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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of physical environment design (PED) and its antecedents on consumers’ emotional well-being (EWB). Drawing on place identity and emotional theories, the study aims to provide a new perspective to retail store experiences.

A survey of 800 respondents was conducted in London, out of which 764 responses were constructively used. The data was collected from international retail outlets, and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

The empirical results show that PED has a positive effect on consumers’ EWB. Among the antecedents, visual identity does not have any significant effect on PED and EWB. In contrast, communication had a significant effect on PED but did not have any effect on EWB, and further, cultural heritage had a positive effect on both PED and EWB. Further, moderator analysis identifies the boundary conditions under which specific theories hold.

The value of this paper lies in its potential to be used for creating the perfect design planning in retail stores. Significant implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.

This paper presents an innovative approach to develop the principles of retail store’s PED to support the EWB of consumers.

The development of qualitative research methods addresses the need to explore, understand and interpret complex and subjective phenomena across various fields of study. These methods are guided by methodological frameworks, and data collection involves taking several precautions for observation or interviews. While these guidelines facilitate an emphasis on the objective aspects of discourse, accounting for subjectivity and emotions proves more challenging. However, these subjectivity and emotions are deemed as significant sources of information. In this chapter, we propose an innovative data collection method centred around creating collages and engaging in group discussions to decipher their meaning. Collage serves as a visual medium, and we recommend utilising semiotic analysis tools to comprehend its significance. To gain a more precise understanding of the value of collage as a data collection method, we studied a collage workshop organised by CREE. Through image analysis and exchanges, our findings reveal that collage acts as a physical medium that fosters exchanges, deepens ideas and restricts digressions. Additionally, collage allows for the expression and discussion of emotions linked to the image rather than the individual. The space of intersubjective reflexivity facilitated by collage enables a profound comprehension, critical assessment and augmentation of ideas and the interpretation of emotions without compromising the sensitivity of the author. This chapter’s main contribution is evidently manifested here.

An unexpected Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and the hospitality industry, including luxury accommodation service providers. While this was not the first virus outbreak to impact the tourism sectors, in this case, its consequences were devastating. In this light, this contribution analyzes the case of an Italian luxury hotel, a winner of numerous awards during the last few years, including the prestigious World Luxury Hotel Award. The researchers compare its pre- and the post-COVID situation. They clarify that the outbreak has resulted in reduced reservations and explain how the upscale hotel responded to the unprecedented crisis by implementing different approaches. The luxury hospitality business decided to defend its brand differentiation and positioning strategy by continue offering improved service quality and by introducing enhanced hygiene and sanitation facilities, in order to deliver customer-centric experiences to their valued guests.

Sectoral brands are umbrella brands created to represent all companies’ products belonging to a country’s economic industry abroad to enhance their export performance. This study aims to explore the development of a sectoral brand model through the optic of the social constructionist perspective. Besides, this study also proposes to apply the model to a sectoral brand case in the business-to-business market.

The authors have developed a systematic qualitative literature review to provide a theoretical basis for the attributes chosen to compose the social constructionist sectoral brand management (SCSBM) model. To apply the model, the authors have conducted a series of 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews with the association’s managers that constitute the sectoral brand development, the director of the branding consultancy firm and specialists on place branding.

The authors present the SCSBM model, highlighting that sectoral branding should be seen as a dynamic and continuous process with the integrated participation of all industry stakeholders. Moreover, the authors have applied the model to the Brazil Fashion System brand.

The main contribution to theory is the link between sectoral brand management and the social constructionist approach, being the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to propose this connection. SCSBM model extends previous work on sectoral brands by adopting a social constructionist view.

The SCSBM model might contribute to marketing professionals willing to develop sectoral brands across multiple economic sectors and geographies.

The study’s originality lies in developing the first model, which adopts a social constructionist approach to sectoral brands.

Despite promising conceptual developments in value co-creation behaviors, the scholarly attention afforded to the importance of the university website features in strengthening the university brand image and reputation through students’ value co-creation behaviors is limited. University website features are conceptualized as a hierarchical construct with three dimensions: usability, availability and information. This study aims to investigate the effect of university website features and value co-creation behaviors of students on promoting brand image and brand reputation at Islamic Azad University in Iran.

This study is quantitative. Using convenience sampling techniques, a responsive group of 384 students was chosen from the Islamic Azad University of Tehran in Iran. Survey methods were used for data collection. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the derived hypotheses.

The findings of this study indicated that website features have a positive effect on fostering value co-creation behaviors (participation and citizenship behavior), and participation behavior, in turn, improves university brand image and reputation. At the same time, among value co-creation behaviors, citizenship behavior has no impact on the university’s brand image. Finally, the brand image formed through website features and participation behavior positively affects brand reputation.

This study was conducted in the higher education (HE) sector in one cosmopolitan Iranian city (i.e. Tehran), to which Iranians from other cities travel for studying. Thus, the results of this survey include a variety of subcultures. In the future, a study that incorporates all major metropolitan cities of Iran may increase the generalizability of the findings. Unrelated to the purpose of this study, a future research study may extend the currently studied geographical dimensions and examine the antecedents of university brand reputation across different nations using a cross-cultural approach.

Pragmatically, the findings of this study urge university policymakers, information technology managers and marketers to consider the university website’s unique role in assisting co-creation behavior, which in turn promotes university brand image and reputation in the HE market. One of the ways to assess a university’s brand image and reputation is through the university ranking system. Ascending the ranking system can allow a university to attract qualified students.

These findings contribute to the marketing literature by empirically validating the three elements in the website features construct, providing intelligence on how website features can drive value co-creation behaviors, brand image and reputation. Also, results revealed that the brand image of universities positively affects brand reputation. This study highlights the importance of national and international rankings of universities and students’ sensitivity to such rankings. Undoubtedly, this is evident in Iranian students’ behavior in selecting their university.

The purpose of the current exploratory study is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the essence of impulse buying and postulate the drivers behind it for Azerbaijani consumers who practice Islam. Though there are numerous factors that impact impulsive buyer tendencies, current empirical research focuses on demographic indicators and persona characteristics that influence impulsive buying, which are considered as internal factors.

The current research is exploratory and uses the quantitative research method. A total of 442 responses were collected from the surveys between April 6th and May 6th, 2022, with random sampling. The collected data was analyzed with the SPSS Statistics software and the SPSS AMOS 26 version. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to measure the reliability of the scales. The construct validity of the questionnaire was measured with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The correlation among variables was measured by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient. The structural equation model was run to determine the structural relationship between latent variables and test the proposed hypotheses.

According to the regression weights, all the latent variables, excluding materialism, have a statistically significant impact on the impulsive buying tendency. Hedonic motivation and self-esteem have a positive relationship with hedonic buying tendency, while self-control is inversely related. In terms of the impact of demographic indicators on impulsive buying tendency, for Azerbaijani consumers, impulsive buying behavior, differs based on age, education and marital status. However, contrary to previous research, impulsive buying behavior does not change based on income level. However, based on the squared multiple correlations, the predictive power of the model is 24%.

The current study measured the general impulsive behavior of the local population. Analyzing impulsive buyer behavior toward particular products or product categories might lead to different results. Therefore, other researchers can focus on studying impulsive buyer behavior toward different product categories.

Understanding consumer buyer behavior, including impulsive buyer behavior, is among extensively researched subjects. However, studies examining the state of impulsive buyer behavior in Azerbaijan and, most importantly, measuring the impact of the numerous factors behind it are lacking. The majority of the available empirical research in Azerbaijan analyzes consumer behavior from a different perspective. However, none of them approaches it from the perspective of analyzing and measuring impulsive buying. Hence, understanding the motivations behind impulse buying behavior can benefit both businesses and consumers, though for contrasting reasons. The former can use the data to determine the triggers for impulse buying, while the latter can be more conscious of their purchasing behavior to avoid unfavorable financial consequences. The primary implication for businesses is that they will be equipped with empirical evidence on which factors and to what extent they influence consumer buying behavior. Subsequently, they can use it while developing marketing and customer relationship strategies.

There are countless studies focused on defining and measuring impulsive buyer behavior; however, there is a gap in measuring the impulsive buyer behavior of Muslim consumers and, most importantly, understanding the underlying factors. In addition, empiric research examining the state of impulsive buyer behavior of local Muslim consumers in Azerbaijan and, most importantly, measuring the impact of numerous factors behind it is absent. The majority of the available empirical research in Azerbaijan analyzes consumer behavior from a different perspective. However, none of them approaches it from the perspective of analyzing and measuring impulsive buying. The current study analyzes the impact of consumers’ hedonic motivations, materialist values, ability to retain self-control and psychological state on their impulse buying tendency.

The purpose of this research is to extend the results of previous studies regarding corporate reputation scales and identify new and specific items relevant for studying global corporate reputation from a customer’s point of view.

This research was based on the qualitative projective “Album on Line” (AOL) technique. The authors used a sample of 12 French consumers distributed equally between affective and cognitive scenarios. An individual-difference multidimensional scaling approach (INDSCAL) was applied to display the overall semantic space among generated items.

The exploratory AOL approach generated 62 items related to both cognitive and affective orientations characterizing online and offline corporate reputation. The results uncovered six semantic clusters for each scenario. All in all, seven new items could be added in the process of building a new global corporate reputation measurement scale by adding: avant-garde, singularity, exclusivity, savings, return policy, freeness and speed.

This research makes it possible to propose a new global corporate reputation measurement scale with sound psychometric properties. This scale will be adapted for click and mortars and pure players. This paper unlocks future perspectives by suggesting a causal model that integrates online corporate reputation and its main antecedents and consequences.

From a managerial perspective, this research offers insights to managers with the main orientations surrounding the components of global corporate reputation. Moreover, the AOL mappings delineate which quadrants the managers would like to be fitted into or avoid, and hence define more precisely which key elements should be stressed or discarded.

This research outlines AOL, an original qualitative projective technique that can be used to understand customers’ thoughts, which are stocked and collected as images. Moreover, this research intends to analyze the gathered data using both INDSCAL and fuzzy k-means cluster analysis to reduce conventional biases related to subjectivity.

When customers make their purchase decisions, they use all the available information from all the initiatives and behaviors that companies carry out with their stakeholders. This research aims to identify whether a company's financial performance and reputation determine the customer's perception of the company, which affects their engagement. This study is based on the theories of engagement, stakeholder and signalling. Are customers engaged solely based on their feeling of satisfaction, or do employees and brand value play a role in this engagement?

Secondary data was collected from 14 automotive companies and empirically tested through a longitudinal study over the period 2010–2018. For panel data analysis this study used weighted least squares.

The variables proposed in this research, firm value and corporate reputation, were significant for the analysed panel sample. Furthermore, employee satisfaction influences customer engagement as an independent and moderating variable, just like brand value.

This research contributes to the emerging stream of customer engagement research by combining insight as a company-initiated resource, with the sheer transaction, integrating data obtained from employees and customers in an international context.

Circular supply chain management (CSCM) is considered a promising solution to attain sustainability in the current industrial system. Despite the exigency of this approach, its application in the food industry is a challenge because of the nature of the industry and CSCM being a novel approach. The purpose of this study is to develop an industry-based systematic analysis of CSCM by examining the challenges for its application, exploring the effects of recognised challenges on various food supply chain (FSC) stages and investigating the business processes as drivers.

Stakeholder theory guided the need to consider stakeholders’ views in this research and key stakeholders directly from the food circular supply chain were identified and interviewed (n = 36) following qualitative methods.

Overall, the study reveals that knowledge, perception towards environmental initiatives and economic viability are the major barriers to circular supply chain transition in the UK FSC.

This research provides a holistic perspective analysing the loopholes in different stages of the supply chain and investigating the way a particular circular supply chain stage is affected by recognised challenges through stakeholder theory, which will be a contribution to designing management-level strategies. Reconceptualising this practice would be beneficial in bringing three-tier (economic, environmental and social) benefits and will be supportive to engage stakeholders in the sustainability agenda.

This study aims to explore the role of the linguistic style used in the brand-posted social media content on consumer engagement in the Fintech domain.

A total of 3,286 tweets (registering nearly 1.35 million impressions) published by 10 leading Fintech unicorns in India were extracted using the Twitter API. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary was used to analyse the linguistic characteristics of the shared tweets. Negative Binomial Regression (NBR) was used for testing the hypotheses.

This study finds that using drive words and cognitive language increases consumer engagement with Fintech messages via the central route of information processing. Further, affective words and conversational language drive consumer engagement through the peripheral route of information processing.

The study extends the literature on brand engagement by unveiling the effect of linguistic features used to design social media messages.

The study provides guidance to social media marketers of Fintech brands regarding what content strategies best enhance consumer engagement. The linguistic style to improve online consumer engagement (OCE) is detailed.

The study’s findings contribute to the growing stream of Fintech literature by exploring the role of linguistic style on consumer engagement in social media communication. The study’s findings indicate the relevance of the dual processing mechanism of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) as an explanatory theory for evaluating consumer engagement with messages posted by Fintech brands.