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1 – 10 of over 21000A social enterprise is a hybrid business organization which pursues both profit maximization and social change. This study aims to explore effective ways to communicate authentic…
Abstract
Purpose
A social enterprise is a hybrid business organization which pursues both profit maximization and social change. This study aims to explore effective ways to communicate authentic motives through social enterprise advertisements.
Design/methodology/approach
Four sets of advertisements were created to explore the effects of different message cues on perceived authenticity. These ads were presented through internet surveys in varying combinations.
Findings
Per cue congruency theory, when both giving and selling cues are presented together, they contradict one another, thereby neutralizing any positive feelings which would otherwise be gained through the use of a giving cue. Thus, the highest perceptions of authentic motives underlying an advertisement are gained when only giving cues are used.
Practical implications
Social entrepreneurs should recognize the limitations of presenting both giving and selling cues in tandem with one another. Doing so may help increase profitability and sales, but it will decrease the authenticity of a perceived message. To communicate authenticity through advertising, the social entrepreneur should highlight the social enterprise’s mission and giving characteristics rather than the products or services being sold.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is among the first to explore authenticity in marketing messages for the social enterprise. Further, while extant research identifies methods of overcoming contradictory message appeals, the novel findings of this research demonstrate the effectiveness of avoiding the potential for negative reactions altogether.
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Eveline van Zeeland and Jörg Henseler
Vendors’ social cues – physical or behavioural hints – have an impact on the professional buyer. However, little is known about that impact. The purpose of this paper is to place…
Abstract
Purpose
Vendors’ social cues – physical or behavioural hints – have an impact on the professional buyer. However, little is known about that impact. The purpose of this paper is to place knowledge about the impact of social cues that other disciplines acquired in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing to contribute constructively to the research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
By integrating findings on the processing of social cues and the behavioural response from the disciplines of neuroscience, biology and psychology (specifically the behavioural inhibition system [BIS]/behavioural activation system [BAS]-theory), this paper aims to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the automatic evaluation of vendors by professional buyers.
Findings
Social cues are likely to be of substantial value in the (first) encounter between buyer and seller. Positively evaluated social cues create an approach-motivated behavioural intention, whereas negatively evaluated ones create avoidance. This process is probably predominantly mediated by trust and moderated by personality and contextual factors.
Research limitations/implications
This paper stimulates research about the impact of social cues in a B2B context. While such knowledge would add practical value, this paper also explores possibilities for managers to use neuroscientific techniques to assess and train sales agents.
Originality/value
The impact of social cues is hardly covered in the B2B marketing literature, but they have an important impact on B2B decision-making. The conceptual framework combines the BIS/BAS theory (approach/avoidance) with the SOR-model (stimulus-organism-response), which is unique to the B2B marketing field.
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Heewon Kim and SooCheong (Shawn) Jang
Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues jointly with brand awareness and subjective social class have on restaurant-visit intention.
Design/methodology/approach
To better comprehend the use of anthropomorphic cues, this paper involved two studies that used two types of anthropomorphic cues: (1) non-food (a spoon) and (2) food ingredients. For each study, a 2 × 2 mixed factorial design was used.
Findings
Using three-way mixed ANOVAs, the results from Study 1 confirmed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a non-food object (a spoon) could induce positive effects for restaurants with lower brand awareness, especially among individuals with low subjective social class. In contrast, Study 2 showed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a food ingredient (e.g. tomato, lettuce and olive) had a weaker effect on restaurants with high brand awareness, especially among individuals with a high subjective social class.
Practical implications
Marketers should use anthropomorphism strategies based on their target customers, especially if their brand is less popular.
Originality/value
Using the theoretical framework from the elaboration likelihood model, this paper contributes to the anthropomorphism literature by showing how an anthropomorphized image that fits an individual’s interests could trigger a careful thinking process that leads to differential behaviors based on brand awareness.
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Check-in based advertising is growing dramatically as the popularity of social media increases. The purpose of this paper is to explore which social cues are appropriate for…
Abstract
Purpose
Check-in based advertising is growing dramatically as the popularity of social media increases. The purpose of this paper is to explore which social cues are appropriate for check-in based advertising in social media based on media richness theory and how content effectiveness affects content generation intention based on achievement motivation theory.
Design/methodology/approach
A laboratory experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of social cue strategies on content effectiveness of attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall. The influence of effectiveness on content generation intention are also measured in the experiment.
Findings
The results of a laboratory experiment indicated that a strategy of using plentiful social cues has high effectiveness as measured by the concept of attitude toward the ad. Content effectiveness measured by attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall can directly affect user intentions to generating check-in based advertisements.
Research limitations/implications
Although check-in based advertising is driven by the customers themselves rather than by the company, companies can encourage their customers to follow an appropriate check-in content generation strategy to improve effectiveness.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide useful information for designing the content of social media designed to facilitate the promotion of products and companies in online marketing.
Originality/value
In theoretical contribution, this study integrates media richness theory and achievement motivation theory to explore how users intent to generate check-in advertising according to social cues effectiveness.
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Haiyan Hu and Cynthia R. Jasper
The purpose of this study is to examine the roles that social cues play in affecting patronage behavior and how consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence would moderate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the roles that social cues play in affecting patronage behavior and how consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence would moderate the influence of social cues on store image.
Design/methodology/approach
A two (high vs low socially‐oriented in‐store graphics) by two (high vs low personalized customer service) between subject experimental design was conducted to achieve the research objective. A total of 193 surveys were used for data analysis.
Findings
Consumers had a more favorable attitude toward merchandise and service quality and felt more aroused or pleased with a store where more social cues were present. They also had a more favorable perception of store image when high‐personalized service was provided. Consumers perceived that they would be more likely to shop in a store that had more in‐store displays of graphics with social meaning. Consumer susceptibility to informational influence (SII) played a moderating role in some cases.
Practical implications
Retail service needs to be reinvented to create excitement. Consumers may use social cues embedded in the store environment as an information source. Sales skills of staff and in‐store graphics should be especially appealing to low‐SII customer.
Originality/value
This study has added to the retail literature by demonstrating that the social cues in store environment can affect consumers' perception of store image and patronage intention. It provides interesting insights on how retailers can use a socially meaningful environment as a source of competitive advantage.
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Jiaji Zhu, Yushi Jiang, Yedi Wang, Qiang Yang and Wei Li
Tourism via virtual reality (VR) technology has become an interesting option for consumers to “travel.” The best approaches to optimizing the VR tourism environment, improving the…
Abstract
Purpose
Tourism via virtual reality (VR) technology has become an interesting option for consumers to “travel.” The best approaches to optimizing the VR tourism environment, improving the interactive experience of tourists and encouraging tourists to adopt VR are not yet fully understood. This study explores the willingness of tourists to adopt VR tourism from the dual aspects, richness and dynamics, of virtual social cues.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine the effects of richness (multiple vs. few cues) and dynamic (changeable vs. static cues) on consumers' willingness to adopt VR tourism, three virtual tourism scenes were designed and presented by head-mounted displays. The data were collected for participants in the VR laboratory and tested by ANOVA and partial least squares–structural equation modeling.
Findings
Virtual social cues can generate mental imagery through interactivity, vividness and parasocial interactions, thus increasing the consumer's likelihood of adopting VR tourism. It was also found that imagination moderates mental imagery and adoption intention. When the consumer's imagination is stronger, their mental imagery stimulates a stronger willingness to adopt VR tourism.
Originality/value
The authors innovatively utilize concepts of parasocial interaction and mental imagery and discuss the various influences and mediation mechanisms of social cue characteristics on consumers' adoption of VR tourism. The conclusions may provide new insights for VR tourism managers and tourism scholars.
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YooHee Hwang, Na Su and Anna Mattila
The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on a restaurant menu were manipulated and solo consumers’ sense of power was measured.
Findings
Low-power individuals exhibited more favorable attitudes toward the menu with a popularity cue at a crowded restaurant. High-power individuals’ attitudes toward the menu were equally favorable across the two promotional cues and crowding levels.
Practical implications
Restaurant managers might want to leverage popularity cues on the menu during peak hours to appeal to solo diners. After diners indicate their dining type (alone vs with others) in kiosks and tablets, restaurants can tailor promotional cues accordingly. Restaurants can also embed more popularity cues in dinner (vs lunch) menus because dinner is more hedonic and social in nature.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the crowding literature by examining promotional cues on the menu and sense of power as moderators of consumer responses to crowding. This study further adds to the solo consumption literature by extending the notion of power and social crowding to ethnic dining contexts.
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Dipankar Rai, Chien-Wei (Wilson) Lin and Chun-Ming Yang
This paper aims to investigate how the perception of physical coldness (vs warmth) influences consumers to make charitable donations.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how the perception of physical coldness (vs warmth) influences consumers to make charitable donations.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted involving charitable donation scenarios.
Findings
Studies demonstrate that cold (vs warm) temperature cues result in greater intentions to donate to charities. Specifically, cold (vs warmth) cues activate the need for social connection which, in turn, motivate consumers to donate more money to charities. Furthermore, this effect holds even when the actual temperature instead of temperature cues is changed, and participants’ actual donation behavior instead of donation intentions is measured, thereby, strengthening the findings of this paper.
Research limitations/implications
Boundary conditions associated with the effect of temperature cues need empirical investigation. Future research needs to investigate if the effect holds with variability of coldness. Future research also needs to determine whether the documented effect occur across various pro-social contexts.
Practical implications
The results suggest that non-profit organizations incorporate “cold” cues into advertisements (people feeling cold or cold landscapes) to increase monetary donations and that these organizations should focus on targeting donors during wintertime (vs summer time) to get more donations.
Originality/value
This is the first research to demonstrate the effects of temperature cues on charitable donations. The added value of this paper is the use of physical temperature change to highlight the phenomenon, and the link between cold (vs warm) temperature cue and the need of social connection.
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Hyejin Kim and Hao Xu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the way the message source and presence of positive social cues influence the evaluations (attitude toward the corporate social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the way the message source and presence of positive social cues influence the evaluations (attitude toward the corporate social responsibility (CSR) message and company, and word-of-mouth intention to support the campaign) of the decreased use CSR messages on Facebook.
Design/methodology/approach
In the context of Facebook, this study adopted 2 (message source: a CSR message in a sponsored ad format vs a CSR message posted by another Facebook user) × 2 (social cue: highly salient, positive social cues vs no social cues) factorial experimental design.
Findings
The main effects of message source types and presence of positive social cues on decreased usage CSR campaigns proved to be effective in generating better consumer responses to the company and campaign.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are expected to advance the CSR literature by offering a detailed understanding of CSR campaigns that discourage consumption of the company’s own product to support a social cause. It is suggested to test the effects with other CSR examples to increase the ability to generalize the results further.
Practical implications
The results suggest campaign strategies on social media for public relations practitioners and corporate managers who work for companies conducting social responsibility campaigns that discourage consumption of their own products.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the CSR literature by examining the concept of CSR campaigns that advocate decreased usage, which has received scant scholarly attention to date.
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The purpose of this paper is to treat WeChat moments as social media environments and applies the research model to explore the effect of social media environments on perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to treat WeChat moments as social media environments and applies the research model to explore the effect of social media environments on perceived interactivity from the perspective of environmental psychology.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes social media environments as effective stimuli for future participate in online social interactions. First, two cues of social media environments (user-to-system cues and user-to-user cues) can be important antecedents of users’ perception of interactivity. Second, users’ intention of future participates in online social interactions can be influenced by three dimensions of perceived interactivity (action control, connectedness and responsiveness). Using data from 334 users of WeChat moments, the authors conduct partial least squares analysis to validate the research model.
Findings
The results indicate that both technological and social environments positively affect three dimensions of perceived interactivity, respectively, including action control, connectedness and responsiveness. Moreover, actual findings also suggest that higher perceived interactivity increases users’ intention of future participate in online social interactions.
Originality/value
This work contributes to in-depth research on the relationships between social environments and perceived interactivity. Besides, this paper demonstrates that both technological and social cues of social media environments are significant elements in simulating users’ internal experience and behavioral intention. The main conclusions of this study can be valuable to social media developers and managers.
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