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This study aims to investigate the interaction between branding strategies, levels of perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of new products from the perspective of situational strength.

Two experiments were conducted to empirically test the hypotheses.

A significant three-way interaction of branding strategy, perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of the new products was found. A significant two-way interaction of branding strategy and perceived fit was also found. Situational clarity fully mediates the relationship between branding strategy and consumer product evaluations at various fit levels.

The theory of situational strength may shed light on the selection of target market when managers launch new products. Innovative consumers are the target market for the new products under new branding or low fit sub-branding; under brand extension or high fit sub-branding, consumers are the target for the new products regardless of their degree of innovativeness.

This is the first work to apply situational strength theory to a new product evaluation context. The theory provides a unified framework for explaining the cognitive processes involved when consumers use and combine marketing cues (i.e. branding strategies and fit levels) to evaluate new products; it also facilitates evaluating how the effects of consumer innovativeness are accentuated or attenuated based on various combinations of marketing cues. Most research on the evaluation of new products has examined the influence of consumer innovativeness, perceived fit or branding strategies as distinct entities. This study simultaneously examined the three.

The paper aims to clarify the importance of the psychological processing of contextual cues in the mining of individual attention resources. In recent years, the research of more open spatial perspective, such as spatial and scene perception, has gradually turned to the recognition of contextual cues, accumulating rich literature and becoming a hotspot of interdisciplinary research. Nevertheless, besides the fields of psychology and neuroscience, researchers in other fields lack systematic knowledge of contextual cues. The purpose of this study is to expand the research field of contextual cues.

We retrieved 494 papers on contextual cues from SCI/SSCI core database of the Web of Science in 1992–2019. Then, we used several bibliometric and sophisticated network analysis tools, such as HistCite, CiteSpace, VOSviewe and Pajek, to identify the time-and-space knowledge map, research hotspots, evolution process, emerging trends and primary path of contextual cues.

The paper found the core scholars, major journals, research institutions, and the popularity of citation to be closely related to the research of contextual cues. In addition, we constructed a co-word network of contextual cues, confirming the concept of behavior implementation intentions and filling in the research gap in the field of behavior science. Then, the quantitative analysis of the burst literature on contextual cues revealed that the research on it that focused more on multi-objective cues. Furthermore, an analysis of the main path helped researchers clearly understand and grasp in the development trend and evolution track of contextual cues.

Given academic research usually lags behind management practice, our systematic review of the literature to a certain extent make a bridge between theory and practice.

The relationship between self‐image and product/brand imagery remains an important area of concern in marketing research and marketing practice because of its impact on product/brand evaluation and choice; however many studies report inconclusive findings about this relationship. A conceptual model is developed which links a function of attitudes – as the pursuit and maintenance of self‐esteem and self‐identity – to the public and private contexts of self‐concepts; and the subsequent intrinsic and extrinsic congruence between brand evaluation and choice. In this exploratory study the Self‐Monitoring Scale is used to explore the link between the social and psychological determinants of self‐presentation in the pursuit of self‐esteem and maintenance of self‐identity, and to inform the examination of the relationship between self‐concept and product symbolism. Findings from the qualitative and quantitative stages of a study of the UK alcoholic soft drinks market are presented. There were distinct differences between the self‐monitoring groups when the interpretation of specific brand images was investigated. The results provided empirical support for viewing the self as a divisible entity. The implications for marketing practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the congruence between predecessor and successor personality traits (PTs) with the values of their small family business (SFB) contributes to a successful succession transition across generations.

The conceptual model method was employed in this investigation, which describes an entity and identifies issues that should be considered in a study (MacInnis, 2011). It involves a form of theorizing that seeks to create a nomological network around the focal concept, to examine and detail the causal linkages and mechanisms at play (Delbridge and Fiss, 2013).

Drawing on the trait activation theory (TAT), this study conceptualizes that the congruence of the successor's PTs with those of the predecessor, as well as the values, transitions and nature of the assigned task, activates the successor's PTs and motivates him to work diligently for a successful succession transition while preserving the business's core values established by the founder.

This study is an eye-opener for strategists and SFB predecessors to ponder the successor's PTs disparities across generations. Additionally, it urges them to consider the congruence of SFB's values and nature of operations with the successor's PTs for successful succession transition. Thus, such awareness may contribute to stabilizing the SFB's survival rate.

This study contributed to the existing literature by answering how predecessor’s and successor's PTs congruence and SFB's values and nature of operations congruence with their PTs may contribute to successful succession transition across generations. This study contributed to the TAT by thematically explaining the organizational cues to bridge a relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits (EPT) and succession success of SFBs.

Social deficits are central within conceptualisations of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and separately linked to offending behaviour. Social problem-solving interventions are often used with offenders, but little research has examined the social information processing (SIP) skills of individuals with ASD and a history of criminal offending behaviours. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This conceptual paper will introduce the SIP model, review SIP research as applied to those with ASD and in forensic populations, and further consider the relevance to the assessment and treatment of offenders with ASD.

Difficulties in all areas of the SIP model are noted in ASD and research suggests these difficulties may be directly linked to behaviour.

It is possible that identifying SIP abilities and deficits could improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes for this group.

This paper reviews the utility of social information models in the offending behaviour of people with ASD.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which consumer self-concept (self-esteem) and product involvement influences the wine purchase decision at the retail level given the anticipated consumption occasion. The predictive effects of self-concept on this interaction were also explored.

Data collection was in the independent specialist fine wine store environment in Sydney, Australia. Central to the study was the development of a 33-item multi-dimensional fine wine involvement scale (Cronbach’s α =0.846 for 26 final items) for measuring consumers’ involvement.

Wine product involvement deepens with age but low involvement consumers perceiving risk in making the wrong product choice may well purchase fine wines for situations where self-concept is a moderating factor. In the case of low involvement wine consumers a positive association exists between situational wine choice and self-concept but no significant differences exist for self-concept across any of the consumption occasions. Age and self-concept were both confirmed as linked to levels of consumption. The findings support the notion that wine consumers aged 45 years and older are significantly more disposed to purchase fine wine products.

For self-concept to be relevant to purchase it follows that the wine consumption occasion must be conspicuous.

This study is the first to examine the extent to which consumer self-concept and product involvement influences the wine purchase decision at the retail level given the anticipated consumption occasion.

Based on the situated focus theory of power, this chapter empirically investigates the relationship between an individual’s organizational power position and emotion recognition accuracy (ERA), and it examines individuals’ stress experiences at work as a boundary condition for this relationship.

Survey data were collected in a field sample of 117 individuals employed across various organizations in Germany. We used an established, performance-based test of ERA and applied hierarchical regression analysis to examine our model.

An individual’s power was negatively related with his or her ability to decipher others’ emotional expressions among individuals experiencing higher work stress, whereas this relationship was not significant for participants with lower stress.

Although the cross-sectional study design and data collection within one country are relevant limitations, the findings promote a better understanding of the complex relationship between power and ERA.

Given the relevance of accurate emotion perception, the results indicate that stressful work environments may be an important risk factor for organizational power holders’ personal and professional success.

The findings advance the literature on power and emotion recognition by highlighting the role of work stress as an important, heretofore neglected boundary condition that may explicate the ambiguous results in prior research.

Networking refers to goal-directed behaviors focused on building and cultivating informal relationships to obtain career-related resources. According to Gibson et al.'s (2014) model, personality traits represent prominent and important antecedents of networking. This study seeks to provide robust evidence on relationships between personality and networking by summarizing prior research using meta-analytical tools.

The authors classify linking attributes between networking and personality into social, idea-related, task-related and affective behavioral domains and additionally include three compound traits that relate to several domains. They investigate two potential moderators: internal vs. external networking and prominent networking measures. Their comprehensive literature search identified 41 studies with 46 independent samples.

The authors find that social, idea-related and task-related traits have positive relationships with networking of medium effect size, whereas affective traits exhibit small but significantly positive effects. The compound trait of proactive personality appears to be the best predictor of networking. Moderator analyses indicate that there were hardly any differences concerning internal and external networking and also prominent measures.

The present study goes beyond narrative reviews contributing the first quantitative summary of these relationships. It identifies four behavioral domains that represent characteristics relevant to networking. The findings largely corroborate, but at times correct, narrative reviews on dispositional antecedents of networking. The authors highlight the importance of compound traits that have yet been overlooked by narrative reviews (e.g. self-monitoring).

Commentators have claimed that business schools encourage unethical behavior by using economic theory as a basis for education. We examine claims that exposure to agency theory acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, reducing ethical behavior among business students. We experimentally test whether economics coursework or a manipulated competitive vs. cooperative frame affects measured ethical behavior in simulated decision settings. We measure ethical behavior using established tasks. We also measure ethical recognition to test whether agency theory reduces recognition of ethical issues. Exposure to agency theory in either prior classwork or the experiment increased wealth-increasing unethical behavior. We found no effect on unethical behavior that does not affect wealth. We found no effect of exposure to agency theory on ethical recognition. Usual laboratory experiment limitations apply. Future research can examine why agency theory reduces ethical behavior. Educators ought to consider unintended consequences of the language and assumptions of theories that underlie education. Students may assume descriptions of how people behave as prescriptions for how people ought to behave. This study contributes to the literature on economic education and ethics. We found no prior experimental studies of the effect of economics education on ethical behavior.

Given its detrimental implications for employees’ well-being and work performance, this paper seeks to understand how workplace loneliness occurs by focusing on a job-related antecedent, job autonomy. Drawing on role identity theory and situational strength theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose that job autonomy relates to workplace loneliness via perceived insider status, a process moderated by perceived clan culture.

A two-wave survey served to collect data from 430 knowledge workers in 17 enterprises from several major cities in Eastern China.

Job autonomy relates to workplace loneliness via the mediation of perceived insider status. Specifically, job autonomy impacts positively on perceived insider status, which further reduces workplace loneliness. Besides, the relationship between perceived insider status and workplace loneliness is conditional on perceived clan culture – perceived insider status decreases workplace loneliness more effectively in the case of higher perceived clan culture. Furthermore, perceived clan culture moderates the mediating effect of perceived insider status.

This paper is among the few attempts to offer a comprehensive framework in which job and organizational characteristics combine to explain workplace loneliness. Moreover, the findings illustrate that perceived insider status and perceived clan culture complement each other in alleviating workplace loneliness.