantage, particularly in a gift purchasing context.

This study aims to profile mobile users based on their need for cognitive closure (NFC) (preference for order, preference for predictability, discomfort with ambiguity, close-mindedness and decisiveness) and identify differences among the groups regarding their perceptions of personalized preferences and privacy concerns.

Based on the data from 285 participants, the authors seek to identify and profile unique consumer segments (mobile users) generated based on their NFC. Second, once the segments are established, the authors analyze how the segments differ across their personalized preferences and privacy concerns.

The data generated three distinct consumer segments: equivocal users, structured users and eclectic users. Across the segments, there were differences in their mobile personalization (experience, value and actions) and preference for information privacy (perceived risks and fabrication of personal information).

United States (US)-based sample may restrict the generalizability of this research. Thus, future research should include participants from other geographic regions to increase external validity.

Retail managers can apply this knowledge to implement appropriate personalization strategies for these distinct target groups.

Segmenting clusters based on differences in consumption trait (NFC) provides key insights to retailers looking to deliver personalized customer experience, particularly in a mobile shopping context.

This paper aims to investigate the experience of darkness on people’s evaluation of humorous taboo-themed ads and their willingness to share these ads digitally with others.

Multiple studies are conducted to demonstrate the connection between darkness and humor. Another experiment was conducted to investigate people’s willingness to share taboo-themed ads.

The results demonstrate that people in dark settings (vs light) found controversial, taboo-themed ads to be more humorous. Three studies demonstrate that people in the dark (vs light) condition found taboo-themed ads to be more humorous. More importantly, despite finding taboo-themed ads to be more humorous, people in dark settings (vs light) were less inclined to share these ads on social media platforms.

When using humorous taboo-themed ads, advertisers are encouraged to show these ads in dark settings. If the physical environment is uncontrollable, marketers may still benefit by cueing consumers about darkness (e.g. through their products) or reminding them of nightly activities which may also yield similar effects. However, the cautionary tale is that, although people in the dark may enjoy these ads, they may not be willing to share it with others.

Marketers utilize taboo-themed ads to increase consumer interest. Despite its controversial content, darkness enhances people’s evaluation toward these taboo-themed ads. However, if one of the goals of advertisers is to create an ad that is amenable to sharing, developing a humorous taboo-themed ad may not be the most rewarding strategy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns in the social construction of occupational jurisdiction and related professional career identity. It examines the agency associated with framing messages that influence perceptions about the professional nature and value of retail management careers. The aim is to identify sources which produce influential messages about perceptions about retail management careers and the content of these messages.

This study utilises a qualitative research methodology (focus-group interviews) to explore the observations of people involved with the monitoring and management of career messages. Two focus groups were conducted with a) nine Canadian retail practitioners and b) seven post-secondary educators from retail management education programmes.

The focus groups identify five sources of influential messages including (1) part-time retail work experience, (2) educational institutions, (3) parents, (4) retail industry/practitioners and (5) media. They also identify three content themes presented by these sources including (1) the importance of educational requirements, (2) the nature of occupational roles and (3) the value of the career.

The significance and generalisability of the results are limited by the size and nature of the sample.

This study makes a practical contribution by identifying potential career awareness strategies.

This research makes a theoretical contribution by expanding understanding of the role of communication with career perceptions and with the related constitution of career professionalisation.

As social media platforms continue to have an increased presence in influencer marketing, researchers and practitioners are seeking ways to optimize the use of these platforms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of brand encroachment, a level of brand's control over the promotion executed by social media influencers (SMIs), on the importance of interactivity of SMIs.

This study examined the effect of brand encroachment on interactivity whilst examining the mediating effects of both passion and personal power. The study was an online, one-factor between-subjects design comparing high level of brand encroachment vs low level of brand encroachment.

The results of the experimental study suggest that as brand encroachment decreases, there is an increasing importance of being interactive. In addition, with lower brand encroachment, SMIs portray more personal power and passion toward the product or service being promoted.

As influencers create communities via increased levels of engagement, authenticity and relatability, it is of paramount importance that SMIs build relationships through interactivity in low-brand encroachment settings. Brands should offer more opportunities for SMIs to be interactive with their audience, while intrinsically building their personal power and passion as sources for these interactions.

This study segmented consumers by combining emotional and shopping characteristics to develop typologies that classify their consumption patterns and disposal behaviors.

To identify segments of fashion consumers, an online questionnaire was administered measuring emotional and shopping characteristics, including perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress, hedonism, and frugality. An online questionnaire involving 168 US-based participants were used to accomplish the purpose of the study. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify segments of participants based on these variables. Consumption patterns and disposal behavior, including motivation to buy environmentally friendly items, consciousness for sustainable consumption, buying impulsiveness, likelihood to follow fashion trends, and tendencies to dispose of or repair damaged or unwanted items were also measured via the questionnaire as dependent variables to be predicted by identified segments.

Three clusters of consumers were identified as: Distressed and Self-Oriented, Warm and Thrifty, and Cold and Frivolous. Distressed and Self-Oriented individuals reported the highest levels of personal distress and hedonism. Warm and Thrifty individuals reported the highest levels of empathic concern, perspective taking and frugality, and the lowest levels of personal distress and hedonism. Cold and Frivolous individuals reported the lowest levels of perspective taking, empathic concern, and frugality.

The classification of consumers into segments brings a new dimension to the field of sustainable fashion. Clusters were created according to the variables of emotional characteristics (i.e. perspective taking, empathic concern, and personal distress) and shopping characteristics (i.e. hedonism and frugality). The analysis unveiled three distinct clusters that can be utilized to develop tailored strategies to successfully promote sustainable fashion consumption.

This study aims to examine YouTube comments relevant to sustainable fashion posted on fashion haul videos over the past decade (2011–2021). It is guided by two research questions: (1) How have sustainable fashion-related comments posted on YouTube fashion haul videos changed over time? and (2) What themes are relevant to sustainable fashion in the comments posted on fashion haul videos?

A data set of comments from 110 fashion haul videos posted on YouTube was refined to only include comments with keywords related to sustainable fashion. Leximancer, a machine learning technique, was employed to identify concepts within the data and co-occurrences between concepts. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software was employed to assess the prevalence of concepts and identify sentiment over time.

Over the decade, the authors identified increased comments and conversations relevant to sustainable fashion. For instance, conversations surrounding sustainable fashion were linked to “waste” and “addicted” between 2011 and 2013, which evolved to include “environment” and “clothes” between 2014 and 2016, to “buy” and “workers” between 2017 and 2019 and “sustainable” between 2020 and 2021, demonstrating the changes in conversation topics over time.

With increasing engagement from YouTube viewers on sustainable fashion, retail-affiliated content that promotes sustainable fashion is proposed as one approach to engage viewers and promote sustainable practices in the fashion industry, whereby content creators can partner with retailers to feature products and educate viewers on the benefits of sustainable fashion.

The findings suggest that consumers are becoming more aware of and responsive to sustainable fashion. The originality of this research stems from identifying the source of this interest.

This paper aims to investigate the paradox of whether prestigious goods help or inhibit a consumer’s social affinity. The goal of this research is to explore whether pursuit of prestigious goods increases consumers’ social affinity or decreases their social affinity, and, more importantly, to understand the mechanisms that drive this process.

Three laboratory experimental studies and a social network study are conducted to show that consumers hold inconsistent beliefs about the social implication of prestigious goods.

In Study 1, the authors showed that prestigious goods evoked stronger social affinity for the self than for the other. In Study 2, the authors showed that people evaluated themselves high in social affinity when they brought a prestigious wine to a party compared to when they brought a cheaper, generic wine, but evaluated others low in social affinity when they brought the same prestigious wine. In Study 3, the authors showed the mediating effects of social image and boastfulness on social affinity. Study 4 utilizes social network study to further validate previous findings in a field setting.

For high-end retailers, the authors suggest framing their promotional messages to explicitly highlight how owning prestigious goods will benefit them (i.e. social image). It is important that these retail managers (and salespeople alike) make it more salient on how their prestigious goods socially benefit the consumer (the self). Thus, it is important to get consumers to think about how a prestigious item looks on them and not on others. However, marketers must be prudent when constructing these messages, as the link between prestigious consumption and network development is merely perceptual.

The findings demonstrate that consuming prestigious goods increases social affinity via positive social image for the self. When evaluating others, the authors demonstrate that consuming prestigious goods decreases social affinity via boastfulness. In sum, owning prestigious items may seem beneficial socially to the self, but people have negative perceptions (boastfulness) of those who own the same prestigious goods. Hence, there seems to be a discrepancy in how the authors evaluate themselves versus how they evaluate others with the same prestigious goods.

This paper aims to introduce brand identity (BI) fit as an important factor that influences co-branding success. Based on motivated reasoning theory, the authors propose consumer-brand (C-B) identification moderates the effect of BI fit on co-branding attitudes. In addition, they investigate the role of consumer coping and perceived BI fit on consumers’ attitude toward co-branding.

Two experiments were conducted to test the research hypotheses.

Study 1 results reveal that when C-B identification is low, consumers’ co-branding evaluations and the loyalty of the focal brand are higher in the low BI fit condition than those in the high BI fit condition. When C-B identification is high, such effects are not observed. Study 2 results reveal that when the BI fit is low, decoupling is more effective than biased assimilation at defending the positive evaluations of the focal brand.

First, while the authors focus particularly on BI fit, it may be fruitful for marketers to combine BI fit with other types of fit such as functional dimension fit and product category fit. For example, while the results suggest marketers should co-brand with low BI fit pairs when targeting at low C-B identification consumers, this recommendation should be taken in conjunction with how consumers respond to other co-branding fit strategies. Second, the authors encourage future researchers to explore deeper into the consumer coping in other contexts. As these elements are critical to consumers’ attitudes, it will be beneficial to see how decoupling or biased assimilation strategies differ in other co-branding fit contexts.

The authors advise marketers to consider both the level of BI fit and the level of C-B identification when looking for a co-brand partner. When targeting low C-B identification consumers, it is better for marketers to find a co-branding partner with a low BI fit than high BI fit. This is a counterintuitive finding given that higher fit (e.g. product category fit and brand image fit) is often associated with positive evaluations. For high C-B identification consumers, BI fit does not adversely affect consumer attitudes (and loyalty). Thus, these consumers are safer targets for marketers in terms of maintaining attitudes. Second, the authors find that when perceived BI fit is low, decoupling strategy is more effective than biased assimilation strategy at defending the positive evaluations of the focal brand. However, when perceived BI fit is high, the two coping strategies have little difference in influencing co-branding attitudes. Thus, the authors advise marketers to encourage their consumers to cope using a decoupling strategy to garner higher attitudes.

The authors introduce BI fit as an important abstract dimension of brand image fit when facing co-branding decisions. Overall, our results demonstrate C-B identification moderates the effects of BI fit on co-branding attitudes. Counter-intuitively, the results suggest that low BI fit co-branding can also generate higher attitudes depending on consumers’ level of brand identification. Moreover, marketers must also be wary of how consumers cope with co-branding, as coping explains the underlying mechanism of how consumers deal with high or low perceived BI fit. Specifically, our findings suggest that consumer coping moderates the relationship between perceived BI fit and co-branding attitudes.